tagged w/ Activism
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Following years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's parliament has approved destructive reforms to the country's forest protection. President Dilma has just 9 remaining days to veto this hatchet job before it becomes law. With the world watching, which side of history will she choose to be on? Will her legacy be Amazon ruin? Or, will she demonstrate courage and act on behalf of future generations?
This article appeared in the New York Times today.
YOU can urge President Dilma to do the right thing for Brazil, the Amazon and the planet.
Take action now by signing this petition, tell her to veto the new Forest Code!
More at the linkFollowing years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's... more
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by Amaterasu Solar
Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all. Also, Let’s add robots doing all the necessary work no One wants to do - or taking up the slack where not enough People are doing necessary work.
In this scenario, there would not be any need for money - in any form: barter, trade, work exchange, cash, checks, electronic funds. You may doubt this, but Let’s examine a single case to illustrate the whole.
Let Us now suppose that You have a hot dog cart - You like to hang around it from time to time and chat with People, say; You are a gregarious sort. And You like to see people happy eating food. The energy to run this cart is free, and You have a robot tending it, taking orders, fixing the dogs, and so on. You, Yourself, may choose to fix a dog or two for People You particularly like, but You don’t HAVE to do any of the work.
Your robot is run on free energy, so it doesn’t cost You anything.
Now Let’s say Your hot dogs come from pigs, and the farm - where the pigs are allowed to roam a few acres - is run by robots. There may be someone who LOVES to raise pigs there, but most likely, the pigs are cared for, organically, by the robots (which are run on free energy). The cost of the pigs themselves is nothing.
The fields that grow the food for the pigs are farmed by robots, running on free energy, and perhaps a Human or three who LOVE to farm the land. The tilling, planting, weeding, debugging (maybe by small robots patrolling the plants), and harvesting is all handled organically by these robots and so there is no cost to grow the pig food.
Robots transport the pig feed for free (and any Humans who LOVE to transport things, should there be any).
Robots would handle the slaughter, cleanly (We would ensure this), quickly and honorably. They would also process the meat into the dogs, and upon a standing order, or Your request over the web, would deliver the dogs to Your cart - for free.
From the fields, free-range chicken coops and dairies (handled by robots), would come the ingredients for the buns and condiments, delivered to bakeries and processing plants for free - baked by robots (and Those whose bliss it is to bake large batches of buns) and processed by robots, with no energy cost anywhere. These things too would be delivered upon request, for free.
So… How much would You charge for these hot dogs? You paid nothing for the energy in the production line, nor for the labor in the production line - Those who chose to add Their Human energy did so not because They HAD to in order to survive, but because They LOVE to do what They were doing. Things being free, They simply chose to spend Their time in Their bliss. The seeds that were farmed are freely given by nature...so are the pigs, for that matter. The planet sits under Us freely for seeds to go into and pigs to live on.
You paid nothing for these hot dogs; it costs You zero to run the stand. (And We could go into the stand itself, as well as the robot, costing nothing, too, through robot workers for mining the metals, smelting, shaping, etc...). So why would You need to charge for the hot dogs?
Now, Let's say one day You befriend someone and She just LOVES to make specialty hot dogs - Her own "secret recipe" of spices. She can get Her meat free, Her spices free, Her cooking heat free, Her pots and pans and whatever else for free. And, because She doesn't HAVE to spend 8 or more hours pursuing Her slave's compensation for Her Human energy, She has time and energy of Her own to devote to making Her signature hot dogs.
One day She invites You over - You, who don't have to "mind the store," since Your robot can handle it easily - and so You decide to hang out with Her while She is in Her bliss, making Her dogs.
You say, "Hey. Those smell damn good. Better than what I have at the hot dog stand! If You have any extra, can I distribute them at My cart?"
She smiles in delight. "Of course. I always have a lot and You can have what You want! Thank You for the compliment!"
Thus begins a happy relationship. You have a robot pack up Her dogs and take them to the cart. You also have a sign made up saying, "NOW! Dogs by Delilah!" And soon, Delilah is blissfully making Her dogs, and Your cart is gaining the reputation of being the best on the block - or in town…or in the world. You develop a reputation. Your cart is written up in a number of blogs, and demand for the dogs - HUMAN made - grows. Soon, reservations are required to get the dogs, because Delilah does not want to make THAT many dogs. All this is handled via net and computer.
In the end, You gain reputation for having a popular hot dog cart, Delilah has reputation for making dogs, and neither of You have traded, bartered, exchanged work, exchanged coin, bills, checks or electronic funds (money).
But You are both very rich in social standing.
This all seems idyllic, so wonderful to consider. Every Human Being freed from wage-slavery and poverty to follow Her/His bliss, with richness in character and betterment contributions defining wealth. But can We get there? The answer is, YES!, but We need a plan.
The Plan is to:
1) Raise awareness that electrogravitics technology (which provides gravity control (“antigravity”) and overunity (“free energy”)) exists so that We can -
2) Call for the release of the overunity technology to -
3) Remove the cost of energy in manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, homes, & misc. so -
4) The cost of building robots to do the necessary jobs no One wants to do becomes affordable so -
5) We can relieve Ourselves of undesired toil, being supported easily at this point on social services since -
6) Money will become unnecessary when the effort to collect the penny for the week's groceries (the room full of furniture, the house, the [fill in the blank]) is more than the penny is worth
By abundantly replacing the money with what it represents (meaningful energy expended), the need for money dissipates and there is no motive to promote consumerism. There is no motive to create cheap, breakable goods to ensure future sales. There is no motive to solve issues the cheapest or most profitable way. There is no motive to steal - if One wants it, another can be had for the asking on the web. There is no motive to defraud. There is no motive to silence discoveries. There is no motive to hide cures. There is no motive to do what does not give One bliss.
But surely there are plenty Whose bliss is solving problems. Plenty Whose bliss is creating robots. Plenty Whose bliss is programming. Plenty Whose bliss is researching. Plenty Whose bliss is helping Others. Plenty Whose bliss is building. Plenty Whose bliss is creating art. Plenty Whose bliss is teaching. Plenty Whose bliss is any endeavor robots can't handle.
There WILL be motive to better the world - Those who contribute will earn appreciation, thanks, gratitude, name recognition and Self satisfaction. Instill a Betterment Ethic in place of the work "ethic" (a slave's ethic - enrich others with One's Human energy).
"From Each according to BLISS; to Each according to DESIRE."
So if One wants to be a couch potato... Heh. No problem!
Clearly We must spread this information. Widely. Below is a link to a petition, but if You choose to sign it, don’t stop there. Share it. Email it to friends and family, tweet it often on Twitter, post it to the Hotel Califacebook and on forums You visit. Become proactive and maintain the proactivity. If We all do this, We can make this planet a far better place than it is now.
To sign a petition for the release of electrogravitics technology:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrogravitics
More detail on the simple chaos seed for a society with free energy: http://bit.ly/I5TriH
Twitter: @AmaterasuSolarby Amaterasu Solar
Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all.... more
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National Occupation of Washington, DC Lifts Occupy to New Levels Through Powerful Education of the Movement
The National Occupation of Washington, DC Seeks to Lift Occupy to New Levels With Powerful Educational Programs
The National Occupation of Washington, DC which begins on March 30th and ends on April 30th will include protests, music and art but its anchor is education of the movement.
The major educational activities begin on April 2nd with the "Control the Corporation" conference at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. The conference organized by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law was designed for the Occupy and will include how people can work toward controlling corporations impact on elections, slow privatization, create better paying jobs and mobilize for the future. The full schedule is below or at http://nowdc.org/content/control-corporation. Please register in advance at http://csrl.org to help planning for food and space.
http://figrd.blogspot.com for more info and links
this is what its all about educating ourselves and putting ideas into action see you there :)
-FiggNational Occupation of Washington, DC Lifts Occupy to New Levels Through Powerful... more
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Reading Kate Harris’ post on the state of the student far-left in Scotland and England sparked a discussion about the problems of ‘student activism’ and led me to think a bit about a number of issues I’ve been mulling over recently around how we organise. The problem is in fact less with the student and more with the activism part of that phrase; students, perhaps, have a more pronounced tendency to some of the problems I discuss below, but they are far from the only culprits and in fact I believe the problems exist across most of the contemporary far-left.Reading Kate Harris’ post on the state of the student far-left in Scotland and... more
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Today; Sticks and stones may bring the drones, but words will get you renditioned,
Heretic butler loose in the vatican, The Doc is in, Instant Karma files, Asshole of the week and more…Today; Sticks and stones may bring the drones, but words will get you renditioned,... more
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Cleveland Occupy arrests are the latest in FBI’s pattern of manipulation
Greek media workers go on strike over austerity measures
Protesters swarm Cairo’s Tahrir Square over presidential election results
Leading Bahraini dissident Khawaja ends hunger strikeCleveland Occupy arrests are the latest in FBI’s pattern of manipulation
Greek... more
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Last Friday, the day the NATO 3 were arrested, approximately 35,948 people were arrested across the United States. On Sunday, when at least 45 protesters were arrested at Chicago’s NATO summit protests, approximately 35,948 Americans – the number arrested on a daily basis in the US, according to FBI statistics – were handcuffed, read their Miranda rights (maybe), carted off to jail and booked. The plurality of those people were arrested for nonviolent drug crimes. Some of these people will be charged, convicted, prosecuted and jailed.Last Friday, the day the NATO 3 were arrested, approximately 35,948 people were... more
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Northeast Village Housing Project in Philadelphia only existed 15 years, but sports teams residents played on are immortalized in cherished old photos.Northeast Village Housing Project in Philadelphia only existed 15 years, but sports... more
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Have you ever cleaned out your garage and stumbled upon an unexpected treasure? Ron McCloskey did just that. He discovered a piece of public housing sports history when he came across a 1959 Sandlot Sports Association pamphlet with pictures and rosters of the all star teams. Three of the players honored were from Northeast Village housing project. A fourth was from Liddonfield.Have you ever cleaned out your garage and stumbled upon an unexpected treasure? Ron... more
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I'm doing something very odd this week: speaking at the annual conference of Croplife America, the main trade group for the US agrichemical industry. Croplife members include Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, and Syngenta, all massive multinational companies I write about regularly and witheringly. I am astonished that Croplife wants to hear what I have to say—what I think of the group's member companies and their products is a matter of public record—and am curious to hear what they have to say to me.
As I prepared for the conference, a few interesting news items on the industry crossed my desk.
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• As I've written before, Bayer's neonicotinoid pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of increasing portions of other major crops like soy, have emerged as a likely trigger for colony collapse disorder. Watch this NBC News report from last week linking bee kills in Minnesota to Bayer's highly profitable product.
Meanwhile, the Columbus Dispatch reports similar bee die-offs in Ohio farm country, with beekeepers there, too, pointing the finger at Bayer.
• One of my biggest complaints about the agrichemical industry it its market dominance. As I say above, more than 90 percent of corn seeds planted today are treated with Bayer's pesticide. What if a farmer wants to opt out, to plant seeds free of neonicotinoids? Good luck. According to a Pesticide Action Network press release I received today, farmers in the midwest are complaining that it's virtually impossible to buy untreated seeds. In other words, farmers there have two choices: either pay up for Bayer's poison, or exit the corn-growing business.
• Speaking of market dominance, Monsanto essentially owns the market in genetically modified seed traits—a highly lucrative position, given the way GMOs have taken over massive crops like corn, soy, and cotton. And like any well-run company out to maximize earnings for its shareholders, Monsanto invests some of its profit hoard in protecting its market from pesky regulators who might place the public interest over Monsanto's. From the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics:
According to OpenSecrets.org data, in the first three months of this year, Monsanto spent $1.4 million lobbying Washington—and spent about $6.3 million total last year, more than any other agribusiness firm except the tobacco company Altria.
Last year's investment seemed to pay off for the company. Even as Monsanto's Roundup Ready technology faltered under a blitz of resistant "superweeds," the USDA unconditionally approved Roundup Ready alfalfa, after hinting strongly it would place limitations on the crop. The USDA also approved Roundup Ready sugar beets, defying a court order that it delay approval pending an environmental review.
When a company dominates markets and can buy lobbying power in Washington, its products don't actually have to work, I suppose.
More at the linkI'm doing something very odd this week: speaking at the annual conference of... more
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Nato summit leaders should have been forced to watch the moving protest of the former troops chucking their medals away
No amount of medals, ribbons, or flags can cover the amount of human suffering caused by this war.”
“I have only one word, and it is shame.”
“This is for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.”Nato summit leaders should have been forced to watch the moving protest of the former... more
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I started the decade when I was 11
and bid it a bittersweet farewell when I was 20
3 days before my 21st birthdayI started the decade when I was 11
and bid it a bittersweet farewell when I was 20
3... more
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The so-called war on drugs is a sham. It has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives of not only the traffickers but also too many innocent people and for what; to stop people from using something that they have made a personal decision to do? Cutting of the supply of one drug does nothing to deal with what is causing people to use drugs, including Alcohol, in the first place.The so-called war on drugs is a sham. It has cost billions of dollars and thousands of... more
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Recently, the Heartland Institute put up — and just as quickly pulled down after a firestorm of criticism — a truly bizarre billboard in Chicago attempting to equate climate science with radicals and murderers. Since the billboard was suddenly and unexpectedly empty, we thought we would take the opportunity to remind Heartland who is really on the fringe here.
So in advance of the Heartland Institute’s annual conference next week, we’re putting our own ad in its place. We’re also putting up eight other billboards nearby — so that Chicagoans and everyone at the conference will see our response.
Of course it’s more than just every major national academy of science in the world that understands the science and the threat we all face from the climate crisis. It’s also businesses large and small, doctors and nurses, religious leaders, military leaders, governments and concerned citizens everywhere. So the next time someone tries to tell you climate change is a hoax, remember you’ve got reality (and just about everyone else) on your side.
More at the linkRecently, the Heartland Institute put up — and just as quickly pulled down after... more
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Russian court orders removal of Putin protest camp from park
Police arrest 9 “Occupy the Farm” protesters at Berkeley
Morgan Stanley CEO grilled by Occupy Wall Street
Are Police Drugging Occupy Wall Street Protesters In Minnesota?Russian court orders removal of Putin protest camp from park
Police arrest 9... more
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Liddonfield housing project has been demolished and former tenants are moving into local communities. Will it be different than what happened to one family 40 years ago?Liddonfield housing project has been demolished and former tenants are moving into... more
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Flashmob privacy protests target Facebook tomorrow: New York, San Francisco
Protesters arrested at Obama Chicago office ahead of NATO summit
Chomsky: Occupy Wall Street “Has Created Something That Didn’t Really Exist” in U.S. — SolidarityFlashmob privacy protests target Facebook tomorrow: New York, San Francisco... more
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Question: the Hippie Pandas are: a) a new-wave metal band that prominently features a harpsichordist, b) a team of budding scientists who created a way for Nicaraguan women to pasteurize milk, or c) a group of pandas that smoked a ton of bamboo in the 60s and now follow the remaining Allman Brother whenever he goes on tour?Question: the Hippie Pandas are: a) a new-wave metal band that prominently features a... more
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