So 30,000 Argentinian doctors have shown they have much greater powers of observation than all the doctors at the FDA, USDA, AMA, CDC, and NIH combined. I don’t know, but I wonder if Argentina doctors have the same kind of nefarious relationship with big pharma as the doctors in the US do. Let’s not forget that Monsanto is 85% owned by Pfizer.
Here’s the article on the Argentinian doctors asking that glyphosate be banned:
If the millions of regular people who have asked Monsanto to stop selling their toxic chemicals is not enough, more than 30,000 doctors and health professionals are asking that glyphosate be banned.
The doctors are part of FESPROSA, Argentina’s Union of medical professionals. Citing the World Health Organization’s recent declaration that the glyphosate chemicals used in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Round Up (formulated to use on Round Up Ready crops) are “likely carcinogenic,” they add an additional disclaimer:
Glyphosate is also associated with:
Spontaneous abortions
Birth defects
Skin disease
Respiratory illness
Neurological disease
Where are the American doctors who can tell the WHO, and Monsanto the same thing? Instead of forcing Monsanto’s hand, other doctors have been retaliating against Dr. Oz who recently said that glyphosate was dangerous on world-wide television.
“In our country glyphosate is applied on more than 28 million hectares. Each year, the soil is sprayed with more than 320 million litres, which means that 13 million people are at risk of being affected, according to the Physicians Network of Sprayed Peoples (RMPF). Soy is not the only crop addicted to glyphosate: the herbicide is also used for transgenic maize and other crops. Where glyphosate falls, only GMOs can grow. Everything else dies.”
The doctors also talk about vindicating one of their own:
“Our trade union, the Federation of Health Professionals of Argentina (FESPROSA), which represents more than 30,000 doctors and health professionals in our country, includes the Social Health Collective of Andrés Carrasco. Andrés Carrasco was a researcher at [Argentine government research institute] CONICET, who died a year ago, and showed the damage caused by glyphosate to embryos. For disseminating his research, he was attacked by the industry and the authorities at CONICET. Today, WHO vindicates him.”
With evidence like this – how can any biotech shill talk about genetically modified food being ‘safe’ when the primary chemicals sold to grow them are killing the people of entire countries?
As many of you who have known me for awhile know, I quit Facebook two years ago because of how flatly nefarious they are. The thing that threw me over the edge wasn’t really their sharing of data with the NSA, nor the algorithms they run to effectively become one with the Department of Precrime, but the fact that the extrapolation of “people of interest” in any “investigation” was extrapolated out to a factor of 6 between Facebook “friends”. So, say the Powers that Shouldn’t Be were looking at yours truly for thinking unregulated thoughts, they would include my “friends”, and their “friends, and the “friends” of those “friends, and the friends of the friends of the friend’s friends” all the way out to a factor of six friends away. Frankly, that just creeped me out. We are simply reaching entirely too much singularity and the burden of proof of innocence in any “crime”, be it real or imagined, has become one wherein you must prove your innocence against potentially digitally created guilt.
It’s enough to make one want to go Amish. But I don’t think I could blend…And there are other things, too. So that really isn’t an option. I could almost be a Luddite, too. But I’m not a technophobe, nor am I a technophile. I just believe that technology should serve us and that it can be used for greatly positive enhancements to the human experience. But if you take human dignity and accountability for preserving that dignity out of the equation, we become chattel to the entities controlling the pseudo reality in which we virtually live.
I digress. And no, it isn’t difficult to get me to digress when we are talking about such an invasive and pervasive thing as the issue of human privacy and dignity in the age of technocracy. So, without further adieu, here is the article I wanted to share with you:
Ever written out a status update or comment but decided against posting it? One techie has discovered Facebook collects this content, despite the company’s claims to the contrary
‘I realised that any text I put into the status update box was sent to Facebook’s servers, even if I did not click the post button’
Facebook collects all content that is typed into its website, even if it is not posted, a tech consultant has discovered.
In December 2013, it was reportedthat Facebook plants code in browsers that returns metadata every time somebody types out a status update or comment but deletes it before posting.
At the time, Facebook maintained that it only received information indicating whether somebody had deleted an update or comment before posting it, and not exactly what the text said.
However, Príomh Ó hÚigínn, a tech consultant based in Ireland, has claimed this is not the case after inspecting Facebook’s network traffic through a developer tool and screencasting software.
‘I realised that any text I put into the status update box was sent to Facebook’s servers, even if I did not click the post button,’ he wrote on his blog yesterday.
Referring to the GIF he created below, he found that a HTTP post request was sent to Facebook each time he wrote out a status, containing the exact text he entered.
‘This is outright Orwellian, and inconvenient,’ he said. ‘Since I am now aware of this, I am more cautious about what I enter into the text area.
‘However I can’t help but notice the adverse effect of my new found awareness ― am I experiencing the censorship of my own thoughts because of a faceless entity such as Facebook that doesn’t care about you? I very much believe that is the case.’
There is nothing in Facebook’s Data Policy that directly alludes to the fact that it collects content that is written but not posted.
However, the general ambiguity under the heading ‘What kinds of information do we collect?’ makes it unclear, such as: ‘We collect the content and other information you provide when you…create or share. This can include information in or about the content you provide.’
One thing is certain: most Facebook users do not expect the company to collect the text they decided against sharing.
The company faced a backlash in 2009 when it removed part of a clause that promised to expire the license it has to a user’s ‘name, likeness and image’, which it uses for external advertising, if they remove content from the site.
Following a protest campaign, it returned to the previous terms of use. However, it’s unclear what rights Facebook has over content that is not posted.
Information Age has contacted Facebook for comment.
For many people, cannabis or cannabis oil are the only things that can really give them relief, or a possible cure, from debilitating or fatal diseases. At this point, I will state without hesitation, if a family member were diagnosed with cancer, we would move to Colorado and work with people there that know how to set up protocols to treat cancer. There are entirely too many positives for health benefits and the only thing that is threatened by marijuana is the overly bloated and toxic pharmaceutical industry and the revenue generation/prison industry who are profiting because of it being illegal. It just galls me personally that there is help for so many that is natural and it is immoral to prevent people who would benefit from using this help.
Anyway, for those who would like to weigh in with their representatives regarding this bill, here is how you do so:
It is HB 800 and already had a public hearing, but it has not yet been voted on in committee. All the members of the committee are in the link, and you could send them all an email with your thoughts on the bill.
Additionally, you can contact your representative by finding them in this link. You must have your zip code plus four to find them if you don’t already know who they are. Below is an article with the link in the title regarding the bill and the hearing.
February 23, 2015 9:26 pm • By MARIE FRENCH Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY • Advocates for
increased patient access to medical
marijuana, including television personality
Montel Williams, shared personal stories
while testifying for a Missouri bill that would
create a state-monitored distribution
program for the drug.
Williams and others spoke at a House
committee hearing Monday in support of the measure sponsored by a Republican
representative. The measure would set up a process for patients to register for access to
marijuana for cancer, HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical conditions.
Williams, who starred in the syndicated talk show “The Montel Williams Show,” has
multiple sclerosis and uses marijuana to treat some of his symptoms. He lives in New
York and has advocated for medical marijuana across the country. He said the legislation
could be a model for the rest of the country.
“I could care less about anybody who wants to get high— your problem, not mine. I’m
only concerned about people who need relief through medication,” Williams said to the
committee.
Republican Rep. Dave Hinson’s bill would not allow recreational use of marijuana. It
would require growers and distributors of medical marijuana to be licensed and follow
certain security procedures. The legislation also limits the amount of marijuana a person
could get without special permission to 2.5 ounces every two weeks.
Hinson said every lawmaker has had their lives touched by someone who has been
affected by a debilitating illness. He said his father, who died from bone cancer in 1989,
suffered extreme pain in the final months of his life.
“He was so endowed with morphine that he was so sick to his stomach and all he wished
to do was die,” Hinson said.
Hinson said that people should be allowed the opportunity to get relief and maintain
Missouri lawmakers hear emotional testimony on medical mari… http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-…
1 of 3 3/1/15 2:02 PM
their dignity by using marijuana recommended by a doctor.
Some advocates for patient access to marijuana expressed concerns about the limits on
home growing of cannabis and the high cost of setting up centers under the current
legislation. Tom Mundell, a past commander of Missouri’s Veterans of Foreign Wars, said
he thought patients should be allowed to grow the plants at home.
He shared stories of veterans who were using marijuana for medical purposes. After Rep.
Ron Hicks, R-St. Peters, asked him about using marijuana for post-traumatic stress
disorder, he broke down as he described how he’s gone from taking dozens of pills daily
to only a few each day.
Hicks said he supports the bill and wants to make sure it can pass.
A patient would have to get a recommendation from a physician and then apply to the
state’s health department before being able to purchase medical marijuana. The bill lists
specific eligible ailments, but also lays out a process for a patient to appeal and the
department to add illnesses.
But the risk for abuse of marijuana remains despite the limits in the bill, said Jason
Grellner, vice president of National Narcotics Officers Associations’ Coalition, who
opposes the measure.
Grellner said that supporters of marijuana access will chip away at any law passed in
Missouri by filing lawsuits to expand it.
“Every legislator that brings this forward, I don’t care what state you’re in, believes
they’ve built the perfect mouse trap,” he said Monday before testifying. “There are so
many unanswered questions and loopholes and pitfalls. You can’t write a law tight
enough.”
Twenty-three states have comprehensive medical marijuana laws. Missouri and 10 other
states have also approved more limited medical marijuana bills that loosen access to
extracts from strains of marijuana with low tetrahydrocannabinol or THC and high levels
of cannabidiol, or CBD, which some have used to control epilepsy in young children.
Missouri’s bill has not yet been fully implemented and the CBD oil is not currently
available in the state.
___
Medical marijuana bill is HB 800.
Online:
House: http://www.house.mo.gov
(This article is linked through the title at the top of the picture. This is not surprising news at all, but I contend that if there is a wholesale repudiation of GMO corn, where farmer’s refuse to grow it, that we could breed it out of existence over time. That is likely the only way to purify corn left to us. Soy is even worse than corn, although it isn’t quite as prolific in it’s cross pollination capacities. Planting real food in revolt is our best and most important effort. It won’t restore balance quickly, but we can’t stop the wind, so we have to do what we can or give up…Now, here’s the article.)
With each passing year, an increasing number of states are attempting to adopt GMO labeling laws amid the federal government’s resistance to allow you to know what’s in your food. With each victory, or even loss, we get stronger — and closer to making GMO labeling a reality. The sad reality, however, is that many experts say GMO labeling will not suffice in the overall fight against biotech due to the fact that GMO crops can easily contaminate nearby farms.
A new report finds thatthe GMO contamination issue is much more serious than previously thought, and the concerned experts couldn’t be more correct.
There have been numerous real-life cases of GMO contamination thus far, though most aren’t well known. One key example rests with Australian farmer Steve Marsh, an organic farmer who sued a neighboring farmer for compensation after his field of non-GMO wheat was contaminated by Michael Baxter’s RoundUp Ready canola seeds. He took his case to the Supreme Court of Western Australia and lost.
Another example of GMO contamination can be seen with an unapproved strain of genetically modified wheat discovered in Oregon. The Roundup Ready strain was nixed in 2005 when global resistance to Monsanto forced the company to stop working on it. It was never approved for use, let along growing and exporting.
The claim by the biotech industry that GMO crops can be contained and kept away from organic farmers who have chosen not to use genetically modified ‘suicide’ seeds has steadily been proven false. A third of organic growers are now reporting problems with cross contamination, according to one survey. More than 80% of farmers who participated in the survey are ‘concerned’ about the impact of genetic seeds. About 60% are ‘very concerned.’
One organic farmer, Oren Holle, blames the USDA’s loving relationship with Monsanto:
“…the USDA has been extremely lax and, in our opinion, that’s due to the excessive influence of the biotech industry in political circles.”
The newly released report outlining the prevalence of GMO contamination, which can be found in the International Journal of Food Contamination, reports that by the end of 2013 and since 1997, 396 incidents of GMO cross-contamination across 63 countries had been recorded. Many of which had involved GM rice.
The Paper Makes the Following Main Points:
1. GMO contamination is unavoidable and will happen no matter what through nature.
2. Contamination will even occur via field trials or illegal plantings. The report references 9 cases of contamination of unauthorized GMO crops which have bypassed environmental and food safety testing.
3. Genetically modified rice made up about 33% of the contamination cases by crop. This is despite the fact that as of December 2012, GM rice hasn’t even become widely available for production or consumption. There is a global absence of any commercial cultivation of GM rice. The authors suggest this figure might be related to the routine testing of imports of GM rice at national borders.
4. It is difficult to contain and halt contamination after it has already happened.
5.“From these data, it’s not clear what the main factors affecting contamination rates are. It’s not only the GM contamination itself (cross-pollination, mix-ups etc.) that contributes to the number of cases, but also the the testing regime (both routine and targeted). The highest rates of contamination are in imported foodstuffs to Germany but this is probably because they do a lot of testing. All EU countries have high rates because they report their findings of the RASFF database. The data for contamination exists – but not the factors to analyse what influences contamination.”
6. The researchers conclude that for most experimental GMOs, there is no protocol for testing, which makes detection for contamination extremely difficult.
The report concluded:
“The detection of GMO contamination is dependent on both routine and targeted monitoring regimes, which appears to be inconsistent from country to country, even within the EU. The lack of an analytical methodology for the detection of GM crops at the field trial stage (i.e. pre-commercialisation) can hamper efforts to detect any contamination arising from such GM lines.”
Amazing. Well, I guess not really when you look at things through real eyes as opposed to rose colored glasses that pretend we aren’t actually functioning under global government. For those who love the founding principles of this country (the US of A) it is a very bitter pill to swallow when we realize that international edicts from unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats can control our towns, cities and states.
VIENNA (Reuters) – Moves by some U.S. states to legalize marijuana are not in line with international drugs conventions, the U.N. anti-narcotics chief said on Wednesday, adding he would discuss the issue in Washington next week.
Residents of Oregon, Alaska, and the U.S. capital voted this month to allow the use of marijuana, boosting the legalization movement as cannabis usage is increasingly recognized by the American mainstream.
“I don’t see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions,” Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters.
Asked whether there was anything the UNODC could do about it, Fedotov said he would raise the problem next week with the U.S. State Department and other U.N. agencies.
The Oregon and Alaska steps would legalize recreational cannabis use and usher in a network of shops similar to those operating in Washington state and Colorado, which in 2012 voted to become the first U.S. states to allow marijuana use for fun.
Marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law, although the Obama administration has said it was giving individual states leeway to carry out their own recreational-use statutes.
Fedotov suggested the U.S. developments may be part of a wider trend that he said the UNODC was following.
On the international level, Uruguay’s parliament in late 2013 approved a bill to legalize and regulate the production and sale of marijuana — the first country to do so.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has said Uruguay’s new bill contravened the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which it says requires states to limit the use of cannabis to medical and scientific purposes, due to its dependence-producing potential. The Vienna-based INCB monitors compliance with this and two other drug control treaties.
Whether they claim it is because the food isn’t from a “certified” kitchen, or that feeding homeless people keeps them from getting into the social services programs that “help” them, the bottom line is that governments want people to look to government for all provision. I applaud this man for standing up for right and decency in the face of governmental stupidity and overreach. It still comes down to the consent of the governed. We outnumber them, and their control is exactly as strong as we allow it to be. Share this article, please. It is linked in the title to the original page:
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –A 90-year-old Florida man was cited for a second time for illegally feeding the homeless.
Arnold Abbott and his team of chefs set up shop Wednesday night on Fort Lauderdale Beach and dished out free food to the homeless. Uniformed police were also there recording the event.
“They didn’t have the gumption to move in on us. They were afraid, afraid of public opinion,” said Abbott.
But Abbott was ultimately confronted by cops in the middle of an interview with Local 6 sister station WPLG-TV. Abbott was escorted away in front of a large crowd of his supporters. Instead of whisking the 90-year old to jail, police decided to just fingerprint Abbott and issue him a citation on the spot.
“It’s our right to feed people, it’s our First Amendment right and I believe in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and we should be allowed to feed our fellow man,” Abbott said.
After news broke of the first incident, Abbot said he’s received support from across the world.
“We’ve heard from every continent,” said Abbott. “The last I heard was from Kenya and Moscow. I’ve heard from South America, any number of people from Canada, three newspapers from the United Kingdom.”
Abbott was the first to be charged with a new ordinance that makes it a crime punishable by up to 60 days in jail to feed the homeless in public.
“I am both enthused and humbled,” Abbot said. “The good news is that there is pressure being put on the city of Fort Lauderdale to do something about a law that is not only unfair, it’s repressive.”
Mayor Jack Seiler, who supports the ordinance, said he’s gotten massive feedback as well. He said the law is meant to help the homeless, not to keep them from eating.
“Mr. Abbott has decided that he doesn’t think these individuals should have to have any interaction with government, that they should be fed in the parks. We disagree,” Seiler said.
Abbott said there aren’t adequate government services or food to deal with the homeless.
“What the city is doing by cutting out feeding is very simple — they are forcing homeless people to go Dumpster-diving all over again,” Abbott said. “They will steal. That’s what the mayor is forcing the homeless to do.”
And while Abbott said he wants to compromise with the city, he expects to be charged again.
“I love the city. I live here, it’s a beautiful place and I’d like to keep it beautiful, but you cannot sweep the homeless under a rug,” he said. “There is no rug large enough for that.”
“It’s a pubic safety issue. It’s a public health issue,” said Seiler. “The experts have all said that if you’re going to feed them to get them from breakfast to lunch to dinner, all you’re doing is enabling that cycle of homelessness. They don’t interact with anyone, they don’t receive the aid that they need.”
Abbott was asked if he would return to the beach.
“You bet your life,” Abbott replied. “I’ll fight for the beach as long as there’s breath in my body.”
This is some pretty scary stuff here. Actually physically re-posessing a vehicle is an entirely different ball game. Guess I will never get a car loan. Read the article below:
The thermometer showed a 103.5-degree fever, and her 10-year-old’s asthma was flaring up. Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start.
The cause was not a mechanical problem — it was her lender.
Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to pay more than $389, money she did not have that morning in March.
“I felt absolutely helpless,” said Ms. Bolender, a single mother who stopped working to care for her daughter. It was not the only time this happened: Her car was shut down that March, once in April and again in June.
This new technology is bringing auto loans — and Wall Street’s version of Big Brother — into the lives of people with credit scores battered by the financial downturn.
Auto loans to borrowers considered subprime, those with credit scores at or below 640, have spiked in the last five years. The jump has been driven in large part by the demand among investors for securities backed by the loans, which offer high returns at a time of low interest rates. Roughly 25 percent of all new auto loans made last year were subprime, and the volume of subprime auto loans reached more than $145 billion in the first three months of this year.
But before they can drive off the lot, many subprime borrowers like Ms. Bolender must have their car outfitted with a so-called starter interrupt device, which allows lenders to remotely disable the ignition. Using the GPS technology on the devices, the lenders can also track the cars’ location and movements.
The devices, which have been installed in about two million vehicles, are helping feed the subprime boom by enabling more high-risk borrowers to get loans. But there is a big catch. By simply clicking a mouse or tapping a smartphone, lenders retain the ultimate control. Borrowers must stay current with their payments, or lose access to their vehicle.
Photo
Credit
“I have disabled a car while I was shopping at Walmart,” said Lionel M. Vead Jr., the head of collections at First Castle Federal Credit Union in Covington, La. Roughly 30 percent of customers with an auto loan at the credit union have starter interrupt devices.
Now used in about one-quarter of subprime auto loans nationwide, the devices are reshaping the dynamics of auto lending by making timely payments as vital to driving a car as gasoline.
Seizing on such technological advances, lenders are reachingdeeper and deeper into the ranks of Americans on the financial margins, with interest rates on some of the loans exceeding 29 percent. Concerns raised by regulators and some rating firms about loose lending standards have disturbing echoes of the subprime-mortgage crisis.
As the ignition devices proliferate, so have complaints from troubled borrowers, many of whom are finding that credit comes at a steep price to their privacy and, at times, their dignity, according to interviews with state and federal regulators, borrowers and consumer lawyers.
Some borrowers say their cars were disabled when they were only a few days behind on their payments, leaving them stranded in dangerous neighborhoods. Others said their cars were shut down while idling at stoplights. Some described how they could not take their children to school or to doctor’s appointments. One woman in Nevada said her car was shut down while she was driving on the freeway.
Beyond the ability to disable a vehicle, the devices have tracking capabilities that allow lenders and others to know the movements of borrowers, a major concern for privacy advocates. And the warnings the devices emit — beeps that become more persistent as the due date for the loan payment approaches — are seen by some borrowers as more degrading than helpful.
“No middle-class person would ever be hounded for being a day late,” said Robert Swearingen, a lawyer with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, in St. Louis. “But for poor people, there is a debt collector right there in the car with them.”
Lenders and manufacturers of the technology say borrowers consent to having these devices installed in their cars. And without them, they say, millions of Americans might not qualify for a car loan at all.
A Virtual Repo Man
Photo
“I have disabled a car while I was shopping at Walmart,” said Lionel M. Vead Jr., the head of collections at First Castle Credit Union in Covington, La., who said that starter interrupt devices and GPS tracking technology had made his job easier.Credit Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times
From his office outside New Orleans, Mr. Vead can monitor the movements of about 880 subprime borrowers on a computerized map that shows the location of their cars with a red marker. Mr. Vead can spot drivers who have fallen behind on their payments and remotely disable their vehicles on his computer or mobile phone.
The devices are reshaping how people like Mr. Vead collect on debts. He can quickly locate the collateral without relying on a repo man to hunt down delinquent borrowers.
Gone are the days when Mr. Vead, a debt collector for nearly 20 years, had to hire someone to scour neighborhoods for cars belonging to delinquent borrowers. Sometimes locating one could take years. Now, within minutes of a car’s ignition being disabled, Mr. Vead said, the borrower calls him offering to pay.
“It gets their attention,” he said.
Mr. Vead, who has a coffee cup that reads “The GPS Man,” has been encouraging other credit unions to use the technology. And the devices — one version was first used to help pet owners keep track of their animals — are catching on with a range of subprime auto lenders, including companies backed by private equity firms and credit unions.
Photo
Using his computer or cellphone, Mr. Vead can monitor the movements of about 880 subprime borrowers, and if they are late in making a payment, he can disable their vehicles.Credit Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times
Mr. Vead says that first, he tries reaching a delinquent borrower on the phone or in person. Then, only after at least 30 days of missed payments, he typically shuts down cars when they are parked at the borrower’s house or workplace. If there is an emergency, he says, he will turn a car back on.
None of the borrowers or consumer lawyers interviewed by The New York Times raised concerns about the way Mr. Vead’s credit union uses the devices. But other lenders, they said, were not as considerate, marooning drivers in far-flung places and often giving no advance notice of a shut-off. Lenders say that they exercise caution when disabling vehicles and that the devices enable them to extend more credit.
Without the use of such devices, said John Pena, general manager of C.A.G. Acceptance, “we would be unable to extend loans because of the high-risk nature of the loans.”
The growth in the subprime market has been good for the devices’ manufacturers. At Lender Systems of Temecula, Calif., which sells a range of starter interrupt devices, revenue has more than doubled so far this year, buoyed by an influx of new credit union customers, said David Sailors, the company’s executive vice president.
Mr. Sailors noted that GPS tracking on his company’s devices could be turned on only when borrowers were in default — a policy, he said, that has cost it business.
The devices, manufacturers say, are selling well because they are proving effective in coaxing payments from even the most troubled borrowers.
A leading device maker, PassTime of Littleton, Colo., says its technology has reduced late payments to roughly 7 percent from nearly 29 percent. Spireon, which offers a GPS device called the Talon, has a tool on its website where lenders can calculate their return on capital.
Fears of Surveillance
Credit
While the devices make life easier for lenders, their ability to track drivers’ movements has struck a nerve with a number of borrowers and some government authorities, who say they are a particularly troubling example of personal-data gathering and surveillance.
At its extreme, consumer lawyers say, such surveillance can compromise borrowers’ safety. In Austin, Tex., a large subprime lender used a device to track down and repossess the car of a woman who had fled to a shelter to escape her abusive husband, said her lawyer, Amy Clark Kleinpeter.
The move to the shelter violated a clause in her auto loan contract that restricted her from driving outside a four-county radius, and that prompted the lender to send a tow truck to take back the vehicle. If the lender could so easily locate the client, Ms. Kleinpeter said, what was stopping her husband?
“She was terrified her husband would be able to find out where she was from the tow truck company,” said Ms. Kleinpeter, a consumer lawyer in Austin, who said a growing number of her clients had the devices installed in their cars.
Lenders and manufacturers emphasize that they have strict guidelines in place to protect drivers’ information. The GPS devices, they say, are predominantly intended to help lenders and car dealerships locate a car if they need to repossess it, not to put borrowers under surveillance.
Spireon says it can help lenders identify signs of trouble by analyzing data on a borrower’s behavior. Lenders using Spireon’s software can create “geo-fences” that alert them if borrowers are no longer traveling to their regular place of employment — a development that could affect a person’s ability to repay the loan.
A Spireon spokeswoman said the company takes privacy seriously and works to ensure that it complies with all state regulations.
Corinne Kirkendall, vice president for compliance and public relations for PassTime, which has sold 1.5 million devices worldwide, says the company also calls lenders “if we see an excessive use” of the tracking device.
Even though the device made her squeamish, Michelle Fahy of Jacksonville, Fla., agreed to have one installed in her 2001 Dodge Ram because she needed the pickup truck for her job delivering pizza.
Shortly after picking up her four children from school one afternoon in January, Ms. Fahy, 42, said she pulled into a gas station to fill up. But when she tried to restart the truck, she was not able to do so.
Then she looked at her cellphone and noticed a string of missed calls from her lender. She called back and asked, “Did you just shut down my truck?” and the response was “Yes, I did.”
To get her truck restarted, Ms. Fahy had to agree to pay the $255.99 she owed. As she pleaded for more time, her children grew confused and worried. “They were in panic mode,” she said. Finally, she said she would pay, and within minutes she was able to start her engine.
Borrowers are typically provided with codes that are supposed to restart the vehicle for 24 hours in case of an emergency. But some drivers say the codes fail. Others say they are given only one code a month, even though their cars are shut down more often.
Some drivers take matters into their own hands. Homemade videos on the Internet teach borrowers how to disable their devices, and Spireon has started selling lenders a fake GPS device called the Decoy, which is meant to trick borrowers into thinking they have removed the actual tracking system, which is installed along with the Decoy.
Oscar Fabela Jr., who said his 2007 Dodge Magnum was routinely shut down even when he was current on his $362 monthly car payment, discovered a way to circumvent the system.
That trick came in handy when he returned from seeing a movie with a date, only to find his car would not start and the payment reminder was screaming like a burglar alarm.
“It sounded like I was breaking into my own car,” said Mr. Fabela, 26, who works at a phone company in San Antonio.
While his date turned the ignition switch, Mr. Fabela used a screwdriver to rig the starter, allowing him to bypass the starter interruption device.
Mr. Fabela’s car eventually started, but it was their only date.
“It didn’t end well,” he said.
Government Scrutiny
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“I felt like even though I made my payments and was never late under my contract, these people could do whatever they wanted,” said T. Candice Smith, who testified before the Nevada Legislature that her car, which had a starter interrupt device installed, was shut down while she was driving on a Las Vegas freeway, nearly causing her to crash.Credit John Gurzinski for The New York Times
Across the country, state and federal authorities are grappling with how to regulate the new technology.
Consumer lawyers, including dozens whose clients’ cars have been shut down, argue that the devices amount to “electronic repossession” and their use should be governed by state laws, which outline how much time borrowers have before their cars can be seized.
State laws governing repossession typically prevent lenders from seizing cars until the borrowers are in default, which often means that they have not made their payments for at least 30 days.
The devices, lawyers for borrowers argue, violate those laws because they may effectively repossess the car only days after a missed payment. Payment records show that Ms. Bolender, the Las Vegas mother with the sick daughter, was not in default in any of the four instances her ignition was disabled this year.
PassTime and the other manufacturers say they ensure that their devices comply with state laws. C.A.G. declined to comment on Ms. Bolender’s experiences.
State regulators are also examining whether a defective device could endanger the borrowers or other drivers on the road, according to people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Last year, Nevada’s Legislature heard testimony from T. Candice Smith, 31, who said she thought she was going to die when her car suddenly shut down, sending her careening across a three-lane Las Vegas highway.
“It was horrifying,” she recalled.
Ms. Smith said that her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance, had remotely activated her ignition interruption device.
“It’s a safety hazard for the driver and for all others on the road,” said her lawyer, Sophia A. Medina, with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.
Mr. Pena of C.A.G. Acceptance said, “It is impossible to cause a vehicle to shut off while it is operating,” He added, “We take extra precautions to try and work with and be professional with our customers.” While PassTime, the device’s maker, declined to comment on Ms. Smith’s case, the company emphasized that its products were designed to prevent a car from starting, not to shut it down while it was in operation.
“PassTime has no recognition of our devices shutting off a customer while driving,” Ms. Kirkendall of PassTime said.
In her testimony, Ms. Smith, who reached a confidential settlement with C.A.G., said the device made her feel helpless.
“I felt like even though I made my payments and was never late under my contract, these people could do whatever they wanted,” she testified, “and there was nothing I could do to stop them.”
DRIVEN INTO DEBT Articles in this series are examining the boom in subprime auto loans.
This is perhaps the best advertising money can’t buy. If you don’t already get these companies products, you might want to.
Remember it took the FDA 30 years to admit that vitamin C was helpful in combatting another virus…the common cold. BTW, I just started with doTerra. So if you want to get into that, please feel free to email me about it. Young Living has the MOST phenomenal product for helping with eye issues, it’s called Ningxia Juice and it has been tremendously helpful in halting ocular migraines. I can also help get you into that line, although I am not a member. Dr. Rima has been fighting the FDA longer than many of us have been alive. While I haven’t used their products, I think I am going to get some.
I guess I take the contrarian position to the US Federal Government’s agencies. If they are against it, there might very well be good reason to use it. If they recommend it, probably best to stay away from it. Also, my opinions, experiences, thoughts and existence have not been tested, approved, proven effective, nor sanctioned by the FDA.
This photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection shows the Ebola virus. (CDC via Associated Press)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent letters to three companies this week, warning them against marketing their products as possible treatments or cures for Ebola. The letters, posted online on Wednesday, document multiple claims from the companies or their paid representatives that essential oils and other natural remedies can “help prevent your contracting the Ebola virus” and in at least one instance, “effectively kill the Ebola virus.”
There are currently no approved treatments, cures or vaccines for Ebola.
Natural Solutions Foundation, Young Living, and dōTERRA International LLC all produce products that were promoted on the Web as cures for a variety of ailments, all without FDA approval. The products in question, the letters note, are not FDA-approved drugs, yet their marketing makes the sort of claims that only approved drugs may make — that they can be used to treat, mitigate, prevent and cure diseases.
According to the three letters, those promotions — either on Web sites owned by the companies or on sites and accounts used by paid “consultants” promoting and selling the products — included Pinterest messages, Facebook postings and blog posts claiming products such as “CBD Organic Dark Chocolate Bars,” “Clary Sage” essential oils and the “Family Protection Pack” can do what has not yet been done: Treat, cure or prevent the deadly Ebola virus.
In one letter, to doTERRA, the FDA outlined the extent of those claims:
“Your consultants promote your above mentioned dōTERRA Essential Oil products for conditions including, but not limited to, viral infections (including ebola), bacterial infections, cancer, brain injury, autism, endometriosis, Grave’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, tumor reduction, ADD/ADHD, and other conditions that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners. Moreover, your consultants redirect consumers to your website, http://www.doterra.com, to register as a customer or member (i.e., consultant), and to purchase your dōTERRA Essential Oil products.”
According to the FDA, these promotions — especially ones related to Ebola — are inaccurate but not unexpected. “Oftentimes with public health incidences, like Ebola or even during H1n1, we see products that are marketed, often online, that claim to treat or cure the disease…without FDA approval,” FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Yao said in an interview, adding that “these sorts of things pop up” in almost any public health crisis.
In August, as the Ebola outbreak was accelerating in West Africa, the agency issued a preemptive warning to consumers, emphasizing that there is no FDA-approved vaccine or drug for the prevention or treatment of Ebola. The letters issued this week are something of a follow-up to that concern, Yao said, based on the results of online monitoring from the agency’s health fraud unit. The FDA will continue to monitor for similar claims.
Here is a sample of one such post, which was at the time this article was published available here:
theoildropper.com
Written by a paid consultant (referred to as a “member”) for Young Living, the post goes on to tout the possible benefits of a few oils sold by the company: “The Higley Essential Oil Reference guide mentions that the Ebola Virus can not live in the presence of cinnamon bark (this is in Thieves) nor Oregano. I would definitely add those two oils to whatever I was using.”
It adds: “I pray we don’t have to hear about this virus coming to the U.S. but if you travel outside of our country or know someone who goes to Africa or lives in Africa, maybe you could send them a care package of Young Living essential oils!”
In a statement provided to The Washington Post, a spokesman for Young Living said that the company was “cooperating fully with the FDA regarding its inquiry.” Young Living “members,” the statement continued, “are provided specific instructions on how to promote our products to their customers. In the coming days we will be contacting all our membership to ensure that they understand how to best use our products and remain compliant with regulatory directives.
“We have already contacted each of the Members cited in the FDA letter to help get them into compliance.”
One company targeted by the FDA, Natural Solutions Foundation, had materials on related Web sites promoting the company’s products as cures to several serious diseases and viruses, including Ebola.
On one YouTube video posted to the Natural Solutions Foundation account, the written text complains that the “WHO, FDA, the New York Times, etc., have gone on a rampage of disonformation [sic] to keep you in the dark about natural ways to dispose of dangerous microbes without damaging your beneficial bacteria.”
The video features Rima Laibow, the company’s medical director, claiming that the Natural Solutions product, Nano Silver, can “inactivate viruses like the HIV Virus, the Hepatitis B and C virus, Influenza viruses like H1N1, and Ebola virus.”
According to the FDA, all three companies have 15 days to respond to the documented violations and notify the agency of any corrective actions. If the companies are unable to correct those violations within 15 days, they’re required to explain why and provide a timeline for completion.
If they don’t take corrective action, the FDA could take any number of enforcement actions against the companies. Those include seizure, or possible criminal charges.
We’ve reached out to all three FDA-warned companies for comment.
Below is the story and the link is in the title at the top as well as the full url at the bottom of this article. Of importance, particularly in Missouri, Michigan is a “Right to Farm” state. Since they have the “Right to Farm” Michigan small holders have been under more attacks by zoning and phenotype regulations that any other state that I know about. The “Right to Farm” very quickly becomes, “Zoning and Confiscation Rights for Government”. This seems to never happen to CAFO’s though. Please read and share this story:
Ray Swan owns a 70-acre farm in Erie Township, Michigan. He owns and collects antique farming equipment that he often uses on his property. Some residents don’t like looking at the antiques or the condition of his yard, however. Earlier this year, Erie Township decided to take Mr. Swan to court to force him to make his land more presentable. Swan has been told he needs to cut his grass and remove the garbage. The garbage they are referring to, Swan says, is his farming equipment.
“In the lawsuit it’s called ‘garbage,’ ‘refuse’ and ‘trash,’” Swan toldFarm World. “They wouldn’t give me the respect of calling them antiques. This is historical machinery; it’s not a junkyard and it’s not trash.”
The Erie Township farmer has until September 18 to remove his antique farm equipment from his 70-acre farm, or the township will come onto his farm, hold an auction, and sell the equipment they don’t feel should be on his property.
According to Township council meeting minutes, Mr. Swan tried to discuss the matter publicly at a council meeting in February. He does not use social media and can not spread the word the way other Michigan Farmers have when their township residents complained. Swan is not the only farmer in Michigan who has to battle neighbors’ complaints.
In July, an Air Force vet in Bay County had to fight for the right to raise chickens on his nine-acre farm. This summer, a Williamston Township farmer was held in contempt of court for failing to remove her livestock, citing her “Right To Farm” and apparent GAAMPs compliance.
Erie Township Supervisor Bill Frey told Farm World that Swan’s property has been a problem for the township for two years. The Erie Township Supervisor Frey said the farming equipment is “quite old. He has a lot of it sitting in his front yard. His grass isn’t mowed.”
A judge ruled that, at that time, Swan wasn’t protected under Michigan’s Right to Farm Act because he hasn’t proven that he was using the Michigan standards covered under the Generally Accepted Agriculture and Management Practices.
“The township said they’d allow one tractor, one disc and one sprayer for my operation,” Swan told Farm World. The judge sided with the township, except told the Erie Township farmer he could have three tractors for his 70-acre farm instead of just one.
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) official Tim Kwiakowski refused to talk with the journalist Kevin Walker about Swan’s case, citing confidentiality issues.
Erie Township has a website with contact information and township news. It also has the new Erie Township Master Plan uploaded. Adopted in 2012, the plan still places Swan’s property in an area zoned “Rural Agricultural.” The Master Plan states that it seeks to protect and maintain the culture of the township’s history and to actively encourage “the continuation of local farming operations and the long-term protection of farmland resources.”
The introduction to the Erie Township Master Plan explains surveyed residents mostly believed that “rural places represent history, tradition, family, culture and nature.” The summary states that the “one clear message” from the Erie Townships survey was that the rural character and historical farming atmosphere of Erie Township were exceptionally valued.
Just to be clear, I do not have a crystal ball, but I have previously published documents and articles that clearly indicate this is an option here in the US. Some are saying this is scheduled for Septemeber 2nd of this year. Please, if you are blessed enough to have any money in the banks, hedge against this and buy hard assets. This isn’t good, and there is precedent for it:
U.S. Preparing Bank Bail-Ins – Fed Vice Chair Fischer
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer delivered his first speech on the U.S. and global economy in Stockholm, Sweden yesterday.
Fischer headed Israel’s central bank from 2005 through 2013 and is now number two at the Federal Reserve in the U.S. after Janet Yellen.
In a speech entitled, The Great Recession: Moving Ahead, given at an event sponsored by the Swedish Ministry of Finance, Fischer said that the economic recovery has been and remains “disappointing.”
“The recession that began in the United States in December 2007 ended in June 2009. But the Great Recession is a near-worldwide phenomenon, with the consequences of which many advanced economies–among them Sweden–continue to struggle. Its depth and breadth appear to have changed the economic environment in many ways and to have left the road ahead unclear.”
Speaking about the steps that have been taken internationally in order to “strengthen the financial system” and to reduce the “probability of future financial crisis,” Fischer said that the U.S. was preparing proposals for bank bail-ins for “systemically important banks.”
“Additional steps have been taken in some countries. For example, in the United States, capital ratios and liquidity buffers at the largest banks are up considerably, and their reliance on short-term wholesale funding has declined considerably. Work on the use of the resolution mechanisms set out in the Dodd-Frank Act, based on the principle of a single point of entry–though less advanced than the work on capital and liquidity ratios–holds the promise of making it possible to resolve banks in difficulty at no direct cost to the taxpayer.
As part of this approach, the United States is preparing a proposal to require systemically important banks to issue bail-inable long-term debt that will enable insolvent banks to recapitalize themselves in resolution without calling on government funding–this cushion is known as a “gone concern” buffer.”
Fischer’s comments that the U.S. is “preparing a proposal” for bail-ins is at odds with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Bank of England officials who have said that bail-in legislation could be used today.
The U.S. already has in place plans for bail-ins in the event of banks failing. Indeed, the U.S. has conducted simulation exercises with the U.K. in 2013 and again this year.
On October 12 2013, Art Murton, the FDIC official in charge of planning for resolutions, and the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Paul Tucker, both confirmed that the U.S. system is ready to handle a big-bank collapse.
The Bank of England’s Tucker, who has worked with U.S. regulators on the cross-border hurdles to taking down an international bank said that “U.S. authorities could do it today — and I mean today.”
There is speculation that were Yellen to retire early Fischer would be anointed as the new Federal Reserve Chairman.
Fischer who previously was chief economist at the World Bank, also makes it clear that he expects ultra loose monetary policies to continue in the U.S.which will be bullish for gold and silver.
Truth Farmer 
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