FROM THE GREEN REVOLUTION TO GMOS: LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS (Source truepublica.org.uk) What can we do about the powerful transnational agribusiness companies that have captured or at the very least heavily influence monsanto-wants-to-know-why-people-doubt-science regulatory bodies, research institutes, trade agreements and governments? How can we assess the safety and efficacy of GMOs or their other technologies and products when narratives and decision-making processes have become distorted by these companies? Through the ‘green revolution’ chemical-intensive model of agriculture these corporations and their  Rockefeller powerful backers promoted and instituted, they have been able to determine what seeds are to be used by farmers, what is to be grown and what inputs are to be applied. This, in turn, has adversely effected the nutritional content of food, led to the  vandana shiva climate change drought and india’s looming food and water crisis over-exploitation of water and diminished drought resistance, losing million tons of soil annually due to erosion government “ degraded soil,  ” undermined biodiversity, food bowl cancer polluted the environment,  “green-revolution trapping india’s farmers in debt”destroyed farmers’ livelihoods and so much more: With 60 years’ farming experience behind him, “Save outlined many of these impacts in his open letter to Indian officials some years back. These powerful corporations increasingly hold sway over a globalized system of food and agriculture from seed to plate. And with major mergers within the agribusiness sector in the pipeline, power will be further consolidated and the situation is likely to worsen. While scientific innovation has a role to play in improving agriculture, the narrative about farming has been shaped to benefit the interests of this handful of wealthy, politically influential corporations whereby commercial interest trumps any notion of the public good.

Anonymous Hits New York Stock Exchange, World Bank, The Fed, & Vatican — Total Media Blackout (Source thefreethoughtproject.com) A global media blackout of Anonymous’ ongoing worldwide attacks on the “corrupt banking cartels,” the hacking collective has now taken down some of the most prestigious institutions in global governance. OpIcarus has recently taken offline the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, five U.S. Federal Reserve Banks and the Vatican. After announcing a  anonymous-fires-opening-massive-assault-global-banking-cartel global call to arms against the “corrupt global banking cartel,” the hacker collective, known as Anonymous, in conjunction with Ghost Squad Hackers, have taken more than 30 central banks offline, including striking many targets at the heart of the Western imperialist empire. An Anonymous press release explained the intention behind the operation: “The banks have been getting away with murder, fraud, conspiracy, war profiteering, money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels, have put millions of people out on the street without food or shelter and have successfully bought all our governments to help keep us silenced. We represent the voice of the voiceless. We are uniting to make a stand. The central banks which were attacked in recent days were attacked to remind people that the biggest threat we face to an open and free society is the banks. The bankers are the problem and #OpIcarus is the solution.” Operation Icarus was relaunched in conjunction with a video release announcing the beginning of a “30-day campaign against central bank sites across the world.” Since that time, the scope and magnitude of the attacks have increased exponentially, with Anonymous, Ghost Squad Hackers, a number of Sec groups and Banned Offline coordinating attacks — each focusing on separate financial institutions in an effort to maximize the number of targets hit.

Harrowing scenes of Venezuela on the brink of collapse (Source Washington Post) The lines outside Venezuelan supermarkets can stretch for hours, snaking down sidewalks and right-angling around corners. Each one is like a hissing fuse. Will they explode? Venezuela withers away a little more each week. Another food staple or medicine or industrial part goes missing, bringing the breaking point closer. The national guard troops policing the supermarket lines grip their riot shields and truncheons tighter, looking ever more jittery.It all is a waiting game. The government of President Nicolás Maduro is waiting for a rise in oil prices to save it from catastrophe. It is waiting for rainfall to rescue its hydroelectric plants and end the rotating blackouts that have cut the work week for state employees from five days to two. The government is holding on to hopes of another loan from China, or any other creditor willing to lend it a little breathing room. The government knows it better put something on the supermarket shelves for Venezuelans to wait for. Venezuela’s political opposition is also watching the fuse, and sometimes trying to fan it, but its street protests look small beside the food lines. The opposition took control of parliament in December, but that didn’t matter. Maduro disregards their laws, their votes, their condemnations and warnings. They’re bystanders too, for the most part. For how much longer? The waiting game goes on. Venezuela’s neighbors are playing it, too, wondering if the crash can be softened and how far it may ripple. U.S. officials think the end is close. But all manner of experts and outsiders have been saying that about Venezuela for a while now, and the lines just get longer.

11 states file lawsuit challenging Obama’s transgender directive (Source rt.com) Texas and 10 other states will sue the Obama administration over a directive that forces states to adjust their policy to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. Texas’s action was announced on Twitter by Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) on Wednesday, where he thanked his attorney general for deciding to bring the suit forward. The other states that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs are Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Georgia, Maine, Arizona and Maine. The filing accuses the Obama administration of “running roughshod over commonsense policies” that protect children and asks a judge to declare the move unlawful. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expected to discuss the lawsuit in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. The Education Department’s directive, which was made earlier this month, orders public schools to create policies allowing transgender students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex. The lawsuits are part of a national transgender bathroom usage controversy, which erupted following the passage of a bill in North Carolina that required that people use the bathroom corresponding to their biological gender.

US military uses 8-inch floppy disks to coordinate nuclear force operations (Source cnbc.com) The U.S. Defense Department is still using — after several decades — 8-inch floppy disks in a computer system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation’s nuclear forces,  HYPERLINK “http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/677454.pdf” \t “_blank” a jaw-dropping new report reveals. The Defense Department’s 1970s-era IBM Series/1 Computer and long-outdated floppy disks handle functions related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft, according to the new Government Accountability Office report. The department’s outdated “Strategic Automated Command and Control System” is one of the 10 oldest information technology investments or systems detailed in the sobering GAO report, which calls for a number of federal agencies “to address aging legacy systems.” The report shows that creaky IT systems are being used to handle important functions related to the nation’s taxpayers, federal prisoners and military veterans, as well as to the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

Will the November US Presidential Election Bring “The End of the World”? (Source globalresearch.ca)

“We have been watching for nearly a month a steady buildup of American and NATO forces along Russia’s borders – on land, on sea and in the air. There has been nothing like this on Russia’s borders, such an amassing of hostile military force, since the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.” So concludes America’s leading Russian expert, Professor Stephen Cohen (Princeton and New York University). Professor Cohen asks if Washington is sleepwalking and needs to wake up or whether Washington has gone crazy and intends war. Pepe Escobar advises Washington to “beware what you wish for: Russia is ready for war. Escobar reports that recently the Rand Corporation, “essentially a CIA outpost,” concluded that “Russia could overrun NATO in a mere 60 hours, if not less.” On the level of nukes and missile systems, Russia is four generations ahead of the US military/security complex, which is mainly interested in inflating profits with cost overruns. US weapons systems are simply outclassed. Nevertheless, the Russian high command is concerned with the Russian government’s low-key response to Washington’s aggression. The generals blame the “Atlanticists Integrationists” who infect Putin’s government. This faction is believed to be organized around Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and believes Russia should make concessions to Washington in order to be accepted as part of the West. The incompetent Russian central bank and neoliberal economists are part of the faction whose goal is to be part of the West regardless of its impact on Russian independence from Washington’s Empire. Stephen Cohen and Alastair Crooke, a former British secret agent, almost alone in the West have noticed that the Russian military and predominant part of the government that emphasizes national sovereignty are putting pressure on President Putin to eliminate those in the government who are willing to compromise Russia’s independence in order to gain acceptance by Washington.