deBAM

"It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:22:12 -0400

“It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make concessions to none. It is time to employ the harsh language of open rebellion and class warfare. It is time to march to the beat of our own drum. The law historically has been a very imperfect tool for justice, as African-Americans know, but now it is exclusively the handmaiden of our corporate oppressors; now it is a mechanism of injustice. It was our corporate overlords who launched this war. Not us. Revolt will see us branded as criminals. Revolt will push us into the shadows. And yet, if we do not revolt we can no longer use the word “hope.””

- Chris Hedges (via azspot)

liberalsarecool: The GOP hates students, loves their debt...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:52:14 -0400

liberalsarecool:

The GOP hates students, loves their debt payments.

"…conservatives have bastardized the concept of the American Dream, and progressives largely have let..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:10:54 -0400

“…conservatives have bastardized the concept of the American Dream, and progressives largely have let them get away with it. According to today’s conservative dogma, the American Dream represents the chance in America to go from humble beginnings to vast fame and fortune through hard work. To conservatives, Steve Jobs represents the American Dream. In my mind, the real American Dream is entirely different. It is simply the ability of any American who works hard — a teacher, a cop, an auto worker — to enjoy a good life.”

- Celebrities in Unequal Times (via azspot)

"Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:23:49 -0400

“Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.”

- Chris Hedges (via azspot)

The Divided States of America

"We stand helpless before the corporate onslaught. There is no way to vote against corporate power...."

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:02:38 -0400

“We stand helpless before the corporate onslaught. There is no way to vote against corporate power. Citizens have no way to bring about the prosecution of Wall Street bankers and financiers for fraud, military and intelligence officials for torture and war crimes, or security and surveillance officers for human rights abuses. The Federal Reserve is reduced to printing money for banks and financiers and lending it to them at almost zero percent interest; corporate officers then lend it to us at usurious rates as high as 30 percent. I do not know what to call this system. It is certainly not capitalism. Extortion might be a better word. The fossil fuel industry, meanwhile, relentlessly trashes the ecosystem for profit. The melting of 40 percent of the summer Arctic sea ice is, to corporations, a business opportunity. Companies rush to the Arctic and extract the last vestiges of oil, natural gas, minerals and fish stocks, indifferent to the death pangs of the planet. The same corporate forces that give us endless soap operas that pass for news, from the latest court proceedings surrounding O.J. Simpson to the tawdry details of the Jodi Arias murder trial, also give us atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide that surpass 400 parts per million. They entrance us with their electronic hallucinations as we waiver, as paralyzed with fear as Odysseus’ sailors, between Scylla and Charybdis.”

- Chris Hedges (via azspot)

estimfalos: Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:43:09 -0400

estimfalos:

Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity

Creating glowing plants using synthetic biology and Genome Compiler’s software - the first step in creating sustainable natural lighting.

- Video Above -

to hell with cfls—glowing trees will do just fine. —cbg

asphyxion: i went to a high school where they played jeopardy music when you had about 30 seconds...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:14:29 -0400

asphyxion:

i went to a high school where they played jeopardy music when you had about 30 seconds to get to class and i shit you not best part of the day was seeing kids sprinting to class with this music playing

Bob Burnett: Republicans Aren't Christians

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:02:12 -0400

Bob Burnett: Republicans Aren't Christians:

Nonetheless, American Calvinism has become so extreme that it no longer deserves to be called Christianity.

Jesus’ first commandment was to love God. But his other teachings are about loving those around us. His second commandment was “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus amplified this in his Sermon on the Mount: blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

Jesus was not a Calvinist or a capitalist. He disdained worldly possessions: “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven… it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Republican policy no longer represents the teachings of Jesus. The GOP favors the rich and ignores the poor, disadvantaged, sick, elderly, long-term unemployed, and other unfortunates. Republicans may be religious, but they’re not Christians.

Repugnacants aren’t Christian?? Wha?!? Motherfuckin newsflash. —cbg

"The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:35 -0400

“The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.”

- Carl Sagan (via sirmitchell)

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:20:25 -0400

"As a pastor for over the past twenty years, what I’ve seen again and again is people who want to..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:51:24 -0400

“As a pastor for over the past twenty years, what I’ve seen again and again is people who want to live lives of meaning and peace and significance and joy – people who have a compelling sense that their spirituality is in some vital yet mysterious way central to who they are – yet who can’t find meaning in the dominant conceptions, perceptions, and understandings of God they’ve encountered. In fact, those conceptions aren’t just failing them but are actually causing harm.”

- Rob Bell (via azspot)

you are spot on Mr. Rob Bell. spirituality has been hijacked by externalities, membership rules and dues. burn the book, look within. — cbg

bjornstar: Balance

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:10:54 -0400

bjornstar:

Balance

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:04:06 -0400

Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life'

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:28:51 -0400

Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life':

krystalcunningham:

the-lone-pamphleteer:

by Jacob Chamberlain for commondreams.org

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of biotech giant Monsanto, ordering Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, 75, to pay Monsanto more than $84,000 for patent infringement for using second generation Monsanto seeds purchased second hand—a ruling which will have broad implications for the ownership of ‘life’ and farmers’ rights in the future.

In the case, Bowman had purchased soybean seeds from a grain elevator—where seeds are cheaper than freshly engineered Monsanto GE (genetically engineered) seeds and typically used for animal feed rather than for crops. The sources of the seeds Bowman purchased were mixed and were not labeled. However, some were “Roundup Ready” patented Monsanto seeds.

The Supreme Court Justices, who gave Monsanto a warm reception from the start, ruled that Bowman had broken the law because he planted seeds which naturally yielded from the original patented seed products—Monsanto’s policies prohibit farmers from saving or reusing seeds from Monsanto born crops.

Farmers who use Monsanto’s seeds are forced to buy the high priced new seeds every year.

Ahead of the expected ruling, Debbie Barker, Program Director for Save Our Seeds (SOS), and George Kimbrell, staff attorney for Center for Food Safety (CFS), asked in an op-ed earlier this year, “Should anyone, or any corporation, control a product of life?”:

Bowman vs. Monsanto Co. will be decided based on the court’s interpretation of a complex web of seed and plant patent law, but the case also reflects something much more basic: Should anyone, or any corporation, control a product of life?

[Monsanto’s] logic is troubling to many who point out that it is the nature of seeds and all living things, whether patented or not, to replicate. Monsanto’s claim that it has rights over a self-replicating natural product should raise concern. Seeds, unlike computer chips, for example, are essential to life. If people are denied a computer chip, they don’t go hungry. If people are denied seeds, the potential consequences are much more threatening.

Bowman had argued that he was respecting his contract with Monsanto, purchasing directly from them each year, but couldn’t afford Monsanto’s high prices for his riskier late season crops. Bowman’s defense argued that Monsanto’s patent was “exhausted” through the process of natural seed reproduction and no longer applied to Bowman’s second generation seeds.

“If they don’t want me to go to the elevator and buy that grain,” Bowman had stated, “then Congress should pass a law saying you can’t do it.”

The Center for Food Safety released a report in February which shows three corporations control more than half of the global commercial seed market.

As a result, from 1995-2011 the average cost to plant 1 acre of soybeans rose 325%.

As AP reports, more than 90 percent of American soybean farms use Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” seeds, which first came on the market in 1996.

Vandana Shiva, an expert on seed patents and their effects on farmers around the world, wrote recently:

Monsanto’s concentrated control over the seed sector in India as well as across the world is very worrying. This is what connects farmers’ suicides in India to Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser in Canada, to Monsanto vs Bowman in the US, and to farmers in Brazil suing Monsanto for $2.2 billion for unfair collection of royalty.

Through patents on seed, Monsanto has become the “Life Lord” of our planet, collecting rents for life’s renewal from farmers, the original breeders.

[See other Lone Pamphleteer posts about Monsanto and watch a trailer for the documentary David vs. Monsanto.]

This is so disgusting.

It’s really too bad this is the first case to hit the Supreme Court regarding Monsanto’s control of its patented seeds and their “progeny”. Because… in this case, the guy actually bought the seeds (progeny— 2nd generation seeds) secondhand to plant on his property, which is apparently strictly forbidden according to Monsanto. They created them, so they get to set the rules, so the argument goes. And in the strictest sense and protection of the patent that may be appropriate—he broke the rule, they say. However, the reason it sucks that this is the first case is because it sets a precedent of support without having to consider some of the unintentional consequences (not part of this particular case) of protecting a patent on a product which self-multiplies and blows around in the damn wind.

When another farmer in a neighboring plot, who chooses not to go with Monsanto, is found to have Monsanto product in his field (and this is happening in mass all over the planet; see India farmer suicide link above), he’s then sued into either becoming a Monsanto teet suckler himself or he’s sued out of existence as a farmer—all due to no wrongful action of his own, other than being too close to a Monsanto plant when the wind was blowing. This is an unintended consequence which the Supreme Court is unwittingly bolstering now with this particular Supreme Court ruling as precedent.

This is absolutely the dumbest thing one can imagine as an earthling. Let’s allow a particular corporation to patent and control the fundamental supply of nourishment allowing for our existence on this planet. Next someone will patent water droplets with nano iron particles that allow the control of water flow with strong electromagnetic fields. Well the non-patented water would have fallen on your fields but due to water tension HydroX was able to tug the whole rain cloud directly over their retention facility instead. You want some water, come and get it, $4/ gallon all day!! This supreme court is a joke. — cbg

azspot: 400 PPM: We’ve Never Been Here Before Science 101...

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:33:38 -0400

azspot:

400 PPM: We’ve Never Been Here Before

Science 101 for Climate Change Denialists

When two data sets move in unison, it’s called correlation. When those data sets produce two identical lines offset a tick tracking back 100s of thousands of years, it’s called causation. When the causey line shoots off the chart, the effecty line is soon to follow… and that’s why we’re all gonna die. —cbg

"Since the day he took office, the Obama administration has undertaken an assault on government..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:55:13 -0400

“Since the day he took office, the Obama administration has undertaken an assault on government whistleblowers — people informing citizens of what their government doesn’t want them to know — that surpasses anything that Nixon or any other president has done. Since 2009, the Obama administration has brought espionage charges against six whistleblowers. And most of these whistleblowers have been criticizing that way that America conducts its neverending war of the 21st Century. One, Thomas Drake, blew the whistle on the illegal warrantless wiretapping that began under George W. Bush. John Kiriakou dropped the dime on illegal U.S. torture — and was sent away to prison, even as the perpetrators of torture from Dick Cheney to John Yoo continue to walk freely among us.”

- The Day the Obama Administration Went All Nixon on Us (via azspot)

"You can’t meet every Tuesday with a killer list and continually have drones drop bombs. You can do..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:30:52 -0400

“You can’t meet every Tuesday with a killer list and continually have drones drop bombs. You can do that once or twice and say: ‘I shouldn’t have done that, I’ve got to stop.’ But when you do it month in, month out, year in, year out – that’s a pattern of behavior…. I think there is a chance of a snowball in hell that he will ever be tried, but I think he should be tried and I said the same about George Bush. These are war crimes. We suffer in this age from an indifference toward criminality and a callousness to catastrophe when it comes to poor and working people….”

- Cornel West (via azspot)

sylviac: Rick Steves Smokes Pot (by FDBecker) I didn’t know...

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:05:42 -0400

sylviac:

Rick Steves Smokes Pot (by FDBecker) I didn’t know Rick Steves was a director of NORML!

I’m talking about people who want to listen to the Beatles and actually hear everything that’s in there. I mean, there’s something to that. That’s a beautiful thing! …How can that be evil? It’s just not.

I’ll be damned, I’ve ben Rick Steves’d, again. he’s like the Morgan Freeman of know-it-alls. If Siri, had a cool older brother. This guy is awesome, you just want to roll him up and put him in your shirt pocket. Rick Steves, where is the perfect cliff to have a picnic while backpacking through this tiny Bavarian mountain town? and which strain of grass goes best with this fresh cambozola? Rick Steves, you’re the best!

redcloud: Happy Mothers Day… TO THE GROUND!

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:50:49 -0400

redcloud:

Happy Mothers Day… TO THE GROUND!

bizarre-brain: By Lora Zombie.

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:50:20 -0400

bizarre-brain:

By Lora Zombie.