Wednesday 31 October 2012

HALLOWEEN HORROR

Scary stuff, huh?!


NARCISSIM AS THE SPARK PLUG OF ARMAGEDDON


By Mark Glenn
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com
“Famous is thy beauty majesty, but behold, a lovely maid I see…Rags cannot hide her gentle grace…Alas, she is more fair than thee…” ~ The Magic Mirror in Walt Disney’s Snow White
We have to assume ~ given the incalculable suffering presently taking place ~ that had He (the Almighty) to do over again He would probably leave out all the “I will bless those who bless thee and curse those who curse thee” nonsense and get right down to business with the “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots“.

After all, He is considered a wise and merciful creator, is He not?

Not just wise and merciful, but the shrewdest of all investors as well, and what has His (supposed) aggrandizement of this tiny microbe of “chosen people” profited Him and His business interests?

Well, if we are to go by the “official records” ~ meaning the Bible ~ ever since these people pushed and elbowed their way into 1st place ahead of their contemporaries it has been nothing short of disastrous, both then and now.

War,
exploitation,
deception,
greed,
envy,
assassination,
genocide,
despoilment,
enslavement
~ all these and more
~ the same bitter fruits our forefathers dealt with yesterday
that we are dealing with today.
The only real difference between then and now is
that 4,000 years ago the Chosenites had neither nuclear weapons
 nor control of the world’s economy as they do today.

And yet, the lone individual responsible for bringing this venture about–both past and present-is supposed to be pleased with this?

Are we really to believe (as some think) He gets some kind of sick pleasure seeing his priceless merchandise ~ meaning the innocent men, women and children in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere ~ squandered and wasted (literally in the millions) and that He wants even more of it in places such as Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere?

That He fantasizes about seeing entire swaths of stable, productive civilizations being turned into caldrons of misery or that He shrieks with glee at the sight of maimed children ~ the same children He created with a mere thought ~ robbed of their legs, arms, faces, etc, by psychopaths who believe this is all part of the “Divine Plan”?

Well of course, there are plenty of nutcases these days who would say “yes” to the above questions and who maintain with the same kind of fervency as yesteryear’s flat-earthers that indeed the Big Guy sits up there, beer in one hand and a wad of popcorn in the other as He reclines and watches the light show down below.

After all, these nutcases say, He DID make that promise to His “Chosen“ people that He will “bless those who bless thee and curse those who curse thee“ and therefore, logically, He is more than ready, willing and able to bring about Armageddon and the consummation of the entire world for the benefit of this the tiniest of minorities.

That He sits up there with an itchy trigger finger, growling through clenched teeth “Go ahead punks, make my day…” and is just waiting for an excuse to run everything ~ vegetable, animal, mineral or what not ~ through the great divine paper shredder.

…and just so He can make good on His word to this same microscopic group of people who have been so much a welcome addition to mankind’s various civilizations that they have been kicked out of every decent country in the world throughout history shortly after their arrival.

Of course, the one question not asked in the 4,000 years since this concept of “chosenness“ (said to be the definitive bird’s-eye view into the mind of the Almighty) was first introduced is whether or not there is a shred of truth in any of it.

On its face, the idea certainly seems to defy all logic, that the creator responsible for all life and order in the universe would pick one guy ~ ONE GUY ~ stick a blue “First Prize” ribbon on him (as well as on his kith-n-kin) before the beauty contest even got underway, give everyone else in the competition the boot and declare that all future contests had been decided already by this one decision.

And yet this is how we are supposed to believe it all went down, and more so, that to this day, the creator of all things STILL favors them heads and shoulders above all else…That there is something organically and ontologically different about them ~ meaning the Jews ~ making them better and rendering the rest of us inferior, or, as Jewish writer Ariel Natan Pasko wrote in his article “This War Is For Us“:
“Simply put another way, if all the world is a stage, then the Jews-and especially those in the Land of Israel-are the lead actors on the stage of history, and the goyim (the gentiles) have supporting roles…As our tradition states, G-D ~ the great playwright ~ created the world for the sake of the Jewish People, and it is our responsibility to implement the Torah ~ absolute morality and the blueprint of creation ~ in it…”
It is so farcical, so non-sensical and irrational on its face that in this the modern age it should be rejected with all other notions rooted in madness and illogic such as the aforementioned flat-earth theory or the practice of drilling holes in the heads of the mentally ill so the demons afflicting them could escape.

And yet, unbeknownst to so many, it is not. Rather, it is swallowed whole hog by entire swaths of people, so much so that it is now THE dominant ideology driving world events today and yet which threatens to destroy all life on earth if its aims are not met.

For those who have not put 2 and 2 together in this matter, what we are of course discussing is the present “clash of civilizations” being waged Israel’s proxies in the “Christian” West against those in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Whether recognized as such or not, nevertheless it is a billion+ on one side vs. a billion+ on the other and all engineered by this covetous, envious third party in the interests of seeing the two succumb to the inevitable mutual assured destruction, leaving what is left on the carcass free for picking and pecking on the part of Jewish interests.

All fueled by a mindset 
that cannot tolerate fair competition,
because with fair competition
comes the possibility of defeat, 
which is unthinkable.

Of course some, carefully placed throughout the various podiums and soapboxes around the globe, will say it is more complicated than simple narcissism on the part of Jewish interests, that there are other factors with long, complicated names, pronunciations and definitions that the rest of us are too stupid to understand.

Themes such as “jihad” and “72 virgins” and “anti-Semitism” and “fatwa” and “Islamo-fascism” and a whole host of others that Merlin and his fellow magicians have conveniently conjured up and stored away in their little black bag of dirty tricks.
But in the end, in the final analysis where the rubber meets the road and where the bottom line speaks with the same authority as an auctioneer’s gavel on the podium, it is this indeed, this “love thyself above all others” that is the bedrock of the Jewish mindset and ~ more importantly ~ which acts as THE sparkplug for the impending Armageddon the entire world is facing.
In short, pathological narcissism that obliterates any sense of morality or conscience on the part of those afflicted and–much like the latter stages of rabies–renders the infected animal mad and, just as former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan once described the Jewish state–”too dangerous to bother.”

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” asks the wicked Queen in Snow White. She isn’t asking this because she is curious, but rather:
(1)
Because her identity is wrapped up in her unchallenged beauty and superiority. Rather than just accept she is a typical woman subject to fleeting beauty, meaning age, gray hair, wrinkles, weight gain, etc and that she must compete fair and square with her competitors on the great catwalk of life, instead she insists on being numero uno, FOREVER, and the possibility she might be bumped from 1st place as a result of another’s beauty is a nightmare too horrible to contemplate.

(2)
In the event the mirror drops the bomb and breaks her the bad news that indeed she has been replaced as Grand Champion she needs to know who the lucky lady is so she can be eliminated from the scene, thus replacing the balance of her own private universe and not unlike what took place years back between 2 Olympic figure skaters Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, where the one sent her boyfriend on a mission with a crowbar to break the other’s legs.
And so it is with Jewish thinking.

Much like the legend concerning Lucifer’s fall from heaven, where the celestial being saw himself as the most beautiful of all the angels (the realization of which destroyed him, leading him to declare he would not serve another) and thus took as many of his fellow angels to hell with him as possible, so too has this self-awareness on the part of those held prisoner by Jewish thinking done likewise.
For those who imagine themselves as the apple of God’s eye, the idea that such will not jibe with reality ~ and worse ~ that someone else, some other group of people, may surpass them in beauty, virtue and culture is terrorism in its purest sense, the only solution to which is war, despoilment, genocide, enslavement et al.
Which is why Iran MUST be destroyed,
and why Iraq, Palestine and other places
HAVE been destroyed.

This is the reason for this thing, this “Clash of Civilizations”, a ten-shekel word describing in effect a campaign of extermination against the same Islamic world that refuses to bow down and worship the bitch in front of the mirror and declare her to be the fairest of them all.

The obvious proof this entire business of one microscopic, seemingly insignificant group of people being sifted out of the rest of humanity and made into race of supermen of sorts by an entity no less in importance than the creator Himself did not spring forth from the mind of a wise, merciful and rational being but rather from the organically-criminal narcissism of those who stand to benefit from this “chosenness” is the fact it has failed everywhere it went.

From Egypt to Canaan in the Old Testament to Palestine and Iraq today, EVERYWHERE this idea has been implemented the results have been the same ~ devastation, war, misery, on and on for those who find themselves within its clutches.

Like a highly radioactive element
that destroys everything in its immediate vicinity,
the pathological narcissism
known as Judaism
has never blossomed into anything
of any benefit for mankind.

Rather, as we are witnessing today, it has been and continues to be like a single lit match dropped on the forest floor resulting in a wildfire devastating millions of acres, thousands of homes and everything else in its path, and it is this single factor ~ Jewish pathological narcissism ~ that has brought the world to the brink of extinction today.

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root…”as Henry David Thoreau once wrote…
And indeed, it is now our lot, as well as that of our children, to suffer the disastrous consequences of pruning this tree (in the form of all the ghettos, expulsions, pogroms and “persecutions“) rather than destroying it root and all by declaring this pathology of the spirit and mind to be what it is–an outlaw, criminal mentality.

Indeed, if there be a 2nd chance in the future, let us hope that wise men recognize this fact and finish what their forefathers were unable or unwilling to do, which is to toss the tree–root and all–into the great bonfire of history and to never weep over its demise.

Then, and only then, will peace on earth flourish, where the “fairest of them all” do not spend so much time in front of the mirror but instead choose to live in peace with their fellow men as equals.

GREEK WHISTLEBLOWER: BILLIONS IN SECRET OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNTS

 
Costas Vaxevanis, reluctant hero, facing privacy charges for revealing what could be the Greek Watergate with the publication of his Lagrde's List..
 
By Stephen Lendeman
October 31, 2012

Doing the right thing is risky. Greek magazine publisher Costas Vaxevanis faces charges of violating state privacy laws. Potentially he faces two years in prison.

Press freedom and whistleblowing should be inviolate. Not in today’s corrupt money controlled world. More on this below.

A previous article discussed a recent Tax Justice Network (TJN) USA report. It estimates up to $32 trillion of hidden and stolen wealth stashed largely tax-free secretly.

“The Price of Offshore Revisited reveals what super-rich elites want concealed. Governments let them avoid taxes. Societal costs are huge. Ill-gotten gains are free to make more of them.

Only ordinary people pay what they owe.

Many pay too much.

A vast offshore industry operates out of sight and mind. Only financial interests running it and wealthy tax avoiders know what’s going on.

The benefit of getting rich is being able to break societal rules to get richer. When ordinary people try they’re punished. When whisleblowers expose potential wrongdoing, prosecutors victimize them.

Under Obama, it’s truer than ever in America. Greece operates the same way. On October 29, Reuters headlined “Greek editor stands trial over Swiss accounts list, saying:

Hot Doc magazine editor Vaxevanis was arrested for publishing the “Lagarde List.” In 2010, French authorities gave it to Athens. At issue is investigating 2,059 wealthy Greeks with secret HSBC Swiss accounts.

Whether they’re guilty of criminal fraud or other financial crimes, remains to be seen. Many tax haven depositors have considerable amounts of questionable wealth.

Lagarde’s List includes business people, shipping magnates, politicians, physicians, lawyers, architects, scientists, journalists, housewives, a painter, an actress, and others. How they accumulated wealth and why it’s held secretly needs explaining.

Vaxevanis believes most on Lagarde’s List are suspect. Many may be tax cheats. They may also be involved in other illegal activities. He told supporters:
“I was doing my job in the name of the public interest. Journalism is revealing the truth when everyone else is trying to hide it.”

“Instead of arresting the tax evaders and the ministers who had the list in their hands, they are trying to arrest the truth and free journalism.”

“If anyone is accountable before the law it is those ministers who hid the list, lost it, and said it didn’t exist. I only did my job. I am a journalist and I did my job.”
He also said 15 officers Sunday surrounded the home of a friend where he was staying. They acted like German storm troopers in Greek uniforms.

Ahead of his apprehension he Twittered, “They’re entering my house with the prosecutor right now. They are arresting me. Spread the word.”

Hours later he was released to appear in magistrate court Monday.

The Ta Nea newspaper devoted 10 pages to the story. It believes secret accounts held about $2 billion dollars in 2007. It could be double or more that amount now.

At the same time, it said it wasn’t prejudging the list’s “content nor the connotations it evokes in a large part of the public.” No evidence so far implicates anyone in criminality.

Perhaps it’s because no investigations were undertaken. Influential people usually avoid them. It happens all the time. Vaxevanis said,

“Today, it’s not Hot Doc that’s on trial
but press freedom in Greece and truth.”

He added that an anonymous source supplied the list. Some observers said prosecutors targeted free expression in democracy’s birthplace.

The Greek chapter of Reporters Without Borders issued a statement about the speed of Vaxevanis’ arrest. He’s “not a dangerous criminal,” it said.
“The pressure created by the arrest of a reporter is clearly disproportionate. This procedure simply encourages an excessive cover-up, and the authorities appear to be imposing the ‘therapy’ of this sensitive issue, which is a gripping matter of public interest.”
Some of the names on his list include:
George and Fotis Bobolas
Lavrentis Lavrentiadis
The Marinopoulos Brothers
Families of shipping magnates Martinou and Patera
Most well-known jewellers
Dimitris Kopelouzos
usinessman Benroubi’s family
Journalist George Trangas
Caricaturist Katherine Shina
Pegasus publishing house manager Alexis Skanavis
Adviser to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras Stavros Papastavros
Athens area obstetrician Panagiotis Agraniotis in the prestigious
Thessaloniki dentist Vassilios Daniilidis
Athens Surgery Professor Ioannis Karaytianos
Athens surgeon Sotirios Stiloyanis
ENT doctor Ptolemeos Petridis
Gynacologist Giorgos Papadimitriou
Pediatrician Eli Mantsi
Sakoula publishing house founder Amalia Moutousi’s wife Yioanna Sakoula
Sculptor Alexandra Atanasiadi
Spiridon Doukas
Deceased former Kostas Karamanlis deputy minister Ioannis Boutos
Former newspaper editor Spiridonas Doukas
Following the list’s publication, prosecutors issued a search warrant for Vaxevanis’ premises. He claims he did nothing illegal. Personal data isn’t disclosed. Nor are monetary amounts.

He wants prosecutors to explain their “illegal actions.” An opposition political party SYRIZA statement accused the government of provocative and unacceptable persecution, saying:
“Unfortunately, justice hurried to set itself itself going against the one who reveals facts, and it tolerates those who conceal the facts.”
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras and at least one other Greek parliamentarian called for charges against Vaxevanis to be dropped. They ridiculed prosecutors for targeting him instead individuals on the list.
Tsipras added:
“It is unacceptable that in Greece, which has been on its knees in recent years, tax evaders are left undisturbed and those who conceal possible evasions are not prosecuted but those who make revelations are.”
The Independent Greeks party said:
“The vassals of the Three are scared to death ~ those who betrayed our national sovereignty, are now betraying our constitutional rights ~ victims of fear and court intimidation.”
Independent deputy Nikos Nikopoulos added:
“In Greece, the law applies to those who reveal lists of bank accounts. There are people among the names who have illegally obtained these accounts.”

“At the same time, however, those who are keeping ‘forgotten’ lists in their desks, and do not publicize them, are left undisturbed.”
President of the Athens union of newspaper editors, Dimitris Trimis, called what happened “absolutely hypocritical.”
“Because justice and politicians have allegedly been looking for these publicly disclosed data, but are mutually accusing one another that they cannot find them. Publicity and transparency are the soul of Democracy and Justice.”
Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou said he gave about 20 names to financial crimes unit head Ioannis Diotis. He asked him to investigate possible wrongdoing.

Diotis gave them to Evangelos Venizelos, Papaconstantinou’s successor. He said Venizelos hadn’t told him to investigate ~ case closed. Isn’t that how things always work?

In America, London, and other financial capitals, it’s standard practice.

Papaconstantinou added that authorities didn’t act because they’re covering for elite tax cheats.
“My interpretation is they probably got scared. They looked at the names on the list and saw it was full of important people from business and publishing and decided not to go ahead without clear political instructions and cover.”
He added that what’s now known represents only a small part of a massive tax evasion problem. He called the Greek system “broken and corrupt.”

Author and social commentator Petros Markaris said:
“This really is a mess, and it has become a mess because the politicians have handled it so badly. This was not incompetence but because they did not want to make public what could harm them.”
The origin of the scandal began in a January 2009 raid. The French home of former HSBC Geneva branch IT consultant, Herve Falciani, was targeted.

Swiss authorities accused him of selling stolen data on the bank’s clients. French police found computer files on 130,000 potential tax evaders. Swiss authorities were furious about initiated investigations. About 15,000 HSBC clients are involved.

So far, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras withheld comment. He’s got plenty of other crosses to bear. Add one more to his list.

A FINAL COMMENT

On October 30, Vaxevanis addressed Athens magistrate court, saying:

“There is an effort being made to convict me of a ‘crime.” The prosecutors say that I have published personal data while Mr. Venizelos, the former Finance Minister, ‘lost’ the list down the toilet of his home.”

“Over the last two years, there is a public effort through the appearance of legality to cover a very big scandal. The people who are handling and manipulating this issue and the public prosecutor have got to realize that from a legal point of view, there was no violation of personal data at all.”
“A few months ago in Greece, the public prosecutor made public the personal information of people with AIDS! Why? They said it was because they wanted to protect the public interest. In order to protect the public interests, I did my job. The people on the list need to be investigated.”

“I am speaking to the public prosecutor when I say that he has the obligation to show the same sensitivity to my case. I don’t know why the public prosecutor behaves in this manner, but they must adhere to rule of law and treat all cases equally.”

“Today, several international newspapers have published the Lagarde list and there has been no outcry or repercussions. A journalist’s job is to tell the truth, especially when others are hiding the truth. Anything less is just public relations and propaganda.”
His trial is scheduled for early June.

IS HILLARY SEEKING A GRACEFUL EXIT?

GRACEFUL? HILLARY? Oxymoron paradise there! That war mongering Zionist-owned criminal creature of disreputable personality is looking to the NEXT round of Presidential elections. She has been being groomed for decades.
 
By Boris Volkhonsky
October 31, 2012

[I]nstead of ending the two wars, Obama and his foreign policy and security team have bogged down in one of them for an unspecified time, and would have done the same in Iraq as well had they not irritated the host country to the extent its leaders could not stand it any longer.

In addition, Obama enthusiastically participated in the aggression his European NATO allies launched against Libya, making Hillary Clinton cry in joy at hearing the news of Muammar Gaddafi’s murder.

On Friday, the Washington Post published an interview with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, outlining her plans for the time after Barack Obama’s next inauguration (assuming that he wins the November 6 election). According to the Post, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has told President Barack Hussein Obama that she will stay in office until her successor is confirmed, but said in an interview that “this is not an open-ended kind of time frame.”

“I’m aiming to leave shortly after the inauguration; that’s my plan. But I haven’t been able to sit down and talk to the president yet because he’s trying to win an election…And then we will talk through how to do the transition,” said Ms. Hillary.

It looks like the full stop has been put in an issue which has been discussed for years – ever since Ms. Hillary (before that Barack Obama’s competitor in the race for democratic nomination) accepted his offer to join his team as the Secretary of State. Some analysts, though, back in 2009 pointed out that the offer in fact worked the other way round ~ it was an offer made to Barack Obama which he was unable to turn down.
In any case, foreign policy has been one of the floppiest endeavors of the current administration even against the background of other domestic challenges. Back in 2008, during the election campaign, there were two main promises Obama made ~ that is to end the war in Iraq and to end the war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq was ended with about 40,000 US “instructors” remaining there until the Iraqi government kicked them out.

The war in Afghanistan, despite the highly publicized plans of troop withdrawal by the end of 2014, is far from over. It still remains unclear whether the US troops will remain in Afghan thereafter. Or, rather it is clear that they will, but doubts remain as to their number and exact mission.

So, instead of ending the two wars, Obama and his foreign policy and security team have bogged down in one of them for an unspecified time, and would have done the same in Iraq as well had they not irritated the host country to the extent its leaders could not stand it any longer.

In addition, Obama enthusiastically participated in the aggression his European NATO allies launched against Libya, making Hillary Clinton cry in joy at hearing the news of Muammar Gaddafi’s murder.

One may add to that the whole business of rattling the saber in regard to Syria and Iran, which is done by President Obama, his State Secretary and the rest of foreign policy and security team.

Then why is Ms. Hillary announcing her retirement after the inauguration?

The answer is simple. In cases of a successful presidency, it is always useful to be a member of the president’s team by the end of his second term. It usually gives a boost similar to the one experienced by incumbents who have a natural advantage of up to 20 percent against newcomers.

Ms. Hillary definitely has not abandoned her hopes ruined by Barack Obama in 2008. Formally, a third presidential term is not something which the US constitution encourages. But the nominal president in 1993 – 2001 was not Hillary Rodham, it was the sax player, womanizer and nice guy (ED Noor: NICE guy?!?!!! Oh, dear, I think NOT!) Bill Clinton. 

So, legally speaking, nothing prevents Hillary from at least trying once again to return to the White House.
But then again, Barack Obama’s presidency is far from successful. His reelection on November 6 which looks imminent should not misguide anyone – in any case it won’t be Obama who wins, it will be his contender who loses.

But if in 2016 the GOP comes up with a more attractive candidate, being on the acting president’s team, instead of an advantage will become an obvious obstacle. Ms. Hillary is wise enough to realize that, and hence her decision to quit Obama’s team before it is too late.

Boris Volkhonsky, senior research fellow, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies

GERMANY ENFORCES SAME AUSTERITY THAT PAVED WAY TO 3RD REICH

 
October 31, 2012

One in four people are now officially out of work in Spain as unemployment in the debt-ridden country reaches another record. The grim news comes as Madrid's transport workers go on strike, adding to a sixth day of protests in the capital against austerity cuts.

That's as another epicentre of the EU crisis - Greece - looks likely to miss its promised deficit deadline. The forecast from the International Monetary Fund's debt inspectors comes a year after EU leaders applauded what they considered a key deal to save Athens.

Author and publicist F. William Engdahl, says all the measures the EU leaders are imposing are failing to address the core problems on the continent.

“Those banks remain the source of the problem. There is no landing going on to the real economy, and that`s the root cause of the 25 per cent unemployment in Spain and Greece and elsewhere across the EU,” he stated.
 *

GMO FOODS: SCIENCE, PR, AND PUBLIC BACKLASH


CALIFORNIANS! 

The nations look to you. 
Even if you cannot vote 
for one of the pathetic creatures running for office, 
PLEASE get out and vote YES on Proposition 37!





By James Corbett
GRTV.ca
29 October, 2012

Genetically modified food crops have long been sold to the public as the answer to humanity’s 21st century food supply problems. For decades now, the public has been told that they are safe for human consumption, that they will improve crop yields, that they will require less pesticides and that they will be the safest, most effective way to feed the world’s population as we head into times of severe instability in the global food supply.

Although scientific research has long exposed these claims as biotech propaganda, a new batch of studies in recent months have garnered attention for upending every one of these claims about GMO technology.

Last month, a new study published in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology found that rats fed Monsanto’s patented NK603 gmo corn were more likely to develop tumours and suffer severe liver and kidney damage.

The study followed 200 rats over two years, divided into 10 groups of 10 males and 10 females. Three groups were fed the NK603 corn alone, three groups were fed the corn treated with Roundup herbicide, three groups were not fed the corn but their water was treated with Roundup, and a control group was fed non-GM corn and plain drinking water.

The researchers found that the rats that consumed the GM corn or the Roundup, separately or combined were prone to serious health problems that typically did not manifest until the fourth month of the trial. Industry-sponsored rat feeding tests only span three months.

This is in addition to numerous studies in recent years showing that, contrary to the claims of the GM food supporters, GM crops neither produce larger yields nor reduce the amount of pesticides necessary for the cultivation of crops. A 2009 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that genetically engineered crops produced no significant yield increases, and what increases in yield were detected were almost exclusively due to traditional breeding and improvement in agricultural practices.

This was affirmed in a report to the UN Human Rights Council last year showing that the scientific literature demonstrates that the greatest potential for increased yield in the future comes not from gmo foods, but from organic agro-ecological practices that are capable of doubling yields within entire regions in under 10 years.

A 2011 study coordinated by the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture showed that GMO crops were promoting the creation of “superweeds,” contributing to food insecurity, and required vastly higher concentrations of pesticides to be sprayed.

As convincing as the results of this latest research is, it only adds to an already voluminous body of research in the scientific literature that has already undermined claims of GMO’s safety and efficacy. Earlier this week I had the chance to talk to independent journalist and researcher Anthony Gucciardi of NaturalSociety.com about these studies, and the detrimental health effects that have been tied to the consumption of genetically modified crops.

The reason that this scientific refutation of the safety and efficacy of GMO technology has not reached the general public is hardly mysterious. The biotech giants whose very reason for existence is the promotion of the GMO myth have fought a long and protracted campaign to smear, undermine and cover up studies pointing out the disastrous consequences of the use of this technology.

This process has been underway for years and, unsurprisingly, the GMO PR machine is once again revving into action to attempt to counteract the damage to the reputation of genetic engineering technology that this recent research has caused.

Immediately upon the release of the latest rat feeding study, a coordinated effort to undermine the study and its researchers began. Critics pointed to perceived flaws in the collection, reporting and analysis of the study’s findings. One of the key voices driving the campaign against the study was the Science Media Centre, a supposedly neutral party that connects journalists to scientists when important scientific discoveries are in the headlines.

The Science Media Centre itself, however, is funded by bodies like CropLife International, a biotech trade association working to promote the interests of biotech companies around the world, and Syngenta, one of the key biotech seed giants. It has also received funding directly from Monsanto UK.

In the wake of the publication of the new study, the popular GMO information website GMWatch.org was targeted with an aggressive cyber attack that succeeded in almost crippling the website. The site operators had to direct traffic from their main page to their Twitter account at the height of the attack, which they noted was not the first time that outside forces had attempted to take them offline. GMWatch is not funded by the biotech industry and regularly publishes news, information and studies demonstrating the health risks of GM foods.

The latest round of attacks and misinformation brings to mind for many the case of Arpad Puzstai, a renowned British researcher who was immediately fired from his position at a prestigious Scottish research institute after announcing in 1998 the disturbing findings of severe health effects on rats subjected to feeding tests of a new genetically modified potato variety.

Still, despite the best efforts of the biotech giants and their financially connected apologists, public skepticism over the benefits of genetically modified foods is reaching new highs, even as public awareness that GMO crops already account for a large percentage of the North American food supply is also hitting record levels. This awareness and understanding is slowly being transformed into action, as grassroots movements are prompting country after country to set up new barricades against the introduction and spread of these GMO foods.

In 2010, Germany announced a ban on the cultivation of Monsanto’s MON 810 genetically modified corn. In January of this year, BASF, the last firm still developing genetically modified crops in Germany, was forced to stop working on GM crops because of widespread public backlash.

In 2011, Peru passed a law banning genetically modified ingredients for ten years to prevent, in the words of the Peruvian Agrarian Commission President, the “danger that can arise from the use of biotechnology.”

Also in 2011, Hungarian authorities destroyed 1000 acres of corn which were found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, which are banned under Hungarian law.

In the wake of the French rat feeding study, Russia immediately suspended the importation and use of Monsanto’s GMO corn.

In India, the Supreme Court has just called for the Indian government to follow suit with a 10 year ban on all GMO crop field trials for the next 10 years.

ED Noor: After the earthquake in Haitian farmers refused and burned the GMO material donated to them by various organizations rather than get caught in the GMO trap.

In the United States, meanwhile, the fight for a proper, standardized labeling system for foods containing GMO ingredients is heating up. In California, citizens are preparing to vote on a ballot measure, known as Prop 37, which will require clear labeling for genetically modified products.

As promising and hopeful as it is that people are moving to ban GMO foods from their country, and as helpful as movements like the Prop 37 GMO labeling movement are in raising awareness of the issues, such activism runs the risk that the public will be placated into thinking that the legislative process can be relied on to keep this genome-altering technology in check. This thinking is ultimately utopian, seemingly ignoring the existence of the long-acknowledged revolving door between the biotech corporations and the institutions like the FDA which are supposedly there to monitor and regulate them.

In the case of Prop 37, draft proposals of the text show lengthy lists of exemptions that would allow animals that have been reared on GMO feed, or foods that contain as many as 10 GMO ingredients, being labeled as “non-GMO” foods. It is scarcely believable that any attempt to check the spread and use of these GMO foods by purely legislative means will survive the legislative process in a state that would render it ultimately effective.

Much more important, as always, is what individuals can do for themselves to insure that they do not purchase, support or consume GMO products. Although the process of sorting through the ingredients and production processes of various foods can be a bewildering experience, grassroots movements are now taking advantage of the crowd sourcing and networking powers of the internet to do an end-run around the government regulatory process altogether to create usable, practical lists of truly non-GMO foods that can be cross-referenced by anyone with access to the internet.

Websites like that of the Non-GMO Project at NonGMOProject.org are helping concerned citizens to take matters into their own hands to empower them to avoid GMO products altogether and to stop supporting the corporations that are producing these foods with our own funds.

In the end, perhaps this is where the fight against GMO technology will ultimately be won: not in the halls of congress or parliament, but on the dinner plates of an informed citizenry who have taken matters into their own hands and refuse to eat these GMO products.