U.S. Declares the Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due to Drought

The blistering summer and ongoing drought conditions have the prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare a federal disaster area in more than 1,000 counties covering 26 states. That's almost one-third of all the counties in the United States, making it the largest distaster declaration ever made by the USDA. 

The declaration covers almost every state in the southern half of the continental U.S., from South Carolina in the East to California in the West. It's also includes Colorado and Wyoming (which have been hit by devatasting wildfires) and Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska in the Midwest. However, it does not include Iowa, which is the largest grain and corn producer in the U.S. This map show the counties affected:

 

The USDA's latest crop report is projecting a 12 percent decrease in the corn harvest this year, which would still be the third-largest haul on record. Despite the negative outlook, grain prices remains quite low, according to CNBC.

The ruling allows farmers in those affected counties to apply for low-interest loans and face reduced penalties for grazing on protected lands. The USDA says the loans will only amount to around $4 million, but is one of the few "limited tools" the department has available to help farmers. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has asked for a complete re-authorization of all existing agriculture programs, including crop insurance, that can be used to support struggling farms.

About 53 percent of the country is facing "moderate to extreme drought" so far this summer.

Japan hit by record rains: 10 killed, 20 missing, 50,000 evacuated

Ten people died and at least 20 are missing after heavy rain hit southwestern Japan, particularly in the country's southernmost main island of Kyushu, police and firefighters said.

Most of those killed in the disaster were elderly people who did not manage to leave their houses themselves.

"Unfortunately, we believe the numbers [of dead and missing] will rise as we get more and more information from the field," a Kumamoto spokesman told AFP.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency said in Kumamoto and neighboring Oita prefectures saw “the heaviest rain that [the region] has ever experienced" as hourly rainfalls of 100 millimeters were recorded there.

A town of Aso in Kumamoto was hit by a record 500 millimeters of rain.In neighboring Minami-Aso severe landslides washed away houses. Police said nine people died there. In Taketa City, Oita, a man in his 70s drowned in a swollen river and another man in his 80s is missing, local broadcaster NHK reported.More than 17,000 households in Kumamoto prefecture have been evacuated, while up to 5,000 people were advised to leave the neighboring area. In Oita authorities ordered the evacuation of nearly 15,000 people and advised a further 10,000 to leave.

Local news reports showed cars being dragged into the raging rivers and houses destroyed by landslides.

Pictures of ruined houses, washed roads and cars turned upside down are reminiscent of the devastating tsunami which hit Japan in March 2011, leaving up to 20,000 people dead.

The downpour had weakened by noon local time, allowing rescuers to start cleaning up.

However, a Kumamoto official warned that more rain could possibly descend on the region.

“We are increasing our alert level for rivers overflowing," he said.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency warned of swollen rivers and landslides in other areas of Japan, including western and northeastern regions.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda promised to provide needed help to all affected residents.

"I have heard that this is a record for heavy rainfall. We will take effective measures," he said in a legislative session.

A man walks along a road covered in mud after heavy rains fell at Kumamoto city in Japan's southern island of Kyushu on July 12, 2012 (AFP Photo / Jiji Press Out)

Vehicles are piled-up in a residential area covered in mud after heavy rains fell at Kumamoto city in Japan's southern island of Kyushu on July 12, 2012 (AFP Photo / Jiji Press Out)

An aerial view shows firefighters searching among collapsed houses following a landslide caused by heavy rains in Minamiaso town, Kumamoto prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 12, 2012 (Reuters/Kyodo)

Policemen search for missing people at collapsed houses following a landslide caused by heavy rains in Minamiaso town, Kumamoto prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 12, 2012 (Reuters/Kyodo)

SOPA Being Reintroduced Through Creation of Copyright Commissars

The battle rages on between lovers of the free Internet and a big government hellbent on controlling the only semblance of a fair and balanced media that still exists.

An onslaught of bills have been introduced worldwide which seek to criminalize the fundamental way that information is freely shared. Among the most comprehensive:

ACTA - Recently struck down by the European Parliament in a 478 to 39 vote after street protests swept across Europe. However, ACTA has already been signed in the United States. ACTA allows accusers of copyright infringement to bypass judicial review. Lack of “due process” makes these bills and ACTA unconstitutional and violates the Magna Carta, a charter signed in 1215 on which most Western law is based, including the US Constitution. (Source)

PIPA - A massive protest in January generated over 7 million petition signatures, which caused the bill to be postponed. Some of the most popular websites on the planet blackened their pages to protest the PROTECT IP Act, (S. 968), which threatens free access to information on the Web by allowing accusers to shut down an entire website - even shared platforms like Twitter, WordPress and YouTube, because of a single copyright violation. (Source)

OPEN - Darrell Issa (CA-R) and 24 co-sponsors introduced H.R. 3782. The bill claims to only target foreign websites for digital trade violations, while keeping Americans free to surf and post, but the bill's wording was wide open to pursue American sites. (Source)

CISPA - The grandaddy of cyber legislation, ushering in fascism to the Internet by giving full control to the Department of Defense and all of its satellite federal agencies and private contractors to surveil and wage cyberwar. (Source)

Resistance has been strong, but Big Brother remains motivated to move in by stealth if necessary, as evidenced by a new related bill that seeks to sneak a previously defeated piece of SOPA past an unsuspecting public.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been at the forefront of keeping the public informed about the myriad ways that our (s)elected representatives are attempting to usher in tyranny to the free market of ideas known as the World Wide Web.
As Adi Kamdar writes:

Even after millions rallied against the passage of SOPA/PIPA, the House is still quietly trying to pass a related bill that would give the entertainment industry more permanent, government-funded spokespeople. The Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing on Lamar Smith's IP Attaché Act (PDF), a bill that increases intellectual property policing around the world. The Act would create an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, as well as broaden the use of IP attachés in particular U.S. embassies. (The attachés were notably present in Sec. 205 of SOPA—which was also introduced by Smith.) [Source]

Kamdar rightly states that this empowers Hollywood with "traveling foot soldiers" that become content commissars by virtue of being "IP Attachés." - or world ambassadors for Internet censorship.  In so doing, it creates yet another pyramid of control and intimidation that seeks to corral content through the ever-present threat of copyright violations.

So far, private copyright trolls have been repeatedly defeated (here and here for a couple recent examples), as judge after judge has ruled their lawsuits to be completely without merit.  However, with this new piece of legislation, the federal government very well could create its own copyright troll goon squad at the behest of establishment lobbyists and their easily bought-and-paid-for congressmen.

Please continue following any mention of Internet regulation no matter how slick the veneer, as the final nail in the coffin of free expression and sharing of information contrary to the establishment media could arrive at any time, cloaked in ways we might not yet suspect.

It is clear that despite overwhelming public outcry, there are those in Congress such as Lamar Smith who clearly serve a different master.

Source: Activist Post

Monsanto could pay $7.5 billion settlement to millions of Brazilian soy farmers

For at least a decade, Monsanto, the world's most evil corporation, has been illegally charging Brazilian farmers growing the company's genetically-modified (GM) crops a two percent tax on production, and a three percent tax for cross-contamination of seed, say plaintiffs in a new lawsuit. And according to CorpWatch, the agri-giant could soon have to fork over $7.5 billion in reimbursements to more than five million Brazilian farmers as a result of these blatant crimes.

Oddly enough, Monsanto's very presence in Brazil was predicated on fraud, as its GM soy seeds were first smuggled into the country illegally back in 1998. Fast forward about 13 years and nearly 75 million acres of arable land in Brazil are now occupied by Monsanto's GM crops, the vast majority of which constitute Roundup Ready soy.

But the entire Monsanto growing system for GMOs, which prohibits farmers from freely saving seeds and reusing them the following year -- and in this case, requires farmers to pay private taxes directly to Monsanto to do so -- is entirely against the law in Brazil. Even though former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva basically grandfathered-in legalization for Monsanto's GM crops back in 2005 because they were already being widely grown in the country illegally, Monsanto is still breaking the law by levying taxes against farmers and requiring them to pay royalties.

"The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again)," said Jane Berwanger, a lawyer representing the Brazilian farmers in the case, concerning Monsanto's illegal user fees and taxes. "Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production."

Back in April, a judge in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, ruled that Monsanto's user fees were illegal, and ordered the company to not only stop collecting them, but also to begin reimbursing farmers in that state for all fees collected since 2004. This judge also noted that Monsanto's Roundup Ready seed patent has also already expired in Brazil.

Monsanto is attempting to appeal this decision, of course, but in the process could be making its final penalty even worse. And in response to this appeal, the Brazilian Supreme Court has decided that the Rio Grande Do Sul court's ultimate ruling, whatever that ends up being, will apply to every farmer throughout the country, and not just in Rio Grande Do Sul, which could make the final penalty for Monsanto upwards of $7.5 billion.

Monsanto has indicated that it plans to continue collecting fees and charging taxes until the courts issue their final ruling on the matter. But this ruling is not expected to be issued until 2014.

Source> Natural News <&p>

Government vs. Corporations