From an article on Treehugger:

Her garden consists of 5 raised beds, where she grows a mix of squashes, corn, tomatoes, flowers, and other veggies. Bass received a warning from the city telling her to remove the vegetable garden, because it doesn’t adhere to city ordinances (more on that later.) When she refused, she was ticketed and charged with a misdemeanor. Her trial, before a jury, is set to begin on July 26th. If she is found guilty, she can be sentenced to up to 93 days in jail.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/michigan_woman_faces_jail_planting_veggie_garden.php

From an article on Global Research:

Now a new international scientific team headed by Prof. Andres Carrasco and including researchers from the UK, Brazil, USA, and Argentina have demonstrated that Glyphosate, the main active ingredient in Roundup causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying and well below maximum residue levels in products presently approved in the European Union.[1] The Carrasco group was led to research the embryonic effects of glyphosate by reports of high rates of birth defects in rural areas of Argentina where Monsanto’s genetically modified “Roundup Ready” (RR) soybeans are grown in large monocultures sprayed from airplanes regularly. RR soy is engineered to tolerate Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the herbicide liberally to kill weeds while the crop is growing.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21251

Documentation for “My Check” —

http://www.ewg.org/release/administration-stacks-panel-big-oil-and-gas

Administration Stacks Panel With Big Oil and Gas

The Obama administration panel named May 5 to study hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling technique that injects thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water into the ground, is dominated by oil and gas industry professionals.

Notably, the panel does not include citizens from communities concerned about the damage to health, water and private property posed by the surge in natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

“An industry insider like John Deutch is completely unacceptable to lead this panel,” Environmental Working Group Senior Counsel Dusty Horwitt said. “It looks as if the Obama Administration has already reached the conclusion that fracking is safe.”
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

The prestigious Society of Professional Journalists’ 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism has been awarded to Code Green by Stephanie McMillan in the editorial cartooning category. Code Green is the only syndicated editorial cartoon in the U.S. about environmental issues.

Judges chose the winners from over 1,400 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2010.

McMillan of Fort Lauderdale, FL, submitted an entry of cartoons published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times.

During the past year, Code Green has covered:

• The Gulf of Mexico oil spill
• Fukushima nuclear plant disaster
• Global warming
• Fossil fuels and alternative power sources
• Environmental regulations, global agreements and government corruption
• The pacifying roles of “Big Green” non-profits and lifestyle activism
• Sources of pollution, such as mining
• Contaminated water and food

“It is a great honor for me to receive the Sigma Delta Chi Award. I would like to thank the Society of Professional Journalists for recognizing my work and supporting my efforts to bring public attention to the environmental emergency and the need to respond effectively,” said McMillan.

Code Green is available for publication at reasonable rates.
View samples at stephaniemcmillan.org/codegreen

From an article in National Parks Traveler: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2011/01/group-urges-nps-director-jarvis-reject-orv-plan-big-cypress-national-preserve7428

“”A new survey of the Big Cypress National Preserve shows that the vascular flora consists of 145 families and 851 species. Of these, 72 are listed by the State of Florida as endangered or threatened plants, while many others are on the margins of their ranges. The survey also shows 158 species of exotic plants within the Preserve, some of which imperil native species by competing with them. Finally, we compare the flora of the Big Cypress National Preserve with those of the nearby Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve and the Everglades National Park. Although Big Cypress is less than half the size of Everglades National Park, it has 90% of the native species richness.”"

“A US department of energy report warned on 15 December that, in the absence of mines such as this one, America risks losing control over the production of a host of technologies, from smart phones to smart bombs, electric car batteries to wind turbines, because of a virtual Chinese monopoly on the rare earth metals essential to their production.”

“Rare earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future,” by Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian UK, Sunday 26 December 2010

For the rest of the article, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/26/rare-earth-metals-us

From Overthrowing the Profit System to Not for Profit
The rise of NGOs and the decline of mass movements

When: Saturday, January 8, 2011 3:00 PM

Where: Florida International University, room WUC 155
3000 N.E. 151st Street
North Miami FL 33181

The past forty years have seen an explosion in the growth of NGOs. The World Bank
estimates that nearly 15% of all overseas development aid is now channeled through
NGOs. At the same time, we have seen a precipitous decline in mass social movements.

One Stuggle South Florida is hosting a discussion on the rise of the NGO and the fall of mass movements. Our hope is to foster an inter-organizational dialogue to
raise awareness of the NGO trap and how together we can rebuild mass movements for justice, social change, and popular power.

Join us to help find a way forward.

I. Intro

A. Definition

B. Scope

II. NGOS as Agents of Capitalism

A. Enables capitalists to shield wealth from taxation

B. Gives capitalists another mechanism of control

C. Shifts goals from structural change to charity (part 1)

III. NGOs as Agents of the State

A. Anti-violence programs

B. Shifts social programs from state to NGOs

1. Workforce One

2. Faith Based Aid

IV. NGOs as Agents of Imperialism

A. Shifts goals from structural change to charity (part 2)

1. Haiti

2. Cultural programs

3. Micro-loans

4. Population control

B. Supports imperial agenda

1. Fundamentalist religious revivals

2. Save the women, i.e., brown women from brown men.

V. NGOs as Agents of Demobilization

A. Gives donors control of agenda

1. Civil Rights Movement

2. INCITE

3. Changes focus from movement building to social work.

B. Professionalization of movement work

1. Changes oppressed from subject to object

2. Requires everything to be packaged at successes to continue funding, rather

than dropping failed strategies

C. Shifts goals from structural change to charity (part 3)

1. Better Policing, not community control

2. Conservation, not environmentalism

3. Job training not unions

D. NGO Problems

1. Scams: How to “Save the World” and make a profit

2. Exploitation of workers

VI. Conclusion

A. What is to be done?

Here’s an interview I did on Terra Verde, KPFA: kpfa.org/archive/id/66270

Topics: cartoons, revolutionary politics, thought experiments through storytelling, the nature of capitalism, the need for a diversity of approaches to defeating it.

The Cartoon Movement is featuring one of my cartoons today!
www.cartoonmovement.com/

Here is a cartoon that I drew for the Sun-Sentinel.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hear arguments for and against FPL’s proposal to build two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. The meeting will be held 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday, 11/19, at Homestead City Hall, 790 N. Homestead Blvd.

For info about why more nuclear reactors would be a bad idea, see case-fl.org.

“Mischief in the Forest”
A children’s book written by Derrick Jensen, and illustrated by me.
Hardcover. 40 pages of cuteness. $15.
Free shipping in the US.
(Email me for international shipping charges: steph@minimumsecurity.net).

Summary from the back cover:

“Grandma Johnson lives alone in the forest and loves to knit sweaters for her grandchildren in the city. One day, after returning from a visit with them, her solitude comes to an end — someone has taken her yarn! The mystery is solved in a colorful fashion when Grandma Johnson sees the bears, birds, rabbits, trees and other forest dwellers playing with the yarn. Suddenly, the forest doesn’t seem so lonely, and the visiting grandkids take great delight in getting to know its inhabitants.

“This picture book is a lesson for both young and old to connect with one’s surroundings and embrace the role of good neighbors with the rest of the natural world, whether in the city or in the forest.”

UN scientists estimate 150-200 species going extinct per day. I used the number 175, and assumed a 10% reduction right away to conservatively calculate the number of 574,875.

The UN treaty, signed 10/30/10, was pathetically weak; even then the US did not sign it, because they never ratified the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

More info: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/30

* * *
Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief
John Vidal, Guardian.co.uk
Aug. 16, 2010

Excerpt:

“What we are seeing today is a total disaster,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. “No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years.”

Industrialisation, population growth, the spread of cities and farms and climate change are all now threatening the fundamentals of life itself, said Djoghlaf, in London before a key UN meeting where governments are expected to sign up to a more ambitious agreement to protect nature.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security

A man has 20-year-old McDonald’s hamburgers in his basement. They do not decompose. Here’s an article about it:

* * *

Why McDonald’s Happy Meal hamburgers won’t decompose – the real story behind the story
Sunday, October 17, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

An excerpt:

To me, there’s not much mystery about the meat not decomposing. The real question in my mind is why don’t the buns mold? That’s the really scary part, since healthy bread begins to mold within days. What could possibly be in McDonald’s hamburger buns that would ward off microscopic life for more than two decades?

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

For the rest of the article, click here: http://www.naturalnews.com/030074_Happy_Meal_decompose.html

An editor wanted this cartoon revised for clarity. I do think it’s better now.

A Turkish website has translated one of my recent Code Green cartoons: http://yabanil.net/?p=1448

Thanks to Serhat!

The powerful coalition that wants to engineer the world’s climate

Businessmen, scientists and right-wing thinktanks are joining forces to promote ‘geo-engineering’ ideas to cool the planet’s climate

by Clive Hamilton
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 September 2010

Read the article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/13/geoengineering-coalition-world-climate

* * *
Excerpts and my comments:

Or dark-coloured forests could be converted into light-coloured grasslands that reflect more sunlight.

Cut down forests to save the environment — they’re really saying this? They’ll do anything to avoid slowing down their profit-machine global economy.

Economically it is an extremely attractive substitute because its cost is estimated to be ‘trivial’ compared to those of cutting carbon pollution.

They deny global warming until it’s too late, then suddenly it’s an emergency only they can solve by insane means.

A year ago an article about this came out in the NYT with the tone of “geoengineering is an interesting crazy idea that no one believes will ever happen.” As soon as they did that, it was clear what the direction of it would be. They always float out new outrageous things as “crazy ideas that they would never do” to get the public used to it, to prepare us for later shoving it down our throats.

We need to stop these people.

A review of “As the World Burns” appears in the Turkish national newspaper Gazete Vatan.

Thank you to Serhat Elfun Demirkol for the translation!

Book in my Bag

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