Wednesday, September 12th, 2012
MIKE ADAMS and ANTHONY GUCCIARDI, - Natural Society
Stephan: Recently you probably saw a lot of stories about how organic food was no more nutritious than food raised with chemicals. I did not run it because I thought there was something bogus about it. For one thing organic food is better for you simply because it doesn't have any chemical residue. Now, as often happens, a different truth is emerging. I consider the report you are about to read unduly polemic, and it only provisionally makes its case. I have chosen to run it because I think the study it criticizes may be another example of the corrupting influence that is occurring in science. I have run other pieces, indeed, wrote an essay about the toxic consequences of the pharmaceutical industry embracing medicine. If this report is correct, the study will be a demonstration of the same disinformation techniques that we can see at work in climate change denierism, tobacco propaganda, and creationism.
Over the last several days, the mainstream media has fallen for an elaborate scientific hoax that sought to destroy the credibility of organic foods by claiming they are ‘no healthier
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Wednesday, September 12th, 2012
KURT EICHENWALD, - The New York Times
Stephan: Anyone who has read SR for more than a few days knows my views about the insane wars the Neocons created. Now the truth about them is coming out. Read this with today's eyes.
Kurt Eichenwald, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a former reporter for The New York Times, is the author of '500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars.
On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s ‘presidential daily brief
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Wednesday, September 12th, 2012
MIKE LUDWIG, - Truthout.org
Stephan: Here is a little good news concerning accountability.
Tainted, mislabeled pesticides added to the company’s wild bird seed resulted in countless wildlife deaths, massive product recalls and unprecedented civil and criminal penalties.
America’s leading lawn care company is in big trouble for potentially poisoning wild birds across the country, and lying to the government and consumers about pesticide products.
Before a voluntary recall in 2008, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company sold 70 million units of wild bird feed that was illegally treated with an insecticide that is dangerously toxic to wild birds, fish and other wildlife. The Marysville, Ohio-based company must now pay $12.5 million in criminal and civil penalties that regulators say are the heftiest ever issued under federal pesticide law.
It’s practically impossible to quantify how many wild birds and other wildlife were impacted by Scotts’ crimes against nature, but a federal court in Ohio fined the company $4 million, plus $500,000 worth of environmental community service, after Scotts pleaded guilty to distributing the poisonous bird feed and other crimes involving mislabeled and unregistered pesticides.
In a separate civil agreement with the EPA, which launched a civil investigation after the criminal violations were discovered, Scotts agreed to pay $6 million in fines and donate $2 million to environmental projects. […]
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Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
TIM DICKINSON, - Rolling Stone
Stephan: Today I listened to the Romney-Ryan ticket, in the person of Ryan, come out for states to decide marijuana prohibition issues then, 18 hours later, this was reversed. That left me thinking that between the lying and the flip-flopping a very important trend is emerging -- one independent of any particular politician's political philosophy.
Politicians have always and often, to a certain degree, lied. But what we are seeing now is a campaign whose hallmark is lying. I find it very bizarre, quite apart from the politics, that a candidate for the most powerful position in the country, arguably the most powerful man in the world, cannot tell the truth. Not just occasionally but consistently.
How can it be that the dominant nation on the planet permits behavior in its Presidential candidates that a family would find unacceptable in its little children? If you had a son who constantly lied how would you deal with that? Would you and your spouse be o.k. with it? I certainly wouldn't have been tolerant of it if my daughters had acted out with such behavior. How can it be alright for a Presidential candidate? What does that say about the health of our government and social order?
Click through to see the actual records supporting this story.
On the eve of his speech at the Republican convention, Romney and his campaign have launched a new site touting Mitt’s private-sector experience: SterlingBusinessCareer.com.
Under a section called ‘Fixing Businesses,’ the campaign lays out the legend of Romney’s 1990 return to the consulting firm Bain & Company, describing his turnaround effort there as an ‘incredible success’ that returned the firm to profitability ‘in just a year.’
That is a lie.
Federal records obtained by Rolling Stone through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that Bain & Company lost money in both 1991 and 1992 – with Romney at the helm.
This December 22, 1992 analysis for the FDIC lays out the truth about Bain & Company’s mounting losses (both ‘operating’ and ‘net’) in a section called ‘Historical Operating Performance.’ (FDIC was owed more than $30 million by Bain & Company after the 1991 failure of the Bank of New England.)
Here’s the hard truth: Romney’s turnaround effort at the consulting firm was a fiasco. In fact, Bain & Company was only rescued from the brink of collapse by the federal government. In 1993, the FDIC agreed to wipe away more than $10 million it was owed by Romney’s firm because it believed that ‘the […]
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Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
Stephan: This is a fascinating trend. The world's growing economies are not choosing the American model of every man for himself vulture capitalism which, it is worth noting, is not the capitalism that created the great middle class that made the U.S. the envy of the world.
Instead, these emerging nations are trying to construct a system that rewards entrepreneurial effort, but does so in the context of creating a society based on social wellness. If they avoid the many pitfalls, China, India, and Indonesia, led by Singapore, will end up becoming this century's models.
Asia’s economies have long wowed the world with their dynamism. Thanks to years of spectacular growth, more people have been pulled from abject poverty in modern Asia than at any other time in history. But as they become more affluent, the region’s citizens want more from their governments. Across the continent pressure is growing for public pensions, national health insurance, unemployment benefits and other hallmarks of social protection. As a result, the world’s most vibrant economies are shifting gear, away from simply building wealth towards building a welfare state.
The speed and scale of this shift are mind-boggling (see article). Last October Indonesia’s government promised to provide all its citizens with health insurance by 2014. It is building the biggest ‘single-payer
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