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Interview with Steve Zeltzer of the
No Nuke Action Committee [http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/]
We'll hear about their campaign to close the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, owned by PG&E, a company known to bribe government regulatory agencies to hide their horrendous track record of dangerous management practices, including at the Nuclear Power Plant. He also asks that we support the People of Japan in their efforts to prevent the re-opening of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, whose reactor had blown up, releasing radioactive contaminants into the Pacific Ocean, due to shoddy construction by GE Corp. on top of an earthquake faultline!
No Nukes Action Committee is sponsering a public gathering taking place January 20th in Berkeley concerning a report from Fukushima by activist Cheiko Shiina. More info at [https://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/12015-report-in-berkeley-from-fukushima-by-chieko-shiina/]. Photo showing Cheiko Shiina at a No Nuke rally in Japan.
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More NO NUKES! news -
Check out the Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) [www.trivalleycares.org], Promoting cleanup and stopping nuclear weapons where they start, at Lawrence-Livermore Lab in the Bay Area!
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* "Small island nation calls on nuclear powers to disarm" (2015-01-08) [http://peoplesworld.org/small-island-nation-calls-on-nuclear-powers-to-disarm/] [https://archive.today/FQRlM]
STAND WITH THE MARSHALL ISLANDS - HEARING IN OAKLAND FEDERAL COURT TOMORROW
The U.S. motion to dismiss in the lawsuit brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against the United States for its failure to disarm pursuant to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and customary international law will be heard tomorrow, Friday, January 16, at 9:00 am in US Federal District Court in the Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street.
The hearing is in Courtroom 5, 2nd Floor. (http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/CEO/cfd.aspx?7139)
There will be a small dignified vigil on Clay Street, in front of the Federal Building, on the public sidewalk at 8:30 am, to show our support for the Marshall Islands, nuclear disarmament heroes.
You are invited to join us for the vigil and to witness the hearing. We will not be disruptive. Our tone will be dignified and respectful in solidarity with the courageous people and government
of the Marshall Islands.
From 1946 – 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear test explosions in its then trust territory, the Marshall Islands, the equivalent of 1.7 Hiroshima bombs detonated daily for 12 years.
On April 24, 2014 the Marshall Islands filed landmark cases in the International Court of Justice claiming that the nine nuclear-armed nations have failed to comply with their obligations, under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and customary international law, to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. It filed a separate case against the United States in US Federal District Court.
The Nuclear Zero Lawsuits call upon the nuclear weapon nations to urgently fulfill their moral duty and legal obligation to begin negotiations for complete nuclear disarmament.
Support the Marshall Islands by signing the petition at [http://nuclearzero.org/learn#lastone]
Read the Dec. 27, 2014 New York Times article, A Former Ground Zero Goes to Court Against the World’s Nuclear Arsenals at [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/world/a-former-ground-zero-goes-to-court-against-the-worlds-nuclear-arsenals-.html] [https://archive.today/3fYkm]
You can read the complaint filed by the Marshall Islands against the United States at [http://www.wagingpeace.org/documents/us_complaint.pdf]
For all the court documents, including those filed in the International Court of Justice, see [http://nuclearzero.org/in-the-courts]
For more information about the Nuclear Zero lawsuits visit [www.nuclearzero.org]
---
* "Fukushima released 13,000,000,000 times more neutrons than initially estimated" [(2015-01-13) [http://enenews.com/fukushima-released-13000000000-times-neutrons-initially-estimated] [https://archive.today/TbFHC]
---
Call for Endorsement of and Participation in Anti- Nuclear Plant Fukushima Action on March 11, 2015! Restart of nuclear power plants, war and dismissal: enough is enough! Let’s rise up and forge solidarity! [http://www.frontierweekly.com/reports/jan-15/1-1-15-Call%20for%20Endorsement.html] [https://archive.today/cUnlc]
Dr. King said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin — we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
* "Revolutionary Road, Partial Victory: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" [http://monthlyreview.org/2013/09/01/revolutionary-road-partial-victory/] [https://archive.today/66fK5], [begin excerpt]: The year 1963 was a high-water mark for the civil rights movement—the year of the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which drew hundreds of thousands to march for civil rights. But the march also set the stage for the opening of a what was perceived as second, far more radical, phase of the civil rights strategy, developed by the March’s organizers. This led to the development, over a three-year period, of the proposed Freedom Budget for All Americans. It projected nothing less than the elimination of all poverty and unemployment in the United States before the end of the 1970s. [end excerpt]
* "Martin Luther King’s 'Beyond Vietnam': The Madness of US Militarism. 'On the Side of the Wealthy, Creating a Hell for the Poor' " [http://www.globalresearch.ca/martin-luther-kings-beyond-vietnam-the-madness-of-us-militarism-on-the-side-of-the-wealthy-creating-a-hell-for-the-poor/5424458] [https://archive.today/HpFvD]
Following is Adapted from the call for Protest and Resistance on Jan. 15-19 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Weekend, issued by the ANSWER Coalition [https://archive.today/48IrC]: Having his life threatened by the FBI and finally being assassinated by the most reactionary elements in the United States, Dr. King was known in his later years as a staunch critic of the U.S. economic and political system that forced upon the Black nation poverty and violence, yet preached “liberty” and “democracy” abroad. The political establishment, from the White House to City Halls everywhere, will evoke Dr. Martin Luther King’s heroism and his “I Have a Dream Speech” as a way of legitimizing the tradition of dissent in U.S. history. Yet for the millions who have taken to the streets in reaction to the growing national movement against racist police terror, the words and legacy of Dr. King carry a different meaning. Today, after the killings of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Ezell Ford and so many more – all racist police killings of unarmed Black men who have received no justice by the same system Dr. King condemned years ago – the growing movement against racism and police terror can reclaim the radical tradition of one of the key figures of the civil rights movement.
---
Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by spreading "The Truth from The Trial"!
* "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcoZ3jMXrww]. Song by Vic Sadot [facebook.com/vic.sadot]. Updated with new soundtrack featuring Eric Golub on viola! The song is based on the book of the same title by King family lawyer, William Pepper. The book tells the story of the trial that Pepper won on behalf of the King family in 1999 in a Memphis court where a jury of 6 black and 6 white jurors unanimously found Loyd Jowers and unnamed government conspirators guilty of murdering Martin Luther King.
---
"An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, Jr.", a talk about the book of the same name by Dr. William Pepper.
[https://archive.org/details/William.Pepper.An.Act.of.State.The.Execution.of.MLK]
From WilliamPepper.com: Bill Pepper was a friend of Martin Luther King in the last year of his life. Some years after King's death, Bill Pepper went on to represent James Earl Ray in his guilty plea, and subsequent conviction. Pepper believes that Ray was framed by the federal government and that King was killed by a conspiracy that involved the FBI, the CIA, the military, the Memphis police and organized crime figures from New Orleans and Memphis.He later represented James Earl Ray in a televised mock trial in an attempt to get Ray the trial that he never had.
He then represented the King family in a wrongful death civil trial, King family vs. Loyd Jowers and "other unknown co-conspirators." During atrial that lasted four weeks Bill produced over seventy witnesses. Jowers, testifying by deposition, stated that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat, and not involved in the assassination. Jowers testified that Memphis police officer Earl Clark fired the fatal shots. On December 8, 1999, the Memphis jury found Jowers responsible and found that the assassination plot included also "governmental agencies." The jury took less than an hour to find in favor of the King family for the requested sum of $100.
* The Soapbox People's Network (SPN) weekly edition (2015-01-11) [https://archive.today/X3mEJ], with featured guest Larry Pinkney, a veteran of the original Black Panther Party, former political prisoner, university instructor, and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He is an editorial board member on The Black Commentator online news journal.
"CCDSLinks: Radical Ideas for Radical Change" newsletter (2015-01-09) [https://archive.today/7UDf3]
No Nukes Action Committee is sponsering a public gathering taking place January 20th in Berkeley concerning a report from Fukushima by activist Cheiko Shiina. More info at [https://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/12015-report-in-berkeley-from-fukushima-by-chieko-shiina/]. Photo showing Cheiko Shiina at a No Nuke rally in Japan.
---
More NO NUKES! news -
Check out the Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) [www.trivalleycares.org], Promoting cleanup and stopping nuclear weapons where they start, at Lawrence-Livermore Lab in the Bay Area!
---
* "Small island nation calls on nuclear powers to disarm" (2015-01-08) [http://peoplesworld.org/small-island-nation-calls-on-nuclear-powers-to-disarm/] [https://archive.today/FQRlM]
STAND WITH THE MARSHALL ISLANDS - HEARING IN OAKLAND FEDERAL COURT TOMORROW
The U.S. motion to dismiss in the lawsuit brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against the United States for its failure to disarm pursuant to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and customary international law will be heard tomorrow, Friday, January 16, at 9:00 am in US Federal District Court in the Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street.
The hearing is in Courtroom 5, 2nd Floor. (http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/CEO/cfd.aspx?7139)
There will be a small dignified vigil on Clay Street, in front of the Federal Building, on the public sidewalk at 8:30 am, to show our support for the Marshall Islands, nuclear disarmament heroes.
You are invited to join us for the vigil and to witness the hearing. We will not be disruptive. Our tone will be dignified and respectful in solidarity with the courageous people and government
of the Marshall Islands.
From 1946 – 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear test explosions in its then trust territory, the Marshall Islands, the equivalent of 1.7 Hiroshima bombs detonated daily for 12 years.
On April 24, 2014 the Marshall Islands filed landmark cases in the International Court of Justice claiming that the nine nuclear-armed nations have failed to comply with their obligations, under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and customary international law, to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. It filed a separate case against the United States in US Federal District Court.
The Nuclear Zero Lawsuits call upon the nuclear weapon nations to urgently fulfill their moral duty and legal obligation to begin negotiations for complete nuclear disarmament.
Support the Marshall Islands by signing the petition at [http://nuclearzero.org/learn#lastone]
Read the Dec. 27, 2014 New York Times article, A Former Ground Zero Goes to Court Against the World’s Nuclear Arsenals at [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/world/a-former-ground-zero-goes-to-court-against-the-worlds-nuclear-arsenals-.html] [https://archive.today/3fYkm]
You can read the complaint filed by the Marshall Islands against the United States at [http://www.wagingpeace.org/documents/us_complaint.pdf]
For all the court documents, including those filed in the International Court of Justice, see [http://nuclearzero.org/in-the-courts]
For more information about the Nuclear Zero lawsuits visit [www.nuclearzero.org]
---
* "Fukushima released 13,000,000,000 times more neutrons than initially estimated" [(2015-01-13) [http://enenews.com/fukushima-released-13000000000-times-neutrons-initially-estimated] [https://archive.today/TbFHC]
---
Call for Endorsement of and Participation in Anti- Nuclear Plant Fukushima Action on March 11, 2015! Restart of nuclear power plants, war and dismissal: enough is enough! Let’s rise up and forge solidarity! [http://www.frontierweekly.com/reports/jan-15/1-1-15-Call%20for%20Endorsement.html] [https://archive.today/cUnlc]
Dr. King said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin — we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
* "Revolutionary Road, Partial Victory: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" [http://monthlyreview.org/2013/09/01/revolutionary-road-partial-victory/] [https://archive.today/66fK5], [begin excerpt]: The year 1963 was a high-water mark for the civil rights movement—the year of the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which drew hundreds of thousands to march for civil rights. But the march also set the stage for the opening of a what was perceived as second, far more radical, phase of the civil rights strategy, developed by the March’s organizers. This led to the development, over a three-year period, of the proposed Freedom Budget for All Americans. It projected nothing less than the elimination of all poverty and unemployment in the United States before the end of the 1970s. [end excerpt]
* "Martin Luther King’s 'Beyond Vietnam': The Madness of US Militarism. 'On the Side of the Wealthy, Creating a Hell for the Poor' " [http://www.globalresearch.ca/martin-luther-kings-beyond-vietnam-the-madness-of-us-militarism-on-the-side-of-the-wealthy-creating-a-hell-for-the-poor/5424458] [https://archive.today/HpFvD]
Following is Adapted from the call for Protest and Resistance on Jan. 15-19 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Weekend, issued by the ANSWER Coalition [https://archive.today/48IrC]: Having his life threatened by the FBI and finally being assassinated by the most reactionary elements in the United States, Dr. King was known in his later years as a staunch critic of the U.S. economic and political system that forced upon the Black nation poverty and violence, yet preached “liberty” and “democracy” abroad. The political establishment, from the White House to City Halls everywhere, will evoke Dr. Martin Luther King’s heroism and his “I Have a Dream Speech” as a way of legitimizing the tradition of dissent in U.S. history. Yet for the millions who have taken to the streets in reaction to the growing national movement against racist police terror, the words and legacy of Dr. King carry a different meaning. Today, after the killings of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Ezell Ford and so many more – all racist police killings of unarmed Black men who have received no justice by the same system Dr. King condemned years ago – the growing movement against racism and police terror can reclaim the radical tradition of one of the key figures of the civil rights movement.
---
Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by spreading "The Truth from The Trial"!
* "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcoZ3jMXrww]. Song by Vic Sadot [facebook.com/vic.sadot]. Updated with new soundtrack featuring Eric Golub on viola! The song is based on the book of the same title by King family lawyer, William Pepper. The book tells the story of the trial that Pepper won on behalf of the King family in 1999 in a Memphis court where a jury of 6 black and 6 white jurors unanimously found Loyd Jowers and unnamed government conspirators guilty of murdering Martin Luther King.
---
"An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, Jr.", a talk about the book of the same name by Dr. William Pepper.
[https://archive.org/details/William.Pepper.An.Act.of.State.The.Execution.of.MLK]
From WilliamPepper.com: Bill Pepper was a friend of Martin Luther King in the last year of his life. Some years after King's death, Bill Pepper went on to represent James Earl Ray in his guilty plea, and subsequent conviction. Pepper believes that Ray was framed by the federal government and that King was killed by a conspiracy that involved the FBI, the CIA, the military, the Memphis police and organized crime figures from New Orleans and Memphis.He later represented James Earl Ray in a televised mock trial in an attempt to get Ray the trial that he never had.
He then represented the King family in a wrongful death civil trial, King family vs. Loyd Jowers and "other unknown co-conspirators." During atrial that lasted four weeks Bill produced over seventy witnesses. Jowers, testifying by deposition, stated that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat, and not involved in the assassination. Jowers testified that Memphis police officer Earl Clark fired the fatal shots. On December 8, 1999, the Memphis jury found Jowers responsible and found that the assassination plot included also "governmental agencies." The jury took less than an hour to find in favor of the King family for the requested sum of $100.
* The Soapbox People's Network (SPN) weekly edition (2015-01-11) [https://archive.today/X3mEJ], with featured guest Larry Pinkney, a veteran of the original Black Panther Party, former political prisoner, university instructor, and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He is an editorial board member on The Black Commentator online news journal.
"CCDSLinks: Radical Ideas for Radical Change" newsletter (2015-01-09) [https://archive.today/7UDf3]
BAY AREA SOLIDARITY
Please Call BART, Tell Them To Drop Charges and Fines Against Black Lives Matter
BART management is pursuing heavy criminal charges and restitution fines against Black Lives Matter activists who chained themselves to BART trains in West Oakland last November. Read more below.
Please call the BART Board (510-464-6095) and the BART General Manager (510-464-6060), and tell them to drop the charges and the fines.
The following is a letter we sent to the BART Board and General Manager recently.
From: The Gray Panthers of San Francisco [graypanther-sf@) sonic.net]
To: BART Board of Directors, BART General Manager
Gray Panthers of San Francisco is very disturbed on hearing that BART management is pursuing heavy criminal charges and some $70,000 restitution against 14 Black Lives Matter activists who courageously chained themselves to trains at West Oakland BART on November 28, 2014. We believe, and virtually everyone we have spoken with believes, that they are heroes, and deserve a medal. We cannot believe how out of touch you are with community feelings.
Your website states "The tragic death of Oscar Grant will remain a painful memory for all of us. While we cannot alter the past, we have been using the lessons learned as a catalyst to change our future. We on the BART Board have been continuously taking the actions needed to improve the BART Police Department to ensure our officers are better-trained and better-equipped and we’re working with the community and our customers to earn their trust and confidence by keeping them safe and secure."
Safe and secure? In January 2014, BART police attacked and tasered an unarmed Black man twice, then dragged him off the train. In March, BART police beat and arrested Nubia Bowe, a 19-year old student and a Black woman suspected of dancing on the train; and in September BART police slammed a Black woman to the ground and charged her with resisting arrest. These events are well-documented, two on video. These are not isolated cases. A Black friend of the daughter of one of our members was racially profiled, beaten, and arrested by BART police.
On your website, you justify your punitive actions against the Black Lives Matter activists by saying "As a public agency fully funded by riders and tax payers, we must never lose sight of the agency’s mission to provide public transportation to the citizens we serve.” We agree. Your mission is not to profile, harass, beat, arrest, and even kill Black and Latin passengers.
The Black Lives Matter people were not just disrupting BART for racist events in faraway Ferguson, or New York, or Cleveland. They were sending a message that right here, BART is endangering Black and Latin passengers. Interrupting service when Black and Latin passengers are endangered is as proper as interrupting service when broken equipment endangers any other passengers.
You should be listening to these men and women because they represent the feelings of a large proportion of the citizens you claim to serve. Drop the charges and the restitution demands.
=== * === * ===
Reclaiming Kings Legacy: A Jobs & Economy March for the People!
The Industrial Workers of the World - Bay Area Branch endorses the weekends actions and the MLK Day March! We have also joined to demand that BART Management to drop the charges and $70,000 fine against all protesters who blockaded the West Oakland Bart on Black Friday!
WHEREAS the Industrial Workers of the World, since our founding in 1905, has fought for the rights of workers regardless of race, gender, religion, or national origin.
WHEREAS racism is a powerful social structure, established in law & economic exploitation, used by the employing class to divide & rule the working class.
WHEREAS the police are critical institution for maintaining these systems of racial oppression and do so through the use of force, terror, & murder.
WHEREAS the police are the foot soldiers of the employing class whose primary purpose is to perpetuate their parasitic rule over all workers.
WHEREAS Black Americans are being disproportionately targeted by police terror and have historically suffered unjust, sustained persecution & exploitation.
WE RESOLVE to support the actions and March of Martin Luther King Jr weekend (1/17-19/2015) reclaiming Dr. King's radical legacy of struggle and declare our support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
WE FURTHER RESOLVE that we demand that BART management drop the charges and $70,000 fine against The Black Out Collective and other protestors who blockaded the train at West Oakland BART on Black Friday.
WE FURTHER RESOLVE to engage in whatever on the job actions and other actions our workers choose to engage in during the weeks leading up to the 1/19 march.
=== * === * ===
* "Refuse Lennar Urban Developers a Permit to Demolish Candlestick Stadium Through Implosion" [https://www.change.org/p/san-francisco-planning-department-refuse-lennar-urban-developers-a-permit-to-demolish-candlestick-stadium-through-implosion] [https://archive.today/q8mcL]
=== * === * ===
* "Idriss Stelley Foundation celebrates 10 years of struggle against police violence" (2013) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/21/18735621.php]
Idriss Stelley, 23-year-old multilingual honor student and son of Mesha Monge-Irizarry, died of 48 gunshot wounds fired by nine San Francisco Police officers as he stood unarmed and alone in San Francisco's Metreon Movie Theatre on June 13, 2001. He was suffering a mental health crisis.
Photo: Idriss and his mother La Mesha, 2 weeks before his murder by San Francisco Police, at their home in the Bayview district.
* "Report: The First Worldwide Festival of Resistance" (2015-01-08) [https://www.popularresistance.org/report-the-first-worldwide-festival-of-resistance/] [https://archive.today/s0uxv]
The growth of the culture of resistance was evident during the first Worldwide Festival of Resistance held in Mexico Which attracted 2,600 people from 48 countries. The event organized by the Zapatistas focused on the resistance of building the world we want to see while defending our communities from corporations who want to take our resources and destroy our lands. People across the world are fighting back: “One of the most common responses to speakers was a chant from the crowd that they are not alone. That we are all in this together and are fighting the same fight. And, as the relatives of the Ayotzinapa massacred say, we cannot sleep until we defeat these evils. ¡La Lucha Sigue! The Fight Goes On!”
The event, organized by the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) and Mexico’s National Indigenous Congress (CNI). The festival took place all over Mexico and the majority of participants travelled together in a mass caravan of buses (not without mechanical problems and police interference) to the different regions to share and listen stories and strategies of resistance, to strengthen their cultures of resistance, and to build lasting networks locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Thanks to the excellent organizing by EZLN and CNI the impacts of the festival will reverberate amongst the participants and their resistance communities for years to come.
Photo: Sign for the first Worldwide Festival of Resistances Against Capitalism.
* Statement of solidarity from the Anarchist Federation of France to the National Indigenous Congress, and their first anti-capitalist World Festival, machine translated from the original french language and distributed by A-Infos newswire [http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos336/ainfos62515.html] [https://archive.today/nl15H].
WORKER'S DEFENSE
* Monopolists seek to deregulate global labor organizing standards (2014-01-02)[http://northbaymds.blogspot.com/2015/01/monopolists-seek-to-deregulate-global.html]
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* "Tech shuttles: Union seeks to organize more Silicon Valley bus drivers" (2015-01-13) [http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_27306424/union-seeks-organize-more-shuttle-bus-drivers-valley] [https://archive.today/ej7th]
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* "Memphis Campus Temps Outwit Scheme to Privatize Their Social Security" (2015-01-08) [http://labornotes.org/blogs/2015/01/memphis-campus-temps-outwit-scheme-privatize-their-social-security] [https://archive.today/dqo3u]
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
* Killed by Police [http://killedbypolice.net/], a database of extrajudicial murder and officer involved fatalities, updated constantly.
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* "Police in the US Kill Citizens at Over 70 Times the Rate of Other First-World Nations" (2015-01-08) [http://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-kill-citizens-70-times-rate-first-world-nations/] [https://archive.today/r5dA5]
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* "FBI says search warrants not needed to use “stingrays” in public places" (2015-01-05) [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/fbi-says-search-warrants-not-needed-to-use-stringrays-in-public-places/] [https://archive.today/B9hxx]
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* "Statement on Federal Gag Order Against MF/PL" from "may first / people link", a progressive IT infrastructure network covering the USA & Mexico, posted 2014-12-18 at [https://mayfirst.org/statement-federal-gag-order-against-mfpl], archived at [https://archive.today/gTVWz]
* Statement against the "gag order" levied by the USA Federal Government against the kind folks at [http://lavabit.com/], 2014-05-20 [https://archive.today/e3vY8]
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* "LAPD Officers Removed Antennas from Police Cars in Black Areas to Disable Recording Devices" (2014-04-08) [http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/04/08/lapd-officers-removed-antennas-police-cars-disable-recording-devices/] [https://archive.today/Wf2cb]
* "LAPD Body Cam Footage Can't Be FOIA'ed; Used In Court Cases Only" (2014-12-19) [https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141217/14165929471/lapd-body-cam-footage-cant-be-foiaed-used-court-cases-only.shtml] [https://archive.today/FDoWT]
* "Body-Cameras: Who are they for?" [http://stoplapdspying.org/body-cameras-who-are-they-for/] [https://archive.today/4Udpa], [begin excerpt]: The LAPD has recently committed to purchasing body cameras from the TASER company. Chief Beck is determined to keep this footage out of public view. We at the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition don’t believe that more technology and more resources towards US police will stop their reckless killings of black and brown youth. Such resources should be sent into programs which build-up poor communities rather than criminalize them and turn them into occupied zones.
Speak out! [https://www.facebook.com/events/1535863323352004/]
Stop LA from becoming a testing ground for a technology that will not bring more public safety!
Why Reject Body Cameras?
· Body cameras will not reduce police brutality- even with camera footage, officers aren’t indicted- look at case of Eric Gardner. The video captured the officer engaging in a choke hold and using excessive force, but was not reprimanded.
· Officers sabotage recording devices. In April 2014, reports surfaced that LAPD officers sabotaged 90 out of 300 squad cars by tampering with antennas that fee video and voice monitoring equipment. This was mainly in the South East Bureau- neighborhoods where mostly people of color reside.
· If body cameras won’t resolve police brutality, what will they be used for? Surveillance and gathering people’s information- the police have a history of collecting personal data during daily contact with people, which is on the rise as technology increases.
* Michael Novick of the Inter-Communal Solidarity Committee: "Police body-cams are another weapon in the arsenal of the militarized police. They are located on -- but NOT focused on -- the cops; in other words, they are designed for intelligence gathering and evidence collection about the public, and 'suspects'. If you listen to what the commanders are saying, they specifically say that the cameras have the intention of putting PEOPLE on best behavior in encounters with the police (not the reverse). The ones the LAPD have ordered are part of a package with new TASERs!! The body-cams are the kind of 'police reform' we don't need, a deepening of police militarization and the total surveillance state."
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* "San Leandro Community To Debate BearCat Tank - Tonight!" (2015-01-08) from [media-alliance.org]:
San Leandro-A special community meeting in the East Bay suburb of San Leandro will be held on Thursday January 8th at the Senior Community Center at 13909 East 14th Street in San Leandro. The meeting will be preceeded by a "tank viewing" of the proposed equipment to be acquired and the meeting will get underway at 6pm with a formal presentation and an oportunity for public comment.
The City has been offered a $1.6 million dollar grant from the Department of Homeland Security for disaster assistance and regional emergency response. Among the provisions in the grant is $200,000 for the purchase of the BearCat armored vehicle.
A promotional video on the BearCat by manufacturer Lenco can be seen here.
According to local blog San Leandro Bytes, the Bay Area cities of Davis, CA and San Jose, CA recently declined similar mine-resistant armored vehicles for their police departments. No land mines are known to exist in San Leandro or the neighboring terrain.
The Oakland Police Department deployed its BearCat vehicle during the Occupy Oakland protests in 2011.
San Leandro's police department emphasizes the use of the vehicle for medical evacuation as a "super-ambulance", although the manufacturer emphasizes its usefulness for SWAT operations and the roof hatch with a gunner's stand and multiple gun ports.
East Bay communities have joined with many across the nation in the national #BlackLivesMatter protests against police brutality and succeeded in September 2014 in removing the Urban Shield police militarization exposition from Oakland's Marriot Hotel.
A 2007 report was published by the City Council's Human Relations Committee detailing the history of housing discrimination against African-Americans in San Leandro, prompted by comedian Brian Copeland's one man show "Not A Genuine Black Man" about growing up in San Leandro.
Local community members in San Leandro and anti-police militarization advocates will participate in a small protest prior to the community meeting using the motto "Thanks, No Tanks". The final vote on the acquisition of the Bearcat armored personnel carrier will not be tonight.
Also see: "San Leandro report details racist past Panel releases document chronicling municipal reaction to housing discrimination" (2007-06-02) [http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_6046077] [https://archive.today/fB4NI]
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* "Massive show of ruling class support for cops" (2015-01-06) [http://www.iacenter.org/racism/cops010815/] [https://archive.today/YA2SP]
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* "Vallejo dispensary owner says city regulation will bring in more tax revenues" (2015-01-12) [http://www.timesheraldonline.com/general-news/20150112/vallejo-dispensary-owner-says-city-regulation-will-bring-in-more-tax-revenues] [https://archive.today/9iO9D]
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The Police Review Commission (PRC) will address two formal complaints from residents of the 2100 block of McKinley Avenue, Berkeley, whose block was declared on Friday December 5th a tow-away zone, barricaded December 6th and used as a staging area for the BPD and Police from other jurisdictions, e.g. Hayward, which brought an armored vehicle, and Vallejo. PRC will also consider reviewing various policies, such as use of teargas, mutual aid, general orders regarding training and crowd control.
Tuesday January 20 2015 5:30, and 7pm, at the Berkeley City Council, 2134 M.L. King Jr. Way
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Community Fascism in Santa Cruz -
From Dr. John Colby: It is now clearly apparent the City and County of Santa Cruz (except Santa Cruz City Council member Micah Posner) and their respective law enforcement agencies — the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) and the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) — are all conspiring to protect themselves from federal prosecution for aiding and abetting hate criminals from the domestic terrorism group Take Back Santa Cruz (TBSC) by either ignoring my security or intently wanting me to be murdered at the hands of racist, anti-homeless and disability bias motivated hate criminals who desire my death, want me silenced and wish me to suffer extreme emotional torment by attacking my emotional disabilities.
Please read the attached email sent to SCSO County Sheriff Jim Hart and Santa Cruz City Attorney John Barisone (who both refused my demand for written assurances they would arrest and remand to federal authorities hate criminals Tom M. Cunniff and his girlfriend Julia Feldman (an SCSO probation officer who somehow accessed confidential information from my mother’s fatal automobile accident in Salinas, California which only the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Salinas Valley Medical Center had, so they and their fellow TBSC hate criminals could sully my mother’s memory in order to emotionally assault my sister and I and to destroy our reputations in the community to segregate us from community support and drive us out of Santa Cruz altogether like the SCPD has done to disabled homeless people).
Please inspect the linked to Santa Cruz Topix thread also attached as a PDF in which TBSC hate criminal Tom M. Cunniff informs Santa Cruz Topix readers he is coming to my home “real soon” (to visit harm upon me): [http://www.topix.com/forum/city/santa-cruz-ca/TREF6SMTBVPQFBDOT].
I called Santa Cruz Regional 9-1-1 (SCR 911) dispatch for the SCSO and spoke twice to dispatch supervisor Anita —who claimed her ID# is 753 — while standing outside my home in the dark freezing cold because if I called from my bedroom my landlords would immediately evict me, then being made homeless TBSC would surely kill me. Anita wouldn’t have an SCSO officer call me back in a timely manner and refused for them to call my sister — who is also a victim of the same criminals — falsely claiming that my sister is not a victim while I explained to her why she was. Anita — like other SCR 911 personnel — denied us service under color of law. SCR 911 manager Dennis Kidd worked election night at our polling station, has been a member of TBSC affiliated Facebook groups, and might have passed my secret residential address (known only to the FBI) to SCPD and TBSC hate criminals.
Please — in case of our premature death — hold all these hate criminals, their supporters and their enablers accountable using all the fury with which the state can punish them. This is an important test of who the federal government serves: those manipulating the public with hate filled agendas or the interests of compassionate citizens trying to make our country a exemplar towards which other nations can aspire. Does the federal government serve those who seek power through hate and cruelty or does it come down on the side of love, tolerance and integrity.
SAN PABLO BAY EPA
* "Drought Led to Massive “Dead Zone” in Lake Erie" (2015-01-06) [https://carnegiescience.edu/news/drought_led_massive_“dead_zone”_lake_erie] [https://archive.today/S416Y]
* "Kansas monarch expert questions butterfly's potential endangered species listing" (2015-01-06) [http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Kansas_monarch_expert_questions_butterflys_potential_endangered_species_listing_999.html] [https://archive.today/FRZSN]
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE & FREEDOM COALITION
* "Close the US Torture Camp at Guantanamo NOW!" (2015-01-07) [http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/torture/8640-close-the-us-torture-camp-at-guantanamo-now] [https://archive.today/s6XTC]
---
Falsehoods are being pushed, again, to justify an aggressive invasion and mass death against the People of Syria, who overwhelmingly support their secular government against USA-backed militias.
* "Experts cast doubt on Spiegel claim of Syrian nuclear facility" (2015-01-11) [http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2015/0111/Experts-cast-doubt-on-Spiegel-claim-of-Syrian-nuclear-facility] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150115040511/http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2015/0111/Experts-cast-doubt-on-Spiegel-claim-of-Syrian-nuclear-facility]
* "Intelligence indicates Assad building nuclear plant: report" (2015-01-09) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Intelligence_indicates_Assad_building_nuclear_plant_report_999.html] [https://archive.today/AvmgL], [begin excerpt]:
Citing information made available by unidentified intelligence sources, Spiegel said the plant was in an inaccessible mountain region in the west of the war-ravaged country, two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Lebanese border. Spiegel said North Korean and Iranian experts are thought to be part of the "Zamzam" project.
[end excerpt]
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* "The new Iraq War is doomed: After years of lies and senseless military conflict, we must oppose US escalation in Iraq" (2014-12-30) [http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/12/iraq-war-syria-doomed.html] [https://archive.today/Zz5JR]
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* "Drone Guidelines to Protect Civilians Do Not Apply to Afghanistan: White House Official" (2015-01-08) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/08/drone-guidelines-protect-civilians-do-not-apply-afghanistan-white-house-official] [https://archive.today/q5lVl]
* "Leaked ‘kill list’ shows NATO killed Afghan children, civilians in pursuit of low-level Taliban fighters" (2014-01-03), When describing the “cleansing” phase, Michael T. Flynn, head of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) intelligence in Afghanistan, reportedly told a group of German officials: “The only good Talib is a dead Talib.”
Photos at [http://www.4thmedia.org/2015/01/leaked-kill-list-shows-us-military-knew-it-was-killing-children] [https://archive.today/VU2D3],
Video at [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40622.htm] [https://archive.today/SYINW].
* "Pentagon's Admission that US Bombs May Have Killed 'a Few' Civilians Dismissed as 'Joke' " (2015-01-07) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/07/pentagons-admission-us-bombs-may-have-killed-few-civilians-dismissed-joke] [https://archive.today/uEDIR]
* " 'Distancing Acts': Private Mercenaries and the War on Terror in American Foreign Policy" (2014-12-29) [http://japanfocus.org/-Jeremy-Kuzmarov/4241] [https://archive.today/vdDiL], [begin excerpt]:
“I do this job for the opportunity to kill the enemies of my country and also to get that boat I always wanted. . . . [W]hen engaged I will lay waste to everything around me.” – Contractor slogan.
“It’s the perfect war… everybody is making money.” – US intelligence officer in Afghanistan.
A 1989 UN treaty, which the U.S. did not sign, prohibits the recruitment, training, use and financing of mercenaries, or combatants motivated to take part in hostilities by private gain, with PMCs claiming exclusion on the grounds that they play a combat support role. In light of a century-long history of U.S. use of mercenary and clandestine forces throughout the world. It shows the multiple ways of mercenary war as a means of concealing military intervention from public view.
[end excerpt]
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* "St. Helenan delivers aid to war-torn nations" (2015-01-13) [http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/st-helenan-delivers-aid-to-war-torn-nations/article_bd5edbff-685a-5ff6-8106-8c803b7d624a.html] [https://archive.today/f6Iqj]
---
[www.USLaborAgainstWar.org] [facebook.com/Labor.Against.War]
NEW AFRIKA PEACE MOVEMENT
* "The Shadowy U.S. Veteran Who Tried to Overthrow a Country" (2015-01-06) [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/05/the-u-s-veteran-who-tried-to-launch-a-coup.html] [https://archive.today/6yH8n], [begin excerpt]:
A U.S. Army veteran and a Texas businessman appeared in federal court Monday charged with a most unusual crime: plotting to overthrow the West African government of Gambia.
The Pentagon said Faal served in the Air Force for seven years, during which time he became a U.S. citizen. He later spent three years in the Army, starting with training at Georgia’s Fort Benning and serving as a sergeant during an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan in 2011, Army officials confirmed.
Gambia’s president, Jammeh, has denied there was any coup attempt. He called the events last week “an attack by dissidents based in the U.S., Germany, and U.K.,” and pointed to U.S.-made weapons involved in the plot. Jammeh is known for making wild claims. In 2007 he said he had discovered a cure for AIDS using natural herbs. But his account of a dissident plot involving Gambian expats using U.S. weapons is similar to what Faal told the FBI. Most coup members “lived in the diaspora in the United States and Germany,” Faal said.
The man seeking to depose Jammeh, Gambian-American Texas businessman Njie, was known to Faal by his code name “Dave” during their months of planning. Njie has no obvious qualifications for running a country, but a search of his apartment by the FBI turned up evidence of his planning.
Along with a spreadsheet logging weapons purchases and other expenses, investigators found two documents. One was a handwritten note “that appears to describe the author’s vision for The Gambia following a transition in political power.” A second document was titled: “Gambia Reborn: A Charter for Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy and Development.”
A November 2014 profile of Njie by the editor of the Texas-based newspaper The Gambia Echo & Tribune begins with a quote from Shakespeare and proceeds to greater heights of reverence. Njie is a “serious fellow with a very sharp intellect, unassuming, attentive, calm and calculating but equally shrewd and lucid and above all, highly disciplined and introspective with a penchant for academic and political discourse.” He’s also the “CEO and owner of dual multimillion-dollar Austin-based companies,” a source of Gambian pride, and an exemplar of American exceptionalism, according to the article.
While “Dave” handled money and orchestrated between the various plotters, unknown to each other, Faal’s job was getting guns to Gambia.
[end excerpt]
DEFEND THE HOMELESS!
* "Icy Cold and Cut Services Create Dangerous Perfect Storm for Homeless" (2015-01-09) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/09/icy-cold-and-cut-services-create-dangerous-perfect-storm-homeless] [https://archive.today/GsF6b]
FREE 'EM ALL!
Introduction to "Political Prisoners" [http://notmytribe.com/solidarity/political-prisoners], archived 2015-01-09 [https://archive.today/wRNfP]
Politically motivated FBI entrapment: Hundreds are serving decades in prison for crimes that never happened.
=== * === * ===
Keith Cook, Mumia’s Brother, Addresses the “Cops vs Free Speech” Meeting in the Bay Area
10 January 2015
* "Cops vs. the First Amendment" (2015-01-02) [http://sfbayview.com/2015/01/cops-vs-the-first-amendment/] [https://archive.today/t5FAE]
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, and Oakland Teachers for Mumia held a public meeting on December 5th of last year titled "Cops vs Free Speech," to discuss and protest violations of free speech, which were initiated by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The meeting focussed on Pennsylvania’s new “gag” law, which criminalized Mumia, other convicts, and anyone who disseminates the speech or writings of convicts; and the suppression of the Urban Dreams web site by the Oakland School Board, an act which also targeted Mumia. (While the Oakland School Board has now restored the Urban Dreams site, the struggle against the “gag” law in PA continues.)
Speakers included Cephus Johnson, Oscar Grant’s “Uncle Bobby”; Eliot Grossman, former lawyer for Mumia; and Keith Cook, brother of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Funds were raised to support the struggle against the Pennsylvania “gag” law.
After decades on death row, where prisoners and visitors are separated by glass, Mumia had to fight another year and a half to win contact visits with his oldest son, Jamal, shown here on the left. Mumia’s oldest brother, Keith Cook, is on the right.
=== * === * ===
* "Protester involved I-75 shut down pleads guilty" (2015-01-07) [http://www.fox19.com/story/27785546/protester-involved-i-75-shut-down-pleads-guilty] [https://archive.today/LHqqR]
=== * === * ===
Take action now to demand Nestora’s release! [www.FreeNestora.org]
* "Freedom fighter, journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks out on behalf of Nestora Salgado." [http://freenestora.org/2014/12/23/freedom-fighter-journalist-and-political-prisoner-mumia-abu-jamal-speaks-out-on-behalf-of-nestora-salgado/] [https://archive.today/v0nlL].
The September disappearance of the 43 activist students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, has led to nationwide protests and renewed calls for the release of Salgado and other community police framed and imprisoned on charges that have no legal standing. The governor and key political figures in Guerrero have been forced to resign due to their role in the kidnapping of the students and protesters are now calling for Mexican President Peña Nieto to step down.Now is a critical time for human rights activists to press both the U.S. and Mexican governments for Nestora Salgado’s release. In the sixteen months since she was illegally arrested, the U.S. State Department has yet to contact Nestora’s family or make any public statement about her incarceration!
=== * === * ===
Free Marius Mason [http://supportmariusmason.org]
Support Eric McDavid! [http://supporteric.org/]
Eric McDavid released after 9 years after feds concede withholding documents!
* "Evidence in release of eco-terror suspect includes claims of misdeeds by federal officials" (2015-01-10) [http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article5717205.html] [https://archive.today/ckDbW]
* "Convicted ‘eco-terrorist’ freed amid claims FBI hid evidence" (2015-01-08) [http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article5641188.html] [https://archive.today/pK9aY]
* "Eric McDavid" overview [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/lists/the-new-political-prisoners-leakers-hackers-and-activists-20130301/eric-mcdavid-19691231] [https://archive.today/jkVP5]
* "Man Convicted of Environmental Terrorism Is Freed" (2015-01-08) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/us/man-convicted-of-environmental-terrorism-wins-early-release.html?_r=0] [https://archive.today/EE8o2], [begin excerpt]:
The man, Eric McDavid, 37, was convicted in 2007 of conspiring to bomb several targets near Sacramento as part of a radical environmental campaign. The authorities said he plotted attacks against government and commercial facilities that he believed were harming the environment, including cellphone towers and the Nimbus Dam in California. Mr. McDavid, who visited some sites and at one point tried to make homemade explosives, has served nine years in prison and will be released immediately.His prosecution had become well known in environmental circles partly because of its star witness: a pink-haired informant who began covertly working for the F.B.I. at 17 after writing a community college paper about infiltrating political protest groups.
Mr. McDavid’s lawyers had asked that his conviction be vacated, saying that the federal authorities had withheld information that could have bolstered his defense at trial, including a request by officials for a polygraph examination of the informant, code-named Anna, and various messages between her and Mr. McDavid.
Defense lawyers contended that Anna was an unreliable witness who had entrapped Mr. McDavid, manipulating his romantic attachment to her and pushing him and two co-defendants to brew homemade explosives while providing them with food and a place to live.
“She fomented the alleged conspiracy, literally herding defendants together from around the country for meetings, badgering them to form a plan, and mocking and berating them when they showed disinterest,” Mr. Rosenfeld and another lawyer, Mark R. Vermeulen, wrote last year, adding that the withheld material could have been used to challenge Anna’s credibility or examine her relationship with Mr. McDavid.The federal authorities said that Anna, who testified that Mr. McDavid had requested explosives recipes and once threatened her life, had helped thwart a dangerous plot to blow up targets like the United States Forest Service Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, Calif.
“McDavid’s homegrown brand of eco-terrorism is just as dangerous and insidious as international terrorism,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
[end excerpt]
* "Role of FBI informant in eco-terrorism case probed after documents hint at entrapment" (2015-01-13) [http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/13/fbi-informant-anna-eric-mcdavid-eco-terrorism] [https://archive.today/9j1x9], [begin excerpt]:
Throughout almost a decade of legal wrangling over the McDavid case, the mysterious “Anna” has been a constant factor. In her only known interview, for a 2008 article in Elle magazine, she posed for photographs in her normal outfit of jeans, T-shirt and suede jacket, her hair by then faded from lurid pink to its natural brown.
She told the magazine that 9/11 had motivated her to engage in counter-intelligence. A year after the attacks, when she was just 15, she contacted the Militarywomen.org website to inquire about enlisting in the army.
At a community college night class in Miami she tried to impress her professor by sneaking into a meeting of anti-free trade protesters for what she called “anthropological observation”. The report she presented to class so struck a police officer who was also taking the course that he passed her details to the Miami police department, which in turn quickly recommended her to the FBI.
Within months, she was going undercover among protesters at the G8 summit of leading economic powers in Atlanta. Over the next two years she was given more than 10 federal assignments, including infiltrating protest groups at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in Boston and New York respectively, and delving into the world of radical environmental activism.
At the G8 she met an anarchist named Zach Jenson, and through him fellow eco-activists Lauren Weiner and McDavid who she first met in 2004. All three were eventually arrested, though Jenson and Weiner cut a deal with prosecutors in which they gave evidence against their co-defendant in exchange for a lesser sentence.
“Anna” told the jury at McDavid’s trial that she had been scrupulously impartial, sticking closely to legal guidelines for informants that forbade her from playing a leadership position in the group or from pushing anybody to do anything. Yet under cross-examination, she described some of the proactive steps she took to bring the “cell” together.
She bought plane tickets for Weiner to fly her to McDavid’s house for a group meeting. “I wanted to get a conversation going between everyone,” she said.
Later, she drove Weiner and Jenson across the country to meet McDavid, using a ’96 Chevrolet paid for by the FBI and kitted out with recording equipment. When Weiner showed signs of losing enthusiasm for the project, “Anna” sent her an email saying: “There’s no going back … I don’t want to be dilly-dallying around forever, which I know I could do and fall into that trap but I want to avoid you doing that too.”
In email correspondence that is included in the newly disclosed documents seen by the Guardian, “Anna” wrote to Weiner in September 2005, telling her “I’ve made some more contacts in Philly, esp with the animal liberation movement, which I’d like to bring you and the rest of teh (sic) crew more into. I already talked a little bit about it with [McDavid] – we could make a big difference on multiple fronts.”
In a later email, also to Weiner, she said: “I’d love to start helping you and the rest of the Philly kids in whatever your hearts find to do.”
The FBI also paid for a cabin in Dutch Flat, California, heavily rigged with surveillance devices, where “Anna” assembled the group, telling them she had earned the rent money working as a dancer-cum-escort. There she presented the others with a “burn book” containing six recipes for concocting firebombs, though she told the jury the devices were designed by the FBI to be duds.
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* "Killing Atticus Finch - The Don Siegelman Story" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbQueHVpHE], How some of the most notorious names in politics used a kangaroo court to throw an innocent man in prison.Campaign page: [https://www.facebook.com/KillingAtticusFinch], archived 2015-01-08 [https://archive.today/kvi1d]
"Don Siegelman Documentary" fundraiser page [http://www.gofundme.com/DonSiegelmanFilm], archived 2015-01-07 [https://archive.today/QHky5], begin excerpt]:
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman believed in a judicial system that completely failed him.
A great injustice has occured to an honest, innocent man, and we want the world to know what has happened.
Right now, an innocent man sits in a federal prison, while many of the corrupted officials that put him there continue to serve in state and federal government. We now must let the world know what has happened.
The movie Karl Rove doesn't want you to see! This film will expose the dark underbelly of corrupt politics that have remained secret for far too long.
The whole story of how former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was railroaded into prison remains unknown to most of the public. Justice has not been served.
Those of you who have followed Don's story know that it involves some of the most notorious names in American politics, and how they used a corrupted part of our court system to politically assassinate him.
“We war-gamed…an aggressive tactic…to STOP SIEGELMAN at a cost to the tribe of approximately $20 Million dollars.” – Jack Abramoff, from his book Capitol Punishment
Their level of corruption and underhanded deals are truly staggering. It seems more like something out of a third world country, but it wasn’t…it happened right here in The United States of America.
The litany of judicial abuses inside the courtroom is even more troubling. They include judge shopping, jury tampering, poisoning the jury pool, false charges, withholding evidence, lying to the jury, and witness tampering - all the elements needed to bypass the checks and balances of our court system, and subvert the rule of law. Yet, Don Siegelman remains locked in a jail cell, trapped from real justice.
For the first time in history, 113 former Attorneys General from across the U.S. have signed a petition to protest the judicial abuses involved in Don Siegelman’s case. This is completely unprecedented in the history of American jurisprudence.
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* "Sign the petition to the Mall of America: Stop heavy handed intimidation tactics targeting peaceful participants" [https://action.sumofus.org/a/moarestitution/3/3/?] [https://archive.today/y7TcI], [begin excerpt];Can you join me in telling the Mall of America to stop heavy-handed intimidation tactics targeting peaceful participants?
Instead of welcoming the thousands of families and community members who gathered peacefully to sing carols to honor the lives of slain black youth, the largest mall in the U.S. decided to shut its stores and surround us with riot police.
Before the gathering even happened, the Mall of America sent police to the homes of the “organizers”, including mine, threatening arrests if we didn’t cancel the event. And now the Bloomington City Attorney is threatening to prosecute some of the young people, including me, that she claims organized the events “based on examination of their social media pages.”
Even though everyone who attended the event was peaceful, did nothing to interfere with shoppers, and there was not a single cent of property damage, the City Attorney characterized the gathering as a “tinder box waiting for a match.” She even went so far as to say “one could argue it was riot in the third degree,”a charge that carries up to two years in prison.
Now, an overzealous prosecutor who has deep ties to the Mall of America is threatening criminal charges against a few of us she thinks are “organizers”, in an ill-conceived effort to try and force us to pay tens of thousands of dollars of restitution for “the Mall’s lost revenue” and “police overtime”.
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* "The Empire Hits! and an update on Bill Dunne" (2015-01-10) [https://denverabc.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/the-empire-hits-and-an-update-on-bill-dunne/] [https://archive.today/3Zk6o]
Bill Dunne #10916-086
FCI Herlong
Post Office Box 800
Herlong, California 96113
TOWARDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS
* "Murderous Cops, Liberal Snake Oil, & Revolutionary Solutions (Parts 1 & 2)" (2015-01-11) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/11/18766730.php] [https://archive.today/3xDjs]
* "Rebellion Against Police Violence -- Towards Community Defense, Dual Power and Revolution" (2015-01-07) [http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos30561.html] [https://archive.today/4EnEW], from the 1st of May Anarchist Alliance (Minnesota)
And, in the European Union, similer tendencies are arising...
* "Anticapitalist fronts, for what?" machine-translation of a French language overview of why a United Front is being organized right now in France to address the tyrannical repression being executed against radical leftists [http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos336/ainfos62442.html] [https://archive.today/jQ5Xm]. Their goal, according to the article, is to Incorporate the Resistance support networks for an anti-capitalist alternative and, say the authors, "self-management in today's society. This means that the anti-capitalist front is a place for debate to popularize emergency measures but also transitional measures, notably from requisition shares (empty housing, hiring, of dismissing enterprises, which close), recovery and redistribution of wealth. It also aims to promote the development of popular education by reintroducing politics in neighborhoods (eg via political cafes, cinemas or alternative crop against sites) and encouraging the development of projects linking the social and political dimensions of popular education."
Also see the news from France in the World Fascism Watch section on this news page.
=== * === * ===
"The Democracy Charter: Towards the Second Reconstruction" [http://www.ccds-discussion.org/?page_id=131] [https://archive.today/DHe8R], 2nd edition, from J.H. O’Dell, 2009, more info about the author in the History & Current Context section of this webpage:
The Democracy Charter would have as its central purpose bringing into the national dialogue the millions in our country who now feel disenfranchised and disrespected, or otherwise ignored. This involvement will give all of us a confident new identity, as social change agents.
The time is ripe for us, the People of the United States, in all our multicultural diversity and breadth of experience, to adopt a Democracy Charter that brings together as part of a shared vision all of the dimensions of the civilizational crisis that are now being actively addressed, on a limited scale, by one or another organization.
The essential purpose of such a charter is the expansion of democracy and fundamental human rights in our country. Therefore, the historical point of reference of the Democracy Charter is our nation’s Bill of Rights and the subsequent Amendments, won over generations of struggle to enshrine them in the U.S. Constitution. In the U.S. American experience, unyielding resistance to any and all efforts to weaken the Bill of Rights is an essential condition for the transition from formal democracy to a society of substantive democracy. At the very heart of the unfolding struggle for substantive democracy today are the issues of race, class, and gender, in relation to power and decision-making. This has been the fundamental reality since the birth of this Republic.
The following points suggest primary items for inclusion in a proposed Democracy Charter.
I. A national commitment to end homelessness during this next decade
II. A national commitment to an economy of full employment, at socially useful jobs, and a livable wage as public policy
III. The right to an environment free of bigotry, violence, and intolerance as an expression of our nation’s irreversible commitment to human rights, including full recognition of reproductive rights and the rights of gays and lesbians
IV. The doors of learning open to all, from early childhood education through college, as a public trust
V. A new foreign and military policy as an expression of our nation’s character
VI. Universal health insurance coverage (Single-Payer Model)
VIII. A farm economy restructured to rest on family and cooperative enterprise
IX. A prison system accountable to the public for fulfilling its charge as a center for rehabilitation
X. Restoration, preservation, and protection of the quality of our natural environment as a vital social inheritance for future generations to use and enjoyXI. Expanded public ownership and management of resources strategic to the health of our nation’s economy
XII. The right to know that every vote will be counted – a guarantee that is an inseparable part of the right to vote
XIII. The air waves maintained as national public property
A perspective on the "Battle of Ferguson"
* "Who’s Looting Whom? An Inside Look At Looting In Ferguson" (2015-01-08) [http://www.blackcommentator2.com/588_cover_vb_looting_ferguson.html] [https://archive.today/TjKn1], [begin excerpt]:
There are basically four kinds of looters/arsonists.
One, is people whose rage ends up being misdirected at property.
Another group is straight-up opportunists (both outsiders and locals).
A subset of the opportunist group is property owners who are looking to cash in on insurance policies.
The last grouping is the police and their hired agents.
White, mainstream media is having a field day with the images of looting. It fits into their ongoing narrative that black people are sub-human criminals and are undeserving of full citizenship in this society. These folks will hang on to anything as justification for trying to maintain our second-class citizenship.
I have heard from black people from all around the country, essentially reacting to the voices of conservatives and the mainstream press which projects looting images out of Ferguson and St. Louis as the real problem. Middle-class black folks seemed to be embarrassed as if they would have to be personally responsible for the looters captured on video hauling out goods from ransacked businesses. Black folks have to unload the burden often placed on us by the oppressor to be responsible for every wrong thing another black person does. We are not. When black people get roped into this trap, they affirm the efficacy of the strategy - to distract from the systemic issues of structural racism and police violence. I tell them if you’re talking about looting instead of justice for Mike Brown and the many other acts of police terror, the racist power structure has already won in the court of public opinion.
[end excerpt]
Protestors in Ferguson try to protect a business from being looted
---
Speaking of Ferguson: "How can you be the president of an organization that raised $432k for Darren Wilson AND the attorney prosecuting him?"
USA FASCISM WATCH
* "David Duke: Focus on me and House GOP leader is ‘insane’ " (2014-12-30) [http://fusion.net/story/36233/steve-scalise-david-duke-euro/] [https://archive.today/F5gcE], [begin excerpt]:
David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan at the center of a brewing congressional scandal, is founder of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO, that invited Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) to a conference hosted by a controversial Duke-founded group in 2002.
Overall, Duke was rather flabbergasted by the new focus on Scalise. He said he (Duke) has hosted both Democratic and Republican legislators at everything from conferences to his children’s birthday parties. He said he has met with Democratic legislators at least 50 times in his political life.
And he delivered a warning to both Republicans and Democrats: Treat Scalise fairly, and don’t try to make political hay out of the situation. Or he said he would be inclined to release a list of names of all the politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — with whom he has ties.
“If Scalise is going to be crucified — if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders,” Duke said.
[end exerpt]
---
* "Journalists, hypocrisy, and Obama’s de facto 21st century U.S. fascism" (2014-08-29) [http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/14034] [https://archive.today/vx3os]
---
* "The NYPD’s mini-rebellion, and the true face of American fascism" (2015-01-03) [http://www.salon.com/2015/01/03/the_nypds_mini_rebellion_and_the_true_face_of_american_fascism/] [https://archive.today/zpyXw]
---
* "#NAACPBombing Hashtag Asks Why Media "Doesn't Care" About Colorado NAACP Bombing" (2015-01-07) [http://www.bustle.com/articles/57194-naacpbombing-hashtag-asks-why-media-doesnt-care-about-colorado-naacp-bombing] [https://archive.today/LGl3t], [begin excerpt]:
strangely, U.S. media went silent regarding the NAACP bombing, seeming to ignore the domestic manhunt happening in our own country, and those tweeting with the #NAACPBombing hashtag definitely noticed.
CNN’s homepage blasted the headline “TERROR IN PARIS,” with just a small headline dedicated to the NAACP bombings. Fox News admonished the “Islamic executioners” responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack, despite the fact that information is still incoming regarding the identity of the gunmen. (The NAACP bombing, however, dedicates a tiny headline at the bottom of Fox News’ web page.) NBC News dedicates a short headline to the news (admittedly, higher up than CNN and Fox News), but ABC News and CBS News is not featuring the bombing news anywhere on their homepages. And even New York Times, the paper that boasts to print “all the news that’s fit to print,” didn’t think the NAACP story fit enough to appear its own homepage.
[end excerpt]
---
* " ‘Muslim-free’ Arkansas shooting range turns away brown-skinned father-son duo" (2015-01-14) [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/muslim-free-arkansas-shooting-range-turns-away-brown-skinned-father-son-duo/] [https://archive.today/8WQxj]
---
* "Conservative ‘Christian’ Demands Republican Governors Use National Guard To Stop Same-Sex Marriages" (2015-01-13) [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/13/conservative-christian-demands-republican-governors-use-national-guard-to-stop-same-sex-marriages/] [https://archive.today/YGmJO]
* "GOP GOVERNORS TOO TIMID TO STOP 'GAY' MARRIAGE?" (2015-01-11) [http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/gop-governors-too-timid-to-stop-gay-marriage/] [https://archive.today/R2t9i]
Also see the Christian Pastor's "Fatwa" memo (.pdf) [http://savecalifornia.com/images/stories/PDFs/LettertoProFamilyLeadersonGovernorsandMarriage_010715.pdf], reproduced here in full:
January 7, 2015
TO: Pro-Family Leaders Concerned About Marriage
FM: Randy Thomasson, president, Campaign for Children and Families / SaveCalifornia.com
Re: Why to lobby Republican governors in pro-marriage states to stop homosexual “marriages”
Dear Pro-Family Leader,
I am urgently writing you with the solution to the crisis of homosexual “marriages” happening in states with constitutional marriage amendments and a pro-man-woman-marriage governor. From our experience in California with former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008, and Massachusetts’ experience with former governor Mitt Romney in 2004 (both of whom ordered homosexual “marriages” when they didn’t have to), it’s clear that governors wield immense power on and substantial influence over county clerks.
Governors have the duty and power to defend marriage in their states -
Each governor pledges themselves to “support and defend” the plain words of their state constitution,
including, in morally conservative states, the definition of marriage as only for a man and a woman.
Governors raise their right hand and publicly promise to “faithfully execute” (or carry out) these written laws, as commanded by their state constitutions.
Each governor also has an administration that serves his/her pleasure that is in charge of the state’s
marriage forms (licenses and applications) that county clerks use.
And each governor is authorized to call out his/her state's militia or National Guard to enforce written
laws and maintain public order against foreign and domestic enemies.
Finally, governors must be helped to recognize that the United States Constitution does not regulate
marriage but charges each state with having a constitution and laws based on that constitution:
— Marriage licenses are not in the U.S. Constitution, so federal judges have no authority here.
— Article IV, Section 4 guarantees to each state “a republican form of government” -- meaning
1) no monarchy and 2) no lawless mob rule, but a government of written laws representing the will of
the people. In pro-marriage states, the state constitution represents the people's will on marriage. (See
footnote recording James Madison's definition of a republican form of government as “a republican
constitution and its existing laws”): [http://constitution.findlaw.com/article4/annotation18.html#t322]
Constitutional governors will take action, not merely go to court -
Given these facts, it is state governors that are unfortunately allowing homosexual “marriages.” And given their constitutional and statutory powers, it is not good enough for governors to merely protest by appealing to a higher court the unconstitutional opinions of bad judges.
No, governors who are loyal to the written constitutions of both their state and of our nation must take executive action -- instead of making excuses that they must “follow the law.” The claim that judges make the laws is both a fallacy and a misnomer, and is antithetical to a republic. The law is written into the constitution by the People or the People’s representatives; the law is not what judges dream up, which is only their biased opinions.
In view of the current crisis on marriage, a constitutional governor can and should do the following:
- Announce he took an oath to obey the constitution, not to obey a judge’s unconstitutional opinion.
- Announce that no homosexual “marriage” licenses will be issued, and no county clerk is permitted
to issue marriage licenses to anyone other than a qualified man and woman.
- Utilize the support of the state attorney general (if that constitutional officer is willing to stand
alongside) or use the state’s National Guard to enforce the law at county clerk’s offices.
Pro-family organizations must hold “pro-family” Republican governors accountable -
Given that governors have both the right and the power to safeguard marriage policy, now is the time
for pro-family organizations to heavily lobby Republican governors to not permit unconstitutional,
homosexual “marriages” on their watch. This is a matter of their duties and our duty before God.
This is no time to fear governors’ reactions to pressure. Consider that these “pro-family” governors
owe the pro-family community, since conservative voters place conservative governors into office.
Don't these “pro-family” governors owe their allegiance to God, to the written constitution, to the voters, and to the pro-family organizations that represent pro-family voters?
Now is the time for you to boldly speak out and do both grassroots and direct lobbying of professing
pro-family governors to use their own executive powers, not merely legal appeals, to defend their state constitution and the People, and to preserve real marriage for one man and one woman. This immediate action on your part and theirs will be vastly superior to, and will only augment, any legal appeal to the same high court that destroyed DOMA and threw California’s Proposition 8 under the bus.
Please don’t hesitate to call me if I can provide more information or be of assistance.
Boldly in Christ’s grace and truth, [signed] Randy Thomasson, President
Attachment: Bryan Fischer, “Time for a governor to stand up against judicial tyranny,” Nov. 26, 2014
---
* "Mourning the Parisian Journalists Yet Noticing the Hypocrisy" (2015-01-09) [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-michael-lerner/mourning-the-parisian-jou_b_6442550.html] [https://archive.today/IySkc], [begin excerpt]:
As the editor of a progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine that has often articulated views that have prompted condemnation from both Right and Left, I had good reason to be scared by the murders of fellow journalists in Paris. Having won the 2014 "Magazine of the Year" Award from the Religion Newswriters Association, and having been critical of Hamas' attempts to bomb Israeli cities this past summer (even while being equally critical of Israel's rampage against civilians in Gaza), I have good reason to worry if this prominence raises the chances of being a target for Islamic extremists.
But then again, I had to wonder about the way the massacre in Paris is being depicted and framed by the Western media as a horrendous threat to Western civilization, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, I wondered about the over-heated nature of this description. It didn't take me long to understand how problematic that framing really is.
When right-wing "pro-Israel" fanatics frequently sent me death threats, physically attacked my house and painted on the gates statements about me being "a Nazi" or "a self-hating Jew," and called in bomb threats to Tikkun, the magazine I edit, there was no attention given to this by the media, no cries of "our civilization depends on freedom of the press" or demands to hunt down those involved (the FBI and police received our complaints, but never reported back to us about what they were doing to protect us or find the assailants).
Nor was the mainstream or Jewish media particularly concerned about Western civilization being destroyed or freedom of thought and association undermined when various universities denied tenure to professors who had made statements critical of Israel, or when the Hillel association, which operates a chain of student-oriented "Hillel Houses" on college campuses, decided to ban from their premises any Jews who were part of Jewish Voices for Peace. Nor was the media much interested in a bomb that went off outside the NAACP's Colorado Springs headquarters the same day as they were highlighting the attack in Paris. Colorado Springs is home to some of the most extreme right-wing activists. It was a balding white man who was seen setting the bomb, some reports claim, and so the media described it as an act of a troubled "lone individual," rather than as a white right wing Christian fundamentalist terrorist. Few Americans have even heard of this incident.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Nebraska Supreme Court Denies Landowners Standing to Defend Their Land From Dirty Pipeline" (2015-01-09) [http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/01/09/nebraska-supreme-court-denies-landowners-standing-defend-their-land-dirty] [https://archive.today/wLZVA]
---
---
* "On Day 1, House GOP Rigs The Rules For The Rich, Against The Disabled" (2015-01-07) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/07/day-1-house-gop-rigs-rules-rich-against-disabled] [https://archive.today/OLV0o]
---
* "GOP Rule Change in Congress Signals New Dawn for 'Voodoo Economics'; 'Few economic theories have been as thoroughly tested in the real world as supply-side economics, and so notoriously failed.' " (2015-01-07) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/07/gop-rule-change-congress-signals-new-dawn-voodoo-economics] [https://archive.today/6X7vj]
---
* "Ten Questions for Conservatives" (2015-01-05) [http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/158019] [https://archive.today/irkLr], [begin excerpt]:
1. As opponents of “big government,” why do you fervently support an unending stream of government-sponsored wars, vast government military spending, the power of local police to shoot and kill unarmed citizens, government interference with abortion rights and family planning, government restrictions on marriage, and the linkage of church and state?
9. As critics of statism, why don’t you oppose government loyalty oaths, flag drills, and pledges of allegiance?
10. As advocates of “freedom,” why are you not at the forefront of the fight against government torture, political surveillance, and censorship?
[end excerpt]
---
* Fox News Channel alert! "DISH Customers: DISH is Censoring Your News! Switch Now!" [http://www.keepfoxnews.com/] [https://archive.today/IqnaB]
* "Fox’s Bob Beckel compares Islamic terror to dating your mixed-race girlfriend" (2015-01-08) [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/foxs-bob-beckel-compares-islamic-terror-to-dating-your-mixed-race-girlfriend/] [https://archive.today/540hM], [begin excerpt]: “I think it’s sort of like in the United States where younger people today, it’s not at all unusual for people to see multicultural dating, for example,” Beckel told his co-hosts on The Five. “Back when I was young you didn’t date out of your own ethnicity. But in Europe and other places, this mingling that’s going on here, younger people are beginning to find this acceptable. And that’s the thing that is sort of scary because they’re getting exposed to it on a daily basis.” [end excerpt]
* "Obama To Disband the Marine Corps" (2015-01-01) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/01/1355083/-Obama-To-Disband-the-Marine-Corps] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103060738/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/01/1355083/-Obama-To-Disband-the-Marine-Corps], [begin excerpt]:
Fox News just reported that Obama is going to ban doughnuts! And not just doughnuts. Watch the report. Obama's jack-booted FDA is coming after (and they list these) popcorn, Christmas cookies (ohhh he hates Christmas!), crackers, frozen pizza, and canned frosting. Fox News host Clayton Morris actually said they would be prohibited! Hoooo boy. I shouldn't have to explain this, but what they are referring to is the FDA ban on trans-fat, which was enacted well over a year ago. Trans-fat isn't needed to make anything, and has already been eliminated by doughnut companies for years! (This includes the stupid doughnuts Morris was displaying.) In other words, trans-fat is a dangerous, non-essential ingredient that has already been replaced. No one gave flying f***.
Yet Fox is lying to its viewers, again, telling them that their favorite desserts will be BANNED! Cue the outrage--just like when they recently reported that Obama would personally fund a Muslim museum during a government shutdown (their source: a parody website!)
Or this past October when they told their viewers that Obama was purposefully letting Ebola in America because his "affiliations and affinities" were with Africa! Sounds incredible? Yes, because you are rational. But you don't win the LIE of the YEAR award from Politifact for being rationale. This year, Fox News won for spreading false information about Ebola. And now, at the end of the year, Fox had to cap off their lying streak by reporting that coming soon in 2015, your favorite sugary treats will be taken by the aforementioned jack-booted thugs. As Cenk said in the video, it is pretty much guaranteed that one of your brainwashed relatives will state, matter-of-factly, that Obama is coming after our doughnuts. It was on the "news". Yet in a few months, when we see that our doughnuts are still on the shelves and no one is trying to take them, the Fox viewer will not once ever stop and say to himself--"Hey, they lied to me!". That is because he will already be outraged at the next lie.The cycle will continue, and I'll keep trying to get through.
[end excerpt]
---
* "FBI snitch, corporatist fraud Al Sharpton got MSNBC show after getting big donation and endorsing Comcast/NBC merger" (2015-01-06) [https://archive.today/sGhGp]: Ever wonder how completely unqualified FBI snitch, corporatist fraud, and all-around dirt-bag Al Sharpton was given the coveted 6 PM time slot on MSNBC? That nugget is buried in an article about *another* corporatist fraud and dirt-bag, David Gregory. In 'How David Gregory Lost His Job' by Luke Mullins (21 Dec 2014), we learn how Wall Street troll Sharpton got his low-rated, hour-long show. 'To rally political support for the merger, Comcast's political-action committee handed out campaign cash, and [David L.] Cohen worked to head off the concerns over diversity. Between 2008 and 2010, Comcast's corporate foundation donated more than $3 million [!] to 39 minority groups that wrote letters to federal regulators in support of the NBC deal. Comcast and NBC Universal also worked out an agreement with advocacy groups guaranteeing increased "minority participation in news and public affairs programming"--so long as the deal went through. And in 2009 and 2010, Comcast gave $155,000 to an organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who ended up endorsing the merger...At MSNBC, which Comcast also owns, Sharpton [*insanely*] landed a talk show.'
---
How White Supremacist Conservatives use Al Sharpton as a code to disguise their racism:
Letter by Mike Rubin of San Francisco to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle [https://archive.today/HrryZ]:
“Officers Show Their Backside” (Jan. 7) is notable for two references: the first one in which Debra J. Saunders co-opts Rosa Parks (who no doubt is spinning in her grave as a result), and the second the completely gratuitous, lazy and deflective reference to the cartoon character invented by white racists, “Al Sharpton” (who bears no relationship whatsoever to the real Mr. Al Sharpton). The latter is particularly predictable. Every single day, in our newspapers and on the Internet, we are reminded that conservative whites simply cannot or will not discuss racial issues without invoking Sharpton, no matter how little he has to do with the discussion at hand.
However, that the references seem gratuitous is unimportant. If you read conservative commentary long enough, you understand that “Al Sharpton” simply is code to let a certain sort of reader know the author intends to deflect from any real issue of racism, as though there were no such discussion that couldn’t be ended with “what about that race-baiter Al Sharpton?”
---
* "Republican Congressman Randy Weber Compares Obama To Hitler" (2015-01-13) [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/13/randy-weber-obama-hitler-parsi_n_6460280.html] [https://archive.today/VgT7G]
---
* "Quarter of Americans and More Than Half of Republicans Still Believe Iraq WMD Myth" (2015-01-07) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/07/quarter-americans-and-more-half-republicans-still-believe-iraq-wmd-myth] [https://archive.today/2VZh7]
---
Republican Party Congressman Mitch McConnell's family are cocaine dealers, and fraudulent international business people who use "shell corporations" to run guns to dictators.
* "McConnell wants credit for economic turnaround" (2015-01-07) [http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-wants-credit-economic-turnaround] [https://archive.today/wZnMZ]
---
* "Jeb Bush education foundation played leading role in mixing politics, policy" (2015-01-06) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/jeb-bush-education-foundation-played-leading-role-in-mixing-politics-policy/2015/01/06/db1db176-903b-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html] [https://archive.today/U1T4y]. Now that Jeb is positioning himself to take his turn in the Oval Office, the scrutiny of his business dealings is just beginning. The Washington Post looks at his Foundation for Excellence in Education, which connected policymakers with business leaders and established a valuable network of influence for the former governor. According to critics, it amounted to a backdoor for corporations eager to profit from education reforms and government spending.
* "Bush puts former AMD, Freescale executive in key Texas GLO job" (2015-01-05) [http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/abj-at-the-capitol/2015/01/bush-puts-former-amd-freescale-executive-in-key.html] [https://archive.today/YXlZa]
* "Loss of employees on Malaysia flight a blow, U.S. chipmaker says" (2014-03-09) [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-malaysia-airlines-freescale-idUSBREA280T020140309] [https://archive.today/GCEEF]
---
"Wounded Warriors Project" is another example of a capitalist "charity", providing a private social-aid program to alleviate the lack of social programs for veterans of the USA military.
* Part 1: "Wounded Warriors Project A Legal Scam" (2013-12-08) [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/12/08/wounded-warriors-project-a-legal-scam/] [https://archive.today/TR9rE],original version [https://asknod.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/wounded-warriors-project-a-scam/] [https://archive.today/2LmJI]
* Part 2: "Fallout From Wounded Warriors" (2013-12-27) [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/12/27/282381/] [https://archive.today/VsJER]
* Part 3: "WWP - Saving Sergeant Ryan (Webster)" (2014-02-16) [https://asknod.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/wwp-saving-sargent-ryan-webster/] [https://archive.today/X011k]
---
Propaganda as bad as what is credited to the DPRK is produced by the monopolist media in the USA. An example is the following.
* "US spymaster dined with N.Korea general reponsible for Sony hack" (2015-01-07) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_spymaster_dined_with_NKorea_general_reponsible_for_Sony_hack_999.html] [https://archive.today/3CgEZ]
---
The following shows that while Police are arresting people who make potentially "violent" postings to social media, they won't arrest a former Police officer and current writer for the extremely racist NRA when he threatens violence against Justice campaign organizers!
* "Former NYPD Cop Tweets a Gun Selfie to Goad #BlackBrunchNYC Protesters" (2015-01-06) [http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/former_nypd_cop_tweets_a_gun_selfie_to_goad_blackbrunchnyc_protesters.html] [https://archive.today/62xj7], [begin excerpt]:
In an interview with BBC News, Cardillo argued that the protesters purposely picked brunchgoers as a target because they wouldn't run into retaliation. "I found this group to be incredibly cowardly; this was a feel-good measure and they picked the softest target imaginable," Cardillo said.Cardillo also described how he found it odd that people took issue with his gun selfie and its message but did not kick up dust, he argues, when two New York City police officers were gunned down in late December by a gunman who some believe was inspired by the #BlackLivesMatters protests: "These people who are screaming about my photograph, I didn't see any of them shouting about the murder of two cops," he told the BBC.
Cardillo, who is a contributor for NRA News, has been making his media rounds and on Monday got into a heated discussion with New York Times columnist Charles Blow on CNN. According to Mediaite, Cardillo referenced the civil rights movement on CNN and said that Sunday's protests were not in the same league as those who marched and demonstrated in the 1960s. "I think it's ludicrous because these protesters are able to patronize these restaurants. Quite frankly, I think it's demeaning to what I consider heroes of the civil rights movement," he said.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Returning troops help KKK build paramilitary force to ‘retake’ US in coming race war" (2014-06-10) [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/returning-troops-help-kkk-build-paramilitary-force-to-retake-us-in-coming-race-war/] [https://archive.today/Kc4oW]
* "The Revolutionary Gun Clubs Patrolling the Black Neighborhoods of Dallas" (2015-01-05) [http://www.vice.com/read/huey-does-dallas-0000552-v22n1] [https://archive.today/Imfp0], [begin excerpt]:
"We accept all oppressed people of color with weapons," Darren X, who is 48, tells me in a deep, authoritative baritone. "The complete agenda involves going into our communities and educating our people on federal, state, and local gun laws. We want to stop fratricide, genocide—all the 'cides."
[end excerpt]
* "2nd Amendment For Whites Only? Conservatives Freak Out Over New Black Panthers Carrying Guns" (2015-01-09) [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/09/2nd-amendment-for-whites-only-conservatives-freak-out-over-new-black-panthers-carrying-guns/] [https://archive.today/HDl7e], [begin excerpt]:
Well, this should surprise exactly no one. Not even a little. Ever since the NRA created the “grassroots” movement to shove “open carry” laws down America’s throat, white men have been parading their penis extensions to shopping malls and restaurants to bully and terrorize people. Oh wait, I meant “show their patriotism.” No, hold on, I actually did mean “bully and terrorize.”
Meanwhile, gun control advocates have been pointing out that the second black men started to do the same, white conservatives would go into full panic mode. And just as predicted, when the New Black Panther Party did just that, the right wing started to hyperventilate:
The Conservative Tribune (one of the most read websites in the country) goes on to say that the group carrying guns is “alarming” while complaining that President Obama is trying to steal our guns while “these guys don’t even get the slightest bit of attention.” Again, why this is alarming or why they need attention is never actually explained.
Of course, the writer brings up the long, long debunked myth of voter intimidation in Philadelphia because why let a good lie go to waste when you’re whipping up racial fear?
Talk to your average right wing gun nut and they’ll tell you they need their guns to protect them from a tyrannical government and its jack-booted thugs in law enforcement. But wait a second! The New Black Panthers say exactly the same thing!
I’m trying to find where the philosophical difference lies between black militants and white militants. Curiously, the only thing I can think of is that the white militants are angry about imaginary oppression while the black ones are angry about very real oppression. Clearly, that means the black ones are “thugs” and the white ones are “patriots.”
[end excerpt]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
* "Modern Slavery and the Triumph of Capitalism, (Part One)" (2014-11-17) [http://ideasandaction.info/2014/11/modern-slavery-triumph-capitalism-part-one/] [https://archive.today/ED4pv]
* "Modern Slavery and the Triumph of Capitalism, Part 2: Modern Slavery in the USA" (2015-01-08) [http://ideasandaction.info/2015/01/modern-slavery-triumph-capitalism-part-2-modern-slavery-usa/] [https://archive.today/FGJqc]
---
* "World Bank sees oil prices shifting economic dynamics" (2015-01-08) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/World_Bank_sees_oil_prices_shifting_economic_dynamics_999.html] [https://archive.today/NuXr1]
---
* "Amid Time of Soaring Inequality, Rich Say: The Poor Have It Easy" (2015-01-09) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/09/amid-time-soaring-inequality-rich-say-poor-have-it-easy] [https://archive.today/30Gt9]
---
* "Double Standards in the World Order: Israel can thumb its nose at UN inquiries and openly blame Palestinians for seeking justice through the international courts. Nato can rebuff the UN over Libya. The US can ignore its own torture investigation" (2015-01-08) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/08/double-standards-world-order] [https://archive.today/PnifE], [begin excerpt]:
Palestine approaches the United Nations Security Council asking to set a deadline to end the Israeli occupation. It is rebuffed by the United States.
Palestine approaches the International Criminal Court (ICC), seeking membership in this world body. The United States threatens to cut its funding to the Palestinian Authority while Israel threatens to accelerate its settlement policy.
The US State Department’s hyperventilated reaction included the suggestion that entry into the ICC “badly damages the atmosphere with the very people with whom [the Palestinians] ultimately need to make peace.” Just as Palestine attempts to use the very legal means that it is accused of abjuring, it is blamed for being “unhelpful".
When the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) decided to investigate the 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza, Tel Aviv refused to allow the panel – led by Justice Richard Goldstone – into the lands its continues to occupy. There was no public denunciation by Israel’s allies for this snub. In fact, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that she had organized a “blocking coalition” to prevent action on Goldstone’s report. She met with the ICC’s Sang-Hyun Song to inform him that the US would see his actions on the report “as a test for the ICC”.
In Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir he recounts a telling moment about how the US deals with questions of accountability. A War Crimes Law (1993) in Belgium had been used to file cases against US and Israeli officials. In 2003, Rumsfeld took aside Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut, and flayed him on this point. He said that if Belgium did not repeal the law, NATO headquarters in Brussels could move elsewhere – “There were plenty of other cities between Washington and Ankara.” The Belgians wanted US funds to help build a new NATO headquarters. “Within two months of that conversation,” Rumsfeld recalls, “the Belgian government repealed the law.” What Rumsfeld called “lawfare” had been thwarted.
The double standards in the world order remained intact.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Complaints Filed At UN Against McCain - Senator Meets With Terrorists, Fascists, and Nazis Across The World" (2015-01-07) [http://www.activistpost.com/2015/01/complaints-filed-at-un-against-mccain.html] [https://archive.today/dDKSW]
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* "CIA’s Hidden Hand in ‘Democracy’ Groups" (2015-01-08) [https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/08/cias-hidden-hand-in-democracy-groups/] [https://archive.today/6fNW6]
---
* "U.S. Citizens Continue to Infiltrate Eastern European Governments" (2014-12-30) [http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/30/us-citizens-continue-to-infiltrate-eastern-european-governments.html] [https://archive.today/Dp52P], [begin excerpt]:
The recent appointment of the austerity-loving U.S. citizen and investment firm chief Natalie Jaresko as Ukraine’s Finance Minister continues a trend that has seen one Eastern European country after another appointing or electing U.S. citizens as major government officials. Jaresko had Ukrainian citizenship conferred on her by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as she arrived in Kiev to take up her new post in the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, himself a former legal U.S. resident who has been linked to the crypto-Satanic Church of Scientology.
Jaresko is involved in contentious asset redistribution court battles with her ex-husband, Ihor Figlus. Together, the two managed the Kiev-based Horizon Capital, established 20 years ago with a $150 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Horizon Capital operated the Emerging Europe Growth Fund, a group charged with illegal insider trading of Ukrainian securities. According to court divorce documents, Horizon Capital bought Ukrainian artwork, Georgian carpets, expensive cars, and antique furniture, all of which are now subject to the battle for ownership between Jaresko and Figlus. Jaresko also managed the USAID-financed Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), a CIA contrivance that steered U.S. investment dollars into «pro-democracy» movements in Moldova and Belarus and laundered much of the $5 billion in U.S. aid for the Maidan Square coup in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
[end excerpt]
---
Fascist governments (USA, Ukraine, Israel, France, etc.), who have altogether killed millions and destroyed secular governments across the world, are exploiting the memory of the victims of the murderous attack against a satire magazine in France to propagandize to the world that they uphold freedom of speech!
3.7 million people and heads-of-state marched down the streets of Paris to grieve the death of 12 Europeans humorists -- but scant few will evince a hint of mourning for the millions of the people of the Islamic faith who have been murdered, injured, and displaced by fascist aggression since 2001, revealing the genocidal reality of the Western White Supremacist order. In a manner, both subliminal and overt, the post-colonialist economic and militarist order of the West promulgates the concept that the lives of Europeans are precious while the lives of the non-European (and Novorossiya's) people are disposable, when said human beings stand in the way of the economic elite's rapacious drive for profit. Propagandists might strive and contrive to portray the memorial marchers as a vanguard of liberty and free expression against tyranny.* "Israel extends detention of Palestinian cartoonist" (2014-05-21) [http://cpj.org/2013/02/israel-extends-detention-of-palestinian-cartoonist.php] [https://archive.today/iMDrC], [begin excerpt]:
Saba'aneh was detained on February 16 while crossing the Allenby Bridge checkpoint from Jordan after returning from a conference for his work at the Arab American University, according to news reports. He is being held at the Jalemeh detention center near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, MADA said. It is not clear if Saba'aneh is being held under "administrative detention." Under Israeli law, prisoners can be held under administrative detention indefinitely without formal charges being filed against them.
Saba'aneh works as a political cartoonist for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, and has depicted imprisoned Palestinians in his most recent cartoons. One, published on February 17, shows a mirror on the wall of a prison, revealing prison bars in its reflection.
Local press freedom groups said they believed Saba'aneh's arrest could be part of a larger crackdown on the Palestinian press in the region. In January, Israeli soldiers prevented about 20 international journalists from covering the eviction of a Palestinian campsite in the West Bank. Another international journalist was briefly detained in the West Bank, according to news reports. Three Palestinian journalists remain in administrative detention in Israel, two without charge, according to CPJ's annual prison census conducted in December.
[end excerpt]
Criticism of the Jewish State of Israel's human rights abuse against residents of it's occupied territories is classified as "anti-Semitism" as a BBC newscaster was recently terrorised for making a remark reflecting this.
* " 'Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well' " (2015-01-12) [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2906539/Calls-BBC-reporter-resign-told-daughter-Holocaust-survivors-Paris-Palestinians-suffer-hugely-Jewish-hands-well.html] [https://archive.today/mU8JC], [begin excerpt]:
Twitter user I Support Israel said: "Retweet if you believe @BBCTimWillcox should be fired for making this anti-Semitic suggestion". The comment was re-tweeted 41 times, while others expressed their views on the controversy, adding the hashtag #WillcoxMustGo.
An online petition was also set up, demanding that Willcox 'personally apologise', and calling for 're-assurance that this constant anti-Semitic behaviour from the BBC will come to an end'.
[end excerpt]
The offense was taken from the BBC newscaster's casual use of the word "Jewish" as a misrepresentation of the entire nation, even though those calling for the newscaster's dismissal are firm supporters of the State of Israel and view that government as reflecting their values as a nation, and perceive any suggestion that "their government" engages in human rights abuse as an attack against their nation.
* "Netanyahu wants to define Israel as Jewish state in law" (2014-05-01) [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/01/us-israel-jewish-netanyahu-idUSBREA400EP20140501] [https://archive.today/7LY7d]
Update: We have been advised by a Northbay MDS member that the statement from the BBC newscaster can indeed be construed as in bad taste and anti-Semitic, and, as this member was the one who noticed the BBC newscaster scandle, is asking that we keep the original story link and our comments as they were posted, for the sake of dialogue.
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Weapons for a New World Order
* "Navy orders rail gun battery system fron K2 Energy Solutions" (2015-01-06) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Navy_orders_rail_gun_battery_system_fron_K2_Energy_Solutions_999.html] [https://archive.today/hsD8f]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: #OpDeathEaters
The Global Economic Dictators are worse than anyone else, as shown by the evidence for their fetish of death and power.
* "WPB Court Papers: Prince Andrew, Lawyer Alan Dershowitz Shared Palm Beach Perv Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Slave!" (2015-01-02) [http://gossipextra.com/2015/01/02/prince-andrew-lawyer-alan-dershowitz-named-federal-sex-lawsuit-jeffrey-epstein-4297/] [https://archive.today/rTY4I], photo showing Deatheater Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, attorney to the rich and black-mailable, [begin excerpt]:
Epstein entered a plea agreement in Palm Beach County in 2008 in connection with his hiring underage girls for sex in a dungeon in his Palm Beach mansion.The motion filed Tuesday is to allow two unidentified women to join a federal lawsuit originally filed by two other local women who claim the federal government violated their rights when it allowed Epstein to obtain an unsual no-prosecution agreement.
The agreement has been kept secret from the public, and it made the politically connected Epstein immune to federal prosecution.
Epstein was a friend and campaign donor to former President Bill Clinton, and hangs in NYC with filmmaker Woody Allen. While the motion claims Doe 3 was coerced into having sex with American politicians and other powerful men, Clinton and Allen are not named in the motion.
At times, he “lent” her to other men to “ingratiate himself to them for business, personal, political and financial gains as well as to obtain potential blackmail information,” the motion obtained by Gossip Extra reads.
Those men allegedly included Prince Andrew, who’s the son of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles‘ brother, and part-time Miami Beach resident Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor and defender of rich criminal suspects.
Dershowitz, by the way, helped Epstein negotiate his no-prosecution agreement in West Palm Beach.
[end excerpt]
* "Dershowitz: Torture could be justified" (2003-03-03) [http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/03/03/cnna.Dershowitz/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20050314091540/http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/03/03/cnna.Dershowitz/]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Haiti
* "5 Years After Haiti Earthquake, The Sad State of Democracy and Human Rights" (2015-01-12) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/12/5-years-after-haiti-earthquake-sad-state-democracy-and-human-rights] [https://archive.today/DOo0q]
* "Haiti's promised rebuilding is unfulfilled as Haitians challenge authoritarian rule" (2015-01-13) [http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume8-26/Five%20years%20post-quake.asp] [https://archive.today/Afwep]
* "Reconstitution of Haiti’s Tontons Macoutes and Their Fusion With MINUSTAH" (2014-12-24) [http://www.dadychery.org/2014/12/24/reconstitution-of-haitis-tontons-macoutes-and-their-fusion-with-minustah/] [https://archive.today/0VvEs]
* "Haiti “Reconstruction”: Land Grabbing, Privatization and Occupation" (2014-04-08) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-reconstruction-anti-imperialist-leaders-collaborating-with-the-u-s-empire-in-land-grabbing-privatization-and-occupation/5378164] [https://archive.today/SAdyU]
* "Haiti’s Struggle for Freedom: US Imperialism, MINUSTAH and the Overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide" (2012-12-26) [http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=799] [https://archive.today/6KgQD]
* "Haiti “Reconstruction”: Luxury Hotels, Sweat Shops and Deregulation for the Foreign Corporate Elite" (2013-08-16) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-reconstruction-luxury-hotels-sweat-shops-and-deregulation-for-the-foreign-corporate-elite/5344546] [https://archive.today/ZrDLM]
* "Five Years Ago: A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Tested by US Military One Day Before the Earthquake" (2010-01-21) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-haiti-disaster-relief-scenario-was-envisaged-by-the-us-military-one-day-before-the-earthquake/17122] [https://archive.today/88jWn]
* "Haiti, Five Years After the Earthquake: Fraudulent Reconstruction Under Military Occupation" (2015-01-12) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-5-years-after-the-earthquake-fraudulent-reconstruction-under-military-occupation/5424139] [https://archive.today/KxExI]
* "Faith, Hope and Chaos On a grim anniversary, much is left to be done. But a brewing political crisis could put a dent in those plans." (2015-01-12) [http://prospect.org/article/five-years-after-earthquake-haiti-teeters-between-chaos-and-hope#14212929628901&action=collapse_widget&id=9629893] [https://archive.today/InLCy]
* "5 Years After Haiti's Earthquake, Where Did The $13.5 Billion Go?" (2015-01-12) [http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/01/12/376138864/5-years-after-haiti-s-earthquake-why-aren-t-things-better] [https://archive.today/yPzfA]
"Pimping 4 Wall Street" protest sign. "San Francisco Haiti Solidarity Demo Nov 19, 2013" [https://berkeleycalling.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/san-fran-haiti-solidarity-demo-tues-nov-19th/] [https://archive.today/6xfvc], [begin excerpt]: Haiti Action Committee protests Corporate Political Puppets in San Francisco to “Stand for the Truth about Haiti” and to Protest Sean Penn’s Lies in Service of Fake US Engineered Elections & the ongoing UN Military Occupation [end excerpt], see article for photos
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Honduras
Most of the comments are collected from the daily "Presente Honduras Digest", and from the "Honduras Solidarity Network" listserve, authored by experts in geopolitics and history of Latin America. Libre is the "leftist" party working to uphold human rights and sovereignty, JOH is the dictator of Honduras supported by the USA.
---
JOH accuses the opponents of the Military Police again as collaborators of organized crime. Libre congressman Rafael Alegria demands proof by the president to show the supposed link between organized crime and the Libre party. Source in Spanish [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-diputado-alegria-pide-al.html] [https://archive.today/RxUGk]
---
KGNU published an interview with Hondruan journalist Gerardo Torres Zelaya "about events leading up to the January 27 kickoff of actions to press for the current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to resign." [http://news.kgnu.org/2015/01/honduran-civil-society-groups-call-for-the-resignation-of-president-one-year-into-term/] [https://archive.today/idT6n]
---
Roci? Tabora, the Finance Sub-secretary, claims that the money saved from the mass firings will be used to improve the social security on the extremely poor - that's an interesting way to play out to groups against each other. Source in Spanish [http://www.radiohrn.hn/l/noticias/gobierno-busca-ahorro-de-lps-1500-2-000-millones-más-con-despidos-de-burócratas] [https://archive.today/WLdJN]
---
Juan Francisco Martinez, member of MILPAH found dead in La Paz.
Bad news from CEHPRODEC about the violent killing of Juan Francisco Martinez, a member of the Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz (MILPAH) (in south-western Honduras) who are involved in land struggles in defense of their territory against the construction of a hydro-electric dam owned by Nationalist Congresswoman Gladys Aurora, the VP of the National Congress, and promoted by her family. CEHPRODEC mentions that the murder may be related to the dam struggle. Already in July 2014, a son of Martinez had been murdered.
[http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-juan-francisco-martinez.html] [https://archive.today/9g9R7]
---
* "Kidnapped Honduras Aids activist Keren Dunaway freed" (2015-01-07) [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30705781] [https://archive.today/tMzwK]
---
The main press continues its campaign against Libre. Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/783359-331/mel-amenaza-a-los-500-regidores-y-a-los-36-diputados] [https://archive.today/5QrLG], (2) [http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/783376-417/hijo-de-mel-zelaya-compara-a-rasel-tom%C3%A9-con-un-sapo] [https://archive.today/Jk6op]
---
A story by Radio Progreso of JOH and his sister Hilda Hernandez. [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-nuestra-palabra-el-hermano-y.html] [https://archive.today/NvKrb]
---
According to UNAH's Violence Observatory, there are 700 private security firms operation in Honduras - 400 of which without being registered. Together they employ about 100,000 agents, a huge number in comparison to the 14,000 police agents and 12,000 soldiers. Source in Spanish [http://lanoticia.hn/nacionales/honduras-tres-veces-mas-agentes-de-seguridad-privada-que-miembros-de-la-policia-nacional/] [https://archive.today/4wsDL]
---
InSightCrime asks why Colombia is smuggling Coca Base to Honduras. For them it implies "that Colombian drug traffickers have agreed to let their criminal partners in Central America handle the processing the base into cocaine themselves." Source [http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/why-is-colombia-smuggling-coca-paste-to-honduras] [https://archive.today/gBbT6].
Following yesterday's article by InSightCrime, ATIC found more material in Honduras to prepare cocaine. Source in Spanish [http://www.radiohrn.hn/l/noticias/fusina-allana-bodega-con-presunto-material-para-elaborar-cocaína] [https://archive.today/7vXSd]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: United States of Mexico
* "Protesters Seize Mexican Leader's Visit to Denounce US Funding of State Violence" (2015-01-06) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/06/protesters-seize-mexican-leaders-visit-denounce-us-funding-state-violence] [https://archive.today/6RrcJ]
* "Peña Nieto: Two Years Of Poverty, Corruption, Repression And Impunity" (2014-11-30) [http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.de/2014/11/pena-nieto-two-years-of-poverty.html] [https://archive.today/YVuCC]
* "What the U.S. Labor Movement Should Be Demanding in Relation to Mexico" (2015-01-07) [http://socialistorganizer.org/what-the-u-s-labor-movement-should-be-demanding-in-relation-to-mexico/] [https://archive.today/a0dSX]
* Solidarity Message from MEChA to Mexican Students and Activists
Message sent to the Second National Meeting of the Resistance Movements, to the families of the Ayotzinapa students, and to the Popular Assembly of Ayotzinapa
MEChA contact person, Lalo Gonzalez: lalo2235@gmail.com
We, Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan (M.E.Ch.A), stand with the Ayotzinapa 43, their families, and their community. As the largest and oldest organization of Chican@ youth within the occupied indigenous land known as the United States of America, we refuse to follow suit of said government by remaining silent about the realities terrorizing our gente in Mexico.
The disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43 on September 26, 2014 has further exposed the illegitimate and decaying regime of Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN) and the forces that brought him to power. The violent barbaric attack on the students points to the extent to which the EPN government fears the people. The normales, rural teachers’ colleges, are a historic victory from the Mexican Revolution of 1910. An attack on normalistas is an attack on the Revolution.
The disappearances of the Ayotzinapa 43 are only one facet of the ongoing dismantling of a sovereign Mexico by the EPN puppet regime, facilitated by a corrupt political system and a submissive oligarchy. US imperialism, at the forefront of these attacks and with the full support and complicity of the twin parties of US capitalism, the Democrats and the Republicans, has compelled the passage of counter-reforms to Mexico’s educational system, labor laws, and energy sector. These last reforms have meant the expropriation of communal landholdings to exploit gas, oil, and other natural resources. Together, these counter-reforms are effectively dismantling the material basis of national sovereignty, and the destruction of the rights of the working/oppressed masses in Mexico.
As these counter-reforms are pushed through, the narco wars continue to rage within Mexico. Thousands of kidnappings and murders have taken place within the last decade. The state military apparatus, inflated with US manufactured weapons and money to combat the narcos, is used as a means of repression against those deemed a threat to the State. Femicides and violence against women also continue. Women all over Mexico are now systematically targeted for torture and murder.
Despite the repression, Mexicans are fighting back. Autodefensas, that include many women, have risen up in parts of Mexico to protect and defend their communities. Students and parents have taken to the streets in defense of education. Labor unions have fought back against reforms, with the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME) leading the fight against privatization.
The solution will not derive from the structures of the corrupt, country-selling politics inherent in the PRI-PAN-PRD political regime. Thus, the call that has emanated from sectors of the workers' movement for a National Sovereign Constituent Assembly is the most immediate step to break from the corrupt political machine and deepen the revolutionary struggle. Such a Constituent Assembly would bring together the genuine representatives of the workers', popular, student and peasant organizations and the growing number of local Popular Assemblies that have arisen in the aftermath of Ayotzinapa. It would establish a new government responsible to the Constituent Assembly -- a government that annuls the PRI regime’s “counter-reforms," ends all the violence, and establishes full national sovereignty and independence, putting forth first and foremost the interests of “los de abajo.” Only the workers and peasants through revolutionary struggle can overturn the rotten capitalist system.
We, as Raza, as people tied to the land within the belly of the beast, have the historical responsibility to stand next to our gente, in this struggle for liberation. Chican@ liberation is inextricably linked to the ongoing revolutionary processes that are currently under way in Mexico just as it is a key component of the revolutionary struggle in the belly of the imperialist beast. Our task is to be at the forefront of organizing raza communities in the US to rapidly respond to ongoing developments in Mexico and fight against imperialist policies in our own lands.
We have set out to build a movement on the campuses, community and labor unions to demand the repeal of NAFTA and all other “free trade” and neoliberal treaties that are dismantling the economic and social fabric of Mexico; and, an end to all US military aid to Mexico (in the name of the War on Drugs -- a failed policy aimed at debilitating resistance movements abroad and criminalizing working class people of color in the US). MEChA will establish concrete alliances with our compañer@s and communities in Mexico and exchange delegates to coordinate the resistance.
From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson to Oakland, El Sexto Sol has risen and with it the people are awakening.
We stand with the Ayotzinapa 43 and the demands of their community:
1. The presentation of the 43 student activists in Ayotzinapa!
2. Punishment of all those responsible for these and all other political murders!
3. The immediate and unconditional release of ALL political prisoners!
4. The repeal of all the counter-reform measures proposed by Peña Nieto!
5. The removal from office of Enrique Peña Nieto!
Vivos se los llevaron, Vivos los queremos!
Alive they were taken, Alive we want them back!
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Ukraine
* "Appeal to Donetsk officials: Release Borotba activists" (2014-12-31) [http://www.iacenter.org/ukraine/borotba122914/] [https://archive.today/BMYrc], [begin excerpt]:
Victor Shapinov, Maxim Firsov and Maria Muratova are members of the Ukrainian anti-fascist organization Union Borotba. During a solidarity visit to Donetsk on Dec. 21, these three comrades were taken prisoner by Vostok Battalion soldiers. They were mistaken for a Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage team.According to information obtained by Borotba, they are currently being held at the Vostok commandant's office on Elevatornaya Street in Donetsk city to be exchanged for prisoners held by the Ukrainian fascist regime.
On Dec. 27, Odessa Regional Council Deputy and survivor of the May 2 massacre Alexei Albu went to the Vostok Battalion headquarters to appeal for their release. He has not been heard from since.
If these anti-fascists are turned over to the Kiev junta, they face imprisonment, torture and death at the hands of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and neo-Nazis.
[end excerpt]
---
Neo-Nazis are instrumental in helping the USA launch a fascist coup in the Republic of the Ukraine during February, 2014. After the coup, neo-Nazis were given key positions in the newly formed National Guard, which replaced the military which had not recognized the coup, and they were given administrative offices in the newly installed dictatorship, and their own military called The Azov Battalion.
An international union of fascist vanguards has been formed which is using the "White Power" Cross. They believe in pure homelands for European nations, are against socialism and democracy, and act as death squads against "leftist" vanguards who are becoming popular.
Photo: 2013-10-14 in Ukraine
Photo: 2013-12 occupation of the Capitol building at Kiev, the capital city of the Republic of Ukraine, with the flags displayed from Left to Right, the Ku Klux Klan Battle Flag, the White Power flag, and the flag of the National Socialist Party of Ukraine (Svoboda Party)
Traditionalist Ku Klux Klan homepage, archived 2014-12-31 at [https://web.archive.org/web/20141231232216/http://www.traditionalistamericanknights.com/] advertises an invite-only website titled the "Free Americans Community"
Stormfront.org is a popular online community begun around 1995 by members of the Aryan Nations and the American Nazi Party.
Fascist vanguards have been massacring ethnic Russians and labor unions across the Republic of Ukraine, leading to the revival of militant socialist vanguards to defend the People.
Photo: Borotba.su, a socialist vanguard within the Republic of Ukraine showing Solidarity with the People of Ferguson, who are themselves repressed by fascist Ku Klux Klan members within the Police Department of their community.
Photo: Borotba.su holds up a banner denouncing the Svoboda Party, showing the Nazi SS logo instead of the first letter, and a satire of the Svoboda Party logo showing the middle-finger raised.
Borotba has produced "The White Book: Ukraine, Far-Right in Power"
[http://borotba.su/the_white_book.html] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150114004821/http://borotba.su/the_white_book.html]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: United Kingdom of Great Britain (European Union)
* "Privatization in energy sector main reason behind fuel poverty in the UK" (2015-01-10) [http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/01/10/392486/Privatization-causes-fuel-poverty-in-UK] [https://archive.today/0X4oQ], [begin excerpt]:
An author and columnist says privatization of the energy sector in the UK is the main reason behind fuel poverty in the country.
On Friday, a British think tank warned that more than a million working households across Britain cannot afford to heat their homes even though they are employed.
In a report, Policy Exchange revealed that 1.1 million British households are suffering from fuel poverty although one or more members holds a job.
[end excerpt]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Kingdom of Spain (European Union)
Solidarity with the "Airbus Eight" political prisoners and all workers being repressed by Spain (European Union) [http://northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/12/solidarity-with-airbus-eight-political.html]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of France (European Union)
* Solidarity! Defend the Workers of Guadeloupe being repressed by France (2014-12-29) [http://northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/12/solidarity-defend-workers-of-guadeloupe.html]
Supposedly "Liberal" France is suppressing Labor Unions!
* "Low-cost air: Radio Silence Conflict" (2014-12-14) machine translation from the original article in French, distributed by [http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos30559.html] [https://archive.today/8pAiP], describing how national airlines are abusing workers by using loopholes in European Union law, [begin excerpt]:
Using loopholes in the Labour Code of the least protective countries, companies allow increased use of personnel and equipment, sometimes to the detriment of the laws of the host country as was the case of Ryanair - convicted in 2013 in Marseille for undeclared work. ---- For a long time, the traditional low-cost airlines have held junior airports and served medium sized cities. This approach was left shaken by the Easy Jet Company (founded in 1995) which came into direct competition with traditional companies." The article describes that among the causes for Easy-jet's success is unsafe, overexploitation of equipment, and for ignoring worker safety laws alongside labor union repression. The article continues, "This management model is looked greedily by the bosses of large companies that have yet and currently dealing with professional agreements. To copy the economic model of Easy-Jet, most of the former large national companies have set up low-cost subsidiaries."
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* "Paris attack designed to shore up France’s vassal status" (2014-01-10) [http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/01/10/392443/CIA-carried-out-Paris-attack-Roberts] [https://archive.today/HFQ5Q], [begin excerpt]:
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, made the remarks in an article published on Thursday.
“The suspects can be both guilty and patsies. Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans,” he wrote.
He said that the French economy is suffering from the US-imposed sanctions against Russia. “Shipyards are impacted from being unable to deliver Russian orders due to France’s vassalage status to Washington, and other aspects of the French economy are being adversely impacted by sanctions that Washington forced its NATO puppet states to apply to Russia.”
He added that the CIA has apparently resurrected a policy that it followed against Europeans during the post-WW II era when the US spy agency would carry out attacks in European states and blame them on communist groups.
Dr. Roberts said now the US agencies have planned false flag operations in Europe to create hatred against Muslims and bring European countries under Washington’s sphere of influence.
[end excerpt]
* "Attack in Paris a Direct Result of Western Imperialism" (2015-01-08) [http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/attack-in-paris-a-direct-result-of-western-imperialism/] [https://archive.today/pEZe2]
* "Arrest of terrorist-sympathizing comedian in France sparks free speech debate" (2014-01-15) [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/arrest-of-terrorist-sympathizing-comedian-in-france-sparks-free-speech-debate/] [https://archive.today/AFuX3]
* "Amidst a Religious War in Europe? Or Is It Just another False Flag Operation?" (2015-01-08) [http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/amidst-a-religious-war-in-europe/] [https://archive.today/krGbz], [begin excerpt]:
The massacre in France was a devastating crime against freedom and the right to laugh.French people should be asking what led members of their society to commit such cold blood murders against their fellow citizens.
France should ask itself why it has been dropping bombs on Muslims. Who enthusiastically advocated these ‘interventionist’ wars? What was the role of Bernard-Henri Lévy, the prime advocate of the war against Libya for instance?
Freedom and laughter are precious indeed, but isn’t it the French ‘socialist’ government that has been harassing and banning the best and most successful comedian in France, Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, because he satirized the Holocaust? Who pushed the French government to take such harsh actions against an artist? Wasn’t it the Jewish lobby group CRIF? If Europe wants to live in peace, it might consider letting other nations live in peace. By following the whims of The Lobby we have destined Paris to the fate of Aleppo, God forbidden.
[end excerpt]
* "Remember, we have all these people yelling "I am Charlie", but in 2005, when there were riots in France, all that free speech talk went out the window as their govt blamed rappers and their songs and cracked down on them." Read more about this repression [http://freemuse.org/archives/591]
* "Note to Our Readers on the Attack on Charlie Hebdo and the Reactionary Uses of this Attack by the French Government and Media" from Alan Benjamin, On behalf of the Editorial Board of The Organizer Newspaper
This morning we sent you the statement of the Independent Workers Party of France on the Charlie Hebdo attacks and on the "National Unity" demonstration held today in Paris with heads of State from throughout the world.
The POI statement denounces the hypocrisy of all the governments in Europe that claim to defend democratic rights while pursuing wars in the Middle East and beyond and undermining workers' and people's rights, as well as democratic freedoms, in their own countries. The POI statement also takes strong issue with the attempt by the French and European ruling classes to use of this attack on Charlie Hebo to forge a "national unity" consensus around their reactionary political agendas.
The Editorial Board of The Organizer newspaper met yesterday (January 10) and discussed this topic. We felt strongly that while it is, of course, necessary to condemn the perpetrated attacks on Charlie Hebdo and to defend the right of freedom of speech, it is also essential to explicitly denounce the government and media in France -- and beyond -- for using this attack on Charlie Hebdo to further their racist Islamophobic agenda against Muslim communities in Europe and around the world.
* "On the killings at Charlie Hebdo magazine – Statement from the PSL" (2015-01-08) [http://www.liberationnews.org/killings-charlie-hebdo-magazine-paris-statement-psl/] [https://archive.today/BtPhv], [begin excerpt]: The French government is denouncing the attack as a barbaric act. They have omitted, in their public presentation, the French government’s own role in providing arms and weapons for right-wing Islamic armed groups, who have engaged in armed struggle to overthrow the governments in Libya and in Syria.
The French government, for the past several years, has joined with the United States, Britain and other NATO partners in providing AK-47’s (the same type of weapon used in the killings in Paris) and other weapons to armed Islamic groups and individuals fighting to overthrow the Qaddafi government in Libya in 2011 and to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. Many of these weapons are now in the hands of organizations and individuals openly affiliated with Al-Qaeda and other organizations that follow a similar ideological orientation and agenda.
Also, we need to keep in mind that the United States government has been arming many of the same political/ideological forces for the past 35 years as part of a larger war against socialist and secular-nationalist governments. It was the United States that provided arms and funds to Osama Bin Laden and the so-called Mujahedeen military forces in their fight against the socialist government of Afghanistan, starting in 1979. Likewise, the United States and its NATO allies provided the military assistance and bombing without which the “rebels” in Libya could not have triumphed.
[end excerpt]
* "Where was the 'Je Suis Charlie' campaign when the French government banned Charlie Hebdo in 1970?" (2015-01-08) [https://archive.today/QPKc5]: It's time for a new meme to dominate the corporate media landscape, so people will clamor to surrender additional civil liberties in the name of fighting militant Islam: 'Je Suis Charlie.' Interesting to note (although no one else seems to be willing to), the free-speech-loving (not) French government actually banned 'Hara-Kiri' -- the precursor to 'Charlie Hebdo' -- in 1970, when the magazine leaned leftward. Odd, the corporate-owned world media seems to have forgotten that fact, as they're promoting pens thrust in the air to celebrate 'free speech.'
---
"Statement of the Independent Workers Party of France on the Attack on Charlie Hebdo and on the 'National Unity' Demonstration of Jan. 11" Discussion Statement No.3 in preparation for the Fifth (Open) Congress of the POI and for the (open) departmental Congresses:
To the members of the POI, to our sympathisers, to the readers of Informations Ouvrières
Our position:
For the last three days, an unprecedented wave of emotion has resulted in millions of our fellow citizens expressing their anxiety over the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Anxiety over this attack on freedom of the press, that pillar of freedom and democracy. Anxiety that the splits among communities (“communitarianism”) will be generated in order to break up democracy and the secular Republic. Anxiety that the war being perpetrated by the coalition -- whose members include France and all the European countries under Obama’s leadership -- will be transposed to our country.
This anxiety is fed by the anxiety and indignation that is being generated by the unemployment, poverty and destruction of rights and guaranties orchestrated by the governments following the orders of the IMF and the European Union.
As soon as the news of the first attacks was announced, the Independent Workers Party (POI) voiced its strongest condemnation. Throughout the past week, its members have participated in spontaneous expressions of that anxiety and that indignation together with millions of workers and youth, in every possible way.
The POI asks this question: Can a first step be taken towards a solution that is in line with the aspiration for peace and democracy, in a demonstration led by François Hollande, Angela Merkel, Mariano Rajoy, David Cameron, Matteo Renzi, Juncker (President of the European Commission), Obama's Justice Minister and even NATO’s Secretary General?
Who can believe that these same people -- who under Obama's command comprise a coalition that is sowing war and desolation in Syria, Iraq, Mali, Libya and Central African Republic -- could possibly be qualified to lead and represent the aspiration for peace?
Who can believe that these same people -- who are imposing austerity, unemployment and deregulation in every country of Europe under the auspices of the European Union -- could possibly be qualified to respond to the aspiration for social justice and the defence of rights?
As far as the Independent Workers Party is concerned, it is by fighting on the basis of its own class and its own demands, by protecting and maintaining its own independence, that the labour movement has always made, is making today and will make tomorrow the most fundamental contribution to the struggle for democracy and peace.
It is on this basis that we act and will continue to act. Helping our class to rally together to defend its interests, to defend itself as the class of the oppressed and the exploited, constitutes the most decisive contribution to the fight to defend and win back peace and democracy.
The struggle for peace and democracy is inseparable from helping in the struggle against the policy of the Hollande-Valls government -- a government which in January alone is implementing the “Responsibility Pact” (41 billion euros in tax exemptions for the bosses, 50 billion euros in cuts to public services) and the Macron Act that puts all labour rights into question.
This is why we are building a genuinely independent workers’ party, as a tool to help the working class take action and fight back on the field of the class struggle, for socialism, for the Republic, for democracy. The workers need to be able to group together politically and in complete independence. They need their own party, one that is independent of the European Union and every government, one that is independent of the capitalist class.
It is on this basis that we are preparing our Fifth (Open) Congress and the departmental Congresses, which will be open to all workers and activists who are raising questions about the gravity of the situation and the means to block the drift that is emerging.
The POI’s National Federal Council (NFC) mandates its Permanent Secretariat to express itself as events develop in the situation, through discussion statements in preparation for the Open Congress.
Adopted unanimously by the NFC of the POI
Saturday, 10 January 2015, 6.00pm
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Croatia (European Union)
* "Conservative Wins Croatia Presidential Vote by Slight Margin" (2015-01-11) [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/conservative-wins-croatia-presidential-vote-slight-margin-28153263] [https://archive.today/1vQeg], [begin excerpt]: Grabar-Kitarovic, a former foreign minister, ambassador to Washington and an ex-assistant to the NATO secretary general, said during her victory speech that this was "a glorious night for all Croats."
"I will work for Croatia, and I won't allow anyone saying that Croatia will not be a prosperous country," she said.
She has said that Josipovic did nothing to stop Croatia's economic downturn, including a 20-percent unemployment rate ? one of the highest in the EU.
Grabar-Kitarovic also criticized Josipovic for allegedly being too soft toward Serbs, who in the 1990s fought a war against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia. She said Serbia's EU membership bid must be conditioned by Croatia.
Autocratic nationalist President Franjo Tudjman and his conservative HDZ party ruled Croatia until his death in 1999, marking the start of democratization that put Croatia, with the population of 4.2 million, on track to EU membership, which was accomplished in 2013.
[end excerpt]
* "Croatia awards offshore licenses" (2015-01-05) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Croatia_awards_offshore_licenses_999.html] [https://archive.today/cfhA8]
Note: During 1993, the jurisdiction of Croatia was seized by self-described fascists (with the help of self-described Nazi vanguards from the USA, including the American Nazi Party, whose members manned a battle tank in the field), seceded from the Federal Union of Yugoslavia, and, under the protection by the USA military, conducted ethnic cleansing against all non-Croations in order to secure the entire coastline, including the People of Serbian Krajina, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. More info on the ethnic cleansing at [https://archive.today/SqKTu] and [https://archive.today/5fp6a].* "US role in operation Storm", an article describing the tight relationship between the USA Military and the government-in-exile for Croatia during the Balkan Wars beginning 1991. Archived at [https://archive.today/1qjep], with photos [https://archive.today/fCtw5]. Originally published 2005-05-24 by "Nacional", a Croatian weekly [http://www.nacional.hr/index3e.php?broj=2005-05-24&kat=english&id=516]. The operation secured control over the jurisdiction of Croatia for the fascist government-in-exile (their leadership hold even Adolph Hitler in high esteem!), with embassies established at select capital cities worldwide by 1993 [http://inavukic.com/2013/02/26/a-castle-for-croatia/] [https://archive.today/Q7Pnf]. The Croatia president Franjo Tudjman cynically described the ethnnic cleansing of Serbs at the opening of the Military school Ban Josip Jelacic in Zagreb, on December 14 1998: “We have, therefore, resolved the Serbian question! There will no longer be 12 percent of Serbs, nor 9 percent of Yugoslavs, as before."
The government-in-exile for Croatia was incorporated during 1941 under the Ustaše Party with sponsorship by the European Union, as ordered by Hitler to govern the Crotia homeland, but to also protect the homelands of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the German national external colony of Banat, a process that included cultural cleansing of foreign elements including Jews and Roma (Gypsies).
* "When Courage Prevailed: The Rescue and Survival of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945" book review [https://web.archive.org/web/20140805221839/http://www.amazon.com/When-Courage-Prevailed-Independent-1941-1945/dp/1557788944], [begin excerpt]:
When Courage Prevailed examines the ways Jews were rescued and how they survived in a country in which the Ustase, with their roots in Yugoslavia's nationality conflicts and politics, adopted the Nazi ideology that emphasized that there could be no compromise in regard to the Jewish Question: no Jews deserved rescue. Survival of Jews was complicated by Yugoslavia's dismemberment at the hands of the Axis Powers: Germany and Italy and their satellites and puppets. The Nazi propaganda machine advocated that Jews be exterminated for the good of the Aryans, which included the Volksdeutsche (Yugoslav of German ancestry), the Croats, and the Muslims. Those who dared to defy German commands suffered severe penalties. [end excerpt]After the USA formed an alliance with the surviving fascist governments after World War 2, many of the defeated fascist governments went into exile with headquarters at New York or at Washington D.C., with vanguards across Europe coordinated through re-installed Nazis administering the military and clandestine services of the Federal Republic of Germany, an ally of Israel under the Peace Treaty of 1953 signed at Vienna, among the more famous of these Germans being Reinhard Gehlen, sending military and financial aid to fascist vanguards within the jurisdictions governed by anti-fascist political parties who themselves were sponsored by the old USSR.
More of the history of fascism over Croatia is found in this week's compilation from the Committee for the Study of History and the Current Context elsewhere on this page.
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: State of Israel, Occupied territories, & International operations
Israel is a race-based theocracy describing itself as a "democracy" that engages in extreme human-rights abuse across the world in alliance with other fascist governments and private companies.
* "These Three American Families Are Funding Half Of Netanyahu’s Re-Election Bid" (2015-01-06) [http://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/meet-the-american-families-bankrolling-netanyahus] [https://archive.today/tSWjq]
While it is not unusual to hear about the role of Israeli influence on Capitol Hill, little is said about the power of U.S. influence-peddlers in Israel … until now. Buzzfeed looked at funding for Bibi Netanyahu’s re-election campaign and found that a staggering 90% of his cash comes from the U.S. More than half of his total campaign funding came from just three American families. As one Likud activist said, “Why get money from Israel when you can get it from the U.S.?”
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
* "Groups Demand End to 'Inhumane Punishment' of Saudi Dissident" (2015-01-08) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/08/groups-demand-end-inhumane-punishment-saudi-dissident] [https://archive.today/gl0J3]
* "Here Comes The Saudi Dynasty Succession Crisis" (2015-01-04) [http://www.businessinsider.com/the-saudi-dynasty-succession-crisis-2015-1] [https://archive.today/TfmTi]
ISIS affiliated factions within Saudi Arabia headed by Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, in line to succeed the near-death King Abdullah ibn Abdilazīz, are intent upon embroiling the entire Middle East in war over their fears that the collapse of the US Dollar, along with the vastly accelerating Russian, Canadian and American oil reserves, will destroy their kingdom. King Abdullah assumed the throne in 2005 as the country's sixth king. His immediate successor, Crown Prince Al Saud, is 79 and also reportedly in poor health and Abdullah named his youngest brother, Prince Muqrin, as the deputy heir last March. Prince Muqrin, as the former head of the General Intelligence Presidency (GIP), is a protégé of Prince Bandar bin Sultan who, also, once headed the Saudi spy agency GIP, and in August, 2013, issued a tacit threat to President Putin to have terrorist attacks carried out in Russia at the Winter Olympics in February 2014, should the Federation continue to support the Assad regime in Syria.
* "Iran, top general saved Baghdad from falling to IS: Iraq MP" (2015-01-06) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_top_general_saved_Baghdad_from_falling_to_IS_Iraq_MP_999.html] [https://archive.today/9RhY2]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Korea
* "The Erosion of Democracy in South Korea: The Dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party and the Incarceration of Lee Seok-ki" (2014-12-29) [http://japanfocus.org/-Hyun-Lee/4245] [https://archive.today/30LjL], [begin excerpt]:
On August 28, 2013, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), at the behest of President Park Geun-hye, raided the homes and offices of ten members of the opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP), including Assemblyman Lee Seok-ki.
Before they could defend themselves in a court of law, Lee and his colleagues were the targets of a sensationalized trial by state-aligned media, which made unfiltered leaks from, and unofficial allegations by, the NIS front-page news for over a month. Lee's alleged connections with North Korea made headlines even as this charge was ultimately dropped by the NIS in the subsequent trial for lack of evidence.
As critics have pointed out, the sensationalized arrest of Lee Seok-ki was timed to deflect mounting public scrutiny away from the NIS following revelations of its central involvement in manipulating public opinion against opposition candidates and thus in favor of Park Geun-hye’s candidacy during the 2012 presidential election. Bolstering their claims is the fact that Lee was arrested in September 2013, four months after the alleged conspiracy plot came to light--precisely a moment when the NIS needed to deflect public attention away from its own scandal.
Since its foundation, the NIS, formerly known as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), and the National Security Agency have interfered both directly and indirectly in South Korean politics and civil society. Conservative former president Lee Myung-bak strengthened the NIS by restoring its anti-communist investigation and surveillance functions and by appointing Won, his right-hand man, to its helm in 2009. In this capacity, Won actively encouraged NIS manipulation of public opinion in favor of the ruling party.
[end excerpt]
* " ‘Today is the day democracy is murdered’: Wave of repression sweeps South Korea" (2015-01-07) [http://www.answercoalition.org/_today_is_the_day_democracy_is_murdered_wave_of_repression_sweeps_south_korea] [https://archive.today/fR3CU], [begin excerpt]:
On December 19, the South Korean Constitutional Court delivered a devastating blow against the progressive movement when it disbanded the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) with immediate effect. That act came as the culmination of a long campaign by South Korean President Park Geun-hye to shackle the labor movement and smash political opposition.
The Constitutional Court case was initiated over a year ago when the Ministry of Justice filed a petition with the court to ban the UPP. The pretext for the petition was the arrest of six prominent members of the UPP on the charge of plotting a rebellion to overthrow the government. As evidence, the government offered a speech National Assembly representative Lee Seok-ki delivered to fellow UPP members, which was recorded by a turncoat acting as a spy for the National Intelligence Service (NIS). The NIS released to the media a transcript of the speech that it had substantially altered, replacing ordinary words and phrases with inflammatory rhetoric. By attributing words to Lee that he had never spoken, the NIS succeeded in whipping up hostility against the UPP.
The trial of Lee Seok-ki and his five colleagues was notable for the prosecution’s distortions and fanciful testimony. It was clear that the state’s star witness had concocted the entire scenario of rebellion from his imagination and unsupported supposition. The lack of evidence to back the prosecution’s case was no impediment for the staunchly conservative judge, however, and he found all six defendants guilty of plotting rebellion.
[end excerpt]
Updates on the BOLIVARIAN ALLIANCE OF AMERICA (ALBA)
* "Venezuelan leader turns to China amid oil collapse" (2015-01-06) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Venezuelan_leader_turns_to_China_amid_oil_collapse_999.html] [https://archive.today/PoqMF]
* "China to invest $20 bn in struggling Venezuela: Maduro" (2015-01-07) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/China_to_invest_20_bn_in_struggling_Venezuela_Maduro_999.html] [https://archive.today/KR7VB]
Updates on the AFRICAN UNION (AU)
* "Africa's mission to the MOON revealed: $150,000 project aims to land a probe - but will it ever get off the ground?" (2015-01-09) [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2902955/African-moon-bid-seeks-boost-spacecraft-blast-off.html] [https://archive.today/lujaj]
Updates on the EURASIAN UNION (EEU), & the SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION (SCO), and allies
* "China’s Triangle Diplomacy" (2014-12-22) [http://japanfocus.org/-Mel-Gurtov/4239] [https://archive.today/VTCIO]
* "Russia steps up its Middle East policy" (2014-12-11) [http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/russia-middle-east-policy-palestine-israel.html#] [https://archive.today/sn3eS]
* "2015 Will Be All About Iran, China & Russia" (2015-01-03) [http://www.4thmedia.org/2015/01/2015-will-be-all-about-iran-china-and-russia/] [https://archive.today/KrLwq], [begin excerpt]:
So yes – it will be all about further moves towards the integration of Eurasia as the US is progressively squeezed out of Eurasia. We will see a complex geostrategic interplay progressively undermining the hegemony of the US dollar as a reserve currency and, most of all, the petrodollar.
Still, by no accident, both Iran and Russia are now subject to Western sanctions.
If sanctions (actually economic war) against Iran remain and continue to seriously hurt its economy, Tehran’s reaction will be firm, and will include even more integration with Asia, not the West.
The declaration of economic war by the US and EU on Russia – via the run on the ruble and the oil derivative attack – was essentially a derivatives racket. Derivatives – in theory – may be multiplied to infinity. Derivative operators attacked both the ruble and oil prices in order to destroy the Russian economy. The problem is, the Russian economy is more soundly financed than America’s.
US publicly held debt is equal to a whopping 74% of GDP in fiscal year 2014. Russia’s is only 13.4%. And don’t forget that Russia can always deploy a moratorium on debt and interest, affecting over $600 billion. That would shake the entire world’s banking system to the core. Talk about an undisguised “message” forcing the US/EU economic warfare to dissolve.
Russia does not need to import any raw materials. Russia can easily reverse-engineer virtually any imported technology if it needs to. The EU’s declaration of economic war against Russia makes no sense whatsoever. Russia controls, directly or indirectly, most of the oil and natural gas between Russia and China: roughly 25% of the world’s supply. The Middle East is bound to remain a mess. Africa is unstable. Still, an unspoken axiom in Beijing is that the Chinese remain extremely worried about an Empire of Chaos losing more and more control, and dictating the stormy terms of the relationship between the EU and Russia. Now imagine Russia and China jointly investing in a new gold, oil and natural resource-backed monetary union as a crucial alternative to the failed debt “democracy” model pushed by the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street, the Western central bank cartel, and neoliberal politicians. They would be showing the Global South that financing prosperity and improved standards of living by saddling future generations with debt was never meant to work in the first place. Time may be running out – but for the EU, not Russia. Still, the overall trend won’t be altered; the Empire of Chaos is slowly but surely being squeezed out of Eurasia.
[end excerpt]
* "Russia's "Startling" Proposal To Europe: Dump The US, Join The Eurasian Economic Union" (2015-01-05) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-04/russias-startling-proposal-europe-dump-us-join-eurasian-economic-union] [https://archive.today/d1XLD]
=== * === * ===
Federal Union of Novorossiya and the People's Republics of Lunghask and Donetsk
* "East Ukraine: Back in the USSR" (2014-11-19) [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/19/east-ukraine-back-in-the-ussr.html] [https://archive.today/UsQ00]
* "Russia’s 11th Humanitarian Convoy for Donbas Heading to Border With Ukraine" (20115-01-08) [http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150108/1016646462.html] [https://archive.today/6r1xF]. The convoy of more than 120 trucks left the Don Rescue Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry and is heading towards the state border, carrying 1,400 tonnes of aid to the war-torn Donbas.
=== * === * ===
Republic of Belarus
Just as the European Union states of France and Spain are arresting and executing self-described anarchists, we find that something similar is happening in the EEU.
Interview with Anarchist Black Cross Belarus on the repression, Ukraine and the refugees.
In the context of the recent acute increase in repression in Belarus, the Anarchist Radio Berlin talked to Anarchist Black Cross Belarus about their work, the situation in the neighbouring country of Ukraine and the situation of refugees in Belarus. For security reasons we transcribed the original interview and re-recorded it ourselves.
You'll find the audio (to listen online or download in different sizes) here: [http://aradio.blogsport.de/2015/01/09/a-radio-in-english-interview-with-anarchist-black-cross-belarus-on-the-repression-ukraine-and-the-refugees/]
The length is: 10:53 min. Enjoy! And please feel free to share!
You'll find other English language audios here: [http://aradio.blogsport.de/englishcastellano]
Please note: We are always looking for people willing to lend us a hand with transcript translations from Spanish or German into English as well as people able to do voice recordings - in order to amplify our international radio work. You can contact us at [aradio-berlin@) riseup.net]
=== * === * ===
Islamic Republic of Iran
* "MKO’s and Mossad’s mortifying ignominy in Iran" (2015-01-12) [http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/14908] [https://archive.today/1iR4l]
=== * === * ===
People's Republic of China
* "China pushes for bigger Latin America, Caribbean role" (2015-01-08) [http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_pushes_for_bigger_Latin_America_Caribbean_role_999.html] [https://archive.today/YoxT2]
* "'Diaosi' lose their way in China's economic boom" (2015-01-08) [http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Diaosi_lose_their_way_in_Chinas_economic_boom_999.html] [https://archive.today/dTZgO]
* "Xinjiang faces 'intense struggle' says region's top Communist" (2015-01-07) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Xinjiang_faces_intense_struggle_says_regions_top_Communist_999.html] [https://archive.today/v4Q14]
* "China encourages environmental social groups to sue" (2015-01-07) [http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_encourages_environmental_social_groups_to_sue_999.html] [https://archive.today/kb8vy]
* "Government for the People in China? Surveys belie claims that Chinese are becoming fed up with their government." (2013-06-17) [http://thediplomat.com/2013/06/government-for-the-people-in-china/?allpages=yes] [https://archive.today/T1xXr]
---
The following articles are written by a person native to China living in the USA.
* "Freedom in China and America" (2015-01-08) [http://www.inpraiseofchina.com/2015/01/freedom-in-china-and-america.html] [https://archive.today/lvFBU]
* "China’s Democracy: Still too Soon to Say?" (2015-01-10) [http://www.inpraiseofchina.com/2015/01/chinas-democracy-still-too-soon-to-say.html] [https://archive.today/74SUD], [begin excerpt]: America, on the other hand, is what political scientists call a “formal democracy”: it has the appearance, or form, of democracy–most people are permitted to vote, though millions of prisoners are not–but not the substance of democracy: their votes don’t matter because the elected officials are “pre-owned” by the wealthy people who financed their election campaigns. So elected officials do not deliver on their promises. None of them. Ever.
That’s because America is a one-party state: the Capitalist Party. 70% of the Capitalist Party’s members inherit their membership because 70% of America’s Capitalists inherit their wealth–and naturally want to keep it. So they buy Congressmen, making Congress a true rubber stamp assembly. The real power lies with those who own our politicians. Since all politicians on both sides of the house are pre-owned, they are not free to do what the people want (peace, jobs, education). [end excerpt]
* "China’s Communist Party: Democracy Now?" (2014) [http://www.inpraiseofchina.com/2014/07/chinas-communist-party-democracy-now.html] [https://archive.today/ZWgUN]
* "China Has the Best Human Rights Record" (2014) [http://www.inpraiseofchina.com/2014/06/china-has-the-best-human-rights-record.html] [https://archive.today/L4WHq]
* "CHINA AND U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS" (2014) [http://www.inpraiseofchina.com/2014/07/china-u-n-human-rights.html] [https://archive.today/JNBWd].
Note: Many independent Human Rights reports covertly or overtly sponsored by the USA State Department criticizing the government of China are inclined to include false evidence... for example, this photograph [https://archive.today/tSJay] is included in the report titled "Communist China’s Control Over East Turkestan" [http://www.harunyahya.com/en/Books/582/communist-china’s-policy-of-oppression/chapter/65] [https://archive.today/ajFTz] which shows China's police shooting two people at random during an early period in the history of the current Chinese government. There is no citation accompanying the photograph, nor year or place of origin. The photo is from the year 1948 at Shanghai when the previous government of China massacred merchants and suspected labor union organizers, a massacre that lead to such public condemnation among the People of China that there occurred a successful revolution the following year which installed the current government in China. More information about the photos from the incident being used to represent another historical massacre at [http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20070508_1.htm] [https://archive.today/ikOZw]. The previous government escaped the revolution with all the gold and installed a regime over the island of Taiwan which, aided by the USA, claimed not only the China homeland, but also Tibet, outer Mongolia, Sinkiang and Indochina, including the South China Sea, without the means to conduct a successful reclamation over "their" territory.
=== * === * ===
DPRK ("north Korea") administers 12 trillion $USD worth of rare-earth metals, and an industrial army providing free infrastructure worth billions of $USD annually for citizens and merchants.
* "North Korea’s Proposal for Peace and Stability on the Korean Peninsula" (2015-01-11) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/north-koreas-proposal-for-peace-and-stability-on-the-korean-peninsula/5424042] [https://archive.today/W3AF2], [begin excerpt]:
The message containing the proposal of the DPRK government was handed to the U.S. side through a relevant channel on Jan. 9.
The message proposed the U.S. to contribute to easing tension on the Korean peninsula by temporarily suspending joint military exercises in south Korea and its vicinity this year, and said that in this case the DPRK is ready to take such responsive step as temporarily suspending the nuclear test over which the U.S. is concerned.
The large-scale war games ceaselessly held every year in south Korea are the root cause of the escalating tension on the peninsula and the danger of nuclear war facing our nation. It is needless to say that there can be neither trust-based dialogue nor detente and stability on the peninsula in such a gruesome atmosphere in which war drills are staged against the dialogue partner.
The United States should desist from pursuing the anachronistic policy hostile towards the DPRK and reckless acts of aggression and boldly make a policy switch.
If this significant year can be made a year free from joint military exercises on the peninsula, it will greatly contribute to providing reconciliation and trust for Korea’s reunification and, furthermore, for peace and security in Northeast Asia.
* "US slams N. Korea offer on nuclear tests as 'implicit threat' " (2015-01-11) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_slams_N_Korea_offer_on_nuclear_tests_as_implicit_threat_999.html] [https://archive.today/DDliQ], [begin excerpt]:
The United States on Saturday slammed an offer by North Korea to suspend future nuclear tests temporarily if Washington cancels military drills with the South as an "implicit threat."
Pyongyang was "inappropriately" linking routine military exercises between Washington and Seoul to the possibility of a nuclear test, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The United States, which has close to 30,000 troops permanently stationed in South Korea, conducts a series of joint military exercises with its key Asian ally every year.
Psaki said the exercises were "transparent, defence-oriented, and have been carried out regularly and openly for roughly 40 years".
The drills are regularly condemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for an invasion, however.
[end excerpt]
* "N. Korea has 'significant' tech to build mini nuclear device: South" (2015-01-06) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/N_Korea_has_significant_tech_to_build_mini_nuclear_device_South_999.html] [https://archive.today/dhZ5t]
* "US Strategic Negligence, North Korea and the Sony Sideshow" (2014-12-29) [http://japanfocus.org/-Peter-Hayes/4242] [https://archive.today/H2ivr], [begin excerpt]:
The imbroglio over the new Sony film The Interview is a sideshow that reveals that the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it, has lost the plot with regard to North Korea. The real game is to stop, reverse and end North Korea’s nuclear weapons breakout. Its handling of The Interview has managed to distract the US government from this strategic imperative, increase the risk of war, including nuclear war, and made it harder than ever to advance American vital security interests in relation to North Korea’s nuclear threat.
The real video we should be watching is not The Interview but US Strategic Command’s deterrence symposium from August 14, 2014. At minute 23.35, recently retired US Major General John MacDonald who served until recently in US Forces Korea/Combined Forces Command/UN Command in Korea, advocates including assassination of North Koreans in STRATCOM’s policy options kitbag for dealing with Kim Jong Un over the next three years.
Unlike The Interview, this movie is not satirical, nor is it fictional. It is posted by US Strategic Command, the military command that plans for using nuclear weapons against North Korea. Cyber Command that may lead US retaliation against North Korea is a component of Strategic Command.
Stratcom.mil is the one website that we can be assured that the North Koreans monitor on a daily basis. This video is on a US government website. As Commander-in-Chief, President Obama owns this assassination video.
[end excerpt]
* "True, not true: Korea, Sony hack, Pres. Obama, free speech" (2014-12-31) [http://www.liberationnews.org/true-true-korea-sony-hack-pres-obama-free-speech/] [https://archive.today/agJnV], [begin excerpt]: The truth: South Korea is not just an ally. The U.S. maintains a hostile relationship with the people of South Korea and all of Korea. The United States has 37,000 troops stationed in the Republic of Korea and has authority over the country’s armed forces. U.S. soldiers stationed in the country have special legal privileges not enjoyed by Koreans, and Washington has a history of supporting numerous South Korean fascists and dictators.* "US Strategic Negligence, North Korea and the Sony Sideshow" (2014-12-29) [http://japanfocus.org/-Peter-Hayes/4242] [https://archive.today/H2ivr], [begin excerpt]:
The imbroglio over the new Sony film The Interview is a sideshow that reveals that the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it, has lost the plot with regard to North Korea. The real game is to stop, reverse and end North Korea’s nuclear weapons breakout. Its handling of The Interview has managed to distract the US government from this strategic imperative, increase the risk of war, including nuclear war, and made it harder than ever to advance American vital security interests in relation to North Korea’s nuclear threat.
The real video we should be watching is not The Interview but US Strategic Command’s deterrence symposium from August 14, 2014. At minute 23.35, recently retired US Major General John MacDonald who served until recently in US Forces Korea/Combined Forces Command/UN Command in Korea, advocates including assassination of North Koreans in STRATCOM’s policy options kitbag for dealing with Kim Jong Un over the next three years.
Unlike The Interview, this movie is not satirical, nor is it fictional. It is posted by US Strategic Command, the military command that plans for using nuclear weapons against North Korea. Cyber Command that may lead US retaliation against North Korea is a component of Strategic Command.
Stratcom.mil is the one website that we can be assured that the North Koreans monitor on a daily basis. This video is on a US government website. As Commander-in-Chief, President Obama owns this assassination video.
[end excerpt]
To this day, the U.S. has refused to sign a treaty ending the Korean War. The fighting stopped in 1953. That’s right: 1953! Every year, the United States carries out multiple war games that simulate the invasion and the destruction of the DPRK. Those war games include full-scale mobilizations on Korean soil. They also include the simulated deployment and use of nuclear weapons.
[end excerpt]
* "Stranger than Fiction: The Interview and U.S. Regime-Change Policy Toward North Korea" (2014-12-29) [http://japanfocus.org/-Christine-Hong/4244] [https://archive.today/8bpmx], [begin excerpt]: Beyond the American entertainment industry’s insatiable appetite for evildoers, how might we account for the anachronistic place of North Korea as a Cold War foe that outlasted the end of the Cold War within Hollywood’s post-9/11 rogues’ gallery? With the eyes of the world trained on various flashpoints in the Middle East, what mileage of any kind can be gotten from the North Korean “bad guy” in Hollywood? If American moviegoers might be depended on to possess a vague awareness of geopolitical context, perhaps even to have some sense of the history of U.S. “hot” involvement subtending Hollywood’s latest Islamophobic interventionist adventure, by contrast, North Korea, routinely depicted in the U.S. media as shrouded in mystery and beyond comprehension, can be counted on to draw a complete blank. Truth, we are often told, is wilder than our wildest imaginings in North Korea, therefore the rule-of-thumb when it comes to representing North Korea in Hollywood appears to be that anything goes—even films featuring Kim Jong Un’s head deconstructing and bursting into flames. Violent spectacle thus stands in for substantive treatment, leaving more complex truths about North Korea elusive. It is worth recalling that North Korea has been dubbed a “black hole” by former CIA director Robert Gates, “the longest-running intelligence failure in the history of espionage” according to ex-CIA Seoul station chief and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg, and the “Heart of Darkness” in the words of congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It’s against this backdrop of near-total ignorance about North Korea, a place about which Americans possess great conviction but little knowledge, that North Korea serves as a malleable screen onto which the entertainment industry’s fantasies can be projected—fantasies that reflect less reality about North Korea than commentary about Hollywood’s own murky ideological substratum.
[end excerpt]
Propaganda Balloon Drops Launched into North Korea by Human Rights Foundation. These recall similar efforts during the Cold War. In the sixties, for example, the United States and its South Korean ally dropped millions of anti-regime pamphlets into the North.
.jpg)
5th WORLD NEWS
Anarchist region of Rojave (West Kurdistan) within the Arab Republic of Syria
* "An Interview to a DAF militant about the solidarity for Rojava social process" (2015-01-11) [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27779] [https://archive.today/LvE3j]
---
The USA (and Exxon) have funded a government for administration of the region of the Kurdistan homeland within the Republic of Iraq, whose military, trained by EU member Great Britain, is selectively aiding the militias of Rojave while seeking to replace the anti-USA administration of the PKK at Rojave, in collusion with the USA-backed "moderate rebels" who also seek to overthrow the PKK and abolish the anarchist community.
* "US-Trained Syrian Opposition Expected to Fight Assad Regime: State Dept." (2015-01-06) [http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20150106/1016547355.html] [https://archive.today/vZBOi]
=== * === * ===
Uyghurstan / East Turkestan / Sinkiang
* 1967 topography map [https://archive.today/ff25B]
* "Kazak Exodus" book [http://pratyeka.org/books/kazak-exodus/] [https://archive.today/3Due]
* Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) [https://uhrp.org] based at Washington D.C.
* Uyghur Congress [www.uyghurcongress.org]
* Eastern Turkestan Information Bulletin [caccp.freedomsherald.org]
* East Turkistan Educational and Solidarity Assocciation [maarip.org]
Defend Earth's Intelligent non-Human Species!
* "New hope for Borneo’s orang-utans: conservation research" (2015-01) [http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/NewsUpdate/viewarticle/1901/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150108022331/http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/NewsUpdate/viewarticle/1901/], read the original report (.pdf file) at "Anticipated climate and land-cover changes reveal refuge areas for Borneo’s orang-utans" [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12814/pdf] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150108022428/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12814/pdf]
HISTORY & THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* The Invasion of America: Between 1776 and 1887, the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America's indigenous people by treaty and executive order. Explore how in this interactive map of every Native American land cession during that period. [http://invasionofamerica.ehistory.org/]
=== * === * ===
We Were Lied to About 9/11- Episode 16, with Peter Dale Scott
[http://cindysheehanssoapbox.com/38/post/2015/01/we-were-lied-to-about-911-episode-16-peter-dale-scott.html] [https://archive.today/GAtbX].
Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. His diplomatic service from 1957 to 1961 included two years of work at UN conferences and the UN General Assembly, and two years in Poland.
His most recent political books are The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (2007), The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11 and the Deep Politics of War (2008), American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan (2010), and The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy (2014). He is also a poet, and in 2002 received the Lannan Poetry Award.
=== * === * ===
* "Massive show of ruling class support for cops" (2015-01-06) [http://www.iacenter.org/racism/cops010815/] [https://archive.today/YA2SP], [begin excerpt]:
In 1968 the racist governor of Alabama, George Wallace, ran for president on an independent ticket against the candidates of the two big capitalist parties, whom he denounced in a fascist manner.
Wallace had blocked the entrance doors to the University of Alabama in 1963 to stop two African-American students from entering. He said at the time, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” Finally the National Guard, under federal control, forced the state to register the students.
When this segregationist scheduled a presidential campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Wallace posters went up in police precincts around the city. During a mass demonstration against Wallace called by Youth Against War & Fascism, 10,000 protesters battled the cops in the streets. The demonstrators could see Wallace buttons behind the lapels of many of the white cops.
The white police support of Wallace was a demonstration of raw racism and was directed at both the Lindsay administration and the African-American and Latino/a communities.
Struggle against David Dinkins, first Black mayor -
In 1989 David Dinkins was elected New York City’s first Black mayor. Although he strengthened the police force considerably, he also campaigned on police reform and introduced a proposal for a Civilian Complaint Review Board. He also ordered the cops to use restraint when putting down a Black rebellion in Brooklyn after a Black child was killed in a traffic accident.
Dinkins also refused to give the cops semi-automatic weapons after they started a public campaign about allegedly being “outgunned by the criminals.” Actually, the so-called “criminals” with high-powered weapons could not have remained free for one day except for the fact that corrupt cops were deeply involved in allowing guns and drugs into the community.
The PBA, led at the time by Phil Caruso, campaigned against Dinkins in the 1992 mayoral election. The PBA was in league with racist, right-wing mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani. On Sept. 16, 1992, during a Giuliani election rally, 10,000 off-duty cops, many of them drunk, leaped over barricades and swarmed the steps of City Hall. They assaulted Black people in the area, including a Black woman member of the City Council. They blocked the Brooklyn Bridge.
The cops carried derogatory signs about Dinkins and hurled racial slurs, calling him a “washroom attendant.” Giuliani spoke on the platform with Caruso and riled up the crowd. The cops also assaulted reporters. Ray Kelly was acting police commissioner at the time. There were never any consequences for the police mob.
This is the context in which the struggle for and against “police reform” must be understood. Police reform, given the racist police repression and the level of police corruption in this country, always boils down to curtailing the racist violence of the police and/or their corrupt practices.
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* Early anarchist periodicals in Egypt (2015-01-08) [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27763] [https://archive.today/hxgTw], an overview of archivist information on the Anarchist newspapers and journals produced in Egypt by I.U. Parrini from Livorno (in Italy) and a group of Italian Internationalists who had fled to Egypt in April 1876 to avoid the repression that followed the Bakuninist uprisings.
* "Incomplete memoirs of early Egyptian anarchism" (2015-01-08) [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27765] [https://archive.today/8wiDm], [begin excerpt]:
During the Paris Commune, we find L’Orso [“the Bear”, i.e. I. U. Parrini] in Alexandria, Egypt. He read the democratic newspapers which were carrying on quite a wonderful campaign in support of Garibaldi, against the insults and lies directed against the Commune and the International by Giuseppe Mazzini. Without doubt, right from 1871 one could see in Egypt the propaganda carried out by L’Orso against property and the family in support of freedom. However, the concept of liberty was not well explained or well defined: it consisted of an aspiration for a future society where men would mass together, feel solidarity with each other and thus form a single family. [end excerpt]
* "Early anarchist periodicals in Tunisia" [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27764] [https://archive.today/YsN3C]
=== * === * ===
* "Who Is Jack O'Dell? The career of Hunter Pitts O'Dell is a crucial episode in the hidden history of American radicalism" book review (2014-08-11) [http://www.thenation.com/article/180937/who-jack-odell] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140912103735/http://www.thenation.com/article/180937/who-jack-odell]:
Hunter Pitts O'Dell testifies before the Senate Internal Committee, April 12, 1956 (AP photo)
Who Is Jack O'Dell? That is the question Victor S. Navasky sets out to answer in The O'Dell File (Kindle Single: $ 2.99). To J. Edgar Hoover, O'Dell was the Communist puppet-master pulling the strings in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.
To Martin Luther King Jr., he was a trusted counselor and talented organizer whose pioneering work in direct-mail fundraising furnished the financial sinews that made nonviolent resistance to segregation a viable-and winning-national strategy.
He ran the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Harlem office, and when Maya Angelou resigned from the SCLC's Atlanta-based Voter Education Project he took on that role as well. To President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, O'Dell was a dangerous man-and getting rid of him the price that King had to pay for presidential support.
Yet O'Dell's career as a radical thinker, inspirer, fomentor of protest and strategist of progressive politics was far from over.
Becoming a fixture at Freedomways, the quarterly founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, O'Dell furnished the intellectual bridge linking the struggles of activists like Du Bois and Paul Robeson with the generation of Montgomery and Mississippi. In articles and unsigned editorials he publicized the work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee-especially in making connections between capitalism, racism and American imperialism. And he played a pivotal, if unacknowledged, role in moving civil rights activists such as King to open opposition to the war in Vietnam.
Years later Jesse Jackson brought O'Dell into PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the Rainbow Coalition, where among other services he provided the economic and foreign policy analysis that found such wide national resonance in Jackson's presidential campaigns (though O'Dell disagreed with Jackson on the wisdom of tethering his efforts to the fortunes of the Democratic Party). Despite having never completed his own college degree (in pharmacy), O'Dell also became one of the most inspiring teachers at Antioch College's graduate school of education in Washington. And though at 91 he is officially retired, O'Dell has never stopped writing, speaking, teaching and inspiring generations of radicals.
The career of Hunter Pitts O'Dell (his full, if rarely used, name) is a crucial episode in the hidden history of American radicalism. The son of a janitor at the Detroit public library, and great-grandson of a slave who ran away to the Union army, he was an altar boy who pledged Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity but dropped out of college to join the Merchant Marine. A fiery organizer for the National Maritime Union who joined the Communist Party after returning to a segregated United States-only to leave when he realized that civil rights needed to arrive before socialism could be achieved.
O'Dell is what Woody Allen's Zelig might look like if he had black skin and radical politics. Only O'Dell is real. And you've probably never heard of him. Thanks to The Nation's own Victor Navasky that may be about to change. The O'Dell File, an e-book published just last week, is a fascinating portrait of this compelling, and unforgettable, crusader. An inspiring story of how much difference one person can make, it's also a sobering reminder of the terrible cost-to our politics, and to our country-of the lives, and decades, lost to the McCarthy witch hunts.
(Editors Note: Jack O'Dell is also a CCDS member, and CCDS has been working on his current project, The Democracy Charter [http://www.ccds-discussion.org/?page_id=131] [https://archive.today/DHe8R])
=== * === * ===
During February of 1965 (days before his assassination) El Hajj Malik Shabazz showed support for Dr. King by saying, “I think that the people in this part of the world would do well to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King and give him what he’s asking for and give it to him fast, before some other factions come along and to do it another way.”After seeing Dr. King get knocked down on television by a racist, he sent a telegram to King saying, “If the federal Government will not send troops to your aid, just say the word and we will immediately dispatch some of our brothers there to organize self-defense units among our people and the Ku Klux Klan will then receive a taste of its own medicine. The day of turning the other cheek to those brute beasts is over.”
Malcolm X also sent a message to George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi party, saying:
“This is to warn you that I am no longer held in check from fighting white supremacists by Elijah Muhammad’s separatist Black Muslim movement, and that if your present racist agitation against our people there in Alabama causes physical harm to Reverend King or any other black Americans who are only attempting to enjoy their rights as free human beings, that you and your Ku Klux Klan friends will be met with maximum physical retaliation from those of us who are not hand-cuffed by the disarming philosophy of nonviolence, and who believe in asserting our right of self-defense- by any means necessary."
=== * === * ===
* "JAPAN’S NEWS EMPIRE AND THE DŌMEI NEWS AGENCY IN OCCUPIED SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1942–45" (2015-01-05) [http://japanfocus.org/-Tomoko-AKAMI/4246] [https://archive.today/1pEQD], [begin excerpt]:
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, E.H. Carr finished his draft of Twenty Years’ Crisis. In it he observed: "[W]ithin twenty years of the armistice [of the First World War]… many governments were conducting propaganda with an intensity unsurpassed in the war period; and new official and non-official agencies for the influence of opinion at home and abroad were springing up in every country."
In these twenty years, foreign policy makers had to figure out how to utilize globalized telecommunication (cable and wireless) networks. Overseas events were reported almost immediately to the public, many of whom were also demanding greater political, economic and social rights. Carr argued that the propaganda institutions developed in many countries in 1919–39 because of ‘the popularization of international politics’ and more effective ‘propaganda methods’. Meanwhile, the League of Nations elevated the idea of ‘international public opinion’ into a norm in international politics. Although Carr remained sceptical about the effectiveness of international public opinion as a moral force in international politics, he never lost sight of its potential impact.
In his view, all modern states had to respond to these new trends. Propaganda was, therefore, not a tool specific to certain political regimes, but a modern state’s inevitable and rational response to them. The difference between the propaganda of a totalitarian regime and that of a democracy was, Carr argued, ‘less clear-cut’ in practice than is often assumed. He predicted: "[e]ven in peace, propaganda seems likely for the future to be recognized as a regular instrument of foreign policy". Soon after he made this observation, war broke out in Europe. What then happened to these ‘peacetime’ propaganda institutions during the war?
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
* "CROATIAN NAZIS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY!" originally collected by the Serbian Republic (Pepublika Srpska) of Krajina [www.vukovar.co.nr] [https://archive.today/l9Mub]
(Part #1: The same flag)
From "Encyclopedia Britannica", edition 1943, Volume 23, page 923: "The new flag of [Hitler's] Croatia consists of three broad stripes, red, white and blue, and superimposed upon them a shield of checkered red and white squares..."Photo 1: Ante Pavelic, the old Fuhrer of WWII Nazi Croatia in front of the Ustasha flag of the time.
Photo 2: 1993 General Franjo Tudjman ; darling of the Western democracies and the fuhrer of new Croatia under old/new Ustasha Nazi flag.
1943 Ustasha Nazis with their flag. These are Ustasha voluteers to fascist Italian troops. The photograph is from recent Croat book in which Croat author brags about Croat Nazi past.
---
"Eviscerating Yugoslavia" in five parts:
* Part 1: "BNL, Yugo, and Eagleburger" (2013-09-22) [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/09/22/the-evisceration-of-yugoslavia-part-1-bnl-yugo-and-eagleburger/] [https://archive.today/gJKPt]
* Part 2: "Nazis, Bilderbergers and Clinton Liars" (2013-09-29) [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/09/29/the-evisceration-of-yugoslavia-part-ii-nazis-bilderbergers-and-clinton-liars/] [https://archive.today/pl0wh]
* Part 3: "CIA Islamists, Halliburton and Fake Massacres" (2013-10-06) [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/10/06/the-evisceration-of-yugoslavia-part-iii-cia-islamists-halliburton-and-fake-massacres/] [https://archive.today/GU0rl]
* Part 4: "KLA Heroin, Rwandan Genocide & Phony Racak" (2014-11-16) [https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/eviscerating-yugoslavia-kla-heroin-rwandan-genocide-phony-racak/] [https://archive.today/9nWmh]
* Part 5: "Eviscerating Yugoslavia: Poisoning Milosevic" (2014-11-17) [https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/eviscerating-yugoslavia-poisoning-milosevic/] [https://archive.today/XIEuP]
* "The Kosovo/Albania Golden Triangle" (2014-12-01) [https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/the-kosovoalbania-golden-triangle/] [https://archive.today/di2I2]
---
* "Nazism in former Yugoslavia" [http://freetruth.50webs.org/A7b.htm] [https://archive.today/MPatA]
* "Yugoslavia: Imperialist war against the world proletariat, 1990s" (2007-07) [http://libcom.org/library/yugoslavia-imperialist-war-against-world-proletariat-1990s-icg] [https://archive.today/ZrIvF]
=== * === * ===
"Afghan History Suppressed":
* Part 3: "The Central Asian Grand Chessboard" [http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/25/afghan-history-suppressed-part-iii-the-central-asian-grand-chessboard-2/] [https://archive.today/DVvcT]
---
"Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace; The Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan. Robert Fisk met him in Almatig"
Photo: Osama bin Laden surveys the 800km road he is building in northern Sudan.
"What I lived in two years in Afghanistan I could not have lived in a hundred years elsewhere", said Osama bin Laden.
=== * === * ===
* "Israeli Founder Contests Founding Myths" (2015-01-05) [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40620.htm] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150108211933/http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40620.htm]
=== * === * ===
The "228 Massacre" of 1947, a key moment in the 20th century history of China, when the former government there, called the Republic of China, conducted a massacre against merchants and labor unions during a cleansing campaign against "leftists". This massacre turned public opinion against them and towards the Communist Party of China, who won the loyalty of the majority and succeeded in evicting the Republic of China government by the Fall of 1949.
* [http://www.228.org.tw/ResponsibilityReport/eng/index.htm]
* "Understand context of 228 Incident" [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2014/03/14/2003585587] [https://archive.today/NyMQh]
* "The real cause of the 228 Incident" [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/03/04/2003467130] [https://archive.today/uVmrq]
ACTION CALENDER
A list of gatherings, workshops, and educational events in the greater Bay Area region
Homelessness in Silicon Valley: An Update
Friday Jan 16 @ 7:00pm
San Jose Peace & Justice Center
48 South 7th St., San Jose
The Affordable Housing Network will discuss its approach to building a movement to address homelessness in Silicon Valley with the participation of members from the homeless community,
Housing activist Sandy Perry calls the December 4 eviction and demolition of the "Jungle" encampment an international disgrace. "It exposed San Jose and all of Silicon Valley as a symbol of the heartlessness of our system's approach to addressing homelessness in the 21st century."
While the City boasted about the 144 people it housed in the months leading up to the eviction, it announced its intention to relentlessly persecute the thousands of homeless that it failed to house, who are still living outside. "Jungle" residents who tried to find alternate camps have been threatened, posted with no trespassing notices, evicted again, and forced to move from place to place with no mercy or respite, during the severest storms and coldest nights of the winter.
According to official estimates, one tenth of one percent of Silicon Valley's corporate wealth could end homelessness here forever. However, not only do corporate leaders refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, but our political leaders fail to hold them accountable.
Sponsored by San Jose branch, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
Freedom Rally against torture and death in Santa Cruz County Jail
Saturday, January 17, at 12:00pm
Clock Tower in downtown Santa Cruz
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1574151249488303/]
At least 6 people have died in the county jail while in the hands of the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department and California Forensics Medical Group (CFMG) since August 2012. In April 2013, Sin Barras organized a historic march and speakout, highlighting sheriff violence faced by people inside the County Jail that inspired the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury to investigate the jail's deadly conditions. The grand jury report named the April 6th demonstration as a primary catalyst for the investigation. In September 2014, the Grand Jury released its Final Report, which included recommendations to improve physical and mental health services in the jail. Nearly all of the research was met with utter denial from the Sheriff's Department and CFMG, continuing a trend of disrespect for the community and confirming that they operate with little to no accountability. Our collective health is based on access to affordable housing, genuine medical treatment, meaningful education, and community accountability.
Sin Barras is organizing a demonstration on January 17th to demand immediate medical and safety measures be met to reduce harm faced by those presently incarcerated. We demand that the County Board of Supervisors cancel its contract with CFMG and refuse to participate in the current wave of county jail expansion. These deaths are an act of collective punishment against people who are most in need of aid, and who are consistently denied community-based resources and drug treatment. While we fight for immediate solutions, we do so with a commitment to dismantling the prison system once and for all, brick by brick, wall by wall.
The deaths in the jail are caused by the same pattern of unaccountability that recently allowed Officer Darren Wilson to walk free after killing Michael Brown. From Ferguson to Santa Cruz, it is clear that our criminal justice system targets the most vulnerable members of this society: women, trans and queer people, people of color, people with disabilities, the poor, and the homeless. Without overwhelming pressure from our communities, this pattern will continue.
“The ideas which can and will sustain our movement for total freedom and dignity of the people cannot be imprisoned, for they are to be found in the people, all the people, wherever they are.”
- Huey P. Newton
---
Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency:
During my time as a political prisoner in the Santa Cruz County jail I was kept in solitary for most of the 9 month sentence. I was also threatened and then brutally beaten by the sheriffs for my writing which was exposing conditions and being published outside the jail. In the last couple years the large number of suspicious deaths of people being held prisoner have been exposed by activists. I encourage people to attend this event and keep up the pressure against the brutality and neglect that prisoners face under the custody of the Santa Cruz government.
Berkeley Post Office Community Garden
Carol Wolfley is heading up a Community Garden Project at the west side of the Downtown Berkeley Post Office, which draws attention both to the lack of community gardens on public space in Berkeley, and the possibility of a publicly owned resource being sold to private owners.
Saturdays at noon-- January 10 for soil preparation and Jan 17 for planting.
Carol needs help with consultation, getting soil, amendments, mulch, and eventually plants that would grow in poor soil conditions. Please contact her if you can contribute to this project.
Carol Wolfley [cgwolfley@) comcast.net], member of Transition Berkeley and Berkeley Post Office Defenders
This is a challenging, but interesting project because it brings up issues of how we care for public land, and creating a sustainable garden in a spot with very poor, compacted soil. This is a strip of land about 12’(?) x 100’(?) that runs the length of the Post Office.
Help us create a garden on the west side of the Berkeley Post Office. Hummingbird flowers, winter vegetables, vertical gardening, heirloom seeds, organic non-GMO and medicinal plants are in the chat. First They Came for the Homeless members have been here at the post office for over 2 months and we want to expand our use of the space with new ecologically conscious planting, growing, weeding and harvesting possibilities. Please start seedlings and cuttings to bring on January 17th. We also need good soil, garden tools and resources, food and most of all people who want to garden.
The garden will bring new community connection with the earth in the downtown area and public involvement will also help to protect the Berkeley Post Office and post offices all over the country from sale and privatization. Community organizations and individuals have been have been working collaboratively to keep this beautiful and historic resource as a post office for public use. Right now we have had some success as there is no identified buyer and we are waiting to see what will happen with the city lawsuit against the United States Postal Service and how things will develop with the zoning overlay passed by the Berkeley City Council in 2014 to keep it zoned for public use.
Thank you for your interest. We look forward to planting possibilities with you.
You can see more at [https://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com] and for information on our community garden project contact First They Came for the Homeless on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999]
California Network for Revolutionary Change: 2nd Statewide Conference
"Connecting the Dots," addressing police accountability around the country.
More info at [https://archive.today/2KlDz]
Justice for our Comrade Shango!
Sunday, January 18 at 7:00pm - 11:00pm
[https://www.facebook.com/events/726934734068493/]
Recently our brother Shango was assaulted, stabbed and robbed while standing outside of his place of work. Shango defended himself from this unprovoked violent attack. The police arrived and immediately arrested Shango, the victim in the situation, without a thorough investigation into the circumstances.
Shango is an honest, hardworking father. He supports and cares for his child and family and is working on completing his education. As a result of this false arrest he lost his job and is now facing felony charges. We cannot let the justice system target this innocent young man and send him to prison. We cannot allow the justice system to label another innocent black male as a convicted felon.
This justice system arrests, prosecutes, convicts, and incarcerates black males at disproportionately high rates. Shango is our latest victim of this poorly designed system of justice.
WE MUST STAND WITH OUR BROTHER AGAINST THESE FALSE RACIST CHARGES!
We are raising funds to assist our brother with his legal expenses, as well as assisting him with funds to support his son since he lost his source of income. Our goal is to raise $5.000.
As a community, we need to support each other in times of need. Comrade Shango has always been there for us. Now it is our turn to be there for him. We ask that you please donate generously, and pass this along to others who share the same mission.
* Taking Care of Each Other
* Standing Against Injustice
* Resisting the Efforts to Incarcerate Our People
* To Change the Unjust System
Please note, Our Fund-Raising site will be up soon and posted here.
In the meantime, join us on January 18th from 7pm-11pm for food, conscious hiphop artists and performers.
Line up to be posted soon, but please mark your calenders for this most important event.
Admission: $5-$10 sliding scale fee, No one turned away; All Ages Welcomed.
Thank you in advance for your support. We can only defeat this racist system with the ideology that when one of us is victimized, we all are, when one of us is in need, we all are, when one of us is attacked-WE ALL ARE!
It takes a unified community to stand up against these injustices and to stand for each other.
APTTP!
Endorsed by
* United Against Police Terror in San Diego [http://uaptsd.org/]
* Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society
#MLKSHUTITDOWN
Join a 36 second Die-In at Oakland Walmart
@ Noon Jan. 18th
-Daytime, family/community friendly event
-Any and all are welcome to join
-Meet up at 12:00pm, outdoor die-in at 12:36
-Wal-Mart 8400 Edgewater Drive Oakland, CA 94621
Demands:
*Justice for John Crawford - Indict Officer Sean C. Williams and Sgt. David M. Darkow*
*Remove managers at WAL-MART stores known to be racially prejudiced*
*Poverty is the most common form of violence! $15/hr and the option of full-time for ALL Wal-Mart employees in California and nationwide*
"There is a state-sponsored war on Black lives in the United States and people across the country are demanding that it comes to an end. As long as it remains business as usual to gun down Black women, men and children in the streets of this country, there will be no business as usual anywhere or for anyone. Shut. It. Down."
This action is being held by WAS - Workers Against the System; an affinity group of Anti-Police Terrorism Spokescouncil as part of the weekend reclamation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy weekend.
Join us in our action to interrupt business as usual at the Oakland Walmart. We will raise awareness of John Crawford's murder that happened August 5, 2014 inside of a southern Ohio Walmart store.
We stand in solidarity and remembrance with his family against the injustice the system has served them; by murdering their son and not indicting the officers involved in the shooting.
Wal-Mart is notoriously known for underpaying it's workers; and in the Bay Area, employing managers that are publicly racist. Wal-Mart also facilitated the murder of John Crawford. We need to remind them that BLACK LIVES MATTER!
[http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/people-of-color/]
Below is an excerpt from the family's lawsuit, stating the course of events that took place:
"On August 5, 2014, at approximately 8:21 p.m., Defendants Williams and Darkow responded to a 911 caller who claimed that a black man at the Beavercreek Wal-Mart was pointing a gun at customers. Upon their arrival at that location at 8:24 p.m., the officers entered the Beavercreek Wal-Mart and located the individual identified by the 911 caller, later identified as John H. Crawford, III.
Mr. Crawford was a customer and business invitee at the Beavercreek Wal-Mart, and he was not doing anything dangerous or illegal while shopping there. In fact, Mr. Crawford was at the store with his friend to buy ingredients to make S’mores at a family cookout and was at the Wal-Mart store for those reasons for which the store is open to the public.
While present at the Beavercreek Wal-Mart, John H. Crawford, III had picked up an unloaded MK-177 BB/Pellet Rifle [hereinafter, the “Pellet Rifle”] that was unboxed and lying on one of the store’s shelves.
Mr. Crawford never used, loaded, or pointed the Pellet Rifle at anyone, was doing nothing improper or illegal, and never caused any harm or acted in a manner that would cause any reasonable person to believe that he may cause harm. At or about 8:24 P.M., Defendants Williams and Darkow entered the Beavercreek Wal-Mart, and they located John H. Crawford III at or about 8:27 P.M. When Defendants Williams and Darkow located John H. Crawford, III, he was talking on a cell phone held in his right hand, with no other customers in his vicinity, and with his left side and back visible to the two police officers. Mr. Crawford was holding the Pellet Rifle in his left hand pointed down at the floor. Defendant Williams shot and killed Mr. Crawford approximately one second after Defendant Williams or Darkow first made contact with him. As a result, Mr. Crawford was shot before he even had time to react to the officer’s presence, much less to comply with any verbal commands Defendants Williams or Darkow may have made. Williams shot John H. Crawford, III in the back of his left arm and the left side of his torso, further evidencing that John H. Crawford, III was shot before he had time to react to the officers’ presence or comply with any commands that may have been made. John H. Crawford, III did not act aggressively or dangerously, or otherwise act in a manner to cause Defendants Williams or Darkow, or anyone else, to believe that he posed a danger to these Defendants or to customers of the Beavercreek Wal-Mart. The Pellet Rifle Mr. Crawford was holding was not loaded, contrary to a claim in the 911 call that Mr. Crawford was loading a gun. Defendants Williams and/or Darkow failed to take steps to assess whether any of the information provided by the 911 caller or dispatcher was accurate before Williams shot and killed Mr. Crawford, though they had an obligation to do so. All police officers are trained to understand that many 911 callers provide inaccurate or otherwise unsubstantiated information, and are notoriously unreliable eye-witnesses. As such, police officers have a duty that must be exercised reasonably, to assess any situation before interviewing with lethal force. In this case, the Officers Williams and Darkow acted unreasonably, in that they did not properly assess the situation, and simply killed an unarmed shopper who was not breaking any laws of the State of Ohio or the City of Beavercreek. In this circumstance, there existed no information to suggest that John Crawford, III was a threat to anyone in the store, much less the police officers. In the minutes leading up to his death, several shoppers walked by or near John Crawford, III and exhibited no signs of fear or concern that Mr. Crawford presented a threat to anyone. It was objectively unreasonable for the Officers Williams and Darkow to shoot and kill Mr. Crawford while claiming that their lives, or the lives of others, were in danger.
Ohio is an open carry state meaning that it is legal for the citizens of Ohio to carry weapons, including rifles, without permit. Although John H. Crawford, III merely picked up a pellet gun from a store shelf that sold pellet guns, whether the gun was Walmart merchandise or a weapon of his own that he brought into the store, John H. Crawford, III was doing nothing wrong and in violation of no law or ordinance in the moments leading up to his death. Because it is permissible to carry merchandise one desires to purchase, and it is further permissible to carry rifles openly in Ohio, the actions of the Officers Williams and Darkow were particularly unreasonable, arbitrary, and egregious in engaging and shooting a shopper, John H. Crawford, III, who was doing what people do in stores — shop."
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/250311654/John-Crawford-lawsuit]
[http://makingchangeatwalmart.org]
Petition: $15/hr for employees [http://action.changewalmart.org/page/s/For15?source=MCAW]
Sleep-in for human rights for the Homeless!
Sunday, Jan 18 5:00 5:00 PM
Powell and Market, San Francisco,
Homeless Bill of Rights, Coalition on Homelessness.
Sleep-In followed by joining Monday's march in Oakland.
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1542576529346703]
#BlackLivesMatter
Monday, Jan 19 MARCH & RALLY –– 11 AM gather at the plaza outside of Oscar Grant Station (Fruitvale). There will be performances, speakers, resource booths, face painting, crafts and more! From there we will march to Coliseum City connecting the dots between police terrorism and economic terrorism - meaning the unjust ways that cops kill unarmed Black people as with Oscar Grant and the unjust way Oakland's development is either pushing Black and Brown people out of the city and/or not hiring Black and Brown Oakland residents to facilitate or benefit from the new development as with the Coliseum City project.
–– This is a family-friendly event and a celebration of King's legacy, Black Lives and the struggle for social justice.
–– The march will begin at 12:00 pm and the route will include areas in Oakland that are currently in development or are proposing development with clear demands to stem the tide of gentrification, end the push out of Black and Brown residents, replace high-rise plans with affordable housing, local-hiring practices and an immediate end to police violence in our communities.
From Oscar Grant to Ferguson: Racism and Police Repression in America
Sunday, January 18, 2015 - 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality. In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. “Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression.’ Members of the OGC will lead our discussion of racism and police repression in America.
This will be at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library for Social Research, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland (bet. Alcatraz and 66th), Website: [www.marxistlibr.org], Wheelchair Accessible
ADDRESSING RACISM
Groups now forming in the Bay Area
Dates and locations vary - Starts January 18
The UNtraining is a provocative and compassionate approach to help people discover how to work together in extraordinary ways to end our collusion with racism and all forms of oppression.
The UNtraining provides insights and tools for all levels of experience and activism to white people and people of color.
UNtraining White Liberal Racism / People of Color UNtraining
Chinese UNtraining / Jewish and White in America
Bay Area groups starting January 11.
Click here for more information and to register: [http://www.untraining.org/]
Peace Action of San Mateo County presents:
Public Screening of 'Pay 2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes'
DATE/TIME: Sun, Jan 18, 7:00pm-9:00pm
LOCATION: Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, 300 E. Santa Inez, San Mateo
COST: Free, contributions welcome.
January is the 5th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. FEC ruling, allowing corporations to give unlimited amounts of money to election campaigns through independently-formed groups. PASMC will screen the documentary film "Pay 2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes".
The film tells of the machinations that influence voting in not-so-ethical ways. It takes aim at the Koch Brothers and other wealthy influence-peddlers, as well as the politicians to whom they've "paid to play".
While mixing in some irreverence with this serious subject, "Pay 2 Play" includes the input of such activists as Noam Chomsky, Marianne Williamson and Van Jones. It also offers ways to push back.
MORE INFO: [http://www.sanmateopeaceaction.org]
[smpa@) sanmateopeaceaction.org]
#WeCantBreathe 4 Mile March in Saramento
[www.InciteAction.com]
"Mourning in America"
a March & Rally on Citizens United Anniversary in San Francisco,
Wed., January 21st
[www.moneyoutpeoplein.com]
The march and rally - "Mourning in America" for Democracy - is the Bay Area's contribution to a national day of action. Los Angeles will have the same name and structure as the event in San Francisco. The march will be kicked off by well know hip-hop artist for change, Khafre Jay and the march will be led by effigies of 5 of the Supreme Ct. Justices followed by a New Orleans style band.
The rally will include a vast array of speakers and musicians including: Tom Ammiano, popular San Francisco politico; Gayle McLaughlin, former Richmond Mayor who won against Chevron; Bill McKibbin, 350.org national leader on audio, Andres Soto, KPFA talk show host; David Braun, Californians Against Fracking and more to be confirmed. The rally will also include the Occupella singers, Michael Sullivan and the Dots and a koch funeral for democracy.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
3:30 pm - March (1.3 miles) starts at Market St. & Montgomery St. near Montgomery St. BART
4:30 - 5:30 pm - Rally at Federal Building 450 Golden Gate Ave. near Civic Center BART
Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission turns 5 this month, but the damage from the Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign finance continue to grow. A nonpartisan coalition of local and national groups is sponsoring a rally in San Francisco to recognize the anniversary of the Citizens United decision and call for a reversal of corrupt campaign finance system that favors wealthy special interests over the public interest.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money is speech. As such, the First Amendment prohibited restrictions on independent political expenditures. Additionally, it found that this constitution protection extended beyond humans to non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.
Over the past five years, campaign spending has skyrocketed. Wealthy individuals and special interest groups have created Super PACs to covertly finance political campaigns. Donors can give unlimited amounts of cash to the Super PACs anonymously. As a result, the politicians who need ever larger sums of money to run for office are beholden to their funders and not voters, thereby corrupting our electoral process.
Participating in the rally will be members and supporters of the Money Out! People In! coalition, 99 Rise!, Common Cause, Courage Campaign, California Clean Money Campaign, Free Speech for People, Money Out Voters In (MOVI), MoveOn councils, Move to Amend, Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Public Citizen, Represent.us, Solar Justice, Sunflower Alliance, and more.
To volunteer or for further information go to [www.moneyoutpeoplein.com] or email money [out_peoplein@) yahoo.com].
Uncle Sam in it will be part of the march along with marchers given black arm bands.
[www.InciteAction.com]
"Mourning in America"
a March & Rally on Citizens United Anniversary in San Francisco,
Wed., January 21st
[www.moneyoutpeoplein.com]
The march and rally - "Mourning in America" for Democracy - is the Bay Area's contribution to a national day of action. Los Angeles will have the same name and structure as the event in San Francisco. The march will be kicked off by well know hip-hop artist for change, Khafre Jay and the march will be led by effigies of 5 of the Supreme Ct. Justices followed by a New Orleans style band.
The rally will include a vast array of speakers and musicians including: Tom Ammiano, popular San Francisco politico; Gayle McLaughlin, former Richmond Mayor who won against Chevron; Bill McKibbin, 350.org national leader on audio, Andres Soto, KPFA talk show host; David Braun, Californians Against Fracking and more to be confirmed. The rally will also include the Occupella singers, Michael Sullivan and the Dots and a koch funeral for democracy.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
3:30 pm - March (1.3 miles) starts at Market St. & Montgomery St. near Montgomery St. BART
4:30 - 5:30 pm - Rally at Federal Building 450 Golden Gate Ave. near Civic Center BART
Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission turns 5 this month, but the damage from the Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign finance continue to grow. A nonpartisan coalition of local and national groups is sponsoring a rally in San Francisco to recognize the anniversary of the Citizens United decision and call for a reversal of corrupt campaign finance system that favors wealthy special interests over the public interest.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money is speech. As such, the First Amendment prohibited restrictions on independent political expenditures. Additionally, it found that this constitution protection extended beyond humans to non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.
Over the past five years, campaign spending has skyrocketed. Wealthy individuals and special interest groups have created Super PACs to covertly finance political campaigns. Donors can give unlimited amounts of cash to the Super PACs anonymously. As a result, the politicians who need ever larger sums of money to run for office are beholden to their funders and not voters, thereby corrupting our electoral process.
Participating in the rally will be members and supporters of the Money Out! People In! coalition, 99 Rise!, Common Cause, Courage Campaign, California Clean Money Campaign, Free Speech for People, Money Out Voters In (MOVI), MoveOn councils, Move to Amend, Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Public Citizen, Represent.us, Solar Justice, Sunflower Alliance, and more.
To volunteer or for further information go to [www.moneyoutpeoplein.com] or email money [out_peoplein@) yahoo.com].
Uncle Sam in it will be part of the march along with marchers given black arm bands.
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