“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Patriots. SOMETHING is going on…it is now peeking out from behind the curtain, but it IS there.
too much in just the last week.
Hillary and her campaign fined for the “Steele dossier” ALL the big 3 networks now reporting on Hunters Laptop, and NOT in a way that can be construed as “spin” Brnovich of Arizona referring RINO Katie Hobbs for CRIMINAL charges (election fraud) PA judge removes 5 PA school board members over mask mandates. ALL dems WI judge holds RINO Speaker Robin Vos in CONTEMPT over Wi election records. Rove and McConnell outed as behind the Eric Greitens take down in Missouri 21 states sue the Biden admin over mask mandates Arizona RINO ducey signs bill banning abortion after 15 weeks Biden’s Supreme court judge has her favorable record towards pedophiles outed Zelensky seems to want to capitulate to Putin’s demands of neutrality and weapons Fauci is FINALLY confronted by a UK reporter on his funding of coronavirus research (GOF ) in china. Trump sues Hillary and the DNC over the Russia hoax in a RICO civil suit (for discovery) Rep Madison Cawthorn outs Washington DC “orgies and cocaine use by the elites including sitting members of Congress. McCarthy and Collins are further outed ass RINOS and uniparty in their reactions to both Madison Cawthorn’s allegations, McCarthy, and in Collins case her support for Kentanji Jackson DESPITE her pattern of leniency to child porn traffickers
This coupled with the Bio lab reveals in Ukraine and MUCH more seems to me to be if anything GAINING momentum, like a snowball heading down a slope.
The uniparty, Dems, RINOS, Globalists, and their minions are now being attacked on MULTIPLE fronts on things like
election fraud Covid Vaccine mandates the Russia hoax Biden’s corruption through Hunter abortion Ukraine
Meanwhile Biden and Harris and all the dems go on daily committing gaffs, and further distancing themselves from the mainstream on all the important issues.
Something is BUILDING. You can not only see it, hear it, but FEEL it, building like a crescendo to a climax.
These are just a quick peruse of what has been happening, feel free to add. But the more me add, you will SEE the pattern. someone or multiple someone’s are on the attack. We are no longer on defense, and “cracks” are beginning to form in the globalist firewalls. When EVEN CNN is beginning to report on some of these things, there is a definite winds change that WILL inevitably lead to a SEA change. Once critical mass is achieved and but ONE of the globalists firewalls cracks open, it ALL will fall, because it is ALL related and being done by ALL the same people. Once ONE crime is revealed, they ALL fall. RICO because they stupidly always use the SAME people and methodology to perpetuate their. evil schemes. If even ONE key piece falls, like dominoes, they ALL fall.
Can you feel it? I can, I can almost taste it. If we sense it, imagine the PANIC that will ensue when the ENEMY realizes it. As Q said, once we ALL know, these people will NOT be able to walk down the streets, they will NOT be able to hide, and they will NOT be saved or bailed out.
PAIN for them is incoming.
And then there’s we the people putting THEM on defense. They put us in the position of having to reconcile ourselves to this:
They used the cover of the USA to destroy a good part of the world, and their own districts.
Here's the video of Maxine Waters telling a group of homeless people to "go home" to which somebody replies "we ain't got no home." pic.twitter.com/wHMHkBlvtt
— Cindi Whitney Cameron ♥️🇺🇸💪 (@cindicam) March 29, 2022
Reminder: it’s not just Hunter under investigation. It’s the whole blasted syndicate.
Of course it is "broader than previously known" Hunter's partners are the ones under investigation.
Just like Trump, Hunter does a suspicious deal & then his partners go to prison. Sometimes Hunter's partners even get caught on a bug installed by the FBI at a Trump property… https://t.co/gGKZWOGDdW
The fact that the unvaccinated are NOT dying in droves as they predicted they would, and are instead healthy and thriving while the triple vaccinated continue to get sick, is not being talked about enough.
I’m not a biologist, but I’m pretty sure it’s has more to do with where one thingy fits into another thing which leads to where babies are made, but like I said I’m not a biologist, so can’t say for sure. pic.twitter.com/tNCCwubxe8
— Patriotic Trauma, MD (@PatrioticTrauma) March 31, 2022
Lake Powell is shrinking. These photos were taken 9 months apart (Top photo 6/23/21 – Bottom photo 3/27/22) at Lake Powell's Lone Rock Beach in Utah. Water levels at the lake are at their lowest level since the lake was created in 1963 by damming the Colorado River. #droughtpic.twitter.com/lVJ7aFt2CE
True story about brownies. We were called to help out with a potluck for a funeral lunch, and somehow the subject of dessert came up. I said, Dessert for a funeral is easy. Just make a pan of brownies. Sure enough, at the funeral lunch, I walked over to the dessert table and there were ten different serving plates of brownies. Some were iced. Some had powdered sugar sprinkled on them. Some were plain. But all desserts were brownies.
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Just as an explainer, Wisdom is one of the Greek books that were removed from the Bible translations used by those protesting when Luther switched out the original Old Testament for the one the Jerusalem Jews whittled down for themselves between 96 and 283 AD.
WISDOM 2:1, 12-22
1For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades. 12“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. 13He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. 14He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; 15the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. 16We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. 17Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; 18for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. 19Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. 20Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.” 21Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, 22and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
Yet again, no JP. So, how about some Tucker.
And maybe some Jesse
https://rumble.com/embed/vwmeq1/?pub=4
Okay, a kid in my grade school class…his dog really did eat his homework. She was a Great Dane.
This Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
We live in a world that enjoys tearing people down. From reality TV shows to the coarse interactions on talk radio—there is a continual display of putting people down instead of building them up. The misuse of words and actions can bring destruction spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
However, it should never be said of those who follow Christ. The church is built on the foundation of Christ’s love and continues to grow as we build up or edify other people with our words and actions. As followers of Christ, we are mandated by the Spirit of God to enlighten or improve the whole body of Jesus. Practice your gift of edification with the knowledge of the following top 8 Bible verses:
Edify with our sensitivity
“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another” (Romans 14:19).
The church is a mixture of the spiritually mature and those who are new to the faith. Some of us sense God’s freedom to do things that others may feel a strong conviction to avoid. Choosing to be sensitive instead of judgmental within the body of Christ can be most edifying and will allow the church to continue to grow as outsiders sense our sincerity towards each other.
Edify with our unselfishness
“Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification” (Romans 15:2).
It’s easy to be selfish, we don’t even have to think about it first to practice it. Yet we need to recognize the opportunities to practice selflessness towards others. The church is built up when we relieve our brother’s or sister’s burdens with our gifts of time, money, and energy.
Edify with our respect
“Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction” (2 Corinthians 13:10).
There are times when we are stretched in our faith by the teachings of our church leaders. Godly pastors have been led by God to preach truth in sometimes difficult circumstances. As the body of Christ, we have the responsibility to edify our leaders and church by respecting and obeying the word of God as taught in authority.
Edify with our love
“Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1).
Nothing builds up the church more than the demonstrated love of Christ. As we love one another, we are encouraged to continue the faith in times of joy and difficulty. Our spirits are rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit when we sense and appreciate the love of God demonstrated through His people.
Edify with our gifts
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).
God has poured out spiritual gifts on the church. As we come into the knowledge, application, and demonstration of our own individual spiritual gifts—we have the responsibility to help grow the church. Our gifts aren’t meant for our own personal edification (although we can sense the edifying feeling of gratitude); rather, we are meant to use our gifts for others.
Edify with our hope
“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
There are many times when under severe pressure, hope can seem elusive to the saints of God suffering under tremendous persecution. As believers, we have the ability to build them up in the faith with hope from God’s word. By knowing and sharing the truths of Scripture, we can witness the power of God breaking the devil’s grip of despair.
Edify with our testimony
“The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers” (Acts 9:31).
When the Lord intervenes in our lives, we should never keep it to ourselves. Sharing our testimony—both the good and bad parts of it—can strengthen those who have difficulty believing that God will do great things for them. Our truthful testimonies give others the ability to overcome fear, anxiety, and doubt.
Edify with our words
“But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
The words we speak are so much more powerful than many of us recognize. Our words can bring new life or death to any situation. By speaking the truth in love, we grant grace to the hearers so that they can push forward in this life when bombarded with overwhelmingly negative words both inwardly and outwardly.
Equipped to Edify
As believers, we are equipped by the Spirit of God to take up our cross and build up the church. We can resist our carnal nature by staying humble in the process of growing in the faith. Our Father longs to see His children help and edify one another for the building of Christ’s kingdom.
YouTube is doing their censoring again! Right Side Broadcast has been suspended for 1week right before President Trump’s rally in Commerce, Georgia. You’ll be able to see it on Rumble. RSBN said, we will not allow the voice of Pres.Trump and his supporters to be silenced! Amen 🙏🏼
Before European settlers arrived, the area around present-day Commerce was inhabited by the Creek and the Cherokee people.[6]
The Lacoda Trail, which extended from present-day Athens to the north Georgia mountains, was a significant trade and travel route through this area. (Georgia State Route 334, which follows a 9-mile (14 km) section of this ancient trail, was designated the “Lacoda Trail Memorial Parkway” by the Georgia General Assembly in 1998.)
Local histories that originated in the mid-1800s describe a territorial war between the Creeks and Cherokees over the land in the county during the 1770s.[7] This war never occurred. The Cherokees were decisively defeated by the Koweta Creeks in 1754. For about a decade after their 1754 defeat, all Cherokee villages in the Georgia colony and the Hiwassee River valley in North Carolina were abandoned.[8]William Bartram traveled through northeastern Georgia in 1773 and described the Creeks as being completely dominant over the Cherokees.[9] The Cherokees never occupied or held title to lands within the boundaries of Jackson County.
The Creek Confederacy ceded its lands east of the Oconee River in 1785.[10] A subsequent treaty in 1793 ceded the remainder of the land that was to become Jackson County. The last corridor of Creek land, located west of Jackson County, was ceded in 1818.
The first permanent white settlement in Jackson County began near present-day Commerce on January 20, 1784, when German immigrant William Dunson was awarded a land grant on Little Sandy Creek. The settlement was named “Groaning Rock”,[6] supposedly because of a nearby hollow rock formation that produced a moaning sound when the wind passed over it. (Descendants of William Dunson are still living on the original tract of land.)
A trading post was established by Eli Shankle near Groaning Rock in 1808, named “Harmony Grove”. The common explanation is that the name is a play on his wife, Rebecca’s, maiden name: Hargrove. There is also an old Appalachian hymn tune called “Harmony Grove”, found in an 1830 book called The Virginia Harmony. This tune is popular today as the melody to “Amazing Grace“.
The Harmony Grove Female Academy, the first all-female school chartered in the state of Georgia, was chartered by the state legislature on December 20, 1824.
The Harmony Grove post office was established on October 14, 1825; Russell Jones was its first postmaster.
On September 1, 1876, the North Eastern Railroad opened its line from Athens to Lula, which passed through the heart of Harmony Grove. The railroad line had the most significant impact on the shape of the city, which began expanding both directions along the line. These tracks are now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway.
City history
The Harmony Grove community was officially incorporated as a town on December 24, 1884, including all areas within a one-mile radius of the railroad depot, one half mile east, and 400 yards west.
Harmony Grove Mills, Inc., was organized under the laws of Jackson County on April 3, 1893, for the purpose of processing and producing cotton textiles. It served various purposes over the years, including the manufacture of denim overalls and the earliest production of electricity in the city. The mill village created to house employees makes up a significant portion of the homes on the southeast end of Commerce today. The mill had been in operation under various corporations until the spring of 2004, when it closed operations and was sold; it has been used for warehouse storage space since, and is currently for sale. The building is still a major feature of the city.
Near the end of the 19th century, many began to feel that the name “Harmony Grove” was too long to write and sounded too much like a country village. In addition, many didn’t like the fact that mail frequently went to another post office by the same name in Dawson County. Harmony Grove was reincorporated and renamed “Commerce” on August 6, 1904, in an effort to address these concerns and reflect the city’s commercial dominance in the north Georgia cotton trade.[11][12]
In 1959, a series of controversial town hall meetings were held to try to convince members of the federal Interstate Highway System to re-route the proposed Interstate 85, originally planned to go through Gainesville (Hall County), through Commerce and Lavonia (Franklin County). The proposal was changed, and the interstate was routed through Jackson County. Even more so than the railroad nearly a century before, this major transportation artery brought tremendous commercial advantage to Commerce, at a time it desperately needed it.
About the rally:
Venue:
Banks County Dragway 500 East Ridgeway Road Commerce, GA, 30529
Special Guest Speakers:
David Perdue, Former United States Senator from Georgia and Candidate for Governor of Georgia
State Senator Burt Jones, State Senator from Georgia and Candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia
Herschel Walker, Heisman Trophy Winner and Candidate for United States Senate from Georgia
Representative Jody Hice, U.S. Representative from Georgia’s 10th Congressional District and Candidate for Secretary of State of Georgia
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, U.S. Representative from Georgia’s 14th Congressional District
Representative Andrew Clyde, U.S. Representative from Georgia’s 9th Congressional District
Vernon Jones, Former State Representative from Georgia and Candidate for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District
Mr. John Gordon, Candidate for Attorney General of Georgia
Patrick Witt, Candidate for Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner of Georgia
Tom Homan, Former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Todd Starnes, Conservative Columnist, Commentator, Author, and Radio Host
Timeline of Events:
8:00AM – Parking Opens
2:00PM – Doors Open
4:00PM – Program Begins
7:00PM – 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump Delivers Remarks
Over the past four years, President Donald Trump’s administration delivered for Americans of all backgrounds like never before. Save America is about building on those accomplishments, supporting the brave conservatives who will define the future of the America First Movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country. Save America is also about ensuring that we always keep America First, in our foreign and domestic policy. We take pride in our country, we teach the truth about our history, we celebrate our rich heritage and national traditions, and of course, we respect our great American Flag.
We are committed to defending innocent life and to upholding the Judeo-Christian values of our founding.
We believe in the promise of the Declaration of Independence, that we are all made EQUAL by our Creator, and that must all be TREATED equal under the law.
We know that our rights do not come from government, they come from God, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away. That includes the right to religious liberty and the right to Keep and Bear Arms.
We believe in rebuilding our previously depleted military and ending the endless wars our failed politicians of the past got us into for decades.
We embrace free thought, we welcome robust debate, and we are not afraid to stand up to the oppressive dictates of political correctness.
We know that the rule of law is the ultimate safeguard of our freedoms, and we affirm that the Constitution means exactly what it says AS WRITTEN.
We support fair trade, low taxes, and fewer job-killing regulations, and we know that America must always have the most powerful military on the face of the Earth.
We believe in Law and Order, and we believe that the men and women of law enforcement are HEROES who deserve our absolute support.
We believe in FREE SPEECH and Fair Elections. We must ensure fair, honest, transparent, and secure elections going forward – where every LEGAL VOTE counts.
When I was a kid, I got nicknamed “Bald Eagle” because I actually was getting notably thin “up there.” Of course today “Bald Eagle” might be a cool nickname, but in junior high school, it definitely was not a cool thing.
Fast forward to today, and now here I am over twenty years older than you are, and even in spite of that poor start, I have better hair than you do.
And I am not a piss-guzzling, shit-gobbling communist “journalist” (what a sick joke) either.
On both accounts you must absolutely hate looking into the mirror.
And Oh By The Way probably more people read my posts than watch you bloviate on air. And yes, I know your ratings dropped again. One would think there’s be a limit to that…you can’t drop below zero, can you?
RINOs an Endangered Species? If Only!
According to Wikipoo, et. al., the Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is a critically endangered species. Apparently two females live on a wildlife preserve in Sudan, and no males are known to be alive. So basically, this species is dead as soon as the females die of old age. Presently they are watched over by armed guards 24/7.
Biologists have been trying to cross them with the other subspecies, Southern White Rhinoceroses (Rhinoceri?) without success; and some genetic analyses suggest that perhaps they aren’t two subspecies at all, but two distinct species, which would make the whole project a lot more difficult.
I should hope if the American RINO (Parasitus rectum pseudoconservativum) is ever this endangered, there will be heroic efforts not to save the species, but rather to push the remainder off a cliff. Onto punji sticks. With feces smeared on them. Failing that a good bath in red fuming nitric acid will do.
But I’m not done ranting about RINOs.
The RINOs (if they are capable of any introspection whatsoever) probably wonder why they constantly have to deal with “populist” eruptions like the Trump-led MAGA movement. That would be because the so-called populists stand for absolutely nothing except for going along to get along. That allows the Left to drive the culture and politics.
Given the results of Tuesday’s elections, the Left will now push harder, and the RINOs will now turn even squishier than they were before.
I well remember 1989-1990 in my state when the RINO establishment started preaching the message that a conservative simply couldn’t win in Colorado. Never mind the fact that Reagan had won the state TWICE (in 1984 bringing in a veto-proof state house and senate with him) and GHWB had won after (falsely!) assuring everyone that a vote for him was a vote for Reagan’s third term.
This is how the RINOs function. They push, push, push the line that only a “moderate” can get elected. Stomp them when they pull that shit. Tell everyone in ear shot that that’s exactly what the Left wants you to think, and oh-by-the-way-Mister-RINO if you’re in this party selling the same message as the Left…well, whythefuckexactly are you in this party, you lying piece of rancid weasel shit?
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system. (This doesn’t necessarily include deposing Joe and Hoe and putting Trump where he belongs, but it would certainly be a lot easier to fix our broken electoral system with the right people in charge.)
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is pointless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud in the system is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
This will necessarily be piecemeal, state by state, which is why I am encouraged by those states working to change their laws to alleviate the fraud both via computer and via bogus voters. If enough states do that we might end up with a working majority in Congress and that would be something Trump never really had.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Mozart
Mozart wrote two distinct pieces called “Symphonia Concertante), both in E flat major.
The more famous of the two (at least, judging from youtube hits) is K 364. Three movements, Allegro Maestso to start, 2nd movement (Andante) at 13:06, 3rd movement (Presto) at 23:47.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBTVWI6-eCc
But I think I like this one better, to be honest. KV 297b, also in three movements: Allegro at the start, Adagio at 13:53 and Andantino con Variazione at 22:37. This one has considerably more in the way of woodwinds to add color.
PGMs going down and the “traditional” precious metals going up indicates to me that we are expecting inflation and a recession. Or it will tell me that if the pattern holds for more than a few weeks (so far, one week and counting). Why? Because the platinum group metals are valuable primarily for their industrial uses, so they will tend to go down if industry expects to be in trouble, while gold and silver tend to be places people go when they’re worried–perhaps because industry is expected to be in trouble. Or perhaps because they think the dollar will suddenly approach its intrinsic value.
On the other hand, inflation tends to show up as rising stock and gold prices. A company’s nominal value goes up due to inflation, just like gold’s value will.
This market bears watching in light of recent world events, and recent couldn’t-be-worse-if-they-tried-which-makes-sense-because-they’re-probably-trying economic policies.
James Webb Space Telescope Update
Multi-instrument alignment continues. There are no less than five instruments inside the telescope, behind the mirror, and the mirrors have to be able to focus light accurately on all five instruments’ sensors.
One of the instruments is MIRI (Mid InfraRed Instrument) and it requires temperatures even colder than the telescope is getting just from being shielded from the sun. This is because it’s sensitive to longer wavelengths of infrared, wavelengths given off as black body radiation from even things quite a bit colder than the other instruments. It actually gets cryogenically cooled even more with liquid helium. But right now it is actually the warmest instrument of the five, at 94 K (-291 F). It needs to get down to 7 K (-447 F), which is still about 18 degrees K warmer than Hitlary Clinton’s personality.
T1: Heat
Finally, I have found some time to work on a “science” post. I’m going to cover a topic I skipped over the first time around through the physics series, because initially my main goal was eventually to talk about neutrinos. And every once in a while I regretted it. So if there’s a logical place for this in the old sequence, it’s somewhere in between a pair of the single-digit posts. But there’s more than one part to this, so I wouldn’t go renumbering things just yet! For now I’m going to treat these as a separate series, with numbers T1, T2 and so on. (T for “Thermal.”)
The issue of heat is important in physics, and chemistry, and biology. I’ve talked about “black body radiation” being dependent on temperature before.
(To refresh memories: The hotter something is the brighter it glows, and the higher the wavelengths it glows at; if if gets hot enough it glows in visible light, if it gets even hotter, it glows in ultraviolet light or (really, really hot) x rays or even gamma rays. Many stars visible in the night sky glow in primarily blue wavelengths, these are basically the hottest objects we have everyday (well, everynight) experience with, at 10,000 K or even higher. Fortunately they’re quite far away so they don’t barbecue us.)
But I never really talked that much about heat as such, just this one side effect that’s very important to astronomy since it can tell us a lot about a star.
If you remember all the way back to Newtonian dynamics (parts 1, 2, 3, and 5), it describes a view of the way the world works which at first seems totally at odds with the way things actually work.
Newton’s first law of motion is: A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force.
But we see moving objects come to a halt all the time with no obvious “push” being given to them.
Even billiard balls stop eventually, and those are the inevitable example given for working with momentum. Or air hockey pucks. Or cars on ice. (I have occasionally found myself in a pickup game of two-ton-puck road hockey. Not fun. The only way to win is not to play at all.)
Outer space is actually the only place this seems to be true; objects in orbit will stay that way forever, at least when you can ignore third-body influences. (Which, even when dealing with the planets of our solar system orbiting the sun, you really can’t, not in the long term.)
This is probably why it took us so long to get to the point where Newton could do his thing. For one thing we had to figure out how, in fact, the planets moved, so that Newton could explain that with universal gravitation (thank you Johannes Kepler for the setup). And Galileo had to do all of his experiments with kinetics. Before this the theory was objects would be given an initial impeteus, which would then bleed away. Then, they might want to return “home.” Smoke’s home was Up There; a cannonball’s home was Down Here (and most things were like that). Fire a cannonball, and you give it an impetus. It travels in a straight line as the impetus bleeds away, finally halts, then drops straight down. That was the theory anyway. (Actual artillerymen knew this was bullshit, though, even before Galileo showed that cannonballs moved in parabolas. And then Newton showed that no, they were really moving suborbitally, in very small sections of a very eccentric ellipse–effectively indistinguishable at the ranges cannonballs could be fired in the 1600s. By the way, high school and college freshman physics teaches the parabola, not the ellipse.)
But in fact Newtonian dynamics works very well. The problem is, in order to teach it effectively, you have to pretend, at first, that friction doesn’t exist, because friction, though covered quite well in Newtonian dynamics, makes the story problems more complicated. Only after you master frictionless behavior do they throw friction at you and expect you to account for it as well.
Friction is a force from the air, or the ground, or something touching the object in question, and is both proportional to the speed of the object, and opposite in direction.
OK, I’d better unpack that with an example. Imagine you’re pushing a heavy box across the floor. And you’re able to shove the sucker at 1 MPH. It requires a certain continuous force to keep the box moving at a mile per hour. It would require twice as much force to move it at two miles per hour, half as much to move it at half a mile per hour. Since the box is not speeding up, the net force on it must be zero (by Newton’s second law of motion, good old F = ma). But you’re applying a force. But it’s countered–precisely–by the friction between the box and the floor, which is in the exact opposite direction. Now if you double how hard you’re pushing on the box, it speeds up, but eventually settles in on moving twice as fast as it was before, without moving, so your push and the friction are again in balance. So the force from friction is proportional to how fast the box is moving. Hopefully you can go back and reread the previous paragraph and it will make more sense to you.
OK, so Newtonian dynamics can, with added difficulty, account for friction. It’s a variable force working “against” us pushing that box across the floor. (And to save effort, we get a dolly, which reduces the friction. Our salvador is dolly.)
But we’re not done yet. Remember how momentum is supposed to be conserved? When the box quits moving because we stopped pushing, where does that momentum go? Well, let’s suppose we are pushing the box eastward, so our applied force is eastward. The force of friction on the box is westward, then. But that force of friction must also be acting on the floor, which is attached (ultimately) to the Earth, and the friction force acting on the floor must be pointed eastward (because of Newton’s third law, the one about every action bringing about an equal but opposite reaction). So the earth is getting pushed on by the friction. But it’s roughly a godzillion times more massive so you can’t see the effect. The effect (as invisible as it is) disappears when the box stops moving, because at that point the friction force on the box, and therefore on the floor-attached-to-the-earth, is zero.
And one more thing…the one that’s actually where I’m going with this (took my sweet time about it, didn’t I?). Isn’t energy conserved?
The box, while moving, has kinetic energy. Then it stops. This doesn’t seem like much of a problem, though, does it? After all we routinely swap kinetic and potential energy, pretty much any time gravitation comes into play, and orbiting bodies do this all the time unless they’re in perfectly circular orbits.
Indeed. We are free to swap potential for kinetic energy. But we are pushing the box across a level floor and it still comes to a stop when we quit pushing! The very definition of “level” is a surface where the potential energy is the same no matter where you are standing on it* so the kinetic energy cannot be getting turned into potential energy.
(*[skip this if you don’t want your mind blown] Incidentally, you can get some very weird shapes that are “level.” A non-rotating planet would have a spherical surface, all at the same potential but level, a rotating planet will have that surface be an oblate spheroid (i.e., one a bit squashed looking), with the equator being the maximum bulge, but then you have the moon and sun pulling on the earth which raises tides and makes the “level” surface a bit more complicated (and ever-changing). That level surface nevertheless looks flat to us, because it’s so doggone big.
You could conceivably have a double planet orbiting so closely that the two planets would each form a teardrop shape, with the points of the teardrops each pointing at the opposing planet. If they were close enough together they might even touch. And that would be “level” ground to the people on those planets, though the force of gravity would be zero where the teardrops touch.)
If energy is conserved, and at everyday scales it most certainly is, the kinetic energy of the box must be going somewhere, and it is: it becomes heat energy.
Not only that, but since you were pushing the box against an opposing force (before you quit and let it stop) across some distance, you were doing work, and that too is a form of energy, and it too all became heat energy.
I’m not quite sure when heat was recognized as a form of energy, as opposed to the older theory that it was a fluid named calor that flowed from one object to another (sort of a reverse-phlogiston; or rather phlogistion was a reverse of calor). Antoine Lavoisier, who late in the 1700s dismantled phlogiston theory and came up with a largely correct but incomplete list of elements, actually considered calor (as well as light) an element.
Chemists were able to determine that different substances required different amounts of heat energy to change their temperatures. The amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius (or one Kelvin) was defined as the calorie (note a small c). A thousand calories was a kilocalorie, enough energy to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water one degree C or one K. But sometimes a kilocalorie is written as “Calorie” with a capital C. (It is this Calorie-with-a-big-C that you contend with when you are dieting.)
A substance like iron, on the other hand, could heat up a degree per gram with a lot less energy than a calorie. In fact, it only takes 0.107 calories to do this.
How do you determine this? In principle, you can drop a one gram lump of iron at, say, 20C into a gram of water at 21C, then wait for the heat to transfer. Once everything is at a uniform temperature, you can measure the temperature, and notice that the water barely cooled down at all, but the iron nearly reached 21C. So the water dropped a little bit in temperature but the iron heated up quite a bit. If the energy is constant, the iron heated up a lot more (with the same amount of energy) than the water cooled off (by giving up that energy); thus iron takes less energy to heat up than water. Obviously, you can alter the mass of the water or the iron, or the temperature difference, and things change in proportion; you can do the math and figure that iron’s heat capacity is 0.107 calories per gram, per degree K, if water’s is 1 calorie per gram, per degree K (which it is, by definition).
Water’s heat capacity happens to be one of the highest. Iron’s is more typical.
It turns out that experiment is difficult to run precisely because, of course, the heat leaks out of the container of water while you’re trying to do it. Still, you can try to control this by putting the water in a thermos…a very good thermos, or something better than that. (These sorts of painstaking efforts to eliminate outside effects are why science is harder to do than it is to write about…or read about, no matter how badly I write these posts.)
On to James Prescott Joule, 1818-1889, who came up with the first definitive way to relate heat energy to mechanical energy. Calories were convenient for chemists working with water and other substances, but just how big is a calorie compared to other forms of energy?
In the metric system, we’ve built up our units of force, and so on, from meters, kilograms and seconds (MKS, also known as the international system or SI (its French initials)); there’s also an older system that worked off centimeters, grams, and seconds (CGS). Thus the Newton, the unit of force, is one kilogram-meter-per-second-squared (kg•m/s2 or, preferred by pedants, kg•m•s-2). Work is a force applied by a distance, so the natural units for this ought to be Newtons times meters, N•m, or substituting in, kg•m2•s-2. And indeed that’s what energy’s metric unit is. (It even has a convenient name, but I’ll hold off on telling you what it is for now.)
So can we somehow equate the calorie with this natural metric unit of energy? How many metric units of energy does it take to make up a calorie?
Joule was able to do a known amount of mechanical work on water and measure its temperature change, thus he could determine how much mechanical work it would take to raise the temperature of a gram of water one degree C, and so he knew how many natural metric units were equivalent to a calorie. In fact, he ran multiple different experiments, including some using electricity to heat the water, and (the most direct), the weight of an object hung from a pulley to turn blades in the water to stir it and thereby heat it up. He always got close to the same answer, working in English units (foot pounds of energy).
Over the years we’ve refined his work and have a very precise answer (and we express it in metric.) And the answer is: 4.184 natural metric units equals one (small c) calorie.
And because of Joule’s work on this and related topics, we gave that natural metric unit of energy the name joule, symbol J.
We have also named the metric unit of power, which is to say, the rate at which energy is delivered, the watt, yes the same “watt” you see on light bulbs and microwave ovens. (It’s a metric unit as are volts and amperes and ohms…which, if you’re anti-metric, ought to chap your hindquarters.) One watt is one joule per second, or one joule is the energy delivered by one watt, for one second. A kilowatt-hour (which you might be more familiar with since electric companies like to use them to bill you) is one kilowatt (a thousand watts), delivered for an hour, which is 3600 seconds, so a kilowatt-hour is 1000 x 3600 = 3,600,000 watt-seconds or joules. (Of course, it could also be 500 watts, delivered for two hours…or 2000 watts delivered for half an hour…anything that will multiply out to 3,600,000 watt-seconds.)
Returning to heat, 4.184 joules equals one calorie, but this isn’t the usual number you’ll see. Remember, a calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of liquid water 1 kelvin (or one degree C), but today, almost everyone works in MKS (meters, kilograms, seconds, newtons, joules, watts), not CGS (centimeters, grams, seconds, dynes, ergs…), so kilograms of water are preferred over grams and you’ll generally see that 4,184 joules equals one kilocalorie (abbreviated kcal preferentially, because “big C” versus “little C” gets confusing especially when talking). Or better yet, 4.184 kJ (kilojoules) = 1 kilocalorie.
(But note, the kilocalorie is still just called a “calorie” when we’re talking about food; the author of your book on the new fad kumquat diet may bother to capitalize it…and may not.)
Chemists still use kcals and calories, because it’s convenient for them, but offically, they are neither base units (kilograms, meters, seconds, kelvins, amperes), derived units (newtons, watts, joules, coulombs), nor even the list of non-SI units mentioned in the SI (like the astronomical unit, electron volt, or minute (of time or arc, take your pick).
I’ve talked a lot about temperature, as if we knew what it means. And everyone thinks we do because we measure it all the time, for weather and cooking and refrigeration. But our everyday understanding is very incomplete. (It’s certainly not the same thing as “heat” because different amounts of heat energy change temperatures by different amounts depending on the materials being heated.)
Physicists, of course, looked into this as well and gained a deeper understanding. And with that cliffhanger, I’ll stop here. Next time we move onwards.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
If anyone ends up in the cell right next to him, tell him I said “hi.”
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
‘ The Socialist Revolution in the US cannot take place because there are too many small independent farmers there. Those people are the stability factor. We here in Russia must hurry while our government is stupid enough to not encourage and support the independent farmership.’
V. Lenin, the founder of the Russian revolution
1932 to 1937 — “The Collective Farm Policy was a terrible struggle, Ten million died. It was fearful. ” – Joseph Stalin
1934 — “[Our] future is becoming visible in Russia.” Assistant Secretary of Agriculture —Rexford Tugwell
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” —MauriceStrong
“Each year, [Strong] explains as background to… the novel’s plot, the World Economic Forum convenes in Davos, Switzerland. Over 1,000 CEO’s, prime ministers, finance ministers, and leading academics gather in February to attend meetings and set economic agendas for the year ahead. With this as a setting, he then says: ‘What if a small group of these world leaders were to conclude that the principle risk to the earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? …In order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring this about?’
“‘This group of world leaders,’ he continues, ‘forms a secret society to bring about an economic collapse. It’s February. They’re all at Davos. These aren’t terrorists. They’re world leaders. They have positioned themselves in the world’s commodities and stock markets. They’ve engineered, using their access to stock markets and computers and gold supplies, a panic….. This is Maurice Strong. He knows these world leaders. He is, in fact, co-chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum. He sits at the fulcrum of power. He is in a position to do it. ‘I probably shouldn’t be saying things like this.'”
September 1995 – Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, stated “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.”UN’s 4th World Conference on Women: Beijing, China. — LINK
We cannot divorce what is happening to the US dollar from the food supply. In 2020, Americans allocated the highest proportion of their average pre-tax household income (APTHI) to housing (25.4%), transportation (11.6%), and food (8.7%). In 2022 food is expected to increase by 7.3% to 12.9%, transportation by 5.8% to 15.9%, and housing by 5.3% to 33.1%. LINK
Tucker Carlson does a great riff on the problem:
I already presented a chart on money devaluation. The price of gold indicates the steady devaluation of the US dollar as its purchasing power is diluted by the ever increasing supply of fiat money. This is important to know as we go into high gas prices ==> higher food prices. Now we are looking at the possibility that the US Dollar will lose its Reserve Currency Status. Some think that could cause the ‘exported inflation’ to come flooding back.
As of July 2013, currency in circulation—that is, U.S. coins and paper currency in the hands of the public—totaled about $1.2 trillion dollars. The amount of cash in circulation has risen rapidly in recent decades and much of the increase has been caused by demand from abroad. The Federal Reserve estimates that the majority of the cash in circulation today is outside the United States.
If you look at the price of gold, you can see how the value of the dollar has dropped and how the minimum wage no longer has the buying power it had in 1959. You could also look at minimum wage vs the price of a gallon of gas. From $0.31 in 1959 (minimum wage = $1.00 or 3.2 gal/hr in pay) to $4.41 on March 22, 2022 (minimum wage = $7.25 or 1.64 gal/hr in pay)
However the price of diesel fuel has even more of an impact than gasoline, on the cost of living. Before 1993, the allowable sulfur level in diesel fuel was 5,000 parts per million (ppm). From 1993 until 2006, allowable sulfur was 500 ppm. And beginning in 2006, EPA began to phase-in more stringent regulations to lower the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel to 15 ppm. This caused the cost of diesel to go from well below that of gasoline to $0.95 cents more than gasoline today. This has a major effect on the transportation costs of all commodities AND the production of food.
THE SET-UP BY MR GLOBAL
Four privately owned grain traders control 90% of the grain. They are Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, Andre, and Bunge. Dan Amstutz, who worked for 25 years as a grain trader and VP at Cargill drafted the original text of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. He also wrote the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act that was passed a year after the USA entered the WTO. The Grain Traders say this about Amstutz: “Throughout his very successful career Dan Amstutz represented and championed the ideas and goals of NAEGA membership “ (That’s the North American Export Grain Association.) Dan Amstutz did not represent the interests of farmers or consumers when he wrote that draft, or that farm bill. Instead he represented the interests of the Transnational Ag Cartel. NAEGA: Dan Amstutz Tribute
Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge, Ag Processors
Dry Corn Milling: 57% of milling
Bunge, Illinois Cereal Mills, Archer Daniel Midland, ConAgra (Lincon Grain)
Wet Corn Milling: 74% of Milling
Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Tate and Lyle, CPC
Source: W. Hefferman “Concentration of Agricultural Markets” Unpublished paper; Dept of Rural Sociology Univ of Missouri-Columbia (October 1997)
Forty percent or more of the processing of all agricultural commodities in the Midwest are controlled by the four largest firms. Although debate continues in the United States and in other countries on what constitutes an oligopolistic or near oligopolistic market, much of the economic literature suggests that when four firms control 40% of the market they are able to exert influence on the market unlike that in a competitive system….
It’s interesting that in the time it took me to write this article the paper above was pulled from the internet. However it was captured by the Wayback Machine. The following article is also no longer available on the Internet, however it was not archived so I am reproducing what I saved here. (Remember this was the bill written by Dan Amstutz, the same guy who wrote the WTO Agreement on Ag.)
THE FREEDOM TO FARM ACT — (Senate hearing – March 28, 2000)
MR. WELLSTONE: Mr. President,… …in 1996, both houses of Congress approved a new farm bill, described then as “the most sweeping change in agriculture since the Depression. It would get rid of government subsidies to farmers over the next seven years.”
….The bill has made sweeping changes in agriculture–it has produced one of the worst economic crises that rural American has ever experienced….The Freedom to Farm bill is not saving tax payers money, in fact we have spent $19 billion more in the first 4 years of the 1996 farm bill than was supposed to be spent through the 7 year life of the law….However, what has resulted is the precipitous loss of family farmers because this legislation has not provided small and moderate sized farmers with a safety net. Instead payment loopholes have been inserted in legislation that has allowed the largest argibusiness corporations to receive the lions share of government support.
In my State of Minnesota, family farm income has decreased 43 percent since 1996 and more than 25 percent of the remaining farms may not cover expenses for 2000….In addition, merger after merger in the agriculture sector leaves producers wondering if they will be able to survive amidst the new giants of agribusiness…. …unless we address the current trend of consolidation and vertical integration in corporate agriculture, nothing else we do to maintain the family size farms will succeed.The farm share of profit in the food system has been declining for over 20 years….From 1994 to 1998, consumer prices have increased 3 percent while the prices paid to farmers for their products has plunged 36 percent. Likewise, the impact of price disparity is reinforced by reports of record profits among agribusinesses at the same time producers are suffering an economic depression….In the past decade and a half, an explosion of mergers, acquisitions, and anti-competitive practices has raised concentration in American agriculture to record levels….
[long list of ag consolidation by product]
According to the economic literature, markets are no longer competitive if the top four firms control over 40 percent. In all the markets I just listed, the market share of the top four firms is 40 percent or more. So there really is no effective competition in these processing markets.But now, with this explosion of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, marketing agreements, and anticompetitive behavior by the largest firms, these and other commodity markets are becoming more and more concentrated by the day…..
Dead link: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S28MR0-0011:
“ According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost 90 percent of the total income of rancher or farmer households now comes from outside earnings….
The driving force behind U.S. farm policy is the 1996 seven-year farm program titled the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act — with the ironic acronym (FAIR). The bill, dubbed “Freedom to Farm” by its bipartisan proponents, put an end to the New Deal system of production controls and eliminates federal price supports. It provides farmers with a guarantee of fixed but declining payments to end in 2002, and allows flexibility to plant whatever they like.
Prior to Freedom to Farm, if the price for a market commodity — such as soy, wheat or corn — dipped below the price floor, the government would cover the difference, thus ensuring that price wouldn’t fall below the cost of production. Freedom to Farm eliminated price floors and removed “production controls” including land set asides and farmer-owned grain reserves. By giving farmers some ability to limit the amount of commodities on the market, these policies had given farmers some control over the price for their crops. Finally, the FAIR legislation gradually transitions away to the point of eliminating farm programs after the year 2002….
The effects of Freedom to Farm have been immediate and devastating. Proponents touted the program as a way to increase exports and the price of crops. But “Freedom to Farm” has failed miserably on both accounts. Exports of corn, wheat, soybeans and sorghum have dropped by nearly 10 percent since enactment of Freedom to Farm. More importantly, prices have collapsed, with corn going from $3.24 a bushel in 1995-1996 to $1.90 in 1999-2000, wheat dropping from $4.55 to $2.50, soybeans declining from $6.72 to $4.70 and sorghum plummeting from $3.19 to $1.60…..
Ben Lilliston and Niel Ritchie
When people started learning that farmers were losing money growing food the USDA SPRANG INTO ACTION. They revised the calculating method and started including the hypothetical RENTAL VALUE OF THE HOME AS PART OF THE FARM INCOME!
LAND CLEARANCES
The last time the Banksters collapsed the US economy they stole all the privately held US gold, thanks to FDR. This time they want our land. And not just USA farmland but everyone’s. LINK
Removing farmers from the land to increase profit and to provide cheap labor for factories is nothing new.
In the late 1700s and early to mid 1800s Crofters and highlanders were systematically removed from their lands and their livelihoods to make way for sheep farming which was much more profitable at that time. The first mass emigration was in 1792 when many of the people were forced to leave the land that had been farmed by them and their forefathers to go to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Those that did not emigrate were forced to live in cities or on poor unfarmable land by the rugged sealine. They were not sea farers and did not know how to make a living from the sea. Often their small crofts and out buildings were razed to the ground with fire. Sometimes with the elderly still in them.
These brutal Highland clearances devastated the Gaelic culture, split up families and clans and removed entire communities from the lands that they had farmed for centuries leaving them no option but to emigrate for a better life, as in Scotland they were left fairly destitute.
Many of those that did not emigrate were instead moved to cities such as Glasgow. In 1840, as many as 30,000 Gaelic speaking highlanders moved from farming their small tracts of land and tending a few animals to the English speaking city where they had no skills and were forced into factories. The population grew so quickly that housing was a huge problem with many families sharing one room….
With World War II, America saw its agricultural system intentionally subjected to political policies that radically transformed it. What was once a decentralized system that provided a means to self sufficiency and independence for tens of millions of farmers was purposefully centralized into a capital-intensive fossil-fuel dependent system that restructured local economies, permitting their wealth to be extracted by what are now transnational cartels dedicated to the so-called free market and globalized trade at all cost.
This transformation was the result of organized plans developed by a group of highly powerful – though unelected – financial and industrial executives who wanted to drastically change agricultural practices in the US to better serve their collective corporate financial agenda. This group, called the Committee for Economic Development, was officially established in 1942 as a sister organization to the Council on Foreign Relations. [Both belong to The Rhodes/Milner/Round Table Group -GC] CED has influenced US domestic policies in much the same way that the CFR has influenced the nation’s foreign policies.[1]
Composed of chief executive officers and chairmen from the federal reserve, the banking industry, private equity firms, insurance companies, railroads, information technology firms, publishing companies, pharmaceutical companies, the oil and automotive industries, meat packing companies, retailers and assisted by university economists – representatives from every sector of the economy withthe key exception of farmers themselves –
CED determined that the problem with American agriculture was that there were too many farmers. But the CED had a “solution”: millions of farmers would just have to be eliminated.
In a number of reports written over a few decades, CED recommended that farming “resources” – that is, farmers – be reduced. In its 1945 report “Agriculture in an Expanding Economy,” CED complained that “the excess of human resources engaged in agriculture is probably the most important single factor in the ‘farm problem'” and describes how agricultural production can be better organized to fit to business needs.[2] A report published in 1962 entitled “An Adaptive Program for Agriculture”[3] is even more blunt in its objectives, leading Time Magazine to remark that CED had a plan for fixing the identified problem: “The essential fact to be faced, argues CED, is that with present high levels farm productivity, more labor is involved in agriculture production that the market demands – in short, there are too may farmers. To solve that problem, CED offers a program with three main prongs.”….
And do not forget that NAFTA plus taxpayer-subsidized grain in the EU and the USA was used to wipe out Mexican farmers. “…According to a study by Jose Romero and Alicia Puyana carried out for the federal government of Mexico, between 1992 and 2002, the number of agricultural households fell an astounding 75% – from 2.3 million to 575, 000…” Small Farmers And The Doha Round: Lessons From Mexico’s NAFTA Experience
After driving farmers and others from England and Europe to settle in North America and Australia, allowing them to tame the new land and make it productive, Mr Global/City of London is ready to takeover.
As world population expands, the demand for arable land should soar. At least that’s what George Soros, Lord Rothschild, and other investors believe….
And if you cannot buy it at the ‘right price’ then you go and drive farmers & ranchers off their land. Most are aware of the Bundy ranch mess. The Bureau of Land Management director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser. A commenter checked out Nevada land transfers and found BLM was grabbing ranches and transferring ownership to Harry Reid’s family members for a $1.00. The BLM’s official reason for encircling the Bundy family with sniper teams and helicopters was to protect the endangered desert tortoise, which the agency had previously been killing in mass due to “budget constraints.” However the BLM has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wanted Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle off of the land his family had worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations. Free Republic reposted the BLM documents for posterity. One of them, entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, specifically the construction of “utility-scale solar power generation facilities” on “public lands.” Rory Reid (Sen. Harry Reid’s eldest son) represents the Chinese firm ENN Energy Group and JA Solar…. GEE he sounds like Hunter Biden doesn’t he?
…..On Oct. 17, 2007, Marcelle opened the door to a loud knock. Her heart jumped when she found a man backed by two armed county agents in bulletproof vests. She was alone in the cabin, a dot in the vast open space of the Antelope Valley, without a neighbor for more than half a mile. She feared that something had happened to her daughter, who was visiting from Montreal.
“It has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette, all that.” Joey Gallo, a disabled vet facing homelessness under county orders, with his friend Lucky.
The men demanded her driver’s license, telling her, “This building is not permitted — everything must go.” Normally sassy, Marcelle handed over her ID — even her green card, just in case. Stepping out, she realized that her 1,000-square-foot cabin was surrounded by men with drawn guns. “You have no right to be here,” one informed her. Baffled and shaking with fear, she called her daughter — please come right away.
As her ordeal wore on, she heard one agent, looking inside their comfortable cabin, say to another: “This one’s a real shame — this is a real nice one.”
A “shame” because the authorities eventually would enact some of the most powerful rules imaginable against rural residents: the order to bring the home up to current codes or dismantle the 26-year-old cabin, leaving only bare ground.
“They wouldn’t let me grandfather in the water tank,” Jacques Dupuis says. “It is so heart-wrenching because there was a way to salvage this, but they wouldn’t work with me. It was, ‘Tear it down. Period.’ ”
In order to clear the title on their land, the Dupuises are spending what would have been peaceful retirement days dismantling every board and nail of their home — by hand — because they can’t afford to hire a crew.
Tough code enforcement has been ramped up in these unincorporated areas of L.A. County, leaving the iconoclasts who chose to live in distant sectors of the Antelope Valley frightened, confused and livid. They point the finger at the Board of Supervisors’ Nuisance Abatement Teams, known as NAT, instituted in 2006 by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich in his sprawling Fifth District. The teams’ mission: “to abate the more difficult code violations and public nuisance conditions on private property.”
L.A. Weekly found in a six-week investigation that county inspectors and armed DA investigators also are pursuing victimless misdemeanors and code violations, with sometimes tragic results. The government can define land on which residents have lived for years as “vacant” if their cabins, homes and mobile homes are on parcels where the land use hasn’t been legally established. Some have been jailed for defying the officials in downtown Los Angeles, while others have lost their savings and belongings trying to meet the county’s “final zoning enforcement orders.” Los Angeles County has left some residents, who appeared to be doing no harm, homeless…..
Turns out that Our old friend Warren Buffet was the one who ultimately benefited from this set of Land Clearances.
HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP — 10/11/06 The following is a joint post from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee, Va. GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Minn. Dem. Rep. Collin Peterson:
Despite the decline in gasoline prices, asserting our nation’s energy independence continues to be a challenge. To move us closer toward the goal of greater energy independence, the House of Representatives recently passed a resolution that established a goal of producing 25 percent of the all energy consumed in the U.S. on America’s farms, ranches and forests by the year 2025, an initiative known as 25x’25
H. Con. Res. 424
So there is a LOT of money to be made in using former farmland to produce green energy. I will address some of that in the next article.
The Other ½ of the Land Grab is Verticalization
These are feel good articles but they give you an idea of what is happening.
Vertical integration of the broiler industry allows producers to combine different biosecurity and sanitation practices, housing technologies and feeding regimens to improve food safety. This structure allows greater governance over each aspect of food safety from the breeder farm to the hatchery through the processing plant.
Vertical integration allows the industry to maintain strict biosecurity measures, vaccination programs and testing for bacteria such as Salmonella at breeder farms and hatcheries. In the feed mill, feed is frequently heat-treated to prevent the spread of any bacteria between the feed and the birds. At the grow out house, strict biosecurity measures, pest management control and the “all in all out” concept controls the spread of disease between the birds, houses and flocks.
Once the birds are removed from the grow out houses, they are promptly delivered to the processing plant where strict testing regimes are in place throughout the plant to minimize the spread of bacteria.
Strict records are maintained and steam lined throughout the entire process regarding testing results, vaccination schedules, biosecurity and sanitation protocols.
Growing chickens under contract Today, more than 90 percent of all chickens raised for human consumption in the United States are produced by independent farmers working under contract with integrated chicken production and processing companies. Most of the other ten percent are company-owned farms and less than one percent are raised by individual growers.
The contract growing system provides many farmers an additional source of income outside of crop farming, livestock farming, or production of other agriculture commodities. When growers enter into an agreement with a chicken processor to raise broilers, they get a guaranteed market and thus avoid market risk (that is, the risk of being unable to sell their products or having to sell at a loss). They also have a reliable source of income and access to production resources such as “technical advice, managerial expertise, market knowledge, and . . . technological advances” (ERS, USDA, 1999) provided by the company.
Contract terms vary from company to company; most outline the division of responsibility between growers and contractors. In general the “grower cares for the chickens, and usually provides land and housing facilities, utilities, labor, and other operating expenses, such as repairs and maintenance . . . The contractor provides chicks, feed, veterinary supplies and services, management services or field personnel, and transportation for the birds to and from the farm” (ERS, USDA, 1999). Through the contract growing system, processors reduce uncertainties in production and marketing by controlling quality and quantity of their products, and diversify their operations to better meet consumer demands of high quality, economical chicken products.
The chicks are hatched at company-owned hatcheries, vaccinated against poultry diseases, and delivered to the grower’s farm, where he (or she) houses them in large, specialized structures called growout houses. The company also delivers feed, which the farmer distributes to the flock through a mechanical system.
When the birds reach market age and weight in six or seven weeks, the farmer is paid on the basis of weight gained by the flock, which is influenced by the farmer’s skill and good management. This incentive system is considered a time-honored way of rewarding growers who do a better-than-average job. Successful farmers are committed to the business and understand the need to improve their facilities and adapt to changing conditions….
The Food Safety Modernization act regulated independent farmers out of business. It also transferred liability from the corporate processing plant to the farmer via “tracability.’ We looked into raising chickens on our farm. What they do not mention is you are actually paid about a $1.00 an hour for your labor. (If your kids are doing a lot of the labor, then it is not as big a deal.) You have to have chicken houses that meet USDA standards (Remember the new regulations?) and these are SOLD TO YOU by the corporation. Funny how those standards change just after you have paid those houses off so you have to buy NEW. Just like the truck driving companies that lease/sell you the truck you drive, you end up a slave to the corporation via contract. SEE: Lease Owner Operator Plans – 10 Reasons to RUN the Other Way!
China’s largest meat processor struck a surprise $4.7 billion agreement to acquire SmithfieldFoods, a deal that would mark the biggest Chinese takeover of an American company. Shuanghui’s offer was a 31% premium to Smithfield’s Tuesday closing price of $25.97 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s shares jumped 28% to close at $33.35 Wednesday following [the] news
…..Their core business focus was on mainly pork, and beef to a lesser extent. The company opted for an aggressive growth strategy which is primarily based on amongst others a geographic expansion:
They carried out 32 acquisitions since 1981. They expanded into foreign markets – Smithfield made acquisitions in Canada, France, Romania and Poland. Acquired meat processors in Poland and Romania; including a hog farming operation in the latter country….Most importantly, they followed a vertical integration strategy into the pork business: This entailed a full or partial integration (depending on location), with operations ranging from operations in hog farming, feed mill, meat packing plants and distribution. They also carried out joint ventures . Established joint ventures in Spain, Mexico, and China …
Feeding the Factory Farm The significance of these findings is clear. To the extent that federal farm policy has reduced the market prices for the main components of hog feed, it has reduced costs for operations that buy feed—specialized, industrialized operations. We calculate the cost savings to industrial operations at an average of $947 million per year between 1997 and 2005, or a total of $8.52 billion over the nine-year period. This discount was not available to smaller operations that grew their own feed. The availability of low-priced hog feed on the market may have contributed to a structural transformation in hog production, encouraging the growth of industrial operations by giving them a cost advantage over diversified competitors. These cost advantages may have had less to do with efficiency gains accruing to larger operations than with U.S. government policies that reduced corn and soybean prices below production costs.
So American tax payers are paying to feed Chinese owned hogs and Cattle and Poultry…
…Vertical integration, by definition, is the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies. This is typically done for reasons that tie back to quality control, reduced costs through economies of scale and even increased market share due to the high barriers of entry.
Backward integration occurs when a company acquires a key supplier or takes over a process typically done earlier in the value chain. In recent years, retailers have taken the spotlight, with a few exceptions, as follows:
Kroger, Albertsons, Meijer vertically integrate dairy products: Milk, cheese, butter and ice cream are commonly sold under a private label and these companies have set up manufacturing sites and dairy farms to bring production in-house. As of 2018, Kroger produced around 40% of its private label milk in-house.²
Walmart opens 250,000-square-foot milk processing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana: The move will expand Walmart’s in-house private label milk brands. The company began production in late 2018.³
Costco announces a $400m investment in poultry production facility in Nebraska: The company will control every aspect — from egg hatcheries through to the processing of birds. Costco expects production to begin in late 2019 and ramp up to full production over one to two years.4
Amazon acquires Whole Foods for over $13b: Amazon now has access to customer data, private-label product lines and several hundred physical locations that are visited by affluent consumers.
General Mills partners with Gunsmoke Farms to convert 34,000 acres (53 square miles) of farmland in South Dakota to organic: This will guarantee a stronger supply of wheat for their organic brand Annie’s, which can be tailored to General Mills’ standards.5
Walmart creates its own supply chain for Angus beef: “As clean labels, traceability and transparency become more and more important to customers, we’ve made plans to enter into the beef industry creating an unmatched system that allows us to deliver consistent quality and value,” said Scott Neal, Senior Vice President, Meat, Walmart U.S. “By enlisting a number of best-in-class companies to take part in the supply chain, we’ll be able to provide customers with unprecedented quality, provide transparency throughout the supply chain and leverage the learnings we gain across our business.”
What we the consumer are never told is that once penetration pricing strategy (below cost) is used to capture a major market share, by bankrupting the small competitors, a business can then set a price to maximize profitability. Of course when all of those companies have interlocking boards….
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, accusing them of “an unthinkable plot” to tie him to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida, also accuses others in the Clinton campaign and DNC of shielding the former secretary of state from the plot.
“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot — one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” the lawsuit says.
“Acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty,” it says. “The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the Watergate [scandal] pale in comparison.”
Trump claims in the suit that the conspiracy “was conceived, coordinated and carried out by top-level officials at the Clinton campaign and the DNC — including ‘the candidate’ herself.”
What are the chances that the master of the Art of the Deal just filed this without having the goods to back up the claim? FG&C save your money. It’s a sucker bet.
News of the filing was all over Twitter in nothing flat including a thread from Dawson:
Plays a key role at Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum, where he is a member of the board of trustees and listed as one of the top “agenda contributors.”
Sits on the board of directors for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has been the most powerful driver of U.S. foreign policy for the last 75 years, to the point where it’s impossible to work in the upper echelons of the U.S. State Department without being a member of this elitist globalist club.
Sits on the board of the International Rescue Committee, one of nine private agencies that works to funnel refugees into North America and Europe, mostly from countries that CFR-trained diplomats and Pentagon apparatchiks help to destabilize with wars and revolutions. These refugees come from places like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, cultures that don’t typically mix well in Western societies.
So when Fink speaks, the world’s most powerful business leaders are all ears. He controls trillions of dollars in investment money and sits on all the key globalists boards….
“Behaviors are going to have to change and this is one thing we are asking companies, you have to force behaviors and at BlackRock, we are forcing behaviors,” Fink said.
If anyone can find a video with a more expansive clip of Fink’s comments, please send it to me. I would like to hear the full context. Was this a Freudian slip of the tongue? I’m guessing it was, because Fink is usually not this brutally honest in communicating his beliefs.
After receiving some pretty serious blowback, Fink tried to walk back his comments. On Jan. 24, 2022, Fink told CNBC “I’m not trying to strong arm CEOs to adopt my worldview,” even though everyone knows he is. That’s what Fink is all about. He is the leader of the global movement to create a social-scoring system for corporations related to how environmentally and socially “woke” they are. This is called the ESG scoring system. ESG stands for “environmental, social and governance” score.
If you don’t believe in the fake science that says humans are the primary cause of global environmental degradation and you don’t believe that gender is fluid, you will not qualify for investment going forward in Fink’s world.
Following is a quote from Fink’s 2022 letter to CEOs worldwide:
“Every company and every industry will be transformed by the transition to a net-zero world. The question is, will you lead, or will you be led?”
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34And Mary said to the angel, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” 35And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 36And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
No JP, and as of this writing, well, this will have to do.
This Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Basically, this verse teaches that the fear of God is foundational to true wisdom; all other types of learning are worthless unless built upon a knowledge of the Lord Himself. Many other passages talk about the fear of the Lord (e.g., Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 14:27; 15:33). Before we can understand how the fear of the Lord leads to wisdom, we need to define what the Bible means by “fear” in this context.
In the Bible, the word translated “fear” can mean several things. It can refer to the terror one feels in a frightening situation (Deuteronomy 2:25). It can mean “respect” in the way a servant fears his master and serves him faithfully (Joshua 24:14). Fear can also denote the reverence or awe a person feels in the presence of greatness (Isaiah 6:5). The fear of the Lord is a combination of all of these.
Fear of the Lord can be defined as “the continual awareness that our loving heavenly Father is watching and evaluating everything we think, say, and do” (Matthew 12:36; Psalm 139:2; Jeremiah 12:3). As Jesus told each of the seven churches in Revelation 1—2, “I know your works.” Nothing escapes His attention.
In order to develop the fear of the Lord, we must recognize God for who He is. We must glimpse with our spirits the power, might, beauty, and brilliance of the Lord God Almighty (Revelation 11:17; Hosea 12:5; Isaiah 6:1–5). Those who fear the Lord have a continual awareness of Him, a deep reverence for Him, and sincere commitment to obey Him.
Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This verse gives us some added insight with its antithetical parallelism—there is a sharp contrast between the wise life and the foolish life. A wise person fears/reverences/obeys the Lord; a fool despises God’s instruction and cannot be told what to do. The wise person is wise because he has started at the starting place; the fool has no foundation on which to build wisdom.
Romans 1:21–22 speaks of those who “neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” This is a description of people who try to obtain wisdom while ignoring God—it cannot be done for the simple reason that God is the source of wisdom.
The link between the fear of God and wisdom means we cannot possess wisdom if we recreate God in our own image. Too many people want to “tame” God into a non-threatening nobody. But, if we redefine the Lord as a god that makes us feel comfortable, a permissive “buddy” who exists simply to bless us and give us what we want, we will not fear Him in the way He deserves to be feared. The Lord God Almighty is far greater than that, and the fear of the Lord begins when we see Him in His majesty and power (Revelation 4:11; Job 42:1–2) The Lord shows Job (and us) a glimpse of His power in Job 38—41 when He describes His absolute sovereignty over everything.
When the reality of God’s true nature has caused us to fall down in worship, we are then in the right position to gain wisdom. Wisdom is merely seeing life from God’s perspective and responding accordingly. Wisdom is a priority, and we are told to seek it above all else (Proverbs 3:13; 16:16). Proverbs is known as the wisdom book, and the entire second chapter gives a detailed explanation of the value of gaining wisdom.
Until our hearts are in a right relationship with God, we’re unable to have the “wisdom that comes from heaven” (James 3:17). Without the fear of the Lord, we may gain knowledge of earthly things and make some practical choices for this life, but we are missing the one ingredient that defines a wise person (Psalm 14:1; Exodus 20:3; 34:14; Jeremiah 25:6; Matthew 22:37). In the parable of the rich farmer, the rich man had a “wise” and practical plan for his profits, but God said to him, “You fool!” because the farmer’s plans were made with no thought of God and eternity (Luke 12:16–21).
Without the fear of the Lord, we make final decisions based on our faulty human understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6). When we incorporate the fear of the Lord into every moment of our lives, we make decisions based upon His approval. We live with the knowledge that the Creator of the universe is intimately involved in our every move. He sees, knows, and evaluates all our choices, and we’ll answer to Him (Psalm 139:1–4).
Our respect for God’s majesty causes us to honor Him (Psalm 29:2). Our gratitude for His mercy causes us to serve Him well (Psalm 2:11; 107:15). And the understanding that our God of love is also a God of wrath inspires enough fear to help us stay away from evil (Romans 1:18; Proverbs 8:13). Sin is foolish; righteousness is wise. When we live righteously, we are on the path to wisdom, and everyone in our lives benefits (Proverbs 13:20; 19:8).
Or rather, “Hey Chinese Communist Party and your entire array of servitors, ass-wipers, and fellators!”
You’re not even worth my time this week. When you decide to act like civilized people, maybe I’ll give you a lesson or two in how non-barbarians behave.
Hey BiteMe! (Or, Whoever Has Their Hand Rammed Up That Putrefying Meat Puppet’s Ass)
[Language warning]
You and yours have caused a lot of injury. Literal injury with your war on people who don’t want to take an untested vaccine. When people die in an emergency room because a hospital won’t admit them because they haven’t had their clot shot, that’s a crime.
I’m going to address here the insult on top of the injury, because I am among the insulted. I still have my health but apparently you want me to live under the 8th Street Bridge (which actually isn’t on 8th Street, but whatever, that’s what the I-25 overpass over Cimarron is called), so maybe if you have your way that won’t be true for long. Dreadful time of year to become homeless.
No, you’re just trying to make me unemployed, because I won’t take your fucking shots.
Well, that threat is NOT going to work. I. Won’t. Take. Your. Fucking. Shots.
And it looks like enough people agree, that you’re having to back down, you worthless asswipe.
You’re LOSING.
You LOSER.
You Chinese-bought ratfucking traitor.
I would love to see you die an agonizing, humiliating death. (This isn’t a threat, because I am not threatening to cause that death. I am just announcing my intention to party if it happens.) It would be just recompense for the way you’re killing America…and millions of Americans.
His Fraudulency
Joe Biteme, properly styled His Fraudulency, continues to infest the White House, we haven’t heard much from the person who should have been declared the victor, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.
One can hope that all is not as it seems.
I’d love to feast on that crow.
(I’d like to add, I find it entirely plausible, even likely, that His Fraudulency is also His Figureheadedness. (Apparently that wasn’t a word; it got a red underline. Well it is now.) Where I differ with the hopium addicts is on the subject of who is really in charge. It ain’t anyone we like.)
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Platinum is at exactly the same price it was five weeks ago. When I copied the post…it already said $1,033.00 there.)
Everything except rhodium went down over the past week; actually it was a good deal lower on Wednesday, and higher on Thursday, than it is today. Which implies to me these metals are settling into a new trading range with (for example) gold trading at a bit over $1900 typically.
Which is still a good deal higher than where it was before, having trouble staying over $1800.00, though it’s not dancing around the $2000 dollar mark like it was a week and a half ago.
Expect continued inflation and for shortages to not just continue but get worse.
James Webb Space Telescope Update
This week the James Webb Space Telescope reached another milestone in getting the eighteen separate primary mirror segments to work as one. They were able to image a star and dozens of distant galaxies behind the star. (I posted about this on Thursday.) Now the challenge is getting that focus to be true for all of the different science instruments on the spacecraft, not just the one they’ve been using.
Apparently the optics are meeting or exceeding all expectations. Once the mirror alignment is fully complete and the instruments are all calibrated, the interesting stuff begins. Images from this thing should be vastly better than Hubble…but it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison since Hubble and JWST look at different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. JWST can’t even see green, blue, violet and ultraviolet light, though it can see very deeply into the infrared–which Hubble can’t do.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
Whoever ends up in the cell next to his, tell him I said “Hi.”
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
The first one is always the toughest, and then it gets much easier, so we’ll muddle through this together.
As Friday usually begins the weekend(s) for most of us, I propose weekend things for the theme of the threads: porches, pools, pergolas, picnics, and, of course, patios. This time is to be relaxing and a sort of time out – when feasible – from the horrors of our reality.
I was out a good portion of Thursday celebrating my heritage, so this may be a little lacking.
Well, there you have it folks. A gas generator being used to charge a dead battery in an electric car. My day is complete now!👍💯 pic.twitter.com/yVmiymy31U
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
16When he summoned a famine on the land, and broke every staff of bread, 17he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron; 19until what he had said came to pass the word of the LORD tested him. 20The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free; 21he made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions,
Some people really do have too much time on their hands.
Companion Planting, a favorite with organic farmers.
Native Americans were our first farmers, including the Cherokee, who adopted and adapted an interdependent farming system known colloquially as the Three Sisters. The main characters are corn, beans, and squash or pumpkin, called selu, tuya, and iya in the Cherokee language. Each of them provided foodstuffs, of course, but their role wasn’t singular. Farmers hilled up the three together in mounds, not rows. The cornstalks formed the center pole, giving the beans purchase to climb sunward. Nodules on the weblike bean roots returned vital nitrogen to the soil. Broad squash leaves shaded the ground, slowing evaporation, and the plant itself produced an allelopathic substance that reduced weeds when it washed off in the rain. Meanwhile, the prickly hairs on the ropey squash vines deterred marauding animals….
What is often left out, is this type of farming, although it is labor intensive produces more food per acre than mono-cropping according to a study by ETH Zurich.
Traditional farming.
This type of farming takes into account the type of land and the interplay of animals and plants. Crops are best on well watered, flat fertile land without rocks. (It is amazing how New England soil can GROW ROCKS each year.) Hay can be grown on more hilly & rocky ground. The steepest ground can be used for pastures, orchards or woodlots. Pigs can be run under the trees in orchards to eat the dropped fruit that are likely full of bugs or in woodlots to scrounge for acorns, insects and other eatables . They are also great ‘garbage disposals’. Chickens and other fowl do a great job of eating the bugs that attack crops and fruit trees. Manure and crop rotation keep the soil in good shape and if a field becomes poor, grass with clover (a nitrogen fixing legume) can be planted and livestock run on it for a few years to return it to productive health. Various sources suggest agricultural land is split into 70% pastureland, and 30% arable/crop land. Vegans seems to miss this point. Much of the land that is flat, is fine for pasture but too dry for crops. Plant Types: I. C3 Plants, Comparison With C4 and Cam Plants
KöppenClimate Classification Map
Monoculture farming
This type of industrial farming grows a single crop usually using lots of fertilizers, pesticides and water. Without crop rotation it exhausts the soil. In animals it is called CAFO “concentrated animal feeding operation” These CAFOs are based on feeding large quantities of TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED grain in a confined area, where the animals are often fed antibiotics to prevent illness from crowding and the overfeeding of grain. The main goal is to make $$$ and not to preserve the land for the next generation. My farm lost over two foot of top soil in 50 years according to the 1945 county soil survey. This was thanks to monoculture tobacco farming. It was sold because there was no organic matter left in the soil and therefore would no longer produce a decent crop.
SPS measures were found in the original GATT Articles, mainly Article XX “General Exceptions,” and later in the 1979 Tokyo Round Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, a plurilateral agreement known as the Standards Code. The intent of the Agreement was to ensure that when SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) measures were applied, they were used only to the extent necessary to ensure food safety and animal and plant health, and not to unduly restrict market access for other countries (James and Anderson, 1998; Roberts, 1998).
1957 Poultry Products Inspection Act — These acts mandate sensory or organoleptic (sight, smell, and touch) inspection of all carcasses. This was why the USA used to have the safest food in the world.
1961 PVP is the Plant Variety Protection — The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants: Gave seed companies a monopoly on only the commercial multiplication and the marketing of seeds.
1980 the Supreme Court decision in Diamond v. Chakrabarthy, 447 U.S. 303 enabled living organisms to be patented
1986 Global commodity prices slumped in the mid eighties Pressure from commodity exporters inspired a decision to pursue Agricultural Policy reform at Uruguay round of GATT. It was lead by Under Secretary of Agriculture Dan Amstutz. <=== A REALLY NASTY PERSON!
Launched in 1986, the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of international trade talks has been dominated by a confrontation between the US and the EC over farm policy reform. Both sides proclaim their commitment to devising a GATT regime which will bring an end to the anarchy in world agricultural markets, yet neither is willing to address the underlying cause of the present malaise: structural over-production in their own farm sectors and the resulting accumulation of surpluses. The use of export subsidies to put these surpluses on to world markets caused developing countries severe trade and food security problems in the 1980s; and a Uruguay Round deal is unlikely to bring any relief. What it will do, however, is introduce new regulations which, enshrined in international trade law, will restrict the right of developing countries to manage their own food systems. Most importantly, the use of trade measures to control food imports and price support measures to promote staple food production could be severely constrained, or banned, by a ‘farm superpower’ GATT agreement. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a769339885~db=all (Defunct URL)
The U.S. comprehensive proposal for agricultural trade reform in October 1989 covered:
* market access: convert all nontariff barriers to bound tariffs;
make substantial cuts in these and existing tariffs over 10 years;
use tariff rate quotas and safeguard measures to facilitate transition;
- export competition: phase out export subsidies over five years;
prohibit export restrictions on foodstuffs imposed because of short domestic supplies;
* internal support: phase out most trade-distorting measures;
discipline those that interfere less; permit those with small
trade effect that meet specific criteria;
* sanitary and phytosanitary measures: place these under an international process for dispute settlement and harmonization. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1999/12/30/000178830_98101901511298/.../multi_page.txt (now unavailable to the serfs)
1991 PVP monopoly has applied to seed multiplication and also to the harvest and sometimes the final product as well. Previously unlimited right of farmers to save seed for the following year’s planting has been changed into an optional exception. Only if national government allows, can farm-saved seed still be used, and a royalty has to be paid to the seed company even for seeds grown on-farm. (https://web.archive.org/web/20110113061506/http://www.grain.org/seedling_files/smar2002.pdf)
1993 Published: International HACCP guidelines developed by the Codex Alimentarius, a joint Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). revised in 1997. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y1579E/y1579e03.htm
“Measures to trace animals…to provide assurances on…safety ..have been incorporated into international standards… The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures…Aims to ensure that governments DO NOT USE QUARANTINE AND FOOD SAFETY REQUIREMENTS as Unjustified trade barriers… It provides Member countries with a right to implement traceability {NAIS} as an SPS measure.” <== Well there went your disease prevention methods. Thanks Dan.
“Development of risk-based systems has been heavily influenced by the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ”
WTO
OIE report Oct 2008 http://www.oie.int/eng/normes/mcode/en_chapitre_1.6.1.htm
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) introduction of intellectual property rules on plants, animals and seeds under WTO’s Agreement “could damage the livelihoods of these 1.4 billion farmers worldwide and undermine food sovereignty and food security ” Joint Communication from the African Group to the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (2003)
September 1995, Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, stated “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.”UN’s 4th World Conference on Women: Beijing, China. http://ngin.tripod.com/280702c.htm
September, 1995, USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service presented a 600-page document Farm-To-Table – CONTROL of every step in the food chain from production to HOME PREPARATION.Http://haccpalliance.org/sub/news/AAMPReport.pdf
July 1996 Major re-structuring of USDA food policies: Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems rule. Under the HACCP rule, industry is responsible for assessing potential food safety hazards and systematically preventing and controlling those hazards. FSIS is responsible for verifying that establishments’ HACCP systems are workingUSDA – THE EVOLUTION OF RISK-BASED INSPECTION (It is YOUR HEALTH they are risking…)
January 1998USDA – Pathogen Reduction and HACCP Systems…and Beyond
1996 The destruction of animals, Disposal procedures and Decontamination operation procedures published
This Manual of procedures for disease eradication by stamping out is based on The destruction of animals, Disposal procedures and Decontamination operation procedures manuals of AUSVETPLAN (second edition, 1996). AUSVETPLAN is a series of technical response plans that describe the Australian approach to an exotic animal disease incursion. The procedures are adapted in this manual to apply to eradication of foci of serious infectious diseases of domestic livestock in any country where they may occur.
December 2004 Union president Stan Painter receive reports from union member that SRM regulations are not uniformly enforced. Painter writes to the Assistant FSIS Administrator for Field Operation about enforcement problem. USDA responses by placed Painter on disciplinary investigation status and contacts the USDA Office of Inspector General about filing criminal charges…..It (the recall of Hallmark/Westland Meat) highlights one of the problems that we have attempted to raise with the agency ever since 1996 when the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) inspection system was put in place. There seems to be too much reliance on an honor system for the industry to police itself. While the USDA investigation is still on going at Hallmark/Westland, a couple of facts have emerged that point to a system that can be gamed by those who want to break the law. It (HACCP) shifted the responsibility for food safety over to the companies .
Stan Painter
December 2004 Freedom of Information Act requests August 2005 Over 1000 non-compliance reports – weighing some 16 pounds — were turned over
When the Hallmark/Westland scandal broke in 2008, the agency promised Congress that FSIS inspectors would receive additional training to enforce the provisions of the HMSA. All we received was an on‐line training module that we could access on the internet to refresh our responsibilities under the Act. There was no follow‐up by the agency management to emphasize the importance of enforcing the provisions of the Act.
Stan Painter
This is a transcript of the USDA patting Stan Painter and John Munsell on the head before blowing them off: Stan Painter was not invited….”I mean I know the Agency invited Stan Painter (ph.) but unfortunately they didn’t give him his authorization code. So he’s not here. So we have no inspectors here….”
This is the Senate hearing where Stan Painter is ripped to shreds by the USDA – FSIS.
…Question. Is USDA’s investigation of union president Stan Painter retaliatory?
Answer. USDA’s investigation into the validity of allegations that Specified Risk Material (SRM) regulations are not being effectively carried out or properly enforced was conducted solely to ensure the safety of our Nation’s food supply.
Question. Stan Painter, the president of the food inspectors union, set forth a series of concerns about SRM removal in a letter to the agency in early December. I understand that FSIS has responded to the letter by launching a personal investigation of Mr. Painter. In January, for example, FSIS flew Mr. Painter to Washington DC and questioned him for 3 hours, to try to get him to divulge the sources of his information. However, FSIS has a database of non-compliance reports, which should document instances in which inspectors have reported non-compliance with SRM removal. Why has FSIS chosen to investigate Mr. Painter personally instead of addressing the questions and concerns raised by his letter?
Answer. In a December 8, 2004, letter, the chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals made unsubstantiated and non-specific allegations that FSIS is not properly enforcing regulations requiring the removal of Specified Risk Materials (SRMs) from beef products. Because of the serious nature of the allegations contained in Mr. Painter’s Letter, FSIS immediately initiated an inquiry into those allegations which included an informal interview of the union chairman. During that interview, Mr. Painter refused to provide specific information to support the letter’s allegations. That inquiry subsequently resulted in a formal investigation by FSIS to determine the validity of the allegations. As part of that investigation, Mr. Painter was formally interviewed on two occasions in January. The FSIS investigation has been completed and the allegations concerning improper enforcement of SRM regulations were not substantiated..… [Remember the FOIA request resulted in Over 1000 non-compliance reports – weighing some 16 pounds — being turned over…]
I ran across a comment made in another forum that will chill the blood of any farmers or small business people reading this article. It shows the cover-up for large corporations and targeting of Mom & Pop businesses is systemic within the US bureaucracy.
“…worked for the EPA in oil field site inspections. Consistently he [his brother] was tasked with fining, and shutting down mom, and pop outfits, but consistently was ordered to leave the big boys like Exxon Mobil alone..” – Sancho @ ATS
1996 “Freedom to Farm” legislation of 1996. Cargill played a significant role in pressurizing the US government to move away from its farmer support programmes and eventually adopt the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act otherwise known as Freedom to Farm, or to its critics “Freedom to fail”. — Corporate Watch
The latest assault on the right of farmers to save seed is a technology developed by USDA and the seed industry. In March of this year the USDA and Delta & Pine Land Co., a Monsanto subsidiary, proudly announced that they received a patent on a technique that genetically alters seed so that it will not germinate if re-planted the following season.
Hope Shand
April 16, 1999 A veritable who’s who of corporate agribusiness writes a letter to Clinton about WTO meeting in Seattle: They want to establishment a three year goal, and a more effective set of trade rules for the agricultural sector – The Calamity Howler
1999 UK traceback (traceability) program in place, millions of animals are killed in the 2000 outbreak of Foot & Mouth. “depopulation” is used instead of Vaccine due to OIE requirement for returning to Disease free status SEE: http://www.fao.org/AG/AGAINFO/resources/documents/Vets-l-2/5engArt.txt
March 28, 2000 Senate -“Freedom to Farm” becomes “Freedom to Fail” The bill has made sweeping changes in agriculture–it has produced one of the worst economic crises that rural American has ever experienced. Tens of thousands of farm families are in jeopardy of losing their livelihoods and life savings. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S28MR0-0011: (URL is dead) “ According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost 90 percent of the total income of rancher or farmer households now comes from outside earnings.” — Multinational Monitor
July 2000, USDA officials claimed in court hearing that, “The farmers have no rights. No right to be heard before the court, no right to independent testing, and no right to question the USDA.” –– Linda Faillace: Mad sheep
2001 Issues for the Agricultural Talks and WTO Trade Round:
“The un-scientific so-called “precautionary principle” is unfortunately being successfully and constantly misused as justification to immobilize science and its applications, as well as to confuse the public. ..The so-called principle, which is in fact a concept rather than a principle, is indeed a wonderful tool to avoid delicate political decision. .. the so-called precautionary principle – in reality a concept rather than a scientific principle – should not be used as a tool to stop innovation, even under the guise of a moratorium, which is what has happened in the EU today. There will always be scientific uncertainty in any scientific field and reasonable approaches to risk management must be adopted to manage this uncertainty. Prohibition must only be used as an extreme risk management tool. Abuses of the precaution concept to justify political positions, or to cloak distorting import restriction policies, should equally be avoided and expressively exposed. The European Commission’s recent white paper was helpful in clarifying the limits to be set on the use of the so-called “precautionary principle.” …. The internationalization of the food chain demands that identification, registration, tracking and tracing systems also become internationalized. — Mr Auxenfans
After 31 years with Monsanto, Mr. Auxenfans, retired from the Monsanto Corporation at the end of 1999 as the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Agricultural Division, and its Chairman for the Europe-Africa operations. He is a member of the Board of Directors at both the IPC and the IAMA.
2001 Polish entry into the European Union: EU Chair states intent to remove 1 million Poles from their land (using regulations as a weapon) The Battle to Save the Polish Countryside:
2002, the National Institute of Animal Agriculture (NIAA) began a major push for NAIS (traceability).
Listen up, America. Apparently, there’s a big, new threat to our national security: Terrorist chickens. Luckily, though, our national government, with the support of agribusiness corporations and high-tech firms, have a plan to tag and track every one of these terrible terrorists…. Holy George Orwell! Forced surveillance of livestock and pets – who came up with this? The National Institute of Animal Agriculture – a lobbying front for the likes of Cargill, Monsanto, Schering-Plough, and other agribusiness giants, as well as for the makers of the billions of electronic tags that Americans will be forced to buy. Since 2002, this tiny group has quietly pushed the Bush ag department to impose this mandatory program on all livestock owners, literally invading our homes and farms, while trampling our privacy and property rights
2002 Effect of new Ag policies on farmers in USA and Mexico:
FTAA is essentially an expansion of NAFTA. But NAFTA has proven to be a nightmare for working families and the environment. A look at NAFTA’s legacy shows why these kinds of “free trade” agreements should be opposed. Working families suffer: In the US, more than 765,000 jobs have disappeared as a result of NAFTA. When these laid off workers find new jobs, they earn 23 percent less on average than at their previous employment. In Mexico, manufacturing wages fell 21 percent from 1995 to 1999, and have only started to recover. The percentage of Mexicans living in poverty has also grown since NAFTA went into effect. The environment suffers: In the maquiladora zones along the US-Mexico border, the increased pollution and the improper disposal of chemical wastes have dramatically raised rates of hepatitis and birth defects. NAFTA should be repealed, not expanded.
March 6, 2004 “It is important to note that no animal identification program will prevent an introduction of animal disease, ensure safe food or prevent a recall.” – SCOTT CHARBO, Chief Information Officer at USDA
“Tracking of Cattle Becomes Key Goal,” Houston Chronicle, March 6, 2004, p.1.
“According to APHIS-USDA (2004a), the increasing number of animal disease outbreaks that have been reported around the globe over the past decade, and the single US cow that tested positive for BSE, have greatly intensified public interest in developing a national identification program for the purpose of protecting animal health.
Marshall (2004a) reported that USDA Secretary Ann Veneman announced on April 30, 2004:
(a) USDA will now move forward on a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) using $18.8 million to start the program and with $33 million more in the FY-2005 federal budget,
(b) the frame work will be “technology neutral” but RFID will be the method of choice to get the program going as soon as possible,
(c) the USAIP will be modified to protect producer confidentiality (against inappropriate use of the Freedom Of Information Act—FOIA), and (d) NAIS will initially be voluntary, with premises IDs assigned in Fall 2004 and individual animal IDs used at a later date. http://www.theisef.com/CMDocs/isef/05Traceability.pdf [Dead URL]
January 30, 2004, Bush signed Homeland Security Presidential Directive-9, “to defend the agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies.” USDA’s Jeremy Stump, says, “It’s from farm to fork.” The order covers animals and crops – the entire food supply chain – and includes shared operations with the CIA. — CBS News
January 2005:Guide to good farming practices: This draft guide to good farming practices for animal production food safety was taken from the Report of the Meeting of the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission (Paris, 17-28 January 2005) www.oie.int/boutique/extrait/25berlingueri823836_0.pdf?PHPSESSID=64969a28688594daf57a7263f42fb1ce (Dead URL– I have a copy on my computer and it is jaw dropping. Think Max security facility…. With guards and health papers required for visitors.)
June 2006 Global Diversity Treaty:Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) a standardized contract that will enable much easier access to crop diversity. [ germplasm for patenting] royalty payment (1.1% of sales) is paid only if product is unavailable for further breeding and research. Funds will be devoted to conservation efforts. Translation: Bio-techs Corporations steal seed from third world farmers, patents it and pay money to Bioversity International
December 2006 “In the EU, there is now a list of ‘official’ vegetable varieties. Seed that is not on the list cannot be ‘sold’ to the ‘public’ To keep something on the list costs thousands of pounds each year…Hundreds of thousands of old heirloom varieties (the results of about eleven thousand years of plant breeding by our ancestors) are being lost forever . https://web.archive.org/web/20080601185703/http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pvs/pbr/app-procedure.htm & http://www.realseeds.co.uk/terms.html
Feb 2007 GRAIN press release USA: Seed companies want to ban farm-saved seeds A new report from GRAIN reveals the new lobbying offensive from the global seed industry to make it a crime for farmers to save seeds for the next year’s planting. See History at: https://web.archive.org/web/20070528091510/http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/2007/feb.php
Feb 2007: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “risk-based” inspection plan: Food Safety and Inspection Service will focus more on plants (factories) judged to have a higher risk of contamination. (if there are no complaints or non Compliance reports no inspections made) http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/23/business/fi-meat23 (requires fee to view in archives)
Feb 2007 Clones declared save: FDA decides based on “risk assessment” that meat and milk from adult clones and their offspring are as safe to consume as those from standard animals. “There has, of course, been no public debate about whether US citizens, let alone the recipients of US exports, wish to consume such fare, and surveys of US public opinion show a decided lack of appetite for cloned food. But we may not have the choice. The FDA has already concluded labelling should not be required “ — IndyMedia Org
2007 “In 1981, there were 181 FSIS employees per billion pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; in FY 2007, FSIS employed fewer than 88 workers per billion pounds “ — House Oversight Committee 2008
April 2007 Monsanto, Cargill and Maseca-ADM sign agreements to establish regional seed banks in the center and south of Mexico. https://web.archive.org/web/20080123221104/http://www.counterpunch.org/ross11212007.html
September 2007 Arctic Seed Vault http://www.physorg.com/news90236313.html
A Premises has no protection under the Constitution of the United States while property always has the exclusive rights of the owner tied to it. Property rights are protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. The word Premise is a synonym for the word tenement… Websters New World Dictionary 1960 College Edition defines Premises as the part of a deed or lease that states its reason the parties involved and the property in conveyance. Webster then defines conveyance as the transfer of ownership of real property from one person to another. It is quite obvious that the bureaucrats in Washington had a very good reason to use the term premises and never mention PROPERTY…. Page 22 The New User Guide-USDA
The Truth about Premises Identification, Before you sign up did they release this information to you? premises identification number, or PIN, is then assigned to that location associating it with the mailing address. Page 22 The New User Guide It is important to remember that the premises identification number (PIN) is assigned to a geophysical location. If an owner or entity sells his/her farm, the next operators of the premises use the original premises identification number that had been assigned to that location. If the seller buys a new location to build a new operation that never had livestock, he/she would register that location and obtain a new premises identification number. It will carry with the land forever….. That means this PIN must be disclosed when selling the property.
January 8 2008 ~In the UK Defra has dropped the word ‘farming’ from its title. “Defra and the Treasury’s joint vision document of 2006 presented to the EU argued that supports for farming should be completely abandoned.. farming is a drain on the country’s finances and we are in a “post agricultural era”…“ —Warmwell
The terminator gene technology, or genetic use restriction technoligy (GURT0 is the genetic modification of plants to make them produce sterile seeds in second generation…This technology was patented by the US Departmetn of Agriculture and the Seed company, Delta and Pine Land Company … During 2002 Monsanto acquired Delta and Pind Land (DPL)….
According to Vandana Shiva the termanator gene was stolen from India.
May 2008: Creekstone Farms loses appeals for right to test for BSE (Mad cow disease) http://www.animallaw.info/cases/causfd2007wl1020786.htm
2008: Documents USDA cuts and changes in poultry inspection https://web.archive.org/web/20080529054505/http://www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/industry.cfm
2008 Who’s who in Corporate take over of food. https://web.archive.org/web/20080209021546/http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=4185&name=Biotech-Brigade
FAO is supporting harmonization of seed rules and regulations in Africa and Central Asia in order to stimulate the development of a vibrant seed industry…An effective seed regulation harmonization process involves dialogue amongst all relevant stakeholders from both private and public sectors. Seed quality assurance, variety release, plant variety protection, biosafety, plant quarantine and phytosanitary issues are among the major technical areas of a regional harmonized seed system. The key to a successful seed regulation harmonization is a strong political will of the governments involved
2008: USDA is moving toward supporting fewer labs nationwide, with the remaining labs serving as regional labs and supporting larger geographic areas. The first-point testing program is the “early warning system” for the brucellosis program, enabling detection of infection prior to sale of cattle within the state. With the discontinuation of first-point testing, slaughter testing will become the primary method for brucellosis surveillance. Texas Animal Health Commission
Alongside this, as hoped for by designers of NAFTA, has been ‘modernisation’ – a sharp decline in the share of agriculture and allied sectors in the workforce. From nearly 27% in 1991 it declined to slightly less than 15% in 2006, losing more than 2 million jobs[18]. Again small and marginal farmers and agricultural labour bore the brunt, as evidenced by very sharp decline in the number of rural households. According to a study by Jose Romero and Alicia Puyana carried out for the federal government of Mexico, between 1992 and 2002, the number of agricultural households fell an astounding 75% – from 2.3 million to 575, 000[19]. There has been a significant increase in migration out of rural areas as livelihoods are lost and farms have been abandoned.
Ejidos are a system of community-owned lands which, in some cases, have been owned “in trust” by communities for centuries. Ejido lands were protected from sale as a result of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. However, a significant amount of ejido land passed into private hands during the 1980s and 1990s due to extreme credit pressures and changes to the Mexican Constitution. These constitutional changes allow, for the first time since the Revolution, the sale of ejido land to private owners. The changes were a crucial concession by Mexico to ensure the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.
2008: The draft guide to good farming practices from International Standards Organization. Sources: http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2502/review25-2BR/25-berlingueri823-836.pdf (Removed from archives)
2008: Good farming practices lead to transition to sustaniable Agriculture Slide prsentation to FAO Source: http://www.fao.org/prods/PP6401/GoodFarming/tsld001.htm (Removed from archives)
2009 The Largest Wave of Suicides in History
Farmer suicides in India: Now the full toll—surely among the largest sustained waves of suicides in human history—is becoming apparent. And as Sainath emphasizes, these numbers still underestimate the disaster, since women farmers are excluded from the official statistics… It is important that the figure of 150,000 farm suicides is a bottom line estimate…. As Professor Nagaraj puts it: “There is likely to be a serious underestimation of suicides…what has driven the huge increase in farm suicides, particularly in the Big Four or ’Suicide SEZ’ States? “Overall,” says Professor Nagaraj, “there exists since the mid-90s, an acute agrarian crisis. That’s across the country. In the Big Four and some other states, specific factors compound the problem…. Cultivation costs have shot up in these high input zones, with some inputs seeing cost hikes of several hundred per cent… Meanwhile, prices have crashed, as in the case of cotton, due to massive U.S.-EU subsidies to their growers. All due to price rigging with the tightening grip of large corporations over the trade in agricultural commodities.”
2013 – Biologist Pushpa Bhargava spoke of terminator seeds being sold to farmers in India.
While the debate rages as to whether certain seeds contain a ‘terminator gene’ or more likely some other trait that at least diminishes seed virility, the outcome of global policies that have benefited big agribusiness, as well as seed patenting and seed monopoly (and the swallowing the seed companies’ pesticides!) has been the widespread termination of farmers’ lives in India. With reports of collapsed cotton yields throughout the state of Maharashtra in India , ‘cutting edge’ biotechnology is proving to be terminal on many levels.
We are an independent, non-governmental organization. We are a global network of national standards bodies with one member per country. Our job is to make International Standards.
We are coordinated by a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland…
ISO standards for agriculture cover all aspects of farming, from irrigation and global positioning systems (GPS) to agricultural machinery, animal welfare and sustainable farm management. They help to promote effective farming methods while ensuring that everything in the supply chain – from farm to fork [Where have I read that before…]– meets adequate levels of safety and quality…. Who benefits from ISO standards for agriculture? INDUSTRY, consumers, regulators…..
