Canada Set to Become Globalist Bully
Sunday, 05 June 2011 10:55
‘If ever we needed more proof that our political leaders serve the Rothschilds, and our democracy is a charade, this is it.
Despite the fact that the majority of Canadians want less “defense” spending, Canada is embarked on a military-spending spree “unlike anything experienced since the Second World War. In just 10 years, our annual defense spending has more than doubled — from $10 billion in 2000 to $21.8 billion today — and is just getting into its stride.”
Canadians are being asked to cough up $30 billion for F-35 fighter jets that won’t be ready until 2016 and another $40 billion to replace navy ships over two decades.’
Organic farmers expand lawsuit against Monsanto
An ambitious lawsuit against the agricultural firm Monsanto got a little bigger this week, and a lawyer for the plaintiffs hopes that this is only the beginning.
The case was initially filed in March by the Public Patent Foundation (PubPat), a non-profit legal services organization based at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, on behalf of 60 organic farmers and associated organizations. The farmers want assurance from Monsanto that they will not be sued for patent infringement if their farms become contaminated with the company’s genetically modified crops.
On 1 June, PubPat announced that the list of plaintiffs had grown to 83, and that the original complaint had been amended to include a recent exchange with Monsanto’s lawyers. In a letter written on behalf of Monsanto, Seth Waxman, former solicitor general under Bill Clinton and a partner at the law firm WilmerHale in Washington, DC, said Monsanto has no intention of suing the farmers for patent infringement. “Monsanto policy never has been, nor will be, to exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of its patented seed or traits are present in a farmer’s fields as a result of inadvertent means,” he wrote, echoing a statement Monsanto has also made on its website.
But rather than placating PubPat, executive director Daniel Ravicher says he saw a veiled threat in the statement’s ambiguity. Farmers whose crops contain more than a “trace” — whatever that means — of contamination are still vulnerable to action by Monsanto, he argues. Instead, Ravicher wants a legally binding declaration that Monsanto will not sue his clients for patent infringement.
Monsanto could not be reached for comment, but has stated on its website that it views the PubPat lawsuit as a publicity stunt. Ravicher, meanwhile, says he hopes that the lawsuit will have ramifications for future legal cases against the company.
During the ‘discovery’ phase of the lawsuit, when both sides exchange evidence, Ravicher aims to compel Monsanto to hand over confidential data and email exchanges pertaining to in-house research involving its genetically modified crops. Ravicher’s team will parse through the data they collect, likely this fall or winter, looking for any new information about the environmental impact of genetically modified crops.
And if the farmers win this lawsuit, Ravicher says it will free them to pursue future cases against the company without the threat of retribution. If a farmer were to sue Monsanto now for promulgating genetically modified crops that contaminate organic farms, for example, the suit would be tantamount to admitting that the farms are growing, however unwillingly, unlicensed Monsanto crops. Under the current system, Ravicher says such an admission would leave the farmers vulnerable to accusations of patent infringement.
Changing that system depends on whether PubPat’s case succeeds. PubPat will try to convince the judge
that Monsanto’s patent claims on its genetically modified crops are invalid because the crops do not provide a ‘beneficial societal use’. One could imagine Monsanto countering that at least a few of the 15 million farmers who have planted its transgenic crops likely believed the crops to be beneficial.
But the organic farmers could also win their case if they can convince the court that the patents are unenforceable because a farmer cannot stop the wind and insects from carrying seed and pollen from neighbouring fields containing, for example, transgenic canola plants (pictured above).
It may also be wise not to dismiss PubPat too readily these days. In 2009, the organization joined the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups to launch a lawsuit over gene patents that also seemed unlikely to succeed. But a New York district judge ruled in their favour on some counts, and the now famous lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, currently under appeal, sent ripples through the biotechnology industry.
Red Alert! China Dumps 97% of Its U.S. Treasury Holdings
Terence P. Jeffrey of CNSNews.com reports today, June 3, 2011:
China has dropped 97 percent of its holdings in U.S. Treasury bills, decreasing its ownership of the short-term U.S. government securities from a peak of $210.4 billion in May 2009 to $5.69 billion in March 2011, the most recent month reported by the U.S. Treasury.
Treasury bills are securities that mature in one year or less that are sold by the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the nation’s debt.
Mainland Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury bills are reported in column 9 of
the Treasury report linked here.
Until October, the Chinese were generally making up for their decreasing holdings in Treasury bills by increasing their holdings of longer-term U.S.
Treasury securities. Thus, until October, China’s overall holdings of U.S. debt
continued to increase.
Since October, however, China has also started to divest from longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. Thus, as reported by the Treasury Department, China’s ownership of the U.S. national debt has decreased in each of the last five months on record, including November, December, January, February and March….
As of March 2011, overall Chinese holdings of U.S. debt had decreased to 1.1449 trillion.
Most of the U.S. national debt is made up of publicly marketable securities sold by the Treasury Department and I.O.U.s called “intragovernmental” bonds that the Treasury has given to so-called government trust funds—such as the Social Security trust funds—when it has spent the trust funds’ money on other government expenses.
The publicly marketable segment of the national debt includes Treasury bills, which (as defined by the Treasury) mature in terms of one-year or less; Treasury notes, which mature in terms of 2 to 10 years; Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), which mature in terms of 5, 10 and 30 years; and Treasury bonds, which mature in terms of 30 years.
At the end of August 2008, before the financial bailout and the stimulus, the publicly marketable segment of the U.S. national debt was 4.88 trillion. Of that, $2.56 trillion was in the intermediate-term Treasury notes, $1.22 trillion was in short-term Treasury bills, $582.8 billion was in long-term Treasury bonds, and $521.3 billion was in TIPS.
At the end of March 2011, by which time the Chinese had dropped their Treasury bill holdings 97 percent from their peak, the publicly marketable segment of the U.S. national debt had almost doubled from August 2008, hitting $9.11 trillion. Of that $9.11 trillion, $5.8 trillion was in intermediate-term Treasury notes, $1.7 trillion was in short-term Treasury bills; $931.5 billion was in long-term Treasury bonds, and $640.7 billion was in TIPS.
Before the end of March 2012, the Treasury must redeem all of the $1.7 trillion in Treasury bills that were extant as of March 2011 and find new or old buyers who will continue to invest in U.S. debt. But, for now, the Chinese at least do not appear to be bullish customers of short-term U.S. debt.
Treasury bills carry lower interest rates than longer-term Treasury notes and bonds, but the longer term notes and bonds are exposed to a greater risk of losing their value to inflation. To the degree that the $1.7 trillion in short-term U.S. Treasury bills extant as of March must be converted into longer-term U.S. Treasury securities, the U.S. government will be forced to pay a higher annual interest rate on the national debt.
As of the close of business on Thursday, the total U.S. debt was $14.34 trillion, according to the Daily Treasury Statement. Of that, approximately $9.74 trillion was debt held by the public and approximately $4.61 trillion was “intragovernmental” debt.
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/687/908/Red_Alert_China_Dumps_97_of_Its_U.S._Treasury_Hold ings.html
US to take over UK nuclear weapons
Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:05:59 GMT
The controversial US arms dealer, Lockheed Martin will lead a consortium of multinational private firms to run the UK’s nuclear bomb base at Coulport on the Clyde.
British defence ministers have decided to give the administration of the highly sensitive job of managing more than 200 Trident nuclear warheads, and arming the Royal
Navy’s submarines to US arms dealer within the next year.
Trade unionists and disarmament campaigners as well as Scotland National Party (SNP) has condemned the decision and urged for a rethink.
They described the decision as a cost-saving, job-cutting “kick in the teeth to the workforce” that will put nuclear safety at risk.
Up to 200 Coulport workers have been told that they will be seconded from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to a newly formed private-sector consortium called ABL.
ABL brings together AWE – which runs the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire – Babcock, the British engineering company and US-owned Lockheed Martin Strategic Systems UK.
AWE is itself a consortium involving Lockheed Martin; another big US firm, Jacobs Engineering; and the UK management privatisation company, Serco.
According to the MoD’s detailed internal plan leaked to the Sunday Herald, ABL will be granted a contract to run Coulport for 15 years.
Canada: Royals, Parasites on Circus Tour
Sunday, 05 June 2011 05:34
‘A Canadian politician has described the visiting duke and duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, as “parasites” on sort of a “circus tour” to the North American country. The newly wed royals are to tour Canada on their first official visit abroad between June 30 and July 8.
Amir Khadir, a left wing member of the National Assembly of Quebec from Solidaire party, described the British monarchy as a “parasitic system that was inherited from ancient times.” “A nation worthy of the 21st Century has no need for a monarchy or people with a bloodline,” he stressed.’
Global Awakening, Re-Imagining Reality!
Sunday, 05 June 2011 05:38
‘The age of rage has emerged! It’s sweeping across borders, from the Middle East, to Europe and the Americas. Freedom-seeking people, who have had enough of political repression, police brutality and dictatorship, are calling for their sisters and brothers to wake up from a worldly delusion.
Somewhere along a road packed with Hollywood films and MTV music videos with their subliminal messages manipulating our lives, weekly celebrity magazines and coca cola bottles shrinking our world, we became the prison guards of our once free minds. And as we lost touch with our self-awareness, we began to increasingly give in to materialistic temptations.’
US Forces Open Fire on Afghan Schoolchildren
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:09
‘US forces in Afghanistan have reportedly opened fire on school children in the troubled eastern Nangarhar Province, witnesses and residents say. Witnesses told Press TV on Saturday that the Americans shot at students who were leaving the school.
They say the shooting came after US forces came under a bomb attack near the school.’
Israelis to Protest Against Netanyahu
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:13
‘The Israeli and Palestinian activists are to stage a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to welcome the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The rally is expected to be held in Tel Aviv on Saturday under the slogan “Netanyahu said no and we say yes to the Palestinian state,” and “Netanyahu is leading us to disaster,” read a statement by Israel-based NGO Peace Now, reported Wafa, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s news agency.
The demonstration would take place on the eve of the anniversary of Israel 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip.’
Chile Volcano Erupts, Forces Evacuation
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:32
‘Thousands of people in Chile have received evacuation orders after the southern Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a century. Some 3,500 people were ordered to evacuate their homes as the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain produced a 10-kilometer high column of smoke, AFP reported.’
The Obama Surveillance State
Sunday, 05 June 2011 06:47
‘Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”‘
Read more: The Obama Surveillance State
Believe nothing 