McDonald's Same-Store Sales Crumble All Around The World

Screengrab from McDonaldsCanada on YouTube

Pretty ugly same-store sales from McDonald's.

Here's the key part of the press release.

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McDonald's Corporation today announced that global comparable sales decreased 1.8% in October.  Performance by segment was as follows:

• U.S. down 2.2%
• Europe down 2.2%
• Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa down 2.4%

"The McDonald's System remains focused on serving the evolving needs of our more than 69 million customers daily," said McDonald's President and Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson.  "Though October's sales results reflect the pervasive challenges of today's global marketplace, I am confident that our strategies and the adjustments we are making in response to the current business headwinds will build sales momentum and drive sustained, profitable growth."

In October, U.S. comparable sales decreased 2.2%.  Modest consumer demand and heightened competitive activity offset the impact of local Dollar Menu advertising, the Monopoly promotion, and the recent launch of the Cheddar Bacon Onion premium sandwiches.  Moving forward, the U.S. remains focused on enhancing its value leadership position by balancing strong everyday value messaging with affordable premium menu options.

In Europe, comparable sales declined 2.2% as positive results in the U.K. were offset by declines across many markets.  Amid the segment's ongoing economic uncertainty, Europe is reinvigorating its value offerings through increased advertising and new meal combinations at various price tiers, featuring core and premium menu items, and enhancing the restaurant experience to attract more customers.

In Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA), October's comparable sales declined 2.4% with negative results in Japan, Australia and other markets, including China.  Looking ahead, APMEA seeks to further differentiate the McDonald's experience through unique daypart value platforms, locally-relevant menu choices and unmatched customer conveniences.

Source: Business Insider

Total hypocrisy: Monsanto, agribusiness and big food companies spent more than $45 million to kill 'costly' Prop 37 GMO labeling bill

Labeling genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) is simply too costly, and any law requiring that GMOs be properly labeled will raise food prices significantly. This was one of the many lies propagated by the biotechnology and processed food industries in the months and weeks leading up to the vote on Proposition 37 in California, the historic GMO labeling initiative that was defeated in large part due to the more than $45 million that Monsanto, Dow, Kraft Foods, and dozens of other industry players hypocritically pumped into the fraudulent No on 37 campaign during the final hour.

For the past few weeks, Californians have had to endure a seemingly endless barrage of misleading television commercials and phony voter guide mailers urging them to vote against the labeling proposal because it would allegedly "cost taxpayers and consumers millions," to quote California "family farmer" Ted Sheely, who was prominently featured in a No on 37 propaganda commercial that aired throughout the state. The same commercial, along with several others, also claimed that GMO labeling would increase grocery bills by about $400 per year for the average California family.

Such claims are bald-faced lies, of course, as food manufacturers change their labels constantly without issue, not to mention the fact that the supposed "Prop 37 Economic Impact Study" from which many of these bogus claims and figures were pulled is nothing but fabricated, industry-backed nonsense. Even so, these nonstop lies were apparently enough to close the gap on an earlier 2-to-1 lead in favor of the bill -- The Los Angeles Times reported back in September that 61 percent of registered voters supported Prop. 37, while only 25 percent opposed it.

Labeling GMOs is apparently too costly, but spending millions to fight labeling is no big deal

So what happened to cause the bill to eventually fail in the eleventh hour? Nearly $50 million in lobbying funds is what happened. In a demonstration of sheer irony and hypocrisy, the same companies that have been complaining about supposed food cost increases from GMO labeling are the very ones that spent tens of millions of dollars making sure the GMO labeling bill did not pass. And in the end, the GMO cartel got its wish, at least in the short term.

The good news, however, is that more than 4.2 million Californians saw through the lies of Monsanto, and voted in favor of Prop. 37 despite the propaganda campaign. And the long-term momentum the Yes on 37 campaign generated about the presence of GMOs in the food supply means it is only a matter of time before GMOs are eventually on the radar of all Americans.

"Yesterday, we showed that there is a food movement in the United States, and it is strong, vibrant and too powerful to stop," said the Yes on 37 campaign following the election. "We always knew we were the underdogs, and the underdogs nearly took the day. Dirty money and dirty tactics may have won this skirmish, but they will not win the war."

To begin proactively fighting against the unlabeled presence of GMOs throughout the American food supply, be sure to check out the Label It Yourself initiative.

Also, be sure to boycott the "natural" and organic imposters that contributed to the No on 37 campaign, and support those that fought for the people's right to know what they are eating and feeding their families.

Source: Natural News

Don Alejandro talks about The Shift of the Ages

Colorado Legalizes Recreational Marijuana and Industrial Hemp

In a victory for freedom and common sense, it appears that marijuana will be legalized for recreational use in Colorado. Amendment 64: Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is leading 53.18% to 46.82% with 56% of counties partially reporting.

Amendment 64 legalizes the personal use, possession, and limited home-growing of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age and older; establishes a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol; and allows for the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp.

In particular, the law removes all legal penalties for personal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and allows people to grow up to six marijuana plants at their home in an enclosed locked space.

A study by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy found that marijuana legalization could produce more than $120 million annually in new revenue and savings within the first five years. Wholesale recreation cannabis in Colorado will be taxed at 15% with the first $40 million allocated to the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund.

In addition, its passage is expected to create a plethora of new jobs, especially in industrial hemp. Hemp is a non-psychoactive strain of the cannabis plant and an agricultural crop that is widely cultivated across the globe for its seed and fiber. Hemp has thousands of modern industrial uses from paper, textiles, construction materials, fuel, to dietary supplements. Significantly, it is much more sustainable than current competitor materials. Watch the video below for the potential of industrial hemp:



Two other states, Oregon and Washington, are also voting on similar measures. Early results show Washington state will likely legalize marijuana as well with the Yes votes leading by double digits for Initiative Measure 502. Meanwhile it appears Oregon's Measure 80 is headed for defeat.

Massachusetts also voted by a dominant margin (63%) to legalize medical marijuana bringing the total number of medical cannabis states to 18.

Source: Activist Post

Pot Legalization Vote State by State

Synthetic Biologist: Cloned Children, ‘Handpicked Genes’ Right Around the Corner

If you’ve been following the sci-tech section of any major news site over the past few years, chances are you have seen more than a few stories discussing the possibility of extending the highly problematic act of genetic modifications onto the human race. A step that has been foretold by science fiction novels and simultaneously discounted as conspiracy for years. According to one leading synthetic biologist with a passion for eugenics (meaning ‘selective breeding’) and cloning technology, it may be just around the corner.

Scientist George Church envisions a world where traits are pre-determined by parents for their offspring — children created via cloning technology to create ‘better’ humans. He also claims to be creating Neanderthal cells within his laboratory, holding an inventory of Neanderthal ‘parts’ across the lab space. In the near future, he even plans to ‘create’ a Neanderthal baby within his lab.

You may think that Church is just some mad scientist cooped up in his lab experimenting with genetics in his spare time, but he actually is heavily recognized within the scientific community where like-minded eugenicists seek to push cloning technology into the moral and social stratosphere in order to fulfill their visions. Working as a professor at Harvard Medical School and an adviser to more than 20 major corporations, Church thinks that it’s only a matter of time until someone injects an argument into the mainstream media that allows for full-scale cloning technology to be unleashed upon the world.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he said:

“At some point, someone will come up with an airtight argument as to why they should have a cloned child. At that point, cloning will be acceptable. At that point, people will already be choosing traits for their children.”

Of course over 40,000 patents currently exist on human genetics, granting the very ownership of the human genome to major corporations who have been seeking to secure a monopoly over the human coding for over 100 years. Altogether, more than 20 percent of the human genome belongs to corporations. This would give major corporations the ability to actually ‘sell’ genes to parents for their new cloned offspring, generating an entire new market for biotechnology giants.

‘Faulty Genetics’ Means no Right to Fertility

And as for those with ‘faulty’ genetics, they may actually not even be allowed to reproduce. In a similar fashion to the rampant eugenics campaign that ran from 1929 to 1974 and claimed a ‘better society’ through forcing sterilizations upon criminals and those with mental health disorder. All in all, more than 60,000 were sterilized nationwide. But now modern technology exists to actually claim that certain individuals will be criminals or suffer from disease in the future. This, in the mind of the eugenicists, gives them the authority to preemptively sterilize certain sectors of the population. This is the same thinking that is used to remove body parts preemptively in those with a particular cancer gene to avoid the onset of cancer.

But the madness doesn’t end there. According to George Church, they also may create various ‘types’ of cloned children such as Neanderthal babies. He stated:

“We are creating Neanderthal cells. Let’s say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid.”

It has already been revealed that many scientists have already secretly created human-animal hybrid experiments in the lab using similar technology. In fact, the ‘horrendous’ creations actually led to some scientists to call for new rules on the subject. Creations that Church asserts will eventually be commonplace if he and his group of Monsanto-esque scientists get their way.

It is concerning enough that genetic modification within crops has led to the onset of tumors, organ damage, and other serious concerns. The health implications alone surrounding the direct genetic modification of humans is enough to sound the alarm. When considering the Orwellian aspects of reproduction control and rampant cloning mixed in with outlandish hybrid experiments, it’s easy to see that there’s simply no place for the unscrupulous usage of such biotechnology. The argument will, however, be thrown right into the mainstream media using a heartwarming story about how cloning can help fuel research for heart disease and cancer — yet another scam.

And if George Church is right, such a scenario could be right around the corner.

Source: Natural Society

Report reveals Japanese nuclear safety experts received large sums of money from nuclear industry

Destroyed unit 3 reactor building of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is seen in Fukushima prefecture, Monday, Feb. 20, 2012. (Issei Kato)

While the “profoundly man-made disaster” at the Fukushima nuclear power plant continues unabated with independent experts continually blocked from gaining access, it has now been revealed that the six members of a Japanese government team drafting the new nuclear reactor safety standards have received tens of thousands of dollars from the nuclear industry.

According to a report put out by Japan’s Kyodo News a whopping four out of six experts on the panel drafting new safety standards have received funds from companies directly involved in the nuclear industry.

The grants, donations and compensation range from 3 million yen (around $37,290) to over 27 million yen (around $335,600) each, according to data released by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

While the NRA claimed that the members of the panel “have been selected in line with rules, and there should be no problem,” Kyodo News rightly points out that critics “say the members’ judgments might be swayed by the wishes of donors, exposing safety regulations to the risk of being watered down.”

Indeed it seems so painfully obvious that it is somewhat laughable to even qualify such a statement with the word “might.”

The NRA requires experts like the ones assigned to draft the new safety standards to disclose the funds they receive but they have “no rules for disqualifying them in light of such information,” according to AFP.

One of the experts, Akira Yamaguchi, a professor at Osaka University, received at least 27.14 million yen in both donations and research grants from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., a company which just happens to manufacture nuclear plant equipment, along with “other relevant entities,” according to the report.

Akio Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University, received 10.1 million yen, also from a builder and operator of nuclear plants, Japan Atomic Power Co., along with other companies.

Yutaka Abe, a professor at Tsukuba University, received 5 million yen from various entities including a laboratory of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same company behind the atrocious Fukushima disaster.

Tomoyuki Sugiyama, a Japan Atomic Energy Agency researcher, received 3 million yen from Nuclear Fuel Industries, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the spent fuel pool at reactor four remains precarious and technology is being developed which, in theory at least, could assist the disturbingly slow cleanup process.

TEPCO, in what appears to be an attempt to maintain at least some shred of legitimacy, “plans to set up a regional headquarters in Fukushima prefecture to better oversee local reconstruction, decontamination and compensation payments, Kyodo and other media said,” according to AFP.

Do you think these apparent conflicts of interest can be considered unimportant or justifiable as the Japanese authorities apparently do? Let us know in the comments section.

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Source: End the Lie