Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1118
December 24, 2017
No, Nestle, You Do NOT Have the Right to Withdraw All That Water from a National Forest
Nestle is diverting a significant amount of water from the San Bernardino National Forest without legal permits.
By Claire Bernish, The Mind Unleashed
To the consternation of the company drawing millions of gallons of water every year from deep inside the San Bernardino National Forest for a mere $524, the California State Water Resources Control Board slammed Nestlé with a notification at least three-quarters of its brutally contentious operation — the extracted water of which fills Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water disposable bottles — isn’t operating under the appropriate permits.
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POPULAR LAUNDRY DETERGENTS LINKED TO CANCER AND LUNG, HEART, KIDNEYS AND LIVER DAMAGE
Independent tests on popular cleaning products by Women’s Voices for the Earth revealed many contain cancer causing chemicals not listed on product labels.
Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch
From healthmdcblogspot
The detergent you’re using may contain hidden cancer-causing chemicals. These include Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)/sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), 1,4-dioxane, NPE (nonylphenol ethoxylate, and Phosphates. Many laundry detergent labels state “Free of dyes and perfumes” – which doesn’t mean it’s a natural product and free of carcinogens. Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental group had commissioned independent tests on popular cleaning products.
The tests revealed that many of the products had chemicals linked to reproductive and endocrine disruption, and cancer. What makes it shocking is the fact that these chemicals are absent from product labels. According to the Organic Consumers Association’s 1,4-Dioxane Facts Sheet, the cumulative effects of 1,4-dioxane exposure, even at very low levels (a few parts per billion) resulted in laboratory animals developing cancer.
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A People’s History of the Russian Revolution
A People’s History of the Russian Revolution
by Neil Faulkner
Pluto Press (2017)
Book Review
This book corrects the common misportrayal of the Russian Revolution as an event imposed on workers by a Bolshevik vanguard of self-appointed intellectuals. In his careful reconstruction of the origin to the October 2017 insurgency, Faulkner demonstrates quite ably that the Russian Revolution was a true example of mass democracy executed by ordinary workers, peasants and soldiers. After 1920, it would be destroyed by the most murderous counterrevolution in history.*
In Faulkner’s view, Russia’s revolution took nearly 100 years. It was Russian soldiers exposed to Western liberal democracy during the Napoleonic wars who began the first underground networks against czarist totalitarianism. As Russia began to industrialize in the late 1800s, workers engaged in regular mass strikes to protest starvation conditions. The brutal government repression that greeted these strikes led to the formation of a number of revolutionary parties as workers began to demand political change as well.
Organizing in a Police State
The Bolshevik Party first came together in the years 1899. Organizing a mass democratic party in a police state is extremely difficult. The strategy Lenin and other party leaders employed was to start a newspaper, which they printed abroad and smuggled into Russia via underground groups. Avoiding police infiltration police required a large degree of decentralization and independent function of workers’ committees and subcommittees. Eventually a large underground network arose around distribution of the party newspaper.
Part of Bolshevik strategy was to foster strong relationships with the military. The eventual success of the October 1917 would depend on soldiers’ refusal to support the Provisional Government.
All the revolutionary activity, starting with the failed 1905 Revolution, began as spontaneous strikes and demonstrations launched by workers themselves to protest their abominable living and working conditions. The February 1917 revolution, in which Tsar Nicholas II was deposed, began as a bread strike led by women.
Dual Power by the Duma and Workers’ Soviets
The Tsar’s removal led to dual power, in which three successive provisional governments were jointly run by the pro-war Duma, made up of bourgeois liberals and the Petrograd Soviet consisting of delegates of democratic assemblies which had formed in factories, barracks and battleships. The Duma had no real power as they could only enact measures approved by the soviets.
A series of mass military mutinies led to the collapse of the the first and second Provisional Government in April and June. During the 3rd Provisional Government, increasing government repression led to a surge in membership in both the Bolshevik Party and local soviets.
At Lenin’s urging, soviets** across Russia overruled the Bolshevik Central Committee in September 2017 and called for a new government run by workers and peasants, as well as mass insurrection. In the end, the soviets would assume power with very little violence by merely disestablishing the 3rd Provisional Government. Owing to mass military defection during 1917, the government was left with no means of defending itself.
*It would take Joseph Stalin, who assumed power after Lenin died in 1922, six years to complete the counterrevolution. He would eventually liquidate the entire leadership of the Bolshevik Party. According to Faulkner the great Bolshevik experiment of mass democracy from below officially ended in 1920. Although the Soviet Union would ultimately beat back a military invasion by White Russians, British and Americans, this civil war, on top of a brutal settlement with Germany that devastated Soviet industrial and agricultural capacity, would shatter the Soviet economy. In a desperate hope revolution in other European countries would reopen trade, Lenin officiated over the rise of centralized state control (enforced by the Cheka and the Red Terror) to manage extreme scarcity, malnutrition and epidemic levels of disease.
**The first soviets were formed as a result of the 1905 Revolution.
December 23, 2017
Congress saves medical marijuana patients from pot crackdown — for now
While weed remains federally illegal, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment stops the Justice Department from cracking down on patients where state law permits medical marijuana use
Jonathan Bach, Statesman Journal Published 11:59 a.m. PT Dec. 22, 2017
Federal protections for medical marijuana patients are safe for now thanks to an emergency resolution passed by Congress Thursday.
Protections offered under the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment will need to make it into a final congressional spending package to extend past Jan. 19.
That’s the expiration date of Thursday’s continuing resolution, a temporary measure that keeps the government running while federal lawmakers hash out the details of their 2018 fiscal-year spending plan. President Trump signed the emergency resolution Friday.
While weed remains federally illegal, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment stops the Justice Department from cracking down on patients where state law permits medical marijuana use. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has condemned use of the drug.
More: Seeking pot for pain, Oregon patient feels shortages
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, said, “Patients around the country who rely on medical marijuana for treatment…
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Russia Tells U.S. Military to Get Out of Syria
Russia ramped up its calls for the U.S. military to depart from Syria on Thursday, contending it has no substantial reasons to be in the country and its presence there “must end.”
By John HaltiwangerDecember 21, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – Russia ramped up its calls for the U.S. military to depart from Syria on Thursday, contending it has no substantial reasons to be in the country and its presence there “must end.”
“Any reasons cited by the Americans to justify their further military presence… are just excuses and we think their presence must end,” Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to Syria, told reporters. Lavrentiev was in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday ahead of peace talks regarding the Syria conflict between Russia, Iran and Turkey, Reuters reports. Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has played a significant role in the Syria conflict.
This is not the first time the Russian government has expressed such views in recent weeks. Russia seemingly feels the U.S. military has no purpose in Syria now that the the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has largely…
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China Plans to Break Petrodollar Stranglehold
Nations hit hard by US sanctions, such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, will be among the first to embrace the petroyuan. Smaller producers, such as Angola and Nigeria, are already selling oil and gas to the world’s second largest economy in Chinese currency.
Petrodollars have dominated the global energy markets for more than 40 years. But now, China is looking to change that by replacing the word dollars for yuan.
Nations, of course, have tried this before since the system was set up by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in tandem with the House of Saud back in 1974
Vast populations across the Middle East and Northern Africa quickly felt the consequences when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein decided to sell oil in euros. Then there was Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi’s pan-African gold dinar blueprint, which failed to create a splash in an oil barrel.
Fast forward 25 years and China is making a move to break the United States petrodollar stranglehold. The plan is to set up oil-futures trading in the yuan, which will be fully convertible into gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong foreign exchange markets.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange and its…
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December 22, 2017
UK And David Cameron Boost Ties To China As U.S. Looks On
A UK fund supporting China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) project was announced on Friday, with former Prime Minister David Cameron taking on a role as Vice Chairman. It is a private equity fund supporting UK-China relations, and looks set to boost ties between the two nations, as the U.S. takes a back seat.
Author: Sara Hsu
Posted on: Forbes | 20th December, 2017
A UK fund supporting China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) project was announced on Friday, with former Prime Minister David Cameron taking on a role as Vice Chairman. It is a private equity fund supporting UK-China relations, and looks set to boost ties between the two nations, as the U.S. takes a back seat.
The fund will increase collaboration between the UK and China in the areas of technology, high-end manufacturing, healthcare, and other sectors. It seeks to assist British businesses in particular sectors to penetrate foreign markets, especially in China, reinforcing British support for the flagship Chinese endeavor.
Better UK-China relations
The fund is set to improve British relations with China, which have not reached the high marks under Prime Minister Theresa May that David Cameron strived for when he was in office. Under May, for example, several high-profile…
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Trump To Delay Signing Tax Bill So The Devastating Impacts Aren’t Felt Until After Midterms
Trump and his Republican allies in Congress know they sold the country an expensive bill of goods that will harm millions of people, whether it’s through higher taxes, the dismantling of Obamacare, or a spike in insurance costs. But they want to avoid these devastating effects as long as possible, particularly with a midterm election around the corner.
AGR Daily 60 Second News Bites
Celebrations aside, President Trump may wait until next year to sign the tax bill into law, delaying $120 billion in automatic cuts to popular programs such as Medicare and sparing Republicans from having to explain them in an election year.
Here’s why: If Trump signs the tax bill this month, it could trigger steep automatic spending cuts early next year to a raft of programs. But if Trump waits until January to sign the bill, the spending cuts would be delayed until 2019 — after next year’s congressional elections — giving lawmakers a full year to prevent them.
In other words, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress know they sold the country an expensive bill of goods that will harm millions of people, whether it’s through higher taxes, the dismantling of Obamacare, or a spike in insurance costs. But they want to avoid these devastating effects as long as…
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US drone strikes double in Somalia, triple in Yemen under Trump administration: Report
There has been a sharp rise in the number of US drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia since US President Donald Trump took office, says a report [by London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism].
In March, Trump gave the US military authority to carry out airstrikes without notifying the government in regions designated as areas with “active hostilities.”
“In Yemen, 30 strikes hit within a month of the declaration being reported – nearly as many as the whole of 2016. Most of the 125 strikes in 2017 hit in central Yemen, where the US military’s Central Command vigorously pursued fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” said the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Yemen has come under regular US drone strikes, with Washington claiming to be targeting al-Qaeda militants while local sources say civilians have been the main victims.
The London-based NGO noted that the number of strikes doubled in Somalia and tripled in Yemen since Trump began his term in January 2017. . .
via US drone strikes double in Somalia, triple in Yemen under Trump administration: Report
Yaqui Tribe Defends Land by Digging Up Gas Pipeline
The Yaquis of Loma de Bacum say they were asked by community authorities in 2015 if they wanted a 9-mile tract of the pipeline running through their farmland — and said no. Construction went ahead anyway.
Wednesday, December 20th, 2017
from Bloomberg News and Earth First
A chunk of Sempra Energy’s natural gas pipeline sits in the dirt behind a community center in the village of Loma de Bacum in northwest Mexico. Guadalupe Flores thinks it would make a great barbecue pit.
“Cut it here, lift the top,’’ he says, pointing to the 30-inch diameter steel tube. “Perfect for a cook-out.’’Photo: Yael Martinez/Bloomberg
It would be an expensive meal. The pipeline cost $400 million, part of a network that’s supposed to carry gas from Arizona more than 500 miles to Mexico’s Pacific coast. It hasn’t done that since August, when members of the indigenous Yaqui tribe – enraged by what they viewed as an unauthorized trespass their land – used a backhoe truck to puncture and extract a 25-foot segment. They left the main chunk about a mile from the community center, perpendicular to…
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The Most Revolutionary Act
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