EU Committee Opposes Draft Law Enabling EU Countries to Ban GMO Food and Feed

EU Committee Opposes Draft Law Enabling EU Countries to Ban GMO Food and Feed:

A draft EU law that would enable any member state to restrict or prohibit the sale and use of EU-approved GMO food or feed on its territory was opposed by Environment Committee MEPs on Tuesday.

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The European Parliament news service reported that Members are concerned that the proposal might prove unworkable and lead to the reintroduction of border controls between pro and anti-GMO countries. The recommendation will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole at the 26-29 October plenary session in Strasbourg.

European Parliament News Service: Eight things you should know about GMOs

This decision comes following the recent decision to ban the cultivation of GM crops by 19 EU countries.

Read moreEU Committee Opposes Draft Law Enabling EU Countries to Ban GMO Food and Feed

Whitefly destroys 2/3rd of Punjab’s cotton crop, 15 farmers commit suicide

Whitefly destroys 2/3rd of Punjab’s cotton crop, 15 farmers commit suicide:

BATHINDA: “It was just like the Japanese air strike in the film, Pearl Harbour,” said Naresh Kumar Lehri, a seed and pesticide dealer at Singho village in Punjab’s Bathinda district. “They appeared out of nowhere and left a trail of destruction.”

Lehri was referring to the devastating attack by whitefly, a common pest, on the cotton crop in Punjab’s Malwa region this year. It has affected about two-thirds of standing cotton crop in the state, causing an estimated loss of Rs 4,200 crore.

Last Time that Ratio Soared like this, Stocks Crashed

H/t reader squodgy:

“Beyond comprehension, is somebody extending the cliff edge on a daily basis?

A 15% increase in motor vehicle inventories means only one think, nobody is buying.

But it’s ALL durables AND non-durables.

That means nobody is buying anything.

This is classic stagnation, but essential goods prices continue to rise, which is stagflation, the classic pre-cursor to a crash.

Why can’t they get it over with? What is their real agenda?

Are they waiting for something? It can only be a false flag big event as predicted by so many.”


Last Time that Ratio Soared like this, Stocks Crashed:

This was a data set we didn’t need. Not one bit. It mauled our hopes. But the US Census Bureau dished it up anyway: wholesales declined again, inventories rose again, and the inventory-to-sales ratio reached Lehman-moment levels.

In August, wholesales dropped to $445.4 billion, seasonally adjusted. Down 1.0% from July and down 4.7% from August last year.

Read moreLast Time that Ratio Soared like this, Stocks Crashed

The REAL Hastert Scandal: Pedophilia, Drug Money and Blackmail (The Corbett Report – Video)

H/t reader squodgy:

“In the USA as well. Looks like the Franklin Scandal wasn’t the end of VIP child sex abuse in US corridors of power.”


The REAL Hastert Scandal: Pedophilia, Drug Money and Blackmail:

In May of this year a federal grand jury indicted former Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert. The charges: that he had “structured” withdrawals of over $950,000 from various bank accounts to skirt bank reporting laws and that he had lied to federal agents about these withdrawals. According to the indictment the withdrawals were part of a bid to pay $3.5 million in blackmail to cover up “past misconduct” from his time as a high school teacher in Illinois.

Read moreThe REAL Hastert Scandal: Pedophilia, Drug Money and Blackmail (The Corbett Report – Video)

‘She kept screaming,’ says father of 2-year-old killed in airstrike

Yahya Hassan mourns while holding the body of his daughter, Rahaf, during a funeral for the toddler and her pregnant mother yesterday at the Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip

‘She kept screaming,’ says father of 2-year-old killed in airstrike:

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A doll and a few toys were the only belongings left by two-year-old Rahaf Hassan when she was killed along with her 25-year-old pregnant mother in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City on Sunday.

Shortly before the attack, Rahaf and her mother had been safe in their family home, which lies among olive groves in an agricultural area, seemingly far from any military presence.

Read more‘She kept screaming,’ says father of 2-year-old killed in airstrike

Bernie Says: No Bones About It, Our Biggest Threat is Climate Change

H/t reader squodgy:

“Have I missed something, or simply “misunderestimated” the deviousness of US politicking?”


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“If we do not address the global crisis of climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, the planet that we’re going to be leaving our kids and our grandchildren may well not be inhabitable,” Sen. Sanders declared during the first Democratic debate on october 13. (Photo: AP)

Bernie Says: No Bones About It, Our Biggest Threat is Climate Change:

Candidate’s response to Democratic debate question echoes the concern of majority of people worldwide

When asked during the Democratic debate Tuesday night to name the biggest national security threat facing the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders did not bat an eye before answering: “The global crisis of climate change.”

“The scientific community is telling us: if we do not address the global crisis of climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, the planet that we’re going to be leaving our kids and our grandchildren may well not be inhabitable,” Sanders said. “That is a major crisis.”

Read moreBernie Says: No Bones About It, Our Biggest Threat is Climate Change

Relationship between funding source and conclusion among nutrition-related scientific articles.

H/t reader squodgy:

“They used to joke about following the money to find the culprit for any crime.

Sadly this is also true regarding the DISINFO about what we consume.”


Relationship between funding source and conclusion among nutrition-related scientific articles:

Lesser LI1, Ebbeling CB, Goozner M, Wypij D, Ludwig DS.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Industrial support of biomedical research may bias scientific conclusions, as demonstrated by recent analyses of pharmaceutical studies. However, this issue has not been systematically examined in the area of nutrition research. The purpose of this study is to characterize financial sponsorship of scientific articles addressing the health effects of three commonly consumed beverages, and to determine how sponsorship affects published conclusions.

Read moreRelationship between funding source and conclusion among nutrition-related scientific articles.

Illinois To Delay Pension Payments Amid Budget Woes: “For All Intents And Purposes, We Are Out Of Money Now”

Illinois To Delay Pension Payments Amid Budget Woes: “For All Intents And Purposes, We Are Out Of Money Now”:

By now, Illinois’ budget problems are no secret.

Back in May, after the State Supreme Court struck down a pension reform bid, Moody’s move to downgrade the city of Chicago thrust the state’s financial woes into the national spotlight.

Since then, the situation hasn’t gotten any better and despite hiring an “all star” budget guru (for $30,000 a month no less), Bruce Rauner was unable to pass a budget in a timely fashion leading directly to all types of absurdities including everything from the possibility of shortened school years to lottery winners being paid in IOUs.

Now, as Bloomberg reports, pension payments are set to be delayed. Bond payments, apparently, will still be made.

Illinois will delay pension payments as a prolonged budget impasse causes a cash shortage, Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said.

Read moreIllinois To Delay Pension Payments Amid Budget Woes: “For All Intents And Purposes, We Are Out Of Money Now”

Russia Sends Its Only Aircraft Carrier To Syria, Signals It Is Just Getting Started

Related info:

Iran Sends “Thousands” Of Troops To Syria For Russian-Backed Assault On Key City


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Russia Sends Its Only Aircraft Carrier To Syria, Signals It Is Just Getting Started:

As should be abundantly clear by now, The Kremlinis adopting a “slightly” different strategy when it comes to combatting terror in the Mid-East than that adopted by the US and its Western and regional allies.

The strategy of the US and its allies seems to go something like this: 1) covertly arm and train groups who you know might ultimately become terrorists because arming and training these groups may be a way to destabilize unfriendly regimes, 2) wait for blowback, 3) launch serious effort to combat terror if unfriendly regime has been “successfully” replaced by puppet government, or launch half-hearted effort to combat terror if situation still fluid and regime still clings to power. 

Read moreRussia Sends Its Only Aircraft Carrier To Syria, Signals It Is Just Getting Started

WalMart Carnage: Stock Plummets Most In 17 Years After Slashing Earnings Guidance, Blames Wage Hikes

WalMart Carnage: Stock Plummets Most In 17 Years After Slashing Earnings Guidance, Blames Wage Hikes

Do you see what happens Larry when Wal-mart succumbs to “progressive” pressure and hikes minimum wage? This:  WMT CFO: 2017 RISE IN WAGES TO COST $1.5B; WMT PLANS REDUCTION IN CAPITAL EXPENDITURES THROUGH FY19; WAL-MART SEES FY2017 EPS DECREASING 6-12% VS FY2016.  In other words, the company just slashed its 2017 earnings forecast by up to a whopping 12%: the reason – the recent increase in wages.  So did the American worker win for once? Alas, no...

 …

Gold Soars Into Green Year-To-Date, Breaks Above Key Technical Level

Gold Soars Into Green Year-To-Date, Breaks Above Key Technical Level:

Gold has broken above its 200-day moving-average and pushed back into positive territoiry for 2015 amid a notable surge in prices (after whipsawing around in the last 24 hours). As the USD Index suffers its first ‘death cross’ in over 2 years, perhaps Paul Singer’s comments are starting to gather momentum.

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Gold is now up 4 days in a row, back to 4 month highs…

Is This The “Death” Of The Dollar?

Is This The “Death” Of The Dollar?:

For the first time since September 2013, The USD Index just signalled a “death cross.” Three of the last four times that the 50-day moving-average crossed below the 200-day moving-average, The USD Index tumbled significantly.

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This makes sense as the rate-hike odds (and implicitly timing) continues to plunge.

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Charts: Bloomberg

Recession Looms – Business Inventories-to-Sales Surge To Cycle Highs

Recession Looms – Business Inventories-to-Sales Surge To Cycle Highs:

Business Inventories were unchanged in August (less than the expected 0.1% rise) with manufacturers down 0.3% – bad for Q3 GDP but Business Sales tumbled 0.6% MoM (the biggest drop since January), down across the board. So clearly no inventory liquidation has started yet (so the pain is yet to come) and this has driven the inventory-to-sales ratio up to 1.37x – the highest in this cycle. The last 2 times the ratio was at this level, the US was in recession.

The U.S. Government Supplied ISIS’ Iconic Pickup Trucks

The U.S. Government Supplied ISIS’ Iconic Pickup Trucks:

U.S. counter-terror officials have launched an investigation into how ISIS got so many of those identical Toyota pickup trucks which they use in their convoys.

They don’t have to look very far …

The Spectator reported last year:

The [Toyota] Hilux [pics] is light, fast, manoeuvrable and all but indestructible (‘bomb-proof’ might not, in this instance, be a happy usage).  The weapons experts Jane’s claimed for the Hilux a similar significance to the longbows of Agincourt or the Huey choppers of Nam. A US Army Ranger said the Toyota sure ‘kicks the hell out of a Humvee’ (referring to the clumsy and over-sized High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle made by AM General).

***

The fact is the Toyotas were supplied by the US government to the Al Nusra Front as ‘non-lethal aid’ then ‘acquired’ by ISIS.

Al Nusra Front is literally Al Qaeda.

Read moreThe U.S. Government Supplied ISIS’ Iconic Pickup Trucks

Iran Sends “Thousands” Of Troops To Syria For Russian-Backed Assault On Key City

ISISFreeZone

“The big battle preparations in that area are clear,” said one of the officials familiar with the plans. “There is a large mobilization of the Syrian army … elite Hezbollah fighters, and thousands of Iranians who arrived in stages in recent days.”


Iran Sends “Thousands” Of Troops To Syria For Russian-Backed Assault On Key City:

As those who follow Mid-East affairs are acutely aware, the regime in Syria has enjoyed both military and financial support from Iran for the duration of the country’s civil war.

Syria cannot fall to the West if Tehran intends to preserve the regional balance of power and an Iran-friendly Damascus ensures the supply lines remain open between the IRGC and Hezbollah. Lose Syria, and suddenly, the Mid-East tide turns in favor of the Saudis and Qatar and that, clearly, is an unacceptable outcome.

Read moreIran Sends “Thousands” Of Troops To Syria For Russian-Backed Assault On Key City

Best Practices For Wintertime Seed Storage

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

By Lee Flynn (Freelance writer and expert in emergency food preparedness and food storage)

As the gardener savors the last of the autumn harvest, collecting seeds for next year’s garden should be a priority as well. Seeds can typically be collected and stored for one year while maintaining high levels of germination. Under ideal conditions, many seeds can be stored for much longer. Moisture, light and temperature are all important factors to consider when storing seeds.

Choose open-pollinated seeds

Seeds from hybridized plants will typically not develop into plants that are true to form. When a plant is cross-pollinated, it may take on characteristics from both parent plants, and desirable aspects of the hybridized plant may be lost. The gardener should save only open-pollinated varieties of seed, which are also known as heirloom varieties. Open-pollinated varieties of seed will stay true to form, despite different types of pollination.

Read moreBest Practices For Wintertime Seed Storage

Putin Calls US, Allies “Oatmeal Heads” On Syria

Some of Russia’s international partners have “oatmeal in their heads” because they don’t understand clearly that its military campaign in Syria seeks to help the fight against terrorism, President Vladimir Putin said.

Russia “received no answer” when it asked its international partners to provide information on terrorist targets in Syria, or to say at least where its planes shouldn’t bomb, Putin said. “It’s not a joke, I’m not making any of this up,” he said.


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Putin Calls US, Allies “Oatmeal Heads” On Syria:

To be sure, there are a lot of absurd things about what Washington has done and is currently doing in Syria.

There’s the support for Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for instance, who has used ISIS as an excuse to wage war on his own people. Then there are the various efforts to arm and train a hodgepodge of different anti-regime rebel groups (with more embarrassing results each and every time). And just yesterday we learned that the best idea the Pentagon can come up with now is to literally paradrop “50 tons” of ammo on pallets into the middle of the desert and hope the “right” people pick it up.

Of course when it comes to absurd outcomes in Syria, it’s difficult to top the fact that at some point – and you don’t have to go full-conspiracy theory to believe this anymore – either the West or else Qatar and Saudi Arabia provided some type of assistance to ISIS, which then proceeded to metamorphose into white basketball shoe-wearing, black flag-waving, sword-wielding desert bandits hell bent on establishing a medieval caliphate. 

Read morePutin Calls US, Allies “Oatmeal Heads” On Syria

WikiLeaks: US Government Plotted To Assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales

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WikiLeaks: US Government Plotted To Assassinate Bolivian President:

Cables leaked by U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning reveal an apparent plot by the U.S. government to assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales and overthrow his administration.

The cables in question were published in August in “The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire,” a book in which multiple journalists along with Julian Assange analyze the contents of the treasure trove of cables Manning provided to WikiLeaks in 2010.

Read moreWikiLeaks: US Government Plotted To Assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales

It’s All Staged: CNN Caught Using Crisis Actor To Attack Donald Trump

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CNN caught using crisis actor operative to attack Donald Trump:

CNN has just been caught red-handed playing up a staged “crisis actor” attack on Donald Trump. The crisis actor, a woman named Lauren Batchelder, was an audience plant working for Jeb Bush, the Republican establishment candidate for President. At a Jon Huntsman “No Labels” event, Batchelder posed as a regular audience member, then unleashed a vicious attack against Trump with a contrived, pre-planned verbal script that tried to smear his reputation with women.

The entire thing, however, was completely scripted from the start. “Within minutes of her scripted performance at the event, the producers of CNN were quickly editing soundbites and framing a narrative. That story was pushed into the media stream within hours,” reports TheConservativeTreehouse.com.

Read moreIt’s All Staged: CNN Caught Using Crisis Actor To Attack Donald Trump