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THE ROCKEFELLER’S AND THE UNICORN

teri — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:36:51 +0000

Sandra Barr

THE HUNT OF THE UNICORN TAPESTRIES

John D. Rockefeller JR

David Rockefeller is a founder of the Club of Rome, and is still an executive member, he is former Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, an executive member of the world economic Forum, a director on the Council for Foreign relations, financer of the Tavistock Institute, and other centres globally that have studied mind control techniques, the psychology of war and mass global hypnotism through the media. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Bilderberg Group. The land on which the United Nations sits, was donated by Rockefeller. This man has had a hand in every aspect of everyday life, for every citizen on the planet. He has personally had a hand in the mass enslavement of the masses, through the banking system, and the mind control techniques developed at the centres he finances, he has spent his entire adult life creating a world that serves the global elite, and enslaves the rest of the population. These tapestries may seem unimportant to many, but believe me, the symbolism and hidden esoteric meanings hidden in these tapestries, tell us an awful lot about the Rockefeller Family, and their objectives.

The most well known set of tapestries depicting a Unicorn being hunted are believed to have been made in Brussels (Then part of the Netherlands) between 1495-1505. Its possible they were commissioned by Anne of Brittany to celebrate her marriage to Louis XII of France, but no one knows their origins for sure. The cipher “AE” is woven throughout the tapestries, this possibly alludes to whoever commissioned them, but no one knows. Much of their history is a little obscure, but it is known that the La Rochefoucauld family of France owned them for several centuries. During the French Revolution they were looted, but were recovered in the 1850’s and restored. When they re-appeared one of the seven was badly damaged, and only two segments of it remained. Given they have various dimensions and the composition varies, some scholars have questioned if they were ever intended to be a set, or if they are a composite taken from various sets. No one even knows what order they are meant to be hung.

In 1922 John D. Rockefeller Jr purchased six of the seven tapestries for one million US dollars. To give you some perspective as to how much a million dollars in 1922 would be worth today, the West Egg inflation Calculator calculates that one million dollars in 1900, would today be worth $24,613,670.55!!!! That’s over 24 ½ million dollars in today’s money! Those tapestries must have been mighty important to him!

He later purchased the damaged tapestry from Count Gabriel De La Rochefoucauld, for an undisclosed amount. In an interview David Rockefeller describes the tapestries as one of his father’s greatest and most prized possessions. The tapestries hung in the Rockefellers New York apartment until 1937; they were then gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They now hang in The Cloisters, which houses the museums medieval collection. In 1998 restoration work started on the tapestries, when the linen backing was removed they found that the colours on the back were much better preserved and more vivid than the colours on the front. A series of high resolution digital photographs were taken at this time. Since January 2002 the tapestry studio at West Dean College has been working on recreating the original tapestries. They are expected to be finished in 2014; they will then be moved to Stirling Castle, where they will be hung in The Queens Presence Chamber.

Four of the Tapestries have already been completed, and now hang in the Queens Chamber in the Royal Chapel in Stirling Castle. (Pictures of the completed tapestries at the end of the blog.) Stirling Castle web site This link is Stirling Castles official web site, and they have this to say about the tapestries “We know that James V had two sets of tapestries featuring unicorns. Tapestries were extremely expensive and were prized by the wealthy elites of the European Renaissance.” I’ll bet they were, and the hidden meanings and symbology of those tapestries would have been even more prized to them!

James V of Scotland was the Father of Queen Mary, and her son James VI of Scotland went on to become James I of England and Scotland.

Since the reign of King Robert III of Scotland in the late 1300s, the Unicorn has been a part of that country’s official emblem. When James VI of Scotland (19^th June 1566-27^th march 1625) became James I of both England and Scotland in 1603 upon the death of Elizabeth I (who died childless and, therefore, with no direct heir), he drew up a new royal coat-of-arms which included both the traditional English Lion and the Scottish Unicorn. The English Arms had used a variety of supporters throughout its history, but had most frequently featured the Lion.

Prince William’s coat of arm

James I placed a Lion on the left of the new Arms and a Unicorn on the right. This was a potent show of symbolism, for the Lion and the Unicorn had long been regarded as deadly enemies, both being considered as King of the Beasts, the Unicorn ruling through harmony and the Lion through might. The newly instituted coat-of-arms came to represent reconciliation between the Scottish Unicorn and the English Lion that the two should share the rule. This is the official version of how the Unicorn became part of the English coat of arms; I will later examine the use of the Unicorn in more detail. What the ruling elite tell the masses, and the real meanings are rarely the same.

Knight’s Templar coat of arm Knight’s Templar coat of arm

On Friday the 13^th of October 1307 King Philip of France began his persecution of the Knights Templar, it is believed that many were fore warned that he was about to have them arrested, and many of them fled to Scotland. Despite Philips exhaustive searches for the Templars vast wealth and possessions, none were ever found. It is believed that the wealth and possessions also went to Scotland at that time.

Scotland is of course the Freemason capital of the world, and the Scottish Rite Freemasonry was formed there reportedly in the 18^th century. The Scottish Freemasons are believed to have formed from the Knights Templar that fled there in 1307. It is too much of a coincidence that the Templars and Unicorns arrived in Scotland at the around same time!

The tapestries are woven in wool, silk and metallic threads, and depict 101 species of plants, 85 of which have been identified. The six tapestries which hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Depict the following. 1 The hunters enter the woods. 2 The Unicorn is found 3 The Unicorn is attacked 4 The Unicorn and the maiden (this is the damaged tapestry) 5 The Unicorn defends itself 6 The Unicorn is killed, and brought to the Castle. 7 The Unicorn in captivity, no longer dead.

On the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s web site, David Rockefeller can be seen in an interview talking about the tapestries. In it he says that his father told him the Unicorn represented Christ. Link to Rockefeller interview:

SYMBOLISM OF THE TAPESTRIES

The Constellation Monoceros

The Unicorn is the constellation Monoceros, which is only visible in Winter, it lies behind Sirius (ISIS) and Orions belt (OSIRIS). In Egyptian mythology Isis and Osiris give birth to Horus, the Christ, Sun God. The Unicorn represents the Christ, and from the Middle Ages onwards Christians, who bastardised Egyptian mythology for their own ends, seen the Unicorn as symbolic of their Jesus Christ.

The unicorn (constellation Monoceros) is the Christ, only visible in the winter months in the North of our sky, then it disappears from view, re-appearing again the following winter, and so appears to die, but then is re-born again the following winter (DEC 25, birth of Christ) Which also coincides with the winter solstice, where the Sun is re-born.

As David Rockefeller says in the interview, he always understood the Unicorn to represent Christ. The tapestries depict the Unicorn being killed, and then miraculously in the final tapestry it is alive again. It sits surrounded by pomegranates, which represent blood, and it is in captivity, it is chained and no longer free. The pomegranate from ancient times represented bloodline and fertility, and to the ruling aristocracy bloodline is of paramount importance. I believe this set of tapestries were of immense importance to the Rockefeller Family, as the Unicorn in captivity to them, was symbolic of their control and enslavement of the Christ energy. When I say Christ I do not mean the fictional character Jesus, who the ruling elite invented. The word Christ means anointed one. And the Christ energy is that energy that exists in the Universe, that epitomises all that is pure and good. Through their manufactured religions, the global elite have been able to harness the energy they associate with the Christ energy, it is under their domain, and is effectively tethered and captive. I have covered this at length in my Prince William and the Unicorn videos, the Unicorn is also prominent on the British Coat of arms, and Prince William’s personal Coat of Arms. Again the Unicorn is restrained by a chain. The official explanation for this is that left unchained the Unicorn could be a dangerous beast! Dangerous to whom I wonder! William’s coat of arms differs from previous Royal Coats of Arms, in that on his the lion and Unicorn are standing on pomegranates, just like the Unicorn in the final tapestry. I clearly see this as blatant symbolism, used by them, to covertly let it be known that they have ownership of the Christ energy, they control it, it is completely their captive, and the only thing we pheasants will know of it, is what they tell us through their corrupt and manufactured religions.

I am of course not just referring to the Rockefellers and the British Royal Family, Im referring to the entire inbred bloodsucking, parasitic band of them. The entire Elite (EL as in ELOHIM). They are not many families, they are all one, and they control every aspect of global affairs.

And one of the primary jewels in their crown, is the enslavement of the masses through their invented religions, which are all astrologically based, and were designed not to bring man to his true spiritual potential, but to take him further away from it.

Over a year ago I started my journey of discovery, which began with the British Royals fixation about the Unicorn, its been hidden in plain site for hundreds of years, every official British Government document bares the Coat of arms of the British Royals, and the tethered Unicorn is prominent on that coat of arms, and has been since the reign of James I, who incidentally was responsible for the re-writing of the bible, and the King James Version of the Bible is still the most commonly read bible in the world. The King James Version, unlike any other bible, mentions the Unicorn a staggering 9 times!

Now let us look at each of the tapestries.

1. The hunters enter the woods The scout in a tree (upper right corner), motions for his companions to follow. Six men and five dogs, go in search of the Unicorn. The number six is symbolic of the search for spiritual enlightenment. The Unicorn is the symbol of enlightenment, and they are going in search of it, not to find enlightenment, but to kill it. In Pythagorean numerology five is the number of chaos. Order/disorder and life/death. “Order out of Chaos is the motto of the ruling global Elite. They create chaos, so that they can impose their order.

2. The Unicorn is found The Unicorn is symbolic of the constellation Monoceros (Latin for Unicorn). The Constellation of Monoceros is on the celestial equator of the Milky Way. The Ancients viewed the Milky Way as the great Heavenly River. Egyptians equated the Nile, as the Earthly equivalent. The Unicorn is basking in the flow from the fountain, the Unicorns horn has the water from the fountain cascading over it. The horn of the unicorn has great esoteric meaning, as it was always thought to have many magical attributes, and in medieval times, many actually believed in the existence of the Unicorn, and the wealthy elite of the time paid large sums to purchase what they believed to be unicorn horns. Whatever the meaning of this scene, the Noblemen watch the Unicorn, but do not attack, according to traditional beliefs; the unicorn cannot be disturbed while performing a magical act. So whatever the Unicorn is doing is viewed as a sacred act. The unicorn’s horn was thought to be an antidote to poison and this tapestry has marigolds, an orange tree, and sage, all known in the Middle Ages to be antidotes to poisoning. It appears as if the Unicorn is purifying the water with its magic horn.

In the top right you can see a castle, indicating that the hunters have came from the castle, in the sixth tapestry they return to the castle, this suggests that the hunters are aristocrats. The twelve hunters are the twelve signs of the Zodiac. A hare sits in front of the Unicorn, in front of the constellation Monoceros is the constellation Lepus, which is represented by a hare, and often the Egyptian God Set is associated with the hare. In this tapestry the Unicorn appears to have no ears, this could be symbolic of the fact that because the Unicorn is carrying out a sacred act, it is oblivious to what is happening around it. The old saying “hear no evil” springs to mind.

3. The Unicorn is attacked. In this tapestry the hunters attack the Unicorn, the Unicorn is in a stream, again symbolic of the celestial river of the Gods, the Milk Way, which is home to the Monoceros constellation. In esoteric terms the Unicorn depicted in the actual river gives this scene a very ritualistic nature. I am reminded of the paintings of The Battle of The Boyne, (1690) which was not a battle but a ritual, acted out by King William III and King James II, at the end of the ritual William was King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He is commonly depicted on a white horse, his sword in the air, forming what appears to be a single horn on the horses head, making it look like a unicorn as he merges into the Boyne River, which is the ritualistic initiation. King William rode a black horse, this was commonly known, still he is always depicted on a white horse. This is a prime example of the European aristocracy of that time associating themselves with the harnessed energy of the Unicorn or Christ energy.

King William III, known in Ireland as King Billy, on his big white Unicorn at the ritual that was acted out as a battle. James & William both left the ritual unscathed, as was planned in advance, William went back to England, James to France, and the Irish have been fighting ever since!

The Unicorn is symbolic of purity, and that divine energy that many call God. The hunters are the evil ones who will sacrifice their souls for its capture.

Four men are actively attacking the beast; four is symbolic of the four Cardinal directions, North, South, East and West, the four seasons, and the four elements. In the book of Revelation the four horsemen of the apocalypse bring about the destruction of mankind. The two men in the top left, appear to be doing nothing other than observing, possibly the hunters are acting under orders from these Noble men. Although Nobel hardly seems a just description! The Unicorn has a wound on his back, the blood mingles with the sacred water, he is trying to escape his encircling enemies. Horns are blowing, dogs barking, and lances are aimed at it. The castle is again seen in the back round, this time to the right. In a close up of the castle, very sinister looking aristocrats can be seen watching the scene. This can be seen in the attached Rockefeller video.(Link at the top of blog)

The bridge in this picture is most interesting, in the Universe where the Galactic and Ecliptic mid planes intersect, there are two gateways. One is the Golden gate which we pass through at death; the other is the Silver gate that we pass through at birth. The silver gate is also known as the gate of man. This gateway is synonymous with the Unicorn, as its horn points directly to the gateway in the cosmos. Possibly the bridge represents this gateway.

4. The Unicorn and the Maiden This is the tapestry that was damaged, that Rockefeller bought separately from the rest. The myths about the unicorn say that it will risk capture, even death, just to be wooed by a virgin maiden. In this tapestry it seems to have escaped the hunters, the wound on its back is visible, one of the hunting dogs is licking the wound, and the unicorn appears unconcerned about his wounds, and it seems quite ecstatic to be in the company of the maiden. Christians read this as the maiden representing the Virgin Mary, and the Unicorn Jesus. If we look at the constellation Monoceros, we see that Monoceros straddles the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. To the Ancient Egyptians Sirius was represented by the Goddess ISIS. The constellation that we know as Orion to the Egyptians was Osiris, (The hunter), who was both husband and brother of ISIS. Between them they gave birth to the sun God Horus, which I believe later came to be represented by Monoceros.

During the Medieval period the church demonised astrology, however the elite who were responsible for enforcing the churches rules thought it was OK that they use it! Then as now, it was one rule for them, and another for the masses.

The flower most commonly associated with Isis is the white Lily, and the tapestries are awash with white lilies. White lilies are also symbolic of the demonic Goddess Lilith, who was the first Eve, as record by the most ancient of the Hebrew texts. It is said that the European elite still worship this entity, and offer blood sacrifices to her.

Just North of the constellation Monoceros lies Canis Minor (Canis=Dog), to the Egyptians this was the home of the Goddess Nephtys, sister of Osiris and Isis, and husband of Set, who was also a brother! Nephtys was thought to be a healer. So I take this tapestry to mean that the maiden is ISIS, and the dog represents her sister Nephtys the constellation Canis Minor and the healer. The hunter about to pounce is to the left.

5. Unicorn defends itself In this tapestry notice how the Unicorn is depicted with cloven hooves. If you search Google images for Unicorn, you will find that they are most commonly depicted with hooves like a horse, the only occasions they are depicted with cloven hooves, is when they are the unicorn that depicts the constellation Monoceros, or on the heraldry of the Elite. The British Royals and the Rothschild’s are just two examples that use the Unicorn from Monoceros on their heraldry. And like the tapestries, they most commonly depict them in chains. The Unicorn in the tapestries also sports a small beard, more like a Goat than a Unicorn. In the heraldry of the aristocracy, they often present one animal, but depict it with characteristics of other animals, so that they end up with an animal that on first sight appears to be one thing, but on close inspection seems to be a mix of many things. To them the attributes of this conglomeration of animals is symbolic of the attributes of their family, and the entities they pay homage too.

The Knight’s Templar arrested

by King Philip of France, admitted

worshipping Baphomet. Although it is said

they were tortured into the confessions

The cloven hooves and beard are the characteristics of a Goat, and their god Baphomet is depicted as half goat half human.

There are nine men in this tapestry; to Satanists nine is the number of death and sacrifice. Mark 15 v 34-37 says that Jesus died in the ninth hour. Jesus is just one of the avatars that the elite invented to reap the spiritual energy of the masses, and Christians have long associated Jesus with the Unicorn.

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, (340-397) said “who is the Unicorn but the only begotten Son of God”.

The nine men most likely represent the ninth hour that Christ supposedly died. Six of the men are carrying spears/lances, one man is holding an axe, no doubt he is the one that will take the Unicorns horn off. The Unicorn has stabbed the dog with its horn, Again the stream runs in the foreground of the tapestry, and oddly there seems to be a number of birds in the stream, but only one bird in the sky!

6. The Unicorn is killed and brought to the castle:

This is actually two pictures combined into one. To the left we see the murder of the Unicorn, and to the right the Unicorns dead body, strewn over a horses back, minus its horn is being presented to the aristocrats who presumably live in the grand castle. The Kill: In the back round we see a holly tree, the myths and legends associated with the holly date back to the Romans worship of Saturnalia. Around the 17^th of December to celebrate the festival of Saturn, they would send holly boughs and other gifts to their friends. This also celebrated the Winter Solstice. This is just one of the pagan customs that Christians hijacked and re-wrapped! The founder of the Christian religion as we know it, was the Roman Emperor Constantine, who despite inflicting the religion on the pheasants who made up the Roman Empire, remained a Pagan himself. Christians argue that he converted on his death bed…….Some people will believe anything. J This link details the myth and folklore of the Holly

The constellation Monoceros has Canis Minor above it, and Canis Major below it, and in this scene with unicorn has a dog above it, and a dog below it. The Satanic elite love to reverse things so that they can hide things in plain sight. DOG reversed GOD. The dog on the Unicorns back looks like it is licking the unicorns wound, like the dog in the “Unicorn and the maiden” tapestry. Spears have been driven into the Unicorns neck and chest, and it has wounds on its back and hind. This scene is very tragic; the evil has killed the Christ, and all that is good.

The Presentation: To the right the Unicorn is being presented to the Lord and Lady, could be King and Queen, we are given no clues about their rank, although they are clearly aristocrats. A very curious looking crowd looks on. Kind of like a 16^th century Bilderberg group! They have ordered the execution of this magical beast, and yet the lady holds rosary beads in her hand! A little like the shadowy elite of today, who wear the cloaks of many religions, but the facet of themselves that they present to the masses is far removed from the truth of their real nature. The video shows close ups of the faces of those looking on from the castle, and they look like conspirators, while hiding in the shadowy back round, they have killed the Christ, and taken possession of it. Then as now these people send their trained assassins out to do their dirty work.

To the right we also see a gateway, an arch, silver/grey in colour. This may seem innocuous to most observers, but this is most important.

The celestial Silver gate, which souls pass through when coming from the Heavens to Earth. The unicorns horn points directly to it.

In our Universe, where the Galactic and Ecliptic midplanes intersect, the ancient Egyptians put gateways. The gateways mark the entry point of our souls at birth and death. The Silver Gate is the Milky Way ecliptic crossing at the Gemini-Taurus nexus. It is most often represented by horns, as it lies squarely between the horns of the Taurus bull. Isis is often depicted with horns on her head; this is representative of the horns of Taurus, and the Silver gateway we pass through into this life. The Silver gate of birth, lies to the North east of the Unicorns horn, and as you can see, this silver arch is also the Northeast of the Unicorn.

This is the official Vatican flag, this is their way of letting the sheeple know they have to keys to the gateways of life and death, but they are not about to share it with the unwashed masses!

The Golden Gate (arch) is the ecliptic Milky Way crossing at the Scorpio-Sagittarius nexus on the zodiac, and we pass through this gateway at death into the next life. Probably no accident that McDonalds uses a double golden gateway as their symbol!

7. The Unicorn in captivity:

This is probably the most tragic of the seven tapestries. The Unicorn has miraculously come back to life; it is surrounded by a fence, and tethered to a palm tree. The Unicorn is symbolic of all that is pure and good, yet it is enslaved, probably by the shadowy elite from the previous tapestry. It has red stains all over its coat, this is not blood, its pomegranate juice, and the Unicorn is surrounded by the plant with its many associations to bloodline and fertility. The fence is small and fragile, the chain it is tethered with could easily be broken, but still the Unicorn sits in its prison. Its as if the unicorn totally accepts its servitude, it has lost its will for Freedom. Could it be that the unicorn has been drugged by the pomegranates that surround it, has it been stupefied to the point that it is content with its mundane existence? The only other creature in this tapestry is a frog, and in the middle ages frogs were associated with witches and their spells, is the Unicorn under some kind of spell? The wild orchid, also synonymous with fertility is also in this scene, back then the world was not as densely populated as it is now, mortality rates were high, and the peasants were encouraged to reproduce. There are also violets, Roman and Greek myths recount a tragic story of one of the goddess Diana’s (Artemis) nymph companions, all of whom had sworn to stay maidens. (Virgins) The nymph was unrelentingly chased by Diana’s twin brother, Apollo, so that Diana changed the nymph into a violet to protect her. The modesty of the nymph is attributed to the violet. So again the Unicorn has been associated with the virgin maiden.

The most interesting plant is the Scottish Thistle given Scotland long association with the Unicorn.

To summarise, whoever commissioned these tapestries had to be very wealthy, then as now the global elite think that wisdom and knowledge is their prerogative. The occult wisdom that they have has insured they stay in power, we are many, they are few, yet they have had complete power and dominion over us. And it is their aim to keep us all stupefied and in servitude. I also believe that they see the constellation of Monoceros as their “Sion” in the galaxy, and they are creating there Sion on Earth, and the enslaved Unicorn is symbolic of their Earthly Sion. Sion for them maybe, not for the rest of us! These tapestries clearly demonstrate that they even believe they have dominion over the Christ energy, but times are changing, the veils are lifting, the internet has given us all access to the knowledge that they have been hiding. THEIR DAYS ARE NUMBERED! I am sure that there are many people who will not see the importance of these magnificent tapestries, when they were created the un-washed masses would have had no clue as to their true meaning, they have been on public display since 1937, and I believe I am the first to examine their true meanings.

The enslaved unicorn represents the enslavement of all mankind, and all that is good, these days they do it with drugs, TV/media, education/indoctrination, and vaccines. This keeps the masses dumbed down and servile, just like the perfectly content enslaved Unicorn.

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers…. The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” Aldous Huxley

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.”

On 21 October 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, congratulating him on “how fine and how profoundly important the book is”. In his letter to Orwell, he predicted the above quote. Source Wikipedia!

I have been working on this for over a year, and I have compiled a great deal of information on the subject, the tapestries covered in this blog, are just a small part of my study of the elites use of the Unicorn. My series of vids on You Tube, “Prince William and the Unicorn”, give a lot more insight into the subject, and the findings of my research so far. It is an on going project, and I still have a great deal of information to be either put into blog or video. Link to part 1 of my “William & The Unicorn” Series

The Rockefellers “Hunt for the Unicorn” tapestries, I felt deserved a blog of their own. Sandra Barr

The wonderful Aaron Russo exposing the Rockefeller’s plans for humanity. This is a ten minute section of a 69 minute interview, where he reveals that the Rockefeller’s want every person on the planet micro-chipped. He also testifies that Nick Rockefeller told him about 9/11 eleven months before it happened. Russo was a personal friend of Nick Rockefeller, sadly Aaron died shortly after this interview from bladder cancer.

Read entire article here

Republicans: The Single Greatest Threat to America

teri — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:09 +0000

Huffington Post by Sandy Goodman

02/09/12 Re-post from: 06/21/11

Candidates competing for the Republican presidential nomination

The single greatest threat to the United States is not joblessness, foreclosures, another recession or skyrocketing debt or health care costs. Nor is it terrorism, China or declining influence abroad. No, the single greatest threat to our country is today’s Republican Party.

That’s because the GOP is relentlessly pursuing a policy of the American public be damned, so that next year Republicans can regain the national political dominance they held from 2001 to 2006. Their sole, selfish aim is to complete the transformation of the U.S. to a government of, by and for the rich and the far-right.

Veteran reporter Robert Parry, a retired correspondent for the Associated Press and Newsweek, accurately summed up that policy this way:

Modern Republicans have a simple approach to politics when they are not in the White House: Make America as ungovernable as possible by using any means available… Control as much as possible what the population gets to see and hear; create chaos for your opponent’s government, economically and politically; blame it for the mess; and establish in the minds of the voters that their only way out is to submit, that the pain will stop once your side is back in power…

Republicans and the Right… are well positioned to roll the U.S. economy off the cliff and blame the catastrophe on Obama. Indeed, that may be their best hope for winning Election 2012.

George W. Bush’s presidency, with Congressional Republicans in lockstep behind him, made an excellent start on the destructive transformation of this country: two unpaid-for wars (one based on lies); failure to prevent the worst terrorist attack on the homeland or punish its instigators; waste of tens of thousands of U.S. and foreign lives, and worldwide diplomatic failure.

At home, approval of torture, warrantless wiretapping and ineptness and indifference in the face of Hurricane Katrina created a permanent stain. Economically, Republican tax cuts created few jobs and increased the national debt by 75 percent. What the Washington Post dubbed “executive grandeur” made income inequality the worst since the 1930s Depression. Finally, the GOP’s failed stewardship of the economy resulted in a crisis that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified was even worse than the Depression.

When national revulsion against Republican misrule drove Democrats into power in 2008, the GOP resorted to today’s strategy. It became evident even before the new Democratic president took office when the Republican Party’s de facto leader, Rush Limbaugh, declared: “I hope Obama fails.” And since the inauguration, Republicans have done everything in their power to assure that failure, although it’s meant misery for millions of Americans.

“I wish we had been able to obstruct more,” says Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who succeeded brilliantly in keeping his members in line in opposing every important measure that’s good for this country including presidential initiatives for health care, financial regulation, economic stimulus and a dozen executive appointments and even more judicial ones needed to keep government functioning.

Given the frightening record of business and financial deception and fraud that led to the economic crisis, who in their right mind could possibly oppose increased regulation of business and enhanced protection for consumers? The answer: almost all Republicans. Elizabeth Warren is too committed to consumer protection to win the votes of Senate Republicans acting for their paymasters at the chambers of commerce.

President Obama’s new law extending health insurance to 30 million more people is too good for working Americans. Beaten in their attempt to vote it down, Republicans are now suing to kill it. Remember the GOP plan? It proposed health insurance for one-tenth as many people. Is it any wonder that people in all other industrial countries, where health care is a right, laugh at us.

American business hates government — except when it needs government help. Which is just about all the time. And it’s just fine with Republicans whenever business goes to the government for help. In fact, GOPers are almost always corporate-friendly, as opposed to people-friendly. And they have a right-wing Supreme Court majority that helps them buy legislation by equating money with speech and corporations with human beings.

But heaven forbid the average citizen should try to get a government benefit, or a job or more unemployment insurance or aid in taking back a home seized (often illegally) by the bank, or getting health care for a gravely ill child with a pre-existing condition. Republicans are happy to vote overwhelmingly against him, ignoring the Constitutional command that government “promote the general welfare.”

Ronald Reagan, a president with rich friends and poor instincts, did this country an unforgiveable disservice by encouraging Americans to hate and distrust their government. Remember when he declared: “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem,” and joked that: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Contrast that with Reagan’s almost religious reverence for “the magic of the marketplace.”

But my own life experience, like that of millions of Americans, tells me that in important ways the government is more reliable than the marketplace. I spent a good part of my career working for one of the largest, most triumphant examples of American capitalism: General Electric. When I retired late in 1997, GE shares were selling for $68.56; when GE CEO Jack Welch, the greatest corporate genius of them all, quit 11 months later, those shares had dropped to $39.66. In 2009, under his successor genius, they fell as low as $6.66. And they closed the other day at $18.49 — only about a quarter of what they were when I retired. Needless to say, those shares formed a large part of my now badly-depleted retirement assets. Fortunately for me, GE was one of a declining number of companies that still provided an additional defined benefit pension plan for employes like me — something the company is now proposing to drop for new union hires.

In contrast to my GE stock disaster, Social Security hasn’t missed a monthly payment to me for more than 13 years, or to my wife in nine (imagine the value of our Social Security stock portfolios if Republicans had succeeded in their privatization scheme). Medicare enabled me to have spinal surgery, a hip replacement, cataract operations in both eyes and radiation that cured my prostate cancer; and my wife to have a hip and knee replaced, without breaking us financially.

Maybe that’s why I call Reagan a liar and a fool for his denunciations of those benefits from our government to me and millions of others. And you should, too. But Republicans regard him almost as a saint. And those same Republicans just voted almost unanimously in Congress to kill Medicare and replace it with Rep. Ryan’s pathetic plan to replace single payer with cut-rate vouchers for money-hungry private insurers. And they’re now holding a critically important increase in the debt ceiling hostage to measures that would weaken the recovery.

Read entire article here

Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl ad riles Karl Rove…

teri — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:06:19 +0000

Horsey
The Los Angeles Times 2012

How Swedes And Norwegians Broke The Power Of The ‘1 Percent’

teri — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:47:39 +0000

George Lakey, Common Dreams | Jan. 31, 2012, 6:04 PM

Flickr

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice.

Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.

Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”

Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.

Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.

When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.

In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.

The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!

The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.

The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.

Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.

By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.

This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)

Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.

Read entire article here

Russia vetoes anti-Assad UN motion after preparing Special Forces for Syria

noliesradio — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:45:21 +0000

DEBKAfile Special Report February 4, 2012, 7:51 PM (GMT+02:00)

Syrian shelling leaves hundreds dead in Homs

The West and Russia had a major showdown Saturday Feb. 5 over the Arab League resolution calling on Bashar Assad to step down and allow the formation of a national unity government. US President Barack Obama demanded a UN stand against the Syrian president’s “relentless brutality” and a vote before the end of the day. It was put to the vote and defeated by Russian and China vetoes.

Moscow sources charged that the motion had been intended to pave the way for war in Iran and a bid to overthrow the Tehran regime.
debkafile’s military sources report that the Russians backed their hard line against the West by putting Rapid Reaction Force (aka Spetsnaz) units in Black Sea bases on the ready to set out for Syria and defend Damascus. A Cold War dimension has been injected into the Syrian crisis, which is fast descending into a sectarian war between Syria’s ruling Alawites (Shiites) and the majority Sunnis. The regional dimension is provided by pitting Iran and Syria against Turkey and the Gulf Arabs.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s earlier announcement that he would visit Damascus next Tuesday, Feb 7, with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov was meant to buy Bashar Assad another three days’ grace to polish off the opposition before a possible UN-ordered ceasefire.
However, the US and Western powers refused to wait for further Syrian excesses to take place after various sources reported earlier Saturday that Syrian troops had shelled the Homs district of Khaldiyeh, killing an estimated 350 people there and injuring some 1,500, in the worst military bombardment of nearly 11-month-old uprising,.

Syrian government officials denied the charge accusing “gunmen” of killing civilians.

debkafile’s intelligence sources note that Moscow’s gesture to send the Russian foreign intelligence chief to Damascus alongside the foreign minister is supported additionally by the presence in the Syrian port of Tartus of Russia’s only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with two destroyers and a marine force.

READ FULL STORY HERE

NATO Versus Syria: NATO Clandestinely Engaged in Syrian Conflict

noliesradio — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:32:50 +0000

CIA Analysts Skeptical Regarding March to War

by Philip Giraldi

Global Research, February 4, 2012
The American Conservative – 2011-12-19

Americans should be concerned about what is happening in Syria, if only because it threatens to become another undeclared war like Libya but much, much worse. Calls for regime change have come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who several weeks ago predicted a civil war.

That is indeed likely if the largely secular and nationalist regime of Bashar al-Assad falls, pitting Sunni against Shia against Alawite. Indigenous Christians will be caught in the meat grinder. Ironically, many of the Christians in Damascus are Iraqis who experienced the last round of liberation in their own country and had to flee for their lives.

NATO is already clandestinely engaged in the Syrian conflict, with Turkey taking the lead as U.S. proxy. Ankara’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davitoglu, has openly admitted that his country is prepared to invade as soon as there is agreement among the Western allies to do so. The intervention would be based on humanitarian principles, to defend the civilian population based on the “responsibility to protect” doctrine that was invoked to justify Libya. Turkish sources suggest that intervention would start with creation of a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border and then be expanded. Aleppo, Syria’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, would be the crown jewel targeted by liberation forces.

Unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderum on the Syrian border, delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals as well as volunteers from the Libyan Transitional National Council who are experienced in pitting local volunteers against trained soldiers, a skill they acquired confronting Gaddafi’s army. Iskenderum is also the seat of the Free Syrian Army, the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. French and British special forces trainers are on the ground, assisting the Syrian rebels while the CIA and U.S. Spec Ops are providing communications equipment and intelligence to assist the rebel cause, enabling the fighters to avoid concentrations of Syrian soldiers.

CIA analysts are skeptical regarding the march to war. The frequently cited United Nations report that more than 3,500 civilians have been killed by Assad’s soldiers is based largely on rebel sources and is uncorroborated. The Agency has refused to sign off on the claims. Likewise, accounts of mass defections from the Syrian Army and pitched battles between deserters and loyal soldiers appear to be a fabrication, with few defections being confirmed independently. Syrian government claims that it is being assaulted by rebels who are armed, trained, and financed by foreign governments are more true than false.

In the United States, many friends of Israel are on the Assad regime-change bandwagon, believing that a weakened Syria, divided by civil war, will present no threat to Tel Aviv. But they should think again, as these developments have a way of turning on their head. The best organized and funded opposition political movement in Syria is the Muslim Brotherhood.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Russia: “Should Anything Happen to Iran … This Will Be a Direct Threat to Our National Security”

noliesradio — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:12:02 +0000

Russia and China Would Consider An Attack On Iran – Or Syria – As An Attack On Their National Security

washingtonsblog.com 1-14-2012
RT notes:

The escalating conflict around Iran should be contained by common effort, otherwise the promising Arab Spring will grow into a “scorching Arab Summer,” says Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s deputy prime minister and former envoy to NATO.

“Iran is our close neighbor, just south of the Caucasus. Should anything happen to Iran, should Iran get drawn into any political or military hardships, this will be a direct threat to our national security,” stressed Rogozin.

Here’s what Rogozin is talking about (notice how close the Southern tip of Russia is to Northern Iran):

A Chinese general has also allegedly said that China would launch World War III if Iran is attacked. And see this.

While many Americans still believe that our government would not be crazy enough to attack Iran,economic – not national security – considerations may be driving the warmongers.

In addition, Iran and Syria have had a mutual defense pact for years. And China and Russia might also defend Syria if it is attacked. So an attack on Syria could draw Iran into the war … followed by China and Russia.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Exposed: The Arab agenda in Syria

noliesradio — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:50:33 +0000

THE ROVING EYE
Exposed: The Arab agenda in Syria
By Pepe Escobar
atimes.com

Here’s a crash course on the “democratic” machinations of the Arab League – rather the GCC League, as real power in this pan-Arab organization is wielded by two of the six Persian Gulf monarchies composing the Gulf Cooperation Council, also known as Gulf Counter-revolution Club; Qatar and the House of Saud.

Essentially, the GCC created an Arab League group to monitor what’s going on in Syria. The Syrian National Council – based in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries Turkey and France – enthusiastically supported it. It’s telling that Syria’s neighbor Lebanon did not.

When the over 160 monitors, after one month of enquiries, issued their report … surprise! The report did not follow the official GCC line – which is that the “evil” Bashar al-Assad government is indiscriminately, and unilaterally, killing its own people, and so regime change is in order.

The Arab League’s Ministerial Committee had approved the report, with four votes in favor (Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and GCC member Oman) and only one against; guess who, Qatar – which is now presiding the Arab League because the emirate bought their (rotating) turn from the Palestinian Authority.

So the report was either ignored (by Western corporate media) or mercilessly destroyed – by Arab media, virtually all of it financed by either the House of Saud or Qatar. It was not even discussed – because it was prevented by the GCC from being translated from Arabic into English and published in the Arab League’s website.

Until it was leaked. Here it is, in full.

The report is adamant. There was no organized, lethal repression by the Syrian government against peaceful protesters. Instead, the report points to shady armed gangs as responsible for hundreds of deaths among Syrian civilians, and over one thousand among the Syrian army, using lethal tactics such as bombing of civilian buses, bombing of trains carrying diesel oil, bombing of police buses and bombing of bridges and pipelines.

Once again, the official NATOGCC version of Syria is of a popular uprising smashed by bullets and tanks. Instead, BRICS members Russia and China, and large swathes of the developing world see it as the Syrian government fighting heavily armed foreign mercenaries. The report largely confirms these suspicions.

The Syrian National Council is essentially a Muslim Brotherhood outfit affiliated with both the House of Saud and Qatar – with an uneasy Israel quietly supporting it in the background. Legitimacy is not exactly its cup of green tea. As for the Free Syrian Army, it does have its defectors, and well-meaning opponents of the Assad regime, but most of all is infested with these foreign mercenaries weaponized by the GCC, especially Salafist gangs.

READ FULL STORY HERE

On BackStage: Teri Perticone of No Lies Radio interviews singer/songwriter Shana Morrison

noliesradio — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:15:16 +0000

This show was broadcast February 4, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Saturday & Sunday at 3pm Pacific – 6pm Eastern – 22:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcasts.
On BackStage:
Teri Perticone of No Lies Radio interviews singer/songwriter Shana Morrison

Shana Morrison has the hit songs, Can’t Hold On, Yes Yes Yes, You Don’t Own Me, Wo Wo Wo, Drive, Simple, Jupiter Jones, Joyride, Gone for Good, I Am A Rose, He Won’t Send Roses, Heart Shaped Tattoo and No More Mrs. Nice Girl all now playing on No Lies Radio. Teri talks to Shana about her musical family, other early influences and her inspiration behind the writing of her songs. See her website here.

Military Industrial Complex at 50, David Swanson _ on Anti-War Progressive Teach-in

noliesradio — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:04:16 +0000

This show was broadcast February 4, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific * 12 noon Eastern * 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Military Industrial Complex at 50, David Swanson
As he discusses co-authoring his new book MIC50, David Swanson provides context with recent US Military and foreign policy history in wars abroad. Iran, Congress, Corporate Power, and new energy to OWS movement, with dates for general strikes and protests. From a Talk Nation Radio Presentation.

The Anti-war Progressive Teach-in broaches upon some of the most highly charged subjects of our day—War & Peace, national healthcare, women’s rights, human rights, civil rights, torture, vets against the war, freedom, democracy, protest, demonstrations, etc. We scour the world to find and gather debates and presentations that are extremely informative and educational. Related subjects are also discussed. It provides key information for the uninitiated and the initiated alike.

Rosanne Barr and Cindy Hickey_on Soapbox

noliesradio — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:28:51 +0000

This show was broadcast February 4, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific – 04:00 pm Eastern – 20:00 GMT

Rosanne Barr and Cindy Hickey
Cindy presents two guests: 1) up is actress, comedian and political commentator Rosanne Barr, and then on to 2) Cindy Hickey, mother of incarcerated hiker (in Iran?) Shane Bauer. Roseanne presents her own web site, roseanneworld.com, and then moves on to discusses her new book: Roseannearchy, also known as “Dispatches from the Nut Farm.” It’s really her personal Journal on leaving ‘Babylon’ (Hollywood), for a real life in Hawaii. Golly gee, she sounds like “gasp” a real person here, boyz and grrls! Awesome, indeed – especially in this day and age! What I expected was a semi-comedic tour of “Roseanne’s World,” perhaps a distant cousin to “Wayne’s World.” What I got was a carefully reasoned and well thought-out semi-comedic presentation of a serious plan to save the world we already have. She’s done a marvelous job analyzing/structuring her “Roseanearchy” here, folks! Next up is Cindy Hiickey for her son, Shane Bauer. In July 2009, Josh Fatal and Shane Bauer, along with his fiancée Sarah Shourd were detained by Iranian forces while they were were enjoying a recreational hike in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. There are conflicting news reports about whether Iranian forces entered Iraq to arrest the three young Americans or they strayed across the poorly marked border by mistake. Supposedly, these three crossed the border into Iran illegally. Even Sarah says there were absolutely no border markings anywhere. Sarah, 32, was released on September 14, 2010, on humanitarian grounds after spending 410 days in solitary confinement and immediately vowed to work for the freedom of Shane and Josh, both 28. All three were charged shortly before Sarah’s release with illegal entry and espionage at a hearing in Evin Prison in Tehran where they were finally allowed to meet their lawyer for only the first time. Shane, Sarah and Josh are innocent of any crime. You can sign the International petition to free them at Freethehikers.org.This interview is from June 5, 2011.
Cindy’s website is here.

Destination Persian Gulf? US nuclear sub and destroyer enter Red Sea

teri — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:14:50 +0000

RT

Published: 31 January, 2012, 02:06

Greece: The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Annapolis is escorted by a US Naval Support Activity harbor security boat as she departs Souda harbor in Souda Bay, Greece on March 30, 2010. (AFP Photo / Paul Farley)

Two ships of the US Navy, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen have passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Although their destination is confidential, they are now getting dangerously close to the Persian Gulf.

The ships’ passage was a major operation for the Suez administration as due to safety reasons they had to close off the canal to all other traffic and even shut down the bridge, disrupting the link between the banks for some four hours. The traffic on the roadways alongside the canal was also restricted, Interfax news agency reports.

There are no reports regarding the destination of the vessels, but the news come amid the ongoing crisis in the relationship between the US and Iran. There is mounting speculation that the Annapolis and the Momsen are heading to the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US naval forces already present in the region.

Currently the US has two aircraft carrier groups in the region headed by USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Carl Vinson. It is expected that another aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, will join the strike force in March.

Since the EU placed a new round of sanctions on Iran by putting an embargo on Iranian oil, Iran is once again threatening to use military force to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti maritime official said on Monday that the Gulf Cooperation Council group of Arab countries have contingency plans for coastguards and naval forces should there be an attempt by Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
‘US imperial agenda is now concentrating on Iran’

Tehran has offered IAEA officials the chance to extend their mission and says it is ready to prove its atomic ambitions are peaceful. But Ralph S?hoenman, the host of radio program ‘Taking Aim,’ told RT that IAEA’s quest in Iran is hopeless.

“I say hopeless because the United States and the European capitalist spouse will always up the ante,” S?hoenman explained. “You can be absolutely sure that the reports back from one or more of these inspectors functioning as intelligence operatives will say: ‘Well, there is evidence that they may be doing this and they may be doing that.”

Read entire article

CHOMSKY on WIKILEAKS

teri — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:10:04 +0000

CHOMSKY on WIKILEAKS from CaTV on Vimeo.

“Julian Assange should be congratulated for carrying out the responsibilities of a citizen in democratic societies, where the population should be aware of what their selected representatives are doing and planning.

The Wikileaks revelations have surely advanced such awareness and understanding, and are a valuable contribution for that reason”.

Read entire article here

Meet election integrity expert John Washburn! _ on The Kevin Barrett Show

noliesradio — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:50:19 +0000

This show was broadcast January 31, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Tuesday at 9am Pacific – 12 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”

EXCLUSIVE –Tuesday on KB Show:
Meet election integrity expert John Washburn!

Email your questions or comments now.

Guest: John Washburn, Wisconsin-based software engineer and election integrity activist. (Check out his blog and website.)

Is it just a coincidence that Wisconsin is about to “upgrade” to “new, improved” voting machines just in time for the nationally-important Scott Walker recall election? Why are those machines – and just about all voting machines – “black box” systems with proprietary software, so that only the people who program the machines know how they work (and how to hack them)?

The 1% needs Walker to win so it can keep pushing the 99% into poverty. You can bet they’ll be pulling out all the stops. If the recall-Walker people allow the election to proceed on black-box machines, the result (like the results of so many stolen elections, including the Bush coups of 2000 and 2004) is easily predictable.

For more information, click on the following links to the Wisconsin election integrity groups: Fair Elections Wisconsin and Wisconsin Citizens for Election Protection.

Check out Kevin’s new book: Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters.

The Kevin Barrett Show is independently produced and hosted by Kevin Barrett and these shows are externally produced content. All externally produced content broadcast on No Lies Radio is the sole responsibility of the program-content producer and is not the responsibility of NoLiesRadio.org. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the content producer.

Wall Street’s gilded frat party

teri — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:17:23 +0000

Salon Jan 30, 2012

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

(Credit: Library of Congress)

At an opulent annual blowout, bailed-out bankers haze newbies, mock OWS and show just how out of touch they are

Topics:Wall Street, Great Recession

A week or so ago, we read in The New York Times about what in the Gilded Age of the Roman Empire was known as a bacchanal – a big blowout at which the imperial swells got together and whooped it up.

This one occurred here in Manhattan at the annual black-tie dinner and induction ceremony for Kappa Beta Phi. That’s the very exclusive Wall Street fraternity of billionaire bankers, and private equity and hedge fund predators. People like Wilbur Ross, the vulture capitalist; Robert Benmosche, the CEO of AIG, the insurance giant that received tens of billions in bailout money; and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns, the failed investment bank bought by JPMorgan Chase.

They got together at the St. Regis Hotel off Fifth Avenue to eat rack of lamb, drink and haze their newest members, who are made to dress in drag, sing and perform skits while braving the insults, wine-soaked napkins and petit fours – those fancy little frosted cakes — hurled at them by the old guard. In other words, a gilt-edged Animal House, food fight and all.

This year, the butt of many a joke were the protesters of Occupy Wall Street. In one of the sketches, the bond specialist James Lebenthal scolded a demonstrator with a face tattoo, “Go home, wash that off your face and get back to work.” And in another, a member — dressed like a protester – was told, “You’re pathetic, you liberal. You need a bath!”

Pretty hilarious stuff. The whole affair’s reminiscent of the wingdings the robber barons used to throw during America’s own Gilded Age a century and a half ago, when great wealth amassed at the top, far from the squalor and misery of working stiffs. Guests would arrive in the glittering mansions for costume balls that rivaled Versailles, reinforcing the sense of superiority and the virtue of a ruling class that depended on the toil and sweat of working people.

That’s consistent with the attitude expressed by several of these types after Occupy Wall Street sprung up; bankers told the Times on the record that they could understand the anger of the protesters camped on their doorstep; but privately, a hedge manager said, “Most… view [it] as ragtag group looking for sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.”

So sayeth the winners in our winner-take all economy. The very guys who were celebrating at the St. Regis because they were too big to fail. Even when they fell flat on their faces, the government was there to dust them off, bail them out and send them back to fight the class war with nary a harsh word or punishment. Talk about a nanny welfare state.

None of this was by accident. The last three decades have witnessed a carefully calculated heist worthy of Robert Redford and Paul Newman in “The Sting” — but on a massive scale. It was an inside job, politically engineered by Wall Street and Washington working hand-in-hand, sticky fingers with sticky fingers, to turn the legend of Robin Hood on its head – giving to the rich and taking from everybody else. Don’t take our word for it – it’s all on the record.

The biggest of the big boys was Citigroup, at one time the world’s largest financial institution. When the meltdown hit in 2008, the bank cut more than 50,000 jobs and you and other taxpayers shelled out more than $45 billion to save it. And how are Citigroup executives doing? Nicely, thank you. Last year, its CEO, Vikram Pandit, took home $1.75 million in base salary, and was awarded $3.7 million in deferred stock.

According to the Times, “Citigroup is expected to disclose the rest of his pay, cash, be it upfront or deferred, in March. In addition, while not necessarily for work performed in 2011, Mr. Pandit last year was awarded a $16.7 million retention bonus, plus stock options that could add $6.5 million to the package’s overall value.” Makes you want to cry out, “Retain me! Retain me!”

To be fair, Vikram Pandit was at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland last week, where he told Bloomberg News, “It’s important for the financial system to acknowledge that there’s a great deal of anger directed at it… Trust has been broken. Banks have to serve clients, not serve themselves.” What’s more, he has said that the “sentiments” expressed by Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were “completely understandable.”

Read entire article here

The Original 99% Movement

noliesradio — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:19:57 +0000

January 28, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Top Military Man Invokes the Occupy Movement in 1933

Smedley Butler was one of the most highly-decorated military men of all time. He is also the guy who – literally – stopped a coup against FDR. See this, this and this.

General Butler addressed the Bonus Army in Washington D.C. in 1933, as they “occupied” D.C. to demand compensation for their service to the country:

Smedley Butler from Louis Proyect on Vimeo.

General Butler invoked the 99% movement, telling the veterans:
We are divided, in America, into two classes: The Tories on one side, a class of citizens who were raised to believe that the whole of this country was created for their sole benefit, and on the other side, the other 99 per cent of us, the soldier class, the class from which all of you soldiers came. That class hasn’t any privileges except to die when the Tories tell them. Every war that we have ever had was gotten, up by that class. They do all the beating of the drums. Away the rest of us go. When we leave, you know what happens. We march down the street with all the Sears-Roebuck soldiers standing on the sidewalk, all the dollar-a-year men with spurs, all the patriots who call themselves patriots, square-legged women in uniforms making Liberty Loan speeches. They promise you. You go down the street and they ring all the church bells. Promise you the sun, the moon, the stars and the earth,–anything to save them. Off you go. Then the looting commences while you are doing the fighting. This last war made over 6,000 millionaires. Today those fellows won’t help pay the bill.
Indeed, veterans today support the 99% movement. They understand … just as General Butler understood.

As Butler wrote:

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [i.e. WWI] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few — the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
(Watch an actor read Butler’s dramatic speech.)

No wonder the 1% persecute pacifists: they threaten the world’s most profitable game.

No wonder – as Nazi leader Hermann Goering noted – the war profiteers are always trying to trick the people into supporting war:
>Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Caught in the ACTA: More angry protests break out in Poland because of Internet Censorship

teri — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:45:16 +0000

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Jan 27, 2012 More angry protests have broken out in Poland, after the government gave its support to an international anti-piracy treaty. Activists say the pact, known as ACTA, will choke freedom of online expression. Poland joined several other EU countries in a closed-door signing ceremony in Japan on Thursday.

Source www.youtube.com

Iran and the Globalization of War — Michel Chossudovsky _on Anti-War Progressive Teach-in

noliesradio — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:56:39 +0000

This show was broadcast January 28, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific * 12 noon Eastern * 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Iran and the Globalization of War — Michel Chossudovsky
Recent developments in the Middle East including the wider implications of the destabilization of the entire area; the current global war as a different kind of conquest than that of World War I and II; US military deployment in the area; the role of Israel; Iranian Defenses; US war planning and war scenarios since 2003 concerning the nation of Iran, including Austere Challenge 12, Theatre Iran Near Term, Global Strike 2003, Concept Plan 8022, and Vigilant Shield; the effect of sanctions; and The Responsibility To Protect. From a Guns & Butter Presentation.

No new Nukes! _ on Soapbox

noliesradio — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:59:28 +0000

This show was broadcast January 28, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific – 04:00 pm Eastern – 20:00 GMT

No new Nukes!
Cindy welcomes the accomplished CounterPunch author Michael Leonardi, also active in No Nuke Action and in the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Planned No New Nukes actions are shown here. And here he can be seen, writing in CounterPunch, to discuss a Huge Victory in Italian Referendum from June, 2011. He tells us that now in Italy there is a renewed hope and belief that another world really is possible! Thank you for illuminating that hope, Michael. He is a dedicated progressive and a renewable energy advocate. We here at the Soapbox are oh so happy that he’s here today. Above and beyond his most informative talk, Cindy has a real treat for everybody: a pre-recorded interview she did with Time magazine. Enjoy! This show is from 9-18-2011.

Cindy’s website is here.

Dark History of the Evil Monsanto Corporation

teri — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:21:52 +0000

Best Meal.info

Jan 26, 2012

Over Monsanto’s 110-year history (1901-2011), Monsanto Co (MON.N), the world’s largest seed company, has evolved from primarily an industrial chemical concern into a pure agricultural products company. MON profited $2 billion dollars in 2009, but their record profits fell to only $1 billion in 2010 after activists exposed Monsanto for doing terribly evil acts like suing good farmers and feeding uranium to pregnant women. Below is a timeline of Monsanto’s dark history.

Monsanto, best know today for its agricultural biotechnology GMO products, has a long and dirty history of polluting this country and others with some of the most toxic compounds known to humankind. From PCBs to Agent Orange to Roundup, we have many reasons to question the motives of this evil corporation that claims to be working to reduce environmental destruction and feed the world with its genetically engineered GMO food crops. Monsanto has been repeatedly fined and ruled against for, among many things: mislabeling containers of Roundup, failing to report health data to EPA, plus chemical spills and improper chemical deposition.

The name Monsanto has since, for many around the world, come to symbolize the greed, arrogance, scandal and hardball business practices of many multinational corporations. A couple of historical factoids not generally known: Monsanto was heavily involved during WWII in the creation of the first nuclear bomb for the Manhattan Project via its facilities in Dayton Ohio and called the Dayton Project headed by Charlie Thomas, Director of Monsanto’s Central Research Department (and later Monsanto President) and it operated a nuclear facility for the federal government in Miamisburg, also in Ohio, called the Mound Project until the 80s.

Monsanto Company History Overview

Monsanto is a US based agricultural and pharmaceutical monopoly, Monsanto Company is a producer of herbicides, prescription pharmaceutical drugs, and genetically engineered (GMO) seeds. The global Monsanto corporation has operated sales offices, manufacturing plants, and research facilities in more than 100 countries. Monsanto has the largest share of the global GMO crops market. In 2001 its crops accounted for 91% of the total area of GMO crops planted worldwide. Based on 2001 figures Monsanto was the second biggest seed company in the world, and the third biggest agrochemical company.

Historically Monsanto has been involved with the production of PCBs, DDT, dioxins and the defoliant / chemical weapon ‘Agent Orange’ (sprayed on American troops and Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War). Originally a chemical company, Until the late 1990s Monsanto was a much larger ‘lifesciences’ company whose business covered chemicals, polymers, food additives and pharmaceuticals, as well as agricultural products.

All of these other chemical business areas have now been demerged or sold off. Monsanto sold its chemical business in 1997 to build a presence in biotechnology, developing NON-ORGANIC GMO soybeans and corn (classified as a pesticide and banned in the EU) to resist the poisonous affects of its Roundup herbicide. Monsanto’s key business areas are now agrochemicals, seeds and traits (including GMO crops), Monsanto also produced NutraSweet, a GMO sugar substitute. Monsanto recently sold it’s GMO bovine growth hormones monopoly to Eli Lilly, and sold it’s aspartame business to Pfizer.

Monsanto’s business is currently run in two parts: Agricultural Productivity, and Seeds and Genomics. The Agricultural Productivity segment includes Roundup herbicide and other agri-chemicals, and the Animal Agriculture business. The Seeds and Genomics segment consists of seed companies and related biotechnology traits, and a technology platform based on plant genomics. In reality of course these two segments are inseparable, since the agri-chemicals are becoming increasingly dependent on the seeds segment for sales.

Timeline of Monsanto’s Dark History

1901: Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri by John Francis Queeny, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. Queeny funded the start-up with capital from Coca-Cola (saccharin). Founder John Francis Queeny named Monsanto Chemical Works after his wife, Olga Mendez Monsanto. Queeny’s father in law was Emmanuel Mendes de Monsanto, wealthy financier of a sugar company active in Vieques, Puerto Rico and based in St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies.

1902: Monsanto manufactures its first product, the artificial sweetener Saccharin, which Monsanto sold to the Coca-Cola Company. The U.S.

1904: Queeny persuaded family and friends to invest $15000, Monsanto has strong ties to The Walt Disney Company, it having financial backing from the Order’s Bank of America founded in Jesuit-ruled San Francisco by Italian-American Roman-Catholic Knight of Malta Amadeo Giannini.

1905: Monsanto company was also producing caffeine and vanillin and was beginning to turn a profit.

1906: The government’s monopoly on meat regulation began, when in response to public panic resulting from the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Teddy Roosevelt signed legislation mandating federal meat inspections. Today, Salatin claims that agricultural regulation favors multinational corporations such as ConAgra and Monsanto because the treasonous science that supports the USDA regulatory framework is paid for by these corporations, which continue to give large grants to leading schools and research facilities.

1908: John Francis Queeny leaves his part-time job as the new branch manager of another drug house the Powers-Weightman-Rosegarten Company to become Monsanto’s full-time president.

1912: Agriculture again came to the forefront with the creation of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau, one of the first organizations of its kind. In the 1930s the DeKalb AgResearch Corporation (today MONSANTO) marketed its first hybrid seed corn.

1914–1918: During WWI, cut off from imported European chemicals, Monsanto was forced to manufacture it’s own, and it’s position as a leading force in the chemical industry was assured. Unable to import foreign supplies from Europe during World War I, Queeny turned to manufacturing his own raw materials. It was then his scientists discovered that the Germans, in anticipation of the war, had ripped out vital pages from their research books which explained various chemical processes.

1915: Business expanded rapidly. Monsanto sales surpass the $1,000,000 mark for the first time.

1917: U.S. government sues Monsanto over the safety of Monsanto’s original product, saccharin. Monsanto eventually won, after several years in court.

1917: Monsanto added more and more products: vanillin, caffeine, and drugs used as sedatives and laxatives.

1917: Bayer, The German competition cut prices in an effort to drive Monsanto out of business, but failed. Soon, Monsanto diversified into phenol (a World War I -era antiseptic), and aspirin when Bayer’s German patent expired in 1917. Monsanto began making aspirin, and soon became the largest manufacturer world-wide.

1918: With the purchase of an Illinois acid company, Monsanto began to widen the scope of its factory operations.

Mar 15, 1918: More than 500 of the 750 employees of the Monsanto Chemical Works, which has big contracts for the Government, went on strike, forcing the plant to dose down.

Aug 15, 1919: Thereafter much of it was declared surplus, and a contract was entered into with the Monsanto Chemical Co., of St. Louis, Mo., by which contract the Director of Sales authorized the Monsanto Co. to sell for the United States its surplus phenol, estimated at 27521242 pounds, for a market price to be fixed from time to time by the representative of the contracting officer of the United States, but with a minimum price of 9 cents a pound.

1919: Monsanto established its presence in Europe by entering into a partnership with Graesser’s Chemical Works at Cefn Mawr near Ruabon, Wales to produce vanillin, salicylic acid, aspirin and later rubber.

1920s: In its third decade, Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid and other chemicals.

Jan 5, 1920: The petitioner was authorized to sell two tracts of land in the Common Fields of Cahokia, St. Clair County, containing 2.403 acres and 3.46 acres respectively, to the Monsanto Chemical Works for the sum of $1500.

1920-1921: A postwar depression during the early 1920s affected profits, but by the time John Queeny turned over Monsanto to Edgar in 1928 the financial situation was much brighter.

1926: Environmental policy was generally governed by local governments, Monsanto Chemical Company founded and incorporated the town of Monsanto, later renamed Sauget, Illinois, to provide a more business friendly environment for one of its chemical plants. For years, the Monsanto plant in Sauget was the nation’s largest producer of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And although polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were banned in the 1970s, they remain in the water along Dead Creek in Sauget.

1927: Monsanto had over 2,000 employees, with offices across the country and in England.

1927: Shortly after its initial listing on the New York Stock Exchange, Monsanto moved to acquire 2 chemical companies that specialized in rubber. Other chemicals were added in later years, including detergents.

1928: John Queeny’s son Edgar Monsanto Queeny takes over the Monsanto company. Monsanto had gone public, a move that paved the way for future expansion. At this time, Monsanto had 55 shareholders, 1,000 employees, and owned a small company in Britain.

1929: Monsanto acquires Rubber Services Laboratories. Charlie Sommer joined Monsanto, and later became president of Monsanto in 1960.

October 1929: The folks at Monsanto Co. fished through their records, but they couldn’t find out why the company’s symbol is MTC. Monsanto went public in October 1929, just a few days before the great stock market crash. Some symbols are holdovers from the 19th century, when telegraph operators used single-letter symbols for the most active stocks to conserve wire space, says the New York Stock Exchange. Mergers, acquisitions and failure have caused many single-letter symbols to change

1929: Monsanto began production of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the United States. PCBs were considered an industrial wonder chemical – an oil that would not burn, was impervious to degradation and had almost limitless applications. Today PCBs are considered one of the gravest chemical threats on the planet. PCBs, widely used as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, cutting oils, waterproof coatings and liquid sealants, are potent carcinogens and have been implicated in reproductive, developmental and immune system disorders. The world’s center of PCB manufacturing was Monsanto’s plant on the outskirts of East St. Louis, Illinois, which has the highest rate of fetal death and immature births in the state.

Monsanto documents : many emblazoned with warnings such as ‘CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy’ : show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.”

Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group says that based on the Monsanto documents made public, Monsanto “knew the truth from the very beginning. They lied about it. They hid the truth from their neighbors.” One Monsanto memo explains their justification: “We can’t afford to lose one dollar of business.” Eventually Monsanto was found guilty of conduct “so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society”.

1930s: DeKalb AgResearch Corporation (today MONSANTO) marketed its first **HYBRID** seed corn (maize).

1933: Incorporated as Monsanto Chemical Company

1934: “I recognized my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle” – Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, “The Spirit of Enterprise”

1935: Edward O’Neal (who became chairperson in 1964) came to Monsanto with the acquisition of the Swann Corporation. Monsanto goes into the soap and detergents industry, starts producing phosphorus.

1938: Monsanto goes into the plastic business (the year after DuPont helped ban hemp because it was superior to their new NYLON product made from Rockefeller OIL). Monsanto became involved in plastics when it completely took over Fiberloid, one of the oldest nitrocellulose production companies, which had a 50% stake in Shawinigan Resins.

1939: Monsanto purchased Resinox, a subsidiary of Corn Products, and Commercial Solvents, which specialized in phenolic resins. Thus, just before the war, Monsanto’s plastics interests included phenol-formaldehyde thermosetting resins, cellulose and vinyl plastics.

1939-1945: Monsanto conducts research on uranium for the Manhattan Project in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Charles Thomas, who later served as Monsanto’s chairman of the board, was present at the first test explosion of the atomic bomb. During World War II, Monsanto played a significant role in the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb. Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, and later Mound Laboratories in Miamisburg, Ohio, for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons and, after 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission.

1940s: Monsanto had begun focusing on plastics and synthetic fabrics like polystyrene (still widely used in food packaging and other consumer products), which is ranked 5th in the EPA’s 1980s listing of chemicals whose production generates the most total hazardous waste. From the 1940s onwards Monsanto was one of the top 10 US chemical companies.

1941: By the time the United States entered World War II, the domestic chemical industry had attained far greater independence from Europe. Monsanto, strengthened by its several acquisitions, was also prepared to produce such strategic materials as phosphates and inorganic chemicals. Most important was Monsanto’s acquisition of a research and development laboratory called Thomas and Hochwalt. The well-known Dayton, Ohio, firm strengthened Monsanto at the time and provided the basis for some of its future achievements in chemical technology. One of its most important discoveries was styrene monomer, a key ingredient in synthetic rubber and a crucial product for the armed forces during the war. Edward J. Bock joined Monsanto in 1941 as an engineer – he rose through the ranks to become a member of the board of directors in 1965 and president in 1968.

1943: Massive Texas City plant starts producing synthetic rubber for the Allies in World War II.

1944: Monsanto began manufacturing DDT, along with some 15 other companies. The use of DDT in the U.S. was banned by Congress in 1972.

1945: Following WW2, Monsanto championed the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, and began manufacturing the herbicide 2,4,5-T, which contains dioxin. Monsanto has been accused of covering up or failing to report dioxin contamination in a wide range of its products.

1949: Monsanto acquired American Viscose from England’s Courtauld family.

1950: Monsanto began to produce urethane foam – which was flexible, easy to use, and later became crucial in making automobile interiors.

1953: Toxicity tests on the effects of 2 PCBs showed that more than 50% of the rats subjected to them DIED, and ALL of them showed damage.

1954: Monsanto partnered with German chemical giant Bayer to form Mobay and market polyurethanes in the USA.

1955: Monsanto acquired Lion Oil refinery, increasing its assets by more than 50%. Stockholders during this time numbered 43,000. Monsanto starts producing petroleum-based fertilizer.

1957: Monsanto moved to the suburban community of Creve Coeur, having finally outgrown its headquarters in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

1957-1967: Monsanto was the creator of several attractions in Disney’s Tommorrowland. Often they revolved around the the virtues of chemicals and plastics. Their “House of the Future” was constructed entirely of plastic, but it was NOT biodegradable. “After attracting a total of 20 million visitors from 1957 to 1967, Disney finally tore the house down, but discovered it would not go down without a fight. According to Monsanto Magazine, wrecking balls literally bounced off the glass-fiber, reinforced polyester material. Torches, jackhammers, chain saws and shovels did not work. Finally, choker cables were used to squeeze off parts of the house bit by bit to be trucked away.”

1959: Monsanto sets up Monsanto Electronics Co. in Palo Alto, begins producing ultra-pure silicon for the high-tech industry, in an area which would later become a Superfund site.

1960: Edgar Queeny turned over the chair of Monsanto to Charles Thomas, one of the founders of the research and development laboratory so important to Monsanto. Charlie Sommer, who had joined Monsanto in 1929, became president. According to Monsanto historian Dan Forrestal, “Leadership during the 1960s and early 1970s came principally from … executives whose Monsanto roots ran deep.” Under their combined leadership Monsanto saw several important developments, including the establishment of the Agricultural Chemicals division with focus on herbicides, created to consolidate Monsanto’s diverse agrichemical product lines.

a host of debilitating symptoms attributable to Agent Orange exposure. Agent Orange contaminated more than 3,000,000 civilians and servicemen. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, plus 500,000 children born with birth defects, leading to calls for Monsanto to be prosecuted for war crimes. Internal Monsanto memos show that Monsanto knew of the problems of dioxin contamination of Agent Orange when it sold it to the U.S. government for use in Vietnam. Look at what the “EFFECTS” of agent orange look like… keep in mind it was used to remove leaves from the trees where AMERICAN SOLDIERS were breathing, eating, sleeping.

1962: Public concern over the environment began to escalate. Ralph Nader’s activities and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring had been influential in increasing the U.S. public’s awareness of activities within the chemical industry in the 1960s, and Monsanto responded in several ways to the pressure.

1962: Monsanto’s European expansion continued, with Brussels becoming the permanent overseas headquarters.

1964: Monsanto changed its name to Monsanto Company in acknowledgment of its diverse product line. The company consisted of 8 divisions, including petroleum, fibers, building materials, and packaging. Edward O’Neal became chairperson (came to Monsanto in 1935 with the acquisition of the Swann Corporation) was the first chair in Monsanto history who had not first held the post of president.

1964: Monsanto introduced “biodegradable” detergents.

1965: While working on an ulcer drug in December, James M. Schlatter, a chemist at G.D. Searle & Company, accidentally discovers aspartame, a substance that is 180x sweeter than sugar yet has no calories.

regime, and was the main supplier of Zyklon-B gas to the German government during the extermination phase of the Holocaust; IG Farben was not dissolved until 2003.

1967: Searle began the safety tests on aspartame that were necessary for applying for FDA approval of food additives. Dr. Harold Waisman, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin, conducts aspartame safety tests on infant monkeys on behalf of the Searle Company. Of the 7 monkeys that were being fed aspartame mixed with milk, 1 monkey DIED and 5 other monkeys had grand mal seizures.

1968: Edgar Queeny dies, leaving no heirs. Edward J. Bock (who had joined Monsanto in 1941 as an engineer) become a member of the board of directors in 1965, and became president of Monsanto in 1968.

1968: With experts at Monsanto in no doubt that Monsanto’s PCBs were responsible for contamination, Monsanto set up a committee to assess its options. In a paper distributed to only 12 people but which surfaced at the trial in 2002, Monsanto admitted “that the evidence proving the persistence of these compounds and their universal presence as residues in the environment is beyond question … the public and legal pressures to eliminate them to prevent global contamination are inevitable”. Monsanto papers seen by The Guardian newspaper reveal near panic. “The subject is snowballing. Where do we go from here? The alternatives: go out of business; sell the hell out of them as long as we can and do nothing else; try to stay in business; have alternative products”, wrote the recipient of one paper.

1968: Monsanto became the first organization to mass-produce visible LEDs, using gallium arsenide phosphide to produce red LEDs suitable for indicators. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) ushered in the era of solid-state lights. From 1968 to 1970, sales doubled every few months. Their products (discrete LEDs and seven-segment numeric displays) became the standards of industry. The primary markets then were electronic calculators, digital watches, and digital clocks.

1969: High overhead costs and a sluggish national economy led to a dramatic 29% decrease in earnings.

1969: Monsanto wrote a confidential Pollution Abatement Plan which admitted that “the problem involves the entire United States, Canada and sections of Europe, especially the UK and Sweden”.

1969: Monsanto produces Lasso herbicide, better known as Agent Orange, which was used as defoliant by the U.S. Government during the Vietnam War. “[Lasso's] success turns around the struggling Agriculture Division,” Monsanto’s web page reads.

1970s: Monsanto was a pioneer of optoelectronics in the 1970s. Although Bock had a reputation for being a committed Monsanto executive, several factors contributed to his volatile term as president. Sales were up in 1970, but Bock’s implementation of the 1971 reorganization caused a significant amount of friction among members of the board and senior management. In spite of the fact that this move, in which Monsanto separated the management of raw materials from Monsanto’s subsidiaries, was widely praised by security analysts, Bock resigned from the presidency in February 1972.

1970: Cyclamate (the reigning low-calorie artificial sweetener) is pulled off the market in November after some scientists associate it with cancer. Questions are also raised about safety of saccharin, the only other artificial sweetener on the market, leaving the field wide open for aspartame.

December 18, 1970: Searle Company executives lay out a “Food and Drug Sweetener Strategy” that they feel will put the FDA into a positive frame of mind about aspartame. An internal policy memo describes psychological tactics Monsanto should use to bring the FDA into a subconscious spirit of participation” with them on aspartame and get FDA regulators into the “habit of saying Yes.”

1971: Neuroscientist Dr. John Olney (whose pioneering work with monosodium glutamate MSG was responsible for having it removed from baby foods) informs Searle that his studies show that aspartic acid (one of the ingredients of aspartame) caused holes in the brains of infant mice. One of Searle’s own researchers confirmed Dr. Olney’s findings in a similar study.

1972: The use of DDT was banned by U.S. Congress, due in large part to efforts by environmentalists, who persisted in the challenge put forth by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962, which sought to inform the public of the side effects associated with the insecticide, which had been much-welcomed in the fight against malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.

1973: Monsanto developed and patented the glyphosate molecule in the 1970s. Monsanto began manufacturing the herbicide Roundup, which has been marketed as a “safe”, general-purpose herbicide for widespread commercial and consumer use, even though its key ingredient, glyphosate, is a highly toxic poison for animals and humans.

1973: After spending tens of millions of dollars conducting safety tests, the G.D. Searle Company applies for FDA approval and submits over 100 studies they claim support aspartame’s safety. One of the first FDA scientists to review the aspartame safety data states that “the information provided (by Searle) is inadequate to permit an evaluation of the potential toxicity of aspartame”. She says in her report that in order to be certain that aspartame is safe, further clinical tests are needed.

1974: Attorney Jim Turner (consumer advocate who was instrumental in getting cyclamate taken off the market) meets with Searle representatives in May to discuss Dr. Olney’s 1971 study which showed that aspartic acid caused holes in the brains of infant mice.

1974: The FDA grants aspartame its first approval for restricted use in dry foods on July 26.

1974: Jim Turner and Dr. John Olney file the first objections against aspartame’s approval in August.

1975: After a 9-month search, John W. Hanley, a former executive with Procter & Gamble, was chosen as president. Hanley also took over as chairperson.

1976: The success of the herbicide Lasso had turned around Monsanto’s struggling Agriculture Division, and by the time Agent Orange was banned in the U.S. and Lasso was facing increasing criticism, Monsanto had developed the weedkiller “Roundup” (active ingredient: glyphosate) as a replacement. Launched in 1976, Roundup helped make Monsanto the world’s largest producer of herbicides. RoundUp was commercialized, and became the world’s top-selling herbicide. Within a few years of its 1976 launch, Roundup was being marketed in 115 countries.

The success of Roundup coincided with the recognition by Monsanto executives that they needed to radically transform a company increasingly under threat. According to a recent paper by Dominic Glover, “Monsanto had acquired a particularly unenviable reputation in this regard, as a major producer of both dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – both persistent environmental pollutants posing serious risks to the environment and human health. Law suits and environmental clean-up costs began to cut into Monsanto’s bottom line, but more seriously there was a real fear that a serious lapse could potentially bankrupt the company.” According to Glover, Roundup “Sales grew by 20% in 1981 and as the company increased production it was soon Monsanto’s most profitable product (Monsanto 1981, 1983)… It soon became the single most important product of Monsanto’s agriculture division, which contributed about 20% of sales and around 45% of operating income to the company’s balance sheet each year during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, glyphosate remains the world’s biggest herbicide by volume of sales.”

1976: Monsanto produces Cycle-Safe, the world’s first plastic soft-drink bottle. The bottle, suspected of posing a cancer risk, is banned the following year by the Food and Drug Administration.

1976: Turner & Olney’s petition on March 24 triggers an FDA investigation of the laboratory practices of aspartame’s manufacturer, G.D. Searle. The investigation finds Searle’s testing procedures shoddy, full of inaccuracies and “manipulated” test data. The investigators report they “had never seen anything as bad as Searle’s testing.”

January 10, 1977: The FDA formally requests the U.S. Attorney’s office to begin grand jury proceedings to investigate whether indictments should be filed against Searle for knowingly misrepresenting findings and “concealing material facts and making false statements” in aspartame safety tests. This is the first time in the FDA’s history that they request a criminal investigation of a manufacturer.

January 26, 1977: While the grand jury probe is underway, Sidley & Austin, the law firm representing Searle, begins job negotiations with the U.S. Attorney in charge of the investigation, Samuel Skinner.

March 8, 1977: G. D. Searle hires prominent Washington insider Donald Rumsfeld as the new CEO to try to turn the beleaguered company around. A former Member of Congress and Secretary of Defense in the Ford Administration, Rumsfeld brings in several of his Washington cronies as top management. Donald Rumsfeld followed Searle as CEO, and then as President of Searle from 1977-1985.

July 1, 1977: Samuel Skinner leaves the U.S. Attorney’s office on July 1st and takes a job with Searle’s law firm. (see Jan. 26th)

August 1, 1977: The Bressler Report, compiled by FDA investigators and headed by Jerome Bressler, is released. The report finds that 98 of the 196 animals died during one of Searle’s studies and weren’t autopsied until later dates, in some cases over one year after death. Many other errors and inconsistencies are noted. For example, a rat was reported alive, then dead, then alive, then dead again; a mass, a uterine polyp, and ovarian neoplasms were found in animals but not reported or diagnosed in Searle’s reports.

December 8, 1977: U.S. Attorney Skinner’s withdrawal and resignation stalls the Searle grand jury investigation for so long that the statue of limitations on the aspartame charges runs out. The grand jury investigation is dropped. (borderline treason)

1979: The FDA established a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) in June to rule on safety issues surrounding NutraSweet.

1980: September 30, FDA Board of Inquiry comprised of 3 independent scientists, confirmed that aspartame “might induce brain tumors”. The Public Board of Inquiry concludes NutraSweet should not be approved pending further investigations of brain tumors in animals. The board states it “has NOT been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive.” The FDA had actually banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (Ford’s Secretary of Defense 1975-1977, Bush’s Secretary of Defense 2001-2006) vow to “call in his markers,” to get it approved in 1981.

1980: Monsanto established the Edgar Monsanto Queeny safety award in honor of its former CEO (1928–1960), to encourage accident prevention.

January 1981: Donald Rumsfeld, CEO of Searle, states in a sales meeting that he is going to make a big push to get aspartame approved within the year. Rumsfeld says he will use his political pull in Washington, rather than scientific means, to make sure it gets approved.

May 19, 1981: 3 of 6 in-house FDA scientists who were responsible for reviewing the brain tumor issues, Dr. Robert Condon, Dr. Satya Dubey, and Dr. Douglas Park, advise against approval of NutraSweet, stating on the record that the Searle tests are unreliable and not adequate to determine the safety of aspartame.

1981: Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President of the United States. Reagan’s transition team, which includes Donald Rumsfeld, CEO of G. D. Searle, hand picks Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. to be the new FDA Commissioner. On January 21, the day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, GD Searle re-applied to the FDA for approval to use aspartame in food sweetener, and Reagan’s new FDA commissioner, Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision, but Hull then installed a 6th member on the commission, and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartame’s favor. Hull later left the FDA under allegations of impropriety, served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then took a position with Burston-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time Hull has never spoken publicly about aspartame.

July 15, 1981: In one of his first official acts, Dr. Arthur Hayes Jr., the new FDA commissioner, overrules the Public Board of Inquiry, ignores the recommendations of his own internal FDA team and approves NutraSweet for dry products. Hayes says that aspartame has been shown to be safe for its’ proposed uses and says few compounds have withstood such detailed testing and repeated close scrutiny. G.D. Searle gets FDA approval for aspartame (NutraSweet). Monsanto completes its acquisition of Searle in 1985.

1982: Monsanto GMO scientists genetically modify a plant cell for the first time!

1982: Some 2,000 people are relocated from Times Beach, Missouri, which was found to be so thoroughly contaminated with dioxin, a by-product of PCB manufacturing, that the government ordered it evacuated. Dioxins are endocrine and immune system disruptors, cause congenital birth defects, reproductive and developmental problems, and increase the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in laboratory animals. Critics say a St. Louis-area Monsanto chemical plant was a source but Monsanto denies any connection.

October 15, 1982: The FDA announces that GD Searle has filed a petition that aspartame be approved as a sweetener in carbonated beverages and other liquids.

July 1, 1983: The National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) urges the FDA to delay approval of aspartame for carbonated beverages pending further testing because aspartame is very unstable in liquid form. When liquid aspartame is stored in temperatures above 85°F degrees Fahrenheit, aspartame breaks down into known toxins Diketopiperazines (DKP), methyl (wood) alcohol, and formaldehyde.

July 8, 1983: The National Soft Drink Association drafts an objection to the final ruling which permits the use of aspartame in carbonated beverages and syrup bases and requests a hearing on the objections. The association says that Searle has not provided responsible certainty that aspartame and its’ degradation products are safe for use in soft drinks.

August 8, 1983: Consumer Attorney, Jim Turner of the Community Nutrition Institute and Dr. Woodrow Monte, Arizona State University’s Director of Food Science and Nutritional Laboratories, file suit with the FDA objecting to aspartame approval based on unresolved safety issues.

September, 1983: FDA Commissioner Hayes resigns under a cloud of controversy about his taking unauthorized rides aboard a General Foods jet. (General foods is a major customer of NutraSweet) Burson-Marsteller, Searle’s public relation firm (which also represented several of NutraSweet’s major users), immediately hires Hayes as senior scientific consultant.

Fall 1983: The first carbonated beverages containing aspartame are sold for public consumption.

1983: Diet Coke was sweetened with aspartame after the sweetener became available in the United States.

November 1984: Center for Disease Control (CDC) “Evaluation of consumer complaints related to aspartame use.” (summary by B. Mullarkey)

1985: Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet. Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame’s clouded past, including a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it “might induce brain tumors”. The aspartame business became a separate Monsanto subsidiary, the NutraSweet Company.

1986: Monsanto found guilty of negligently exposing a worker to benzene at its Chocolate Bayou Plant in Texas. It is forced to pay $100 million to the family of Wilbur Jack Skeen, a worker who died of leukemia after repeated exposures.

1986: At a congressional hearing, medical specialists denounce a National Cancer Institute study disputing that formaldehyde causes cancer. Monsanto and DuPont scientists helped with the study, whose author provided results to the Formaldehyde Institute industry representatives nearly six months before releasing the study to the EPA, labor unions, and the public.

1986: Monsanto spends $50,000 against California’s anti-toxics initiative, Proposition 65. The initiative prohibits the discharge of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects into drinking water supplies.

1987: Monsanto conducted the first field tests of genetically engineered (GMO) crops.

1987: Monsanto is one of the companies named in an $180 million settlement for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

1987: Monsanto consolidated its AstroTurf management, marketing, and technical activities in Dalton, Georgia, as AstroTurf Industries, Inc.

November 3, 1987: U.S. hearing, “NutraSweet: Health and Safety Concerns,” Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Senator Howard Metzenbaum, chairman.

1988: A federal jury finds Monsanto Co.’s subsidiary, G.D. Searle & Co., negligent in testing and marketing of its Copper 7 intrauterine birth control device (IUD). The verdict followed the unsealing of internal documents regarding safety concerns about the IUD, which was used by nearly 10 million women between 1974 and 1986.

1990: EPA chemists allege fraud in Monsanto’s 1979 dioxin study, which found exposure to the chemical doesn’t increase cancer risks.

1990: Monsanto spends more than $405,000 to defeat California’s pesticide regulation Proposition 128, known as the “Big Green” initiative. The initiative is aimed at phasing out the use of pesticides, including Monsanto’s product alachlor, linked to cancer and global warming.

1990: With the help of Roundup, the agriculture division of Monsanto was significantly outperforming Monsanto’s chemicals division in terms of operating income, and the gap was increasing. But as Glover notes, while “such a blockbuster product uncorks a fountain of revenue”, it “also creates an uncomfortable dependency on the commercial fortunes of a single brand. Monsanto’s management knew that the last of the patents protecting Roundup in the United States, its biggest market, would expire in the year 2000, opening the field to potential competitors. The company urgently needed a strategy to negotiate this hurdle and prolong the useful life of its ‘cash cow’.”

1991: Monsanto is fined $1.2 million for trying to conceal discharge of contaminated waste water into the Mystic River in Connecticut.

1993: By April, the Department of Veterans Affairs had only compensated 486 victims, although it had received disability **CLAIMS** from 39,419 veteran soldiers who had been exposed to monsanto’s Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. No compensation has been paid to Vietnamese civilians and though some compensation was paid to U.S. veterans, according to William Sanjour, who led the Toxic Waste Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “thousands of veterans were disallowed benefits” because “Monsanto studies showed that dioxin [as found in Agent Orange] was not a human carcinogen.” An EPA colleague discovered that Monsanto had apparently falsified the data in their studies. Sanjour says, “If [the studies] were done correctly, they would have reached just the opposite result.”

1994: the first of Monsanto’s biotech products to make it to market was not a GMO crop but Monsanto’s controversial GMO cattle drug, bovine growth hormone – called rBGH or rBST, Monsanto granted regulatory approval for its first biotech product, a dairy cow hormone. Monsanto developed a recombinant version of BST, brand-named Posilac bovine somatropin (rBST/rBGH), which is produced through a genetically engineered GMO E. coli bacteria. Synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), approved by the FDA for commercial sale in 1994, despite strong concerns about its safety. Since then, Monsanto has sued small dairy companies that advertised their products as free of the artificial hormone, including Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and most recently bringing a lawsuit against Oakhurst Dairy in Maine.

1995: Genetically engineered canola (rapeseed) which is tolerant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide was first introduced to Canada. Today 80% of the acres sown are genetically modified canola.

1995: Monsanto is sued after allegedly supplying radioactive material for a controversial study which involved feeding radioactive iron to 829 pregnant women.

1995: Monsanto ranked 5th among U.S. corporations in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, having discharged 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, land, water and underground. Monsanto was ordered to pay $41.1 million to a waste management company in Texas due to concerns over hazardous waste dumping.

995: The Safe Shoppers Bible says that Monsanto’s Ortho Weed-B-Gon Lawn Weed Killer contains a known carcinogen, 2,4 D. Monsanto officials argue that ‘numerous studies have found no link to cancer’.

1996: Monsanto introduces its first biotech crop, Roundup Ready soybeans, which tolerate spraying of Roundup herbicide, and biotech BT cotton engineered to resist insect damage.

As Monsanto had moved into biotechnology, its executives had the opportunity to create a new narrative for Monsanto. They begun to portray genetic engineering as a ground-breaking technology that could contribute to feeding a hungry world. Monsanto executive Robb Fraley, who was head of the plant molecular biology research team, is also said to have hyped the potential of GMO crops within the company, as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Monsanto to dominate a whole new industry, invoking the monopoly success of Microsoft as a powerful analogy. But, according to Glover, the more down-to-earth pitch to fellow executives was that “genetic engineering offered the best prospect of preserving the commercial life of Monsanto’s most important product, Roundup in the face of the challenges Monsanto would face once the patent expired.”

Monsanto eventually achieved this by introducing into crop plants genes that give resistance to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup). This meant farmers could spray Roundup onto their fields as a weedkiller even during the growing season without harming the crop. This allowed Monsanto to “significantly expand the market for Roundup and, more importantly, help Monsanto to negotiate the expiry of its glyphosate patents, on which such a large slice of Monsanto’s income depended.” With glyphosate-tolerant GMO crops, Monsanto was able ìto preserve its dominant share of the glyphosate market through a marketing strategy that would couple proprietary “Roundup Ready” seeds with continued sales of Roundup.

1996-1999: Monsanto sold off its plastics business to Bayer in 1996, and its phenylalanine facilities to Great Lakes Chemical Corporation (GLC) in 1999. Much of the rest of its chemicals division was spun off in late 1997 as Solutia. This helped Monsanto distance itself to some extent not only from direct financial liability for the historical core of its business but also from its controversial production and contamination legacy.

1997: Monsanto introduces new GMO canola (rapeseed), GMO cotton and GMO corn (maize), and buys foundation seed companies.

1997: Monsanto spins off its industrial chemical and fibers business into Solutia Inc. amid complaints and legal claims about pollution from its plants. Solutia was spun off from Monsanto as a way for Monsanto to divest itself of billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs and other liabilities for its past actions – liabilities

that eventually forced Solutia to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to a spokesman for Solutia, “(Monsanto) sort of cherry-picked what they wanted and threw in all kinds of cats and dogs as part of a going-away present,” including $1 billion in debt and environmental and litigation costs. Some pre-bankruptcy Solutia equity holders allege Solutia was set up fraudulently as it was always doomed to fail under the financial weight of Monsanto’s liabilities.

1997: The New York State Attorney General took Monsanto to court and Monsanto was subsequently forced to stop claiming that Roundup is “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly”.

1997: The Seattle Times reports that Monsanto sold 6,000 tons of contaminated waste to Idaho fertilizer companies, which contained the carcinogenic heavy metal cadmium, believed to cause cancer, kidney disease, neurological dysfunction and birth defects.

1997: Through a process of mergers and spin-offs between 1997 and 2002, Monsanto made a transition from chemical giant to biotech giant. Monsanto’s corporate strategy led them for the first time to acquire seed companies. During the 1990s Monsanto spent $10 billion globally buying up seed companies – a push that continues to this day. It has purchased, for example, Holden’s Foundations Seeds, Seminis - the largest seed company not producing corn or soybeans in the world, the Dutch seed company De Ruiter Seeds, and the big cotton seed firm Delta & Pine. As a result, Monsanto is now the world’s largest seed company, accounting for almost a quarter of the global proprietary seed market.

1998: Monsanto introduces Roundup Ready corn (maize).

1998: In the UK, Monsanto purchased the seed company Plant Breeding International (PBI) Cambridge, a major UK based cereals and potato breeder, which Monsanto then merged with its existing UK agri-chemicals and GMO research businesses to form Monsanto UK Ltd. Monsanto UK has carried out field trials of glyphosate-tolerant sugar / fodder beet, glyphosate-tolerant oilseed rape, and glyphosate-tolerant and male sterility / fertility restorer oilseed rape.

1998: “Survey of aspartame studies: correlation of outcome and funding sources,” unpublished: Ralph G. Walton found 166 separate published studies in the peer reviewed medical literature, which had relevance for questions of human safety. The 74 studies funded by industry all (100%) attested to aspartame’s safety, whereas of the 92 non-industry funded studies, 84 (91%) identified a problem. 6 of the 7 non-industry funded studies that were favorable to aspartame safety were from the FDA, which has a public record that shows a strong pro-industry bias.

1999: After international criticism, Monsanto agrees not to [PUBLICLY] commercialize “Terminator” seeds.

1999: Monsanto opens its Beautiful Sciences exhibit at Disneyland.

1999: Monsanto sells their phenylalanine facilities to Great Lakes Chemical Corporation (GLC) for $125 million. In 2000, GLC sued Monsanto because of a $71 million dollar shortfall in expected sales.

2000: 5 pesticide companies, including Monsanto, controlled over 70% of all patents on agricultural biotechnology. Monsanto had the largest share of the global GMO crops market.

2000: Since the inception of Plan Colombia, the US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funding aerial sprayings of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides in Colombia. The Roundup is often applied in concentrations 26x higher than what is recommended for agricultural use. Additionally, it contains at least one surfactant, Cosmo-Flux 411f, whose ingredients are a trade secret, has never been approved for use in the US, and which quadruples the biological action of the herbicide. Not surprisingly, numerous human health impacts have been recorded in the areas affected by the sprayings, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and skin problems, and even death, especially in children. Additionally, fish and animals will show up dead in the hours and days subsequent to the herbicide sprayings.

2000-2002: Monsanto merges with Pharmacia & Upjohn, and changes its name to Pharmacia Corporation. Monsanto Company restructures in deal with Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc; separates agricultural and chemicals businesses and becomes stand-alone agricultural company. By 2000 the current Monsanto had emerged from various transactions, including a merger for a time with Pharmacia, as a legally different corporation from the Monsanto that had existed from 1901-2000. This was despite the fact that both Monsantos shared not just the same name, but the same corporate headquarters near St. Louis, Missouri, and many of the same executives and other employees, not to mention much of the responsibility for liabilities arising out of its former activities.

2001: Retired Monsanto chemist William S. Knowles was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation, which was carried out at Monsanto beginning in the 1960s until his 1986 retirement.

2001: Monsanto GMO crops accounted for 91% of the total area of GMO crops planted worldwide.

2002: Monsanto entered into an important agreement with DuPont. As a result of this “agreement” both companies agreed to drop a raft of outstanding patent lawsuits against one another and to share their patented GMO crops technologies. Some commentators see this ‘agreement’ as constituting a pseudo-merger by stealth of the two companies’ GMO crops monopolies which are too large to be permitted to merge.

August 13, 2002: Monsanto had sales of $4,673,000,000. Based on 2001 figures Monsanto was the second biggest seed company in the world, and the third biggest agrochemical company. The infamous agrochemical and biotechnology division, still known as Monsanto, was spun off as a nominally separate company with Pharmacia originally retaining an 85% share. Monsanto Company became completely separate and independent from Pharmacia on August 13, 2002, when Pharmacia distributed its remaining Monsanto shares to Pharmacia’s stockholders.

2002: Events in Argentina also affected the company in other ways: Monsanto’s Argentine unit lost $154 million in the 2002 fiscal year, due to the collapse of the Argentine economy and a deepening recession which forced the government to default on most of its public debt, and devalue the peso in January 2002. The government also converted what was a dollar economy into a peso economy and, as a result, Monsanto received devalued pesos for products it had sold in dollars, slashing its sales income.

2002: The Washington Post ran an article entitled, “Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution, PCBs Drenched Alabama Town, But No One Was Ever Told” about PCBs. Monsanto share price plummeted in the second half of 2002 following its sell off by former parent company Pharmacia and this was compounded by the departure of Monsanto’s CEO at the end of 2002.

December 2002: CEO Hendrik Verfaillie resigned after he and the board agreed that his performance had been disappointing and the company had faced extensive criticism for failing to deal more honestly and effectively with its difficulties. “This is a company that has been optimistic on the borderline of LYING,” said Sergey Vasnetsov, senior analyst with Lehman Brothers in New York. “Monsanto has been feeding us these FANTASIES for two years, and when we saw they weren’t real, its stock price fell.”

2003: Jury fines Monsanto and its former chemical subsidiary, Solutia, Inc. (now owned by Pharmacia Corp.), agreed to pay $600 million in August to settle claims brought by more than 20,000+ residents of Anniston, Alabama – over the severe contamination of ground and water by tons of PCBs dumped in the area from the 1930s until the 1970s. Court documents revealed that Monsanto was aware of the contamination decades earlier.

2003: Solutia, Inc. (now owned by Pharmacia Corp.) files Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2004: Monsanto forms American Seeds Inc holding company for corn and soybean seed deals and begins brand acquisitions.

2004-2005: Monsanto filed lawsuits against many farmers in Canada and the U.S. on the grounds of patent infringement, specifically the farmers’ sale of seed containing Monsanto’s patented genes. In some cases, farmers claimed the seed was unknowingly sown by wind carrying the seeds from neighboring crops, a claim rejected in Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser. These instances began in the mid to late 1990s, with one of the most significant cases being decided in Monsanto’s favor by the Canadian Supreme Court. By a 5-4 vote in late May 2004, that court ruled that “by cultivating a plant containing the patented gene and composed of the patented cells without license, the appellants (canola farmer Percy Schmeiser) deprived the respondents of the full enjoyment of the patent.” With this ruling, the Canadian courts followed the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision on patent issues involving plants and genes.

2005: Monsanto has patent claims on breeding techniques for pigs which would grant them ownership of any pigs born of such techniques and their related herds. Greenpeace claims Monsanto is trying to claim ownership on ordinary breeding techniques. Monsanto claims that the patent is a defensive measure to track animals from its system. They furthermore claim their patented method uses a specialized insemination device that requires less sperm than is typically needed.

2005: Environmental, consumer groups question safety of Roundup Ready crops, say they create “super weeds,” among other problems.

Read entire article here

Monsanto’s Infertility-Linked Roundup Found in All Urine Samples Tested

teri — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:32:48 +0000

Activist Post
Jan 26, 2012

Mike Barrett

A recent study conducted by a German university found very high concentrations of glyphosate, a carcinogenic chemical found in herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup, in all urine samples tested.

The amount of glyphosate found in the urine was staggering, with each sample containing concentrations at 5- to 20-fold the limit established for drinking water.

This is just one more piece of evidence that herbicides are, at the very least, being sprayed out of control.

Glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup Impacting Global Health

This news comes only one month after it was found that glyphosate, contained in Monsanto’s Roundup, is contaminating the groundwater in the areas in which it is used. What does this mean?

It means that toxic glyphosate is now polluting the world’s drinking water through the widespread contamination of aquifers, wells and springs. The recent reports of glyphosate showing up in all urine samples only enhances these past findings.

Monsanto continues to make the claim that their Roundup products are completely safe for both animals and humans. However, many environmentalists, scientists , activists, and even doctors say otherwise.

A formula seems to have been made to not only ruin the agricultural system, but also compromise the health of millions of people worldwide. With the invention of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, resistant superweeds are taking over farmland, and public health is being attacked.

As it turns out, glyphosate is also leaving behind its residue on Roundup Ready crops, causing further potential concern for public health. Glyphosate is even contributing to escalating rates of mental illness and obesity through the depletion of beneficial gut flora that directly regulates these functions.

But it certainly doesn’t stop there.

Researchers tested roundup on mature male rats at a concentration range between 1 and 10,000 parts per million (ppm), and found that within 1 to 48 hours of exposure, testicular cells of the mature rats were either damaged or killed. Even at a concentration of 1 ppm, the Roundup was able to affect the test subjects by decreasing their testosterone concentrations by as much as 35%.

Read entire article here

Assange TV on RT: Exclusive interview show coming soon

teri — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:00:19 +0000

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Jan 25, 2012

RT’s getting a new talk show – and world media’s already in a spin over its host. It’s the man who’s exposed wrongs at the highest levels of government and military – the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Source www.youtube.com

Egypt: A year on and still unresolved? On Jan. 25th, 2012 thousands of Egyptians protested in Tahrir Square

teri — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:38:14 +0000

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Jan 26, 2012

Source www.youtube.com

It is exactly a year since the Egyptian revolution began, and only the banners have changed. Protesters have converged again in Tahrir Square calling for the next phase. What next for Egypt? Guests are: Wael Eskandar, Nader Omran and Sharif Kouddous.

Tahrir Square Jan 25, 2012 around 4:00 PM

Occupy Wall St. West Coast and Reclaiming Public Education_on Project Censored

noliesradio — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:35:56 +0000

This show was broadcast January 26, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up every Thursday at 7:00 pm Pacific * 10:00 pm Eastern * 02:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast.

Broadcast From Berkeley, California

PROJECT CENSORED RADIO:

Occupy Wall St. West Coast and Reclaiming Public Education

On today’s program we are joined by Abby Martin of Media Roots as she covers the actions of Occupy Wall St. West in SF. We’ll hear from Carl Patrick of Occupy Santa Rosa in northern CA, and Ken Sutherland on Wall St. firms’ tax evasion. In the second half of the show we hear from Steve Zeltzer of Work Week Radio and talk to attorney and whistleblower Kathleen Carrol about the upcoming conference at Laney College in Oakland, CA on the attacks on public education and privitization and their connection to the Occupy movement. Show Hosts: Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips, with Abby Martin of Media Roots.

Broadcast from Berkeley–Hard hitting News and Public Affairs with hosts Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips of Project Censored on KPFA’s morning show. The mission of Project Censored is to teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society – and to tell the News That Didn’t Make the News and Why. Originally broadcast on KPFA on January 20, 2012.

Campaign Pushing Walmart to Reject Monsanto’s New GM Sweet Corn

teri — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:44:07 +0000

Planetsave

By Zachary Shahan On January 23, 2012

News: Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn has been approved for production and sale in the U.S. Not only that, it won’t be labeled. Food & Water Watch has a last-ditch campaign to stop the corn from invading our markets and dinner plates. It’s a campaign to get Walmart to reject the corn, and the organization is looking to get at least 100,000 signatures in support of that by April 1. (Note that this GM sweet corn hasn’t been tested for human safety.) Here’s more on FWW’s plan:

Goal — Get Walmart to commit to not sell GE sweet corn by April 1st.

Phase 1 (January): Build support for the campaign by collecting petition signatures and recruiting communities to come together to fight GE sweet corn.

Phase 2 (February): Coordinated actions (e.g. call-in days, petition deliveries to store managers) to put direct pressure on Walmart.

Phase 3 (March): Targeted actions at Walmart stores and parking lots across the country to build visibility and get a commitment to reject Monsanto’s GE sweet corn.

Source: Planetsave (http://s.tt/15lKK)

Why this is important: Basically, GMO companies and our policy makers are conducting a massive experiment on us. It’s not clear yet if GMOs are really safe for humans. GMOs have been linked to organ disruption in animals in at least 13 scientific studies. Why fool around and let GMOs be sold for consumption before we know they’re safe? If they’re going to be sold for consumption, at least label them so that those who want to avoid them can easily do so!

As world-leading geneticist Dr. David Suzuki puts it: “Because we aren’t certain about the effects of GMOs, we must consider one of the guiding principles in science, the precautionary principle. Under this principle, if a policy or action could harm human health or the environment, we must not proceed until we know for sure what the impact will be. And it is up to those proposing the action or policy to prove that it is not harmful.”

Read entire article here

Jerry Stevens of 3 Shoes Posse (Austin, TX truth/justice/freedom band) _on The Kevin Barrett Show

noliesradio — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:53 +0000

This show was broadcast January 24, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Tuesday at 9am Pacific – 12 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”

EXCLUSIVE –Tuesday on KB Show:
Jerry Stevens of 3 Shoes Posse (Austin, TX truth/justice/freedom band)

Email your questions or comments now.

Guest: Jerry Stevens of 3 Shoes Posse, “The A-Team of Activist Music.” Jerry Stevens is founder, lead singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer of five successful Root 1 albums after years of performing with other internationally known bands Pressure and the Killer Bees. They’ve got a new CD out, “Foot by Foot.”

Meanwhile, here are a couple of classics:

Check out Kevin’s new book: Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters.

Occupy movement gets help from its musical friends

teri — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:50:18 +0000

Yoko Ono, widow of Beatles lead singer John Lennon, performs in Reykjavik October 9, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/ Ingolfur Juliusson

Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:42pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Yoko Ono, Debbie Harry, Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson are among dozens of artists contributing to “Occupy This Album,” to raise money for the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality, a publicity firm said on Monday.

Workhouse public relations firm said that the album would be released in the spring “as a celebration that provides a musical voice and ultimately through record sales, financial support to fortify the movements continuation.”

The album is being put together by Occupy Wall Street solidarity group “Music for Occupy.” Other artists involved with the album are Third Eye Blind, Crosby and Nash, Tom Morello, Thievery Corporation, Warren Haynes, and Immortal Technique.

Inspired by the Arab Spring protests, Occupy Wall Street began when protesters set up camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park on September 17, sparking demonstrations across the United States and elsewhere in the world.

But the eviction of protesters in New York and public spaces in other U.S. cities in November and December has made the protests less visible and organizers now face the challenge of how to maintain momentum without the physical camps.

Read entire article here

Ukulele Video: US billionaire Warren Buffett sings for Chinese New Year

teri — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:32:26 +0000

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Jan 22, 2012

US billionaire Warren Buffett has appeared singing and playing the ukulele on Chinese state television. The billionaire popped up on CCTV and wished the people of China “a happy new year.” The Lunar New Year of the Dragon begins at midnight on Sunday. “Your country has accomplished amazing things, and the best is yet to come,” Buffett told the broadcaster. The investor is well respected in China for his financial success.

Source www.youtube.com

Iran and the Globalization of War — Michel Chossudovsky _ on Guns & Butter

noliesradio — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:52:27 +0000

This show was broadcast January 23, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up today and every Monday at 7:00 pm Pacific – 10:00 pm Eastern – 02:00 GMT

GUNS AND BUTTER with Bonnie Faulkner
Iran and the Globalization of War — Michel Chossudovsky
Recent developments in the Middle East including the wider implications of the destabilization of the entire area; the current global war as a different kind of conquest than that of World War I and II; US military deployment in the area; the role of Israel; Iranian Defenses; US war planning and war scenarios since 2003 concerning the nation of Iran, including Austere Challenge 12, Theatre Iran Near Term, Global Strike 2003, Concept Plan 8022, and Vigilant Shield; the effect of sanctions; and The Responsibility To Protect.

Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger_on Anti-War Progressive Teach-in

noliesradio — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:39:58 +0000

This show was broadcast January 21, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific * 12 noon Eastern * 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Remembering Hitchens War Crime Indictment. “Hitchens investigates Kissinger’s involvement in the war in Indochina, planned assassinations in Santiago, Nicosia and Washington, D.C., and genocide in East Timor. Drawing on first-hand testimony, previously unpublished documentation, and material released under the Freedom of Information Act, Hitchens mounts a devastating indictment of a man whose (actions)resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter.” (Verso Press)

Hitchens died on December 15, 2011. His work on the war crimes of Henry Kissinger may be his most enduring. In this recording he describes Kissinger as a “a one man rolling global crime wave.”

Acerbic, witty, fact and passion filled. Recorded in the Fall of 2001 in San Francisco at a book release party for: The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Updated in December 2011.
From a TUC Radio Presentation.

WHAT THE ABOLITIONISTS TEACH US ABOUT CHALLENGING CORPORATE RULE — Richard Grossman _on Economic Collapse Teach-in

noliesradio — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:37:49 +0000

This show was broadcast January 21, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Don’t Miss our Saturday – Economic Collapse Truth Teach-in Marathon
11am Pacific – 2pm Eastern – 18:00 GMT – Saturday
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Coming up Saturday –
ONE KEY ECONOMIC COLLAPSE TRUTH Revelation
Key information for the uninitiated and the initiated alike.

WHAT THE ABOLITIONISTS TEACH US ABOUT CHALLENGING CORPORATE RULE — Richard Grossman

This program is in remembrance of Richard Grossman, who died of cancer in November 2011. He was one of the great uncompromising, courageous thinkers and activists in the unfolding project to define, limit and abolish corporate power. Grossman was one of the first historians who called attention to the fact that corporations have become persons under the 14th amendment. He said: “If we are going to have pretense to a democracy, we cannot give political rights and powers to a private entity. We cannot let that private entity get so strong that it rewrites the laws, that it shapes the culture, that it shapes the education. It may be difficult to imagine a country that’s not dominated by giant corporations, but other people before us have imagined that … (and) left us many important mechanisms that we can use.”

Richard Grossman re-discovered the amazing history of the Abolitionists and this talk answers the question what it is that we can learn from them today.

Grossman spoke in Yellow Springs Ohio in November 2006. At that time he was working with CELDF, The Community Legal Defense Fund. Many remember him as an inspiring teacher at CELFD’s ongoing Democracy Schools.
From A TUC Radio Presentation.

The Economic Collapse Teach-in encompasses upon some of the most highly controversial an crucial subjects of our day—the collapsing economy, the Federal Reserve, the Banks, Wall Street, financial fraud, foreclosures, homelessness, unemployment, workers rights, unions, trade agreements, etc. We scour the world to find and gather debates and presentations that are extremely informative and educational. Related subjects are also discussed. It provides key information for the uninitiated and the initiated alike.

Uproar after Jewish American newspaper publisher suggests Israel assassinate Barack Obama

noliesradio — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:44:22 +0000

Op-ed in Atlanta Jewish Times says the slaying of the president may be an effective way to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.

By Chemi Shalev haaretz.com 1-21-2012

NEW YORK – The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu consider ordering a Mossad hit team to assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama so that his successor will defend Israel against Iran.

Adler, who has since apologized for his article, listed three options for Israel to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons in an article published in his newspaper last Friday. The first is to launch a pre-emptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah, the second is to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and the third is to “give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.

Adler goes on to write: “Yes, you read “three correctly.” Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If have thought of this Tom-Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?”

Adler apologized yesterday for the article, saying “I very much regret it; I wish I hadn’t made reference to it at all,” Adler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

READ FULL STORY HERE

SEE THE ORIGINAL OP-ED from the Atlanta Jewish Times HERE

Musical Artist-911 Truther Dave VonKleist _on Backstage

noliesradio — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:32:51 +0000

This show was broadcast January 21, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Saturday & Sunday at 3pm Pacific – 6pm Eastern – 22:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcasts.
On BackStage: Teri Perticone of No Lies Radio interviews
9/11 video producer & musical artist Dave vonKleist

“Music is one of the most powerful forces in this world…and the powers that be are scared to death of that power…” Dave VonKleist.
Dave has produced two 9/11 video documentaries, 9/11 In Plane Site and 9/11 Ripple Effect, both achieving world recognition. He has also written and produced five music albums with politically incorrect lyrics and was the co-host of The Power Hour for the past ten years. Dave talks to Teri about the value of music and humor in today’s world and his hit songs Addicted To War, Blow Smoke In Your Eyes, Imagine Revisited, It Has To Be Blue, It’s My Party, My Base, Skull and Bones, This Land Is Our Land, Till There Was You, We’ll Be Watching You, Save The USA, We’re Depression Bound, Everlasting War, Barak Obama, Poor Little Fools and Still The Same all now playing on No Lies Radio. Dave is now an expatriate living in Argentina.

US Senate chief postpones vote on anti-piracy bill

teri — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:06:42 +0000

Yahoo News-UK & Ireland

By JIM ABRAMS | Associated Press – 1/20/2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate and House leaders said Friday they will put off further action on online piracy legislation after a storm of protest over the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said he was postponing a procedural vote set for Tuesday “in light of recent events.” Those events included a petition drive by Google that attracted more than 7 million participants and a one-day blackout by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, a Republican, quickly followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

The Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act have strong support from the entertainment industry and other businesses that lose billions of dollars annually to intellectual property theft and online sales of counterfeit products. But they also have strong opposition from Internet-related companies that argue the bill would lead to over-regulation and censorship of the Internet.

Reid has also seen at least a half-dozen senators who sponsored the bill announce they now oppose it.

Reid said counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars every year and “there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.” He said he was optimistic about reaching a compromise in the coming weeks.

The main Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said he respected Reid’s decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate’s unwillingness to debate the bill.

“The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem,” he said.

Criminals in China, Russia and other countries “who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided” it was not worth debating the bill.

The Senate bill would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. It would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. It also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The Tuesday vote was on whether to move the legislation to the Senate floor for debate. With the recent desertions and a statement Thursday by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that it is too early to consider the bill, it appeared supporters lacked the 60 votes needed to advance the measure in the 100-member chamber.

McConnell on Friday applauded Reid’s decision, saying it would “prevent a counterproductive rush toward flawed legislation.”

Read entire article here

Singing legend Etta James dies at 73

teri — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:18:43 +0000

By Todd Leopold, CNN

updated 12:01 PM EST, Fri January 20, 2012

Etta James, here performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2009, died Friday, January 20, due to complications from leukeimia, said her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. The singer was 73." width="270" height="360" />

Etta James released her debut album, “At Last,” in 1961. She released her next studio album, “The Second Time Around,” later that year.

The singer released her first live album, “Etta James Rocks the House,” in 1964.

James performs in St. Louis in October 1986." width="640" height="360" />
James performs in St. Louis in October 1986.

The singer receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003." width="270" height="360" />

The singer receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.

The "At Last" singer was portrayed by Beyonce in the film "Cadillac Records." The movie, loosely based on James' record label, Chess Records, premiered in 2008." width="270" height="360" />

The “At Last” singer was portrayed by Beyonce in the film “Cadillac Records.” The movie, loosely based on James’ record label, Chess Records, premiered in 2008.

Etta James through the years

(CNN) — Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as “The Wallflower,” “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” and the wedding favorite “At Last,” has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.

She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said.

She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.

” This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends and fans around the world,” De Leon said. “She was a true original who could sing it all — her music defied category.

“I worked with Etta for over 30 years. She was my friend and I will miss her always.”
2003: Etta James reflects on her career

The powerhouse singer, known as “Miss Peaches,” lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking “The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)” — an “answer record” to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me, Annie” — to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess Records in 1960 and had a string of R&B and pop hits, many with lush string arrangements. After a mid-decade fade, she re-emerged in 1967 with a more hard-edged, soulful sound.

Throughout her career, James overcame a heroin addiction, opened for the Rolling Stones, won six Grammys and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her ups and downs — including a number of health problems — she maintained an optimistic attitude.

“Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don’t know what I’m sorry about,” she told CNN’s Denise Quan in 2002. “I don’t!”

Through it all, she was a spitfire beloved by contemporaries and young up-and-comers.

“Etta James is unmanageable, and I’m the closest thing she’s ever had to a manager,” Lupe DeLeon, her manager of 30-plus years, told CNN in admiration.

British songstress Adele named James as one of her favorite singers, along with Aretha Franklin.

“If you were to look up the word singer in the dictionary, you’d see their names,” Adele said in an interview.

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a teen mother and unknown father. (She suspected her father was the pool player Minnesota Fats.)

Her birth mother initially took little responsibility and James was raised by a series of people, notably a pair of boardinghouse owners. But she was recognized from a young age for her booming voice, showcased in a South Central Los Angeles church.

In 1950, her mother took her to San Francisco, where James formed a group called the Peaches. Singer Johnny Otis, best known for “Willie and the Hand Jive,” discovered her and had her sing a song he wrote using Ballard’s tune as a model. “The Wallflower,” with responses from “Louie Louie” songwriter Richard Berry, made James an R&B star.

Her signing to Chess introduced her to a broader audience, as the record label’s co-owner, Leonard Chess, believed she should do pop hits. Among her recordings were “Stormy Weather,” the Lena Horne classic originally from 1933; “A Sunday Kind of Love,” which dates from 1946; and most notably, “At Last,” a 1941 number that was originally a hit for Glenn Miller.

James’ version of “At Last” starts out with swooning strings and the singer enters with confident gusto, dazzlingly maintaining a mood of joy and romance. Though the song failed to make the Top 40 upon its 1961 release — though it did hit the R&B Top 10 — its emotional punch has long made it a favorite at weddings.

James’ career suffered in the mid-’60s when the British Invasion took over the pop charts and as she fought some personal demons. But she got a boost when she started recording at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Her hits included the brassy “Tell Mama” and the raw “I’d Rather Go Blind,” the latter later notably covered by Rod Stewart.

She entered rehab in the 1970s for her drug problem but re-established herself with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After another stint in rehab — this time at the Betty Ford Clinic — she made a comeback album, “Seven Year Itch,” in 1988.

James mastered a range of styles — from R&B and soul to jazz and blues — but she was always one step behind the popular genre of the day, said Michael Coyle, a Colgate University professor who has written about jazz and R&B and reviews records for Cadence Magazine.

“She never really got her moment in the sun,” Coyle said.

But James soldiered on, and by the end of her life she had made so much meaningful music that she was considered a living legend. “By the mid-’90s, she’s survived so long that people start to look up to her,” Coyle said.

Read entire article here

At Last by Etta James

Editors note: Etta James overcame drug addiction, loss of her career temporarily and a weight problem. Your legend will live on through your music–RIP and thanks for all the great, soulful music and inspiration!

Israel calls for embargo on Iranian oil and the intensification of sanctions against Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program

teri — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:45:11 +0000

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Jan 20, 2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for the intensification of sanctions against Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program, saying an embargo on Iranian oil must be put in place. But Caleb Maupin of the International Action Center, an anti-war group, say such measures “are just part of a continued repression of the Iranian people.”

Source www.youtube.com

Occupy Wall Street West – in San Francisco on Friday Jan 20, 2012

teri — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:34:36 +0000

Date:	January 20, 2012
Time:	8 am at Mint Plaza and All Day in Downtown SF
Location:	Mint Plaza, Downtown San Francisco between Mission and Market at 5th St San Francisco, California
Contact:	ANSWER Coalition at answer@answersf.org or 415-821-6545
Website:	http://www.answersf.org

A call to all the Occupy Movements and the 99% across the region!

ANSWER is inviting all its supporters, friends, and allies to join an organized and political direct action contingent targeting these same banks, and their oppressive business practices, that were bailed out at the expense of the poor and working people. Join the ANSWER contingent for the morning action and join us in supporting other actions throughout the day.

Banks, and financial capital in general, spread their tentacles throughout all oppressive mechanisms of the US government. Whether its investing in the military industrial complex, to shackling countries in Africa and Latin America with high interest loans, to financing private prisons for the poor here in the US, to indebting students for life for an education that can’t guarantee them a job, to filling the pockets of corrupt politicians, or foreclosing on families for profit, the banks have robbed billions of people of a future.

What: ANSWER Coalition Direct Action
Where: Meet at Mint Plaza, between Mission and Market Sts. on 5th St.
When: Fri. Jan. 20th, 8am SHARP. Please be on time for orientation.
Call the ANSWER Coalition Office at : 415-821-6545 in order to confirm attendance and support.

Join Occupy San Francisco, labor unions, community organizations, and social justice activist for a mass day of action centered in the SF Financial District involving mass occupation, mobilization, nonviolent direct action and disobedience. We ask people, groups, movements and communities from San Francisco, the Bay Area and across California to self-organize and take action with us to disrupt business-as-usual—either at a bank or corporation where you are drawn to act or at one initiated by other participants.

There will be an all-day orientation site at Bradley Manning/Justin Herman Plaza where people can get information, including where and how to plug into actions, with mobilization times at 6:00 am (Wall St. West starts when Wall St. East starts!), 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm.

We call on the Occupy movements and the 99% across the region to join us.

Initial Participating Organizations
Occupy SF General Assembly and Action Council, Occupy SF State University, Occupy SF Housing Coalition (ACCE, Asian Law Caucus, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Coalition on Homelessness, Eviction Defense Collaborative, Housing Rights Committee, Occupy SF, QUEEN, San Francisco Tenants Union), Progressive Workers Alliance (includes: Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, Chinese Progressive Association, Filipino Community Center, La Raza Centro Legal—Day Laborer Program and Women’s Collective, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, People Organized to Demand Environmental and? Economic Rights, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, Pride at Work, Young Workers United), Jobs with Justice, SF Labor Council, California Nurses Association, Pride at Work/HAVOQ (Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers), Rainforest Action Network, Code Pink, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, 28th Amendment Group, Move to Amend, SF Interfaith Allies of Occupy, SF 99% Coalition.

Read entire article here

Ten Years of Guantánamo_on Project Censored

noliesradio — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:18:51 +0000

This show was broadcast January 19, 2012.
It is now audio archived here

Coming up every Thursday at 7:00 pm Pacific * 10:00 pm Eastern * 02:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast.

Broadcast From Berkeley, California

PROJECT CENSORED RADIO:

Ten Years of Guantánamo

Today’s program we address Ten Years of Guantánamo and the Evisceration of the Rule of Law. Joining us will be investigative journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files; Almerindo Ojeda, professor of linguistics and director of the Guantánamo Testimonials Project at University of California, Davis; and Pardiss Kebriaei, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, an organization that has led the way in seeking accountability for torture and arbitrary detention at Guantánamo. We will also have live music in studio from one of the most notable political folk musicians of our time, the one and only David Rovics. Show Hosts: Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips, with Abby Martin of Media Roots.

In Fight Over Piracy Bills, New Economy Rises Against Old

teri — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:13:28 +0000

The Web sites on Wednesday of, clockwise from top left, Google, Mozilla, Wired and Wikipedia.

The New York Times
By JONATHAN WEISMAN

Published: January 18, 2012

WASHINGTON — When the powerful world of old media mobilized to win passage of an online antipiracy bill, it marshaled the reliable giants of K Street — the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America and, of course, the motion picture lobby, with its new chairman, former Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat and an insider’s insider.

Yet on Wednesday this formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.

As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old.

“I think it is an important moment in the Capitol,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and an important opponent of the legislation. “Too often, legislation is about competing business interests. This is way beyond that. This is individual citizens rising up.”

It appeared by Wednesday evening that Congress would follow Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon as the latest institution to change course in the face of a netizen revolt.

Legislation that just weeks ago had overwhelming bipartisan support and had provoked little scrutiny generated a grass-roots coalition on the left and the right. Wikipedia made its English-language content unavailable, replaced with a warning: “Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Visitors to Reddit found the site offline in protest. Google’s home page was scarred by a black swatch that covered the search engine’s label.

Phone calls and e-mail messages poured in to Congressional offices against the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect I.P. Act in the Senate. One by one, prominent backers of the bills dropped off.

First, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, took to Facebook, one of the vehicles for promoting opposition, to renounce a bill he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who leads the G.O.P.’s Senate campaign efforts, used Facebook to urge his colleagues to slow the bill down. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina and a Tea Party favorite, announced his opposition on Twitter, which was already boiling over with anti-#SOPA and #PIPA fever.

Then trickle turned to flood — adding Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Representatives Lee Terry of Nebraska and Ben Quayle of Arizona. At least 10 senators and nearly twice that many House members announced their opposition.

“Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, and tweets. I will be opposing #SOPA and #PIPA,” Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, wrote in a Twitter message. Late Wednesday, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, withdrew his support for a bill he helped write.

The existing bill “needs more due diligence, analysis and substantial changes,” he said in a statement.

Few lawmakers even now question the need to combat pirates at Web sites in China, Russia and elsewhere who have offered free American movies, television shows, music and books almost as soon as they are released. Heavyweights like the Walt Disney Company secured the support of senators and representatives before the Web companies were even aware the legislation existed.

“A lot of people are pitching this as Hollywood versus Google. It’s so much more than that,” said Maura Corbett, spokeswoman for NetCoalition, which represents Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, eBay and other Web companies. “I would love to say we’re so fabulous, we’re just that good, but we’re not. The Internet responded the way only the Internet could.”

For the more traditional media industry, the moment was menacing. Supporters of the legislation accused the Web companies of willfully lying about the legislation’s flaws, stirring fear to protect ill-gotten profits from illegal Web sites.

Mr. Dodd said Internet companies might well change Washington, but not necessarily for the better with their ability to spread their message globally, without regulation or fact-checking.

“It’s a new day,” he added. “Brace yourselves.”

Citing two longtime liberal champions of the First Amendment, Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Mr. Dodd fumed, “No one can seriously believe Pat Leahy and John Conyers can be backing legislation to block free speech or break the Internet.”

For at least four years, Hollywood studios, recording industry and major publishing houses have pressed Congress to act against offshore Web sites that have been giving away U.S. movies, music and books as fast as the artists can make them.

Read entire article here

Florida Senate bill would allow privatization of prisons to be secret until contracts are signed

teri — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:06:16 +0000

By The Associated Press
Published: January 18, 2012

TALLAHASSEE, Florida –

A Senate committee will consider a bill that would allow lawmakers to secretly privatize or outsource state agency functions. That includes privatizing the state’s prisons.

The Senate rules committee will take up the bill (PCB 7170) at its Wednesday afternoon meeting. The bill essentially means that an agency would not have to report its privatization of a program or service until after the contract is signed.

Open government advocates say the bill would keep the public in the dark about the costs of outsourcing government services. But proponents counter that the measure requires any privatization deal to first offer “a substantial savings” to the state.

Read entire article here

Martin Luther King Jr. Special Broadcast

noliesradio — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:17:49 +0000

This show was broadcast January 17, 2012.
It is now audio archived here

Coming up today and every Monday at 7:00 pm Pacific – 10:00 pm Eastern – 02:00 GMT

BEST OF FLASHPOINTS
Martin Luther King Jr. Special Broadcast
MLK Flashpoints special..this broadcast is based on original speeches recorded by an amateur recordist, (never aired anywhere before i found them) who ended up at the poor people march, as a body guard for King, who was under threat of death….the story of how these recording were made is amazing….after i nearthed them, and initially broadcast some of them, i contributed them to the King Archive at Stanford, where the were grateful, gobbled them up and made them apart of their special MLK sound archive. From a Flashpoints Presentation.

Make The Call/Stop The Wall-Innovate, don’t legislate-Stop SOPA & PIPA

teri — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:22:58 +0000

The PROTECT IP Act could create the Great Firewall of America

Alexis Ohanian – Reddit Founder, Engine Advocacy Member

Source www.youtube.com

Contact your Senators and join EngineAdvocacy.org so it doesn’t happen again–see video:

Our Internet from Engine Advocacy on Vimeo.

Source engineadvocacy.org

Hostage To False Flag Terror: The Link Between The October Surprise And The September Surprise

noliesradio — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:58:40 +0000

1-16-2012 disquietreservations.blogspot.com
BY SAMAN MOHAMMADI

Former CIA counter-terrorism specialist Philip Giraldi gives a picture of “What War With Iran Might Look Like,” concluding that, “A minor engagement between American and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf,” will ignite World War III.

We must ask ourselves: how did we get here? Is World War III a product of destiny, or is it by design? Establishing the truth of history is essential if we want to avert World War III that could be triggered at any moment in the Persian Gulf if Iran is attacked.

The history of the U.S.-Iranian crisis seems complicated and challenging, but it is really easy to understand. It is a relationship based on secret power and conspiracy, not truth and transparency. There are treacherous and fascist elements in the American and Iranian governments who desire mass ignorance and war as opposed to friendship and peace.

They do not want America and Iran to restore diplomatic and trade ties because peace and friendship harms a variety of private interests in both countries. Peace is a threat to the military-industrial complexes and the anti-democratic ruling elites in both America and Iran.

In the alternative media community, we all agree with the basic premise that modern wars are politically constructed by a few men and that false flag terrorism are at the heart of them because they generate immediate public support for what otherwise would be unpopular wars.

The war between America and Iran is no different. Two false flag operations have been engineered to bring about this war of Armageddon: the October crisis (November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981) and the September 11 state terror attacks.

Both events created a false narrative of a clash of civilizations – the West vs. Islam – the resolution of which is a world war that will ultimately end with the use of nuclear weapons by the United States against Iran to force it into submission.

The first event was conceived from inside the dark heart of the CIA and shadow U.S. intelligence community in 1976. For the second event the services of the Israeli state were used, as indicated by the numerous eyewitness accounts of dancing Israeli spies on the streets of New York City on 9/11.

II. The False Flag Origins of The U.S.-Iranian Conflict

The false flag operation that is the Iran-U.S. hostage crisis was overseen by the George H. W. Bush faction in the CIA and the Ronald Reagan campaign in collaboration with elements in Iran’s SAVAK and top Iranian Islamic fundamentalists, who were, and still are, CIA assets.

Bush and Reagan, who represented the interests of the private banksters and new world order, and Khomeini, who represented the same interests, propped up each other into the seat of power at the expense of the security, liberty, and prosperity of their countries.

Thus, the Reagan revolution and the Khomeini revolution were revolutions that attacked the basic laws, freedoms, and traditions of their countries. The Bush-Reagan coup and the Khomeini revolution were evil and totalitarian in nature. And these evil twins came into being through the same political birth canal: the U.S.-Iran hostage crisis.

The private cliques who hijacked America and Iran for the past 30+ years have created a nonsensical political and diplomatic separation between the two governments, which benefits their private interests but harms the national security interests of both countries.

According to Iranian researcher Fara Mansoor, the U.S.-Iran hostage crisis was not a spontaneous act by Iranian mobs or a senseless act devised solely by the Khomeini regime. Rather, it was a politically manufactured event by the Bush-led CIA and top Iranian Islamic fundamentalists that was intended to promote the political goals of the Bush-Reagan coalition and Khomeini’s regime simultaneously.

List of the three political goals:

1. Sabotage and destabilize the Carter administration, and get Bush-Reagan into the White House.

2. Prop up the Khomeini regime and destroy all political opposition to the Islamic Republic.

3. Establish Iran as a permanent enemy of the United States and vice versa, in order to bring about a future conflict and justify the existence of anti-democratic political and legal structures within the two nations. There were definitely other motives for keeping Iran and America isolated from each other, but those are two big ones.

Clearly, the plan worked. Carter’s presidency was weakened by the hostage crisis and allowed Bush and Reagan to seize the White House in a dishonest and undemocratic fashion. And Khomeini’s loyalists consolidated power by dominating the narrative in Iran and violently exterminating opposition voices in Iranian society.

The left in Iran and America was basically destroyed by Bush and Khomeini. The Iranian left was impotent in the face of the regime’s propaganda line: “If you are not for the Islamic Republic, then you are for the Great Satan and against Iran.”

In essence, the American Deep State gave birth to the Iranian Deep State by instigating the U.S.-Iran hostage crisis for selfish private interests and domestic political reasons. And the repercussions of this politically manufactured crisis are felt to this day, with the United States and Iran on the verge of war in the Persian Gulf.

The fake U.S.-Iran hostage crisis is one of the best historical examples of what former Canadian diplomat, and professor Peter Dale Scott calls “deep events,” which he says are used by the secret National Security State to “build up repressive power in America at the expense of democracy.” (Scott, ‘The Doomsday Project and Deep Events: JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and 9/11,‘ Global Research, November 22, 2011).

Mansoor discussed his groundbreaking and penetrating research into this deep event and the secret relationship between the U.S. intelligence community and Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime on January 24, 1993, on the radio show of American talk show host Dave Emory. The YouTube channel “johndcqr”has archived Emory’s interview with Mansoor. Type in the search box “An Interview With Fara Mansoor.” Also, you can download the historic interview as a MP3 file on Emory’s website.

Regarding his interview with Mansoor and his research into the connections between the Bush-led CIA and the Khomeini regime, Emory wrote:
Of particular interest is the landmark research of Fara Mansoor, a member of the Iranian resistance whose historic research on the rise of the Khomeini regime documents the decisive role of the United States in developing Islamic fundamentalist forces in that country as the anti-communist successors to the Shah’s government. Fara has documented that U.S. Ambassador to Iran, Richard Helms, learned that the Shah had cancer in 1974. Former Director of Central Intelligence Helms promptly informed the CIA and Department of State with the result that, by 1976, George Bush’s CIA was actively supporting and grooming the Khomeini forces.The subsequent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Teheran, the withholding of the U.S. hostages until after President Carter’s defeat was assured, the Khomeini government itself and the Iran-Contra scandal proper were all outgrowths of this profound and long-standing relationship.

It should be noted that parts of this relationship have been misunderstood as what has become known as “the October Surprise.” Although there was, massive collusion between the Reagan-Bush campaign and the Khomeini forces during the 1980 election campaign, there was no “deal” cut during the campaign. Rather, the “deal” was part of a covert operation begun years before and the collusion during the campaign was an outgrowth of it.”
Here are the key quotes by Mansoor in his interview with Emory:
“In 1975, Richard Helms learned of the Shah’s cancer, contrary to what generally is believed, that the Carter administration did not know about the Shah’s cancer until very late in 1978, 79′. George Bush, through Richard Helms, learned of the cancer at least by 1976, when he was a Director of the CIA.

And this knowledge was used by the pro-Bush loyalists at the CIA and intelligence community in the United States to quietly prepare for the Shah’s departure. And Carter actually did not know this and blindly was following his policy of respect for human rights, and while that policy was going on, the pro-Bush faction of the intelligence community were pursuing their own private foreign policy to keep Iran intact and Communist-free. And to that end we have talked that they privately allied themselves with Islamic fundamentalists of Khomeini. And that alliance promoted the Islamic Republic of Iran and engineered the hostage crisis.

The hostage crisis was used as a political management tool to achieve their objectives. So that so-called crisis was a created crisis by them to consolidate Khomeini’s control of Iran and that paved the way for George Bush and Ronald Reagan to get into the White House by destabilizing President Carter.”
The research by Mansoor into the roots of the Iran-U.S. hostage crisis is significant because it helps to discredit the current historical narrative of the U.S.-Iranian conflict which is contributing to massive misunderstanding and resentment on both sides.

It appears that both the American people and the Iranian people are victims of a long political charade that is being coordinated from the very top by treacherous elements in the deep states of America and Iran who care only about money and power.

Mansoor’s research suggests that the death of freedom and democracy in Iran is deeply connected to the death of freedom and democracy in America and the West. What has taken the place of national democratic systems is a global military-industrial complex that has links to the deep states in America, Iran, Israel, England, Pakistan, Turkey, and other nations.

Under the secret reign of the global military-industrial complex, war and profits come before the security of states and the prosperity of the people. Crooked thieves run the show in Tehran, Washington, London, and Tel Aviv, who target political dissent by labeling it treason and terrorism.

There are rats and snakes in charge in Tehran, Washington, and Tel Aviv. They have tried to kill the lion spirit of man and the lion spirit of their nations. The rat-like ruling elites of America, Israel, and Iran hate the noble and compassionate qualities of civilization. Such qualities create peace and friendship between nations, and this is against their interests.

What threatens the universal rights of man and life on earth in this century is not a fake and manufactured clash of civilizations between the West and radical Islam, but a very real destruction of all civilizations by an international banking elite who are fascists at the core.

Through acts of false flag terrorism and manufactured global crises, they are cold-bloodedly murdering humanity and democracy in order to establish a despotic and anti-human world civilization upon the ruins of this demonic and dead age.

READ FULL STORY HERE

What War With Iran Might Look Like

noliesradio — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:46:14 +0000

original.antiwar.com 1-12-2012 by Philip Giraldi

Editor’s note: Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist.

Back in September 2007 I wrote an article for Antiwar.com called “What World War III May Look Like.” The article, which presumed that an incident involving U.S. troops on the border between Iraq and Iran could easily escalate into what would eventually become a global conflict, was widely replayed in the alternative media and even in the mainstream. Well, I am pleased to report that no such war has yet started, though there has been a disturbing expansion of U.S. military activity through the deployment of drones to hit targets in assorted countries without having to worry about American casualties or niceties like declarations of war. Other geopolitical elements that figured in my 2007 analysis have also changed, so I believe that the time has come for an update.

Iran is clearly the target of choice, just as it was in 2007. Despite President Barack Obama’s assertion that he would open up avenues to talk to the Iranians, he has failed to do so, he has rejected Iranian initiatives to start a dialogue, and he is showing every sign of unwillingness to negotiate on any level. Congress has even moved to block any contactbetween American and Iranian diplomats. The sanctions that recently took effect against the Iranian banking system can be construed as an act of war, particularly as Iran has not provided any casus belli. Further sanctions that will restrict energy imports are impending and will bring the country’s economy to a halt. There are already signs that the Iranian government feels itself compelled to demonstrate to its people that it is doing something about the situation. That “something” might well be a confrontation with the U.S. Navy that will have unfortunate results. In light of all that, it might be useful to imagine just how war with Iran could play out if the Iranians don’t roll over and surrender at the first whiff of grapeshot.

It might start with a minor incident, possibly involving an Iranian armed small craft manned by the Revolutionary Guard. Though the Strait of Hormuz is generally considered an international waterway, the Iranians claim that half of the strait is within their territorial waters. Tehran, in response to intensified sanctions, declares that it can determine who can use the strait and says that it will take steps to keep American warships from entering. The frigate USS Ingraham, patrolling off of Bushehr, is confronted by the small craft and ordered to heave to, an order it rejects. The Iranian commander, ignoring instructions to back off when confronted directly by the U.S. Navy, opens fire with rocket-propelled grenades. The frigate’s Phalanx rapid-fire battery immediately responds by blasting the Iranian boat, killing the entire Revolutionary Guard crew, but two American sailors are also killed in the exchange and four are wounded.

Fighters from the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis are immediately launched under standing orders, and they devastate the naval base that the Iranian boat departed from. President Obama holds a press conference and calls the incident an act of war and vows to do everything necessary to support U.S. forces in the region, but he stops short of a commitment to stage a full-scale attack on Iran. A hastily called meeting of the U.N. Security Council results in a 17–1 vote urging the United States to exercise restraint, with only Washington voting “no.” In the General Assembly, only the United States, Israel, Micronesia, and Costa Rica support possible military action.

The United States is effectively alone, but Israel takes advantage of the growing war fervor in the United States to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities. The recently completed nuclear reactor at Bushehr is destroyed, killing 13 Russian technicians working on the site, and the aboveground buildings at the Natanz nuclear research facility are leveled. Russian-supplied Iranian air defenses shoot down six Israeli aircraft. Washington receives no prior warning of the Israeli attack, though it does pick up the signal traffic that precedes it and knows something is coming. It makes no effort to stop the Israelis as they fly over undefended Iraqi airspace.

Congress and the media rally behind the Israelis and demand war. A bill in the House of Representatives calling on the White House to take military action in support of Israel passes 431–4. A similar bill in the Senate receives only two nays. President Obama hesitates but then approves a limited offensive, directed against Iran’s military, its nuclear sites, and, most particularly, its Revolutionary Guard installations. In the first few days, overwhelming American air and naval superiority destroys Iran’s principal air, naval, and army bases. Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities are obliterated, as are the known Iranian nuclear research and development sites. The limited offensive soon becomes anything but that, with strategic bombers dropping 30,000-pound Big BLU bunker-buster bombs to strike underground labs and processing centers. Population centers are avoided, though smart weapons are used to destroy communications centers and command and control facilities. There are nevertheless large numbers of civilian casualties as many of the targeted nuclear sites are close to or within cities and large towns. Infrastructure is also hit, particularly bridges, roads, and power-generation stations close to known nuclear research centers and military sites.

There is a pause in the attacks, and Iran strikes back. With nearly 10 years to prepare, Tehran has successfully hidden and hardened many of its military and nuclear facilities, a large percentage of which are undamaged. The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennisoperating in the Gulf of Oman is hit by a lucky strike by a Chinese Silkworm cruise missile that comes in low and successfully evades countermeasures. The Stennis retires to port in Bahrain. Three other support vessels are also hit and severely damaged when they are attacked by waves of small craft manned by suicidal Revolutionary Guards, not unlike the kamikaze attacks in the Second World War. The Iranian attackers are annihilated, but the Pentagon refuses to say how many American sailors have been killed in the exchange.

Pro-Iranian riots break out in Beirut. In the south of Lebanon, Hezbollah fires salvos of rockets into Israel, striking Tel Aviv and killing several hundred Israelis. Israel responds by bombing Lebanon and Syria, which it blames for supporting the attacks. Upgraded Iranian Shahab-3 missiles also strike Israel, killing more civilians. The Israeli Defense Forces are fully mobilized, and troops are sent to the northern border. Syria and Lebanon also mobilize their forces. Rioters in Baghdad attack the American embassy, which demands that the Iraqi government “do something” to protect it, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugs and says that the situation is out of his control. Large public demonstrations demand that Iraq support Iran in a fraternal struggle against the United States.

Shi’ites sympathetic to Iran sabotage Saudi Arabian eastern oil fields. Hundreds of alleged saboteurs are shot dead by Saudi security forces. An oil tanker out of Kuwait is hit by a Silkworm and runs aground to keep from sinking. Another hits a mine. Insurers at Lloyd’s of London refuse to cover any tankers transiting the Persian Gulf, claiming that damage incurred during a state of war is not covered by the policies. Oil shipments from the region, one quarter of the world’s supply, stop completely, and oil goes up to $300 a barrel. Wall Street suffers its biggest loss in 20 years, with the Dow Jones index plummeting more than 900 points.

The United States offers Iran a cease-fire, which Tehran rejects. Two days later, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is assassinated by a Shi’ite bodyguard under orders from Tehran. Pakistan declares that it is neutral in the conflict and orders the U.S. embassy to reduce its staff by 50%, including the CIA station chief and his deputy. Order breaks down in both countries, and the Pakistani army declares a state of emergency, closing the border with Afghanistan. NATO calls an emergency meeting and decides to begin the evacuation by air of the multinational force trapped in Afghanistan, leaving many weapons and heavy equipment behind.

In the power vacuum, NATO troops withdraw to their bases while Taliban-backed militias take over much of Kabul and Kandahar. Afghanistan’s Mazar-i-Sharif, which is largely Shi’ite, declares itself a part of Iran. The government resigns in Beirut, and Hezbollah forms a new one. A salvo of Iranian Silkworm missiles sets the Saudi Arabian eastern oil fields ablaze. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates send an urgent diplomatic message to Tehran declaring that they will be “neutral” in the fighting and will not assist the United States in any way. Kuwait sends the same message, while Egyptian volunteers gather along the border with Israel in Sinai, demanding that Cairo take steps in support of their Arab brothers in Lebanon. Kuwait refuses to allow the United States to use its men and supplies at Camp Doha against Iran. In Bahrain, rampaging Shi’ite crowds depose Sheikh Khalifa al-Khalifa and set up an Islamic Republic, forcing the U.S. Fifth Fleet to abandon its only secure base in the region. The Dow Jones index loses another 1,000 points.

The United States attempts to get China and Russia to mediate with Iran to end the fighting, but they refuse to do Washington any favors, noting that they had opposed the attack in the first place and also citing their countrymen killed in the U.S. attacks. Suicide bombers attack in London, Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. The attacks are poorly planned and inflict only a few casualties, but panic sets in and the public demands that the respective governments do something. The United States tells the Iranian government that unless resistance ceases, nuclear weapons will be used on select targets. India and Pakistan are alarmed by the U.S. threat and put their own nuclear forces on high alert, as does Israel. Russia and China also increase their readiness levels to respond to the crisis.

Iran refuses to concede defeat, and the Iranian people rally around the government. The U.S. public is clamoring for action. Oil prices continue to surge, and the long-term viability of petroleum supplies is in question as the Strait of Hormuz continues to be closed. Another U.S. ship is badly damaged by suicide attackers in the Persian Gulf. American embassies throughout the region are attacked. Anti-American rioting takes place in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Mindanao, and in Dhaka. The United States consulate general in Karachi, Pakistan, is sacked and burned. Forty Americans die along with scores of Pakistanis when the Marine guards open fire.

There are frequent terrorism scares in a number of American cities, which are under red-alert security lockdown, though there are no new attacks. Domestic air travel declines by more than 50%. As a preventive measure, there are mass arrests of American Muslim leaders. Some antiwar activists are detained at military prisons, including Guantanamo, under the provisions of the Military Commissions Act and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Israel continues to be bombarded from inside Lebanon. Its air attacks inflict massive damage on civilians but are unsuccessful in stopping the rockets. Its government falls and is replaced by a hard-right regime headed by former Foreign Secretary Avigdor Lieberman. Rioting rocks the West Bank and Gaza, forcing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resign and flee to Paris. Hamas forms a provisional government. India threatens to attack Pakistan if there is any question about the security of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal.

The United States uses a neutron-type bomb against the main Iranian nuclear research center at Natanz, which both Washington and Israel had already bombed conventionally and destroyed. It vows to bomb again if Iran continues to resist. Iran is defiant and fires another wave of Silkworms at U.S. ships, hitting one. Russia and China place their nuclear forces on high alert. Pakistani militants assume control of the government, aided by radical elements in the army and the intelligence service. India launches a preemptive strike against the main Pakistani nuclear centers at Wah and Multan, where the country’s arsenal is believed to be concentrated. Pakistan has some of its nukes moving around on trucks to avoid such a scenario, however, and is able to strike back by bombing New Delhi.

A minor engagement between American and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf has ignited World War III.

READ FULL STORY HERE

What’s really in the food? The A to Z of the food industry’s most evil ingredients

teri — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:32:10 +0000

Thursday, July 28, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) Ever wonder what’s really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, “What ingredients should I avoid?” So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world).

If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital, read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients:

Acrylamides – Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). They’re present in everything from bread crusts to snack chips, and because they aren’t intentional ingredients, acrylamides do NOT have to be listed on labels.

Aspartame – Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches.

Autolyzed Proteins – Highly processed form of protein containing free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG.

BPA (Bisphenol-A) – A hormone mimicking chemical found in nearly all food packaging plastics. Active in just parts per billion, BPA promotes cancer, infertility and hormone disorders. It also “feminizes” males, promoting male breast growth and hormone disruption.

Casein – Milk proteins. Hilariously, this is widely used in “soy cheese” products that claim to be alternatives to cow’s milk. Nearly all of them are made with cow’s milk proteins.

Corn Syrup – Just another name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (see below). Frequently used in infant formula products.

Food Colors – FD&C Red #40, for example, is linked to behavioral disorders in children. Nearly all artificial food colors are derived from petroleum, and many are contaminated with aluminum.

Genetically Modified Ingredients – Not currently listed on the label because the GMO industry (Monsanto and DuPont) absolutely does not want people to know which foods contain GMOs. Nearly all conventionally grown corn, soy and cotton are GMOs. They’re linked to severe infertility problems and may even cause the bacteria in your body to produce and release a pesticide in your own gut. If you’re not eating organic corn, you’re definitely eating GMO corn.

High Fructose Corn Syrup – A highly processed liquid sugar extracted with the chemical solvent glutaraldehyde and frequently contaminated with mercury. It’s also linked to diabetes, obesity and mood disorders. Used in thousands of grocery items, including things you wouldn’t suspect like pizza sauce and salad dressings.

Homogenized Milk – The fats in the milk are artificially modified to change them into smaller molecules that stay in suspension in the milk liquid (so the milk fat doesn’t separate). While it makes milk look better on the shelf, it’s also blamed for promoting heart disease and may contribute to milk allergies. Raw milk is healthier, which is why the government had outlawed it.

Hydrochloride – When you see anything hydrochloride, such as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride or Thiamin Hydrochloride, those are chemical forms of B vitamins that companies add to their products to be able to claim higher RDA values of vitamins. But these are synthetic, chemical forms of vitamins, not real vitamins from foods or plants. Nutritionally, they are near-useless and may actually be bad for you. Also watch out for niacinamide and cyanocobalamin (synthetic vitamin B-12).

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein – A highly processed form of (usually) soy protein that’s processed to bring out the free glutamate (MSG). Use as a taste enhancer.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils – Oils that are modified using a chemical catalyst to make them stable at room temperature. This creates trans fatty acids and greatly increases the risk of blocked arteries. It also promotes what I call “sludge blood,” which is thick, viscous blood that’s hard to pump. This is usually diagnosed by doctors as “high blood pressure” and (stupidly) treated with blood-thinning medications that are technically the same chemicals as rat poison (warfarin).

Phosphoric Acid – The acid used in sodas to dissolve the carbon dioxide and add to the overall fizzy-ness of the soda. Phosphoric acid will eat steel nails. It’s also used by stone masons to etch rocks. The military uses it to clean the rust off battleships. In absolutely destroys tooth enamel Search Google Images for “Mountain Dew Mouth” to see photos of teeth rotted out by phosphoric acid.

Propylene Glycol – A liquid used in the automotive industry to winterize RVs. It’s also used to make the fake blueberries you see in blueberry muffins, bagels and breads. (Combined with artificial colors and corn syrup.) See shocking “Fake Blueberries”.

Sodium (Salt) – The processed white salt lacking in trace minerals. In the holistic nutrition industry, we call it “death salt” because it promotes disease and death. Real salt, on the other hand, such as “dirty” sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, is loaded with the trace minerals that prevent disease, such as selenium (cancer), chromium (diabetes) and zinc (infectious disease). Much like with bread and sugar, white salt is terrible for your health. And don’t be fooled by claims of “sea salt” in grocery stores. All salt came from the sea if you go far back enough in geologic time, so they can slap the “sea salt” claim on ANY salt!

Sodium Nitrite – A cancer-causing red coloring chemical added to bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, ham, lunch meats, pepperoni and nearly all processed meats. Strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancers and colon cancers. The USDA once tried to ban it from the food supply but was out-maneuvered by the meat industry, which now dominates USDA regulations. Sodium nitrite is a complete poison used to make meats look fresh. Countless children die of cancer each year from sodium nitrite-induced cancers.

Read entire article here

Betty White Turns 90, Obama Asks To See Long Form Birth Certificate (VIDEO) January 17, 2012

teri — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:35:31 +0000

Addicting Info

January 17, 2012

By Wendy Gittleson

Love the President or hate him (or more likely, somewhere in between), you have to appreciate a man, who while under constant attack from the right and the left, maintains a sense of humor.

Last night was the televised, star-studded celebration of Betty White’s 90th birthday party. President Obama couldn’t make the event, but sent his wishes in a video.

Here’s the video:

Dear Betty,

You look so fantastic and full of energy. I can’t believe you’re 90 years old. In fact, I don’t believe it. That’s why I’m writing to ask if you will be willing to produce a copy of your long form birth certificate. Thanks, and Happy Birthday, no matter how old you are.

Source www.youtube.com

Gordon Duff: Is comparing neocons to nazis an insult to nazis?_on The Kevin Barrett Show

noliesradio — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:12:36 +0000

This show was broadcast January 17, 2012.
It is now audio archived here

Coming up Tuesday at 9am Pacific – 12 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”
EXCLUSIVE –Tuesday on KB Show:
Gordon Duff: Is comparing neocons to nazis an insult to nazis?!

Guest: Gordon Duff, Senior Editor, Veterans Today. A few years ago, I made national news by telling an AP reporter that comparing Bush to Hitler would be an insult to Hitler. After all, Hitler was tragic, while Bush is farcical.

Now Gordon Duff is upping the ante. “Remember the stories about Gaddafi and how well he ran Libya? Well, this is how Hitler actually ran Germany, health care, social security, paid vacations, no unemployment, no illiteracy…” Gordon says that the title of my upcoming talk at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, which asks “Are Neocons the New Nazis?” is an insult to the nazis.

His latest article begins:

“Let’s alienate as many people as possible right away. Nazi Germany was more ‘democratic’ than America is today.”

Has America fallen that far, that fast, since the neocon coup d’état of 9/11? Tune in and find out!

Check out Kevin’s new book: Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters.

The 9/11 Hijackers That Weren’t — Jay Kolar_on Guns & Butter

noliesradio — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:25:40 +0000

This show was broadcast January 16, 2012.
It is now audio archived here

Coming up today and every Monday at 7:00 pm Pacific – 10:00 pm Eastern – 02:00 GMT

GUNS AND BUTTER with Bonnie Faulkner
The 9/11 Hijackers That Weren’t — Jay Kolar
Airline passenger manifests; examination of the Portland Jetport and Dullas Airport Videos, missing imprinted security data, faces smudged out, cover-up of evidence; FDIC evidence of hijacker alive after 9/11; analysis of passport photographs; the covert intelligence use of doubles to frame Ziad Jarrah.

Clan Dyken – The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

teri — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:34:16 +0000

Clan Dyken is one of our independent musical artists now playing on No Lies Radio.

Uploaded by bdyken on Jan 14, 2012

Dr. King is an example of an historic figure who makes us proud to be part of the cultural diversity that is part of being an American. Further, he inspires us to be better humans. Thank you for all you have given us. Words and music by Bear Dyken who is playing guitar and singing, Mark Dyken on cajon and vocals, Somer Moon on vocals and computer, Silas Dyken on Bass and vocals.

Source www.youtube.com

‘Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA spies to recruit terrorists to fight against Iran’

noliesradio — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:34:19 +0000

Foreign Policy magazine cites CIA memos from 2007-2008 that the Mossad recruited members of Jundallah terror group to fight against Tehran; U.S. was reportedly furious with Israel and moved to limit joint intelligence programs.

haaretz.com By Barak Ravid 1-13-2012
Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran, Foreign Policy revealed on Friday, quoting U.S. intelligence memos.

Foreign Policy’s Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush.

Perry quotes a number of American intelligence officials and claims that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.

According to the report, Israel’s recruitment attempts took place mostly in London, right under the nose of U.S. intelligence officials.

“It’s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with,” Foreign Policy quoted an intelligence officer as saying. “Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn’t give a damn what we thought.”

According to a currently serving U.S. intelligence officer, Perry reports, when Bush was briefed on the information he “went absolutely ballistic.”

“The report sparked White House concerns that Israel’s program was putting Americans at risk,” the intelligence officer told Perry. “There’s no question that the U.S. has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against the Iranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we’re not in the business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians.”

The intelligence officer said that the Bush administration continued to deal with the affair until the end of his term. He noted that Israel’s operation jeopardized the U.S. administration’s fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was under immense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah.

According to the intelligence officer, a senior administration official vowed to “take the gloves off” with Israel, but ultimately the U.S. did nothing.

“In the end it was just easier to do nothing than to, you know, rock the boat,” the intelligence officer said.

Apparently, the Mossad operation caused a fiery debate among Bush’s national security team and it was only resolved when U.S. President Barack Obama drastically scaled back joint U.S.-Israel intelligence programs targeting Iran, Perry quotes several serving and retired officers as saying.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Mark Perry speaks about allegations of Israeli spies posing as CIA agents

noliesradio — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:28:42 +0000

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Jan 13, 2012
Agents with Israel’s spy agency have posed as CIA agents in operations to recruit members of the Pakistani group Jundallah, according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine.

Using US dollars and passports, the agents passed themselves off as members of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency in the operations, according to memos from 2007 and 2008, said the report which was published on Friday.

Al Jazeera speaks with author, historian and journalist Mark Perry authored the Foreign Policy report.

Bobby Womack – Where Do We Go From Here

teri — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:57:15 +0000

From his 1981 album “The Poet” on the Beverly Glen label. Composers: Bobby Womack, Jim Ford.

Source www.youtube.com

Two Hangmen – Clan Dyken

teri — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:56:11 +0000

The Clan Dyken “Go Outside and Play” series presents an updated version of the Mason Profit classic “Two Hangmen”. Featuring Somer Moon, Bear Dyken, Silas Dyken, Mark Dyken, Nash Fedalizo, and Ryan Muckle.

Clan Dyken is one of our independent musical artists now playing on www.noliesradio.org. you can check out Backstage on Sat/Sun 3 pm Pacific times for an interview with Bear Dyken of Clan Dyken today or click ‘Archived-Shows’ on the blue line then Backstage to hear all past interviews of musical artists on Backstage.

Source www.youtube.com

Buffett to Republicans: if you pay, so will I

teri — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:26:03 +0000

Reuters – Thu, Jan 12, 2012 10:17 AM EST

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett attends a news conference after the opening ceremony of Tungaloy Corp’s new plant in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) – Warren Buffett is willing to put his money where his mouth is, if only congressional Republicans would join him.

The American billionaire investor, in the new issue of Time magazine, says he would donate $1 to paying down the national debt for every dollar donated by a Republican in Congress. The only exception is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell – for whom Buffett said he would go $3-to-$1.

The idea stems from a New York Times opinion piece Buffett wrote last August in which he said the rich ought to pay more taxes. It sparked an instant controversy, with some Washington conservatives calling on the 81-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” to voluntarily pay extra.

McConnell said at the time that if Buffett felt “guilty” about paying too low a tax rate, he should “send in a check.” This was quickly followed by introduction of a bill to give taxpayers an option on tax forms to make voluntary donations.
“It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that can’t be solved by voluntary contributions,” the Buffett told Time for an article hitting newsstands on Friday.

An aide to McConnell suggested that the Berkshire Hathaway CEO should expand his matching offer to President Barack Obama and his Democrats.

“Senator McConnell says that Washington should be smaller, rather than taxes getting bigger. And since some, like President Obama and Mr. Buffett want to pay higher taxes, Congress made it possible for them to call their own bluff and send in a check,” said Don Stewart, McConnell’s deputy chief of staff.

“So I look forward to Mr. Buffett matching a healthy batch of checks from those who actually want to pay higher taxes, including Congressional Democrats, the President and the Democratic National Committee,” he added.

The jabs over voluntary payments come as higher taxes for the wealthy and extension of payroll tax breaks for middle-class Americans are becoming increasingly contentious issues for the 2012 presidential race. Obama is trying to paint Republicans as only favoring the wealthy, while Republicans are trying to brand the president as relying on tax hikes to fund excessive spending.

Buffett said in the Time interview the United States needed a tax system that favored people who were not born investors.

Read entire article here

Strategy for Occupy_on Project Censored

noliesradio — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:41:12 +0000

This show was broadcast January 12, 2012.
It is now audio archived here

Coming up every Thursday at 7:00 pm Pacific * 10:00 pm Eastern * 02:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast.

Broadcast From Berkeley, California

PROJECT CENSORED RADIO:

Strategy for Occupy

Today Peter Phillips, Andy Roth, and Abby Martin from Media Roots will address the questions of Strategy for Occupy: Can a non-violent social movement be effective and remain non-violent in the face of a repressive empire? We will be joined by Dr. Cynthia Boaz political Science professor in nonviolent struggles at Sonoma State University and rapper and activist Boots Riley with the Occupy Oakland Movement, with in studio music by singer songwriter Vic Sadot. We will also hear from Steve Zeltzer with Work Week Radio Labor News and round out the hour with Ted Rall author of the Anti-American Manifesto and Michael Nagler former Chairperson of UC Berkeley’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Show Hosts: Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips, with Abby Martin of Media Roots.

US strengthens its presence in the Arabian Sea

teri — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:32:06 +0000

Allvoices and (Reuters)

Washington D.C. by Prabirghose at Allvoices and also (Reuters)

Jan 11, 2012 at 11:23 PM PST

The USS Carl Vinson has arrived in Haiti

The US naval strike group is strengthening its presence in the Arabian Sea in the wake of escalating tensions between Iran and the US. The USS Carl Vinson has arrived even as Iran plans to carry out its military exercises in the Persian Gulf with threats of blocking the Strait of Hormuz which is a major transit route for oil from Iran.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Wednesday that a new aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in the Arabian Sea and that another was on its way to the region, but denied any link to recent tensions with Iran and portrayed the movements as routine.

The shift in the powerful U.S. naval assets comes at a moment of heightened tensions with Iran, which has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – the world’s most important oil shipping lane – if U.S. and EU sanctions over its nuclear program cut off its oil exports.

The U.S. military has said it will halt any blockade of the strategic strait and the top U.S. naval officer acknowledged on Tuesday that preparing for a potential conflict there was something that “keeps me awake at night.”

Still, the Pentagon denied any direct link between recent tensions and the movement of aircraft carriers.

“I don’t want to leave anybody with the impression that we’re somehow (speeding) two carriers over there because we’re concerned about what happened, you know, today in Iran. It’s just not the case,” said Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

Military officials said the USS Carl Vinson arrived in the Arabian Sea on Monday to replace the outgoing USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group, which Iran last week warned not to return to the Gulf after departing in late December.

The Stennis was due to return to its home port in San Diego but the Pentagon did not say when that would happen.

Another carrier strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, concluded a port visit to Thailand on Tuesday and was now in the Indian Ocean. It is on track to join the Vinson in the Central Command area of operations, which begins in the neighboring Arabian Sea.

It is “not unusual to have two carriers in the CENTCOM theater at the same time,” a second U.S. military official said.

Another official said there had been two carriers in the Gulf region at least twice in the past 18 months.

Tensions between Iran and the United States ratcheted up again in the past week. Iran started an underground uranium enrichment plant and sentenced an American to death for spying. Washington and Europe have stepped up efforts to cripple Iran’s oil exports, and Tehran on Wednesday blamed U.S. and Israeli agents for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Israel declined to comment on the killing and the United States denied any U.S. role and condemned the attack, in which the scientist was blown up by a bomb attached to his car by a motorbike hitman.

Iran had warned the Stennis not to re-enter the Gulf and it is unclear when another U.S. carrier will enter Gulf waters. The Pentagon has suggested only that, sooner or later, a carrier will pass through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf.

Read entire articles here and here.

So, Oil barons just threatened the President of the U.S. on Jan. 6, 2012

teri — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:17:31 +0000

This is from the Thom Hartmann show, the #1 progressive talk show host. You can tune-in M-F 9 am to 12 pm Pacific time to the Thom Hartmann show on www.noliesradio.org

Source www.youtube.com

Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch (‘Coke’) Brothers

teri — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:32:18 +0000

Originally posted on 21 April 2011

Thought Control: Right-Wing Koch Brothers Caught Telling Thousands of Employees How to Vote

Thanks to Democracy Now.org-Tune in www.noliesradio.org for Democracy Now M-F 5 am, 6 am & 7 am for your daily fix of Amy Goodman!

Source www.youtube.com

William Engdahl: WARNING: Nuclear war coming soon (if we let it) _on The Kevin Barrett Show

noliesradio — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:49:38 +0000

This show was broadcast January 10, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Tuesday at 9am Pacific – 12 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Tuesday evening.

“THE KEVIN BARRETT SHOW”
EXCLUSIVE –Tuesday on KB Show:
William Engdahl: WARNING: Nuclear war coming soon (if we let it)

Guest: William Engdahl, who warns in a new article:
“Most in the civilized world are blissfully unaware that we are marching ineluctably towards an increasingly likely pre-emptive nuclear war. No, it’s not at all about Iran and Israel. It’s about the decision of Washington and the Pentagon to push Moscow up against the wall with what is euphemistically called Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD).”

William Engdahl is the author of Full Spectrum Dominance
Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (which covers the material discussed on today’s show) as well as Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation and A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.

Check out Kevin’s new book: Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters.

Capitalism, Loneliness and Personal Relationships: Why Pornography Is a Multibillion-Dollar Industry

teri — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:14:11 +0000

Thursday 29 December 2011

by: Harriet Fraad and Tess Fraad Wolff, Truthout | Op-Ed

Massive social changes in the US labor force and in commerce have transformed the economy and powerfully affected personal relationships. Since 1970, we have changed from being a society of people connected in groups of every kind to a society of people who are too often disconnected, detached and alienated against one another.

One is the loneliest number, and in their personal lives, Americans are increasingly alone.

What Has Happened to Us?

In the 1970s, the American dream of 150 years duration ground to a halt. From 1820 to 1970, every US generation did better than the one that preceded it. In the 1970s, computers began to replace millions of US jobs. International communication systems became so sophisticated that factories could be moved overseas, allowing the livelihoods of more millions of Americans to be outsourced. Civil rights and feminist gains had given women and minorities access to a depleted job market. Militant left trade union movements or political parties were not there to protest. Wages flattened. Profits rose with productivity and the share distributed to the top rose, rather than being distributed in wages. Wealthy banks issued credit cards with high interest rates that allowed them to make even more money on funds formerly paid out as salaries.

Men were no longer paid a family wage. Families suffered. Women poured into the labor force to make up for lost male wages. Until this point, most women’s work was primarily labor in the home: creating domestic order and cleanliness, performing childcare, and providing social and emotional services for the family. After the 1970s, the majority of women worked outside of the home as well as within it. Now, practically all women work outside the home, currently constituting almost half of the labor force.

Before the movements for racial and gender equality, the best jobs were reserved for white males who were an overwhelming majority. Within our racist and sexist labor force, white men had what ultimately amounted to two wage bonuses: one for being white and another for being male. Beginning in the 1970s, it was no longer necessary to give financial bonuses to white men. Indeed, it was not necessary to pay higher wages to any workers in the US labor force. Workers’ salaries flattened even as they increased their efficiency. This meant that ever more profit was made and accumulated at the top.

American white men lost a good deal of the male hegemony that accompanied steady jobs and wages that could support a family. When millions of manufacturing jobs were outsourced, our economy became a service economy. Neither the greater physical strength nor the higher levels of aggression associated with males are particularly welcome in a service economy. Heterosexual personal relationships that had developed on the basis of a male provider income could not hold. Those gendered roles were sexist and limiting. However, they could have been transformed politically without economically and psychologically traumatizing the American people.

New Roles

US women adjusted to new roles in the marketplace. Unfortunately, men did not make comparable changes. They held on to the privileges that came with men’s provider roles and women’s full-time service in the household. The average unemployed man currently does less housework than his fully employed wife. Many men now want extra domestic, sexual and emotional services to compensate them for the emasculation they experience when they lose provider jobs and salaries. There is conflict in the household on a whole new level. Our divorce rate has become the highest in the world. Unfortunately, men and women did not mobilize to force the government to provide free or subsidized childcare, eldercare or any other direly necessary social services to compensate for women’s “second shift” at home.

In 2008, the recession struck, plunging millions of Americans into precarity and loss. Male jobs were hit hardest. Most of the jobs lost were in disproportionately stereotypically male fields such as construction, heavy machinery, finance and aggressive big-ticket sales. Seventy-five percent of the more than 5 million jobs lost in our recession have been traditionally men’s jobs.

Men have fallen behind. Women’s earnings grew 44 percent from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6 percent growth for men. Women now occupy nearly half of the nation’s jobs, more than half of management positions and most of the seats in higher education.

Men’s traditional roles in both the marketplace and the home are becoming obsolete. Only two of the 15 most rapidly increasing US jobs are usually male jobs: janitor and computer engineer. All the rest of the job-growth areas are in traditionally women’s jobs in social services of all kinds. Social service jobs cannot be outsourced. Qualities traditionally associated with women, such as the abilities to nurture, cooperate and socially connect, are those most often required in America’s new service economy.

Women have responded to men’s financial incapacity and refusal to share equally in housework and childcare. Women can no longer bear the extra work in caring for men who can neither support them nor compensate for women’s quadruple shifts in domestic labor, emotional labor, childcare and jobs outside of the home. US women increasingly refuse to marry men who cannot provide economic support and still want full personal services. Women currently initiate most US divorces and, increasingly, refuse to marry in the first place. Women can now afford to live in single households, and do. The majority of people of prime marriage and childbearing age (18-34 years old) remain unmarried and live alone.

These changes have drastically altered the pattern of intimate relationships. Shifts in gender roles and employment required women to adjust by taking on career and job responsibilities and living alone, or alone with children. Most men have not adjusted. Their former workforce and gender roles allowed men to grow accustomed to outsourcing their emotional needs and life maintenance activities to women, who are now far less available.

American women had a vital feminist movement for support. US men had and have no social, political or labor movement to explore what they missed by avoiding tasks in maintaining life or emotional intimate personal connections outside of sex. Single women continue to maintain close emotional connections with their women friends and children. Men have become increasingly emotionally disconnected and lonely. They respond to capitalist ads selling market-based solutions to their felt loss of manliness. They buy testosterone cream to enhance the sense of manhood that changed social conditions erode for them. Testosterone products are one of the biggest growth areas for the pharmaceutical industry. Heterosexual men have now become afraid of love relationships in which the rules have changed. Often, those heterosexual relationships were the only emotionally intimacy men had. They do not know how to function as equal partners, and they often fear learning. Heterosexual women, too, may be afraid, because they also have no guidance in maintaining an intimate relationship between equals. They fear losing their autonomy.

The Position of Men

Lost and lonely men may work on transforming their lives through 12-step programs or therapies. However, needing and reaching out for help has traditionally been associated with femininity, not masculinity. There are four refuges left for men who cling to male hegemony and stereotyped masculinity. They are: the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun culture; the military; the Christian right; and pornography. Of these four misogynist refuges, pornography is the most prevalent, profitable and expanding. The heterosexual Internet pornography industry has exploited heterosexual men’s loneliness and contributed to changing the face of the most intimate connections.

Possibilities for meaningful and egalitarian heterosexual personal relationships now seem bleak. Women’s current disappointment with men and men’s increasing withdrawal from authentic communication and relationships are now reflected in popular culture. Trendy films like “Knocked Up” have birthed a new genre. In “Knocked Up,” the female lead has a good job. She is attractive and professional-looking, while the male lead lives with a handful of unemployed, slovenly, male roommates who spend the majority of their time playing video games, smoking pot and watching pornography in a filthy apartment covered in pizza boxes and overall inertia. Their biggest aspiration, which remains to be accomplished, is launching their own pornography site.

A New York Times article describing two state-of-the-art sitcoms is “Downsized and Downtrodden, Men are the New Women on TV.”

Images of high-functioning women and slacker-style, adolescent men have also come up in a study conducted by one of this article’s co-authors, Tess Fraad Wolff. Fraad-Wolff interviewed 48 heterosexual women of four different races and socioeconomic groups, ranging in age from 22-40 years old. She asked questions that concerned women’s emotional and sexual experiences during the dating process. An overwhelming majority, 46 of the 48 women interviewed, responded with descriptions of the problems below.

Men often refuse to plan ahead and can only accept spur-of the-moment arrangements.
Men show fears of commitment after first dates by failing to make or attend second dates. They reschedule and cancel frequently.
Too many men fail to bring sufficient funds to even share the cost of possible activities on dates.
Men introduce sex and sexually related material into conversations instantly and inappropriately, yet many cannot perform.

The last complaints, about inserting sexual material into the most initial of conversations, may relate to an issue that powerfully impacts relationships and illustrates a profound connection between capitalism and loneliness. It is the mainstreaming of heterosexual pornography.

The Impact of Pornography

Pornography precedes capitalism. However, capitalists have now marketed pornography on a whole new level. Pornography has now become a pastime for billions of men and an addiction for millions. Forty million adults in the United States regularly visit pornography sites. Of those 40 million, 87 percent are men.

Capitalism and Pornography

The explosion of heterosexual Internet pornography in the early 90s yielded huge profits. Pornography is a capitalist dream machine. The industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. By 2006, worldwide pornography revenues ballooned to $97.06 billion.

Because of pornography’s extreme profitability, its producers strive to capture a greater market share. They produce more violent pornography with ever younger women and more degrading and acts. Capitalism values profit above all, thus de-prioritizing consideration for equal rights, morality or to personal relationships.

How do the mainstreaming of pornography and the increasing numbers of viewers and addicts affect relationships?

Sexual connection can motivate people to find and maintain relationships. Heterosexual Internet pornography has dramatically altered images of sexuality. Heterosexual US men are experiencing increasing difficulty performing sexually, from maintaining erections, to focusing on partners during sex, to having orgasms at all. Many men have grown so accustomed to the breakneck pace with which pornography offers hundreds of images that they can no longer maintain arousal or concentration during the comparatively slow interactive process of actual sex. Additionally, many viewers have unconsciously associated anonymity with arousal, resulting in a failure to either engage in or appreciate the intimacy that often accompanies real sex. Men in record numbers report being unable to complete sexual acts that involve another live person. A recent University of Kansas study found that 25 percent of college-age men said they’d faked orgasms with women because they could not have orgasms without pornography.

Why Is Pornography Addictive?

The act of watching pornography involves bonding between the brain and the pornographic images and acts depicted. This neural bonding process entails the immediate mental imitation that occurs when people watch representations of any behavior, particularly behavior that possesses arousing qualities. The chemicals released from the firing of neurotransmitters create pleasurable sensations. Viewers want to get more of these sensations. Viewers are all potential addicts because they can not only achieve orgasm with pornography, but a neurological attachment to it. They often do not realize the ways in which their relationships with pornography have begun to replace those with one another.

Many men reject actual sex in favor of the synthetic version even when they have partners with whom the opportunities for sex are present. They turn off to the connectedness and intimacy that actual sex can offer. They retreat into pornography to escape from the challenge of changed and challenging relationships with women. Many avoid even trying to form a relationship in favor of a seemingly safe, isolated, anonymous bond with artificial images on computer screens. Although the fraction of women who view and are addicted to pornography mainly do not cite decreased desire to experience real sex with partners, they do share inabilities to masturbate or orgasm without pornography or pornographic images. Initially, larger numbers of women reported feeling perpetually upset and sexually rejected by their male partners. Men, too, have now grown disturbed by their increasing sexual dysfunction and reliance on pornography.

Immersion in pornography is both a cause and a result of the bleak loneliness of trying to relate in a profit-driven America with an altered gender landscape. Pornography provides a lucrative market that sells its wares to mask heterosexual men’s fear of changed gender expectations. The way in which capitalism and loneliness feed one another is present as rising numbers of men and women forego countless opportunities for intimacy in favor of the experience of sitting alone with manufactured, profit-driven images that often contain polarizing and divisive messages about gender relationships and sexuality. They select solitary, purchased experiences over mutual ones – even in sexual acts that are, by their very nature and description, about merging, physically, psychologically, symbolically and perhaps spiritually.

The hegemonic position of heterosexual males has been destroyed as the relentless capitalist search for profit eliminated and outsourced jobs and lowered wages. Men and women might have reached a desired mutual respect and equality without the capitalist, profit-driven destruction of our economic and personal lives. There are non-capitalist ways, such as uniting together to force the United States government to provide services that permit women and men to work together as equals outside and inside of the home. The destruction of the US economy left women with the burden of doing it alone and men listless, dispossessed, dysfunctional and lonely. The marketing of pornography offered a refuge from the wreckage that capitalism helped to create.

We must now face the eerie trumping of profit over shared experience. Capitalism has polluted the experience of reciprocal connection in our very bedrooms and bodies. The failure of capitalism to provide sufficient jobs, possibilities for prosperity, decent wages and social services has led masses to grab at lonely pseudosolutions that ultimately worsen the quality of life. Pornography is one of them.

Emerging From Capitalism and Loneliness

How can we emerge from this epidemic of personal isolation and loneliness? How can we connect as equals to change these things? The hope of reaching one another is beginning to mobilize the 99 percent of Americans dispossessed and formerly isolated in capitalist America. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight men and women of all races and ethnicities are beginning to affirm that we belong to the 99 percent and can begin to build a movement together as equals. It is happening. Occupy movements are spreading across America and flourishing in spite of police brutality and repression.

Read entire article here

Gimme Shelter | Playing For Change all over the world

teri — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:28:37 +0000

ploaded by PlayingForChange on May 26, 2011

http://www.playingforchange.com – Hello Everyone, Today we are proud to release the newest song around the world from our upcoming PFC 2 album CD/DVD release!! “Gimme Shelter” is a track we have wanted to record for years and today we can finally share it with all of you. This song expresses the urgency we all face to unite together as a planet and offers us wisdom with the words, “War, children, it’s just a shot away… Love, sister, it’s just a kiss away”. It really is that simple. We dedicate this song to all the lost, homeless and forgotten people in this world. It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.

Follow the link below to order the new album and support Playing For Change by telling all your friends and family to join the movement.

Order “PFC2: Songs Around The World” now on Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/PFCsatw2

Source www.youtube.com

16 HERBAL TEAS with Health facts to put on your grocery list

teri — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:41:45 +0000

RBG Fit Club-January 4, 2012

Herbal teas make for wonderful, low calorie and relaxing drinks.
Apart from having a beneficial effect on health, herbal teas are fragrant and appealing. Let’s take the mystery out of the herbal teas and discover together which teas are good for which symptoms…

1. Nettle Nettle is made with the leaves of stinging nettle, named for the tiny hairs on the fresh leaves which can sting the skin. Despite it’s rough exterior, nettle is one of nature’s best remedies for an assortment of ailments including anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatism, arthritis, coughs and colds, congestion, urinary tract infections, and kidney and bladder problems.
2. Chamomile Tea
Chamomile is a popular herb that’s used in teas worldwide. Chamomile soothes the stomach and relieves bloating and indigestion. Chamomile also calms the mind and helps people relax and deal better with their stresses. Some people are allergic to chamomile and should avoid taking the tea. People who find it hard to go to sleep should drink a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed. Chamomile is known to fight insomnia by relaxing the body and the mind, enabling the person to fall asleep naturally.
3. Ginger Tea
Ginger is an energizer and a stimulator. Drinking ginger tea both stimulates and soothes the digestive system. Ginger has been known to aid people experiencing nausea. Arthritic people have found ginger tea helpful since it has anti-inflammatory properties.
4. Peppermint Tea
Peppermint is a fragrant herb that makes for a soothing drink. Peppermint helps you digest foods better and also reduces flatulence and digestive issues. Peppermint is prescribed to people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and gallstones in capsules. A cup of peppermint tea will ease nausea and vomiting, especially if you suffer motion sickness. If you have heartburn, don’t drink peppermint tea as this might aggravate your condition. Peppermint tea brings down the severity of herpes outbreaks. The natural mint flavor of the herb helps to freshen your breath. Other health benefits of this tea are control of muscle aches and chronic pain, clearing of congestion and mild coughs, mild asthma and reduction of stress.
5. Lavender Tea
Lavender tea is made out of the dried purple, pink and white colored flowers that grow on lavender shrubs. Used as a scented herb for many centuries, lavender’s medicinal uses have been appreciated and documented for centuries. A cup of lavender tea can soothe your mind and body, inducing sleep. If you are feeling down and depressed, a cup of lavender tea can help uplift your spirit.
Lavender tea helps sooth and treat flatulence, colic, bowel infections and an upset stomach. Lavender tea can be used as a wash on the chest to help reduce cough, bronchitis, asthma, cold and other respiratory issues. For both children and adults, lavender is used to reduce body temperature during fever. Lavender also has healing properties; use a wash of lavender tea to help heal wounds, cuts, ulcers and sores.
6. Lemon Balm Tea
Lemon balm tea is fragrant to drink and is a very effective tonic to calm nerves and anxiety. Cold lemon balm tea bags help relieve cold sores, or genital sores caused by the herpes simplex virus. Mix lemon balm leaves with valerian to treat anxiety, stress and insomnia. Lemon Balm contains several properties, which control herpes and also regulate the thyroid.
Lemon balm when mixed with peppermint can calm an upset stomach, sooth the digestive track and reduce flatulence. Drink lemon balm tea if you suffer from nerve pain. Drinking lemon balm tea also helps strengthen memory and brain functions and also uplifts one’s mood.
7. Rosemary Tea
Rosemary is not only good for cooking but makes a healthful and highly beneficial tea. Rosemary can help your muscles to relax. Additionally, rosemary is an effective digestive aid as well. If you have gall bladder and liver complaints, drinking rosemary tea regularly will greatly help relieve your symptoms. Rosemary tea also relieves cough and mild asthma symptoms.
8. Hibiscus Flower Tea (Sorrel)
Dried Hibiscus flowers are made into a tea that offers very high health benefits. Hibiscus tea is known to lower blood pressure, reduce high cholesterol and strengthen the immune system (it’s rich in Vitamin C). Hibiscus flower infusions have known to reduce hypertension as well, in people prone to this condition. A recent study reveals that hibiscus tea is rich in antioxidants, which protect the body against cell-damaging free radicals. Red zinger tea and sorrel tea contain hibiscus.
9. Green Tea
Green Tea comes with such a host of health benefits, that it’s called the ‘wonder herb’ by tea drinkers and medical practitioners alike.
Drinking green tea lowers cancer risk and also inhibits carcinogenic in cigarettes and other compounds when imbibed. Green Tea contains potent antioxidants called polyphenols, which help suppress free radicals. Green tea also stops certain tumors from forming. Green tea lowers cholesterol and triglyceride levels and thereby promotes heart health. Green tea also lowers blood pressure, prevents and fights tooth decay and dental issues, and inhibits different viruses from causing illnesses.
10. Cardamom Tea Cardamom is an evergreen plant that’s grown mainly in India and Guatemala. Both dried white cardamom flowers and the sweetly aromatic seeds are used to make tea.
Cardamom tea has a pungent, sweet and aromatic flavor. Cardamom tea helps treat indigestion, prevents stomach pain, and relieves flatulence. It’s also helpful to drink a glass of cardamom tea if you are feeling nauseous. Cardamom tea fights pulmonary disease where lots of phlegm is present. It also works as a good expectorant and relieves coughs. If you have drunk too many cups of coffee, drink a couple of cups of cardamom tea to help detoxify the caffeine from your system. Drinking a cup of cardamom tea is helpful for women who experience mood swings during their menstrual period.

11. Milk thistle
When consumed as a tea, milk thistle herb, (not as in dairy milk) is a gentle liver cleanser. It contains properties that help the liver to regenerate and function at a higher capacity. “Milk Thistle can also assist in the production of bile, which can help with our digestive process.
12. Rosehip tea
Rosehips are the fruit of the rose plant and are one of the best plant sources of vitamin C, which is important for the immune system, skin and tissue health and adrenal function. Consider reaching for rosehip tea next time you need a health boost.

You may want to copy and print these tips for the next time you’re in the tea aisle, so you can make a knowledgeable selection.

13. Lemongrass? The citrusy tang that comes from the lemongrass plant is favored in cooking as well as tea. Lemongrass teas are often served as an after-dinner drink to aid digestion—primarily due to a substance called citral, also the active ingredient in lemon peels. Though typically enjoyed unaccompanied by other herbs, it can also be blended to create lemon-flavored teas like Lemon Zinger.

14.Echinacea? Echinacea is widely used to prevent or cure the common cold. It’s a powerful herb that contains active substances that enhance the activity of the immune system, relieve pain, reduce inflammation and have antioxidant effects. The leaves and flowers of the uppermost part of the plant are the section believed to contain polysaccharides (a substance known to trigger the activity of the immune system).

15.Blackberry leaves ?Picked, dried in the sun and infused with boiling water, blackberry leaves are the essence of most berry-flavored teas. Studies suggest that the leaves contain a healthy dose of flavonoids, which are known for their antioxidant activity.

16. Hawthorn ?The leaves, flowers and berries of the hawthorn plant are used in a variety of peach- and berry-flavored teas. The plant is believed to contain flavonoid-like complexes that help improve cardiovascular health by helping to relax and dilate blood vessels, which increases blood circulation and lessens stress on the heart. Hawthorn berries are also believed to relieve water retention by draining the body of excess salt.

Read entire article here

Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies

teri — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:16:33 +0000

Treehugger by Matthew McDermott
Jan. 6, 2012

Thomas Kohler/CC BY-SA 2.0

Germany’s promotion of renewable energy rightly gets singled out for its effectiveness, most often by me as an example of how to do things well versus the fits and starts method of promotion common in the US. Over at Wind-Works, Paul Gipe points out another interesting facet of the German renewable energy saga: 51% of all renewable energy in Germany is owned by individual citizens or farms, totaling $100 billion worth of private investment in clean energy.

Breaking that down into solar power and wind power, 50% of Germany’s solar PV is owned by individuals and farms, while 54% of its wind power is held by the same groups.

In total there’s roughly 17 GW of solar PV installed in Germany—versus roughly 3.6 GW in the US (based on SEIA’s figures for new installations though the third quarter of 2011 plus the 2.6 GW installed going into the year).

Remember, Germany now produces slightly over 20% of all its electricity from renewable sources.

The thing that got me though, other than the huge lead in solar PV installations Germany has over the US, thanks to good policy, and the fact that so much wind power isn’t owned by utilities, is what slightly over half of renewable energy being owned not by corporations but by actual biological people means—obviously a democratic shift in control of resources and a break from the way electricity and energy has been produced over the past century.

Read entire article here

Year of Global Uprisings, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street: A Special Look Back at 2011

noliesradio — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:48:49 +0000

This show was broadcast January 7, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Every Saturday – Anti-War – Progressive Truth Teach-in
Coming up at 9:00am Pacific * 12 noon Eastern * 16:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcast by Monday.

Year of Global Uprisings, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street: A Special Look Back at 2011
Today we look back at 2011, a year that saw the U.S. killing of Osama Bin Laden, the ouster of a dictator in Egypt and the death of one in Libya, the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, and the expansion of the secret U.S. drone war in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula. As U.S. troops leave Iraq, thousands of private security contractors remain to guard the U.S. embassy—the largest in the world. The Horn of Africa was hit by the region’s worst drought in decades as the devastating impact of extreme weather was felt across the globe, while the world’s most powerful countries continue to refuse to join in a pact to address climate change. However, 2011 may be most remembered as a year of global uprisings. From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, millions of people took to the streets to oppose repressive regimes and an unjust economic system. We spend the hour today looking back at the protest movements that shaped 2011.From a Democracy Now Presentation. See transcript here.

History of U.S. Intervention in Iran – 1953 Until Present

teri — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:57:48 +0000

This video is a basic overview of U.S. imperialism toward Iran that began at the behest of the British Government and big oil interests including British Petroleum also recently known as BP.

The United States’ own CIA led it’s first coup to overthrow a foreign leader against Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, The U.S. has suffered “Blowback: ever since, all the while the supposed leaders in Washington continue to demonize Iran’s leaders on flimsy grounds as more pretense to continued Middle East war and occupation by the U.S.

Source www.youtube.com

Iran welcomes ‘humanitarian’ rescue from pirates by the US Navy

teri — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:38:12 +0000

ABC News
Updated January 08, 2012 00:16:34

Photo: The USS Kidd rescues Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates (7pm TV News NSW)

The Iranian government has welcomed a US Navy rescue of 13 of its nationals from pirates near the entrance to the Gulf, in a rare respite from months of rising tensions between Tehran and Washington.

But one Iranian media outlet, the Fars news agency, which is close to the hardline Revolutionary Guards, dismissed the incident as a suspect “Hollywood movie” meant “to justify the presence of a (US) aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf waters.”

The rescue was carried out on Thursday by one of several warships escorting the carrier USS John C Stennis, which Iranian military chiefs early this week warned to stay out of Gulf waters or else face the “full force” of Iran’s navy.

“We consider the actions of the US forces in saving the lives of the Iranian seamen to be a humanitarian and positive act and we welcome such behaviour,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran’s Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam on Saturday.

“We think all nations should display such behaviour,” he added.

The US military announced on Friday that one of the vessels escorting the Stennis, the USS Kidd, rescued the Iranian fishermen from around 45 days of captivity at the hands of pirates thought to be Somalis.

It said the Iranian captain of the dhow had asked the Kidd for help.

The pirates were taken into custody and the Iranian fishermen released to return home on their dhow, which was refuelled and restocked with provisions supplied by the US navy vessels.

“Sent by God”

“It is like you were sent by God,” one of the Iranian fishermen, Fazel Ur Rehman, 28, was quoted as telling his US rescuers.

A reporter for the New York Times newspaper who was travelling on the Stennis boarded the Iranian fishing vessel, the Al Mulahi, and spoke with its crew and several of the pirates.

The Iranian captain, Mahmed Younes, 28, said the pirates had captured his vessel in late November and had since been using it as a mother ship for their operations around the region.

Photographs of the Iranian dhow and crew, and of the arrested pirates, were published on the New York Times website.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency initially said a US warship had only “claimed” to have carried out the rescue, and that Iranian military leaders had not confirmed it.

The Fars news agency then reported that the rescue was nothing more than a “Hollywood movie” that was the object of a “media blitz” by the Pentagon.

“Iran’s navy has on so many occasions rescued foreign ships from pirates, but they have never been praised and hailed by foreign media, not that Iranian navy officials were looking for propaganda,” Fars said.

“There is suspicion and doubt about this American action, which seems to have been pre-organised,” it said.

“It was more like a Hollywood film with a fixed location and specific actors,” said Fars, highlighting that the US navy had provided video of the incident.

“This shows the Americans were looking at using it for propaganda advantage,” it added.

In recent weeks, the United States and Iran have been sliding deeper into a showdown over the Gulf, and particularly the narrow Strait of Hormuz at its mouth, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil flows.

Ramped-up Western sanctions have prompted Iran to threaten to close the waterway.

Read entire article here

Occupy Geriatrics: Seniors in Walkers Shut Down Local Bank of America in San Francisco, California

teri — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:17:49 +0000

SF Weekly

By Erin Sherbert Fri., Jan. 6 2012 at 1:25 PM

Dear Bank of America …

What some healthy and spry Occupy Movements across the nation couldn’t quite accomplish, San Francisco geriatrics have!

KCBS reports that a small group of senior citizens between the ages of 69 and 82 successfully shut down a Bank of America in Bernal Heights on Thursday with nothing more than walkers and oxygen tanks. That’s right: No shouting, chanting, tear gas, or window-smashing.

The group, which dubbed itself “Wild Old Women” set up camp right outside the Bank of America, holding signs in what they were calling “a run on the bank.”

While the protesters said they had no intention (or oxygen) of storming the bank, as occupiers in other communities have done, officials at Bank of America shut the doors and locked them as they spotted the slow-moving group make its way to the front of the bank.

So the seniors took a seat outside the bank where they explained their demands, which were no different than every other occupiers: They want lower fees, and they want the bank to pay higher taxes and stop the foreclosures.

Read entire article here

Protest singer/songwriter David Rovics_on Backstage

noliesradio — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:07:05 +0000

This show was broadcast January 7, 2012.
It is now archived here — Use Player

Coming up Saturday & Sunday at 3pm Pacific – 6pm Eastern – 22:00 GMT
Will be archived here after the broadcasts.
On Backstage: Teri Perticone interviews protest singer/songwriter David Rovics

David Rovics has the hit songs After We Torture Our Prisoners, Operation Iraqi Liberation O-I-L, Reichstag Fire, Occupation, Welcome To The European Union, Berlin, When Johnny Came Marching Home, Four Blank Slates and Cannabis Café all now playing on No Lies Radio. Teri talks to David about the writing of his songs, his travels including his recent trip to Mayo County, Ireland where Shell Oil is planning on constructing a gas pipeline despite the protests of the locals. See his website here.

Monkey Blood: Who Are We? By Grace Powers

teri — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:23:45 +0000

Monkey Blood by Grace Powers – Producer of Ring of Power DVD series. See more at: www.helpfreetheearth.com

Source www.youtube.com