Category: crooks and liars

all who usurp and abuse authority

Try safer Marijuana, not toxic Corporate drugs

 

The utter failure that is the war on drugs seems to have ulterior motives besides protecting society, as evidence by the countless harmful chemicals that are legal to consume.  Marijuana is the most obvious example of a substance that remains illegal not because of health threats or because it’s a danger to society, but rather because its benefits threaten entire industries, especially Big Pharma.

If you need a fix to ease pain, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and a host of other ailments, then a legal drug dealer is happy to sell you a chemical concoction with endless side effects.  Recent studies show huge spikes in psychiatric drug use as well as addiction to prescription pain pills, yet they remain legal and doctors get incentives to push them.

In nearly every case, marijuana is a safer alternative and just as effective.  When eaten or vaporized, cannabis has proven entirely beneficial as a natural alternative. Here are 5 popular but dangerous drugs that could, in most cases, be replaced by all natural

1. Painkillers: Vicodin, Demerol, Oxycontin, or Percodan are used to treat moderate or severe pain.  They’re all highly addictive and come with side effects that vary widely from stomach problems, dizziness, depression, pain and spasms, to even death. Marijuana is a proven pain reliever that takes the edge off even the most severe pain.  It is not physically addictive, has very few side effects by comparison, and has never caused a single death in 5000 years of recorded use.

2. Tranquilizers: Valium, Xanax, and Ambien are examples of popular anti-anxiety drugs.  All Americans will likely know someone close to them who are dependent on these drugs to cope with daily life.  The side effects are similar to anti-depressants and painkillers; stomach and liver problems, depression or suicidal thoughts, dizziness and confusion, etc.  Marijuana is an excellent substitute for these temporary anxiety relievers, again with far fewer negative effects.

3. Alcohol: Alcohol is the most commonly used and accepted substance for self-regulated stress relief.  It’s used by countless Americans to take the edge off a long work day, and also by many soldiers seeking to relieve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Alcohol is highly addictive and causes many long-term problems like high blood pressure and liver failure.  Marijuana has proven to be far safer and more effective in reducing stress, especially among PTSD sufferers.

4. Anti-depressants: Prozac, Zoloft, Elavil, or Paxil are popular anti-depressants that a huge portion of the population are now dependent on. Side effects like nausea and sexual dysfunction are common, while suicidal tendencies are also increased tremendously, which seems to negate their very prupose.  These selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduce the body’s ability to produce natural serotonin and can be difficult for people to find a healthy balance once they rid the drug from their system.  Marijuana, although a temporary anti-depressant, is far less dangerous and may result in instant happiness bordering on silliness.

5. Aspirin and Tylenol: These commonly-used over-the-counter drugs for minor aches and pains cause stomach problems like ulcers, liver damage, and even death. That’s right, Tylenol causes about 450 deaths a year and Aspirin causes a whopping 13,000 deaths per year from sudden bleeding.  Many natural alternatives can be used for the symptoms that these drugs ease, and marijuana is just one of the safer options — with none of the damaging side effects.

As you can see, marijuana, which can be easily grown in nearly every climate, is a huge threat to these billion-dollar-a-year drugs.  And this list represents a tiny fraction of the harmful pharmaceuticals that can be replaced by cannabis.  To claim that cannabis is more dangerous than any of these popular legal substances is blatantly false, thus there’s no reason for its prohibition other than the threat of competition to Big Pharma.

Thankfully, you’re not a criminal in over a dozen US states if you use marijuana in place of them.

READ MORE..with thanks  http://www.activistpost.com

Occupy Patriarchy. Cuts violate and enslave Women

Austerity is violence on the bodies of women

In Rome, activist women responded to the #occupypatriarchy call out initiated by the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The group, composed of students, precarious workers and migrants, marched through the city centre’s high streets on November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Recent reports and stats show how in Italy the new “welfare system” feeds on unpaid women’s work: the unpaid work of grandmothers looking after their grandchildren because nursery schools cannot be afforded, daughters supporting their elderly parents, mothers supporting their grown up children. With the cuts to social services the responsibility of that work falls on the women.

In these austere times, gender equality has become a “luxury item”. When the government seems to support policies on work/life balance, what they’re de facto supporting is the principle according to which a woman must undertake several jobs at the same time: all precarious, without the guarantees of the “official” job market, without wages and employment rights. This is violence masked up as austerity!

The crisis attacks every possibility of autonomy, self-determination and freedom of choice. This is, for example, the aim of the Tarzia Law, which wants to turn our formerly independent family planning centres into family and baby protection centres in the hands of non-qualified Catholic “advisers”. This goal has already been achieved in the region of Lazio, in what appears to be an experiment undertaken to legitimise the same savagery on a national scale. Independent family planning centres and abortion rights are an area of conflict on which women in Italy must keep fighting, especially with our new government and its Vatican friends.  

Sources: articles by Collettivo Le Malefiche and Le Ribellule.

From Italy Calling with thanks  https://italycalling.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/austerity-is-violence-on-the-bodies-of-women/

España: Empieza la fiesta de políticos corruptos

 ‘Con casi  1000 politicos ya imputados por corrupción, y muchos de ellos reeligidos, ya tienen la luz verde para la carrera de robar todo que se puede.

Antes ni siquiera de tomar posesión el nuevo Gobierno de derechas gasta miliones en armamentos ya declarados obsoletos , mientras desmatela el sistema de salud, etc

‘ Porque tiene guasa gastarse seis millones de eurazos, en pleno plan de recortes, en compras de este tipo. Además tras todo tipo de informes que dicen que se compra armamento que no se puede pagar y que para colmo ni siquiera sirve para nada mucho de lo que se adquiere a precio de oro. Ello unido al proceso de compra que ha sido una adjudicación sin publicidad. Y por último, sacándole las castañas del fuego a una empresa de armas cuyo producto había sido declarado obsoleto por el Instituto de Análisis Estratégico Internacional, criterio compartido, según se cuenta en la noticia de abajo, por expertos de la Armada española. ¿Se les ocurre alguna explicación para este curioso proceder de los políticos que nos gobiernan? Vaya, la misma que se nos ha ocurrido a nosotros/as. Nota de Tortuga.”

Pueden ver las dos noticias, la publicada hoy mismo, y la de hace tan solo una quincena.

Tierra compra más VAMTAC carrozados a UROVESA por más de 6 millones de euros  2/12/2011

El AEI se reafirma en la obsolescencia de los VAMTAC al margen de cualquier otro criterio subjetivo10/11/2011

LEER MAS  AKI

http://www.grupotortuga.com/El-gobierno-espanol-en-funciones

 

Antarctica: Climate deniers murder Mother Nature

There is a myth among the climate change denial industry that the climate of Antarctica is actually cooling rather than warming, and that this disproves the case for global warming. One theory is that the (man made) ozone hole has temporarily cooled the stratosphere and this makes for local cooling in spite of global warming; but needless to say, even this week, outright deniers claim that the thinning and breaking of huge swathes of glaciers is meaningless.

This surprising claim is in the face of the 1.2C average increase in Antarctic temperatures between 1959 and 1996. And it also ignores the plain fact that on a more front line level, there is clear warming taking place – for example, the Antarctic tourist industry (yes, there is such a thing, now) is rubbing its hands with glee at the profitable prospect of being able to take tourists deeper into Antarctica – one tour has been extended from 11 to 14 days because there are far more opportunities to disembark and sight see compared to a few years ago.

And study after study, including this year, has shown increasing thinning and melt of ice shelves, with massive icebergs resulting. while a plague of parasitic crabs moving south with warmer water is currently causing concern for local flora and fauna. By contrast, the supposed cooling evidence comes from data collected at just one location on the Continent – the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Station, along with rather a lot of extrapolation.

Antarctica has been described as the canary of the world – perhaps we should be listening harder to its faltering song.

from Viridis Lumen with thanks  http://viridislumen.blogspot.com/2011/11/antarctica.html

Greedy climate politicians trash the World

greedy politicians doom our children

note. posts on NH3 the CO2-Free fuel now have their own blog HERE.. http://co2freefuelexistsnow.wordpress.com/

The latest climate Talks in Durban are set to be an obscene farce as countries vie to be the greediest, stupidest, cruelest and most destructive. We need a revolution NOW, since the Nation States  REFUSE to adopt any reformist solutions, in the name of humanity and the millions of other species threatened with extinction…lets Occupy the Environment

Not content with burying the remains of the Kyoto Protocol the proposal is to  DO NOTHING until at least 2015. Continue reading “Greedy climate politicians trash the World”

Corrupt Brazil Senate votes for Amazon slaughter.

In what may go down as one of the worst environmental crimes of the 21st Century, the Brazilian Senate voted on Wednesday to retain most of the bad changes to the national Forest Code that had passed the House of Deputies earlier this year.

Brazil’s international commitments to mitigating climate change, maintaining biodiversity and it’s status before the upcoming RIO+20 global environmental meetings are now on collision course with the insatiable demand of its agri-business sector. In the coming months the issue will be laid squarely before President Dilma Rousseff who has thus far avoided comment.

re-posted from JustMeans    A revised version of Brazil’s Forest Code, a piece of legislation that regulates the use of forest coverage on private properties in Brazil, and whose draft was approved in Congress on Wednesday (23), has sent shockwaves through the sustainability community in the country and abroad.

An incensed debate has gripped the country over the last year, which culminated in yesterday’s vote. The new draft, which is designed to meet the requirements of the rural business, has been rushed through the House and the Senate and did not take into account expert opinion from scientists, who object to the new version of the law vehemently.

“The report continues to pardon those who deforested illegally and will promote more deforestation. What used to be an environmental crime now has become fantastic business”, said Mrcio Astrini, Greenpeace’s head of Amazon campaign.

Scientists have warned the new law will open way for the clearance of more than 175 million acres, or roughly the size of Germany, Italy and Austria combined, which would be come mostly pasture for livestock and soy monocultures to feed cattle, mostly.

This volume of deforestation would release more than 25 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, or four times the goal for global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol during 2008-12.
WWF, which has been campaigning against the revised legislation from the beginning of the debate, said the proposed changes severely contradict Brazil’s efforts to become an environmental and sustainability leader on the global stage.

“Brazil will be cutting itself off from a growing global market for responsibly sourced goods, in addition to forgoing the countless benefits provided by a healthy Amazon, such as clean air and water, stable weather patterns and various other environmental services”, it said.

“We are watching, just before Brazil hosts Rio + 20, a clear attempt to dismantle Brazil’s environmental legislation,” stated WWF-Brazil’s CEO Maria Cecilia Wey de Brito. “This is something unprecedented in our history.”

The bill will go back to the House before being sent to President Dilma Rousseff, who can still veto it. “In the next phase, she will have to keep her word to veto or break her campaign promises”, said Mr. Gasparini in reference to Ms. Rousseff’s promise to not pardon those who have deforested.

The current Forest Code was written in 1965 and requires landowners to keep a certain percentage of their land as untouched forest, from 20 percent in certain areas to 80 per cent in the Amazon. The new laws would give amnesty from heavy fines to landowners who cleared forest illegally between 1965 and July 2008.

Rules related to the clearing of hills would be relaxed and forest areas near rivers would have to be between 100 and 330 feet from the river bank, which conservationists say will are not enough.

A recent report compiled by Imazon and Proforest found that Brazil lags behind other BRIC countries in terms of legislation that protects forest coverage. Compared with China, Russia and India, Brazil loses the race towards sustainability by deforesting more than it reforests.

MORE INFO SEE HERE 

Belo Monte site OCCUPIED. Work still stopped..

Altamira, Brazil – Hundreds of indigenous leaders, fishermen and riverine people from the Xingu River basin have gathered to occupy the Belo Monte Dam construction site in a peaceful protest to stop its construction in Altamira, located in the state of Pará in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. They Poor barrio of Altimira to […]

On sat 20th Aug a massive demo took place against the ongoing Amazon destruction for the Belo Monte dam. Also against the new Forest Law, now in the Senate, which ‘relaxes’ the already unenforced deforestation  code. Brazil had been a constructive leader in Climate talks, which came to nothing due to the greedy demands of […]

The greedy corrupt Brazilian politicians are voting to give free rein to their fascist landlord colleagues  and the McDonalds backed Ranching industry to  destroy the Amazon Rainforest. The politicians appeal to nationalist sentiment.. saying we have already destroyed our forests and they have every right. But 79% of Brazilians are AGAINST the new laws going […]

BRAZIL Politicians Out of Sync with Public Sentiment on the Environment By Mario Osava* Trans-Amazonian Highway outside Altamira in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. Credit:Mario Osava/IPS with thanks BRASILIA, Jun 29, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The environmental movement continues to gain credibility and support as scientific findings confirm its warnings and natural disasters become increasingly […]

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2009-May 2011.The analysis by Imazon suggests that the Forest Code debate may be a factor in rising deforestation. It found a 363 percent increase in forest degradation — logging and burning of forest that typically precedes deforestation — over the past 10 months, reaching 6,081 sq km. Most […]

”The surprise passing of the new Forest Law in the lower house of the Brazilian congress is due to a campaign by multinational  agribusiness and the big landlords who still own most of the country. The proposed amnesty for forest crimes has caused a 6 fold increase in deforestation already. The huge majority in favour […]

Dark Day for Brazil’s Amazon Jungle By Fabiana Frayssinet

foto. José and Maria. ‘They gunned them down and cut off their ears” An Amazon environmental activist and his wife were killed late on Monday and the crime is being investigated as a possible assassination to silence the outspoken forest defender, according to police. José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, also known by his nickname of […]

URGENT AMAZON FOREST ALERT [UPDATE 20 May 2011: The Guardian UK reports, “Brazil forms ‘crisis cabinet’ following unexpected deforestation surge”.] Events are moving quickly in Brazil’s epic battle over a new national Forest Code. The struggle has has reached a critical stage full of both danger and opportunity. Please take action. EMERGENCY — BRAZIL’S NATIONAL […]

By Clarinha Glock* A solitary cow in a slash-and-burn clearing where there was once Amazon rainforest. C PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, May 16, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The adoption of a new Forest Code in Brazil could threaten efforts to curb Amazon deforestation, which was reduced 70 percent between 2004 and 2010. The proposal to amend the […]

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy


The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality

guardian.co.uk, US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

 The New York Times reported that “New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers” covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that “It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk.”
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.

I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memothat revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors’, city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.