Look Out Detroit; the WEF Is Comin’ to Transform the Motor City

(Gentrification raises all boats, no? ♫ The Wells Fargo Wagon’s Comin’ Down the Track ♫…)

‘World Economic Forum targets Detroit’, September 3, 2021, struggle la-lucha.org, David Sole (Creative Commons)

“The World Economic Forum (WEF) has announced plans to open a “Global Center for Urban Transformation” in Detroit in October 2021. The WEF is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) that describes itself as aiming to improve “the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.” It has been in existence since 1971 and is based in Switzerland.

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Russia Stole Crimea

Never mind that post-Euromaidan, in March of 2014, 97% of Crimean citizens voted to join the Russian Federation, turnout 83 and 89% turnout in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the local government of Sevastapol respectively.  Continue reading

A few Tweets from club de cordeliers to Consider

“A phalanx of billionaires are backing a new mining initiative in Greenland, in what they hope will boost access to minerals used to manufacture electric cars. It’s significant news in a country that has not always celebrated natural resource exploration. And it has some environmental scientists concerned.

The source of the billionaire money is an initiative founded by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, whose investors include Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Ma, Ray Dalio, and Michael Bloomberg. Gates founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 as a vehicle for combating climate change, and it has raised $2 billion to date, including a $1 billion funding round completed earlier this year. The organization has invested in dozens of startups in the sustainable energy space.” […]

“As The New York Times reported in May, consumers often greatly underestimate the environmental toll required to produce electric vehicles. One lithium mine in Nevada that the newspaper highlighted has drawn scrutiny because it will pollute some groundwater for up to three centuries, “while leaving behind a giant mound of waste.” […]

“As The New York Times reported in May, consumers often greatly underestimate the environmental toll required to produce electric vehicles. One lithium mine in Nevada that the newspaper highlighted has drawn scrutiny because it will pollute some groundwater for up to three centuries, “while leaving behind a giant mound of waste.”

Natural resource extraction has been hugely controversial in Greenland as well. Last spring, the nation of 56,000 people headed to the polls in part to weigh in on the future of an enormous mineral deposit. In the end, the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party carried the day, a boon for environmentalists. Authorities reportedly plan to ban uranium mining in the country, and have stopped issuing new licenses for offshore oil exploration.”

“In 2020, Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. His farmland grows onions, carrots and even the potatoes that are used to make McDonald’s french fries.

“It’s an asset with increasing value,” American Farmland Trust CEO John Piotti said. “It has great intrinsic value and beyond that, it is a limited resource.”

Wanna bet they’re Genetically Modified potatoes?  Related: ‘One Empire Over Seed: Control Over the World’s Seed Banks ‘, 11/01/2020, by Vandana Shiva, regeneration international (a compilation of sources)

“A great seed and biodiversity piracy is underway, not just by corporations — which through mergers are becoming fewer and larger— but also by super rich billionaires whose wealth and power open doors to their every whim. Leading the way is Microsoft mogul, Bill Gates.

“A great seed and biodiversity piracy is underway, not just by corporations — which through mergers are becoming fewer and larger— but also by super rich billionaires whose wealth and power open doors to their every whim. Leading the way is Microsoft mogul, Bill Gates.

When the Green Revolution was brought into India and Mexico, farmers’ seeds were “rounded-up” from their fields and locked in international institutions, to be used to breed green revolution varieties engineered to respond to chemical inputs.1 […]

“The Seed Freedom movement has been calling for the CGIAR gene banks to return these stolen farmers varieties back to the farmers. The lessons of the Green Revolution since the 1960’s have shown us that the chemical path of monocultures has undermined Earth’s capacity to support life and food production by destroying biodiversity, soil and water67 as well as contributing to climate change.8 It has dispossessed small farmers through debt for external inputs. And it has undermined food and nutritional security.9 The experience of the last half century has made clear that Seed Sovereignty, Food Sovereignty and Knowledge Sovereignty is the only viable future of food and farming.”

Besides taking control of the seeds of farmers in the CGIAR seed banks, Gates (along with the Rockefeller Foundation) is investing heavily in collecting seeds from across the world and storing them in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic archipelago – aka the Doomsday Vault – created to collect and hold a global collection of the world’s seeds. It is in association with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Crop Trust.10

It should come as no surprise that Gates is also funding Diversity Seek (DivSeek), a global project launched in 2015 to map the genetic data of the peasant diversity of seeds held in gene banks to then take patents on these seeds through genomic mapping.12 Seven million crop accessions are in public seed banks.

Biopiracy is carried out through the convergence of information technology and biotechnology where patents are taken on seeds through “mapping” their genomes and genome sequences.”

Pinned at the top, from Dec. 2020:

(cross-posted at caucus99percnt.com)

Nanci Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021): RIP

No doubt she’s flying away to heaven in some bluebonnet spring (h/t mr. wd):

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Woot! Socialist Solidarity via KawsachunNews

First, Evo, Arce, & Castillo:

The rest is at caucus99percent; Tweets are far different to embed and keep track of here than there.

Preliminary Assange Appeal Hearing Scheduled for August 11

Updated: the Judge’s Verdict at the caucus99percent version

From defend.wikileaks.org, August 6, 2021:

“The United States government has been given limited permission to appeal the District Court’s decision to block the extradition of Julian Assange from the UK to the U.S. Britain’s High Court ruled that the U.S. government could appeal on some but not all of their requested points. Now a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for August 11th, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London (photo above), to argue the scope of that appeal, and whether the U.S. government will be allowed to appeal on its other two proposed lines of argument. Assange is expected to attend in person.

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How Much Death and Destruction Will USians Take Before Rising Up?

♫A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song ’bout the home of the brave in this land here of the free
One time one night in America

A lady dressed in white with the man she loves
Standing along the side of their pick up truck
A shot rang out in the night
Just when everything seemed right
Another headline written down in America…♫

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Rest in Power Glen Ford: Nov.5, 1949 – July 28, 2021

His crossing has hit me hard, so please allow me just to offer three Tweets honoring him.  He was a giant among both journalists and human beings.

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a Tweet for your consideration; or: food for thought

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Will Visiting Extraterrestrials Be Friends or Foes?

UFOs aka: UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) have been in the news a lot lately.  Documented on-the-ground (or near-the-ground) presences would certainly change everything, beginning with the utter certainly that we are not alone, and that other beings’ technological knowledge vastly outpace any nation on earth’s. That epiphany in itself would likely cause mass panic and fear…for most people.

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Woot! Pedro Castillo Has Won the Peruvian Presidential Election

From sputnikews.com, July 19, 2021 (h/t Mr. wd)

‘Peru’s Election Jury Names Castillo Winner of Presidential Vote, Fujimori Calls Loss ‘Illegitimate’’

“On Monday evening, Peru’s National Jury of Elections (JNE) formally named Pedro Castillo, a socialist from the Peru Libre party, the winner of the June 6 election.

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Name Luke Harding’s Brand of ‘Journalism’

Just for the abject hilarity of it:

‘Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House; Exclusive: Documents suggest Russia launched secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US democracy’, Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh, Thu 15 Jul 2021

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

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The Wuhan Lab Leak Theory is Gaining Steam

File under: Small wonder.  For your consideration:

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Bill Gates’ ‘Green Revolution’ v. Agroecology in Africa & India

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Harsh Breaking News for Julian Assange

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US Withdrawal from Afghanistan, ‘the Graveyard of Empires’?

‘Biden announces US military withdrawal from Afghanistan’, Patrick Martin, 14 April 2021, wsws.org (w/ permission to republish)

“US President Joe Biden announced Wednesday afternoon that the remaining American troops in Afghanistan would begin pulling out on May 1 and that all of them would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

The choice of a final withdrawal date was intended to reinforce the longstanding lie by Washington that its invasion and occupation of Afghanistan were in response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. In reality, the attack on Afghanistan was in preparation well before that date, and the invasion was aimed at accomplishing long-term strategic aims for American imperialism.

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Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi elected President of Iran

E. Raisi votes in Tehran

‘Hardliner Raisi wins Iran’s presidential election’,  19 Jun, 2021, RT.com

“Conservative judge Ebrahim Raisi has been declared the victor of Iran’s presidential election.  Iran’s Interior Ministry announced the final results on Saturday, showing that Raisi had won in a landslide victory.
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Repurposed NATO isn’t just about Russia any longer: #EfficiencyMatters

‘NATO summit threatens China, at US instigation’, Andre Damon, June 14, 2021 (w/ permission; my bolds)

(US tanks are unloaded in Antwerp, Belgium to take part in the Atlantic Resolve military exercises. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

“Members of the 30-nation NATO alliance concluded their summit Monday with a communique targeting China, declaring that it poses “systemic challenges” to the military alliance.

The wording of the document marked a significant new stage in the efforts of the United States to, in the words of US President Biden, “organize the world to take on China,” as part of a massive escalation of tensions by Washington against Beijing.

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Will Marxist Peruvian Presidential Winner Pedro Castillo Finally Prevail?

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