.
Update: 5/31/16, "Adelson aides in talks to set up pro-Trump super PAC," Politico, Isenstadt. "The need to establish a muscular centralized super PAC as opposed to having a multitude of competing ones."...
====================
...........
Great America Super PAC "is specifically going after small contributors via a
fundraising account called the Trump Make America Great Again Committee,
which will split those gifts 80 percent to 20 percent with the
Republican National Committee. An email seeks donations of $35."...
May 31, 2016, "Trump super PAC’s new political guru must wait to do work," AP via Washington Post,
"Great America (Super PAC) had raised about $1 million through the end of April.
That’s not enough to cover all of its planned expenses, leaving it more
than $200,000 in the hole.
The group has taken an unusual approach to raising money.
Traditionally,
super political action committees go after big money because they face
no contribution limits....Yet Great America has
raised a majority of its money from people giving $200 or less. Just 6.3
percent of its contributions are coming from donors giving more than
$200, according to campaign finance documents through April 30.
In
television ads meant to generate fundraising, Great America asks Trump
supporters to dial a telephone number. Those callers are told a pledge
of $50 to $75 would be used for “building the financial and grassroots
organization needed to win the White House.”
Likewise, in emailed
fundraising solicitations last week, Great America asks for a “generous
contribution of $25, $50, $75, or even $100 or more” to the super PAC.
That
means Great America is potentially cannibalizing from the same pool of
donors who could be giving to the Trump campaign directly.
The
campaign is specifically going after small contributors via a
fundraising account called the Trump Make America Great Again Committee,
which will split those gifts 80 percent to 20 percent with the
Republican National Committee. An email seeks donations of $35."...
...................
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Europe has long insisted that Obama raise 'irresponsibly' low US energy and electricity prices in order to level the playing field for them. Obama has been happy to oblige with 'nothing less than an assault on American industry and millions of blue collar workers'-Gosselin, June 2013
.
June 2013 article
.......
"Europeans have long complained that their competitiveness has been hampered by the USA's "irresponsibly" low energy and electricity prices, and have insisted that Obama level the playing field by increasing prices in the USA....Obama is happy to oblige."...
6/26/2013, "Obama Is Merely Leveling The Energy Playing Field With Europe – Declares An End To Cheap American Energy," P. Gosselin, NoTricksZone (reference 6/22/2013, "High energy costs in Germany," Frankfurter Allgeneine, von Petersdorff, excerpts below.)
"European policy created its own unlevel energy playing field...
Now energy prices are sky high and German industry in many sectors cannot compete globally....So far Germany has coped by granting many of its energy intensive industries exemptions from paying the renewable energy levies....If revoked, companies once again will be facing high costs and a competitive disadvantage internationally. The solution: Either make energy cheaper for European countries, or insist the rest of the world makes its energy more expensive.
Europe tells America: Please repeat our blunders:...
Europe also expects America to repeat its renewable energy folly as well. America too must have a truly shoddy patchwork of inefficient and unpredictable renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, and an unstable power grid. Only this way can the playing field between America and Europe be truly level....
Declaration of war on blue-collar workers
Ironically not long ago the stated objective of western politicians was to generate prosperity for its citizens. Today it’s precisely the opposite. Obama’s plan is nothing less than an assault on American industry and millions of blue collar workers."
....................
1. US "Declaration of war on blue-collar workers" (noted above, 2013)
2. Additional 2013 citation: war has been declared on Americans by their government:
"The President of the United States appears to have declared peace in the world and war on Americans."
6/10/2013, "A loud and empty suit in the Chicago style," Quadrant Online, Australia, by Daryl McCann (Above is last sentence in article) (Comment: The entire US political class shares Obama's agenda, which is to once and for all destroy the annoying middle class. In both 2008 and 2012 Obama ran virtually unopposed because the GOP Establishment wanted him to win.)
.............................
3. 2016 citation: Attack on working class by US government has been ongoing for decades:
"These disaffected working-class people are especially weary of master plans that deliberately injure Americans for the benefit of big U.S. investors and foreign interests....
For decades now, our central government has asserted the wisdom and moral stature to pick “winners and losers.” The people who feel they’ve been picked as losers, for generations, are tired of it...
They’re under attack by the federal government, and they want relief....
.............
Donald Trump sends a very different set of signals. The clearest is the signal he sends about putting American government to work on behalf of working Americans. It’s so different from what they’re used to hearing, from both parties."...
5/10/2016, "Trump Won with the Working Class Voters the GOP Forgot," John Hayward, Breitbart
.............................
==========
Article referenced at top:
.......
"The German Ideology is, only more expensive power is good power. That does not fit in the global environment."
6/22/2013, "High energy costs in Germany," Frankfurter Allgeneine (Germany), Winand von Petersdorff
...........
Prices for natural gas are in America at one third to one fourth of the German level. For the chemical industry there, the advantage may even act in two ways: They use the cheap gas not only as an energy source, but also as a raw material. The American competitors have thus changed from importers to exporters - thanks to investors who have lost their money five to ten years ago elsewhere. The Germans have to even contributed, for example, BASF commitment in Texas and Louisiana.
Thus, the central assumption of the German energy transition is fragile that electricity from conventional sources such as natural gas or coal inevitably becomes more expensive and makes the German green energy relatively cheaper. Now it turns out that the price of electricity from coal and gas may even decline. This makes the high cost of energy in Germany, which are environmentally motivated unintentionally to a negative selling point in the global competition....
(p. 2) According Vassiliadis the ways to neutralize higher prices by saving energy are largely exhausted. From 1990 until today, the chemical industry has doubled energy efficiency. In other words, for the same production it needs only half as much energy as 20 years ago, calculates the chemical giant Bayer. Unionists Vassiliadis warns, "The German Ideology is, only more expensive power is good power. That does not fit in the global environment.""
...............
June 2013 article
.......
"Europeans have long complained that their competitiveness has been hampered by the USA's "irresponsibly" low energy and electricity prices, and have insisted that Obama level the playing field by increasing prices in the USA....Obama is happy to oblige."...
6/26/2013, "Obama Is Merely Leveling The Energy Playing Field With Europe – Declares An End To Cheap American Energy," P. Gosselin, NoTricksZone (reference 6/22/2013, "High energy costs in Germany," Frankfurter Allgeneine, von Petersdorff, excerpts below.)
"European policy created its own unlevel energy playing field...
Now energy prices are sky high and German industry in many sectors cannot compete globally....So far Germany has coped by granting many of its energy intensive industries exemptions from paying the renewable energy levies....If revoked, companies once again will be facing high costs and a competitive disadvantage internationally. The solution: Either make energy cheaper for European countries, or insist the rest of the world makes its energy more expensive.
Europeanization of American Energy Prices...
This increasing unlevel energy playing field (created by Europe itself) is precisely what is driving Obama's newly announced energy policy. Europeans have long complained that their competitiveness has been hampered by the USA's "irresponsibly" low energy and electricity prices, and have insisted that Obama level the playing field by increasing prices in the USA. Somehow (using climate), Europe has convinced the USA to make its energy more expensive. Obama is happy to oblige....
.......
This is what's behind the plan announced by Obama yesterday. Obama is more than willing and ready to implement any scheme that is designed to punish Americans, it seems. This is only the first step.This increasing unlevel energy playing field (created by Europe itself) is precisely what is driving Obama's newly announced energy policy. Europeans have long complained that their competitiveness has been hampered by the USA's "irresponsibly" low energy and electricity prices, and have insisted that Obama level the playing field by increasing prices in the USA. Somehow (using climate), Europe has convinced the USA to make its energy more expensive. Obama is happy to oblige....
.......
Europe tells America: Please repeat our blunders:...
Europe also expects America to repeat its renewable energy folly as well. America too must have a truly shoddy patchwork of inefficient and unpredictable renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, and an unstable power grid. Only this way can the playing field between America and Europe be truly level....
Declaration of war on blue-collar workers
Ironically not long ago the stated objective of western politicians was to generate prosperity for its citizens. Today it’s precisely the opposite. Obama’s plan is nothing less than an assault on American industry and millions of blue collar workers."
....................
1. US "Declaration of war on blue-collar workers" (noted above, 2013)
2. Additional 2013 citation: war has been declared on Americans by their government:
"The President of the United States appears to have declared peace in the world and war on Americans."
6/10/2013, "A loud and empty suit in the Chicago style," Quadrant Online, Australia, by Daryl McCann (Above is last sentence in article) (Comment: The entire US political class shares Obama's agenda, which is to once and for all destroy the annoying middle class. In both 2008 and 2012 Obama ran virtually unopposed because the GOP Establishment wanted him to win.)
.............................
3. 2016 citation: Attack on working class by US government has been ongoing for decades:
"These disaffected working-class people are especially weary of master plans that deliberately injure Americans for the benefit of big U.S. investors and foreign interests....
For decades now, our central government has asserted the wisdom and moral stature to pick “winners and losers.” The people who feel they’ve been picked as losers, for generations, are tired of it...
They’re under attack by the federal government, and they want relief....
.............
Donald Trump sends a very different set of signals. The clearest is the signal he sends about putting American government to work on behalf of working Americans. It’s so different from what they’re used to hearing, from both parties."...
5/10/2016, "Trump Won with the Working Class Voters the GOP Forgot," John Hayward, Breitbart
.............................
==========
Article referenced at top:
.......
"The German Ideology is, only more expensive power is good power. That does not fit in the global environment."
6/22/2013, "High energy costs in Germany," Frankfurter Allgeneine (Germany), Winand von Petersdorff
...........
"The
energy transition, one of the highest priorities of the federal
government has lost its magic, since they will be visible on your
electricity bill: it is expensive, people notice now....
.........
.........
"Especially in Germany explode the cost of energy.
We should be careful that the competitiveness of German industry will
not be further compromised,"warned Kurt Bock, head of the world's
largest chemical company BASF. Nervously are mainly the representatives of industrial companies that must compete internationally.
They are not only faced with the energy transition in the home, but
with a second in the United States: the shale gas revolution. It ensures that America's energy is dramatically cheaper.
Prices for natural gas are in America at one third to one fourth of the German level. For the chemical industry there, the advantage may even act in two ways: They use the cheap gas not only as an energy source, but also as a raw material. The American competitors have thus changed from importers to exporters - thanks to investors who have lost their money five to ten years ago elsewhere. The Germans have to even contributed, for example, BASF commitment in Texas and Louisiana.
Thus, the central assumption of the German energy transition is fragile that electricity from conventional sources such as natural gas or coal inevitably becomes more expensive and makes the German green energy relatively cheaper. Now it turns out that the price of electricity from coal and gas may even decline. This makes the high cost of energy in Germany, which are environmentally motivated unintentionally to a negative selling point in the global competition....
(p. 2) According Vassiliadis the ways to neutralize higher prices by saving energy are largely exhausted. From 1990 until today, the chemical industry has doubled energy efficiency. In other words, for the same production it needs only half as much energy as 20 years ago, calculates the chemical giant Bayer. Unionists Vassiliadis warns, "The German Ideology is, only more expensive power is good power. That does not fit in the global environment.""
...............
German
flagship daily Frankfurter Allgeneine Zeitung - See more at:
http://notrickszone.com/2013/06/26/obama-leveling-the-energy-playing-field-with-europe-declares-an-end-to-cheap-american-energy/#sthash.ycgmVXYw.SdVy.......................................
George W. Bush decreed first federal regulation of greenhouse gases by Executive Order in May 2007-Marlo Lewis, March 2009
.
March 2009 article:
3/19/2009, "CO2 Regulation under the Clean Air Act: Economic Train Wreck, Constitutional Crisis, Legislative Thuggery," Marlo Lewis, masterresource.org
(subhead) "Bush’s Response"
"The Bush Administration at first was gung-ho to make an [CO2] endangerment finding. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush declared that “America is addicted to oil.”
He set a goal of reducing U.S. oil imports 20% in 10 years, and by executive order directed the EPA and the Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture to develop rules increasing federal fuel economy and renewable fuel standards [ethanol].
No law on the books explicitly authorizes EPA to revise the existing standards. No problem, said Bush’s advisors, an endangerment finding would give EPA CAA authority to implement the President’s “20-in-10” program. The endangerment finding and associated regulations would also satisfy EPA’s obligations to the Court–a twofer!"...
=================
Executive Order:
May 14, 2007, "Bush orders first federal regulation of greenhouse gases," ens-newswire.com
"President George W. Bush today signed an Executive Order directing four federal agencies to develop regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new mobile sources. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emitted by the combustion of fossil fuels, contribute to global climate change.
.........................
March 2009 article:
3/19/2009, "CO2 Regulation under the Clean Air Act: Economic Train Wreck, Constitutional Crisis, Legislative Thuggery," Marlo Lewis, masterresource.org
(subhead) "Bush’s Response"
"The Bush Administration at first was gung-ho to make an [CO2] endangerment finding. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush declared that “America is addicted to oil.”
He set a goal of reducing U.S. oil imports 20% in 10 years, and by executive order directed the EPA and the Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture to develop rules increasing federal fuel economy and renewable fuel standards [ethanol].
No law on the books explicitly authorizes EPA to revise the existing standards. No problem, said Bush’s advisors, an endangerment finding would give EPA CAA authority to implement the President’s “20-in-10” program. The endangerment finding and associated regulations would also satisfy EPA’s obligations to the Court–a twofer!"...
=================
Executive Order:
May 14, 2007, "Bush orders first federal regulation of greenhouse gases," ens-newswire.com
"President George W. Bush today signed an Executive Order directing four federal agencies to develop regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new mobile sources. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emitted by the combustion of fossil fuels, contribute to global climate change.
The President directed the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA, the Department of
Transportation, the Department of Energy, and
the Department of Agriculture to work together
"to protect the environment with respect to
greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles,
nonroad vehicles,and nonroad engines, in a manner
consistent with sound science, analysis of benefits
and costs, public safety, and economic growth,"
the Executive Order states.
The President's new policy is based on a decision
by the U.S. Supreme Court April 2 in
Massachusetts v. EPA that the Bush administration
failed to follow the requirements of the Clean
Air Act when it refused to regulate greenhouse
gas emissions from motor vehicles.
Announcing his new policy at the White House
today, President Bush said, "Last month, the
Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must take
action under the Clean Air Act regarding
greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
So today, I'm directing the EPA and the
Department of Transportation, Energy, and
Agriculture to take the first steps toward
regulations that would cut gasoline consumption
and greenhouse gas emissions from motor
vehicles, using my 20-in-10 plan as a starting
point."
The president announced his "20-in-10 plan"
in January (1/31/2006) during his State of the
Union address. It aims to cut America's gasoline
usage by 20 percent over the next 10 years....
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, GMA,
supports the goal of reducing America's reliance
on fossil fuels but cautioned that a sharp
increase in the use of corn for ethanol could
hamper the ability of the food industry to
provide consumers, both in the U.S. and around
the world, with a reliable and affordable
supply of food.
Cal Dooley, GMA president and CEO, said,
"Consumers have already seen an increase
in the cost of food, as corn traditionally
used for livestock feed and processed food
is increasingly used for fuel. In fact,
the price of corn has nearly doubled in the
last nine months.""...
.........................
Monday, May 30, 2016
In 2016 Afghanistan will produce more opium than the world consumes. Police and government know it, don't stop it-BBC
.
May 29, 2016, "The opium farmers with the police on their side," BBC, Justin Rowlatt
Mazar-e-Sharif is one of the safest and
best-run cities in the Afghanistan - a model of good governance - yet
just half an hour out of town in a small village of mud-walled houses it
is obvious what the main cash crop is.
I stop at a big poppy field right beside the road. It must be 100m square. Thousands of swollen poppy heads nod gently at me in the dawn breeze.
Across the field, five or six men are working, scraping the bulbs with a sickle-shaped tool. They look up, but they don't seem concerned.
The villager who is guiding me gestures to indicate I can go into the field.
The plants are waist high and brush against me as I walk. The heads are bigger than I expected, about the size of a large plum. Most have a blackish purple dribble on the side.
I am startled by a shout. One of the harvesters, his salwar kameez brown with opium stains, has been watching me. He saw me taste the drug.
"Don't do that. That stuff is very bad for you," he says.
"Haven't you ever been tempted to try it?" I want to know.
"I know that if I start using it, I'll get addicted and my future will be destroyed. The people who use it - I've seen them in the cities lying down, their family life is destroyed, their children don't go to school," he tells me.
"But you're helping produce the stuff. Don't you feel guilty?" I ask.
I'm not surprised by his answer. "I've got no choice," he says. "I've got no job and you get good money with the opium."
My colleague Mahfouz, who's been translating, tells me the farmer has arrived and that we should meet him.
Taza Meer greets me cheerfully, but as we shake hands I notice with a shock that the man beside him has an AK47 slung over his shoulder.
Meer sees I am alarmed. "Don't worry about him," he says. "He's a policeman."
The man smiles warmly and reaches out his hand.
Growing opium is a very serious crime in Afghanistan. You can be punished with death, yet here is a policeman welcoming a BBC reporter to a poppy field at the height of the harvest.
We chat for a while, then Meer offers us tea. He leads me along a path beside a small irrigation stream. The policeman follows behind.
I see almond, peach, walnut and plum trees.
"Your farm is very fertile," I say. He agrees, telling me he also grows wheat, cotton and melons. Yet, over a steaming cup of saffron tea, he claims he has no choice but to grow opium.
"I get three times the profit and I need the money. There are 12 people in my family," he says.
"Doesn't the government try to stop you?" I ask. "They must know what you are doing." I nod toward the policeman, who has joined us for tea.
"Of course they know," he says. "But they also know it is the only way anyone can make decent money They help us, and we help them."
He puts a hand on the policeman's knee.
"He is a local man like me," the farmer says. "The police treat us well, they understand the pressures on us. We all get along fine."
The policeman nods his agreement and takes a sip of saffron tea.
The sun shines in through the open window, and both men smile at me.
They clearly think the enterprise they are involved in is the most natural thing in the world."
=====================
Comment: The evil US taxpayer is obviously at fault-giving billions every month for 12+ years to the "war in Afghanistan" has been chintzy, not enough. Thanks again to the entire elected US political class for proving to the world that we're slaves. The only "power" the US government ever exercises is against its own defenseless citizens.
.................
May 29, 2016, "The opium farmers with the police on their side," BBC, Justin Rowlatt
 |
| BBC |
This year, Afghanistan is expected
to produce more opium than the world consumes. Although billions of
dollars have been spent trying to eradicate the crop, in some places the
trade seems more institutionalised than ever, with local police openly
supporting farmers.
I stop at a big poppy field right beside the road. It must be 100m square. Thousands of swollen poppy heads nod gently at me in the dawn breeze.
Across the field, five or six men are working, scraping the bulbs with a sickle-shaped tool. They look up, but they don't seem concerned.
The villager who is guiding me gestures to indicate I can go into the field.
The plants are waist high and brush against me as I walk. The heads are bigger than I expected, about the size of a large plum. Most have a blackish purple dribble on the side.
I am startled by a shout. One of the harvesters, his salwar kameez brown with opium stains, has been watching me. He saw me taste the drug.
"Don't do that. That stuff is very bad for you," he says.
"Haven't you ever been tempted to try it?" I want to know.
"I know that if I start using it, I'll get addicted and my future will be destroyed. The people who use it - I've seen them in the cities lying down, their family life is destroyed, their children don't go to school," he tells me.
"But you're helping produce the stuff. Don't you feel guilty?" I ask.
I'm not surprised by his answer. "I've got no choice," he says. "I've got no job and you get good money with the opium."
My colleague Mahfouz, who's been translating, tells me the farmer has arrived and that we should meet him.
Taza Meer greets me cheerfully, but as we shake hands I notice with a shock that the man beside him has an AK47 slung over his shoulder.
Meer sees I am alarmed. "Don't worry about him," he says. "He's a policeman."
The man smiles warmly and reaches out his hand.
Growing opium is a very serious crime in Afghanistan. You can be punished with death, yet here is a policeman welcoming a BBC reporter to a poppy field at the height of the harvest.
We chat for a while, then Meer offers us tea. He leads me along a path beside a small irrigation stream. The policeman follows behind.
I see almond, peach, walnut and plum trees.
"Your farm is very fertile," I say. He agrees, telling me he also grows wheat, cotton and melons. Yet, over a steaming cup of saffron tea, he claims he has no choice but to grow opium.
"I get three times the profit and I need the money. There are 12 people in my family," he says.
"Doesn't the government try to stop you?" I ask. "They must know what you are doing." I nod toward the policeman, who has joined us for tea.
"Of course they know," he says. "But they also know it is the only way anyone can make decent money They help us, and we help them."
He puts a hand on the policeman's knee.
"He is a local man like me," the farmer says. "The police treat us well, they understand the pressures on us. We all get along fine."
The policeman nods his agreement and takes a sip of saffron tea.
The sun shines in through the open window, and both men smile at me.
They clearly think the enterprise they are involved in is the most natural thing in the world."
=====================
Comment: The evil US taxpayer is obviously at fault-giving billions every month for 12+ years to the "war in Afghanistan" has been chintzy, not enough. Thanks again to the entire elected US political class for proving to the world that we're slaves. The only "power" the US government ever exercises is against its own defenseless citizens.
.................
98.8% of Dubai's water is supplied by its desalination plants-Bloomberg, Sept. 2013
.
Sept. 2013 article
9/23/2013, "Desalination Plants Supply 98.8% of Dubai’s Water, Forum Is Told," Bloomberg, Randall Hackley
"Desalination plants that make seawater potable supply 98.8 percent of Dubai’s water, with the remaining 1.2 percent coming from groundwater sources, the Arabian Water and Power Forum was told today.
Dubai is the commercial, banking and tourist hub of the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab world economy after Saudi Arabia. The arid, water-scarce U.A.E. contains about 6 percent of Earth’s proven oil reserves.
Producing desalinated water is so energy-consuming that future water and energy plans must aim for a more sustainable balance, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chief executive officer of the state-owned utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, or DEWA, told the forum.
“We succeeded in reducing our unaccounted-for water in our water supply system to 10.88 percent in 2012 from 42 percent in 1988,” the CEO said, according to a statement. “The combined power generation and desalinated water production in Dubai is most-efficiently done using natural gas and liquefied natural gas as the primary fuel” in almost all cases supplemented by diesel oil as a secondary fuel, he said."
................
=======
April 2013 article
Water desalination enables economic expansion for UAE "to further drive our urban prosperity and economic advancement.”
April 9, 2013, "Dubai opens UAE's largest desalination plant," Waterworld.com, Tom Freyberg
"Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has opened its ‘M Station’ in Jebel Ali that has a generation capacity of 2,060 MW and can produce 140 million imperial gallons (MIG) of desalinated water per day.
Said to be the largest of its kind in the UAE, the US$2.7 billion facility was officially opened by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and President of DEWA.
The site includes eight multi-stage flash (MSF) units each producing 17.5 MIG per day. It also has six F-class gas turbines, each generating 234 MW and three steam turbines, generating 218 MW each.
DEWA CEO and MD, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, reportedly said that DEWA now has enough water and electricity reserves to last until 2020.
M Station was built in partnership with numerous project consultants and contractors, including Fisia, Siemens, Doosan and Alstom.
(UAE's) Al Tayer said: “We are now able to achieve a total production of 9,646 MW of electricity, and 470 million gallons of desalinated water per day, to meet the current and future needs of the Emirate of Dubai, including planned expansion to further drive our urban prosperity and economic advancement.”"
............
Sept. 2013 article
9/23/2013, "Desalination Plants Supply 98.8% of Dubai’s Water, Forum Is Told," Bloomberg, Randall Hackley
"Desalination plants that make seawater potable supply 98.8 percent of Dubai’s water, with the remaining 1.2 percent coming from groundwater sources, the Arabian Water and Power Forum was told today.
Dubai is the commercial, banking and tourist hub of the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab world economy after Saudi Arabia. The arid, water-scarce U.A.E. contains about 6 percent of Earth’s proven oil reserves.
Producing desalinated water is so energy-consuming that future water and energy plans must aim for a more sustainable balance, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chief executive officer of the state-owned utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, or DEWA, told the forum.
“We succeeded in reducing our unaccounted-for water in our water supply system to 10.88 percent in 2012 from 42 percent in 1988,” the CEO said, according to a statement. “The combined power generation and desalinated water production in Dubai is most-efficiently done using natural gas and liquefied natural gas as the primary fuel” in almost all cases supplemented by diesel oil as a secondary fuel, he said."
................
=======
April 2013 article
Water desalination enables economic expansion for UAE "to further drive our urban prosperity and economic advancement.”
April 9, 2013, "Dubai opens UAE's largest desalination plant," Waterworld.com, Tom Freyberg
"Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has opened its ‘M Station’ in Jebel Ali that has a generation capacity of 2,060 MW and can produce 140 million imperial gallons (MIG) of desalinated water per day.
Said to be the largest of its kind in the UAE, the US$2.7 billion facility was officially opened by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and President of DEWA.
The site includes eight multi-stage flash (MSF) units each producing 17.5 MIG per day. It also has six F-class gas turbines, each generating 234 MW and three steam turbines, generating 218 MW each.
DEWA CEO and MD, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, reportedly said that DEWA now has enough water and electricity reserves to last until 2020.
M Station was built in partnership with numerous project consultants and contractors, including Fisia, Siemens, Doosan and Alstom.
(UAE's) Al Tayer said: “We are now able to achieve a total production of 9,646 MW of electricity, and 470 million gallons of desalinated water per day, to meet the current and future needs of the Emirate of Dubai, including planned expansion to further drive our urban prosperity and economic advancement.”"
............
John Kerry tells US Senate in 1971 that US soldiers committed war crimes in Viet Nam: 'raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, randomly shot at civilians, shot cattle and dogs for fun, razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan'
.
4/22/1971, "Vietnam War Hearing: John Kerry Testimony - Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971)," You tube, C-Span, Pacifica Radio archives
"Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Hearing on Viet Nam war." (Pres. Lyndon Johnson approved the first US bombing of North Viet Nam on August 4, 1964).
Spokesman for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, John Kerry, addressed the April 1971 hearing. (Kerry served in Viet Nam 1968-69).
Kerry 5:20-6:56:
"Several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans, testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. Not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day to day basis with a full awareness of officers at all levels of command. Its' impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit. The emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Viet Nam. But they did, they relived the absolute horror of what this country in a sense made them do. They told the stories of times that they had
personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Viet Nam. In addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. We called this investigation the Winter Soldier investigation."...6:56
...........
4/22/1971, "Vietnam War Hearing: John Kerry Testimony - Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971)," You tube, C-Span, Pacifica Radio archives
"Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Hearing on Viet Nam war." (Pres. Lyndon Johnson approved the first US bombing of North Viet Nam on August 4, 1964).
Spokesman for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, John Kerry, addressed the April 1971 hearing. (Kerry served in Viet Nam 1968-69).
Kerry 5:20-6:56:
"Several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans, testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. Not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day to day basis with a full awareness of officers at all levels of command. Its' impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit. The emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Viet Nam. But they did, they relived the absolute horror of what this country in a sense made them do. They told the stories of times that they had
personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Viet Nam. In addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. We called this investigation the Winter Soldier investigation."...6:56
...........
Arctic Sea Ice Area, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Polar Research Group, May 29, 2016, 3 charts
.
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area," The Cryosphere Today, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Polar Research Group
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Anomaly," uiuc.edu
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area," uiuc.edu, "data provided by NSIDC: NASA SMMR and SSMI," University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Polar Research Group
.........
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area," The Cryosphere Today, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Polar Research Group
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Anomaly," uiuc.edu
Above, May 29, 2016, "Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area," uiuc.edu, "data provided by NSIDC: NASA SMMR and SSMI," University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Polar Research Group
.........
Sunday, May 29, 2016
“All the glories [separation of church and state etc] that were given to you by your forefathers are not yours to give away for the sake of moral posturing and relief from being called a bigot. You do not own your culture, your freedoms. They were handed to you by the bloody broken fingers of your elders and you do not have the right" to give them away because you can't defend yourself against a few words like racist, Islamophobe, or xenophobe"-Molyneux
.
Molyneux speaks about preserving freedoms fought for by our elders and given to us. Allowing invasions of so-called refugees, for example, trashes the freedoms for which many died. In the case of the UK and the EU, the latter enables politicians and bureaucrats to avoid accountability. Such a thing should be "left." Below are excerpts of Molyneux' remarks beginning approx. 7:30.
May 11, 2016, "What Pisses Me Off About Brexit | UK's EU Referendum" Stefan Molyneux, you tube
“All the glories [separation of church and state etc] that were given to you by your forefathers are not yours to give away for the sake of moral posturing and relief from being called a bigot. You do not own your culture, your freedoms.
They were handed to you by the bloody broken fingers of your elders and you do not have the right to give it away.”
“The men in my family died by the dozens in wars. If they could come back from the dead and speak to me they would say ‘we did not die for this. We did not fight and struggle for this.’
“The blood sacrifice of our elders which gave us the treasures of everything we have–
you’re giving it away because you’re scared of words
[racist, islamophobic, xenophobic].”
“My ancestors would say, ‘We had to face shrapnel, mustard gas and bombs and we stood tall and fought. What do you have to face? You will not speak the words of honesty, of cultural pride, of love for your children and your freedoms.’"
Added: "The idea that we're just one more bureaucratic layer away from paradise is madness."
.............................
Added from Susan for Memorial Day Weekend: My father who fought in WWII, luckily didn't die, and is still alive in 2016:
World War II Air Force pilot:
Above, World War II US Air Force pilot and his Stearman biplane; below same
soldier in his Air Force Uniform sometime in the 1940's, surviving. Thanks, Dad.
Born in Brooklyn in 1922
Here's Dad in 2012.
..........
Molyneux speaks about preserving freedoms fought for by our elders and given to us. Allowing invasions of so-called refugees, for example, trashes the freedoms for which many died. In the case of the UK and the EU, the latter enables politicians and bureaucrats to avoid accountability. Such a thing should be "left." Below are excerpts of Molyneux' remarks beginning approx. 7:30.
May 11, 2016, "What Pisses Me Off About Brexit | UK's EU Referendum" Stefan Molyneux, you tube
“All the glories [separation of church and state etc] that were given to you by your forefathers are not yours to give away for the sake of moral posturing and relief from being called a bigot. You do not own your culture, your freedoms.
They were handed to you by the bloody broken fingers of your elders and you do not have the right to give it away.”
“The men in my family died by the dozens in wars. If they could come back from the dead and speak to me they would say ‘we did not die for this. We did not fight and struggle for this.’
“The blood sacrifice of our elders which gave us the treasures of everything we have–
you’re giving it away because you’re scared of words
[racist, islamophobic, xenophobic].”
“My ancestors would say, ‘We had to face shrapnel, mustard gas and bombs and we stood tall and fought. What do you have to face? You will not speak the words of honesty, of cultural pride, of love for your children and your freedoms.’"
Added: "The idea that we're just one more bureaucratic layer away from paradise is madness."
.............................
Added from Susan for Memorial Day Weekend: My father who fought in WWII, luckily didn't die, and is still alive in 2016:
World War II Air Force pilot:
Above, World War II US Air Force pilot and his Stearman biplane; below same
soldier in his Air Force Uniform sometime in the 1940's, surviving. Thanks, Dad.
Born in Brooklyn in 1922
Here's Dad in 2012. ..........
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Standardizing the population and getting them to love their servitude-Aldous Huxley, 1962
.
March 20, 1962, "Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution," Berkeley Language Center, pulsemedia.org
"Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World,...discusses influence, controlling the public mind and government." Transcript:
"We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.
This is...the ultimate in malevolent revolutions shall we say, and this is a problem which has interested me many years and about which I wrote thirty years ago, a fable, Brave New World, which is an account of society making use of all the devices available...to standardize the population, to iron out inconvenient human differences, to create, to say, mass produced models of human beings arranged in some sort of scientific caste system....
A number of techniques about which I talked seem to be here already. And there seems to be a general movement in the direction of this kind of ultimate revolution, a method of control by which a people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by which any decent standard they ought not to enjoy. This, the enjoyment of servitude, Well this process is, as I say, has gone on for over the years, and I have become more and more interested in what is happening....
I’m inclined to think that the scientific dictatorships of the future, and I think there are going to be scientific dictatorships in many parts of the world....
That if you can get people to consent to the state of affairs in which they’re living. The state of servitude the state of being, having their differences ironed out, and being made amenable to mass production methods on the social level, if you can do this, then you have, you are likely, to have a much more stable and lasting society. Much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs and firing squads and concentration camps....
But I think that insofar as dictators become more and more scientific, more and more concerned with the technically perfect, perfectly running society, they will be more and more interested in the kind of techniques which I imagined and described...in BNW. So that, it seems to me then, that this ultimate revolution is not really very far away, that we, already a number of techniques for bringing about this kind of control are here, and it remains to be seen when and where and by whom they will first be applied in any large scale.
And first let me talk about the...improvement in the techniques of terrorism. I think there have been improvements. Pavlov after all made some extremely profound observations both on animals and on human beings. And he found among other things that conditioning techniques applied to animals or humans in a state either of psychological or physical stress sank in so to say, very deeply into the mind-body of the creature, and were extremely difficult to get rid of. That they seemed to be embedded more deeply than other forms of conditioning....
And of course in the history of, recent history of brainwashing, both as applied to prisoners of war and to the lower personnel within the communist party in China, we see that the pavlovian methods have been applied systematically and with evidently with extraordinary efficacy. I think there can be no doubt that by the application of these methods a very large army of totally devoted people has been created. The conditioning has been driven in, so to say, by a kind of psychological iontophoresis into the very depths of the people’s being, and has got so deep that it’s very difficult to ever be rooted out, and these methods, I think, are a real refinement on the older methods of terror because they combine methods of terror with methods of acceptance that the person who is subjected to a form of terroristic stress but for the purpose of inducing a kind of voluntary acceptance of the state the psychological state in which he has been driven and the state of affairs in which he finds himself. So there is, as I say, there has been a definite improvement in the, even in the techniques of terrorism. But then we come to the consideration of other techniques, non-terroristic techniques, for inducing consent and inducing people to love their servitude....
I think we see quite clearly that the human populations can be categorized according to their suggestibility fairly clearly,. I suspect very strongly that this twenty percent is the same in all these cases, and I suspect also that it would not be at all difficult to recognize...out who are those who are extremely suggestible and who are those extremely unsuggestible and who are those who occupy the intermediate space. Quite clearly, if everybody were extremely unsuggestible organized society would be quite impossible, and if everybody were extremely suggestible then a dictatorship would be absolutely inevitable. I mean it’s very fortunate that we have people who are moderately suggestible in the majority and who therefore preserve us from dictatorship but do permit organized society to be formed. But, once given the fact that there are these 20% of highly suggestible people, it becomes quite clear that this is a matter of enormous political importance, for example, any demagogue who is able to get hold of a large number of these 20% of suggestible people and to organize them is really in a position to overthrow any government in any country."...
............................
March 20, 1962, "Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution," Berkeley Language Center, pulsemedia.org
"Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World,...discusses influence, controlling the public mind and government." Transcript:
"We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.
This is...the ultimate in malevolent revolutions shall we say, and this is a problem which has interested me many years and about which I wrote thirty years ago, a fable, Brave New World, which is an account of society making use of all the devices available...to standardize the population, to iron out inconvenient human differences, to create, to say, mass produced models of human beings arranged in some sort of scientific caste system....
A number of techniques about which I talked seem to be here already. And there seems to be a general movement in the direction of this kind of ultimate revolution, a method of control by which a people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by which any decent standard they ought not to enjoy. This, the enjoyment of servitude, Well this process is, as I say, has gone on for over the years, and I have become more and more interested in what is happening....
I’m inclined to think that the scientific dictatorships of the future, and I think there are going to be scientific dictatorships in many parts of the world....
That if you can get people to consent to the state of affairs in which they’re living. The state of servitude the state of being, having their differences ironed out, and being made amenable to mass production methods on the social level, if you can do this, then you have, you are likely, to have a much more stable and lasting society. Much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs and firing squads and concentration camps....
But I think that insofar as dictators become more and more scientific, more and more concerned with the technically perfect, perfectly running society, they will be more and more interested in the kind of techniques which I imagined and described...in BNW. So that, it seems to me then, that this ultimate revolution is not really very far away, that we, already a number of techniques for bringing about this kind of control are here, and it remains to be seen when and where and by whom they will first be applied in any large scale.
And first let me talk about the...improvement in the techniques of terrorism. I think there have been improvements. Pavlov after all made some extremely profound observations both on animals and on human beings. And he found among other things that conditioning techniques applied to animals or humans in a state either of psychological or physical stress sank in so to say, very deeply into the mind-body of the creature, and were extremely difficult to get rid of. That they seemed to be embedded more deeply than other forms of conditioning....
And of course in the history of, recent history of brainwashing, both as applied to prisoners of war and to the lower personnel within the communist party in China, we see that the pavlovian methods have been applied systematically and with evidently with extraordinary efficacy. I think there can be no doubt that by the application of these methods a very large army of totally devoted people has been created. The conditioning has been driven in, so to say, by a kind of psychological iontophoresis into the very depths of the people’s being, and has got so deep that it’s very difficult to ever be rooted out, and these methods, I think, are a real refinement on the older methods of terror because they combine methods of terror with methods of acceptance that the person who is subjected to a form of terroristic stress but for the purpose of inducing a kind of voluntary acceptance of the state the psychological state in which he has been driven and the state of affairs in which he finds himself. So there is, as I say, there has been a definite improvement in the, even in the techniques of terrorism. But then we come to the consideration of other techniques, non-terroristic techniques, for inducing consent and inducing people to love their servitude....
I think we see quite clearly that the human populations can be categorized according to their suggestibility fairly clearly,. I suspect very strongly that this twenty percent is the same in all these cases, and I suspect also that it would not be at all difficult to recognize...out who are those who are extremely suggestible and who are those extremely unsuggestible and who are those who occupy the intermediate space. Quite clearly, if everybody were extremely unsuggestible organized society would be quite impossible, and if everybody were extremely suggestible then a dictatorship would be absolutely inevitable. I mean it’s very fortunate that we have people who are moderately suggestible in the majority and who therefore preserve us from dictatorship but do permit organized society to be formed. But, once given the fact that there are these 20% of highly suggestible people, it becomes quite clear that this is a matter of enormous political importance, for example, any demagogue who is able to get hold of a large number of these 20% of suggestible people and to organize them is really in a position to overthrow any government in any country."...
............................
Friday, May 27, 2016
US immigration courts have backlog of 456,644 cases. Earliest date available is Nov. 29, 2019-Houston Press
.
Earliest US immigration court date is Nov. 29, 2019, exceptions made for unaccompanied minors. Immigration courts have backlog of 456,644 cases as of March 2016. Houston court has backlog of over 35,000 cases as of Dec. 2015. New York and LA backlogs are higher than Houston's.
March 22, 2016, "Houston’s Immigration Court Backlog Isn’t Helped by a Judge That Barely Works," HoustonPress.com, Steve Jansen
As a result, President Barack Obama directed the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration court and asylum proceedings, to prioritize the adjudication of cases for unaccompanied minors and families in detention. Most other immigration matters, such as minor criminal offenses and permanent resident cases, have been reset to November 29, 2019.
“Three years out is too long,” says Samantha Del Bosque, staff attorney at the Houston-based Tahirih Justice Center, which provides pro bono services to immigrant women and children.
“Evidence can go stale and experts who are academics tend to move around. For us, it creates a lot of hardships. It’s quite a mess.”
“I’ve had a client whose asylum case has been reset seven times,” says Raed Gonzalez of the Houston immigration law firm Gonzalez Olivieri. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the nationwide immigration case pileup stands at 456,644. And counting....
According to December 31, 2015, figures provided to the Press by the immigration review office, Houston’s immigration judges are drowning under a glut of 35,340 pending cases. TRAC data shows that Houston’s bottleneck is the third-highest in the country, two spots behind New York City and Los Angeles.
“Houston is the largest city closest to the Mexico border,” says Alexandre Afanassiev of the local immigration firm Quan Law Group. “There are only six judges, and that’s not enough.” Houston, like many immigration courts across the country, has been hampered by attrition and retiring judges, and critics say that DOJ is dragging its feet with hiring replacements."...
...............
Earliest US immigration court date is Nov. 29, 2019, exceptions made for unaccompanied minors. Immigration courts have backlog of 456,644 cases as of March 2016. Houston court has backlog of over 35,000 cases as of Dec. 2015. New York and LA backlogs are higher than Houston's.
March 22, 2016, "Houston’s Immigration Court Backlog Isn’t Helped by a Judge That Barely Works," HoustonPress.com, Steve Jansen
"During the summer of 2014, when a record number of Central American
nationals sought entry into the United States, the nation’s underfunded,
understaffed and under-everything immigration court system nearly
collapsed.
As a result, President Barack Obama directed the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration court and asylum proceedings, to prioritize the adjudication of cases for unaccompanied minors and families in detention. Most other immigration matters, such as minor criminal offenses and permanent resident cases, have been reset to November 29, 2019.
“Three years out is too long,” says Samantha Del Bosque, staff attorney at the Houston-based Tahirih Justice Center, which provides pro bono services to immigrant women and children.
“Evidence can go stale and experts who are academics tend to move around. For us, it creates a lot of hardships. It’s quite a mess.”
“I’ve had a client whose asylum case has been reset seven times,” says Raed Gonzalez of the Houston immigration law firm Gonzalez Olivieri. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the nationwide immigration case pileup stands at 456,644. And counting....
According to December 31, 2015, figures provided to the Press by the immigration review office, Houston’s immigration judges are drowning under a glut of 35,340 pending cases. TRAC data shows that Houston’s bottleneck is the third-highest in the country, two spots behind New York City and Los Angeles.
“Houston is the largest city closest to the Mexico border,” says Alexandre Afanassiev of the local immigration firm Quan Law Group. “There are only six judges, and that’s not enough.” Houston, like many immigration courts across the country, has been hampered by attrition and retiring judges, and critics say that DOJ is dragging its feet with hiring replacements."...
...............
California State Board of Education advocates changing name of India to South Asia in social studies textbooks-BBC
.
May 25, 2016, "Viewpoint: Why Hindu groups are against California textbook change," BBC, Rohit Chopra, Assoc. Prof. of media studies at Santa Clara Univ.
The debate centres significantly on the renaming of India as South Asia and the role of caste in Indian society.
The rationale for calling the region South Asia, advocated by a group of distinguished academics, is that it is a more accurate descriptive term for the region, one that does not equate India as it existed before 1947 with the modern Indian nation-state.
Terms like "ancient India" and India, they argue, could be confusing in certain contexts for the students, in addition to obscuring the common historical past of modern India and Pakistan respectively....
The Hindu-American organisations accuse the academics of wanting to "erase" India itself by recommending the change of name. These groups also seek to remove references to caste prejudice in the textbooks.
The academics, on the other hand, argue that South Asia is a more logically appropriate term than India for the textbooks. They also hold that deleting references to caste contradicts the educational goal that students should develop a rich and nuanced understanding of the region."...
.............
May 25, 2016, "Viewpoint: Why Hindu groups are against California textbook change," BBC, Rohit Chopra, Assoc. Prof. of media studies at Santa Clara Univ.
"Thousands of academics and Indians
have signed a petition to stop the California State Board of Education
from changing "India" to "South Asia" in its social studies textbooks....
The debate centres significantly on the renaming of India as South Asia and the role of caste in Indian society.
The rationale for calling the region South Asia, advocated by a group of distinguished academics, is that it is a more accurate descriptive term for the region, one that does not equate India as it existed before 1947 with the modern Indian nation-state.
Terms like "ancient India" and India, they argue, could be confusing in certain contexts for the students, in addition to obscuring the common historical past of modern India and Pakistan respectively....
The Hindu-American organisations accuse the academics of wanting to "erase" India itself by recommending the change of name. These groups also seek to remove references to caste prejudice in the textbooks.
The academics, on the other hand, argue that South Asia is a more logically appropriate term than India for the textbooks. They also hold that deleting references to caste contradicts the educational goal that students should develop a rich and nuanced understanding of the region."...
.............
Organized crime epidemic in Mexico succeeds because of corruption at all levels of government and economy. Illegal drug trade isn't cause of problems, nor will NAFTA style legalized marijuana trade help them-NY Times Letter to Editor
.
May 25, 2016, "Mexico and Marijuana," NY Times opinion pages
"To the Editor:
May 25, 2016, "Mexico and Marijuana," NY Times opinion pages
"To the Editor:
"Re “Legal Pot, Free Trade”
(Op-Ed, May 21): Ioan Grillo’s proposal for a Nafta-style market in
legal marijuana mistakes a symptom of the organized crime epidemic in Mexico-the illegal drug trade-for an underlying cause.
Rather, the
major driver appears to be the corruption infecting all levels of the
Mexican state and economy.
Otherwise,
it is hard to explain the Mexican government’s chronic inability to
keep organized crime from dominating so many legal businesses, like
casino gambling, cigarettes and even something as banal as mining.
As
late as 2014, the top three revenue streams of one cartel, the
notorious Knights Templar, were mining, logging and garden-variety
extortion. And the trend continues, with a 2016 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime report detailing how cartels are now a significant presence in gold mining in Mexico and across Latin America.
Legalizing
an industry in Mexico therefore does not necessarily push the cartels
out. Or in other words, how can one expect the Mexican state to keep
legalized pot out of the hands of cartels if it cannot keep mining out
of those very same hands?
......
JEFFREY ZINSMEISTER
Alexandria, Va."
"The
writer is executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana a
nonpartisan group, and a senior fellow at the University of Florida’s
Drug Policy Institute."
=====================
Added: Marijuana and opium poppy crops increased in Mexico after NAFTA when subsistence farmers could no longer survive growing food crops: April 2008 article:
April 1, 2008, "Calderón, NAFTA, and Mexico’s Campesinos in 2008," Council on Hemispheric Affairs, coha.org
"The rise in poverty amongst peasant farmers also has led to an increase in a phenomenon known as illicit farming....Farmers who cannot survive by growing maize or corn, have turned to “illicit” farming. Farms that once grew crops shipped to other parts of Mexico as well as for subsistence living have been displaced, and now must turn to producing illegal agricultural goods, such as marijuana and opium, in order to survive....With Colombian cocaine trafficking; increase of illicit farming; and NAFTA’s free movement of goods, the Mexican government will see much more difficulty curbing drug cartel influence." (subhead, "The Rise of “Illicit” Farming")
And:
Added: Marijuana and opium poppy crops increased in Mexico after NAFTA when subsistence farmers could no longer survive growing food crops: April 2008 article:
April 1, 2008, "Calderón, NAFTA, and Mexico’s Campesinos in 2008," Council on Hemispheric Affairs, coha.org
"The rise in poverty amongst peasant farmers also has led to an increase in a phenomenon known as illicit farming....Farmers who cannot survive by growing maize or corn, have turned to “illicit” farming. Farms that once grew crops shipped to other parts of Mexico as well as for subsistence living have been displaced, and now must turn to producing illegal agricultural goods, such as marijuana and opium, in order to survive....With Colombian cocaine trafficking; increase of illicit farming; and NAFTA’s free movement of goods, the Mexican government will see much more difficulty curbing drug cartel influence." (subhead, "The Rise of “Illicit” Farming")
And:
"Mexico now tolerates...subsidized U.S. agriculture, and the steady abolishment of the ejido [communal lands farmed by indigenous peasants],
are the increasing rates of poverty in rural parts of Mexico.
Consequently, this has led to a rise in immigration to the United
States....In
terms of migration to the U.S, Mexico’s rural areas comprise a quarter
of its population, but accounts for 44 percent of migration (usually
illegal) into the United States." (subhead, "Campsinos after NAFTA")
=================
Added: NAFTA rule required Mexico to eliminate longstanding aid to indigenous, subsistence farmers:
June 2006 article
June 2006, "Mexico Leftist Presidential Candidate Says He'll Protect Farmers from NAFTA," AP, via BanderasNews.com
"Tariffs on all agricultural products must be removed in 2008 under NAFTA. But Mexican farmers said hefty agricultural subsidies in the United States give that country's white corn and beans an unfair advantage over the Mexican market, which depends in large part on small-scale and mostly subsistence farmers.
Mexicans worry if these farmers can't sell the country's signature crops at a price that competes with trucked-in produce from the United States, they'll go out of business altogether. That could severely damage Mexico's agricultural economy, which farmers said has already suffered since the trade deal went into effect in 1994, forcing many to migrate to the United States.
Mexico's agriculture minister pleaded with Canada and the United States this month to reconsider removal of the corn and bean tariffs but U.S. undersecretary for agriculture J.B. Penn flatly rejected the appeal, saying: "We have no interest in renegotiating any parts of the agreement."
Despite the concern, the administration of outgoing Mexican president Vicente Fox has stood by NAFTA, saying Mexico honours its trade commitments."...
===================
Added: Shipping Mexican citizens to the US for use as cheap labor was Mexican Pres. Vicente Fox's (2000-2006) priority:
Feb. 8, 2005, "Vicente Fox, Labor Pimp," Human Events, Mac Johnson
"Vicente Fox has made increasing the flow of his people out of Mexico and into America his highest priority in his relationship with the US. His expressed desire is that the border should pretty much cease to exist — at least for Northbound traffic. He would prefer that America voluntarily acquiesce to his desire to depopulate his nation’s poorest neighborhoods, but he is also prepared to achieve this depopulation unilaterally."...
=================
Added: NAFTA rule required Mexico to eliminate longstanding aid to indigenous, subsistence farmers:
June 2006 article
June 2006, "Mexico Leftist Presidential Candidate Says He'll Protect Farmers from NAFTA," AP, via BanderasNews.com
"Tariffs on all agricultural products must be removed in 2008 under NAFTA. But Mexican farmers said hefty agricultural subsidies in the United States give that country's white corn and beans an unfair advantage over the Mexican market, which depends in large part on small-scale and mostly subsistence farmers.
Mexicans worry if these farmers can't sell the country's signature crops at a price that competes with trucked-in produce from the United States, they'll go out of business altogether. That could severely damage Mexico's agricultural economy, which farmers said has already suffered since the trade deal went into effect in 1994, forcing many to migrate to the United States.
Mexico's agriculture minister pleaded with Canada and the United States this month to reconsider removal of the corn and bean tariffs but U.S. undersecretary for agriculture J.B. Penn flatly rejected the appeal, saying: "We have no interest in renegotiating any parts of the agreement."
Despite the concern, the administration of outgoing Mexican president Vicente Fox has stood by NAFTA, saying Mexico honours its trade commitments."...
===================
Added: Shipping Mexican citizens to the US for use as cheap labor was Mexican Pres. Vicente Fox's (2000-2006) priority:
Feb. 8, 2005, "Vicente Fox, Labor Pimp," Human Events, Mac Johnson
"Vicente Fox has made increasing the flow of his people out of Mexico and into America his highest priority in his relationship with the US. His expressed desire is that the border should pretty much cease to exist — at least for Northbound traffic. He would prefer that America voluntarily acquiesce to his desire to depopulate his nation’s poorest neighborhoods, but he is also prepared to achieve this depopulation unilaterally."...
..................
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