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The
city’s police chief said he believes violent extremists would be
reluctant to target Detroit, as they had Paris last month, for fear
armed citizens would shoot back.
“A lot of Detroiters have CPLs
(concealed pistol licenses), and the same rules apply to terrorists as
they do to some gun-toting thug,” Chief James Craig said. “If you’re a
terrorist, or a carjacker, you want unarmed citizens.”
Oakland University criminal justice professor Daniel Kennedy agreed that terrorists would be reluctant to attack armed citizens.
“We
don’t have laboratories where we can test these theories, but there is
something to the argument that terrorists want a high body count — and
if they can only shoot a few people before they’re taken out themselves,
it wouldn’t have the kind of impact they want.
“An armed citizen
won’t give them a high body count. Look at the theater in Paris,” the
Bataclan Café, where four men with AK-47 assault rifles killed 89 people
during a rock concert. “If some of those people had been armed, it
would’ve been a much different story.”
Although no specific
threats have been identified, the FBI and Department of Homeland
Security last week released a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement
agencies nationwide, warning there could be attacks similar to the Nov.
13 terrorist strikes in Paris that killed 130 people.
Following the Paris attacks, Detroit police chief James Craig (shown) reiterated his policy of encouraging his citizens to continue to arm themselves:
A
lot of Detroiters have CPLs (concealed pistol licenses), and the same
rules apply to terrorists as they do to some gun-toting thug: if you’re a
terrorist, or a carjacker, you want unarmed citizens.
Since his
arrival in Detroit in 2012, Craig has seen his citizens heed his call
and has simultaneously seen violent crime fall significantly. Seven
thousand of them received their CPLs the year after Craig took over, and
another 7,500 were added to the rolls a year later. At present nearly
one in every 20 Detroiters is carrying concealed.
Added Craig:
If
you look at what happened in Paris, I’m not saying if more citizens had
had guns it would have stopped the terrorists. But it sure might have
helped.
If you’re sitting in a restaurant, and you aren’t allowed
to have a gun, what are you supposed to do if someone comes in there
shooting at you? Throw a fork at them?
Oakland University criminal justice professor Daniel Kennedy agreed with Craig:
We
don’t have laboratories where we can test these theories, but there is
something to the argument that terrorists want a high body count. And if
they can only shoot a few people before they’re taken out themselves,
it wouldn’t have the kind of impact they want.
On 60 Minutes
last week, Washington, D.C.’s police chief Cathy Lanier urged her
citizens who carry to “take the gunman out” if they are threatened:
If
you’re in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the
gunman out, it’s the best option for saving lives before the police can
get there.
Former New York City police detective and popular media
personality Bo Dietl was much more direct: “On my hip I’ve got a 9 mm
Glock, so I’m prepared if something happens. If everyone was prepared
... maybe we’d have fewer casualties. Domestic terrorists hit places
where they don’t think they’ll get much resistance, like movie theaters.
Whoever is able to carry a gun legally, it would help.”
Speaking at a United Nations “climate” summit in Paris, Obama blamed America for alleged man-made global warming and claimed that the nation embraces its responsibility to “do something” about the alleged problem. That “something,” of course, at least in the administration's view, involves redistributing the wealth of embattled U.S. taxpayers to Third World governments and dictatorships for climate reparations, as well as shackling the American economy with draconian controls to reduce emissions of what serious scientists know as the “gas of life.” Sounding like a wannabe messiah, Obama even claimed that “we finally determined we would save our planet.” However, lawmakers in Congress and the American people have made clear that they neither believe in the increasingly discredited anthropogenic global-warming (AGW) theory nor in the alleged solutions to the supposed problem.
Dictators and other heads of state have typically arrived at UN conferences toward the end of the show. This time, however, hoping desperately to secure a global “climate” agreement where past summits have failed, UN organizers decided Obama and other “world leaders” should show up at the start. Obama complied, spewing gargantuan amounts of CO2 and arriving in Paris to deliver various speeches hyping the AGW theory, along with illegal pledges to hand out your money. “I've come here personally, as the leader of the world's largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it,” Obama claimed at the ongoing conference, which featured some 150 dictators and heads of government and state.
Of course, Obama is not the “leader” of the “world's largest economy.” His job description is to serve as the chief executive of the federal government, to faithfully execute the laws, and to uphold and defend the Constitution. His other claims were even more ludicrous. For instance, the notion that America recognizes its alleged role in creating the alleged problem could not be more wrong. According to a Pew survey released last year, just 40 percent of Americans even believe the increasingly discredited AGW theory. And without a doubt, far less than that would agree that the nation should shackle its economy and redistribute its wealth to Third World regimes under the guise of dealing with a problem that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not even believe exists.
Obama blames America for non-existent global warming
Barack Obama speaks at U.N. climate summit.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
While speaking at the United Nations on Tuesday, President Obama blamed the United States for global warming, even though there has been no global warming for nearly 18 years. While the administration insists global warming is a real threat, one professor issued a paper saying there has been no global warming for 19 years.
"But there should be no question that the United States of America is stepping up to the plate," Obama said. "We recognize our role in creating this problem; we embrace our responsibility to combat it. We will do our part, and we will help developing nations do theirs. But we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation –- developed and developing alike. Nobody gets a pass."
Obama hyped action the United States has taken, touting moves taken against power companies in what has been described as a "war on coal." According to the president, the United States has reduced its total "carbon pollution" by more than any other nation.
Carolyn is a staff writer for Science and is the editor of the In Brief section.
..........
It’s getting hot in here. A dispute between the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over a climate change paper published this summer is escalating. The latest salvos include a second letter from Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX) to NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan seeking internal communications and documents authored by NOAA employees and a letter from the American Meteorological Society condemning Smith’s demands and warning about its implications for all federally funded research.
The quarrel began with a paper by NOAA scientists published 5 June in Science that revised historical atmosphere and ocean temperature data records found to have been poorly calibrated. In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had noted that the temperature data seemed to suggest that global warming had slowed down beginning around 1998. But the Science paper showed that apparent slowdown in global warming vanished when the data were corrected to account for various sources of bias.
That paper immediately caught Smith’s attention, triggering multiple committee requests for data and methodologies related to the study. NOAA told the committee that the findings were already publicly available and met twice with committee staff to brief them on the results.
But that response didn’t satisfy Smith. On 13 October, he subpoenaed all of NOAA’s internal emails related to the paper, asking for the information by 27 October. In response, the committee’s Democrats wrote to Smith on 23 October, noting that the subpoena “appears to be furthering a fishing expedition” and saying that it oversteps the committee’s bounds, as the paper is a research study and not a policy decision. House Republican leadership this year had given Smith the authority to issue subpoenas without the consent of the minority party.
Did Federal Agency Commit Climate Fraud? Sure Looks Like It
10/28/2015 06:30 PM ET
Junk Science: Worried about climate fraud, Congress is investigating a federal agency for allegedly manipulating weather data to show recent global warming when there is none. So why is the agency refusing to cooperate?
First, a little background: Satellite temperature readings clearly show no warming trend for the last 18 years, 8 months and counting. None.
This fact is significant for two reasons: One, satellite temperature readings are the most comprehensive and thus the most accurate. And, two, the pause in warming since 1998 undercuts the entire global warming agenda of the environmental movement and its allies on the left who see in climate change an opportunity to impose greater government control over our lives.
Yes, we're skeptical of "climate change," at least as defined by the green extremists. Climate is always changing. No one denies that. What's at issue is how it's changing and why. The science is still unclear.
Earlier this year, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists took part in a study that found — no surprise — that the "pause" in global warming from 1998 to 2013 didn't exist.
Their change didn't come from actual temperature readings. It came from extensive data manipulation and tinkering. Instead of a pause, they found a surge.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is refusing to hand over its climate scientists' emails to Rep. Lamar Smith.
See more at http://www.newsy.com/
Another mass shooting attack targeted 'gun-free zone' of California, knowing citizens would be powerless to defend themselves... California is a human shooting range
Thursday, December 03, 2015 by: J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) At the time of this writing, news about the horrific mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., is still unfolding. There are a great many details that have not yet become clear, except that more than a dozen people have been killed, many more wounded, and that the shooters targeted the Inland Region Center, which provides assistance and care for disabled persons. Also, at this writing, a terrorism link has not yet been established or ruled out – understandable given the recent attacks in Paris, where ISIS-sponsored gunmen killed 130 people and wounded scores more.
Authorities are also fairly certain there was more than one gunman, that they were heavily armed, sporting military-style gear, hoods and semi-automatic rifles.
What is less certain – in fact, what is a downright mystery, both to me and tens of millions of my countrymen – is why, oh why, there continue to be "gun-free zones" in a nation whose founders sought to ensure that none of their progeny would be without a means to protect themselves and their families unless they made the personal choice to be vulnerable.
Doubling down on stupidity – and vulnerability
And honestly, California is one of the worst offenders, featuring strict gun control laws, byzantine gun licensure processes and a ruling class that is at once protected by men and women with guns but disavowed of any obligation to allow those they rule the same right.
Police are continuing to sort through evidence as I write this. They have yet to identify the perpetrators of this violence, let alone locate them. Soon, families of the victims will begin to mourn, with many angrily denouncing the assailants and, sadly, many calling for even more laws and regulations that will result in more deaths, more funerals and more heartbreak for more families in the future.
Like Parisians in November, San Bernardinians victimized by this latest attack had no choice but to cower in place and wait for armed police to rush in and save them. Only, as usual, armed police are never at the locations where the deranged come to slaughter, at least not initially. They do get there, eventually, but not before the maximum carnage is inflicted on bewildered and vulnerable citizens, many of whom became victims against their will.
Not that it made a difference in Paris, of course, where police, who are unarmed, themselves, have no option but to cower in the face of armed and determined criminals and terrorists.
The irony is not so sweet; in the U.S., following such incidents, cops that resemble soldiers fill the streets following such mass murder events. In France, actual soldiers, with body armor, are deployed.
Will anyone in power do the right thing – finally?
But what are they protecting, really? Because by the time these assets are deployed, the murderers are often long gone, and while they are most often found at a later date, in another location, the carnage has been committed, the damage done. And there is no going back in time to reverse it.
Yet our "leaders" keep doubling down on vulnerability. And stupidity. And taking chances with our lives. They force companies to spend scarce resources to provide employees with training in "active shooter drills," and require them to "practice" responding to a situation that, honestly – unless you've been around "active shooting," as in a war zone – most will have no idea how they'd really react.
How about, for a change, we alter our direction? How about instead of mandating more gun-free zones, we start building some "universal protection zones," where citizens are free to utilize their Second Amendment right to protect themselves, and their spiritual right to self-preservation? We've done the vulnerability thing time and time and time again; let's try the "self-defense" and "self-protection" thing, okay?
Is anyone in Washington – or Sacramento – listening? It's doubtful; they're too busy looking for a way to exploit this tragedy for political gain to do the right thing.
Active shooter drills carried out EVERY MONTH at San Bernardino Inland Regional Center... staff tweeted 'drill started' as police raid began
Thursday, December 03, 2015
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
(NaturalNews) Get this: The location where the shooting was carried out in San Bernardino -- the Inland Regional Center -- has been subjected to monthly active shooter drills, we're now learning.
This adds even more evidence to the notion that this may be a staged false flag event to provide Obama justification for outlawing private firearms ownership among law-abiding citizens.
From the LA Times:
At the Inland Regional Center, where she's a nurse, the staff works with clients and parents of clients who are sometimes angry. They have active-shooter drills every month or so.
"Drill started," she texted her husband, Mark, around 11 a.m.
She walked to a window nearby and filmed a video as law enforcement sprinted toward the building.
Astronomically unlucky shooters?
Yes, this woman actually texted, "Drill started." She recognized the pattern of movement that law enforcement has drilled countless times before. It's the same thing they've been drilling for every single month.
What are the mathematical odds that a building where law enforcement has been "active shooter" drilling month after month would be randomly hit by active shooters? Nearly zero, of course. Similarly, of all the buildings in Los Angeles, how many are used by police as training grounds for monthly shooting drills? Virtually zero.
Maybe these active shooters are just incredibly, astronomically unlucky, huh? They chose to be active shooters in the exact same building where LA law enforcement has been training in active shooting drills for months!
Anyone who believes this is sheer coincidence is delusional.
"They know it's going to happen..."
That same LA Times story quotes the woman's husband:
Mark Vong said he told his wife to stay calm and not to panic.
"They train for this," he said, standing outside a police barricade Wednesday afternoon. "They know it's going to happen."
Of course they know it's going to happen! They've been drilling the scenario for months!
How blatant do these staged shootings have to get before people wake up and realize it's all a tragic manipulation of public emotions in order to confiscate guns from private citizens and unleash an Obama totalitarian regime that will soon be handed off to Hillary Clinton for the "full tyranny" crackdown?
.................................................................................................
About NaturalNews
The NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams, receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product reviews.
The vast majority of our content is freely given away at no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide) that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and life fulfillment.
https://www.facebook.com/redsilverj
San Bernardino Shooting Hoax : Active Shooter Drill Nov 30th Days BEFORE Attacks 100% PROOF (Redsilverj)
You had them do drills days before and the day of the fake shooting..
..........
ACTIVE SHOOTER EXERCISE
VVC students help law enforcement in campus drill
Zoom
| Victor Valley College school police officers gather outside the library after a a multi-agency active shooter training drill on Monday. American Medical Response, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and the county Fire Department also participated. James Quigg, Daily Press
Posted Nov. 30, 2015 at 4:46 PM
Updated Nov 30, 2015 at 4:47 PM
VICTORVILLE — San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies, unloaded guns drawn, shouted “Get down! Get on the ground!” as they cleared the Victor Valley College library on Monday morning during an active shooter exercise.
Meanwhile, students with pretend injuries acted as victims of a campus shooting.
Staff and students received advance notice of the drill, in which the VVC Police Department joined the county Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department and American Medical Response.
As the sound of gunshots blared through a speaker playing a looped soundtrack, students of the VVC Corrections, Paramedic and Fire academies were given their assignments in the practice scenario.
About a half-dozen students sported torn and bloodied clothing and some fake flesh wounds. They awaited help until the all clear was given by officials, and students were able to assess and treat their wounds after escorting them from the building.
“Just as if this were a real shooting, what we’re doing now is pulling out everyone who’s not a suspect from the building,” campus police officer D.H. Jones said as the "victims" emerged from the library. They were led to the parking lot behind it, where emergency vehicles waited.
San Bernardino, CA — An active shooter situation is currently underway in the 1300 block of South Waterman Avenue in San Bernardino, California.
The shooting apparently took place at the Inland Regional Center, which is a facility that provides services for people who have developmental disabilities. The facility had just celebrated its Christmas party.
While details are scarce, what we have been told by authorities is that police are looking for 1-3 shooters and there are approximately 20 victims, with 12 being presumed dead.
Fox Los Angeles reports that the suspects are “white males” in “military gear” and armed with “rifles.” According to KTLA, police have warned people not to talk to the media. At one point during the KTLA live stream, the reporter attempted to interview a witness and multiple officers rushed up and pushed the reporters and the witnesses apart. Below is a screen grab from the live stream showing confrontation.
image: http://tftppull.freethoughtllc.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Capture3.jpg
After the shooting began, San Bernardino Police Department Lt. Richard Lawhead said that their SWAT team happened to be conducting training nearby. The team was suited, “ready to roll” and responded rapidly, Lawhead said.
CDC scientists held meeting to destroy autism-vaccine documents, reveals CDC whistleblower
Thursday, December 03, 2015 by: Julie Wilson staff writer
(NaturalNews) The results of a 2004 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered a significant
link between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) and autism in
African American boys vaccinated under or around the age 36 months;
however, if it weren't for one whistleblower, you would not have been
privy to any of this, because the evidence was deliberately covered up.
Dr.
William Thompson, currently a senior scientist at the CDC, recently
made a shocking admission that he and his colleagues specifically
arranged a meeting to destroy important documents related to the
study in an attempt to withhold information from the public regarding a
link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
As first reported by Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS News journalist turned independent investigative reporter, Dr. Thompson and the study co-authors "scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study.
"The
remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into
the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy
documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a
huge garbage can."
"The omitted data suggested that African
American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at
increased risk for autism." – CDC Senior Science Dr. William Thompson
However, aware that destroying documents
in this manner was both illegal and unethical, Dr. Thompson kept hard
copies of all the documents that had been disposed of, as well as
maintained all associated computer files.
After securing a
whistleblower attorney, Dr. Thompson came forward with his admission,
providing relevant documents in August 2014 to the office of Rep. Bill
Posey (R-Florida), who presented details of the cover-up on the floor of
the U.S. House of Representatives.
Posey, who maintains that he is "pro-vaccine," read the following quote by Dr. Thompson on the House floor:
My
primary job duties while working in the immunization safety branch from
2000 to 2006, were to later co-lead three major vaccine safety studies.
The MADDSP, MMR autism cases control study was being carried out in
response to the Wakefield-Lancet study that suggested an association
between the MMR vaccine and an autism-like health outcome. There
were several major concerns among scientists and consumer advocates
outside the CDC in the fall of 2000, regarding the execution of the
Verstraeten Study. One of the important goals that was determined up
front, in the spring of 2001, before any of these studies started, was
to have all three protocols vetted outside the CDC
prior to the start of the analyses so consumer advocates could not
claim that we were presenting analyses that suited our own goals and
biases. We hypothesized that if we found statistically
significant effects at either 18 or 36 month thresholds, we would
conclude that vaccinating children early with MMR vaccine could lead to
autism-like characteristics or features. We all met and finalized the study
protocol and analysis plan. The goal was to not deviate from the
analysis plan to avoid the debacle that occurred with the Verstraeten
thimerosal study published in Pediatrics in 2003. At the Sept 5th meeting
we discussed in detail how to code race for both the sample and the
birth certificate sample. At the bottom of table 7, it also shows that
for the non-birth certificate sample, the adjusted race effect
statistical significance was huge. All the authors and I
met and decided sometime between August and September 2002, not to
report any race effects from the paper. Sometime soon after the meeting,
we decided to exclude reporting any race effects. The co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The
remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into
the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy
documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a
huge garbage can. However, because I assumed it was illegal
and would violate both FOIA and DOJ requests, I kept hardcopies of all
documents in my office, and I retain all associated computer files. I
believe we intentionally withheld controversial findings from the final
draft of the Pediatrics paper.
The CDC and Dr.
Thompson's co-author Dr. Frank DeStefano, CDC Director of Immunization
Safety, continue to defend the study as originally published.
A July 29 Tweet by Attkisson states:
So far, no hearings scheduled and no known inquiry of the alleged scientific misconduct.
The
NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education
websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive
changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and
informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by
Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not
recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it
operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams,
receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other
than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product
reviews.
The vast majority of our content is freely given away at
no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable
reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide)
that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and
communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and
life fulfillment.
Details
of the long-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership are public at last: it
will undermine the safety of our food supply, make medicine more
expensive, and give power to the biotech monopoly. Action Alert!
A few weeks ago, the full textof
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal was finally released
after many years of closed-door negotiations between officials from the
US and eleven other countries, all of whom border the Pacific Ocean. Its
provisions were apparently kept secret from all but the biotech and
pharmaceutical industries.
Leaked documents during the trade
negotiations provided reason to be concerned about the final agreement.
And now, a review of the deal’s twenty-nine chapters and five thousand
pages proves these early concerns were completely justified. The final
package now awaits a vote in Congress, which is likely to take place in
Spring 2016.
Here are some of the most pressing concerns for natural health advocates:
It Undermines the Safety of the Food Supply
The TPP contains a number of provisions that threaten current food safety laws.
Generally
speaking, passage of the TPP would mean that any US food safety law
concerning things like pesticides, food additives, or labeling that is
more stringent than “international standards” may be considered an
“illegal barrier” to trade, and subject to enforcement. We have learned
to beware of such “international standards.” They are largely determined
by global special interests.
The TPP expands corporate power in other ways. The deal includes an investor-state dispute settlement(ISDS)
system in which multinational corporations can challenge a host
company’s regulations in an international court. ISDS has been a fixture
in other trade treaties, including NAFTA (the North Atlantic Free Trade
Agreement), and has been used to challenge countries’ economic
policies, anti-smoking efforts, and environmental preservation laws. It
is another giveaway to Big Food and other powerful multinational
interests—a recurring theme throughout the TPP document.
The trade agreement also undercuts US efforts to inspect food imports.
The agreement limits food import inspections at the border “to what is
reasonable and necessary,” and if an issue arises, a country must also
provide an “opportunity for a review of the decision.” This provision,
referred to as the Rapid Response Mechanism, may give exporting
countries the right to challenge basic food safety provisions in the US.
It Gives New Patent Protections to Big Pharma
The
TPP contains an entire chapter on intellectual property rights, with
many provisions relating to pharmaceutical patents. No doubt heavily
influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, the trade deal will force signatory countries to accept many of the same patent laws that have kept drug prices so astronomically high in the US.
The
deal would extend and broaden certain patent and data protections for
the pharmaceutical industry, which Big Pharma can then use to keep
prices high and delay competition from generics. It is a wonderful gift
to the pharmaceutical industry—but a grave loss to patients in
developing countries looking for access to affordable drugs.
The
TPP also allows a practice known as “evergreening,” which lets drug
companies extend a patent on an old drug when it can be used to treat a
new condition—another boon for Big Pharma’s monopoly power.
Even
when Big Pharma loses in the TPP, it wins. One of the more controversial
topics in TPP negotiations concerned patent and data protections for
biologic drugs—medicines derived not from inert chemical compounds but
from living organisms. Big Pharma wanted twelve years of exclusivity—
they already have this in the US—and US trade officials pushed hard in
the negotiations to make this the standard. Instead, the deal grants
them at least five years of exclusivity and as much as eight.
It’s Also a Gift to Biotech Seed Companies
Finally, the TPP deal expands biotech’s monopoly
over the seed industry. The deal requires all twelve countries to join a
number of global intellectual property treaties. One of these treaties
is the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties
of Plants (UPOV91), which emphasizes the rights of seed companies over
farmers. Among other things, UPOV91:
Requires intellectual property (IP) protection for all plant species;
Provides IP protection for 20 to 25 years; and
Stops
farmers from exchanging seeds—a common and important practice in many
developing nations and indeed throughout human history.
In
countries that have not already turned agriculture over to the biotech
industry, this could mean a substantial rewrite of regulations meant to
protect farmers.
Other treaties that signatory countries are
compelled to join make it easier to apply for patents—making it very
likely that more plants and seeds will be patented.
If these gifts to industry were not enough, President Obama moved earlier this summer to have the deal “fast-tracked”—that
is, Congress will be given a fixed period to review the agreement,
after which time legislators must make a yes/no vote without the
possibility of amending the deal. Essentially, it’s “take it or leave
it.”
We say: leave it. And if the US does reject it, do not worry
about losing the reduction of tariffs that is already included. There
will just be a second (and, we hope, a better) version to replace it. Action Alert!
Write to your members of Congress and urge them to oppose the TPP deal,
which undermines consumers and farmers and extends monopoly rights to
major industries. Please send your message immediately.
Wolves return to Poland more than 50 years after being wiped out
National park outside Warsaw says several of the animals seem to have settled there again after government cull in the 1960s
Agence France-Presse in Warsaw
Wednesday 25 November 2015 13.51 EST
Wolves
have returned to a large national park on the outskirts of Warsaw,
decades after they were wiped out there under a hunt launched by the
communist authorities.
“We’re really happy,” said Magdalena
Kamińska, spokeswoman for the 150sq mile (385sq km) Kampinos national
park, Poland’s second largest. “The fact that wolves have returned to
our park, from which they completely disappeared in the 1960s, means
that nature is in good health and is renewing itself.”
Park
employees spotted a first wolf in 2013, but the animal was just passing
through. Now there are several and they appear to have settled in for
the long haul, Kamińska said.