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Biodiversity, GMOs, Gene Drives and the Militarized Mind |
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Monday, 11 July 2016 08:21 |
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Shiva writes: "Developing tools of extermination in the garb of saving the world is a crime. A crime that must not be allowed to continue any further."
'Amaranth, Amaranto, Love-lies-bleeding, Tassel Flower, Joseph's coat, or ramdana (gods own grain) is the grain of well-being, Shiva writes. (photo: Elizabeth Weller/flickr)
Biodiversity, GMOs, Gene Drives and the Militarized Mind
By Vandana Shiva, Common Dreams
11 July 16
 recent report from the National Academy of Science of The United States, titled "Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values," warns:
“One possible goal of release of a gene-drive modified organism is to cause the extinction of the target species or a drastic reduction in its abundance.”
Gene Drives have been called "mutagenic chain reactions," and are to the biological world what chain reactions are to the nuclear world. The Guardian describes Gene Drives as the "gene bomb."
Kevin Esvelt of MIT exclaims "a release anywhere is likely to be a release everywhere," and asks "Do you really have the right to run an experiment where if you screw up, it affects the whole world." The NAS report cites the case of wiping out amaranth as an example of "potential benefit." Yet, the "magical technology" of Gene Drives remains a Ghost, or the Department of Defense of the United States Government's secret "weapon" to continue its War on Amaranthus Culturis.
The aforementioned study on ghost-tech was sponsored by DARPA (The Pentagon's Research Ghost) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (The ghost of the Microsoft Monopoly). DARPA has been busy. Interestingly, Microsoft BASIC was developed on a DARPA Supercomputer across the street from MIT, at Harvard. Where does DARPA end and MIT start? Where does Microsoft end and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation start. The orientation of our technologies has been dictated by the DARPA-Mind, a Mechanical Mind trained in War, and Gates continues to colonize meaning, just as gates had done to our lands, and the Green Revolution has done to our food.
Our planet has evolved, in balance, creating balance, for 4.6 billion years. Homo sapiens emerged around 200,000 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, Peasants developed the selection and breeding of seeds and domesticated agriculture began. Human creativity combined with nature to provide the abundance that allowed the evolution of societies and species. Humanity and Nature renewed each other, sustaining civilisation and providing the potential for the Industrial Revolution.
75 years ago DARPA-Mind began its Extermination Experiment, and sent humanity off-axis. The Chemicals, Materials, and Technologies acquired during "The War", and patented (interestingly, the Internal Combustion Engine Patent belongs to Texaco), were forced on Amaranthus Culturis - The Cultures of Living Cycles. DARPA-Mind called it "The Green Revolution", colonised the meanings of those two words, and began Stockpiling Chemicals of War in Our Fields; there is nothing "green" or "revolutionary" about Extermination, it must be a secret service code name for the assault that now has the names "Gene Drives", "CRISPR", or more accurately, Genetic Engineering.
“CASE STUDY 6: CONTROLLING PALMER AMARANTH TO INCREASE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTIVITY Objective Create gene drives in Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri also called pigweed), to reduce or eliminate the weed on agricultural fields in the Southern United States. Rationale Palmer amaranth infests agricultural fields throughout the American South. It has evolved resistance to the herbicide glyphosate, the world’s most used herbicide (Powles, 2008), and this resistance has becomegeographically widespread.”
Palmer Amaranth has emerged as one of the superweeds. Instead of seeing the emergence of Palmer Amaranth as a superweed, as a result of the failure of the misguided approach of Herbicide Resistant GMOs, Monsanto & Co - which includes investors, scientists, corporations, DARPA, and Gates, are now rushing to drive the Amaranth species to extinction through the deployment of an untested Tool. The tool of gene editing and gene drives - genetic "Copy-Paste". Untested DARPAMind Tools have real impacts on our world. Intelligence requires that we stop, and assess why the tool of GMOs is creating superweeds, instead of controlling weeds, as it promised. Such assessment is real Science.
The DARPA-Mind report casually states potential harm:
“Gene drives developed for agricultural purposes could also have adverse effects on human well- being. Transfer of a suppression drive to a non-target wild species could have both adverse environmental outcomes and harmful effects on vegetable crops, for example. Palmer amaranth in Case Study 6 is a damaging weed in the United States, but related Amaranthus species are cultivated for food in in Mexico, South America, India, and China.”
A scientific assessment would tell us that plants evolve resistance to herbicides which are suppposed to kill them because they have intelligence, and they evolve. Denial of intelligence in life, and denial of evolution is unscientific. 107 Nobel Laureates - including two that have long passed on - "signed" a letter in support Genetic Engineering a few days ago. Clearly 'Science' did not prompt that "communication". Amaranth's root, the word amara—meaning 'eternal' and 'deathless' in both Greek and Sanskrit—connects two formidable Houses of the Ancient World. From the high slopes of the Himalayas, through the plains of north, central and south India, to the coastlines of the east, west and the south, Amaranth is a web of life in itself. Numerous varieties are found throughout the country. In fact, the Himalayan region is one of the ‘centres of diversity’ for the Amaranth.
Amaranth, Amaranto, love-lies-bleeding, tassel flower, Joseph's coat, or ramdana (gods own grain) is the grain of well-being. It is rich in names, nutrition, history and meaning. There are records of Amaranth cultivation in South and Meso America as far back as 5,000 B.C. The sacred Amaranth criss-crosses the Ancient World, nourishing cultures from the Andes to the Himalayas. Amaranth is a sacred grain for the Indian Civilisation as much as it is for the Aztec Civilisation, civilisations in the shadow of time, yet very much alive. To force cultivation of cash crops that could be traded more easily, the cultivation of Amaranth was forbidden, and punishable by death. The "pagan" grain that built civilisations was outlawed, to pave the way for Cash Crops for traders.
amaranto.com reports:
"Amaranth was also used as a ceremonial plant in the Aztec empire. In several days the religious calendar, Aztec or Inca women grind or roasted amaranth seed, mixing it with honey or human blood, giving it the shape of birds snakes, deer, or mountains and Gods, ate them with respect and devotion as Food of the Gods."
The leaves of the amaranth contain more iron than spinach, and have a much more delicate taste. If Popeye—“the sailor man”—had Amaranth on his "ship", he wouldn't have needed canned food to fight off his nemesis—“the bearded captain". Besides rice bran, the grain of the amaranth has the highest content of iron amongst cereals. 1 kilogram of Amaranth flour, added to 1 kilogram of refined wheat flour, increases its iron content from 25 milligrams to 245milligrams. Adding amaranth flour to wheat/rice flour is a cheaper and healthier way to prevent nutritional anaemia; rather than buying expensive tablets, tonics, health drinks, branded and bio fortified flour, or canned spinach from the ship.
The Amaranth is extremely rich in complex carbohydrates and in proteins. It has 12-18% more protein than other cereals, particularly lysine—a critical amino acid. It also differs from other cereals in that 65% is found in the germ and 35% in the endosperm, as compared to an average of 15% in the germ and 85% in the endosperm for other cereals. When Amaranth flour is mixed 30:70 with either rice flour or wheat flour, the protein quality rises, from 72 to 90, and 32 to 52, respectively. The Amaranth grain is about the richest source of calcium, other than milk. It has 390 grams of calcium compared to 10 grams in rice, and 23 grams in refined flour.
The diversity of Amaranth Greens are incredible, edibles that grow uncultivated in our fields. They are a major source of nutrition. Per 100 grams, Amaranth greens can give us 5.9 grams of protein, 530 milligrams of calcium, 83 milligrams of phosphorous, 38.5 milligrams of iron,14,190 micrograms of carotene, 179 micrograms of Vitamin-C,122 milligrams of Magnesium, 0.18 Zinc, 230 Sodium, 241 Potassium. Amaranth is nearly 500% richer in Carotene than GMO Golden Rice - which is being promoted as a future miracle for addressing Vitamin A deficiency. Golden Rice has failed to materialise for 2 decades.
The poorest, landless woman and her children have access to nutrition through the generous gift of the Amaranth.
Industrial agriculture—promoted by United States Foreign Policy—treated amaranth greens as “weeds”, and tried to exterminate with herbicides. Then came Monsanto, with Round Up Ready crops, genetically engineered to resist the spraying of Round Up so that the GMO crop would survive the otherwise lethal chemical, while everything else that was green perished. As was stated by a Monsanto spokesman during the negotiations of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), Herbicide resistant GMOs “prevent the weeds from stealing the sunshine”.
This DARPA-Mind world view is distorted.
Firstly, what are weeds to Monsanto are food and nutrition for women of the South. Secondly, the sun shines with abundance for all. Sharing the sun's blessing is a right of all species. In Amaranthus Culturis—the world of biodiversity and the sun, scarcity is alien, there is merely abundance. Sharing abundance creates abundance. It is not stealing. Stealing is a concept created by Monsanto & Co. When farmers save and share seeds, Monsanto would like to define it as “stealing”. When the sun shines on the earth and plants grow, Monsanto would like to define it as a plants “stealing” the sunshine, while Monsanto Co. privateers our biodiversity.
This is exactly how seed famine and food famine are engineered through a world view which transforms the richness of diversity into monocultures, abundance into scarcity. The paradigm of Genetic Engineering is based on Genetic Determinism and Genetic Reductionism. It is based on a denial of the self organized, evolutionary potential of living organisms. It treats living organisms as a lego set. But life is not lego, meccano, or stratego. It is life—complex, self organized, dynamic evolution—auto poetic.
The right to food and nutrition of the people outside the US, and the right of the amaranth to continue to grow and evolve and and nourish people, can be extinguished by powerful men in the US because they messed up their agriculture with Round Up Ready crops, and now want to mess up the planet, its biodiversity, and food and agriculture systems of the world with the tool of gene drives to push species to extinction.
As in the case of GMOs, the rush for Gene Drives, and CRISPR-based Gene Editing are linked to patents. Bill Gates is financing the research that is leading to patents. And he with other billionaires has invested $130 million in a company EDITAS to promote these technologies. Bayer, the new face on Monsanto & Co, has invested $35 million in the new GMO Technologies, and committed $300 million over the next 5 years.
"Biofortification" has been given the world food prize of 2016, yet biofortification is inferior to the nutrition provided by biodiversity and indigenous knowledge.The same forces promoting biofortification are also promoting the extermination of nutritious crops like amaranth, as well as rich indigenous cultures of food.
The project of deliberately exterminating species is a crime against nature and humanity. It was a crime when Bayer and others, of IG Farben, exterminated Jews in concentration camps, and is a crime still. The very idea of extermination is a crime. Developing tools of extermination in the garb of saving the world is a crime. A crime that must not be allowed to continue any further.
We are members of an Earth Family. Every species, every race is a member of one Earth Community. We cannot allow some members of our Earth Family to allocate to themselves the power and hubris to decide who will live, and who will be exterminated.
The DARPA-Mind is obsolete.
A scientific assessment of the failure of herbicides and GMOs to control weeds, and the success of ecological agriculture in controlling pests and weeds without the use of violent tools will lead us to a paradigm-shift from industrial farming to ecological agriculture—to cultures of eternity.
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I Blame the Police |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=63"><span class="small">Marc Ash, Reader Supported News</span></a>
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Sunday, 10 July 2016 12:48 |
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Ash writes: "I want to be very clear: what happened in Dallas this week was not merely a despicable act, or an attack on democracy as some have categorized it. It was a direct consequence of an unprecedented campaign of lethal force applied by law enforcement agencies across the country."
'The Counted' (image: Guardian UK)
I Blame the Police
By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
10 July 16
 want to be very clear: what happened in Dallas this week was not merely a despicable act, or an attack on democracy as some have categorized it. It was a direct consequence of an unprecedented campaign of lethal force applied by law enforcement agencies across the country.
U.S. cops kill. They kill at a rate unparalleled anywhere else in the world. The killing exceeds that of any domestic nationwide police contingent in history, during peacetime. These are not Praetorian-style security forces, shadowy death squads, or uniformed police acting at the behest of drug lords, they are fully sanctioned, state-sponsored civilian police forces functioning in a supposedly democratic state.
The numbers are staggering. Private media accounts, because private media accounts are the only ones available to the public, put the number of people killed by U.S. police so far this year at 571 (as of this writing). This simply does not happen anywhere else in the world and never has.
Micah Johnson, the man who attacked police with an assault rifle at an anti-police violence rally in Dallas, was the 566th. Five more people have been killed by U.S. police since the events in Dallas. This according to The Guardian’s ongoing landmark investigation, The Counted: People killed by police in the US.
Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address today that eulogized in heroic tones the police officers killed and wounded in Dallas. His rationale, while heart-rending, leads toward, not away from, the violence he urged Americans to reject.
Biden said in part, “Being a cop wasn’t just what they did. It was who they were – like every officer who joined for essentially the same reason. There was something about them that made them think they could help, that they should serve, that they had a duty.” While those are stirring words, they obfuscate the truth.
The truth is that U.S. police are trained to kill. Not just maim, wound, or subdue – kill. The problem is systemic, from the highest echelons of government right down to the patrol officer on the street. “Kill when you need to kill. We’ve got your back.”
There are a number of initiatives in the U.S. to promote training that would teach police officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations. The instruction is referred to as “de-escalation training.” It is a good idea that will fail. As long as police officers are confident that they can kill with impunity, they will continue to kill. Make no mistake about it: today in America, police kill with impunity.
Not until police officers are consistently held accountable by the justice system will the appalling number of killings decline.
If you grieve for the slain Dallas Police officers, that is perfectly reasonable. They were murdered and taken from their families horrifically. They were human beings, and deserved human dignity in life and even more so now in death. However if you cannot find the courage to extend that respect to the people killed unnecessarily by police, then you are procreating the conditions that led to Dallas.
In reviewing the limited data in The Guardian’s synopses of the individual killings, it’s important to read between the lines, trying to understand why U.S. police are the only police in the world who have to resort to killing so often. The key question in each case is, “Was this the only way?” The answer in the vast majority of cases is no, another way could have been found. Even if it meant temporarily backing off. Something U.S. police are rarely trained to do. It’s the training that leads to the killing.
The U.S Department of Justice can and must take a leading role, and they must prosecute. Failure to do so will ensure that the cycle of violence continues. Once the police are reminded in no uncertain terms that the taking of human life is not insignificant, then and only then will they apply their intellect and find other ways of addressing these situations.
Further, it is absolutely imperative that we not continue to issue blanket free passes to “our boys (and women) in blue.” By demanding accountability on the part of armed law enforcement officers, we lead them toward job conditions that are more humane for them and for the public that they serve.
Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Roger Ailes Opts for Secrecy, Cowardice in Face of Gretchen Carlson Suit |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=33520"><span class="small">Erik Wemple, The Washington Post</span></a>
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Sunday, 10 July 2016 12:39 |
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Wemple writes: "An outside observer might just have concluded that Ailes was girding for a showdown in which his side of the story could get a full hearing. A fair fight within the confines of the civil justice system. Nope, wrong impression: Ailes wants this thing to recede into the shadows, where the particulars of his dispute with Carlson won't reach the media. This, from one of the titans of American media."
Gretchen Carlson. (photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Roger Ailes Opts for Secrecy, Cowardice in Face of Gretchen Carlson Suit
By Erik Wemple, The Washington Post
10 July 16
fter Gretchen Carlson filed her stunning sexual harassment/retaliation lawsuit against Fox News chief Roger Ailes, the cable-news giant responded, in part, by affirming that the complaint was “wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously.” An outside observer might just have concluded that Ailes was girding for a showdown in which his side of the story could get a full hearing. A fair fight within the confines of the civil justice system.
Nope, wrong impression: Ailes wants this thing to recede into the shadows, where the particulars of his dispute with Carlson won’t reach the media. This, from one of the titans of American media.
A filing Friday by attorneys David W. Garland and Barry Asen in a New Jersey federal court signaled Ailes’s intent to pluck the case out of the court system and into an arbitration proceeding, pursuant to Carlson’s now-expired contract with Fox News, from which she was terminated on June 23. She served as an afternoon news host after spending eight years as a co-host of the inimitably awful morning show “Fox & Friends.” The filing cites the following arbitration clause in Carlson’s contract:
Any controversy, claim or dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement or Performer’s [Plaintiff’s] employment shall be brought before a mutually selected three-member arbitration panel and held in New York City in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association [“AAA”] then in effect. … Such arbitration, all filings, evidence and testimony connected with the arbitration, and all relevant allegations and events leading up to the arbitration, shall be held in strict confidence.
Now why would Ailes be looking to pull off such a maneuver? Well, the filing itself provides a hint or two. Indulge in the following language: “Plaintiff improperly filed her public Complaint with the Superior Court, as opposed to filing it with the AAA and adhering to her contractually-required confidentiality obligation, so that her counsel could tar Mr. Ailes’s reputation publicly, try this case in the media press, and coerce him to settle. Plaintiff’s counsel has been on a non-stop tour of major media outlets ever since, making one false and defamatory statement after another,” reads the filing, in part.
Oh, Roger Ailes! Where to even start? You are a towering public figure, a big shot in broadcasting, in politics, in New York, everywhere — and you run a network that has specialized in dragging the political opponents of Fox News through the dirt every day via innuendo, grave-sounding anchor voices and occasional falsehoods — especially on Carlson’s miserable former haunt “Fox & Friends.” The Erik Wemple Blog thanks you for this frenzy of self-unawareness; we promise to reference it many, many times in the future.
Back to the merits. From the start, Carlson’s complaint contained one peculiarity, aside from all the allegations that Ailes had propositioned her, had asked her to turn around so he could observer her “posterior,” had instructed her to “get along with the boys” who were allegedly harassing her and had retaliated against her after complaints. That one peculiarity is that the suit was lodged solely against Ailes and did not go after Fox News Channel. The filing by Ailes’s attorneys, with the firm Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., tilts at this ploy:
In a transparent attempt to evade the Agreement and her contractual commitment to arbitrate, Plaintiff named only Mr. Ailes as a defendant in this action, rather than naming Fox News as a defendant as well. At the same time, however, she could not avoid identifying Mr. Ailes by his corporate title, “the Chairman and CEO of Fox News.” (Asen Cet. Ex. B. at ¶ 3) Such gamesmanship does not permit Plaintiff to file in the Superior Court and publicly engage in a “tar and feather” campaign against Mr. Ailes.
Again, Ailes appears so hurt by negative attention in the media. Does he know not what he does?
All this legal-eagling set off a war of statements Friday night between the two sides. Nancy Erika Smith and Martin Hyman, who are representing Carlson, said, “Roger Ailes is trying to force this case into a secret arbitration proceeding. Gretchen never agreed to arbitrate anything with Mr. Ailes and the contract on which he relies does not mention him and is not signed by him. Gretchen intends to fight for her right to a public jury trial, a right protected by the discrimination laws and our Constitution. It is disturbing that the head of a large media company would try to silence the press and hide from the public a matter of such importance.”
And Ailes’s attorney Asen said, “Gretchen Carlson had an arbitration clause in her contract, stating that any employment dispute regarding her employment at Fox News must be done via confidential arbitration. Because Ms. Carlson’s lawsuit violated the arbitration clause, a motion was filed in federal court to have the case arbitrated. The federal court is the proper court to decide the motion because Ms. Carlson’s primary residence is in Connecticut and Mr. Ailes’ primary residence is in New York.”
That mandatory arbitration clauses have invaded TV news isn’t at all surprising. These things are like crabgrass — and even if you are unfamiliar with them, you’ve probably signed one. They’re common in all manner of contracts, from auto purchases to home improvements to employment. They generally stipulate that if you have a dispute, you have to submit to binding arbitration and waive your right to resolve the matter in the civil justice system. According to the National Employment Lawyers Association,a 2010 study found that 36 million employees — or about a third of the non-union workforce — were subject to mandatory arbitration of workplace disputes.
Fox News management made a sound decision in choosing the American Arbitration Association (AAA) as its agent of choice. According to a 2011 study by Cornell University’s Alexander Colvin, employees prevail less frequently and recover less money in cases arbitrated by the AAA — the study examined nearly 4,000 cases between 2003 and 2007 — than they do in trials. And in any case, job-discrimination complaints have a poor success rate in federal courts.
Paul Bland, an expert on arbitration clauses and executive director of Public Justice, tells the Erik Wemple Blog that as a general rule, only the parties to an arbitration clause can invoke it. After reading the court documents filed by Carlson’s lawyers, Bland noted that the agreement is between Fox News and Carlson. “Ailes is not named in it. Their argument is that FOX means Ailes. They should have written more broadly, most arbitration clauses name others who work for or with, are associated with, etc. I consider him a non-party under this language. Poor drafting,” writes Bland in an email.
“There are some limited exceptions to the general rule that non-parties can’t enforce arbitration clauses,” he continues, “so Ailes’ team will have some arguments, but there’s not enough yet in the public record for anyone to handicap the chances of success. If he is not named in the clause, though, he is swimming upstream.”
He’s also drowning in a tide of hypocrisy. “It is repulsive that Ailes is trying to force this extremely serious matter into a secretive, rigged system where Ms. Carlson’s chances of getting justice are far lower even if everything she alleges is true,” notes Bland. “The problems of secrecy in arbitration are really highlighted in this case — you look at all of the women who have come forward with very similar stories, and you can see why Ailes would prefer to keep a lid on all of this by avoiding the public court system where the evidence becomes a matter of public record.” That’s something to keep in mind the next time Chris Wallace or Bret Baier gripes about breakdowns in government transparency.
Another thing to consider is that Carlson worked at Fox News for 11 years, presiding in some way over thousands of hours of programming. Over all those hours, Carlson was adjudged reliable and honest enough such that Ailes and his lieutenants placed their precious Fox News audience in her hands. Now, all of the sudden, she has become the source for her lawyers’ dissemination of “one false and defamatory statement after another.” Even you, Roger Ailes, can’t have it both ways.
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FOCUS: The Most Progressive Democratic Party Platform Ever? |
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Sunday, 10 July 2016 10:44 |
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Galindez writes: "If Bernie Sanders hadn't received 13 million votes and won 45% of the pledged delegates, the Democratic Party platform would not be as progressive as it is. That being said, I don't think the platform goes far enough on health care, trade, or the environment."
Senator Bernie Sanders on Capitol Hill last week. (photo: Zach Gibson/NYT)
The Most Progressive Democratic Party Platform Ever?
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
10 July 16
f Bernie Sanders hadn’t received 13 million votes and won 45% of the pledged delegates, the Democratic Party platform would not be as progressive as it is. That being said, I don’t think the platform goes far enough on health care, trade, or the environment.
Do Democrats want universal health care? I can’t tell. Do Democrats oppose the TPP? They refuse to come out and say it.
On Saturday during a conference call with the media, Senator Sanders praised the progress made on health care: “The goal of health care reform in America should be to do what every other major country on earth does, and that is to guarantee health care for all as a right. The proposal brought forth today by Secretary Clinton, working with our campaign, is an important step forward in expanding health care in America – and expanding health insurance and health care access to tens of millions of Americans.
However, one of the senator’s staunchest supporters, National Nurses United, signaled that they didn’t think it went far enough. Chuck Idelson, the communications director for Nurses United, told RSN, “Too many Americans continue to suffer lack of access and denial of needed care. Nurses will never stop fighting for full transformation of our broken health care system that can only be achieved with real guaranteed care through an expanded and improved Medicare for all/single payer system.” Union President RoseAnn DeMoro tweeted, “Today the #DemPlatform denied us healthcare & outsourced our jobs. #SeeYouInPhilly.”
The Clinton proposal will increase funding to community health centers, a move that Sanders described as an important step forward in granting access to primary care physicians.
“This proposal, in a very significant way, addresses the crisis we now face in primary health care – the understanding that many millions of Americans today are unable to access a doctor, dental care, mental health counseling or low-cost prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “As part of this proposal, Secretary Clinton is committed to doubling the funding for primary care services at community health centers over the next decade. In doing so, we will dramatically expand access to millions more people.”
The proposal also called for a public option in all 50 states and expanding Medicare to people age 55 and older. If you remember, both of these proposals were defeated during the original fight for Obamacare. They are significant steps forward, but this is the platform, not legislation. We need to ask for what we really want, not just steps forward. Steps forward come after negotiations, not as our initial proposal. If Hillary Clinton and the Democrats really want universal health care they should say it, clearly.
It’s the same on trade. The Democratic Platform committee voted down an amendment from Ben Jealous to add the words “That is why we oppose the TPP.” An amendment came to the floor from labor that set standards for trade deals that they themselves said the TPP could not meet. Labor leader after labor leader took to the floor and shouted how they opposed the TPP – but they still opposed the Jealous amendment.
“The majority of Democrats, like the majority of Americans, are against the TPP,” said Jealous. “Hillary is against the TPP. Bernie is against the TPP. Let’s not be bureaucrats – let’s be leaders.”
We all know why they opposed directly saying they opposed the TPP. They were leaving President Obama and Hillary Clinton wiggle room. Remember Bill Clinton campaigning against NAFTA but then signing it after cosmetic changes? I am actually stunned that organized labor led the fight against adding “that is why we oppose the TPP” to the Democratic Party Platform.
Following that battle there was another effort to express the party’s position on a vote on the TPP in Congress. Jim Hightower brought the amendment and argued passionately for it. It was also defeated.
Another shameful vote was one against an amendment to strike saber rattling language when it comes to Iran. The amendment would have removed wording that stated that we would not hesitate to use force to enforce the nuclear agreement with Iran. We should always hesitate before using force. Progress was made on the platform concerning Palestine, but the party’s refusal to call the occupation illegal was again a mistake.
So now it’s time for Clinton supporters who are probably ready to burn me at the stake to calm down. My critiques were based on my positions on the issues. I support single payer, oppose the TPP, and oppose saber rattling just to appear to be strong on the military. There were other votes I disagreed with, but those were the ones that stuck out to me. I long for the day the Democratic Party represents what we believe and doesn’t pass its platform based on politics.
I applaud the efforts made by Senator Sanders and all those who fought for what is the most progressive platform in US history. When I started to write this article I expected to conclude that the platform was too weak. I thought the language on the environment to be too weak, but I will trust Josh Fox, Bill McKibben, and the other Sanders delegates who negotiated the language that passed. I would have liked the simple words “We oppose fracking,” but we moved much closer to that language.
While the plan does not ban fracking nationally as Sanders has called for, it will significantly limit fracking by forcing companies to disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground by eliminating the Halliburton Loophole. It also protects the right of states and localities to ban fracking.
“I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished tonight. This is the most aggressive plan to combat climate change in the history of the Democratic Party. As a result of this plan natural gas is no longer regarded as a bridge to the future. The future of America’s energy system now clearly belongs to sun and wind power. But we are not finished. We have got to follow through on the promise of this agreement, to put people before the profits of polluters and solve the global crisis of climate change before it’s too late,” Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ policy director said.
There were other victories. The platform supports a $15 minimum wage. The platform calls for removing marijuana from the list of schedule one narcotics.
“We have made enormous strides,” Sanders said. “Thanks to the millions of people across the country who got involved in the political process – many for the first time – we now have the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party.”
I believe that in the end the voice of our movement was heard and the platform reflects many of our goals. It is a step forward, progress that we should celebrate. The struggle for a truly progressive platform continues, and we have to keep organizing to move our nation forward. A truly progressive Democratic Party is in reach if we stay engaged and continue to fight. The fight moves to Philly in two weeks. I do not know if the TPP, single payer health care and other issues we fell short on in Orlando will be reopened or not. We are still waiting for reforms in the nominating process. That happens in another committee.
“While we have made great progress in the Democratic platform advancing the issues that have inspired millions of Americans in this campaign, the fight is just beginning,” Sanders said.
“If we are going to transform America and create a government which works for all and not just the 1 percent we need to elect candidates who will fight for these principles. We need to elect a Democratic Congress and president and make certain that the language in the Democratic platform is translated into law. We must ensure that progress for working families in America does not end on the pages of the Democratic platform but becomes reality.”
We have a way to go, but if we give up now we can guarantee that the Democratic Party will go back to business as usual. Together, if we continue the struggle, we can build a new Democratic Party.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.
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ne month ago on Tuesday, a gunman shot and 
