Organic Solutions to our Species' Global Abuse are Meaningless Unless Consumer Capitalism Collapses

There are solutions to the destruction our species continues at an ever increasing rate to spew into our bio-sphere. We could reverse all of the abuse [though some types would take a very long time like pollution of aquifers]. Below there's a list of links to many of the scientifically accepted solutions that mixed organic farming and the restoration of perennial grasslands could achieve.

'Could achieve' But in reality none of Vandana Shiva or anyone's organic solutions can matter a bit on a global scale unless demand driven extractive capitalism ends. Be it by collapse - economic or environmental - revolution [Vegas odds 1,000,000 to 1 against] or epiphany driven conservation [same odds], we must stop our headlong gallop toward extinction immediately. Even if some longshot miracle were to happen tomorrow in our bling addicted consumer culture, the current crud in our air will continue to ramp up its effects for decades or centuries.

The fact is that never in history have the privileged given up their privileges voluntarily and it sure seems to me that the materialistic consumers aren't about to rise up and revolt so about the only hope i see of turning free-fall to slightly slower slide is long-term degrowth driven deflation [more on that in the coming days].

As Vandana Shiva says, "Forty per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the use of fossil fuels and chemical-intensive industrial globalised system of agriculture. Biodiversity and soils rich in organic matter are the best strategy for climate resilience and climate adaptation." Biodiversity is an emergent quality on small scale mixed organic farms. Small scale, where hands do the work not inappropriate technology bought with loans from the enemy. Peasant farming is actually the most sophisticated, and though threatened by land grabbing international criminals, our best hope for the survival of our descendants.

“Unlike agribusiness, peasants do not treat food as a commodity for speculation profiting out of hunger. They do not patent nature for profit, keeping it out of the hands of the common man and woman. They share their knowledge and seeds, so everyone can have food to eat.” - La Via Campesina

Please read through some or all of the links below to learn more about how we can help undo the abuse of fair Gaia IF our species can first shrug off the chains of capitalism.

Climate change and Agriculture, by Vandana Shiva
Biodiverse organic farms produce more food and higher incomes than industrial monocultures. Mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity and increasing food security can thus go hand in hand.

World Soils and the Carbon Cycle in Relation to Climate Change and Food Security. by Rattan Lal
Carbon Management and Sequestration Center Ohio State University

Organic Farming Sequesters Atmospheric Carbon and Nutrients in Soils, A decades long study by The Rodale Institute

Perennial Solution by National Geographic
Annual grains feed the world, but they create problems. Perennials are thrifty. Their long roots hold on to soil, water, and fertilizer, which means less pollution.

Putting carbon back into the ground – the way nature does it, by Adam D. Sacks

Why Conservation, not False Hope, is the Solution to Our Ecological and Financial Dilemmas, by The Mud Report

Vandana Shiva's Grace and Intelligence Gives Us All Hope that Humanity Might Survive

Yesterday, after publishing my bit on Vermont's brave mandatory labeling law which concluded with a a short list of the GMO promoter's propaganda talking points and the promise to counter them, i read Vandana Shiva's 'We Are the Soil'. In it she answers every point that i mentioned and so many more with such grace and intelligence that it moved me to tears. Dr. Vandana Shiva, executive director of the Navdanya Trust, gives us all, me for sure, hope that humanity might survive, hope that my children, grandchildren and theirs might live in a world as rich in the natural wonders as i have.

Vandana's article begins, "The claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are mono-cultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil."

Adding:
"This ecological truth is forgotten in the dominant paradigm because it is based on eco-apartheid, the false idea that we are separate and independent of the earth and also because it defines soil as dead matter. If soil is dead to begin with, human action cannot destroy its life. It can only “improve” the soil with chemical fertilisers. And if we are the masters and conquerors of the soil, we determine the fate of the soil. Soil cannot determine our fate."

"No technology can claim to feed the world while it destroys the life in the soil by failing to feed it on the basis of the Law of Return. This is why the claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are mono-cultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil and accelerating soil erosion and degradation. Degraded and dead soils, soils without organic matter, soils without soil organisms, soils with no water holding capacity, create famines and a food crisis, they do not create food security."

"Living seeds and living soils are the foundation of living and lasting societies."

Vandana's conclusion that "No technology can claim to feed the world while it destroys the life in the soil" speaks to what is IMO one of the fundamental questions underlying humanity's culturally divided worldview - What will save humankind: Technology or Nature? As this article based on a study by Arizona State University's Dr. Braden Allenby says, "This divide feels uniquely 21st century. But it may stretch all the way back to medieval Christianity. From this foundation of Western thought came two enduring Utopian visions: one the basis for salvation by technology, and the other by nature." Vandana and millions of others including myself clearly come down on the side of Mother Nature.

Vandana's article of a few days ago is a short version of  her book 'Soil Not Oil' which discusses the problems humanity faces from our abuse of the commons. In it she details the reasons we teeter on the brink of extinction and provides a broad green boulevard to a solution. Shiva's book is filled with both scientific and small farmer based rational for our enslavement to agribusiness and solutions to help us wiggle out from their domination.

Tomorrow The Mud Report will focus on the many organic solutions that Mother Nature has provided to the problems, big and small,  that we the rogue primate have created through our myopic and short sighted consumption of needless crap.

Please Join 'The Great GMO Labeling Movement'-We All Have the Right To Know What's in Our Food

We all have the right to know what's in the foods we eat and feed to our children. "We all should be able to make informed choices, and have the ability to choose whether to buy genetically engineered food or not. A genetically engineered food is a plant or meat product that has had its DNA artificially altered by the inclusion of genes from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds in that food. This type of genetic alteration is not found in nature. Without proper labeling we have no way of knowing if the food we buy has been produced using genetic engineering." - Vermont Right To Know GMO Movement.

But the Grocery Manufacturers Association [GMA] doesn’t want people to know what’s in their food. That’s very telling because if GMOs were the boon to mankind that the corporate profiteers claim they'd be erecting billboards, they'd be advertising their brands as having the most of them, they'd be the ones demanding mandatory labeling.

On May 8th the Vermont passed the first state wide mandatory labeling of GE [GMO] foods in the U.S. Three years in the making, the new law also prohibits labeling products containing GE ingredients as “natural,” “100-percent natural” or “all-natural.” Lawmakers included a $1.5 million legal fund in anticipation of lawsuits. The very next day the GMA announced it's intention to do just that.

Monsanto, the GMA and their allies know that when companies are forced to label or remove GMOs and are forced to drop the fraudulent practice of labeling GE as “natural” or “all natural,” in one state, they will have to do it in every state. Just as they’ve been forced to do in Europe, where mandatory GMO labeling has been in effect since 1997.

Who is the GMA? The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) is an organization with over 300 corporate members [see list here] including all the big names in industrial agriculture, processed foods and drinks, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and genetic engineering firms like Monsanto. Many of these corporations have bought out or started their own 'Traitor Brands' to secure the growing market of health-conscious and green-minded consumers who often inadvertently support the GMA when they buy brands like Honest Tea, Kashi, Odwalla and others whose parent companies, all members of the GMA, have donated millions to defeat GMO labeling.

Members of Vermont's 'Right To Know GMOs' movement

In response to the GMA's bullshit, the Organic Consumers Association has launched 'The Great Boycott: Monsanto and the GMA. "It’s time for consumers in every state to band together to defeat the GMA’s full-on assault, not only on Vermont, not only on consumers’ right to know what’s in our food, but on states’ rights and on our basic freedoms to protect our health and our communities. Here’s how we do it. We boycott every product, including the natural and organic brands, owned by members of the GMA. We flood their Facebook pages, tarnish their brand names. We pressure financial institutions, pension funds and mutual funds to divest from Monsanto and the other GMA companies." - Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association

The well heeled anti-GMO labeling movement, headed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), will stop at nothing to prevent food transparency. So advocates of common sense mandatory labeling laws have decided to launch a BOYCOTT of all GMA members on the day the GMA files their lawsuit to deny folks in Vermont their right to know what's in their food.

CLICK HERE to learn about the boycott list. Or HERE to download the Buycott app for your smartphone. These links will help you learn how and why it's important to stop buying all non-organic processed foods. including Traitor Brand processed foods or beverages. Ninety percent of the foods North Americans buy or consume are heavily processed, deliberately laced with sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, contaminated with dyes, preservatives, pesticides, GMOs, and drug residues. If you want to be healthy, if you want to avoid cancer, heart attacks, or obesity, build your diet around whole foods, especially raw fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, (coconut oil, avocados, pastured meat, dairy, and eggs, nuts, and whole grains) and nuts.

The corporate PR departments of the GMA and other GE/GMO foods promoters spend millions of dollars every year to deliberately deceive the public, just as the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have for decades. Their propaganda talking points about the potential to suppress food costs, reduce the use of pesticides, create blight-resistant crops, and bring nutrients and higher crop yields to people in areas plagued by hunger may sound good, but each of them is a LIE. The next few Mud Reports will focus on the best antidote to those lies - the TRUTH.

Wake Up America and Canada, the World Doesn't Want to Eat Poisonous Corporate GMO Food

Marchers in Durban, South Africa 'Say No To GMO'

Yesterday, May 24th, millions of people in over 400 cities in 53 countries worldwide took part in the third annual March Against Monsanto (MAM) in an effort to end the use of Genetically Modified Organizms [GMOs] in food production. The main aim of the march is to promote global awareness of the need to protect the global food supply, local farms and the environment by adopting organic solutions, while exposing cronyism between big business and the government.

Organic Consumers Association's political director Alexis Baden-Mayer said yesterday, "GMOs have been partially banned in a number of countries, including Germany, Japan, and Russia yet most countries across the globe still feed GMOs to their animals." Adding,  “Most of the genetically modified crops grown in the US end up in factory farms even though the US has enough grassland to pasture and raise '100 percent grass-fed beef' and produce even more grass fed beef than is raised on modified corn and soy.”

Another issue vital to understanding the realities of industrial agriculture's love affair with GMOs is nicely summed up in an article  published by the David Suzuki foundation titled 'Information & Resources About GMO or GE Foods in Canada'. In it Suzuki explains the basics of how and why most genetically engineered (GE) crops are either engineered to produce their own pesticide in the form of Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt) or are engineered to be resistant to herbicides, which include 'Roundup-Ready' crops. 'Roundup-Ready' crops allow farmers to spray their fields with the herbicide RoundupTM (glyphosate) without harming the herbicide resistant crop. This practice has led to increased use of glyphosate and insect resistance to the herbicide.

Herbicide resistant crops have been shown to cross-pollinate with weeds in the same family, creating super-weeds that are also resistant to herbicides. This has led to ineffective increased herbicide use because farmers will spray the superweeds repeatedly, unaware that the weeds are herbicide-resistant. Also, weeds that have cross-pollinated with GE crops bred to resist insect may become invasive, spreading beyond their natural habitat and out-competing native plants. Further that this abusive practice of intense spraying plays a huge role, along with chemical fertilizer abuse, in the poisoning of the lakes, rivers and groundwater.

Millions of people worldwide are aware that chemical and energy-intensive industrial food and farming as a whole, not just GMOs, pose a fundamental threat to public health, the environment, the aquatic biosphere and climate stability. As Dr. Vandana Shiva said yesterday, "We did not choose to target Monsanto. Monsanto chose to target our seed and food freedom, our scientific and democratic institutions, our very lives."

Why would our governments, especially here in Canada and the US be so adamant in their support of the GMO industry? Money. "Be it water pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotic resistance or the abuse of those cousins of ours named livestock, the corporate shareholders, including pension plans, only consideration is short-term profit - that's capitalism. Serving the interests of the profiteers - that's politics. Choosing which politicians serve which profiteers - that's democracy." - The Mud Report

Consequently, only bottom up action on a personal and collective level can possibly create change. Top down change is impossible now that government agencies, like the FDA in America, go to great lengths to cover up the potential health damage from genetically modified foods, and to keep the consumer in the dark about what they’re really eating. Though GMOs have been at least partially banned in over 15 countries and must be labelled in 62 countries food safety advocates face an uphill battle in North America where the revolving door between industrial agriculture employees, government positions, and regulatory authorities has led to key industry figures occupying positions of power in Canada and the US.

From a positive perspective the results from the International Foundation for Organic Agriculture 40 year multinational, multidisciplinary, peer reviewed study, 'Organic Agriculture and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Context of Food Security' said, "If farmers could stop planting GMOs, and make the transition to organic farming, farm and ranch land can become a significant sink or sequestration pool for greenhouse gasses, literally sucking excess greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and sequestering them safely in the soil, where they belong."

One very credible inter-related set of solutions to many of the economic and environmental disasters, including global warming, that our fair Gaia faces is organic agriculture, re-establishment of perennial grasses, land reform and hard work. "The single greatest service each of us can provide to our planet, our families and ourselves is to grow our own organic food from non-hybrid seeds. To save our own seed in turn, and in so doing be part of the future solution to the present day destruction being sown by GMO's, agri-business and the bio-technology giants." - The Mud Report

The Perennial Pasture Solution-Fertility and Health Emerge From Complexity Not Mono-Culture

Tall Grass Prairie

There are safe and sane solutions to the abuse of our environment and those we share it with. The one we'll focus on today is 'The Perennial Solution'. As Richard Westwood, professor of environmental science and studies with the University of Winnipeg says, "The tall grass prairie which once extended from Canada all the way down to Texas is probably the most threatened ecosystem in North America. There is only about one per cent of it left."

Perennial pastures are very effective for soil carbon sequestration and if you have perennial pastures, including long lived grasses, you can actually produce very high levels of meat and dairy production without having to depend upon the use of a lot of grain.  Perennials are thrifty. Their long roots hold on to soil, water, and fertilizer, which means less pollution.

One inspiring source is Wes Jackson whose Commencement Address at University of Kansas last year focused on The Land Institute who's scientists have proved that agricultural landscapes that absorb greenhouse gases, protect soil, water, and air can feed us healthy foods reliably and profitably.

"Have you ever wondered," Wes asks, "why prairies thrive without any human intervention? No pesticides, no fertilizer, no irrigation, and yet they come back year after year, come drought or flood? Why the soil remains healthy, full of nutrients and swarming with organisms?" Simply put, it’s the complexity. Living things survive by taking advantage of resources as soon as they become available. A bared patch of soil doesn’t stay that way for long. (Reserving it for just one plant species – say, corn – takes a lot of chemicals and tillage.) In time, plants and organisms colonize the area, essentially divvying up available resources.

As The National Geographic article 'The Perennial Solution' says, "Annual grains feed the world, but they create problems." Restoring the globes 3.7 billion hectares of perennial grasslands is the best form of land use for putting carbon back into the ground – the way nature does it. Ploughing it up to grow grains (where that is even feasible) releases vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Perfect complex sheep pasture according to Cornell Univ.

The Mud Report has published many articles about how and why 'Restoring Perennial Grass Lands Can Save Us by Sucking Greenhouse Gases Out of the Atmosphere'. Considering that according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, emissions associated with livestock industries account for 14.5 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases, this is a very important consideration. But so too the health of those we share this world with. How can our species expect to be healthy when we so abuse every other living thing by destroying the inter-related complexity of the web of life that supports us all.

Animal Abuse is Suicide, We, the Flora, Fauna, Microbes, Minerals, Forces and Faeries, Are One

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations [CAFOs] aren't limited to cattle abuse. Chickens are just as brutally abused by their confinement in battery cages and hogs suffer equally in both feeding 'barns' and the confinement of pregnant pigs in gestation crates. The fact is that industrial agriculture is the systematic abuse of every living thing including the animals in its concentration camps, the air and water we all share and the humans who consume it's products.

Why? So that the immoral corporate shareholders can get richer from the short-term 'profits' which are flim flam and lies created by accounting tricks that disregard the full costs of their abusive schemes. "This, the externalizing of costs, is corporate capitalism's biggest lie. Be it water pollution, air pollution from particulates, greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotic resistance or the abuse of those cousins of ours named livestock, the corporate shareholders, including pension plans, only consideration is profit, that's capitalism. Serving the interests of the profiteers, that's politics. Choosing which politicians serve which profiteers, that's democracy." - The Mud Report

Several jurisdictions, including the entire EU, have outlawed some of the worst CAFO abuses. But as soon as one form of abuse is regulated the disgusting capitalists and their bankers either find a slightly different tactic or bribe and coerce those enforcing the regulations. The reality is that, as in all forms of capitalism, as long as consumers demand the crap - no matter how unnecessary, environmentally destructive or abusive the production of it is - capitalism will find a way to meet those demands. As Pogo famously said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Animal rights is the idea that nonhuman animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives, and that their most basic interests – such as an interest in not suffering – should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings. Advocates, including me, oppose the assignment of moral value and fundamental protections on the basis of species membership alone – an idea known since 1970 as speciesism.

As Peter Singer said in his 1971 manifesto for an Animal Liberation movement - 'Animals, Men and Morals' - "We are familiar with Black Liberation, Gay Liberation, and a variety of other movements. With Women's Liberation some thought we had come to the end of the road. Discrimination on the basis of sex, it has been said, is the last form of discrimination that is universally accepted and practiced without pretense ... But one should always be wary of talking of "the last remaining form of discrimination."

Have you read about the bull who cried?

Workers in a slaughterhouse in Hong Kong were surprised when the bull suddenly knelt and cried before it was taken into the slaughterhouse. Shiu, one of the workers, said that he trembled when he saw the bull’s teary eyes.They continued trying to pull the bull inside, but failed. The crying bull just would not budge. The workers were moved and decided to gather funds to purchase the bull and give it to monks, who would take care of it. When they decided not to kill the bull, the creature stood up and followed them. Peter Singer and i applaud them.

So if you must eat animal products, 'Eat Wild', because pasture based farming enhances animal welfare. Real farms aren't mono-cultures, real farms are mixed farms where one form of life feeds another. Real farmers aren't capitalist businessmen beholdin their bankers. Real farmers love their farms and their animals. Choosing meat, eggs, and dairy products from grass-based farms is an effective way to enhance animal welfare.

One day humans will either come to understand that we - the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, forces and faeries - are all one, or we will be eliminated as an unworthy genetic aberration as so many others before us were.

Who Pays the Externalized Water, Air, GHG Pollution and Health Costs of CAFOs? We All Do.

Once upon a time livestock lived on mixed farms, they grazed in pastures of  mixed greens whose makeup changed from season to season and bio-region to bio-region. That was then, now the meat eaten, especially in capitalist countries, is dominated by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations [CAFOs], a more banker and investor friendly name.

CAFOs contaminate aquatic ecosystems. The two main contributors to water pollution caused by CAFOs are soluble nitrogen compounds and phosphorus. The eutrophication of water bodies from such waste is harmful to wildlife and water quality in aquatic system like streams, lakes, and oceans. Because groundwater and surface water are closely linked, water pollution from CAFOs can affect both sources if one or the other is contaminated. The contamination of groundwater with pathogenic organisms from CAFOs threatens drinking water resources, and the transfer of pathogens through drinking water contamination can lead to widespread outbreaks of illness in humans as well as other organisms that underlie the web of life we all rely on.

CAFOs also contribute to the reduction of ambient air quality. CAFOs release several types of gas emissions— ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and particulate matter—all of which have varying human health risks. Critics have long argued that the "retail prices of industrial meat, dairy, and egg products omit immense impacts on human health, the environment, and other shared public assets.

E-coli is increasingly in the news these days, just yesterday an E-coli outbreak triggered a 900 ton recall of ground beef. E-coli bacteria is a common inhabitant of the intestinal tract of man and other animals. When animals are slaughtered and processed several dangerous elements come into play. The first is the presence of fecal matter from slaughtered animals, which can contaminate meat with high levels of bacteria such as E. coli. The muscle of the animal, which is eaten as meat, is sterile. It is only after this meat comes in contact with the contents of the intestines or the feces that it becomes contaminated. Unfortunately almost all cattle are 'finished' in industrial feedlots where they are so tightly packed together that these cattle defecate and urinate onto each other as well as being forced to stand knee deep in their own manure for days on end. So, E-coli is present in all slaughterhouses not just in the manure in the slaughtered animals' intestines but also all over their hides. - The Mud Report

As Katy Kiefer's article 'Factory Farms Are Bad for Your Health' explains, "Every single day, factory farms feed their animals low doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster and prevent disease in filthy, crowded living conditions. In fact, the factory farming industry uses 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. And now, the medical community is warning that the medicines we’ve been relying on since the 1940s may no longer work when we need them."

The largest use of antibiotics in the world is to fatten-up animals and to prevent disease in these septic CAFO’s! When we consume this antibiotic laden meat, we become antibiotic resistant! The meat industry plays by its own rules when it comes to antibiotics, while everyone else suffers the consequences.

This, the externalizing of costs, is corporate capitalism's biggest lie. Be it water pollution, air pollution from particulates, greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotic resistance or the abuse of those cousins of ours named livestock, the corporate shareholders, including pension plans, only consideration is profit, that's capitalism. Serving the interests of the profiteers, that's politics. Choosing which politicians serve which profiteers, that's democracy.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, emissions associated with livestock industries account for 14.5 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases. Who pays these avoided costs? We all do. Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies have concluded that the 'Hoofprints' of CAFOs is astronomical.

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” Henry David Thoreau said. The price we all pay to the corporate bankers and shareholder's is our collective health, our children's health and the health of every living thing upon which our species future depends.

Each of us individually can make a difference in our personal lives by making good choices - i happily have been a non-meat eater for 38 years. But collectively individual choices matter very little compared to the destructive forces of corporate capitalism and the millions of consumers whose endless demands capitalism serves.

Don't Have a Cow Man, At Least Not an Industrial Grain Fed Cow, Pig, Chicken Etc.

Happy Cow, Happy Huumans

The U.S. could feed 800 million people with the grain that it feeds to livestock. Fortunately, it's only in US or US style feedlot operations than cattle are fed on this much grain. The exact facts and figures regarding the ratio of protein eaten to meat produced by different free ranging cattle eating different types of perennial grasses is hard to pin down because of all the variables. But it's widely agreed that it takes somewhere around 3 times as much input for grain fed cattle as it does for wild fed cattle.

The only really consistent numbers are those from the feedlots where it's generally agreed it takes 7 kilograms of grain to produce just 1 kilogram of meat and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans.

Of course, these ratios are just one small aspect of the bigger picture, and though this gets lots of ink, many other aspects are just as important IMO. On an individual level the health benefits of grass-fed and free range meat and dairy products is indubitable. Meat, eggs, and dairy products from pastured animals are ideal for your health. Compared with commercial products, they offer you more "good" fats, and fewer "bad" fats. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. Furthermore, they do not contain traces of added hormones, antibiotics or other drugs.

Then there's water usage. "Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food. Raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for kilogram of food produced; rice, 1,912; wheat, 900; and potatoes, 500 liters." - Cornell University.

Greenhouse gases? According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, emissions associated with livestock industries account for 14.5 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases.With 25 percent of the earth's land surface dedicated to grazing, and the planet hosting an 3.6 billion ruminant livestock, "greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and sheep production are up to nearly 50 times higher, on the basis of pounds of food produced, than they are from producing protein-rich plant foods such as beans, grains, or soy products."

Chemical fertilizers: Industrial meat production accounts for 80% of the nitrogen and phosphorus used in farming. On top of that, the intense run-off of nutrient-infused animal waste at large-scale meat manufacturing facilities contributes significantly to fertilizer pollution in bodies of water. Feed for free rangers consumes zero chemical fertilizers as well as zero fertilizer pollution in bodies of water.

The costs of livestock reared on heavily resource and pollution causing grain-fed production are as often as possible externalized onto the next generation, like all corporate schemes, through the degradation of the air, water and land that our descendants will inherit.

As Guy McPherson says at Nature Bats Last, "Cattle wreak havoc on soil via several avenues, most notably by compacting soil, removing organic matter, increasing runoff, and decreasing infiltration and percolation of precipitation. The wreaking of havoc is not restricted to soil, but instead extends to other organisms. Exactly nada zilch none zip bupkiss zero species native to North America evolved in the presence of cattle. Don’t even get me started on the completely irrelevant comparison between bison and cattle, two species with disparate behavior, diet, and morphology."

Not Happy Cows, Not Happy Humans

The fact is the real costs of grain fed meat addiction make changing to free range, perennial grass fed, meat and dairy products the single most important change individuals can make to positively effect the broad spectrum of environmental travesties humans as a species are causing fair Gaia to suffer.

The next few Mud Reports will focus on the environmental impact - the hoofprints - of livestock raised by different methods as well as the diseases these cousins of ours suffer because of our lust for short term profit. We'll look at how free range grazing on perennial grasslands can turn a huge problem into a solution to the world food crisis and the environmental crisis including greenhouse gas pollution.

Is Referendum the on Self-Rule Donetsk and Lugansk or Scotland Really 'Liberty on the Loose'?

This past weekend's independence referendums resulted in a landslide of support in Donetsk and Lugansk, Ukraine's most populous regions, for self-rule. Republic Co-Chairman Denis Pushilin said, “We, the people of Donetsk, based on results of the May 11 referendum and the declaration of sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic, declare that from now on DPR is now a sovereign state.” Valery Bolotov,  leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic, said, “We have chosen a way of independence from the outrage and the blood-stained dictatorship, fascism and nationalism of Kiev’s junta.” Sounds like 'Liberty is on the Loose'. But...

The Kremlin’s press service quickly issued a statement, saying: “Moscow respects the will of the people in Donetsk and Lugansk and hopes that the practical realization of the outcome of the referendums will be carried out in a civilized manner.” It stressed the necessity of a “dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk.” Which translated into non-babble means Russia is scared shit less of referendums and no more supports any unilateral declaration of independence than any of the other 'rulers' do.

The reality is that a large majority of people living in Donetsk and Lugansk don't want to join Russia and they certainly don't want to be ruled by a US-EU-IMF installed fascist cabal whose muscle is provided by a combination of Right Sector neo-nazis and elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater). They don't want any part of the IMF's destructive, imperialist, noose disguised as loans. What they want is INDEPENDENCE. Russia and the West may argue about Ukraine, but what neither side can tolerate is 'Liberty is on the Loose'.

The Russians pay lip service to "the will of the people" when it suits their overall geopolitical objectives but the people of Chechnya know it's bullshit. They've fought two bloody wars in an a attempt to gain independence from Russia and the results, just as they were for the Confederates States who tried to declare independence from the US, were that "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" as Mao Zedong said.

How about China? What do you think the results of a referendum on self rule would be in the vast regions where the Uyghur people are in the majority? How about the numbers in an independence referendum in Tibet [before the Chinese forcibly moved in so many millions of ethnic Chinese that the Tibetans are now badly outnumbered in their own homeland]?

The list of active separatist movements worldwide is so long Wikipedia needs 6 pages just to list them. There are a couple of regions who have fought to remain culturally, linguistically and historically independent of the 'rulers' for so long that, though condemned and propagandized against by those rulers', they are allowed to have independence referendums. One such case is here in Canada where Quebec has held two votes on separation from Canada. Despite the fact there is no agreement as to what a 'clear' majority means, it is accepted that the possibility of separation by referendum does exist. The Government of Canada has done it's best to mimic the Chinese in Tibet by moving as many immigrants as possible into Quebec, by bribing Quebecers with special financial 'incentives' as well as propaganda and threats.

Scottish Flag

The most likely chance in the near future to see 'Liberty on the Loose' is in Scotland where, on September 18th 2014, after nearly 500 years of domination by the British, after countless uprisings and wars for independence, the Scottish people have a chance to 'Just say YES to an independent Scotland'. The British aristocracy, politicians and banking elites fulminate daily about the disaster a YES vote would cause for Scotland, but according to many of the contradictory polls the Scottish people will vote for INDEPENDENCE on September 18th.

Up here in Blackpoint we're part of Cascadia where 'Salmon are Sacred' and the concept of the bio-region is gaining a political foot-hold. The system of borders in use today tries to divide the indivisible in an attempt by the elites to own and control nature's bounty as well as enslave the working class into doing their bidding. Borders control the free movement of labour but not capital, borders are like the fences in a stockyard designed to protect the power of the few from the wrath of the many.

Each of the world's independence movements is a response to how well this artificial form of tyranny - political borders - has worked to divide the poor and divert their attentions away from their common oppressor. If there must be borders, let them be the watersheds, let them be the real.

Cascadian Flag

That's why, if i must be something, 'i Am Cascadian'. To be Cascadian is a revolutionary concept because it empowers all forms, not just humans, as stakeholders in the bio-region. We, the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals forces and faeries, have evolved through time in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the geology and climate we are immersed in. That empowerment is 'Liberty on the Loose'.

Who Needs the Damn Site C Dam? Bank, Concrete and Steel Shareholders, Politicians, Speculators...

Damn Proposed Site C Dam

The Site C Dam Joint Review Panel {JRP] delivered its findings a few days ago in its 471-page report. They say, "The Panel concludes that the Proponent has not fully demonstrated the need for the Project on the timetable set forth." The report includes 50 recommendations for the project, on topics that include fish habitat, wildlife, heritage, First Nations' treaty rights, agriculture, transportation and human health. It comes after three years of hearings and deliberations, 29,000 pages of evidence from BC Hydro, and 35 years of planning.

As the Tyee article 'No Rush to Build Site C Dam, Review Finds' says, "The report is critical of BC Hydro's planning, including the failure to compare Site C with alternative sources of power." And that, "The report raised concerns about First Nations treaty rights and found the project "would likely cause significant adverse cumulative effects on current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes." Adding, "The loss of farmland would be highly significant to the farmers who would bear the loss, and that financial compensation would not make up for the loss of a highly valued place and way of life."

Save the Peace

The Mud Report covered the hearings and published summaries of each week's proceedings [here, here, here, and here]. While the report's hand-picked panel members don't make a clear recommendation on whether the project should proceed, they do highlight the permanent damage it would have on the environment, farmland and wildlife. In the end, when the report does mention alternative sources of power it doesn't touch on CONSERVATION - the only real green alternative - because it makes no windfall profits for the bankers.

The JRP recommended referring aspects of the project to the B.C. Utilities Commission, saying, "A first step should be for the regulator to examine the cost of the project and the ultimate cost per unit of energy it would produce." The BCUC has rejected the Site C Dam project twice in the past 35 years for the same reasons that still prevail. When asked by reporters about the recommendation to refer aspects to the BCUC, the BC government minister responsible for the project, Bill Bennett, said simply, "We won't be doing that." Bennett did let slip that the questionable $8-billion budget includes "$1.5 billion for interest".

Despite the Liberals moaning there's no money for Health Care, Education, upgrading current infrastructure, they can find "$1.5 billion for interest" to be paid for a damn dam nobody needs. Why? Well BC Hydro, once a huge source of revenue for BC, is now hemorrhaging money. How come? The run of the river agreements Hydro was forced into by Bennett's former leader Gordon Campbell is losing money for BC but returning huge guaranteed dividends as a 'payoff' to liberal friends and insiders, the $Billion dollar 'Smart Meter' boondoggle and the over $400,000,000 BC's government takes off the top yearly and deposits into general revenue so their accountants can say the cooked books look fine to them have done the job.

In the past the fantasy had been to sell the 'excess power' to the Yanquis to make up for the losses that the Liberal governments have forced on BC Hydro and to help pay the $700 million fine for manipulating prices in Calif in the past. But The 'export market' has been vastly diminished by combined cycle gas turbines and the cheap and abundant gas (fracking anyone...?) in the U.S. More recently the excuse for going ahead with Site C, despite the fact BC doesn't need the power was that it would be required for the LNG export boondoggle. That was silenced when all the potential LNG developers admitted that, like every other LNG operation on the globe, BC's would be powered by the natural gas itself.

Which brings us back to the real reasons for building the danm Site C Dam starting with the $1.5 billion windfall in interest payments to the bankers and all the yummy profits for the concrete and steel tycoons who support the Queen Christy and her cronies financially both above and below the table. The Chamber of Commerce, the big unions, the shareholders in the banks, market speculators, the equipment producers, etc. all have never seen a mega project they didn't love.

There's plenty of reasons not to build the Site C Dam but politicians know that spending your money on a mega project will always buy votes in greater quantities than the votes lost by the negative impact on a few first nations folks, ranchers and the biosphere. Unfortunately there's never a mention by any of them of CONSERVATION through efficiency [like insulation] or voluntary demand reduction through de-growth, only various means of continuing BAU's cancerous 'growth'. The Site C Dam is just another pack of lies whose actual purpose to the transfer of the people's hard earned money into the hands of the rich.

Huge Turnout in Donetsk and Luhansk as Eastern Ukrainians Vote in Referendum on Self-Rule

Today's ballot, in Ukrainian and Russian, which when translated into English, asks one question : "Do you support the Act of State Self-rule of the Donetsk People's Republic/Luhansk People's Republic?" Apparently though the Russian/Ukrainian word used in the ballot doesn't have an English counterpart so it remains unclear as people cast their votes for or against local sovereignty what exactly that means. This may be clarified next week as a second round of voting is planned on joining Russia.

As the BBC and others with reporters on the ground are saying the turnout is huge and though the voting stations are chaotic the scene is carnival like. Most of the western MSM don't have reporters on the ground and simply parrot the propaganda lines of the U.S. and its vassal states who have termed the referendum today as “illegal", whereas they totally support the hand-picked, coup installed, Yats regime in Keiv.

A Donetsk separatist leader told one Russian news agency that once the results are announced, if the referendum passes, all Ukrainian military troops in the region would be considered "occupying forces". This is in response to the fear being generated by the neo-nazi Right Sector thugs who for the second time in a week set fire to occupied buildings in the country’s rebellious southeast. This appears to be emerging as a favored tactic as the coup-installed regime in Kiev seeks to put down resistance from ethnic Russians and other opponents..

As Robert Parry's article yesterday says, " As resistance to Kiev’s right-wing regime expanded in the ethnic Russian east and south, the coup regime found itself unable to count on regular Ukrainian troops to fire on civilians. Thus, its national security chief Andriy Parubiy, himself a neo-Nazi, turned to the intensely motivated neo-Nazi shock troops who had been battle-tested during the coup."

Though the western MSM either describes Parubiy simply as the interim government’s chief of national security (with no further context) or possibly as a “nationalist,” his fuller background includes his founding of the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, blending radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Then, on April 15,  after becoming the Kiev regime’s chief of national security and finding Ukrainian troops unwilling to fire on fellow Ukrainians in the east, Parubiy announced the formation of a new 'National Guard' made up almost entirely of Right Sector  volunteers who were sent to Eastern Ukraine immediately. Mayhem has ensued

Everyone is afraid for their safety now that the neo-nazis thugs have been unleashed in Ukraine. Despite their well founded fears a Pew Research Centre survey a few days ago suggests the majority, even in eastern Ukraine - 70% - wanted to remain in a united country, despite concerns about governance. Ukrainians, despite being in the Cross-Hairs of a Financial WWIII, understand that only by remaining independent from both Russia and the US-EU-IMF cabal can they prosper in the future.

As Pepe Escobar explained yesterday in his article 'The IMF goes to war in Ukraine', "The IMF has approved a $17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche has arrived on Wednesday. Predictably, the massive loan is not for the benefit of "the Ukrainian people." Kiev is essentially bankrupt. Creditors range from Western banks to Gazprom -- which is owed no less than $2.7 billion. The "loan" will pay back these creditors; not to mention that $5 billion of the total is earmarked for payments of -- what else -- previous IMF loans. It goes without saying that a lot of the funds will be duly pocketed -- Afghanistan-style -- by the current bunch of oligarchs aligned with the "Yats" government in Kiev."

Pepe correctly, IMO, concludes, "What's left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Ukraine, thus sapping Moscow's energy. And all this because the Washington establishment is absolutely terrified of an emerging power in Eurasia. Not one, but two -- Russia and China. Worse: strategically aligned. Worse still: bent on integrating Asia and Europe."

This is how the US and its vassal states' Empire operates whether its Chile, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or Ukraine [to name a few] . It finds an internal historic or ethnic division then gives money and weapons to whichever side it sees as the one who'll agree to the Empire's conditions for capitulation. The neo-nazi Right Sector makes up a tiny minority of Ukrainians but, like Hitler's Brown Shirts, they can create an atmosphere of fear so pervasive that the majority will knuckle under to the banker bastards in the false hope of security.

One thing i guarantee won't happen in Ukraine anytime soon is a nationwide referendum on the validity of the Yats regime's acceptance of the IMF loan who's conditions are in reality a noose that will strangle Ukraine and, if allowed to proceed, force the sale of it's commonly owned, long cherished, abundant natural resources and its National Bank system. Nothing, not religion, not culture, not language, not historic animosity has been able to divide the Ukrainian people until now. Hopefully they will remain united as they, east, west, north and south, chant FUCK THE IMF.

What, What, Where, When and Why the Right Sector is So Important to Ukraine and YOU

Neo-Nazis march in Lvov 'in honor' of Ukrainian Waffen SS division

Journalists are taught to ask and attempt to answer five questions - W5...Today let's try to have a go at these 5 concerning the neo-nazis in Ukraine...Who is the Right Sector? What do they want? Where do they come from?  When? Why?

The first, WHO, is answered in depth online by searching 'Galician Division' or 'Galician SS' in any search engine. Historically you'd learn that, "during the military occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany, a number of Ukrainians chose to cooperate with the Nazis. Reasons for collaboration generally included resurgent Ukrainian nationalism and aspirations for independence, these however were coupled with rampant racism towards other ethnic groups (such as Tatars, Roma peoples and Poles) as well as a prevailing sentiment of antisemitism."

The Right Sector today, including Dmitro Yarosh, the leader of Ukraine’s radical Right Sector group, are the neo-nazi, skinhead decedents, genetic and philosophical, of those Ukrainian SS volunteers. Until recently they were a tiny minority of loud-mouthed radicals in Ukraine much as other groups like them who exist on the fringes of almost all European countries. Moscow has recently charged Yarosh, a presidential candidate in Ukraine’s upcoming elections who polls at about 1.5% nationally, along with Svoboda Party’s chief Oleh Tyahnybok, in the Hague with inciting terrorism by attempting to organize terrorist attacks on Russian soil.

About a week ago around 500 of them marched in marched in Lvov to honour the 70th anniversary of the creation of on April 28, 1943. Many of the participants wore embroidered national Ukrainian shirts and held insignias (a yellow lion and three crowns on a blue background) in their hands. The demonstrators made their way from the monument to the Ukrainian nationalist icon of Stepan Bandera, and to the local cemetery where a memorial to the Galician soldiers is erected. Bandera was the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany, and was involved in the ethnic cleansing of Poles, Jews and Russians during WWII.

WHAT they want, as one of their young leaders said recently is: “We want the Europe that the crusaders fought for, the Europe that the European nationalists fought for, the Europe of white people. Muslims humiliate native people now and they take away our lands. We will stand for a white Europe, a traditional Europe!”

WHERE they come from as Floyd Rudmin, a professor of Social and Community Psychology at the University of Tromsø in Arctic Norway, says, is all over Europe, "Now Neo-nazis from across Europe are reportedly coming to Ukraine to join in the mayhem." So that the Right Sector's numbers are growing everyday is essential to the west's puppets in Kyiv because Ukraine's regular military have little or no respect for Yats and his installed government. Consequently the western MSM carefully edits out any mention of the Right Sector militias in their propaganda disguised as 'news'.

WHEN? The Right Sector neo-nazis became important when they violently took the reins of the Maidan Square uprising that overthrew the existing corrupt government who all Ukrainians had been demonstrating against for months.  They rose in importance when they were the group that backed the west's installed puppet government. Then, last week, when 'our man Yats' sent well over a thousand of them to Odessa to create a false-flag operation he hoped would force Russia into invading they rose even more into view.

WHY? Because the U.S. - IMF - EU mafia, after having the elected president overthrown for rejecting submission to the IMF 'noose', needed their immoral muscle to back the installed Yats regime so that regime would accept the noose-like conditions attached to the IMF's 'loan'.

One week ago today the Right Sector thugs massacred at least 46 people [32 remain in critical condition]. Already the picture of what happened is becoming clearer by the day from eyewitnesses and neutral outside experts like Serbian historian, Nebojsa Malic who says, "According to all the evidence that I have seen, the entire thing in Odessa was a giant false flag operation. It was a provocation, it was one of those stage massacres that the pro-Western forces excel at staging, intended to draw Russia to overreact to commit military forces so that the coup government as well as its sponsors in the West could have justification in saying, 'Oh that is the case of Russian invasion, and everything we have been saying is correct.'”

As Eric Draitser, an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City, says, "The Odessa massacre and the so-called counterterrorist operation in eastern Ukraine are part of the US-backed policy pursued by the Kiev regime". Global Research says, "This involved the leadership of the local police, ultra-right wing paramilitary organizations and armed provocateurs." Amost all outside experts agree with Sergi Lavrov that Right Sector’s bloody atrocities in Odessa weren’t designed just to draw Russia into open conflict, but, more importantly, to send a message to other protesters that they’ll be killed if they continue opposing Yats and the IMF noose and that now, "not only Russians, but also ethnic Czechs, Hungarians and other ethnic minorities in Ukraine are concerned about their rights and security," Lavrov said.

Pepe Escobar's article [quoted below] 'The IMF goes to war in Ukraine' is a must read IMO. In it Pepe does a great job of explaining how the IMF's noose in Ukraine works and the big WHY of it:

The IMF has approved a $17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche has arrived on Wednesday. Predictably, the massive loan is not for the benefit of "the Ukrainian people." Kiev is essentially bankrupt. Creditors range from Western banks to Gazprom -- which is owed no less than $2.7 billion. The "loan" will pay back these creditors; not to mention that $5 billion of the total is earmarked for payments of -- what else -- previous IMF loans. It goes without saying that a lot of the funds will be duly pocketed -- Afghanistan-style -- by the current bunch of oligarchs aligned with the "Yats" government in Kiev.

So we're back to the Ukrainian tragedy. Moscow won't "invade." What for? The IMF's structural adjustment will devastate Ukraine more than a war; most Ukrainians may even end up begging Russia for help. Berlin won't antagonize Moscow. So Washington's rhetoric of "isolating" Russia is just revealed for what it is: juvenile delinquency.

What's left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Ukraine, thus sapping Moscow's energy. And all this because the Washington establishment is absolutely terrified of an emerging power in Eurasia. Not one, but two -- Russia and China. Worse: strategically aligned. Worse still: bent on integrating Asia and Europe. So feel free to picture a bunch of Washington angry old men hissing like juvenile delinquents: "I don't like you. I don't want to talk to you. I want you to die."

Ukraine is in the Cross-Hairs of a Financial WWIII, Only Remaining Independent Can Save Them

Ukraine's abundant resources are capable of sustaining ALL of its people if they act wisely and remain independent.

As events in Ukraine race faster toward all out civil war daily and with all of us struggling to wade through the competing versions of events swirling in the various media publications it's important to remember how this crisis came to a head just a short time ago. Of course there have been cultural, linguistic, religious, economic divisions in Ukraine throughout it's history [by whatever name the region was called in each era}.

As Robert Parry outlined a few days ago, the recent explosion began when the pro-democracy demonstrators in Kiev’s Maidan square from all across Ukraine sought to topple democratically elected and highly corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine was then, and is even more so now, basically bankrupt. Yanukovych rebuffed a set of demands that would have required Ukraine to swallow the harsh austerity measures prescribed by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a loan package that would have barely put a dent in Ukraine's financial troubles at that time. Yanukovych opted for a more generous offer from Russia of a $15 billion loan with few strings attached.

The demonstrations grew more and more violent by the day and as they did the far-right neo-nazi ultranationalists of western Ukraine took on larger roles. Almost immediately the old divisions ruptured and nearly the entire western media cheered on the overthrow of Yanukovych on Feb. 22 while downplaying the crucial role played by well-organized neo-Nazi militias in the final violent days. Then, with Yanukovych out and a new coup regime in, led by U.S. hand-picked Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk [our man Yats], the IMF austerity plan was promptly approved.

Many independent journalists like Robert Parry and Ray McGovern of Consortium News have worked hard over the last while to counter balance the one-sided propaganda of the western mainstream media and they deserve our thanks. Congressman Ron Paul too has been a lone voice of reason among western politicians as he's called repeatedly for the western powers to stop fomenting conflict and stay out of Ukraine. He too deserves thanks for having the courage to stand up against the tide of jingoist propaganda.

The crisis in Ukraine is, IMO, one example of the epic financial WWIII that we and the biosphere are drowning in. Unlike Hollywood, this epic has no white hats or black hats, no clear and easy right or wrong to cheer for and against. The real war IMO is about who will win the financial war between the U.S. - IMF - EU cabal and the the emerging BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] alliance that are threatening the Anglo-American banks with the construction and implementation of a new monetary/financial/trade system which would lead to the demise of the petrodollar and the plummeting of the western economies now artificially buoyed by it.

Ukraine is in the cross hairs of a geopolitically explosive situation not of their making. Ukraine is one of the naturally richest places on Earth. It was once called the breadbasket of the world, it could be again if its political leaders could act in ALL the Ukrainian people's best interests and remain independent of both Russia and the western cabal.

This morning Floyd Rudmin, professor of Social and Community Psychology at the University of Tromsø in Arctic Norway, published 'The Crisis in Ukraine: What Can Be Done?'. In it Floyd puts forward 7 well considered and constructive ideas. IF they could be adopted somehow by the fear-filled factions and the self-interested international powers they could lead to a real long term solution for Ukraine. As well Floyd's article outlines some of the dangers we all face at this moment. Floyd too deserves our thanks for thinking outside the simplistic black hat / white hat picture.

Please Pay Attention, Propaganda is Deadly. It's Here and Now About Ukraine in the MSM Everyday

The western mainstream media's [MSM} journalists, not just the U.S.'s, are not ignorant of what's going on in Ukraine, nor are they simply sloppy or lazy. they are COMPLICIT. Anyone who relies on the MSM for their information on anything beyond the weather forecast, yesterday's sports scores and the current price of needless crap at the mall are fools. The west's MSM are owned and operated by and for the interests of the rich. They are the Empire's propaganda division who's function is deception. Those who refuse to open their eyes, those who believe the lies, are the mindless tools of the rich. Their empty minds are reflected in their zombie like march to the mall in pursuit of more crap, more anything that allows them to keep believing, keep consuming, keep serving their masters.

No issue shows this mindless acceptance of capitalism's propaganda and lies more than the situation in Ukraine. There are a few independent journalists like Ray McGovern who, after years leading CIA’s Soviet Foreign Policy Branch, knows what effective propaganda looks like. In his recent article, 'Kerry’s Propaganda War on Russia’s RT', he says, "the U.S. is continuing to lose the 'information war'. As for state-sponsored, is that not an apt description for what has become of the mainstream U.S. media, given the eagerness of career-minded 'journalists' to accept U.S. government handouts as a way to prove their 'patriotism' and to shield themselves from accusations that they are pawns of Russian propaganda?"

McGovern's many years in the propaganda fields gives him huge credibility. He and his colleagues of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity continue to speak out but few dare listen, few dare admit to themselves that the Empire is their master.

 "Western powers fomenting Ukrainian conflict, US should stay out." - Ron Paul

One politician, Ron Paul, still has the cajones to speak out. In 'Ron Responds to Ukrainian Assault Launched on Pro-Russian Forces' three days ago Ron said, "The US and its allies provoked the Ukrainian conflict in the first place, despite what American media outlets and Western leaders claim about Russia’s culpability. Western Ukraine right now is being urged on by its Western supporters, meaning its NATO supporters, the European Union, the United States and the IMF (International Monetary Fund).” Paul said “The truth is, the coup of several weeks ago to overthrow the elected leader Viktor Yanukovych was stirred up by the same group: NATO, the European Union, the U.S., and the IMF.”

The truth is that the U.S.-IMF-U.K. cabal orchestrated the coup in Kiev and they were caught red-handed at it when the infamous Nuland phone call was intercepted and released. An event that should have informed the world about what was about to occur, instead the western MSM focused on one phrase "fuck the EU" and buried the content of the conversation.

The events of the last few days in Odessa show the same disregard for what everyone outside the curtain of propaganda knows. The fact is video footage filmed during the bloody events in Odessa that claimed dozens of lives on Friday shows provocateurs instigating the violence. The truth is the western media are complicit in hiding the facts from westerners. A humanitarian catastrophe is looming in the eastern Ukrainian cities blockaded in the ongoing military operation. Please pay attention [live updates available here] as Kiev intensifies military operations in Eastern Ukraine.

In the 60s i lived through the lies disseminated by the Empire's propaganda machine about the Vietnam war. i saw how difficult it was, even in those times that we now think of as times of tumultuous dissent, to question 'authority'. Every night back then my fellow American countrymen watched the MSM tell the grownups what the truth was. i watched them believe the deceivers. i watched some of my friends march off to a war they didn't agree with because they couldn't resist their parents pressure to 'do the right thing'. .

During my life i've watched how readily people blamed the Germans for not stopping the Nazi's in the years before WW2. For years i too was unable to understand how the Germans could just go along and allow such 'evil'. i think i understand now. Please pay attention, propaganda is deadly and there's a perfect lesson about that right here and now in the western mainstream media everyday.