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polly7
polly7's Journal
polly7's Journal
February 8, 2016
Deaths come as Turkish and German officials hold talks to stem the flow of refugees.
08 Feb 2016 14:13 GMT
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/33-refugees-drown-turkish-coast-160208130920304.html
At least 33 refugees drown off Turkish coast
Deaths come as Turkish and German officials hold talks to stem the flow of refugees.
08 Feb 2016 14:13 GMT
At least 33 refugees drowned off Turkey's Aegean coast as they tried to reach a Greek island, and a search and rescue operation was under way for the remaining passengers.
Turkey's private Dogan News Agency, which reported the 33 deaths on Monday, said that one boat set sail from Turkey's Edremit coastal district and the other from the town of Dikili, further south.
Both were headed for the Greek island of Lesbos, just a few kilometres away.
Turkey's private Dogan News Agency, which reported the 33 deaths on Monday, said that one boat set sail from Turkey's Edremit coastal district and the other from the town of Dikili, further south.
Both were headed for the Greek island of Lesbos, just a few kilometres away.
More than 900,000 people fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and other war-torn or impoverished countries arrived in Greece from Turkey last year, often risking their lives in the short but perilous sea crossing in overloaded boats.
Last month marked the deadliest January on record for refugees trying to reach Europe, as more than 250 died while making the journey.
Last month marked the deadliest January on record for refugees trying to reach Europe, as more than 250 died while making the journey.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/33-refugees-drown-turkish-coast-160208130920304.html
February 8, 2016
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/tunisia-as-expected/
Tunisia, As Expected
By Samir Amin
Source: Mr Zine
February 8, 2016
"Mass protests have returned in Tunisia, since the 20th of January, in Kasserine, then in Tunis, and in the rest of the country. As expected, the pursuit of neoliberal policy by the so-called “national unity” government (ranging from Islamists of Ennahdha to leftists, including Bourguibists and survivors of the defunct Ben Ali regime) has not allowed any social progress for five years and has even led to the continuing degradation of social conditions. Thoughtless praises lavished upon this government by Western “democrats” of all stripes have proved to be vacuous."
"At the roundtable that we (Third World Forum–World Forum for Alternatives) organized at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March 2015, we explained that to begin to respond to the just demands of the Tunisian people would require a different economic policy, breaking with neoliberalism. The secretary general of the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), Houcine Abassi, noted in his speech, with powerful and convincing arguments: “Nothing has been solved in Tunisia yet, and electoral democracy without parallel implementation of new and audacious social and economic policies would do nothing to stabilize the country.” Making an umpteenth appeal to Western countries, especially France, for financial aid will not help advance the solution to the Tunisian problems. Beginning to solve them means carrying out a sovereign development plan and initiating negotiations with partners open to supporting it: China, BRICS, even the neighboring Algeria."
"It is time, now that the Tunisian people is regaining the initiative, that all democrats of the world at last understand what are the real objectives of the strategy of the imperialist powers, their local friends (the Islamists of Ennahdha, the Bourguibists, and the survivors of the defunct Ben Ali regime), and even a good number of organizations engaged in democratic struggles on multiple fronts. The dominant reactionary forces are pursuing a single goal: to keep Tunisia in the position of a country subordinated to the needs of imperialist capitalism of financial monopolies — nothing more. The discourse on “democracy,” the falsely naïve remarks about Ennahdha characterized as a “convert to the democratic cause,” is only a smokescreen, to delay the necessary political awakening of popular classes engaged in the struggle. Following the policy imposed by the Western powers can only help “terrorist” networks take root. The leaders of the “democratic” West certainly understand that; but that’s what they want. Their only fear is that people are taking into their own hands the conduct of their own affairs."
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/tunisia-as-expected/
February 8, 2016
.... On this night, Feb. 19, 2011, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, a premonition that perhaps she shouldn’t go. But she needed the money. It was the final shift in her six-day workweek, and if she missed a day, the factory would dock her 300 pesos. She couldn’t afford to lose that kind of money. Her family already struggled to survive on the 1,300 pesos (about $100) a week she earned. Unable to shake the bad feeling, she’d already missed her bus, and now she’d have to pay for a taxi. But the thought of losing 300 pesos was worse. She had to go. Rosa kissed her six children goodnight and set out across town.
In the Mexican border city of Reynosa, the hundreds of maquiladoras that produce everything from car parts to flat-screen televisions run day and night—365 days a year—to feed global demand. Rosa worked from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a factory called HD Electronics in a sprawling maquiladora park near the international bridge that links Reynosa, an industrial city of 600,000, to Pharr, Texas. Like the 90,000 or more workers in Reynosa, the 38-year-old Rosa depended on these factories for her livelihood. In the 11 years since she moved to the city, she had welded circuitry for Asian and European cell phone companies, assembled tubing for medical IV units to be shipped over the border to the United States, and worked on a production line assembling air conditioners for General Motors.
This was her second month at HD Electronics, a South Korean firm that had moved to Reynosa in 2006 to produce the metal backing for flat-screen televisions made by another South Korean firm, LG Electronics—a $49 billion corporation. LG also has a plant in Reynosa and could scarcely keep up with the North American demand for its plasma and LCD televisions.
At HD Electronics, Rosa operated a 200-ton hydraulic stamping press. Every night, six days a week, she fed the massive machine thin aluminum sheets. The machine ran all day, every day. Each time the press closed it sounded like a giant hammer striking metal: thwack, thwack, thwack. The metal sheets emerged pierced and molded into shape for each model and size of television. At the factory, 20 women, including Rosa, worked the presses to make the pieces for the smaller televisions. Nearby were 10 larger presses, each of which took two men to operate, to make backings for the giant-screen models.
Full Article: http://www.alternet.org/labor/after-20-years-nafta-thanks-nafta-what-happened-mexican-factory-workers-rosa-moreno?akid=11305.44541.10ylde&rd=1&src=newsletter939436&t=21
How NAFTA Drove Mexicans into Poverty and Sparked the Zapatista Revolt
By EDELO, Creative Time Reports
The North American Free Trade Agreement, passed 20 years ago, has resulted in increased emigration, hunger and poverty (with Video)
December 30, 2013
Full Article: http://www.alternet.org/world/how-nafta-drove-mexicans-poverty-and-sparked-zapatista-revolt?akid=11347.44541.RWB6aQ&rd=1&src=newsletter941851&t=19
Drug War Mexico, NAFTA and Why People Leave -
Nor is Mexico ...... or Canada, for that matter.
NAFTA Is Starving Mexico
Posted by polly7 in General Discussion
Thu Oct 20th 2011, 09:40 AM
NAFTA Is Starving Mexico
By Laura Carlsen, October 20, 2011
http://www.fpif.org/articles/nafta_is_star...
"Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became the law of the land, millions of Mexicans have joined the ranks of the hungry. Malnutrition is highest among the country’s farm families, who used to produce enough food to feed the nation.
As the blood-spattered violence of the drug war takes over the headlines, many Mexican men, women, and children confront the slow and silent violence of starvation. The latest reports show that the number of people living in “food poverty” (the inability to purchase the basic food basket) rose from 18 million in 2008 to 20 million by late 2010.
About one-fifth of Mexican children currently suffer from malnutrition. An innovative measurement applied by the National Institute for Nutrition registers a daily count of 728,909 malnourished children under five for October 18, 2011. Government statistics report that 25 percent of the population does not have access to basic food."
Thanks to NAFTA, Conditions for Mexican Factory Workers Like Rosa Moreno Are Getting Worse
Texas Observer / By Melissa del Bosque
The difficult and dangerous working conditions that Rosa and at least 1.3 million other Mexican workers endure were supposed to get better. They didn't.
Photo Credit: Alan Pogue
December 11, 2013 |
.... On this night, Feb. 19, 2011, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, a premonition that perhaps she shouldn’t go. But she needed the money. It was the final shift in her six-day workweek, and if she missed a day, the factory would dock her 300 pesos. She couldn’t afford to lose that kind of money. Her family already struggled to survive on the 1,300 pesos (about $100) a week she earned. Unable to shake the bad feeling, she’d already missed her bus, and now she’d have to pay for a taxi. But the thought of losing 300 pesos was worse. She had to go. Rosa kissed her six children goodnight and set out across town.
In the Mexican border city of Reynosa, the hundreds of maquiladoras that produce everything from car parts to flat-screen televisions run day and night—365 days a year—to feed global demand. Rosa worked from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a factory called HD Electronics in a sprawling maquiladora park near the international bridge that links Reynosa, an industrial city of 600,000, to Pharr, Texas. Like the 90,000 or more workers in Reynosa, the 38-year-old Rosa depended on these factories for her livelihood. In the 11 years since she moved to the city, she had welded circuitry for Asian and European cell phone companies, assembled tubing for medical IV units to be shipped over the border to the United States, and worked on a production line assembling air conditioners for General Motors.
This was her second month at HD Electronics, a South Korean firm that had moved to Reynosa in 2006 to produce the metal backing for flat-screen televisions made by another South Korean firm, LG Electronics—a $49 billion corporation. LG also has a plant in Reynosa and could scarcely keep up with the North American demand for its plasma and LCD televisions.
At HD Electronics, Rosa operated a 200-ton hydraulic stamping press. Every night, six days a week, she fed the massive machine thin aluminum sheets. The machine ran all day, every day. Each time the press closed it sounded like a giant hammer striking metal: thwack, thwack, thwack. The metal sheets emerged pierced and molded into shape for each model and size of television. At the factory, 20 women, including Rosa, worked the presses to make the pieces for the smaller televisions. Nearby were 10 larger presses, each of which took two men to operate, to make backings for the giant-screen models.
Full Article: http://www.alternet.org/labor/after-20-years-nafta-thanks-nafta-what-happened-mexican-factory-workers-rosa-moreno?akid=11305.44541.10ylde&rd=1&src=newsletter939436&t=21
How NAFTA Drove Mexicans into Poverty and Sparked the Zapatista Revolt
By EDELO, Creative Time Reports
The North American Free Trade Agreement, passed 20 years ago, has resulted in increased emigration, hunger and poverty (with Video)
December 30, 2013
Mexico was said to be one step away from entering the “First World.” It was December 1992, and Mexico’s then-president, Carlos Salinas, signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The global treaty came with major promises of economic development, driven by increased farm production and foreign investment, that would end emigration and eliminate poverty. But, as the environmentalist Gustavo Castro attests in our video, the results have been the complete opposite—increased emigration, hunger and poverty.
While the world was entertaining the idea of the end of times supposedly predicted by the Mayan calendar, on December 21, 2012, over 40,000 Mayan Zapatis . tas took to the streets to make their presence known in a March of Silence. The indigenous communities of Chiapas—Tzeltales, Tzotziles, Tojolobales, Choles, Zoques and Mames—began their mobilization from their five centers of government, which are called Caracoles. In silence they entered the fog of a December winter and occupied the same squares, in the same cities, that they had descended upon as ill-equipped rebels on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA came into effect.
In light of the 20th anniversary of NAFTA’s implementation and the Zapatista uprising, we set out to explore both the positive and negative effects of the international treaty. The poverty caused by NAFTA, and the waves of violence, forced migration and environmental disasters it has precipitated, should not be understated. The republic of Mexico is under threat from multinational corporations like the Canadian mining company Blackfire Explorations, which is threatening to sue the state of Chiapas for $800 million under NAFTA Chapter 11 because its government closed a Blackfire barite mine after pressure from local environmental activists like Mariano Abarca Roblero, who was murdered in 2009.
Still, one result of the corporate extraction of Mexico’s natural resources and displacement of its people that has followed the treaty has been the organization and strengthening of initiatives by indigenous communities to construct autonomy from the bottom up. Seeing that their own governments cannot respond to popular demands without retribution from corporations, the people of Mexico are asking about alternatives: “What is it that we do want?” The Zapatista revolution reminds us that not only another world, but many other worlds, are possible
In light of the 20th anniversary of NAFTA’s implementation and the Zapatista uprising, we set out to explore both the positive and negative effects of the international treaty. The poverty caused by NAFTA, and the waves of violence, forced migration and environmental disasters it has precipitated, should not be understated. The republic of Mexico is under threat from multinational corporations like the Canadian mining company Blackfire Explorations, which is threatening to sue the state of Chiapas for $800 million under NAFTA Chapter 11 because its government closed a Blackfire barite mine after pressure from local environmental activists like Mariano Abarca Roblero, who was murdered in 2009.
Still, one result of the corporate extraction of Mexico’s natural resources and displacement of its people that has followed the treaty has been the organization and strengthening of initiatives by indigenous communities to construct autonomy from the bottom up. Seeing that their own governments cannot respond to popular demands without retribution from corporations, the people of Mexico are asking about alternatives: “What is it that we do want?” The Zapatista revolution reminds us that not only another world, but many other worlds, are possible
Full Article: http://www.alternet.org/world/how-nafta-drove-mexicans-poverty-and-sparked-zapatista-revolt?akid=11347.44541.RWB6aQ&rd=1&src=newsletter941851&t=19
Drug War Mexico, NAFTA and Why People Leave -
February 7, 2016
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37301.htm
Gaddafi was praised for his human rights record towards women. He introduced equal pay, women were half the work force. Do you have equal pay in the U.S.? Crickets.
Prior to western military involvement Libya was a modern and secular state with the highest regional women’s rights and standards of living. No more. We fixed that!
Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
Unlike many other Arab nations, women in Gaddafi’s Libya had the right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold property and have an income. The United Nations Human Rights Council praised Gaddafi for his promotion of women’s rights. More than half of Libya’s university students were women. One of the first laws Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay for equal work law.
Now, the new 'democratic' Libyan regime is clamping down on women’s rights. The new ruling tribes are tied to traditions that are strongly patriarchal. Extremist Islamic forces see gender equality as a Western perversion.
You must be forgetting a little something.
Mandela praised Qaddafi for fully supporting ending apherteid.
This question becomes even more valid in light of what the mainstream media, in the wake of the former South African president’s death, have been anxiously hiding from the public: the actual close and crucial alliance between Mandela and Gaddafi. Back in the 70s and 80s, when the West refused to allow sanctions against Apartheid in South Africa and used to call Mandela a terrorist, it was none other than Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi who kept supporting him. Gaddafi funded Mandela’s fight against Apartheid by training ANC fighters and by paying for their education abroad, and their bond only became stronger after Mandela’s release from prison on February 11, 1990.
When Mandela was taken to the ruins of Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, which was bombed by the Reagan administration in 1986 in an attempt to murder the entire Gaddafi family, he said:
“No country can claim to be the policeman of the world and no state can dictate to another what it should do. Those that yesterday were friends of our enemies have the gall today to tell me not to visit my brother Gaddafi. They are advising us to be ungrateful and forget our friends of the past.”
In response, Gaddafi thanked Mandela for his friendship, saying: “Who would ever have said that one day the opportunity for us to meet would become reality. We would like you to know that we are constantly celebrating your fight and that of the South African people, and that we salute your courage during all of those long years you spent in detention in the prison of Apartheid. Not a single day has passed without us having thought of you and your sufferings.”
Eight years later, when then U.S. president Bill Clinton visited Mandela in March 1998, Clinton criticized the South African president’s meeting with Muammar Gaddafi. In reaction to that criticism, Mandela straightforwardly replied:
“I have also invited Brother Leader Gaddafi to this country. And I do that because our moral authority dictates that we should not abandon those who helped us in the darkest hour in the history of this country. Not only did the Libyans support us in return, they gave us the resources for us to conduct our struggle, and to win. And those South Africans who have berated me for being loyal to our friends, can literally go and jump into a pool.”
“No country can claim to be the policeman of the world and no state can dictate to another what it should do. Those that yesterday were friends of our enemies have the gall today to tell me not to visit my brother Gaddafi. They are advising us to be ungrateful and forget our friends of the past.”
In response, Gaddafi thanked Mandela for his friendship, saying: “Who would ever have said that one day the opportunity for us to meet would become reality. We would like you to know that we are constantly celebrating your fight and that of the South African people, and that we salute your courage during all of those long years you spent in detention in the prison of Apartheid. Not a single day has passed without us having thought of you and your sufferings.”
Eight years later, when then U.S. president Bill Clinton visited Mandela in March 1998, Clinton criticized the South African president’s meeting with Muammar Gaddafi. In reaction to that criticism, Mandela straightforwardly replied:
“I have also invited Brother Leader Gaddafi to this country. And I do that because our moral authority dictates that we should not abandon those who helped us in the darkest hour in the history of this country. Not only did the Libyans support us in return, they gave us the resources for us to conduct our struggle, and to win. And those South Africans who have berated me for being loyal to our friends, can literally go and jump into a pool.”
On the eve of the NATO-led war against Libya, Gaddafi’s booming country largely co-funded three projects that would rid Africa from its financial dependence on the West once and for all: the African Investment Bank in the Libyan city of Sirte, the African Monetary Fund (AFM), to be based in the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde, in 2011, and the African Central Bank to be based in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja. Especially the latter angered France – not coincidentally also the main orchestrator of the war on Libya – because it would mean the end of the West African CFA franc and the Central African CFA franc, through which France kept a hold on as much as thirteen African countries. Only two months after Africa said no to Western attempts to join the AFM, Western organized “protests” against the AFM’s benefactor, Muammar Gaddafi, started to erupt in Libya… ultimately resulting in the freezing of $30 billion by the West, which money mostly was intended for the above mentioned financial projects.
But Gaddafi helped the African continent in more than just material ways. More than any other African leader, he supported Mandela’s ANC’s struggle against the racist regime in South Africa. Above that, many Black Africans, especially sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees, found a new home in Gaddafi’s prosperous Libya.
But Gaddafi helped the African continent in more than just material ways. More than any other African leader, he supported Mandela’s ANC’s struggle against the racist regime in South Africa. Above that, many Black Africans, especially sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees, found a new home in Gaddafi’s prosperous Libya.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37301.htm
Gaddafi was praised for his human rights record towards women. He introduced equal pay, women were half the work force. Do you have equal pay in the U.S.? Crickets.
Prior to western military involvement Libya was a modern and secular state with the highest regional women’s rights and standards of living. No more. We fixed that!
Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
Unlike many other Arab nations, women in Gaddafi’s Libya had the right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold property and have an income. The United Nations Human Rights Council praised Gaddafi for his promotion of women’s rights. More than half of Libya’s university students were women. One of the first laws Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay for equal work law.
Now, the new 'democratic' Libyan regime is clamping down on women’s rights. The new ruling tribes are tied to traditions that are strongly patriarchal. Extremist Islamic forces see gender equality as a Western perversion.
February 6, 2016
Maher responds to Wagner’s question, saying:
Then, Armstrong Williams, an advisor for Ben Carson, decided to chime in. Williams implies that it doesn’t actually matter how well Sanders knows foreign policy. That’s because Sanders would be surrounded by experts.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/02/06/watch-bill-maher-doesnt-hold-back-defending-bernie-sanders-on-foreign-policy/
Published on Feb 5, 2016
Bill Maher really let loose tonight on the idea that Bernie Sanders doesn’t have a chance to be president, telling the “I like Bernie but…” people to just “shut up.” He said in an election year where Donald Trump is giving the finger to every single person who said he wouldn’t make it in the election, people shouldn’t be throwing cold water on Sanders’ chances when he could actually go all the way. MSNBC’s Alex Wagner pushed back a bit on the Sanders love, saying he preaches “absolute idealism” and asking Maher if he honestly thinks Sanders is qualified enough to lead America on the world stage. He cried, “Fuck yeah! The guy who voted right on the Iraq war? Yea, I do.” Things got a bit awkward when Ben Carson adviser Armstrong Williams tried to pile on Sanders’ foreign policy chops, only for Maher to turn the tables and ask him what about his own guy’s “no qualifications.” Despite presidential candidate Bernie Sander’s less than stellar responses to foreign policy questions during the Democratic debate earlier this week, Real Time host Bill Maher gave the Vermont senator his full-throated support saying, “F*ck yeah!” when asked if Sanders was ready to become Commander in Chief. With MSNBC analyst Alex Morgan saying she believed Sanders won the first half of the debate dealing with jobs and the economy, she stated that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clearly was superior when it came to the foreign policy portion. “Do you want Bernie Sanders getting off Air Force One making a deal with–,” Wagner asked Maher. “Seriously — on foreign policyn — do you think that he’s at the level that we need–” Wagner never finished her question as Maher jumped right in. “F*ck yeah!’ he exclaimed to cheers from the audience. “The guy who voted right on the Iraq war?” he shot back. “Yeah I do.” Watch the video below captured by Mediaite:
Bill Maher Doesn’t Hold Back Defending Bernie Sanders On Foreign Policy
February 6, 2016 9:26 am ·
Bill Maher Goes All in for Bernie Sanders: ‘F*ck Yeah’ He’s Ready to Be Commander-in-Chief
During a segment of Real Time with Bill Maher, the comedic host went all out in his defense of Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy experience.
During the segment, the lefties at the table agreed that Sanders is excellent on economic issues. Though some seemed skeptical that Sanders has the same grasp of foreign policy issues. Maher was asked by MSNBC’s Alex Wagner if he seriously thinks that Sanders is fit to lead the nation as president when it comes to foreign policy matters. Wagner asks Maher:
“Do you want Bernie Sanders getting off Air Force One, making a deal on foreign police with…? Do you think he’s at the level that we need?”
Maher responds to Wagner’s question, saying:
“Fuck yeah! The guy who voted right on the Iraq war? Yea, I do.”
Then, Armstrong Williams, an advisor for Ben Carson, decided to chime in. Williams implies that it doesn’t actually matter how well Sanders knows foreign policy. That’s because Sanders would be surrounded by experts.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/02/06/watch-bill-maher-doesnt-hold-back-defending-bernie-sanders-on-foreign-policy/
Published on Feb 5, 2016
Bill Maher really let loose tonight on the idea that Bernie Sanders doesn’t have a chance to be president, telling the “I like Bernie but…” people to just “shut up.” He said in an election year where Donald Trump is giving the finger to every single person who said he wouldn’t make it in the election, people shouldn’t be throwing cold water on Sanders’ chances when he could actually go all the way. MSNBC’s Alex Wagner pushed back a bit on the Sanders love, saying he preaches “absolute idealism” and asking Maher if he honestly thinks Sanders is qualified enough to lead America on the world stage. He cried, “Fuck yeah! The guy who voted right on the Iraq war? Yea, I do.” Things got a bit awkward when Ben Carson adviser Armstrong Williams tried to pile on Sanders’ foreign policy chops, only for Maher to turn the tables and ask him what about his own guy’s “no qualifications.” Despite presidential candidate Bernie Sander’s less than stellar responses to foreign policy questions during the Democratic debate earlier this week, Real Time host Bill Maher gave the Vermont senator his full-throated support saying, “F*ck yeah!” when asked if Sanders was ready to become Commander in Chief. With MSNBC analyst Alex Morgan saying she believed Sanders won the first half of the debate dealing with jobs and the economy, she stated that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clearly was superior when it came to the foreign policy portion. “Do you want Bernie Sanders getting off Air Force One making a deal with–,” Wagner asked Maher. “Seriously — on foreign policyn — do you think that he’s at the level that we need–” Wagner never finished her question as Maher jumped right in. “F*ck yeah!’ he exclaimed to cheers from the audience. “The guy who voted right on the Iraq war?” he shot back. “Yeah I do.” Watch the video below captured by Mediaite:
February 6, 2016
ROFL: An Adult Film Company Just Offered To Make Ted Cruz’s Bizarre Dreams Come True (Letter)
A video that recently surfaced of a young Ted Cruz has raised some eyebrows. The creepy little Cruz, aside from declaring his aspirations to be rich, powerful and to take over the world, also expressed an interest in making a “teen tit film,” because he’s the perfect Christian. Yes, your sarcasm alarm went off for a reason.
Well now Ted Cruz has been given the opportunity to make his dream come true, thanks to adult film giant, Vivid Entertainment. Big shot at Vivid, Steve Hirsch, has extended an offer for Cruz to star in his very own XXX movie that would most certainly be quite a tad more risqué than an 80’s “tit film.” Hirsh offered to send $1 million to the super PAC of Cruz’s choice in exchange for his services.
This letter to Senator Cruz, obtained by TMZ, lays out the offer, along with a suggested headline for the film, which is nothing short of brilliant and hilarious:
?w=538
Would “Cruzin For Bush” be a big hit? It just might be. There must be people out there willing to pay good money to see the world’s most punchable face in action. The real question is, what would he do with his lapel flag?
Kudos to Steve Hirsch for pulling off the troll of the week!
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/02/06/rofl-an-adult-film-company-just-offered-to-make-ted-cruzs-bizarre-dreams-come-true-letter/
February 6, 2016
Great thread. nt.
February 6, 2016
By Renee Juliene Karunungan, www.fairobserver.com
January 21st, 2016
“We had a culture where we preserved wild fruits for when we didn’t have enough food and grains,” says Edna Kaptoyo, a Pokot indigenous woman from Kenya. “My mother did this for our family, but today, these fruits have disappeared.”
“Women also use grass to cover our houses. But it has become more difficult for us to find grass, so when the storms come, we do not have anything to protect our children,” she adds.
Indigenous peoples are known to be stewards of nature. Their traditions and culture are largely dependent on the environment. But threats to their environment such as fossil fuel companies who drill their land and the impact of climate change have resulted in a more difficult life.
According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, climate change is not simply about the environment where indigenous peoples live. It is a threat to their livelihoods, social life and traditional knowledge and cultures.
If there is one group of indigenous people who experience the impact of melting ice directly, it would be the Innuit. The Innuit people live on sea ice and traverse through sea ice. Global warming is melting glaciers at a fast pace. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Arctic summers could be ice-free by 2040.
https://www.popularresistance.org/indigenous-women-respect-our-knowledge-and-tradition/
Indigenous Women: Respect Our Knowledge And Tradition
By Renee Juliene Karunungan, www.fairobserver.com
January 21st, 2016
“We had a culture where we preserved wild fruits for when we didn’t have enough food and grains,” says Edna Kaptoyo, a Pokot indigenous woman from Kenya. “My mother did this for our family, but today, these fruits have disappeared.”
“Women also use grass to cover our houses. But it has become more difficult for us to find grass, so when the storms come, we do not have anything to protect our children,” she adds.
Indigenous peoples are known to be stewards of nature. Their traditions and culture are largely dependent on the environment. But threats to their environment such as fossil fuel companies who drill their land and the impact of climate change have resulted in a more difficult life.
According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, climate change is not simply about the environment where indigenous peoples live. It is a threat to their livelihoods, social life and traditional knowledge and cultures.
If there is one group of indigenous people who experience the impact of melting ice directly, it would be the Innuit. The Innuit people live on sea ice and traverse through sea ice. Global warming is melting glaciers at a fast pace. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Arctic summers could be ice-free by 2040.
https://www.popularresistance.org/indigenous-women-respect-our-knowledge-and-tradition/
February 6, 2016
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/rigging-the-market/
Rigging the Market
By George Monbiot
Source: The Guardian
February 4, 2016
Instead of a collapse in the supply of oil, we confront the opposite crisis: we’re drowning in the stuff. The reasons for the price crash – an astonishing slide from $115 a barrel to $30 over the past 20 months – are complex: among them are weaker demand in China and a strong dollar. But an analysis by the World Bank finds that changes in supply have been a much greater factor than changes in demand. Oil production has almost doubled in Iraq, as well as in the US. Saudi Arabia has opened its taps, to try to destroy the competition and sustain its market share: a strategy that some peak oil advocates once argued was impossible.
The outcomes are mixed. Cheaper oil means that more will be burnt, accelerating climate breakdown. But it also means less investment in future production. Already, $380 billion that was to have been ploughed into oil and gas fields has been held back. The first places to be spared are those in which extraction is most difficult or hazardous. Fragile ecosystems in the Arctic, in rainforests, in remote and stormy seas, have been granted a stay of execution.
The outcomes are mixed. Cheaper oil means that more will be burnt, accelerating climate breakdown. But it also means less investment in future production. Already, $380 billion that was to have been ploughed into oil and gas fields has been held back. The first places to be spared are those in which extraction is most difficult or hazardous. Fragile ecosystems in the Arctic, in rainforests, in remote and stormy seas, have been granted a stay of execution.
Already, according to the IMF, more money is spent, directly and indirectly, on subsidising fossil fuels than on funding health services. The G20 countries alone spend over three times as much public money on oil, gas and coal than the whole world does on renewable energy. In 2014, subsidies for fossil fuel production in the UK reached £5 billion. Enough? Oh no. While essential public services are being massacred through want of funds, last year the government announced a further £1.3 billion in tax breaks for oil companies in the North Sea. Much of this money went to companies based overseas. They must think we’re mad.
Compare all this to the government’s treatment of renewables. Local people have been given special new powers to stop onshore windfarms from being built. To the renewables companies Amber Rudd says this, “We need to work towards a market where success is driven by your ability to compete in a market, not by your ability to lobby government”. Strangely, the same rules do not apply to the oil companies. Your friends get protection. The free market is reserved for enemies.
Crises expose corruption: that is one of the basic lessons of politics. The oil price crisis finds politicians with their free-market trousers round their ankles. When your friends are in trouble, the rigours imposed religiously upon the poor and public services suddenly turn out to be negotiable. Throw money at them, trash their competitors, rig the outcome: those who deserve the least receive the most.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/rigging-the-market/
February 6, 2016
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/la-via-campesina-building-an-international-movement-for-food-and-seed-sovereignty/
La Via Campesina: Building an International Movement for Food and Seed Sovereignty
By Elizabeth Mpofu and Simone Adler
Source: Toward Freedom
February 6, 2016
Elizabeth Mpofu of Zimbabwe is General Coordinator of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, a coalition of 164 organizations in 73 countries around the world, representing about 200 million peasant, landless, indigenous, and other farmers. She is also Chairperson of Zimbabwe Organic Smallholder Farmers Forum, and herself a farmer.
Who we are fighting for is every single peasant farmer – more than 200 million – on the planet. People are eager to join hands in building a global voice.
Transnational corporations are pushing policies in African countries for industrial farming and the use of GMO [genetically modified] seeds, while grabbing our land and [stealing] our natural resources. No one should come and tell us how to produce food.
In Via Campesina, we believe in controlling our land and seeds and producing the healthy food that we want, the way we want. Our response is to fight for food sovereignty against these transnational corporations that are connected to the [New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition of the] G8, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the World Trade Organization, and free trade agreements that don’t recognize the needs of peasants or the poor.
Via Campesina formed [in 1993] when [a group of] peasants united to form a strong voice and strategize on the issues they were suffering from. Over time, Via Campesina became a global movement to advocate for policies which really meet the needs of the poor and marginalized, while fighting against those that do not. We develop global actions on agroecology, biodiversity, seeds, land and water territories, stopping transnational corporations, climate and environmental justice, trade, and peasant rights.
Transnational corporations are pushing policies in African countries for industrial farming and the use of GMO [genetically modified] seeds, while grabbing our land and [stealing] our natural resources. No one should come and tell us how to produce food.
In Via Campesina, we believe in controlling our land and seeds and producing the healthy food that we want, the way we want. Our response is to fight for food sovereignty against these transnational corporations that are connected to the [New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition of the] G8, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the World Trade Organization, and free trade agreements that don’t recognize the needs of peasants or the poor.
Via Campesina formed [in 1993] when [a group of] peasants united to form a strong voice and strategize on the issues they were suffering from. Over time, Via Campesina became a global movement to advocate for policies which really meet the needs of the poor and marginalized, while fighting against those that do not. We develop global actions on agroecology, biodiversity, seeds, land and water territories, stopping transnational corporations, climate and environmental justice, trade, and peasant rights.
The biggest challenges to peasant farmers in Africa are threats to our agriculture and native, local seeds. Transnational corporations and the green revolution for Africa have introduced contract farming[in which the farmer commits to producing a product in a certain manner and the company commits to purchasing it, but often with unequal power dynamics in which farmers provide both the land and cheap labor while carrying most of the risk] and GMO seeds without being transparent about the implications. Peasant farmers without the resources to produce enough food are pressured to accept these contracts and new means of production. They are forced to pay corporations back for what they’ve received [GMO seeds or loans]. If a season doesn’t go well, they are left to suffer, selling their livestock or being jailed for not being able to pay.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/la-via-campesina-building-an-international-movement-for-food-and-seed-sovereignty/
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