Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Report: More Environmentalists Were Murdered Last Year Than Ever Before
BY ASHOKA MUKPO
https://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/22707/environmentalists-indigenous-land-defenders-murdered-deforestation-climate
WEDNESDAY, AUG 5, 2020,
Bayer Engineered a New Corn Seed That’s Resistant to Five Herbicides. But How Long Will It Work?
BY JOHNATHAN HETTINGER
https://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/22671/bayer-engineered-five-herbicide-resistant-corn-pesticide-treadmill
A new genetically engineered corn seed designed by Bayer to be sprayed by up to five herbicides could represent the future of farming, providing growers with more pesticides to combat the problem of weed resistance.
But for how long? That’s the question raised by weed scientists, who say farmers need to start switching to non-chemical options to keep weeds under control.
Over the past 50 years, weed resistance has become a significant problem for agriculture in the U.S., with more than 165 unique species of weeds becoming resistant to chemicals. The problem has increased significantly since the introduction of genetically modified crops and use of accompanying herbicides in the 1990s.
The new seed, which Bayer has petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval, could be sprayed by glyphosate, glufosinate, dicamba, 2,4-D and quizalofop, giving farmers multiple options for weed control.
Bayer spokeswoman Susan Luke said in an email that, pending regulatory approvals, the company plans a full commercial launch of the seed later this decade.
“We expect HT4 to be widely used – and growers continue to ask for additional crop protection tools to help manage tough-to-control weeds. This product will offer growers more options to manage broadleaf weeds in corn and will provide growers increased flexibility and another tool in the crop protection toolbox,” Luke said.
Corn is the most bountiful crop grown in the United States, making up about 92 million acres of farmland, an area about the size of Minnesota or Michigan; about a third of the crop is used for animal feed, about a third is used for ethanol and the rest is split between human food, beverages, industrial uses and exports. About 90 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified, according to the USDA.
The product comes at a time when Bayer, which acquired agribusiness giant Monsanto in 2018, and its pesticides are under scrutiny.
In June, Bayer announced a $10 billion settlement of claims that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer. The company also announced a $400 million settlement of claims that dicamba, a herbicide sold by Bayer and German agribusiness company BASF, has drifted and harmed thousands of other farmers.
By purchasing Monsanto, Bayer acquired some of the most popular cropping systems in the U.S.
Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, engineered to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup, quickly became ubiquitous after being introduced in the 1990s. Glyphosate, the active ingredient, is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S., but as the amount sprayed in crops increased 40-fold between 1992 and 2016, the number of weeds resistant to glyphosate grew. Over the past 25 years, the number of weeds resistant to glyphosate has increased from zero to more than 45, according to the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds.
In response, agribusiness companies have released crops engineered to be resistant to other herbicides: Monsanto launched its Roundup Ready II crops, engineered to be resistant to glyphosate and dicamba; BASF launched its Liberty crops, designed to be resistant to glyphosate and glufosinate; Corteva Agriscience, formerly DowDupont, released Enlist crops, designed to be resistant to glyphosate, 2,4-D and quizalofop.
The new Bayer technology combines all of these technologies into one. The new product is not designed to be sprayed by all five weed killers at once, but instead to help streamline the current agricultural system, allowing seed dealers to carry one seed that gives farmers a choice on which combination of weed killers they want to spray.
“It’s not a big revolution. It’s the way things are moving,” said Robert Hartlzer, a weed science professor at Iowa State University.
This phenomenon is often called “the pesticide treadmill” — as more weeds develop resistance to more herbicides, new and better herbicides are needed.
The acceleration seems to be getting faster and faster, said Kristin Schafer, executive director of the Pesticide Action Network. PAN is organizing citizens to submit comments against the new Bayer technology, saying the cropping system would be more benefited by switching to crop rotations, more biodiversity on the farm and increased soil health.
“This five-trait corn is absolutely the opposite direction of the way we need to be going,” Schafer said.
Some weeds are already starting to show signs of resistance to dicamba, which has increased significantly in use since Monsanto introduced new cotton and soybean seeds resistant to the herbicide beginning in 2015. Dicamba has also caused widespread damage to the environment because it is harder to control.
Hartzler warned that weeds are quickly outpacing technological developments. Weeds have already developed resistance to each of the herbicides included in the technology, though they are still very effective across the United States.
“It’s really going to be a short-term fix, but at this point in time, it’s what fits the current production system best,” Hartlzer said.
Aaron Hager, a weed science professor at the University of Illinois, found in a 2015 study that using multiple herbicides to kill weeds is better at delaying resistance than switching from one herbicide one year to a different the next. Bayer pointed the Midwest Center to that study and said the new seed will help delay resistance.
But Hager said the way that weeds are resistant to herbicides is changing.
Herbicides work by targeting a specific mechanism in a plant and disrupting that mechanism. For the past 30 years, weeds have largely started to develop resistance at the target site, shifting the way they grow and no longer allowing herbicides to bind to the plant.
But increasingly, plants have started to develop metabolic resistance, which is when the plant’s internal mechanisms are able to metabolize herbicides into non-toxic products, making them ineffective. The mechanism is similar to crops that are able to sustain being sprayed by herbicides.
“We’re in another era now,” Hager said. “We’re trying to understand what has changed and allows them to function more like the crop.”
With metabolic resistance, weeds can develop resistance to herbicides that they haven’t been exposed to before, Hartzler said.
Bayer said that these chemicals are needed. Even with best practices, corn can see a 52 percent yield loss without a herbicide being sprayed, according to a study by the Weed Science Society of America. Hager said that farmers won’t stop using chemicals, but they can use them along with other options.
Both Hager and Hartzler said they are recommending farmers increasingly use non-chemical options. Hartzler said places like Australia are starting to use combines that can help destroy weed seeds, so they don’t continue to grow.
“I know that it’s going to change in the relatively near future simply because even the addition of these new herbicide traits is not going to solve the resistance problem,” Hartzler said.
The Execution of Elephants and Americans
LEE CAMP
August 10, 2020
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/08/10/lee-camp-the-executions-of-elephants-and-americans/
The first person to receive the electric chair in America was not a person.
It was an elephant named Topsy, and honestly, I believe he was falsely convicted. But we’ll get back to that in a moment.
With a quarter million Americans either killed or seriously maimed by Covid-19 and a U.S. drone bomb being dropped overseas roughly every 12 minutes, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department recently thought to themselves, “You know what we need in this country? More killing. There aren’t enough murders going on.” I guess I can’t blame their logic. If you’re headed for hell anyway, why not make it worth it? Swing for the fences.
So in the quest for more deaths, the federal government recently carried out their first official execution in close to 20 years. (That number of course does not include the thousands of innocent men, women and children they obliterate overseas every year.) But they couldn’t partake in their execution fun-time without the tacit approval of the Supreme Court. SCOTUS as it’s called cleared the way for the execution by declining to hear a case.
Lethal Injection
This first execution in 17 years was performed by lethal injection because hanging has a bad rep these days. It feels too Wild West, though it is carbon neutral. And electrocution has been on the outs because I imagine the environmentalists were furious the electricity was coming from coal power plants. (Don’t quote me on that.)
I mean, if you’re going to turn a guy into a shish kabob, don’t use dirty energy to do it, okay? Maybe he could pedal a bike that powers his own murder. That’s eco-friendly. Or how about death by wind turbine? I’m sure if you got a guy close enough to one of those things, the blades would knock his head clean off. That would be completely environmentally sustainable and fun for the whole family.
Quick tangent: The electric chair owes its existence to Thomas Edison being an asshole. Edison funded the creation of the first e-chair in order to crush his business rival, George Westinghouse. The famed inventor refused to take Nikola Tesla’s advice that alternating current was the way of the future.
As Business Insider reported, “Edison decided that there was only one thing to do: to prove that Westinghouse’s [alternating current] generators were more dangerous than Edison’s direct current. In order to prove his claim, Edison held public executions — oftentimes in front of reporters — of animals such as dogs and horses.”
Esteemed Inventor
At one such event in Coney Island, N.Y., he zapped and killed an adult circus elephant named Topsy. (To this day many believe Topsy was framed.) So, if you’re a teenager and you kill a squirrel, they call you a Satanist and send you to juvie. But Edison deep-fried a fucking elephant and he’s an esteemed inventor??
Edison also sought to prove his wonderful new toy worked on a human. Convicted murderer William Kemmler was the lucky contestant for this particular episode of “What’s That Burning Smell?!” After they sent a few thousand volts through him, Arthur Southwick, the creator of the electric chair — which Edison helped fund — spoke to the crowd.
“…just as Southwick announced: ‘This is the culmination of ten years’ work and study. We live in a higher civilization today,’ everyone noticed that Kemmler was still alive.”
As the poor man groaned in pain, Southwick thought, “Oh Shit! We didn’t cook him long enough!” They proceeded to electrocute him for many more minutes until his head started smoking.
Welcome to higher civilization. …Please ignore the stench of burning hair.
Anyway, we basically don’t use the electric chair anymore. Now we use the highly civilized lethal injection. There’s only one problem. We can’t get our hands on the drugs to murder people because the EU banned export of the lethal-injection drugs we need. The countries that manufacture the drugs don’t want them used for our barbaric Medieval experiments in human indecency.
Keep Trying
But the Trump administration will not be deterred. Certainly not. When it comes to bailing out average Americans struggling during a pandemic, Trump gives up pretty easy. But when it comes to killing people, his motto is “If at first they can still breathe, try try again!”
So these recent federal executions mark, as Reuters reported, “the culmination of a three-year campaign to line up a secret supply chain to make and test lethal injection drugs.”
A secret three-year campaign.
To obtain the murder drugs you need.
Because every nation is trying to stop you.
Isn’t it a strong sign you’re an alcoholic when your friends start hiding the alcohol from you? Well, what is it when your friends are hiding the murder cocktails from you? “Hey, buddy, don’t you think you’ve killed enough people this week? Yes, I know you can stop anytime you want. Of course. But why don’t you just take a break? See how one night feels without killing someone, you know?”
Apparently, the administration has been working on this secret protocol since 2017, and it’s designed to obscure who supplies and tests the drugs — but many of the sources have now been uncovered. As the Reuters investigation noted, “In some cases, even the companies involved in testing the deadly pentobarbital said they didn’t know its intended purpose. … All three firms told Reuters the Justice Department did not hire them directly, saying they were contracted by a compounding pharmacy …”
Here’s a hint you might be on the wrong side of history — when your government officials have to pretend to be someone else when contracting with chemical companies that make killer cocktails because if those companies found out the purpose of the drugs, they would refuse to work with you on moral grounds.
Second tangent: Despite refusing to create killer chemicals, making U.S. bombs that kill innocent people overseas is not something companies hide from. No, they take pride in it – as seen in this fawning CNN segment touring the Raytheon facility that makes Tomahawk missiles.
Heartwarming Story
One of the companies testing Trump’s new murder cocktail is called DynaLabs. And the co-founder, Michael Pruett, would like you to know that your government testing murder-chemicals is truthfully a heartwarming story. He said quote, “I’d rather know, if someone I knew was being put to death with lethal injection, that the injection was tested by a qualified laboratory.”
Yes, if a friend of mine were being murdered, I’d like to know the chemicals were really top notch. I want my buddy to enjoy the Grey Goose of death. Spare no expense if you’re killing my pals! Kinda like if I were watching my best mate strangled to death, I would want it to be strong professional hands — you know, like an auto mechanic or a drummer of a moderately successful rock band. (They wouldn’t have to play stadiums, but they should have a Twitter account with over 10,000 followers.)
Here are a few other fun facts before we close the book on this horror show: Careful estimates by the National Academy of Sciences find that over 4 percent of those executed are completely innocent. A much larger number are severely mentally ill. So really America has simply created a reliable procedure for executing mentally disabled people. That’s lovely. Maybe we should add a verse about that to the National Anthem.
And then there’s the racist aspects of capital punishment. The No. 1 determinant of whether someone is sentenced to the death penalty is race of the victim — meaning killing a white person is a much bigger deal in our society than killing a black person.
Anyway, in the interest of avoiding a 32-page column, I won’t go through all the other reasons the death penalty remains an idiotic, barbaric, flawed, pointless waste of human life. …But on the plus side, at least the elephants now understand who’s boss.
If Trump Wins Russia Did It, If Biden Wins It Was China & Iran
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/08/10/us-intelligence-if-trump-wins-russia-did-it-if-biden-wins-it-was-china-iran/
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
Back in April I said “China’s gonna be so surprised when it finds out it interfered in the November election.”
Now three months ahead of schedule China is already getting its surprise, alongside fellow unabsorbed governments Iran and Russia.
Mass media throughout the Western world are uncritically passing along a press release from the U.S. intelligence community, because that’s what passes for journalism in a world where God is dead and everything is stupid.
The press release, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and authored by National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina, claims that Russia wants Donald Trump to win re-election in November and is pushing to advance than goal, while China and Iran are doing the same with Joe Biden.
China
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the press release reads. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China.”
Russia
“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” the press release claims. “Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”
Iran
“We assess that Iran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections,” says the press release. “Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content. Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s reelection would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”
What this completely unsubstantiated narrative means, of course, is that no matter who wins in November America’s opaque government agencies will have already primed the nation for more dangerous escalations against countries which have resisted being absorbed into the blob of the U.S.-centralized empire. If Trump wins we can expect his administration to continue its escalations against Russia in retaliation for its 2020 “election interference,” and if Biden wins we can expect his cabinet of Obama administration holdovers to ramp up escalations against China in the same way while Joe mumbles to himself off to the side as his brain turns to chowder.
Keep in Mind
There is never a legitimate reason to believe any unproven claim made by unaccountable spook agencies about U.S.-targeted governments, but even if everything in this press release were true it’s an incredibly stupid thing to care about. The influence that Russia, China or Iran could exert over public opinion in the United States is a tiny fraction of that which is exerted by the unaccountable U.S. billionaire media every single day, which already has its own factions pushing for Biden over Trump and Trump over Biden. Adding some foreign social media operations into the mix would change literally nothing.
Secondly, as the press release itself acknowledges, the U.S. is openly pushing regime change in Iran. It is already engaging in various acts of economic warfare against all three of the named governments, and it openly interfered in Russia’s elections in the nineties to a far greater extent than anything it has even accused Russia of doing. The U.S. government’s own data shows that it is the very worst election meddler in the world by an extremely wide margin, which would make it a perfectly legitimate target for election interference by any nation on earth.
Lastly, the dumbest thing about believing foreign nations are interfering in American democracy is believing America has any democracy to interfere with. The integrity of U.S. elections ranks dead last among all Western democracies, public opinion is constantly manipulated by the media-owning plutocratic class which has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo which keeps them rich and powerful, and it’s a two-headed one party system where both corporate-owned parties advance the same Establishment agendas.
Press Release Power
Imagine believing that foreign leaders are looking at the dumpster fire that is the United States and thinking “I know how we can hurt them! We’ll sow division by saying mean things about their presidential candidates on social media!”
It’s the dumbest thing in the world. Yet all the Establishment narrative managers are jumping on this intelligence community press release as a real thing that we should all be excited about.
All this hand-wringing and arm-waving about foreign interference on social media comes as social media itself makes policy changes to ensure that only Western governments are allowed to conduct propaganda on its platforms, with Twitter instituting a new policy of labeling accounts from unabsorbed governments as “state-affiliated media” while placing no labels or restrictions on any accounts with extensive Western government ties.
The overall message in all this is that only Western government agencies and oligarchs may conduct propaganda on those who live in the U.S.-centralized empire. It should enrage us all that these unaccountable abusers feel so entitled to insert their rapey fingers in our minds and manipulate how we think, act and vote that they get all chest-thumpy about the idea of anyone else getting a word in edgewise. They do this because they understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world, and there is no amount of evil they won’t do to ensure that they continue to control the world.
The reason sociopaths are able to insert themselves so easily into positions of power and influence in human civilization is because highly manipulative people with no empathy quickly learn that society is dominated by narrative, while the rest of us do not understand this. This must change before we will be able to create a healthy world.
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