Monsanto on trial for crimes against humanity by government mob

Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 4 months ago to Business
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While I would applaud a fair trial and restitution if guilty, my life experience leads me to believe that this is more llkely extortion by the world government mob that will not benefit anyone harmed by Monsanto. The 'world court' will fine Monsanto millions and those damaged will never see a penny.


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  • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yep, like my old (but not original, dammit) joke that...
    Did you know that after about 20 generations' use, acetylsalicilic acid causes permanent and 100% sterility among all users' offsping?

    Trying to prove those kinds of 'unsafe" should be illegal... :)
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  • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If the CxO suite, the BOD and the Shareholders can't see that as a better long-term solution to the 'problem,' they deserve all the crap they get.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Just the facts Jack! Personal opinions are like monkey but's let leave it at that. We've all got 'em.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'd really like to see a scientific long term study on effects of glyphosate on humans without a vested interest in either result ... part of the definition of 'scientific study.' Follow the evidence; report the truth; take no funding from those being examined.
    When a writer with no credentials (that I could determine online) in the area being discussed, calls anyone opposed to her beliefs a "conspiracy theorist" it gives me reason to doubt the writer's veracity, just as I doubted the veracity of the people critical of GMO's without scientific evidence.
    Mud slinging on both sides is not science. It's just obfuscation.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Funny thing is I walked through many kilometers and miles of those areas and to date. 46 years later no ill effects. But that was LBJ's war.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No stuff sherlock you figure that out on your own or did you actually read the introduction?.It's been a long time since National Geographic was accused of being a right wing blog. Might be a first time Where's your supporting article where's your facts? Sorry comrade I don't serve the party.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No stuff sherlock you figure that out on your own or did you actually read the introduction? I doubt you can define right wing but if by chance you are freferring to Republicans they are for sure the right wing...of the left. Seig Me no Heills Comrade I don't serve your partyl. You must have got the last line by looking in the mirror
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    A few years ago the USA alone was producing more food than than was needed to feed the entire plantet population. The problem was not food production but distribution. The same group whined about starving children while we were shipping millions of tons of food to other countries and hosting a food bank on every corner. If one statement is true then the fault lies with an uncaring government administration. If the opposite is true the same applies. Then too I have personally witnessed those shipments being sold retail instead of going to the intended starving masses....No follow through by the same administrations and the party in power makes no difference.

    too much finger pointing and talk, Not enough truth and not near enough action from the usual couch potato groupies.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's unabashed personal opinion with no facts nor sources cited.Since Liberal Reasoning was not used in support I shall award one point for honesty.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Correction for both of us It is simultaneously 3nm, 12 nm, and 24 nm with a commercial interest zone of 200 nm and US Coast Guard have rights over any US Flagged vessel regardless of size anywhere in the world.Interest to 12 nm occurred in 1988 by Presidential Proclamation. United States invoked a contiguous zone out to 24 nmi on 24 September 1999 Up until 1988 3nm WAS the rule.

    Baseline

    Normally, the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured is the low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal state. This is either the low-water mark closest to the shore, or alternatively it may be an unlimited distance from permanently exposed land, provided that some portion of elevations exposed at low tide but covered at high tide (like mud flats) is within 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) of permanently exposed land. ...

    Territorial sea

    A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from its baseline. If this would overlap with another state's territorial sea, the border is taken as the median point between the states' baselines, unless the states in question agree otherwise. A state can also choose to claim a smaller territorial sea.

    In December 1988 the USA extended the 3nm to 12 nm by Presidential Proclamation.

    Contiguous zone

    The contiguous zone is a band of water extending from the outer edge of the territorial sea to up to 24 nautical miles (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) from the baseline, within which a state can exert limited control for the purpose of preventing or punishing "infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea". This will typically be 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) wide, but could be more (if a state has chosen to claim a territorial sea of less than 12 nautical miles), or less, if it would otherwise overlap another state's contiguous zone. However, unlike the territorial sea, there is no standard rule for resolving such conflicts and the states in question must negotiate their own compromise.

    "The United States invoked a contiguous zone out to 24 nmi on 24 September 1999]"

    As mentioned the Self Help Rule was ruled legal by the US Supreme Court of the United States ...you should have read a little further. Recently the US used a hired force to extract a Mexican Citizen from Mexico (which led to that SCOTUS ruling and the Nation of New Zealand used a quasi force actually led by one of their counter Terrorist section national police officers who brought the French Citizen of the ship that sank the Rainbow Warrior in NZ Territorial Waters back to New Zealand to stand trial.

    The World Court as you stated is a joke unless you are caught in a sovereign State or Nation which has agreed to enforce it. What is not a joke is crimes as listed by another nation within the claimed area of another nation. In any case two things you can count on. US normally via the Coast Guard will enforce US Law on US Flag vessels including my 30' sloop where ever and US State Department will do not much if anything if you violate foreign law in a foreign country. That included a minor who received a sentence of bamboo lashing in Singapore.

    A third rule is no search warrant is required for boarding a US Flagged Vessel by Coast Guard, Customs, Immigration or Border Patrol.

    Something those of us who live aboard on a full time basis just....live with. That same rule now applies to anyone or any structure within 100 miles of any shoreline or land border.

    getting back to the question under discussion there is much hyperbole and bombast on both sides much of it knee jerk in character and a limited amount of acceptable 'fact' on both side so nations have it seems invoked their own interpretation which is their sovereign right. What the World Court has to do with it - is....not much. They have even less divisions that did the Vatican in WWII.

    What is also true is the issue stems back to the DDT Scare fomented by Carson in 'The Silent Spring.' which led to the deaths of millions as the ban was not accompanied by a replacement product for a number of years. Possible death by DDT became certain death by starvation and spread of disease because no one least of all Ms. Carlson bothered to 'think it through.' for some that is a good thing otherwise the world population might have been 12 billion or whatever excuse they are offering. Still Ms. Carlson and her supporters certainly, without question became the greatest mass murderers the world has yet witnessed.

    Especially since we now find out DDT was not the danger it was made out to be. Estimates of deaths because of the DDT Ban have now reached as high as an estimated ESTIMATED 90 million while....the Locusts Laughed.
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  • Posted by $ sekeres 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes. Khalling calls Monsanto "crony" in annother comment, and her observation is supported by the Forbes article linked in Sarah Montalbano's comment. Almost looks as though they are in league with "the anti-biotech lobby [which] . . . creates an excessively high, process-based regulatory bar that illogically scrutinizes how plant varieties are bred, not their quality or safety. Small and medium businesses and academia cannot muster the prohibitively high price of research and development, and thus the anti-genetic engineering lobby helps clear the path for bigwigs, keeping the small players out of the game."

    On the other hand, "prov[ing] that their products aren't unsafe" really isn't possible. There can always be a longer timeframe than tested, etc.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The US territorial limit has been 12 miles, not three, probably since before WW1. Of course it's still 200 for "economic" activity, however that is defined these days.

    The "self help" rule is not so much a rule as a case of "Who's gonna make us stop?" I guarantee as soon as some other country kidnaps a person (without US government permission) from within the US and puts him on trial, they'll find out (maybe from a war) that the rule doesn't work that way. Of course that doesn't apply in this case. Any country in which a company operates can seize the persons and assets that are within its borders.

    The World Court, of course, is a joke. Like the UN as a whole it only has the ability to enforce anything if the Security Council agrees, and the US has a veto there. I'm sure right now Monsanto is trying to delay any action until the US has a president who will veto it.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for posting this. It explains it very clearly.
    "a glorified meeting of the who’s who of anti-biotech science deniers"
    As you say, the articles sounds biased, but I think it's correct that modern biological science does not find evidence of risks of GMOs.

    When she explains why she imagines people buy organic, she's bordering on a straw man. She says it's because of fear of GMOs but doesn't have any evidence.

    I really appreciate the article in that explains in a sober-minded way that it is not a real trial in a court of law but rather a convention to discuss the topic.
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  • Posted by $ SarahMontalbano 9 years, 4 months ago
    My first thought was, "This can't be a legitimate trial." I found a good link to a Forbes article that actually explains things. (Let me know if it works). http://www.forbes.com/sites/kavinsena...

    The whole article is good, but I found one quote here, from a man at the conference, that really summarizes the root of their hatred.

    "You are trying to poison us all, you know, in order to pursue maximizing your profits.”

    The author quickly dismembers that argument. I'm very much on Monsanto's side, not just as a biologist but as a person too.
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  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Agent orange is a Monsanto product. The troops in Vietnam were exposed to it. Many died as a result. It wasn't a case of better living through chemistry.
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  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I remember talking with someone who believes that the population should be no more than 2 billion people. I pointed out to him that the entire population of 7 billion could fit in Texas, with each PERSON having over 1000 square feet of space. The obvious conclusion to draw is that there aren't too many people, but some resource constraints that can be dealt with through technology. When he was unmoved by my argument, I was turned off, while I thought to myself, why he wasn't volunteering to be one of those who wanted to relieve the excess.
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  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Monsanto isn't exactly pure as the driven snow. One BIG example of their shenanigans is the GMO issue. On the one hand, they patent various organisms, claiming them as intellectual property. On the other, they're fighting labeling of their "intellectual property" by claiming that it's the same as all other organisms, yet they're suing farmers for patent infringement if their product contaminates the farmer's crops. Further, they're not doing a full series of tests to prove the safety of their products, even though the FDA has approved the tests that have been submitted; the only problem is that some independent tests have suggested that the time frame for the tests haven't been long enough, and there may be seriously bad outcomes down the road from consuming them. Monsanto's actions to date suggests that they know that their products are dangerous, and they're attempting to sweep that fact under the rug; in the years that they've been fighting the independent date, they could have run hundreds of tests lasting many times the time frame of the independent tests, and have proved that their products aren't unsafe. At that point, I'm sure that they would want to label their products as superior to what nature has done.

    However, if it's ever made a crime to "hurt" the ecology, then anyone can be jailed, even a farmer, and certainly miners, fishers, loggers, factory owners, etc.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I saw it as being in his self-interest, as though he was saying,
    "You can't get me;;; why are you trying?" . like thumbing
    your nose at the judge -- like "I do not recognize your
    jurisdiction over me." -- j
    .
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  • Posted by fosterj717 9 years, 4 months ago
    What is really funny is that it was the government (and league with the UN and the RAND corporation) that tacitly "encouraged" Monsanto (as well as others) to develop these GMOs in order to feed the "starving" millions of the world as far back as the 60's and 70's!

    Now they have become "populist" in their outlook and are "forgetting" their involvement in creating this genre of food stock! What's worse, there has been absolutely no evidence of harm to man, animal or the environment to date! Yet there go the "doomsayers" who wish to have the world go backwards as opposed to going forward to meet the many challenges ahead!
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  • Posted by jpellone 9 years, 4 months ago
    Whether innocent or guilty, the only thing we will see as consumers is higher prices!!!
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