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Justice for our Comrade Shango!
Sunday, January 18at 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
ACTION HEADLINES
* "Popular Resistance Newsletter: 2015 The Year We Build Power Together" (2015-01-02) [https://www.popularresistance.org/newsletter-2015-the-year-we-build-power-together/] [https://archive.today/mjEFD]
* "CCDS Links: Radical Ideas for Radical Change" (January 2, 2015) [https://archive.today/uc6W7]
* "The Soapbox People's Network" (2014-01-04) [https://archive.today/lo8iz], featuring an interview with Peace Journalist Bob Koehler on Abolishing the CIA! Read more about it at [http://commonwonders.com/world/abolishing-the-cia/] [https://archive.today/2CCdQ]
* "Corporations v. Democracy", a talk with Tom Linzey (2014-12-19)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjLChnUyUcA]
Democracy is eroding because the damage caused by the corporate elite is legal, but that may be changing because of Tom Linzey and his allies. He has shown true genius at devising creative strategies to achieve democratic control over corporations. He has worked with local communities to demand and assert their rights over corporate rights. This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers Annual Conference. For more information on Bioneers, please visit [http://www.bioneers.org] and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).
* "Angela Y. Davis on what's radical in the 21st century" [http://www.peeep.us/f46b22b0]
* "A Vigil for Jobs Not Jails on Human Rights Day" (2014-12-11) [http://ellabakercenter.org/blog/2014/12/a-vigil-for-jobs-not-jails-on-human-rights-day] [https://archive.today/4WJ1S], [begin excerpt]:
Last night, 60 community members and faith leaders gathered in front of the Alameda County Administration building in Oakland to demand more funding for jobs, not jails, from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
The candlelight vigil was organized by the Ella Baker Center as part of our 50% for Jobs Not Jails campaign, which asks the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to allocate half of their public safety budget towards community-based programs and services that prioritize employment, healthcare, housing, and restorative justice initiatives.
The vigil also included a light projection of "50% for" "Jobs Not Jails," "Books Not Bars," and "Healthcare Not Handcuffs" onto the Alameda County Administration building, to increase awareness of the county's misplaced priorities.
Reverend Jacqueline Duhart from the First Unitarian Church of Oakland led a faith invocation, and asked each community member present to share a few words about how they were feeling and what they were thinking after the vigil. "Books not Bars," "Black Lives Matter," "Freedom for All," and "Community Togetherness" were a few of the sentiments shared by the crowd.
[end excerpt]
Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom (HUFF), supported by their allies, organized a protest against Human Rights Abuse by Santa Cruz Police, Dec, 17, 2014.
Video Interviews by Dr. John Colby with residents of Santa Cruz county and city:
* Santa Cruz City Council Member Micah Posner [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKmvZcEQGtM]
* Activist Kate Keesler [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcMyt5eYXLk]
* Musician Brianna Brewer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPBKBvoKWY]
* Keith McHenry and Steven Argue [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riM6wjcNyTQ]: Long time political activist and social critics Keith McHenry and Steve Argue place police abuse in a historical context reaching back to the political movements of the 1960s in America and the systemic state violence in response. McHenry describes how he received death threats while in Boston from the Mafia working for the government. McHenry decries racial profiling and the criminalization of homeless people by the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD). He describes how what is happening here is part of a national campaign against poor and homeless people under the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice with the Community Oriented Policing (C.O.P.S.) program. Unfortunately McHenry couldn't speak longer because he had other commitments. Like Steven Argue, McHenry criticized the recent approval by the Santa Cruz City Council to purchase the BEARCAT armored assault vehicle with a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant with little public input.
Steven Argue also describes SCPD racial profiling and the assassinations of American Black Panthers and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists. He describes how the FBI and the DHS work in collusion with the local police and even with the mafia. He describes who the police serve and protect: they do this for Capitalist elites not for the general public. He describes billions of dollars being spent to militarize police departments, like the DHS grant the Santa SCPD used to purchase the BEARCAT armored assault vehicle.* "Santa Cruz Police Department Blog" (2015-01-01) [http://santacruzpolice.blogspot.de/2015/01/new-years-eve-wrap-up.html?m=1] [https://archive.today/oTLAZ], [begin excerpt]: One case of interest involved a group of approximately 20 individuals dressed in all black clothing, similar to “Black Bloc” activists. Just prior to midnight, these individuals carried homemade banners promoting violence and death to police officers.
The group made their way to the Santa Cruz County Jail at 259 Water Street where they vandalized County cars parked in the lot, by throwing rocks, bottles and paint at the cars.
SCPD was able to capture and detain three members of the group for questioning and identification. Unfortunately, at the time, the three could not specifically be identified as the ones vandalizing, although they were associated with the larger group. They were released after questioning, pending further investigation.
The three detainees traveled from various parts of the State to come to Santa Cruz to spread their hate and vandalize. The group included a 23 year old male from Santa Cruz, 25 year old female from Reedley, CA, and a 29 year old female from Sacramento, CA.
[end excerpt]
* "Anti-police banner marched through Santa Cruz" (2015-01-01) [http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/santa-cruz/antipolice-banner-marched-through-santa-cruz/30493152] [https://archive.today/Slt2z]---
Please note, the videographer is a disabled person who is an advocate for those who are homeless and/or who have disabilities, and has been unafraid to publicize harrassment and terrorism of those without homes in Santa Cruz County. So, of course, he is now suffering harm done against him and his family by an identifiable network of local police and power brokers who seek to "clean up the town of freaks and low-lifes" through draconian measures and even sanctioned torture against transients and low-income travelers.
* "Domestic terrorist group The Santa Cruz Clean Team is fake nonprofit connected to Take Back Santa Cruz and City/County of Santa Cruz" letter by John E. Colby, Ph.D., Gorilla Advocate of Santa Cruz, to California State Attorney General Kamala Harris:
I’m writing because my investigations exposed the Santa Cruz Clean Team — which shares members with Take Back Santa Cruz — is a domestic terrorist group doing business with the City/County of Santa Cruz. I recently received death threats from Take Back Santa Cruz members: it’s imperative the federal government protect me immediately from (physical) harm as well as all those associated with me.
That said, I am filing a complaint with your Registry of Charitable Trusts against the Santa Cruz Clean Team. Will you protect me against retaliation from them and their supporters in local law enforcement, like the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) and the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD)? I can provide more evidence to support my complaint upon receiving a validated, written request for it. Thank you for helping me seek the truth in my mission to hold responsible parties for hate crimes against (disabled) homeless people accountable — I want federal investigations and federal prosecutions.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION! BLACK POWER!
* "War on Black America" (2014-12-31) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-on-black-america/5421755] [https://archive.today/wLUUw]
* "Black Lives Matter Must Move Beyond Protests — Or Risk Losing the Fight for Racial Justice" (2014-12-29) [http://www.progressivesforobama.net/?p=519] [https://archive.today/D53vW]
"Black People are literally saying 'Stop Killing Us!' And there are people saying 'But'..."
---
* "BART: Stop targeting and criminalizing Black protestors" (2015-01-05) [http://iam.colorofchange.org/petitions/bart-directors-when-it-comes-to-ending-the-war-on-black-communities-which-side-are-you-on] [https://archive.today/bFKYB].
As someone who believes that Black lives matter, join me in urging Thomas Blalock and Tom Radulovich, President and Vice-President of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors, to end their shameful attempts to extort, intimidate, and demonize Black protesters fighting for our right to live without police violence. BART is now demanding that #BlackLivesMatter protestors pay $70,000 and face criminal charges for demanding an end to police killings. It is punitive, has a chilling effect on our first amendment right to protest, and sets a dangerously anti-democratic precedent.
---
* "Protesters mark New Year with 'Black Lives Matter' marches across US" (2015-01-01) [http://rt.com/usa/219191-new-year-black-lives-protest/] [https://archive.today/0upQr]
* "Eric Garner Protests: ‘It’s Like Vietnam’ " (2014-12-04) [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/04/eric-garner-protests-it-s-like-vietnam.html] [https://archive.today/21BNz]
---
* "NYPD Officer Speaks Out on Fellow Cops Who Turned Backs to Mayor & Why People of Color Fear Police" (2014-12-29) [http://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/29/nypd_officer_speaks_out_on_fellow] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150102195930/http://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/29/nypd_officer_speaks_out_on_fellow], [begin excerpt]:
AMY GOODMAN: Well, today we hear directly from a New York City police officer, a member of the largest police department in the country. Adhyl Polanco joins us. He’s been with the New York Police Department since 2005. When I interviewed him last year, he described how in 2009 he became critical of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy when his superiors told officers to meet a quota of stops, or face punishment. He made audio recordings of the quotas being described during meetings in his precinct, and brought his concerns to authorities, but he said he was ignored. He then took his audio tapes to the media, including The Village Voice, where reporter Graham Rayman wrote a series called "The NYPD Tapes." For several years, Officer Polanco was suspended with pay, but he’s since returned to work on the police force.
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely wrong, absolutely wrong. Mayor de Blasio came to the police department, that had a lot of issues with before he got to this police department. Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that "I can fix this police department." But this police department has a culture that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible, including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor. It absolutely don’t show—this is not what we’re made of. This is—I was not taught—you know, this does not represent the police department. This does not represent how, when a family calls for peace and unity, you’re going to have a hundred officers doing the absolute opposite.
AMY GOODMAN: On Friday morning, the day after Christmas, many New Yorkers saw a plane flying a banner above the Hudson River that read: "De Blasio, our backs have turned to you." Former NYPD Officer John Cardillo wrote on his blog the officers behind the act felt that "Mayor de Blasio’s dangerous and irresponsible comments about his and his wife’s concern for their son’s safety at the hands of the NYPD fueled the flames that led to civil unrest, and potentially to the deaths of [PO] Wenjian Liu and [PO] Rafael Ramos, as well as the continued threats against NYPD personnel," unquote. Let’s turn to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remarks, which were made earlier this month amidst protests over lack of police accountability in the Eric Garner case, Eric Garner who died of a police chokehold. He said that he and his wife, Chirlane, who is African-American, fear for the safety of their teenage son Dante.
[end excerpt]
Also see:
* "The NYPD Tapes" [http://www.villagevoice.com/specialReports/the-nypd-tapes-the-village-voices-series-on-adrian-schoolcraft-by-graham-rayman-4393217/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141007054719/http://www.villagevoice.com/specialReports/the-nypd-tapes-the-village-voices-series-on-adrian-schoolcraft-by-graham-rayman-4393217/]. In 2010, Village Voice reporter Graham Rayman obtained digital audio recordings from Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD. These tapes revealed the inner-workings of Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct, a place where bosses threatened street cops if they didn't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks and told them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. Astoundingly, these tapes were just the beginning.
---
* US Uncut writes: Milwaukee incarcerates 1.2% of white people, while its incarceration rate for black people is 12.8%--the highest in the nation. More than half of black men in their thirties have been incarcerated, 75-85% for non-violent drug offenses. Pass this along for the millions of people who say racism is not an issue. Cure them of their ignorance.
* "Wisconsin's High Black Male Incarceration Rate Concerns Community Leaders" (2013-11-11) [http://wuwm.com/post/wisconsins-high-black-male-incarceration-rate-concerns-community-leaders] [https://archive.today/J7Trt]
* "BBC looks at Wisconsin's highest-in-nation incarceration rate for blacks" (2013-11-19) [http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/bbc-looks-at-wisconsin-s-highest-in-nation-incarceration-rate/article_b1af2c4a-eb50-5ef8-afd3-51eb3c12af82.html] [https://archive.today/51MF2]
---
How racism is legitimized in the USA:
An editorial cartoon syndicated to monopolist newspapers, 2014-12, captioned "Our Conversation on Policing... with chairs rearranged", shows a "middle of the road" perspective on the controversy surrounding #BlackLivesMatter. A single, Black, protester is shown as having an equal voice with the police, reducing sympathy for his cause when he is shown in the next panel being put in his place alongside the police being forced to listen to why he is wrong... The police can, and do, speak as one voice through their Chief, or through their unions and fraternal orders, as part of a dialogue, a centralization of authority no protester can match. And who is the protester representing? Is he the chief of Black People? Is he so uppity, and unreasonable, that he needs to listen to the Police, for a change? This is meant to reinforce the politically correct view of the "middle road", for those who believe they are immune to political rhetoric and are skeptical of controversy.
---
* "A cop in Ukraine said he was detaining me because I was black. I appreciated it. Being a black man in Ukraine showed me everything that's wrong with race in the U.S." (2015-01-02) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/02/a-cop-in-ukraine-said-he-was-detaining-me-because-i-was-black-i-appreciated-it/] [https://archive.today/h4Vh4], [begin excerpt]:
The officer walked toward me, gave a Soviet-style military salute and demanded that I present my passport. He looked it over before telling me to follow him into a mini-police unit inside the station. Once there, I asked the cop why I was being held. In Russian, he responded, “You’re a nigger and I know you’re bringing drugs into our country,” he said. “Where are the drugs?”
As bad as the experience sounds, I appreciated the young cops’ forwardness. He made it clear that his stop was motivated by race and nothing more. In New York City, where I now live, the NYPD immediately rejects any suggestion that racism can motivate officers’ behavior, even subconsciously. They categorically dismiss research that shows black people are habitually treated more severely than whites when suspected of the same crime. They swear that policing policies like “stop and frisk” and “broken windows” aren’t racially motivated, even though studies have repeatedly shown that they disproportionately target minorities.
[end excerpt]
---
at Encanto, San Diego, California. November 28, 2014
STUDENT'S DEFENSE COMMITTEE
Update on the California Board of Regents, a millionaire's club responsible for instituting a profit-making and discriminatory Public University system.
* "Jerry Brown taps staff member to sit on UC governing board" (2015-01-02) [http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article5347998.html] [https://archive.today/sq8Wa]
WORKER'S DEFENSE COMMITTEE
* "The devalued American worker The past three recessions sparked a chain reaction of layoffs and lower pay" (2014-12-14) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/14/the-devalued-american-worker/] [https://archive.today/pV0ed]
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
* "Social Control in America, Police Enforcement of 'Minor Crimes' " (2014-12-29) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/police-enforcement-of-minor-crimes-and-social-control-in-america/5421877] [https://archive.today/vRJHs]
---
* "U.S. cops kill at 100 times rate of other capitalist countries" (2014-10-04) [http://www.liberationnews.org/u-s-cops-kill-100-times-rate-capitalist-countries/] [https://archive.today/PG9ta]
---
* "What It’s Like to Lose a Loved One to Police Violence" (2014-11-26)
[https://www.popularresistance.org/police-shot-my-son-in-the-back-of-the-head/] [https://archive.today/4gAYg]: The following is an excerpted chapter from Censored 2015: Inspiring We the People, Andy Lee Roth, Mickey Huff, and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2014). For more information on Project Censored, please see [http://projectcensored.org]. For more about their publishers Seven Stories Press, please see [http://sevenstories.com].
[begin excerpt]
In 1998, Project Censored cosponsored a research study with the Stolen Lives Project, a group born out of the October 22nd Coalition. Through funding from the San Francisco Foundation, Karen Saari, a legal researcher in Sonoma County, California, spent a good part of a year searching the newspaper databases LexisNexis and ProQuest at Sonoma State University for articles on law enforcement–related deaths. She was searching for police shootings and any situation reported in the newspapers where someone died in the presence of law enforcement officers. Besides gunshots, deaths included suicides, car accidents, shootings, drowning, and Taser use.
To our knowledge, this was the first time such a study had been attempted in the US. During the twelve-month period from October 1, 1997, to October 1, 1998, Saari found news stories on 694 deaths in the presence of law enforcement in the United States. Department of Justice figures at the time listed about 350 people killed by police in the previous year, so Saari’s research showed a significantly larger rate of death among civilians in law enforcement incidents than was previously known at the time.
The newspaper deaths reported in 1997 show that eighty-one were related to excessive application of restraint techniques, and that ninety-one were reported to be suicides, although the ruling of suicide was questionable in a number of cases. Deaths occurred throughout the US, with California leading the nation.
In 2011, Jim Fisher used Internet searches to identify 1,146 police shootings that year. Among these were news reports indicating that 607 people had died by police shooting. This was a slightly higher rate of shooting deaths than had been reported in 1997–98 but did not include Taser, restraint deaths, and suicides. Fisher found that the vast majority of the people shot had been between the ages of twenty-five and forty-nine, a result similar to Saari’s report a decade earlier. In 2011, two victims of the police had been fifteen years of age, and one girl had been only sixteen. Fifty of the dead were armed with BB guns, pellet guns, or toy replica firearms.
[end excerpt]
---
* "S.F.’s probation chief has unlocked a new era for offenders" (2014-12-30) [http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/S-F-s-probation-chief-has-unlocked-a-new-era-5985998.php] [https://archive.today/RXAcc]
* "The White Cop Who Embraced #BlackLivesMatter and Saved Richmond" (2014-12-31) [http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/white-cop-embraced-blacklivesmatter-saving-richmond-97346/] [https://archive.today/W4mNL], [begin excerpt]: How did a white, gay cop whose last job was policing the streets of Fargo, North Dakota, turn around a town that had a reputation as one of the most violent cities in America? [end excerpt]
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* "America's gun-toting guards armed with poor training, little oversight" (2014-12-09) [https://archive.today/5AsQL] [https://beta.cironline.org/reports/americas-gun-toting-security-guards-may-not-be-fit-for-duty/]
---
Replying to the Open Letter of Dec. 23 from Bay Area Police Officers’ Associations
From Occupy Oakland Demilitarize the Police Working Group (2014-12-31):
The ”Open Letter to the Residents of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland” calls for a “constructive dialogue” to “keep our streets safe”, but the members of the Occupy Oakland Demilitarize the Police Working Group see denial and self-righteousness in the letter that would poison such a dialogue. Before beginning any respectful exchange of views on what is to be done to alleviate the outrage caused by police murders, spokespersons for law enforcement officers must acknowledge their sense of unbridled privilege, repudiate it and recognize that violent racism goes unchecked in their ranks.
While we acknowledge that the murder of two NYPD officers is a tragedy, we can find no rational justification to call for national mourning when the systems of law enforcement and justice show no remorse for the murder of many hundreds of men of color. Instead, we see this as a claim that police officers are due greater respect and honor than their innocent victims.
The endless chorus repeated by spokespersons that every police officer must “make it home to his or her family after every shift” is provoking when they show such a lack of concern for the lives of men of color. Tamil Rice never made it home to his family, nor did Oscar Grant.
When young men of color are killed by police at a rate that exceeds twenty-one times that of young white men – that is violent racism. When two unstable white people kill two Las Vegas police officers without the police trying to create a national crisis, while when two New York Police officers are killed by an unstable black man they do – that is violent racism. When a white woman pointing a gun at police officers is disarmed and a black man holding an air-rifle in an open-carry state is gunned down inside a store that carries those firearms – again, that is violent racism.
The “Open Letter” states that a consequence of the murder of police officers in New York City and Tarpon Springs, FL may be to nullify the mission of law enforcement to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters. Other than in police officers’ minds, since when is the US Constitution trumped by a declaration of union officials? The fact is that Brinsley and Parilla both had long criminal records including multiple felony convictions, indicating that they were deeply troubled individuals and not in any way representative of the tens of thousands of protesters who continue to call for justice.
Patrick Lynch, President of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn. instructed his members to impose a martial law-type policing regime in that city. How can such a statement be seen as anything other than an attempt to seize executive power by force? Why has Mr. Lynch not been arrested for inciting a putsch?
When the New York Times finds it necessary to opine that police believe they are “…accountable only to themselves, and whose reflexive defiance in the face of valid criticism is somehow normal”, and chastise them for it, we see further evidence of what we have known for some time: that the police no longer protect and serve anyone but themselves, and that the oath they take to defend the Constitution of the United States holds no meaning for them.
The fact that Brinsley and Parilla killed three policemen doesn’t mean the protest movement #BlackLivesMatter has devolved into anything other than what it was when it started on November 24: a demand for accountability for police officers and an end to racist policing.
We see a criminal code being violated by law enforcement: one that defines genocide as the destruction in whole or in part of any social group. Before a constructive dialogue begins police must accept that they are not above the US Constitution or the law, that they are in fact accountable to the people, and that the very long list of men of color murdered by police officers constitutes a pattern of extermination characterized by racism.
---
Just walking down the street minding your own business, when...
And then you're dead!!!
Hmmm...an 'investigative stop' can be a deadly thing, if you're the one being stopped.
* "Autopsy Reveals LAPD Shot Ezell Ford in the Back" (2015-01-01) [http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/01/01/autopsy-reveals-lapd-shot-ezell-ford-back/] [https://archive.today/4HaUa], [begin excerpt]:
Under pressure from the mayor of Los Angeles, the LAPD finally released Ezell Ford’s autopsy report to the public. According to the report, an LAPD officer shot Ford in the right arm and right side while a second officer shot him in the back at close range. Although the officers claim Ford attempted to grab one of their guns, witnesses do not corroborate their account.
According to witnesses, Dorene Henderson and Ford’s cousin did not see Ford struggling with the officers before they shot him. Henderson had crossed the street in front of Ford when she heard someone shout, “Get down, get down.”
Henderson saw one of the officers exit the car before hearing a gunshot. Neighbors began yelling at the officers, “He’s got mental problems.”
Then Henderson reportedly witnessed the driver exit the police car before hearing two more shots. Refusing to identify himself by his real name, Ford’s cousin watched the shooting and asserted that Ford had been complying with the officers when they shot him.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Eviction Day!!! Activists have occupied the St. Louis Police HQ" press release (2014-12-31):
We have received a cry for help, that as mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers, brothers and sisters we can NO LONGER IGNORE.
The full content of this plea can be found at the link. [http://vimeo.com/115691544]
In response to this dispatch, we intend to evict injustice and blight, by occupying St. Louis Police headquarters on December 31st, 2014, at 11am. The decision to reclaim our police department is the result of willful neglect and violence on behalf of the department toward the community, which they are bound, by oath, to protect and serve. Violations include: Committing crimes against humanity, by ending the life of men, women, and children, and then labeling these executions as “justified” without regard for your humanity, and without thorough investigation. Hiring officers, who are unfit to wear a badge, like Randy Hayes, a known animal torturer, and Jason Flannery, who publicly declared he wanted to “shoot Muslims.” Both these men shot and killed two members of our community and have not been held accountable for these egregious actions, but rather have been protected behind a blue shield. Despite thousands marching in the streets; despite our community having to sue our own police department to stop the use of tear gas and rubber bullets; despite urgent demands for broad and substantive reforms, our cries have been ignored. For all these reasons, we intend to occupy St. Louis Police Headquarters as part of our New Year’s resolution to take back our Justice System, and in doing so reclaiming the promise of our future.
Our Demands
1) Immediate meeting with the Dotson, Slay or Lewis Reed.
2) Firing of officers Hayes and Flannery
3) Clear and transparent protocol when a person dies in police custody including:
A) Immediate medical attention for victims
B) Immediate release of the officers name
C) Appointment of special prosecutor for ALL deaths that occur in police custody.
4) Whistleblower program that protects officers acting with integrity
5) Amnesty for protesters who have been charged with non-violent offenses including those who have been charged arbitrarily with third degree assault with no actual violence.
6) Creation of a diverse citizen review board with subpoena power. The board will be appointed by community, not politicians and will be a reflection of victims most subjected to police violence.
7) Seven day release of all information regarding police shootings including transparent release of unedited videos and audios.
8) A substantive plan with implementation dates for mandatory diversity training
9) Restoration of the residency requirement.
10) Screening that prevents officers fired from other departments to be hired by St. Louis Police Department.
11) Implementation of Youth Summer Program that creates opportunities for young people to serve in community.
Details and demands can be found at #Occupythepolice or #Reclaimthepolice
Signed: We the People
[https://www.facebook.com/jaime.yassin/posts/10153525056064408]
* "Nearly 100 protesters storm St.Louis police headquarters, at least 25 of whom are arrested as others are pepper sprayed" (2014-12-31) [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893125/Nearly-100-protesters-storm-St-Louis-police-headquarters-25-arrested-pepper-sprayed.html] [https://archive.today/EqVk4]
---
So far, the "State of Siege" as portrayed in the monopolist media has not occurred as promised, with not a single militant action being confirmed. After a crazy "lone nut" murdered two non-White NYPD Officers, there was a shooting in Los Angeles that involved but was not directed at the police, and then an incident in San Francisco turned out to be another "lone nut"...
* "Man Accused of Shooting at Officers Is Arrested" (2015-01-01) [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-shoots-san-francisco-bay-area-officers-27949228] [https://archive.today/KPncR]
---
CopBlock says, "It went from one worker making a sarcastic gesture to the NYPD now claiming that they are a persecuted minority that needs to be protected from mean restaurant workers who cops allege 'refused them service'."
* "NYPD Devotees Threaten To Boycott Chipotle After Workers Made ‘Hands Up’ Gesture To Cops" (2015-01-02) [http://alternativemediasyndicate.com/2015/01/02/nypd-devotees-threaten-to-boycott-chipotle-after-workers-made-hands-up-gesture-to-cops/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103035304/http://alternativemediasyndicate.com/2015/01/02/nypd-devotees-threaten-to-boycott-chipotle-after-workers-made-hands-up-gesture-to-cops/]
---
* "Ex NYPD Cop Admits ‘We Planted Evidence, Framed Innocent People’ All For Arrest Quotas" (2014-12-27) [http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/12/ex-nypd-cop-admits/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150101194727/http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/12/ex-nypd-cop-admits/].
Cop Block says [https://www.facebook.com/CopBlock], "Former NYPD cop says that far from a few "bad apples," this is the modus operandi of the department."
---
* "PA police shoots suspect dead for resisting arrest over online threats" (2014-12-31) [http://rt.com/usa/218843-man-killed-police-pennsylvania] [https://archive.today/pmGQh]
* "St. Louis Man Charged With Threatening Police" (2015-01-01) [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/st-louis-man-charged-threatening-police-27952095] [https://archive.today/kr6Ra]
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* "Must Counterterrorism Cancel Democracy?" (2015-01-02) [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/jan/08/must-counterterrorism-cancel-democracy/] [https://archive.today/WgSRo], [begin excerpt]:
Intelligence gathering and investigation have also radically changed. Twenty years ago, if the government wanted to know your most intimate secrets, it could seek to follow you around the clock. But that is very expensive and difficult, and could practically be deployed only against very high-priority suspects. It could search your home, but only if it first obtained a judicial warrant based on specific probable cause. It could interrogate you, but only if it had probable cause to arrest, and even then, you could assert your right to remain silent.
Today, the government can simply go to the various electronic communications service providers you use and obtain from them detailed information on your every phone call, Web search, e-mail, online chat, or credit card purchase, as well as your physical location whenever you are carrying your cell phone. Under current law, you have no constitutional right to object to the government obtaining the information from the companies that serve you. The government needs no probable cause or warrant to get it.
And this information tells more about you than your closest family and friends know, more even than you yourself know. I forget what I was doing, where I was going, and what I was thinking about three months ago—but my smartphone, computer, and Internet account have it all recorded, in convenient, computer-searchable form. So it’s now possible to obtain a detailed, intimate portrait of anyone at low cost, without any basis for suspicion.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived From the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places" (2013-05-03) [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy-or-cool-portraits-derived-from-the-dna-in-hair-and-gum-found-in-public-places-50266864/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141015232332/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy-or-cool-portraits-derived-from-the-dna-in-hair-and-gum-found-in-public-places-50266864/]
---
* "Skinheads Hunt Native American Family: Guess Who Gets Arrested?" (2011-07-10) [http://m.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/10/993043/-Skinheads-Hunt-Native-American-Family-Guess-Who-Gets-Arrested] [https://archive.today/gMw6A], [begin excerpt]:
The Police Response: And sure enough, the police arrive and they DON'T TAKE ANY STATEMENTS FROM THE VICTIMS, JUST THE SKINHEADS!!!! They completely ignored the family until Lisa suffered a seizure. This despite the fact that Johnny had a broken nose, nasal cavity, and could barely stand from being hit with the bat. Shane had a crushed elbow and a broken hand, among other things. Three ambulances responded arrived on the scene and took Lisa, Murray and Alyssa for medical treatment. Lisa assumed Johnny had been taken in another ambulance, but he had not.Johnny was taken to jail and received NO medical attention for SIX days!!!!!!! "Why?" you ask?
First they told Lisa that he had an outstanding $367 fine. When the family arranged to pay it, they charged Johnny with battery with a deadly weapon, even though he had NO weapon.
[end excerpt]
FREE 'EM ALL!
* "Pennsylvania Attorney General Denies All Wrong Doing! AG Rejects Lorenzo’s Innocence and Claims of State Misconduct-- Lorenzo’s Case Goes to the Judge" (2015-01-01) [http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/december-24-ag-denies-wrong-doing-case-goes-to-judge.html] [https://archive.today/uA7mV]
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* Free Jeffrey Sterling, whistleblower on Federal clandestine agency recklessness [http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10707] [https://archive.today/JOmj7], [begin excerpt]: As a whistleblower, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling went through channels to inform staffers of the Senate Intelligence Committee about the ill-conceived and dangerous CIA action known as Operation Merlin. The current effort to prosecute Mr. Sterling, for allegedly providing information about Operation Merlin to journalist James Risen, comes 15 years after that CIA operation took place. This prosecution serves no valid purpose. As Risen documented in his book State of War, Operation Merlin was ill-conceived and dangerous. In the name of countering nuclear proliferation, the CIA risked promoting it.
[end excerpt]
SAN PABLO BAY EPA
* "National Model of Restoration: Nine Mile Run Study by Pitt hydrologist shows that one of the largest urban-stream restorations in the United States has led to the recovery of fish and, more importantly, a groundswell of local support" (2014-12-17) [http://www.news.pitt.edu/news/national-model-restoration-nine-mile-run] [https://archive.today/Wqvb2]
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* "A 2,500 Square-Mile Methane Plume Is Silently Hovering over Western US Legacy of fossil fuel drilling is "giant cloud" of powerful greenhouse gas now visible from space" (2014-12-30) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/30/2500-square-mile-methane-plume-silently-hovering-over-western-us] [https://archive.today/Q5U1A]
Human Ecology:
* "Newly Renamed High Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Toxic Mercury And here is where you can find it" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/newly-renamed-high-fructose-corn-syrup-contains-toxic-mercury/5422954] [https://archive.today/M5lel], [begin excerpt]:
There’s a lot of quite concerning and truly sneaky secrets behind the ingredient known as high-fructose corn syrup. Not only has the infamously-unhealthy additive gone through a ‘renaming’ process by corporations in an attempt to fool you into eating it, but it is also known to hold some tremendously toxic baggage.
Now branded as ‘fructose’ in processed foods thanks to the whole issue of the public absolutely avoiding high-fructose corn syrup like the plague, it’s important to look back at one landmark study that revealed the presence of ultra-toxic mercury within the ingredient.
Mercury is, as all of the experts admit, toxic in all of its forms. And as the study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found, nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products that listed HFCS as the first or second ingredient were found to contain it.
[end excerpt]
* "Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury" (2009-01-28) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html] [https://archive.today/U58Mr]
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* "Mind-altering Medication: Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD) Drugs Greatly Decrease Academic Performance in Children" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/attention-deficit-disorder-adhd-drugs-greatly-decrease-academic-performance-in-children-study-finds/5422977] [https://archive.today/Gan5h], [begin excerpt]:
Children who take mind-altering medications like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine and dextroamphetamine) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been shown in a new peer-reviewed study to perform worse in school than if they weren’t taking the substances at all.
Researchers from Princeton University, Cornell University and the University of Toronto found that the administration of these drugs to children, which is supposedly to help them remain calm and focus in class, actually leaves students at a deficit when it comes to paying attention and learning in a formal academic setting.
These shocking findings, which were published recently in the Journal of Health Economics, reveal that increasing the use of stimulants isn’t helping children any more than loading them up with anti-psychotic medications helps them think more rationally.
[end excerpt]
* "Do stimulant medications improve educational and behavioral outcomes for children with ADHD?" scientific abstract published by Journal of Health Economics (2014-09) [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629614000654] [https://archive.today/NnIKQ]
SAN PABLO BAY SOVEREIGNTY Think-Tank
* "Americans Want America To Run On Solar and Wind" [http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2015/01/01/americans-want-america-to-run-on-solar-and-wind/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150101155029/http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2015/01/01/americans-want-america-to-run-on-solar-and-wind/]
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* "Down With Sustainable Development! Long Live Convivial Degrowth!" (2014-11-22) [http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/] [https://archive.today/F8ED8]
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE & FREEDOM COALITION
* "After 13 Years, US-Led Afghanistan War is Officially Over but Nightmare Goes On" (2014-12-30) [http://www.cc-ds.org/2014/12/after-13-years-us-led-afghanistan-war-is-officially-over-but-nightmare-goes-on/] [https://archive.today/aqyRr]
* "The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is over but our presence is not" (2015-01-02) [http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/The-U-S-led-war-in-Afghanistan-is-over-but-our-5990845.php] [https://archive.today/YZQzV]
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* "Selling ‘Peace Groups’ on US-Led Wars" (2014-12-25) [https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/25/selling-peace-groups-on-us-led-wars/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150106051733/https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/25/selling-peace-groups-on-us-led-wars/], [begin excerpt]: Since the anti-war protests on Vietnam, the U.S. government has made “perception management” of the American people a high priority, feeding them a steady diet of propaganda about foreign crises, even getting “peace groups” to buy into “pro-democracy” wars. [end excerpt]
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* "America’s Fake Intelligence on Iran: Why Jeffrey Sterling Deserves Support as a CIA Whistleblower" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-fake-intelligence-on-iran-why-jeffrey-sterling-deserves-support-as-a-cia-whistleblower/5422996] [https://archive.today/6a4Co]
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UPI newswire is a monopolist news agency which issues propaganda authored knowingly by domestic security agencies. Sometimes, articles are meant to influence the editor of monopolist newspapers, such as the following article which appears to provide topic points for newsprint editorials.
* "A New Year's resolution, to finally win a war" (2015-01-04) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Opinion_A_New_Years_resolution_to_finally_win_a_war_999.html] [https://archive.today/v6msU], [begin excerpt]: Isn't it about time that America won a war? Some will rightly observe that every war the U.S. started, it lost. Forget the misnomered wars on drugs, poverty, racism and the like. Think instead about Vietnam, the war on terror, Afghanistan and the second Iraq war. [end excrpt[
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* "Civilian Deaths Soar in Iraq as US Soldiers Dig In for 'Long Haul' ; Increasing numbers of American soldiers are on their way to Iraq even as the threat of combat casualties for those already on the ground appears to be rapidly escalating" (2015-01-02) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/02/civilian-deaths-soar-iraq-us-soldiers-dig-long-haul] [https://archive.today/ZeCCK]
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* "HOW THE IRAQ WAR FINANCED A BELTWAY REAL ESTATE BOOM" (2015-01-02) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/02/war-iraq-helped-finance-personal-beltway-financial-boom/] [https://archive.today/8c8j6]
NEW AFRIKA PEACE MOVEMENT
* "Africa 2014: The Quest for Unity and the Role of Imperialism" (2015-01-01) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/africa-2014-the-quest-for-unity-and-the-role-of-imperialism/5422207] [https://archive.today/ByMOV]
* "Africa 2014 in Review: Counterrevolution, Neocolonialism and the Mass Struggle Lessons from false starts and imperialist interventions" (2015-01-04) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/africa-2014-in-review-counterrevolution-neocolonialism-and-the-mass-struggle/5422728] [https://archive.today/8HP6k], [begin excerpt]:
Post Gaddafi Libya and the Anomaly of the So Called “Arab Spring”
At the same time that Washington and Paris were effectively destabilizing the West African state of Ivory Coast, the imperialists led by the Obama administration moved rapidly to launch a counterrevolution against the Jamahiriya in Libya. On Feb. 17, 2011, a rebel war was launched in Benghazi against the central government in Tripoli, seeking to undermine its authority.
When the loyalist forces mobilized to repel the counterrevolutionaries, the U.S., France and Britain, engineered two United Nations Security Council resolutions. The first, UNSC 1970, placed an arms embargo on the government of Muammar Gaddafi but allowed large shipments of weapons and personnel through Benghazi and other areas that border waterways and contiguous states. The second resolution, UNSC 1973, provided pseudo-legal cover for the massive bombing of the North African country under the guise of establishing a “no-fly zone.”
After the Pentagon and NATO along with their allies bombed Libya from March 19 to Oct. 31, 2011, the destruction of the country was sealed. Millions were displaced in the aerial bombardments, estimates claimed that 50,000-100,000 people were killed and the terror carried out by the western-backed rebels took on a decisively reactionary and racist character.
Today Libya is in chaos with oil terminals being burned and population groups under direct assault from various rebel factions, two of whom are contesting the control of the capital and the coveted oil resources and revenues. The imperialist-recognized faction that has taken refuge in a Tobruk hotel after being driven out of the capital, have called in Egyptian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) warplanes which are carrying out airstrikes against the rival militias labelled as Islamists.
Both Tunisia and Egypt, considered the birthplaces of the “Arab Spring” from Dec. 2010 to Feb. 2011, border Libya. Even after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which toppled the regimes of longtime western-allied dictators Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, the military regimes that preempted a genuine people’s revolution allowed their military forces to be utilized in the imperialist war against Gaddafi.
[end excerpt]
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
* "Are Student Loans Bringing Back Indentured Labor?" (2014-12-29) [http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/12/29/student-loans-bringing-back-indentured-labor/] [https://archive.today/lk6lH]
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* "Assassination of the Left" (2015-01-01) [http://rsnorg.org/pm-section/78-78/27812-assassination-of-the-left] [https://archive.today/NLsQg], [begin excerpt]:
On health care, the conservative position is; if you can afford it, you can have it. The center gave us the corporate giveaway known as Obamacare. The far left calls for free health CARE for all (note that it completely replaces insurance companies with actual care). On justice for the greedy bastards who crashed the global economy several years ago – the right rewards them, the center rewards or ignores them and the far left calls for their relocation to cozy little rooms with big metal bars. College education? The right wants it reserved for those who can afford it. The center wants to encourage high cost student loans that kids will pay off until nearly retired. The real left wants to free college education for all who want it.
I’m sure some readers are wondering how the real left proposes to pay for free health care, free lodging for greedy bankers and free college education. Rest easy, there are multitudes of proven successful ways. Just a few examples… tax the hell out of the wealthy, tax the hell out of the oil companies, tax the hell out of the churches and cut the military budget down to a size where it can be drowned in a birdbath (yeah, that’s a play on an infamous Grover Norquist quote).
Agree with these? It doesn't matter. The point is that they are real left solutions that are being ignored in the media, in the courts and in the places where our laws are made.
So, when my old friend suggests that he’s against both the far right and the far left (without having a clue as to what the far left is actually all about) he’s taking positions that are fairly far right of the center (which he considers middle-of-the-road).
The left being excluded from the national debate, having their solutions ignored (all of which have worked in other parts of the globe), is THE reason why the United States is, and will continue to be, heading toward third world status and why the global environment seems to be pointing us toward mass extinction.
[end excerpt]
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The dominant culture of the USA is itself dominated by the narrative that they are oppressed by Black people! Yes. An example is the following study showing how a wealthy middle-aged White man is presented as representing a voiceless demographic, while the study shows that his demographic dominates the publishing industry!
* "White Man Publishes Book! USA Today Mistakes This for News" (2015-01-02) [http://fair.org/blog/2015/01/05/white-man-publishes-book-usa-today-mistakes-this-for-news/] [https://archive.today/919NZ]
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* "The Republican’s Magical Mystery Tour" (2014-12-28) [http://robertreich.org/post/106441993675] [https://archive.today/NGOI1], [begin excerpt]:
Few economic theories have been as thoroughly tested in the real world as supply-side economics, and so notoriously failed.
Ronald Reagan cut the top income tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and ended up nearly doubling the national debt. His first budget director, David Stockman, later confessed he dealt with embarrassing questions about future deficits with “magic asterisks” in the budgets submitted to Congress. The Congressional Budget Office didn’t buy them.
George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton but then slashed taxes, mostly on the rich. The CBO found that the Bush tax cuts reduced revenues by $3 trillion.
Yet Republicans don’t want to admit supply-side economics is hokum. As a result, they’ve never had much love for the truth-tellers at the Congressional Budget Office.
In 2011, when briefly leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich called the CBO “a reactionary socialist institution which does not believe in economic growth, does not believe in innovation and does not believe in data that has not been internally generated.”
[end excerpt]
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* "Chris Christie Continues Attack on Public Worker Pensions" (2015-01-05) [http://socialistorganizer.org/chris-christie-continues-attack-on-public-worker-pensions/] [https://archive.today/ZUCjg]
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* "Gov. Rick Perry hoping jobs record outweighs 'oops’ moment" (2014-12-30) [http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Gov-Rick-Perry-hoping-jobs-record-outweighs-5985964.php] [https://archive.today/tN7Fw], [begin excerpt]:
His state has generated more than a third of the nation’s new private-sector jobs since 2001. While critics say about 6 percent of the state’s hourly wage earners in 2013 got minimum wage or less, fifth highest in the nation, Perry counters that this figure has fallen three straight years since 2010, when Texas’ rate peaked at a national high 9.5 percent.
Perry credits the gangbusters state economy to low taxes, restrained regulation and caps on civil litigation damage awards, as well as improving high school graduation rates. He also oversees two funds offering economic incentives to lure top employers to Texas and repeatedly visited states with Democratic governors to poach jobs.The incentive funds the governor oversees, though, have been savaged by state auditors. They found that the Texas Enterprise Fund, offering deal-closing money to top business and employers, had awarded $222 million to 11 firms and universities that either didn’t apply for the funding or weren’t required to directly create jobs.
And Perry’s Texas Emerging Technology Fund is supposed to bolster high-tech startups, but some firms haven’t filed tax reports or have made questionable job claims.
Both also have given money to firms linked to Perry donors, drawing “crony capitalism” complaints from conservative activists. But Perry dismissed that: “I consider myself to be very much an adherent to most of the Tea Party’s philosophical positions.”
Meanwhile, Texas leads the nation with about a quarter of residents lacking health insurance, and had the country’s highest annual total of workplace fatalities nine times during Perry’s tenure.
[end excerpt]
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Certain monopolist banks are using the Republican Party to abolish a public-sector loan agency which subsidized domestic business without profit, and whose interest rates and services competed with private-sector financial monopolies. The Republican Party is forcing economic sanctions against domestic industries except those operated by industrial monopolies.
* "Uncertainty about Export-Import Bank causing trouble" (2014-12-30) [http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Uncertainty-about-Export-Import-Bank-causing-5986168.php] [https://archive.today/VWdu9]
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* "The Cartel: How BP Got Insider Tips Through a Secret Chat Room" (2014-12-30) [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-30/-cartel-chat-room-tied-to-bp-gave-fx-tips-from-banks-to-client.html] [https://archive.today/jAgRL]
* "The Rigging Triangle Exposed: The JPMorgan-British Petroleum-Bank Of England Cartel Full Frontal" (2014-12-31) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-30/rigging-triangle-exposed-jpmorgan-british-petroleum-bank-england-cartel-full-frontal] [https://archive.today/5IWEo]
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* "The Spooks Are Haunted; If officials can't even call torture what it is, then you can bet it will happen again" (2014-12-16) [http://otherwords.org/the-spooks-are-haunted/] [http://www.peeep.us/06d6d312]
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* "The Victory of ‘Perception Management’" (2014-12-28) [https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/28/the-victory-of-perception-management/] [https://archive.today/UlFjT]. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration pioneered “perception management” to get the American people to “kick the Vietnam Syndrome” and accept more U.S. interventionism, but that propaganda structure continues to this day getting the public to buy in to endless war.
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* "Ku Klux Klan loses Missouri court case over passing out leaflets" (2014-12-30) [http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Ku-Klux-Klan-loses-Missouri-court-case-over-5985905.php] [https://archive.today/RKOS1]
* "KKK Loses Lawsuit Over Handing Leaflets to Drivers in Missouri Town" (2014-12-31) [http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/12/kkk_loses_lawsuit_over_handing_leaflets_to_drivers_in_missouri_town.php] [https://archive.today/oZvrA]
* "The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" article [https://sites.google.com/site/thekukluxklannowandthen/3-4] [https://archive.today/Wcqw3], [begin excerpt]: Unlike their predecessors, Traditionalist American Knights seem to show no special interest in the question of Jews. On their website, they maintain that they “sing no hymns of hate against the Jew”, as, in their opinion, “[h]e is interested in his own things.” Such a situation allows the group to “exercise the same privilege of banding [their] own kind together in order that they may realize the highest and best possible for themselves.” Yet still, the organization remains closed for anyone of Jewish heritage, as being “non-jewish [sic] citizen” is cited as one of the requirements to become one of the knights. [end excerpt]
* Traditionalist Ku Klux Klan homepage, archived 2014-12-31 at [https://web.archive.org/web/20141231232216/http://www.traditionalistamericanknights.com/]
* COURT FINDING: Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan v. Desloge, United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit, download [https://www.scribd.com/doc/251328170/Traditionalist-American-Knights-of-the-Ku-Klux-Klan-v-Desloge], excerpts [http://www.peeep.us/87242b53] [https://archive.today/Kk7VM]
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"State of Arizona bans new Ethnic Studies classes in Tucson!" (2015-01-02) [http://threesonorans.com/2015/01/02/state-of-arizona-bans-new-ethnic-studies-classes-in-tucson/] [https://archive.today/Qr4Ry]
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* "The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education 'reform' phonies; Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on" (2014-10-02) [http://www.salon.com/2014/10/02/the_great_charter_school_rip_off_finally_the_truth_catches_up_to_education_reform_phonies/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150102044117/http://www.salon.com/2014/10/02/the_great_charter_school_rip_off_finally_the_truth_catches_up_to_education_reform_phonies/]
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The following article describes the economic arrangement in the pluri-national city of Passaic in New Jersey, where a European nationality is dominant over a majority non-European population, and how this influences politics. The particular European nationality in the article is, itself, historically oppressed in Europe though not in North America, despite antagonisms with certain nationalist vanguards, and the economic arrangement is similar to arrangements among other European nationalities economically dominant in cities across North America where they may be a minority (like in Ferguson in Missouri, or like Anaheim in California).
* "The Master of the Game" (2014-10-02) [http://njmonthly.com/articles/lifestyle/people/the-master-of-the-game.html] [https://archive.today/4PUmc], [begin excerpt]:
It’s easy to conclude that Passaic is a city divided. In the leafy Passaic Park section adjacent to the train line to midtown Manhattan, the houses are large and well maintained. The streets are clean and quiet, especially on Saturdays, when the Orthodox community observes the Sabbath. There is no official count, but in 2006, when the Jewish Press called Passaic “the new Jewish boom town,” the city had 1,300 Jewish families—big families—with more arriving every year.
Now head east, toward downtown and the tired old Passaic River, past the crowded bus stops, past the Bargain Man stores on Lexington Avenue, down the streets named for American presidents. Here, in the city’s decaying core, most of the store signs are in Spanish, debris clutters the streets, and house fires leave dozens homeless because living quarters are overcrowded.
“We are a living, breathing manifestation of apartheid, with a minority ruling a distinct majority,” says a city employee who declines to give his name for fear of retribution. [end excerpt]
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* "Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor; Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions" (2014-12-13) [http://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims] [https://archive.today/ndxqD], [begin xcerpt]: Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result. [end excerpt]
* "From coca to capital: free trade cocaine" (2011-01-11) [http://www.libcom.org/library/coca-capital-free-trade-cocaine] [https://archive.today/XrJdE], [begin excerpt]: The Drug Enforcement Agency, established in 1973, is the neo-colonial arm of the War on Drugs, and yet it is but part of one of 12 government counter-drugs policies agencies; agencies now estimated to have a budget of $30bn a year. Such an edifice of interests requires first of all an overestimation of 'the problem' in the interests of all the bureaucracies involved. At the height of the Vietnam War when heroin was perceived to be the main problem, President Nixon told Congress that 'drug abuse' was 'America's Public Enemy Number One' and in the process kicked off the language of war. It also requires ideological input from those Armchair Spartans of the US 'Power Elite' who see decadence in their own citizens, or rather certain groups of citizens. In 1973 Governor Rockefeller of New York, who had ordered the massacre at Attica prison two years earlier, proposed life sentences without parole for all hard drug dealers and set the tone for what would happen when Ronald Reagan took power in 1980. [end excerpt]
* "Gary Webb: In his own words" (2004) by Anthony Lappé & Stephen Marshall [https://archive.org/details/Gary_Webb]
Gary Webb, the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who broke the story of the CIAs involvement in the importation of cocaine into the U.S., died December 10, 2004, reportedly from self-inflicted gunshots to the head.
It was a tragic end to a brilliant, and tragic, career.
In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published Webbs 20,000 word, three-part series entitled Dark Alliance. The articles detailed the nexus between a California coke kingpin, CIA officials and assets and the Nicaraguan Contra army, whose funding had been cut off by an act of Congress in the mid-80s. Webb found evidence that the CIA had direct contact with the smugglers, knew the proceeds were going to fund the murderous Contras, and tried to cover it up when other law enforcement agencies began investigating. The most troubling aspect to the story was that the central player was no ordinary drug lord. He was the man many credit for popularizing crack, the highly addictive, smoke-able form of cocaine.
For many African-Americans, the story smacked of a grand conspiracy to destroy the black community. There were rallies in Watts and Compton, and heated discussions on black media across the country. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for a federal investigation. In November 1996, CIA director John Deutch appeared at Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles to personally answer to the allegations. He was met with loud jeers. It was a PR disaster.
But it was Webb who found himself on the ropes. Ironically, the CIA did little to publicly counter his allegations. Instead, the media did its dirty work for them, most notably the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The mainstream media accused Webb of exaggerating his findings.
For Webb, the most confounding part of the whole affair was that he ended up being accused of making allegations he never made specifically that the CIA-crack connection was part of a larger, genocidal plot to kill off black people. Webb never made that claim though he noted in his book, "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion," the inherent racism in a covert policy that reaped so much destruction on such a vulnerable segment of society.
He wrote, Dark Alliance does not propound a conspiracy theory; there is nothing theoretical about history. In this case, it is undeniable that a wildly successful conspiracy to import cocaine existed for many years, and that innumerable American citizensmost of them poor and blackpaid an enormous price as a result. This book was written for them, so that they may know upon what altars their communities were sacrificed.
The fact is by 1996 it was common knowledge in the so-called alternative media that there were connections between the Contras, the Agency and drugs. In 1988, a Senate subcommittee investigation headed by Sen. John Kerry concluded the links were there. Oliver Norths own diary noted, $14 million to buy arms for the Contras came from drugs.
Nevertheless, Webbs editors at the Mercury News hung him out to dry, without ever providing any evidence that any of his reporting was wrong. He was reassigned, then forced out. Webb went on to work as an investigator for the state of California, penning a report on racial profiling by state police. More recently, he landed a reporting job at a Sacramento newspaper.
In honor of Webbs legacy of authentic journalism, GNN presents this exclusive interview, in which Webb discusses Dark Alliance, the media maelstrom, and the storys historical importance.
The video was produced by a team of GNNs video students at the School of Authentic Journalism 2002 seminar in Merida, Mexico.
"The Problem With American Management", from R. Chang of Hong Kong:
My father was a foreman at Motorola in Hong Kong who worked his way up to a quality control engineer over about twenty or twenty five years.
Back in the 90s there was this quality control system called "Six Sigma" which was all the rage at Motorola. My father had to suffer through Six Sigma trainings, Six Sigma team meetings and reviews, Six Sigma banners and promotional freebies and Six Sigma performance reviews. His English wasn't very good so I had to help him translate his Six Sigma training materials and help write reports to his bosses, who were Chinese, but had American bosses a few levels up.
It was an interesting education, seeing the Americans through his eyes. But the worst part of it all was watching him trying to convince himself that it all meant something important in the face of all the stupid shit he went through.
Well, twenty years have passed and now I've seen my fair share of American management too! As one of the Marikana miners said, you spend your childhood watching your dad, and then you go to work, where your boss's son will end up becoming your boss.
---
The Problem With American Management (a satire) [http://sfglobe.com/2014/12/18/hYE/] [https://archive.today/JBUwQ]:
A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The North Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.
A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering, while the North American team had eight people steering and one person rowing. So the North American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
The advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents and one assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.
It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment as well as extra vacation days for practicing and performance bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the North American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles and cancelled all capital investments in new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the senior executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced to India.
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
* "European Central Bank's Chief Economist: Beware the Rise of Populism; While ECB economist Peter Praet says governments should focus on growth, critics say it's a path towards an unlivable planet" (2014-12-31) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/31/european-central-banks-chief-economist-beware-rise-populism] [https://archive.today/WkpNA]
* "The Century Of The Self: Controlling The 'Dangerous Crowd' In An Age Of Mass Democracy" (2015-01-01) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-01/century-self-controlling-dangerous-crowd-age-mass-democracy] [https://archive.today/jnGnn]
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* "Ten Reasons Why the TPP Must Be Defeated" (2014-10-31) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/31/ten-reasons-why-tpp-must-be-defeated] [https://archive.today/abJ0X]
* "Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership" (2014-12-30) [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/business/obamas-trade-chief-undaunted-by-odds-pushes-for-trans-pacific-partnership.html?_r=1] [https://archive.today/2stOG]
* "Secretive Pro-Corporate Trade Deal Could Endanger Health, Labor, Environment" (2014-12-07) [http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/12/07/secretive-pro-corporate-trade-deal-endanger-health-labor-environment/] [https://archive.today/CO9pk]
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* "Buried Secrets: How an Israeli billionaire wrested control of one of Africa’s biggest prizes" (2013-07-08) [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/08/buried-secrets] [https://archive.today/HtcEe]
* "Damning video and contracts show BSGR was lying in Guinea mining scandal" (2013-04-19) [http://www.globalwitness.org/library/damning-video-and-contracts-show-bsgr-was-lying-guinea-mining-scandal] [https://archive.today/9bQ4Y]
* "Steinmetz Trust Said to Hire Lieberman, Ex-FBI Head on Probe" (2014-09-11) [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-11/steinmetz-trust-said-to-hire-lieberman-ex-fbi-chief-for-probe.html] [https://archive.today/Az0Yg]
* "LOUIS FREEH’S LATEST INVESTIGATION: BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN ACCUSED OF BRIBING AFRICAN GOVERNMENT" (2015-01-02) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/02/louis-freehs-latest-investigation-billionaire-businessman-accused-bribing-african-government/] [https://archive.today/V41cx], [begin excerpt]:
The case involves Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz, who controls BSGR, a holding company that in 2008 obtained a huge stake in a gigantic iron mine in the West African nation of Guinea. BSGR reportedly paid nothing for its rights to Simandou and two years later flipped 51% of its stake to a Brazilian mining giant for $2.5 billion – twice the size of Guinea’s annual budget. The deal was consummated two weeks before the death of Lansana Conté, a homicidal dictator who had ruled since a 1984 coup. An investigation by the current government of Guinea found that a shell company controlled by BSGR paid at least $2.4 million to Mamadie Touré, a wife of the former dictator, in return for her help in acquiring the rights to the mine for BSGR.[end excerpt]
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* "With limited oversight, the wealthy get a charitable tax break" (2015-01-02) [http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/With-limited-oversight-the-wealthy-get-a-5991094.php] [https://archive.today/aJGhj], [begin excerpt]:
In exchange for making the nation’s third-largest individual charitable contribution of 2014, Nicholas and Jill Woodman — founders of the high-tech GoPro camera company — will receive a huge tax deduction for their donation of 5.8 million shares of company stock to a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
But there’s no guarantee that one dollar of their October donation will ever be spent. Legally, it doesn’t have to be.
Private foundations are required to disburse 5 percent of their assets annually, but there’s no law requiring the Woodmans to ever move their money from the community foundation to a charitable organization. No law requires their heirs to do so, either. And community foundations aren’t required to disclose how much money from an individual account has been dispersed.
The funds were supposed to spur more philanthropy by making it easier to give. But charitable giving has remained around 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product for decades, Boston College Law School Professor Ray Madoff points out.
“It is like money-laundering,” Madoff said. “The problem is that with donor-advised funds, the deduction is no longer linked to the giving.”
[end excerpt]
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg directed $25 million of their donor-advised fund to the Centers for Disease Control’s efforts to combat Ebola. There is no requirement that the funds be disbursed.
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Petroleum Prices as a Global Weapon
* "Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation" (2008) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/perhaps-60-of-today-s-oil-price-is-pure-speculation/8878] [https://archive.today/SCttn]
* "Is Putin Creating a New World Order? Oil Price Blowback" (2015-01-06) [http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/06/oil-price-blowback-is-putin-creating-a-new-world-order/] [https://archive.today/UsVaD]
* "Did The Saudis And The US Collude In Dropping Oil Prices?" (2014-12-23) [http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Did-The-Saudis-And-The-US-Collude-In-Dropping-Oil-Prices.html] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150101224017/http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Did-The-Saudis-And-The-US-Collude-In-Dropping-Oil-Prices.html]
* "Despite Climate Warnings, New Export Rules Open Crude Oil Floodgates; The loosened regulations will reportedly 'please domestic oil drillers, foreign trade partners, and some Republicans' " (2014-12-31) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/31/despite-climate-warnings-new-export-rules-open-crude-oil-floodgates] [https://archive.today/uBLmQ]
* "Crude oil prices slide on last day of 2014" (2014-12-31) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Crude_oil_prices_slide_on_last_day_of_2014_999.html] [https://archive.today/y679M]
* "Venezuelan economy slips into recession" (2014-12-31) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Venezuelan_economy_slips_into_recession_999.html] [https://archive.today/mJFO5]
* "Russia takes more action to prop up ruble" (2014-12-31) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Russia_takes_more_action_to_prop_up_ruble_999.html] [https://archive.today/by7LO]
* "Iranian economy tied too hard to oil, commissioner says" (2014-10-21) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Iranian_economy_tied_too_hard_to_oil_commissioner_says_999.html] [https://archive.today/g49TD]
* "IHS: Islamic State financing war campaign with oil" (2014-10-21) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/IHS_Islamic_State_financing_war_campaign_with_oil_999.html] [https://archive.today/INOkn]
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* "Doubling Down on Dictatorship in the Middle East; The Arab Spring didn’t stop U.S. support for friendly despots" (2014-12-30) [http://otherwords.org/doubling-down-on-dictatorship-in-the-middle-east/] [http://www.peeep.us/cd8361fe], [begin excerpt]: In the tiny kingdom of Bahrain, meanwhile, the demonstrations for constitutional reform that began in February 2011 continue, despite the government’s attempts to silence the opposition with everything at its disposal — from bird shot to life imprisonment.
Throughout it all, Washington has treated Bahrain like a respectable ally.
Back in 2011, for instance, just days after Bahraini security forces fired live ammunition at protesters in Manama — an attack that killed four and wounded many others — President Barack Obama praised King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s “commitment to reform.” Neither did the White House object when it was notified in advance that 1,200 troops from Saudi Arabia would enter Bahrain to clear the protests in March 2011.
Since then, there’s been a steady drip of troubling news. A State Department report from 2013 acknowledged that Bahrain revokes the citizenship of prominent activists, arrests people on vague charges, tortures prisoners, and engages in “arbitrary deprivation of life.” (That’s bureaucratese for killing people.)
[end excerpt]
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* "Why Did Swiss Voters Reject Single-Payer Health Care?" (2014-12-31) [http://labornotes.org/blogs/2014/12/why-did-swiss-voters-reject-single-payer-health-care] [https://archive.today/ivgDp], [begin excerpt]:
Over the last decade corporate interests have hijacked the Swiss system, despite the strong government oversight.
This has led to increasing overall and out-of-pocket costs, making the Swiss system the third most expensive in the world.
To control costs, the Swiss government has promoted managed-care options and encouraged users to comparison-shop. So in addition to the classic comprehensive plans, insurers are offering narrower provider networks and higher deductibles and co-pays, and users are prompted to choose plans annually.
However, the Swiss appear not to like all these “new choices” after all, because in a 2012 referendum more than 70 percent voted against a dramatic expansion of managed care, proposed as a key mechanism to “control costs and improve the system.” And only a very small minority chooses to change plans every year.
Last, a growing number find health care unaffordable and are failing to pay their premiums.
Simply put, all the problems the Swiss are grappling with are rooted in the for-profit nature of the companies that participate in the system. As these companies become more financially successful, and hence more powerful, they get harder to tame—and their influence on the politicians who decide health policies grows stronger and stronger.
[end excerpt]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Haiti
* "Evans Paul: Archetypal Scheming Politician Nominated as New PM" (2014-12-31) [http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume8-25/Archetypal%20Scheming.asp] [https://archive.today/PnE9t]
* "WikiLeaked Diplomatic Cables Reveal: Rudy Hériveaux is a “Close Contact” of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti" (2014-12-17)
part 1 [http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume8-23/WikiLeaked%20Diplomatic%20Cables%20Reveal.asp] [https://archive.today/dmeNm],
part 2 [http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume8-24/Rudy%20Hériveaux%20is%20a%20“Close%20Contact”.asp] [https://archive.today/ABv6Y],
part 3 [http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume8-25/Rudy%20Hériveaux%20is%20a.asp] [https://archive.today/DJu83]
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. SOA is a military training and spy recruitment center at Fort Benning in the USA whose graduates enforce free-market fascism upon returning to their home countries...
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Monopolist Media has practically closed all its venues to the Resistance in and outside Honduras, (including newspapers like Tiempo, which in the past allowed for Resistance voices to be published, one example is the case of Honduras writer Roberto Quesada who after 20 years of publishing for this newspaper was currently censored, unless he stopped “attacking” “El gobierno de Juan Orlando Hernandez”.
The Media campaign of the fascist monoplists is determined to give the impression that in Honduras all is good, that we are now back to a “democracy” specially after the last elections (The fraud elections). The Outside forces that support Juan Orlando Hernandez like the Pentagon and South Commander are all behind the media left blockade, we understand that the US is now on its journey to reclaim its “backyard” in Latin America, after so many years of “neglect” because the US was too busy fighting its wars abroad. At the US media level, we hardly hear or read anything about Honduras. So we are faced with the huge challenge to counter-arrest the lies of the right's media and find creative ways to tell people the truth about what really is going in Honduras.
A message from DR. JUAN ALMENDARESRES
TEGUCIGALPA 1 DE ENERO 2015.
EMBRACE THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
FRATERNAL GREETINGS AND SOLIDARITY TO ALL JOURNALISTS AND ALL MEN AND WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND MARTYRS OF COMMUNICATION.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE IS TO RECOGNIZE IN EACH OF YOU A PARTNER IN SOLIDARITY WITH JOURNALIST WHO FIGHT FOR JUST CAUSES THROUGH SOLID AND THOUGHTFUL HUMAN AND WORLDWIDE CONTENT. TODAY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, WE NEED TO CONTINUE CHIESELING WORDS IN THE HEART OF THE PEOPLE EVEN IF THE POWERFUL SYSTEM CRUSHES THEM, SINCE SOONER OR LATER THEY WILL OPEN EARS AND THE WALLS THAT RETAIN OUR FREEDOM WILL BE OVERTHROWN. WORKERS OF THE WORD ARE DANGEROUS FOR THE HEGEMONIC SYSTEM WHEN THEY DEFEND THE TRUTH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE.
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* "Violent Eviction of the Campesino Group “Camino al Futuro” - National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC)" (2015-01-01) [http://hondurasresists.blogspot.de/2015/01/violent-eviction-of-campesino-group.html] [https://archive.today/9BIbl]
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An example of the broader USA censorship of Honduras:
A Northbay MDS researcher, originating in California using an Opera web browser with all cookies and search history erased, did a websearch using Google.com, January 5th at 1145 AM (PST), for the query "Honduran Civil Society Groups Call for the Resignation of President One Year into Term" (including quotations), with the response being "No results found". An archived websearch for the same query sent at the same time, using a different IP address in the EU, retrieved the article at the top of the list of search results [https://archive.today/cr2ws]. Another archived search result made on a server elsewhere in the USA retrieved only the news article's source site, but not the article itself [http://www.peeep.us/9a9cd7de]. Your own websearch results may vary, but all IT infrastructure (computers and phones) is a monitored resource for security agencies, so, if you have a history of searching for information deemed damaging to the interest of the USA, domestic security agencies can, and will, manipulate your search results. [https://www.google.com/search?q="Honduran+Civil+Society+Groups+Call+for+the+Resignation+of+President+One+Year+into+Term"]---
* "U.S. should rethink support for Honduras" (2015-01-02) [http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Frank-U-S-should-rethink-support-for-Honduras-5990919.php] [https://archive.today/FU8LB], [begin excerpt]:
It's well-established that the military coup that deposed democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009 threw out the rule of law and plunged the country into abyss of violence, poverty and repression. Perhaps most famously, the coup opened the door to spectacular corruption among police, who are reportedly interlaced with drug traffickers, organized crime and gangs.
Rather than clean up the police, the successive governments of Presidents Porfirio Lobo and now Juan Orlando Hernández have sent in the military. Lobo first dispatched soldiers in 2011 and '12 to police residential neighborhoods and land-rights activists, even though the Honduran constitution explicitly bars the military from engaging in domestic policing.
For the first time in the 16-year history of the position, the country's president has just named an active-duty general from the Armed Forces, Julián Pacheco Tinoco, to be the country's new Minister of Security, with full jurisdiction over the domestic police. Pacheco's ascendance is just the latest in a dangerous militarization of post-coup Honduras.
This past Independence Day, Sept. 15, TV stations broadcast a stadium full of happy parents and little children cheering as unit after unit of the armed forces marched by in lockstep. The newspapers ran big photo spreads of glowing children and baton-twirlers parading in celebration of the military police - who were themselves clad all in black, with rifles crossed grimly across their chests and balaclavas hiding their faces. There's even an alarming new government program designed explicitly to indoctrinate children as young as five into the military, called "Guardians of the Homeland."
Yet in the past two years, the Honduran military and its new police have committed widespread human rights abuses with near-complete impunity. Amnesty International reports that in July 2013, the Honduran Army shot and killed Tomás García, an indigenous activist who was peacefully protesting a hydroelectric dam; and on May 8, the new military police arrested and brutally beat José Guadalupe Ruelas, the country's leading independent advocate for children. On Nov. 22, a young woman reported to police that while she was waiting for her bus after work near San Pedro Sula, she was kidnapped and raped by eight members of the military police. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who studied with the Jesuits in Honduras in 1980 and `81, told the Senate in June: "When I was there it was a military dictatorship. It was a very brutal place....But it's worse now than then."
[end excerpt]
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* School of the Americas Graduates on the Forefront of Repression
Honduras - " 'Drug War' Militarization Continues while U.S. Funded & Trained 'Special Forces' Implicated in Drug-Trafficking" [http://www.soaw.org/about-us/equipo-sur/263-stories-from-honduras/4275-tigres] [https://archive.today/e1PVU], [begin excerpt]:
50 members of the new, elite, US funded, trained, and vetted special forces TIGRES unit in Honduras have been suspended after 8 TIGRES officers and 14 TIGRES agents stole $1.3 million during a drug trafficking operation. The TIGRES are a capstone of Honduras' US-backed President's efforts to dramatically militarize the police. With much fanfare, they underwent special training by the US Special Forces Group 7 and Colombia's Jungle School with the US Ambassador personally attending their graduation. This massive example of corruption, with high ranking officers stealing and distributing money amongst themselves just five months after their US training, shows the complete failure of US "vetting" to justify US military/police training and funding to Honduras' corrupt and repressive regime. Given that militarization and human rights abuses continue unabated, it is time the US cut all military/police aid to Honduras.It was also announced that 2-time SOA graduate General Julian Pacheco will become Honduras' new Secretary of Security, marking further military control as it is the first-time a military general has occupied this position. Source [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/16/us-honduras-security-idUSKBN0JU09620141216?irpc=932] [https://archive.today/tFgnO].
Notably, General Pacheco's coursework at the SOA included a course on Psychological Operations. Former Honduran President Mel Zelaya ? who was ousted in the 2009 SOA-graduate led coup ? summed up the militarization occurring today in Honduras in a recent interview: "Honduras is a military base, it is the United States who loans us Hondurans some territory to live; the United States dominates absolutely everything... economic policy is through international institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and the Military Police are the security policy through the Pentagon and Southern Command."
[end excerpt]
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Former Honduran President Mel Zelaya – who was ousted in the 2009 SOA-graduate led coup – sums up what is occurring in Honduras today as part of a U.S. backed regional phenomenon to ensure economic control in a recent interview: “In Latin America, because of the all the social movements that have appeared demanding rights in the face of exclusion and poverty, the hegemonic groups of world power - especially those that operate in Washington - have installed what we can call a conservative restauration. It is a plan to return all of our societies (in Latin America) to submission, through infiltration. Militarization is taking over all the areas it controlled in the 80s, in the era of the national security doctrine... It was the era of the disappeared, the era of wars, of the cold war, and it was terrible for Latin America. Now, it is returning, privatizing all the public companies, selling off pieces of countries, new laws, and the multi-nationalization of economic power is invading our region... Honduras is a military base, it is the United States who loans us Hondurans some territory to live; the United States dominates absolutely everything and since the coup d'etat they were given the economy and security policy. The economic policy is through international institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Military Police are the security policy through the Pentagon and Southern Command. Listen, in Honduras civil society has disappeared, companies don't say anything, the church doesn't say anything, they are restricted or are partners in the destruction and disarticulation of our society.” Translation, the original full interview in spanish is available here: [http://www.ellibertador.hn/?q=article/manuel-zelaya-honduras-es-una-base-militar-de-estados-unidos] [https://archive.today/WvSex]
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* The 'Unidad Nacional de Apoyo Fiscal' (UNAF) took over the case of the university student Kevin Joshua Solarzano Hernandez, accused of being involved in the murder of public prosecutor Edwin Geovanny Eguiguren. Source in Spanish [http://www.tiempo.hn/nación/item/13593-caso-de-kevin-lo-manejará-la-unidad-de-apoyo-fiscal] [https://archive.today/vqrpB]
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* The employees of the Autonomous National Aqueduct and Sewage Service (SANAA) denounces that they found their offices militarized yesterday after the announcement of the suspension of 500 workers. Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-oficinas-del-sanaa-amanecieron.html] [https://archive.today/B9JmH], (2) [http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/781649-331/polic%C3%ADas-resguardan-instalaciones-del-sanaa] [https://archive.today/yqibU]
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* Since the announcement some days ago that San Pedro Sula will double its toll fee, the protests haven't ceased. But the protesters have been met with police aggression. A teacher has even been detained by the police for protesting. Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-denuncia-publica-agresion-de.html] [https://archive.today/E9eA9], (2) [http://radioprogresohn.net/index.php/comunicaciones/noticias/item/1536-detienen-a-profesor-por-protestar-contra-aumento-al-peaje-en-san-pedro-sula] [https://archive.today/ISFLW]
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* According to FOSDEH, a difficult macroeconomic situation is awaiting Honduras this year.
Nevertheless, it also succeeded to place $250 million in bonds to to help pay down its debt to private energy providers. Source in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/fosdeh-honduras-tendra-una-situacion.html] [https://archive.today/fl0sV], source in English
[http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.ch/2015/01/honduran-bond-sale.html] [https://archive.today/pKQ6L]
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* The director of the Honduran Mining Institute (Inhgeomin), Agapito Rodriguez, declared 2015 as a great year for mining. Apparently 31 new companies are about to mine in Honduras! And he even goes on that he has 500 more requests of companies in his office...scary. Source in Spanish [http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/781996-331/liberadas-unas-250-mil-hectáreas-para-inversión] [https://archive.today/hLO1L]
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* Territories Free of Mining on the Rise in Honduras:"Residents of at least seven municipalities in different parts of the country voted against mining in open town hall assemblies (*cabildos abiertos*) over the past year and a half. At least 10 municipalities in Honduras have now been declared territories free of mining." Source: [https://www.beaconreader.com/sandra-cuffe/territories-free-of-mining-on-the-rise-in-honduras] [https://archive.today/8SBJH]
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* OFRANEH denounces that the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Cuyamel river violates the right to prior consultation of the Garifuna community. Source in Spanish [http://conexihon.hn/site/noticia/derechos-humanos/pueblos-indigenas/represa-en-el-río-cuyamel-violenta-el-derecho-de-consulta] [https://archive.today/rugFs]
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* Honduras Resistance facing the Dictatorship -
The Libre Party and the National Resistance Front have called for a political action for this January 27th in Tegucigalpa to begin a series of actions against the Dictatorship of the National Party headed by Juan Orlando Hernandez. The demonstrators are asking for the immediate resignation of the Honduran president.
Source: "Honduran Civil Society Groups Call for the Resignation of President One Year into Term" (2015-01-05) [http://news.kgnu.org/2015/01/honduran-civil-society-groups-call-for-the-resignation-of-president-one-year-into-term/] [https://archive.today/QZl9S]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Guatemala
The Mayan People within Guatemala are organizing against fascism in Guatemala, an ideology which, allied with the USA, has waged war against their nation throughout the 20th century.
* "Mayan People’s Council Organizes National Strike in Guatemala" (2014-06-29) [http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/4914-mayan-peoples-council-organizes-national-strike-in-guatemala] [https://archive.today/wiabt]
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* "How Reagan Promoted Genocide" [https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/15/how-reagan-promoted-genocide-3/] [https://archive.today/26ZeS], [begin excerpt]: Reagan’s White House was reaching out to Israel in a scheme to circumvent congressional restrictions on military equipment for the Guatemalan military. Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s national security team agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but their “civilian support mechanisms,” according to a newly disclosed document from the National Archives. Over the next several years, the military assistance from the Reagan administration helped the Guatemalan army do just that, engaging in the slaughter of some 100,000 people, including what a truth commission deemed genocide against the Mayan Indians in the northern highlands. [end excerpt]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Colombia
* "Families of Murdered Colombians Lose U.S. Lawsuit Against Occidental Petroleum" (2014-12-15) [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=16001] [https://archive.today/C616B]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: European Union (EU)
* "A New Left in Europe: Austerity Gives Rise to New Political Parties. Revolt against imposition of austerity measures engenders a Keynesian outlook" (2015-01-02) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/02/new-left-europe-austerity-gves-rise-new-political-parties] [https://archive.today/TIAuV]
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* "Belgium: The street rumbles again" (2015-01-01) [http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos336/ainfos62336.html] [https://archive.today/5M1jc], [begin excerpt]:
Facing right-handed and repressive government and a socialist-liberal opposition, the Belgian social movement has regained the street at the end of the year. Spontaneous strikes in Walloon railway in October, large national demonstration of the three major Belgian unions in November, the great winter strikes in December... The workers and Belgian workers rumble more.
The working people of our country are beginning to glimpse the future that they reserve: impoverishment, work to the gates of death, the collapse of organized social solidarity, policies and arbitrary arrests, frieze of horses and batons around the "elected" organs, camps for foreigners and all unwanted, proto-fascist state in the head... These same workers and those workers then find their natural defenses; strikes and spontaneous demonstrations, confrontation with the militia of the capital, the excess of union hierarchies, solidarity and mutual aid.
[end excerpt]
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* "Educated youth: Cash for the facs, not for cops" (2015-01-01) machine-translation from French [http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos30528.html] [https://archive.today/kywJD], [begin excerpt]:
Rémi Fraisse, killed by a grenade thrown by the police, was himself a student at Toulouse. In high schools and universities, the resistance is organized and protest police violence aggregates with broader claims. On 6 November, more than twenty high schools are blocked and 2000 students appear. The following week, several high schools are blocked at Saint-Denis and riots broke out in the city center. The movement remains scattered and uncoordinated, but it at least shows that the police can not kill in general indifference.
The various demonstrations against police violence were strongly repressed, often banned, challenging the right to move and to demonstrate. The protestors were gassed, beaten, arrested, sometimes preemptively upstream of the start of the demonstrations, even when peaceful. The forces multiply provocations, launched the demonstrators Rémi Fraisse "had deserved", "1-0"...
[end excerpt]
Original version 2014-12-09 [http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Jeunesse-scolarisee-Du-fric-pour] [https://archive.today/WlxgL].
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Ukriane
* "Ukraine in ‘full-blown financial crisis’ – National Bank head" (2014-12-30) [http://rt.com/business/218735-ukraine-crisis-central-bank/] [https://archive.today/Z4qIW]
* "Where has all Ukraine's gold gone?" (2014-11-20) [http://rt.com/business/207347-ukraine-gold-reserves-gone/] [https://archive.today/TRivg]
* "Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: 'There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault' " (2014-11-18) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-18/ukraine-admits-its-gold-gone] [https://archive.today/qNfZt]
* "The Latest Heist: US Quietly Snatches the Ukraine’s Gold Reserves" (2014-03-21) [http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/03/21/the-latest-heist-us-quietly-snatches-the-ukraines-gold-reserves/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140323101836/http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/03/21/the-latest-heist-us-quietly-snatches-the-ukraines-gold-reserves/]
* "Ukraine’s Gold Reserves Secretely Flown Out and Confiscated by the New York Federal Reserve?" (2014-03-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraines-gold-reserves-secretely-flown-out-and-confiscated-by-the-new-york-federal-reserve/5373446] [https://archive.today/juCUC]
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* " ‘Premier of war’: Czech president says Yatsenyuk not seeking peaceful solution for E. Ukraine" (2015-01-02) [http://rt.com/news/219595-ukraine-prime-minister-war/] [https://archive.today/X1Gjn], [begin excerpt]:
Czech President Milos Zeman has slammed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, calling him “a prime minister of war” because he is unwilling to peacefully solve the civil conflict in the country.
According to Zeman, the current policy of Kiev authorities has two “faces.” The first is the “face” of the country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, who “may be a man of peace.”
The second “face” is that of PM Yatsenyuk, who has an uncompromising position toward self-defense forces in Eastern Ukraine.
Zeman said he doesn’t’ believe that the February coup, during which then-President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed from power, was a democratic revolution at all.
"Maidan was not a democratic revolution, and I believe that Ukraine is in a state of civil war,” Zeman said, responding to what he described as "poorly informed people" who compared Maidan with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Photo showing Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk
---
* "Ukrainians are suffering from US 'ideological crusade' against Russia" (2015-01-01) [http://rt.com/news/219211-stone-ukraine-us-policy/] [https://archive.today/ekee7]
* "Ukrainian Nazis Pay Private Military Company Academi (formerly Blackwater) for Training, Russian Report" (2015-01-03) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukrainian-nazis-pay-private-military-company-academi-formerly-blackwater-for-training-russian-report/5422667] [https://archive.today/dtWhO]
* "The UN Anti-Nazi Resolution, the Prague Declaration and the History of 'US Accommodation with Nazism'; UN Anti-Nazi Resolution Supported by Israel and Syria, Opposed by the U.S., Canada and Ukraine" (2015-01-04) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-un-anti-nazi-resolution-the-prague-declaration-and-the-history-of-us-accommodation-with-nazism/5422783] [https://archive.today/7pDpC], [begin excerpt]:
The Syrian Arab Republic, together with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia are among the many co-sponsors of this UN Anti-Nazi Resolution, adopted by a majority vote of 133 by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2014. There were 51 abstentions. Only 4 nations opposed this resolution: the United States, Ukraine, Palau and Canada.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt hated the Nazis, and to provide assistance to the anti-nazi struggle in Europe, he often had to circumvent highly placed pro-nazi and anti-semitic State Department officials, who not too covertly wanted Hitler to win World War II and destroy Soviet communism. Roosevelt’s great skill succeeded in arranging for U.S. Lend-Lease policies to aid the anti-nazi struggles of the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and it was his original, fierce determination to put on trial for treason the major U.S. corporations which he knew were engaging in business with the Nazis throughout World War II.
FDR died early in his fourth term as President, and subsequent U.S. Presidents did not suffer such anguish colluding with Nazis or nazi collaborators throughout the entire Cold War, as this October 27, 2014 New York Times article reports. Indeed, today, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs very recently supervised and micromanaged the destabilization and overthrow of Ukraine’s anti-nazi President, Viktor Yanukovich, and installed a new Ukranian government permeated with neo-nazis and nazi sympathizers.
Although throughout the past decade, the United States had consistently opposed the anti-nazi resolution, this year, Ukraine, though previously abstaining, for the first time actually opposed the anti-nazi resolution, an ominous development, as on December 14, 2014 the U.S. Congress approved sending lethal weapons to Kiev, including anti-tank weapons, ammunition and troop-operated surveillance drones, anti-mortar radar systems, etc. as part of $350 million worth of weapons, raising the terrifying spectre that the U.S. is actually militarily supporting a pro-nazi resurgence in Ukraine.
[end excerpt]
Read the entire UN resolution at the link.
---
* "Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, March 2014" [http://softpanorama.biz/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Fifth_column/Color_revolutions/Euromaydan/Bulletin/euromaydan14_03.shtml] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103023519/http://softpanorama.biz/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Fifth_column/Color_revolutions/Euromaydan/Bulletin/euromaydan14_03.shtml]
---
* "Catastrophe at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant?" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/catastrophe-at-ukraines-zaporozhye-nuclear-power-plant/5422212] [https://archive.today/lPenm]
* "Ukraine signs Westinghouse nuclear fuel deal" (2014-12-30) [http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Ukraine_signs_Westinghouse_nuclear_fuel_deal_999.html] [https://archive.today/VC2jv]
* "Russia Slams Kiev for Switching to US Supplies of Nuclear Fuel" (2014-12-30) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20141230/1016409864.html] [https://archive.today/YEi03]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: State of Israel, Occupied Territories, & Trans-National Operations
The USA Government claims to be immune to the International Crimes Court (ICC), as does it's strategic partners...
* "US Army report calls for ‘military support’ of Israeli energy grab" (2015-01-01) [http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-army-report-calls-military-support-israeli-energy-grab-57185571] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150106052344/http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-army-report-calls-military-support-israeli-energy-grab-57185571], read the USA Military Report here [https://archive.today/gCNww], or in its original format (.pdf file) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150106055135/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1243.pdf]
* "Israel 'won't let its soldiers be dragged to the ICC': PM" (2015-01-04) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_wont_let_its_soldiers_be_dragged_to_the_ICC_PM_999.html] [https://archive.today/yVCqD]
* "What Would Happen If the Int’l Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu?" (2015-01-02) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/02/what-would-happen-if-intl-criminal-court-indicted-israels-netanyahu] [https://archive.today/fbgRv]
* "Israel to ask US Congress to halt aid to Palestinian Authority: Israel was weighing its options Sunday for further punishing the Palestinians after freezing millions in tax revenues as a first response to their bid to join the International Criminal Court" (2015-01-05) [http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/56722-150105-israel-to-ask-us-congress-to-halt-aid-to-palestinian-authority] [https://archive.today/vpTi8]
* "Israeli Lawmaker: If UN Recognizes A Palestinian State, Israel Will Attack Within A Year" (2014-12-30) [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/30/israeli-lawmaker-if-un-recognizes-a-palestinian-state-israel-will-attack-within-a-year/] [https://archive.today/Pn5O4]
* "Israeli settlers attack US consulate convoy in the West Bank (Updated)" (2015-01-02) [http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/israeli-settlers-consulate] [https://archive.today/WlUWi]
* "Congress OKs watered-down bill on US-Israel ties" (2014-12-03) [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/82ddb77ae19f4aa6b1e6ff6bf47f8faf/congress-oks-watered-down-bill-us-israel-ties] [https://archive.today/mhCR9]
* "State Department's response to discrimination by Israel is broken, literally" (2014-12-09) [http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/226347-state-departments-response-to-discrimination-by-israel-is] [https://archive.today/HKjeJ]
* "U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership: Who was Congress serving?" (2014-12-17) [http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/world/2014/12/17/U-S-Israel-Strategic-Partnership-Who-was-Congress-serving-.html] [https://archive.today/jAQH3]
* "Obama Signs Law Strengthening U.S.-Israel Alliance Expands Authority for U.S. Weapons Stockpiles in Israel" (2014-12-21) [http://forward.com/articles/211358/obama-signs-law-strengthening-us-israel-alliance/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150104041847/http://forward.com/articles/211358/obama-signs-law-strengthening-us-israel-alliance/]
ISLAMO-FASCISM
The Islamic State (IS) is a creation of the alliance of the USA, Saudi Arabia and State of Israel to destabilize competing governments allied with the Eurasian Union.
* "IS claims killing of Iranian military adviser in Iraq" (2014-12-29) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/IS_claims_killing_of_Iranian_military_adviser_in_Iraq_999.html] [https://archive.today/z6geh]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of China (RoC)
* "Taiwan kicks off plan to build its own submarines" (2014-12-29) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Taiwan_kicks_off_plan_to_build_its_own_submarines_999.html] [https://archive.today/HTC7j]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Korea (RoK)
A fascist dictatorship installed under the USA State Department, currently under the regime of the original dictator's daughter, which outlaws political dissent, tortures activists, and enforces artificial famine and malnutrition.
* "Why we should care about the dissolution of the UPP in South Korea" (2014-12-29) [http://indercomar.com/2014/12/why-we-should-care-about-the-dissolution-of-the-upp-in-south-korea/] [https://archive.today/exVUy]
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* "The islands of abuse: Inside South Korea's slave farms for the disabled" (2015-01-02) [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-islands-of-abuse-inside-south-koreas-slave-farms-for-the-disabled-9954527.html] [https://archive.today/AlGES]
* " 'A living hell' for slaves on remote South Korean islands" (2015-01-01) [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/892b62b9c4284959a3e8b7a057427f0f/living-hell-slaves-remote-south-korean-islands] [https://archive.today/EO3L0]
* " 'Salt Farm Slaves' Scandal Shocks Korea" (2014-03-20) [http://www.koreabang.com/2014/stories/salt-farm-slaves-scandal-shocks-korea.html] [https://archive.today/wD0Xb]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of the Philippines
* "Filipinos are NOT any better than North Koreans" (2011) [http://antipinoy.com/filipinos-are-not-any-better-than-north-koreans/] [https://archive.today/J0Bmn]
* "Tribals opposing big mining killed by Aquino security forces – NDFP" (2013-08-07) [http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20130807_tribals-opposing-big-mining-killed-by-aquino-security-forces-ndfp] [https://archive.today/MQ3IC]
* Observations from "Philippines Shocking History" [https://www.facebook.com/PhilippinesShockingHistory]:
Philippines Where students pay more money than they will earn afterwards..
Where even doctors, lawyers and engineers are unemployed..
Where call-center employees earn more money than teachers and nurses, where doctors study to become nurses for employment abroad
The Condition of ordinary filipino prisoners:
Updates on the BOLIVARIAN ALTERNATIVE (ALBA) and affiliated organization constituting a political union for the People of the Americas.
=== * === * ===
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
* "Maduro Confirms Venezuelan Economy in Recession, Announces 'Recovery Plan' for 2015" (2014-12-31) [http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11122] [https://archive.today/ylMic]
* "Against Judicial Attacks, International Support for Venezuela’s Communes" (2014-12-22) [http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11103] [https://archive.today/iHQ7N]
=== * === * ===
Republic of Cuba
* "The Cuban Revolution: The Current Economic Reforms" (201-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cuban-revolution-the-current-economic-reforms/5422826] [https://archive.today/6OXz5]
* "An Anarchist Critique Of The Cuban 'Revolution' ", 2014-12-29 by Dave, a middle-class Euro-American anarchist in Seattle [http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2014/12/an-anarchist-critique-of-cuban.html] [https://archive.today/XbVA6]
* Speech by President Raul Castro, December 20th, 2014 [http://www.periodico26.cu/index.php/en/principal-es-2/25297-the-unwavering-confidence-in-victory-which-fidel-instilled-in-us-will-continue-to-guide-our-people] [https://archive.today/PmpFa], [begin excerpt]:
There has also been no lack of open exhortations abroad to expedite privatization, including of the main production and service sectors, which would amount to laying down the flags of socialism in Cuba.
It seems that the latter have not bothered to read the Guidelines, which clearly express and I quote, "The economic system which will prevail in Cuba will continue to be based on the people's socialist ownership of the fundamental means of production, governed by the socialist principle of distribution, from each according to his/her capacity to each according to his/her contribution", end of quote.
Closely associated with the model update is the process of gradual, I repeat, gradual decentralization of authority from the ministries to enterprises. In favor of the greater autonomy of socialist state enterprises, among other measures, their social objective was expanded and made more flexible, government contracts were defined and authority was granted for the marketing of surplus production. In addition, the elimination of administrative limitations on the payment of salaries linked to production was mandated.
It is no secret to anyone that, in our social system, unions defend the rights of workers, and to do so effectively must be the first in safeguarding not only the interests of a given collective of workers, but also the interests of the entire working class, which are, in essence, those of the entire nation. We cannot leave any opening for the development or strengthening of self-interest or greed among our workers.
[end excerpt]
* "The Cuban Epic" (2014-01-04) [http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1064.php] [https://archive.today/44Upk], [begin excerpt]:
In Cuba the basic needs of the population are covered. All families have access to food, education and health. The shortage of provisions or the lack of variety in articles of consumption do not include those goods that are indispensable for guaranteeing that coverage.
Cuba has an excellent level of school achievement. A recent study by the World Bank considers that its educational system maintains parameters of professional training in many respects similar to those of Finland, Singapore or Canada (Lamrani, 2014).
And it has achieved a life expectancy index that exceeds by five years that of the rest of the continent, and lower mortality rates in all age groups. It has the lowest average rate of malnutrition in Latin America and one of the highest percentages of homes connected to potable water systems (Navarro, 2014).
Furthermore, the country maintains the highest index of food security in the region and a very low poverty level (4%) compared with the average in Latin America (35%) (Vandepitte, 2011). The United Nations Development Program estimates that Cuba is one of the three countries in Latin America that qualifies as having a high level of development (UNDP, 2014).Cuba brought its methods in teaching literacy, in preventive medicine and military preparation to many countries in Latin America and Africa. This legacy was shared in particular with Angola and Nicaragua in the 1970s and ’80s, with Haiti (following the earthquake) and currently with Venezuela (exchange of teachers for oil) or Bolivia (doctors and surgeons with sophisticated skills).
Further evidence of Cuba's specialization in relief and solidarity actions is the recent sending of a medical team to Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic. No less than the New York Times dedicated a highly favourable editorial to this action, contrasting the risks assumed by those professionals with the U.S. reluctance to send its own missions. More shocking is the refusal of the insurance companies to cover the financing of these operations (New York Times, 2014).
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
Republic of Nicargua
* "IMF team gives Nicaragua good marks", from Nicaragua News Bulletin (2014-05-20) [http://www.nicanet.org]: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) team completed its eight day mission in Nicaragua on May 14 with the group’s chief Przemek Gajdeczka noting that, “In the last few years the economy of Nicaragua has grown at relatively high rates while at the same time strengthening macroeconomic stability. In 2013, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.6% and inflation for the year was 5.7%. In spite of a slowing in tax revenues, public sector deficit was consolidated in line with the budget and public debt has continued to decline.” The IMF predicted a growth of 4.3% for the current year. Gajdeczka said that Nicaragua does not currently have any internal threats but there could be external problems if there were to be a slowdown in the global economy or changes in the availability of international financing. IMF recommendations included “strengthening public finances, modernizing the functioning of the financial system, [and] advancing efforts to change the matrix of electricity generation.” At the same time, the recent changes made to the social security were praised as having strengthened the system.
Central Bank president Ovidio Reyes said that, “It was a positive evaluation.” He added that the de-dolarization of the economy, which had been floated by the government in the days before the IMF visit, had been postponed. “We cannot go against the current,” he said, adding that many contracts are fixed in dollars and the dollar circulates freely in the Nicaraguan economy. “It is a reality that we live with the two currencies [córdobas and dollars],” he stated.
Arturo Cruz Sequeira, former ambassador to the United States and a professor at the INCAE business school, said that the Ortega government has been better at carrying out free market macroeconomic policies with discipline and clear objectives than the Liberal party governments that preceded him. Cruz called it “responsible populism” and said that Ortega “has used the resources from Venezuela to resolve multiple immediate needs of the country and at the same time, within the formal budget, he has handled the economy with great responsibility, within the IMF program,” and has achieved “an equilibrium, satisfying the immediate needs of the people without risking the macroeconomic future.” (Informe Pastran, May 14; La Prensa, May 14)
US. (Informe Pastran, May 15, 16; Radio La Primerisima, May 15)
Updates on the EURASIA UNION (EEU), & the SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION (SCO), and allies
* "The Chinese are Coming: Beijing in the Balkans and Eastern Europe" (2015-01-04) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-chinese-are-coming-beijing-in-the-balkans/5422798] [https://archive.today/YLCfI]
=== * === * ===
Federation of Russia
* "The Functioning of the Russian Central Bank. The Ruble and the US Dollar" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-functioning-of-the-russian-central-bank-the-ruble-and-the-us-dollar/5422850] [https://archive.today/tbO9J], an article by the Russian Federation State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, explaining how foreign agencies (notably the IMF bank based at Washington, D.C.) dominate the private Central Bank of Russia through which the State Government buys loans from private financial entities, an arrangement which cedes sovereign power to foreign bureaucrats.
* "Russia's SWIFT Settlement Alternative" [http://www.batr.org/negotium/123114.html] [https://archive.today/trU8C]
* The following image is useful in showing the current struggle against USA financial domination over the Federation of Russia through the private Central Bank.
Top Left is the political leader of the CCCP 2.0 movement for economic sovereignty and a socialist Eurasian Union, representing diverse organizations including the Orthodox Church of Russia, Trade Unions, and deputies and ministers in all levels of civil government and social institutions.
Bottom Right is a "Russian" Billionaire Oligarch allied with the USA since the 1990s, when Russia's government was replaced in a coup, and publicly owned infrastructure worth trillions was privatised under the direction of the "Harvard Boys" and sold to agents of foreign clandestine operatives at 1% or less of its worth. This concentration of economic power is protected by agencies like the IMF.
In between are the political and financial actors between two opposing forces for the future of Eurasia!
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* "U.S. War Against Russia Is Now Against Hungary Too" (2014-12-26) [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40564.htm] [https://archive.today/aWYxo]
=== * === * ===
Syrian Arab Republic
* Syria: Bashar Al Assad’s Secular Government’s Battle against ISIS Protects Pluralism, says Catholic World Report. "ISIS, Assad, and What the West is Missing About Syria December 15, 2014 Syria, once home to a unique, multireligious society, is being destroyed. The West is turning a blind eye to the real cause of the tragedy" (2014-12-15) [http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3570/ISIS_Assad_and_What_the_West_is_Missing_About_Syria.aspx?refresh=1] [https://archive.today/QFW3E]
* "OUR FULL INTERVIEW WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD" (2014-11-28) [http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Our-Interview-with-Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-661984] [https://archive.today/R6ILs]
---
* "On the class nature of the Rojava Revolution, Some concrete examples of how the Rojava revolution is anticapitalist" [http://nicolasphebus.tumblr.com/post/106580014578/some-concrete-examples-of-how-the-rojava] [https://archive.today/R4aTs]:
David Graeber, the anarchist anthropologist, just came back from an observation mission
with an Anglo-American delegation to the Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria. He expressed
a lot of enthusiasm for the revolution and was highly critical of leftists and anarchists
who did not want to engage with the Kurdish liberation movement, most notably the PKK, on
the ground that it is not pure enough. He was of course attacked by the ultraleft and was
asked for evidences that the Rojava revolution is indeed anticapitalist. Here's his answer.
-- the economy of Rojava in general and Cizire especially was of an artificially dependent agrarian economy which suppled wheat, cotton, but also petroleum to be processed elsewhere in the country (there were no mills or refineries in Cizire itself.) Roughly half of land and other resources were state owned but run effectively as private fiefdoms by various government officials or members of their family; otherwise there was a bazaar economy supplying basic needs, much of it made up of black market or smuggled goods. After the revolution the bourgeoisie almost universally fled, and Baathist-owned land and buildings were taken under public control and distributed either to local communes, which exist on each neighbourhood level, and are organised on directly democratic lines, or to municipalities governed by delegates chosen by the communes. These are allocated to various projects, ranging from Academies for popular education, to cooperatives. There have also been efforts to create publicly run mills, refineries, dairy processing plants, and the like to process raw materials that had previously had to be sent off to facilities in other parts of Syria.
-- the academy system is a key part of the economic strategy, offering 6 week intensive courses in various forms of expertise that had previously been monopolised by the Baathist, which was very much a rule-by-experts style of administration. There is a conscious strategy of deprofessionalization of knowledge to prevent the emergence of new technocratic classes. Economic academies not only train in technical knowledge but emphasise cooperative management and aim to disseminate such skills to as much of the population as possible.
[end excerpt]
* "No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper" (2014-12-29) [http://www.libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014] [https://archive.today/3j1l1].
=== * === * ===
China
* "China closer to dream of rejuvenation" (2015-01-05)
pg.1 [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150105_1211583.htm] [https://archive.today/O1Ept],
pg. 2 [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150105_1211583_1.htm] [https://archive.today/XmWu1], [begin excerpt]:
Since the "eight-point" guideline was introduced in late 2012, government spending has dramatically dropped and thrifty life and work styles are becoming popular.
A series of economic reforms has been made by the new leadership to activate the economic market and improve economic endogenous force.
More than 700 administrative approval and property registration procedures have been canceled or streamlined, covering both private and state-run enterprises.
Xi explained the "New Normal" of the Chinese economy to the world as one where the economy goes from high-speed growth to medium and high-speed growth with a continuously optimized economic structure, and from factors and investment-driven to innovation-driven.
Signs of the "New Normal" have emerged. In the first half of 2014, growth rate of the services sector surpassed that of the manufacturing industry, a significant change in structural adjustment and transformation.
[end excerpt]
* "China is still the main engine of world economy" (2015-01-05) [http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0105/c98649-8831573.html] [https://archive.today/GB6yc]
* "China is a big winner in state governance" (2015-01-05) [http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0105/c98649-8831407.html] [https://archive.today/U27rb], [begin excerpt]: In his speech, Yang, dean of Academy of State Governance of Renmin University of China, analyzed China’s governance modernization from the perspective of world politics. "In a limited government, the power of government to intervene in the exercise of civil liberties is restricted by law and all national organs exercise their power within the boundary of laws," Yang said. However, any institutional changes in the laws bring unintended consequences. Government and interest groups have controlled too many resources leading to collusions between government and businessmen, which triggers monopoly in many industries. [end excerpt]
* "China's harsher environmental protection law to take effect" (2015-01-04) [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150104_1211540.htm] [https://archive.today/KfydZ]
* "China experimental fast reactor runs at full capacity" (2014-12-23) [http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/China_experimental_fast_reactor_runs_at_full_capacity_999.html] [https://archive.today/nMkPM]
* China's Military Weapons Online Marketplace (homepage archived 2015-01-04) [https://archive.today/3u7Rg]
=== * === * ===
Vietnam
* "Washington’s Quiet Proxy War Against Vietnam" (2015-01-03) [http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/03/washington-s-quiet-proxy-war-against-vietnam/] [https://archive.today/OI1Cq]
=== * === * ===
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/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly U.S. Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims" (2015-01-02) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/01/north-koreasony-story-shows-eager-u-s-media-still-regurgitate-government-claims/] [https://archive.today/2iCTt]
* "North Korea: Dirty Tricks to Justify US Aggression and Regime Change; Anti-communist manipulation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/north-korea-dirty-tricks-to-justify-us-aggression-and-regime-change/5422646] [https://archive.today/EsEMd]
* "UN Security Council Prepares to Lynch North Korea. Manipulation to Justify Aggressive War?" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/un-security-council-prepares-to-lynch-north-korea-manipulation-to-justify-aggressive-war/5421637] [https://archive.today/0x7Ty]
* "Kim Jong un and the Demonization of North Korea. A Distorted Mirror of Reality" (2014-12-28) [http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-45/45-43/45-43-End%20of%20North%20Korea.html] [https://archive.today/4Hy3h]
* "False Flagging the World towards War. The CIA Weaponizes Hollywood" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/false-flagging-the-world-towards-war/5421649] [https://archive.today/Xp8Rt], [begin excerpt]:
The Interview was made with the direct and open involvement of CIA and Rand Corporation operatives for the express purpose of destabilizing North Korea. Star and co-director Seth Rogen has admitted that he worked “directly with people who work in the government as consultants, who I’m convinced are in the CIA”. Originally conceived to be a plot taking place in an “unnamed country”, Sony Pictures co-chairman Michael Lynton, who also sits on the board of the Rand Corporation, encouraged the film makers to make the movie overtly about murdering Kim Jong-Un. Bruce Bennett, the Rand Corporation’s North Korean specialist, also had an active role, expressing enthusiasm that the film would assist regime change and spark South Korean action against Pyongyang. Other government figures from the State Department, even operatives connected to Hillary Clinton, read the script.
The infantile, imbecilic, tasteless, reckless idiots involved with The Interview, including the tasteless Rogen and co-director Evan Goldberg, worked with these military-intelligence thugs for months. “Hung out” with them. They do not seem to have had any problem being the political whores for these Langley death merchants. In fact, they had fun doing it. They seem not to give a damn, or even half a damn, that the CIA and the Pentagon have used them, and co-opted the film for an agenda far bigger than the stupid movie itself. All they seem to care about was that they are getting publicity, and more publicity, and got to make a stupid movie. Idiots.
The CIA has now succeeded in setting off a wave of anti-North Korea war hysteria across America. Witness the ignorant squeals and cries from ignorant Americans about how “we can’t let North Korea blackmail us”, “we can’t let Kim take away our free speech”. Listen to the ridiculous debate over whether Sony has the “courage” to release the film to “stand up to the evil North Koreans” who would “blackmail America” and “violate the rights” of idiot filmgoers, who now see it as a “patriotic duty” to see the film.
[end excerpt]
---
* "North Korea Slashes out against U.S. Human Rights Violations, Statement to the United Nations" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/pyongyangs-rebuttal-north-korea-slashes-out-against-u-s-human-right-violations-statement-to-the-united-nations/5422674] [https://archive.today/GkjxY], [begin excerpt]:
Photo showing demonstration at the UN in New York by Pan Korean Alliance for Reunification in U.S.A. (KANCC).
Today the U.S. and other Western countries are increasingly cracking down on the human rights of the peoples of their countries, including on their socio-economic and cultural rights as well as on political freedom and rights.
In the U.S., whose population accounts for 5% of the world’s population, prisoners there account for 25% of the total number of prisoners in the world.
Today, when the world is rushing to scale a new peak of human civilization, medieval torture and other kinds of human rights violations are being committed in the prison camps of the U.S.
Racial discrimination in the U.S., a self-proclaimed model country in the field of human rights, is cutting a wide swath with official and open sanction.
The chain of murders of innocent young black people committed by white policemen recently threw the whole world into a state of consternation.
Many working people, denied the rights to an existence and work, are wandering the streets as unemployed in the U.S. and other Western countries.
Extreme selfishness, misanthropy and such crimes as murder, robbery, rape, prostitution, racial discrimination, and discrimination and maltreatment of American Indians and immigrants are prevalent in American society, and people live in constant fear and misery.
Under the signboard of “defending human rights” the U.S. launches aggressive wars, enslaving peoples of other countries and openly interfering in their internal affairs, and thus violates their human rights. These aggressive wars not only trample upon their sovereignty but also claim the lives of their peoples, threaten their right to existence and restrict their socio-economic and cultural progress. Typical examples are the armed aggression against Grenada, the air campaign against the former Yugoslavia and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[end excerpt]
5th WORLD NEWS
Tibet (Buddhist Kingdom of the Eternal Highlands) is historically recognized as a sovereign theocratic government by the USA, Great Britain (1904), and other national governments and governments-in-exile, with the Office of the Dalai Lama acting as Head of State for Tibet, administering jurisdictional claims overlapping nearly 25% of China's homeland jurisdiction which includes trillions of dollars of rare earth metals (uranium, gold, etc.), with open citizenship to the almost 7 million people who altogether worldwide are the Tibetan nation.
* "How do Chinese and Western media view China-Tibet relation?" (2009) [http://howdochineseandwesternmediasview.weebly.com/50-years.html] [https://archive.today/nlPPd]
* News about Tibet from China: [http://en.tibetol.cn]
* News from the Tibet Government-in-Exile: [http://www.dalailama.com], [http://www.tibetcity.com], [Tibet.Net]
---
* "Dalai Lama Meets Friends of Tibet" (2012-11-26) [http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/883-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-meets-friends-of-tibet-and-attends-centenary-celebrations-of-the-malankara-orthodox-syrian-church] [https://archive.today/1BuLF], [begin excerpt]: Sethu Das, founder of the Friends of Tibet, a people's movement to keep the issue of Tibet alive through direct action, escorted His Holiness the Dalai Lama through a small exhibition of photographs and artifacts related to Tibet in Kochi this morning. Then, before an assembly of friends of Tibet and patients who have benefited from Tibetan medical camps, he gave him a fulsome welcome. He described the development of medical camps providing people with access to the Tibetan Medical Tradition, which have since grown into a programme called Wellbeing. He said, “It is the tragedy that has befallen Tibet that has brought this ancient medical tradition to the notice and benefit of people in India, as it has indeed brought His Holiness’s blessed presence among us today.” Dr Dorje Rabten Neshar read a report explaining that since they began in 2010, the Tibetan medical camps have acquired 2000 registered patients who are served by two Tibetan physicians. These patients have all been alerted by word of mouth alone. Many of them with chronic ailments have made a remarkable improvement and there is a demand for more Wellbeing camps in other towns. [end excerpt]
---
* "The (Justifiably) Angry Marxist An interview with the Dalai Lama" (2013-08-29) [http://www.tricycle.com/blog/justifiably-angry-marxist] [https://archive.today/TErQZ] [begin excerpt]:
[question] One thing that particularly interests me is your use of the word “exploitation.” This is the second time you’ve used that word, and I am surprised since it is a left-wing, Marxist term.
[answer] It’s true. I am also an exploiter. I hold the position of a high monk, a big lama. Unless I exercise self-restraint, there is every possibility for me to exploit others.
On my first visit to Mongolia, they arranged a tour to various institutions and a museum. At the museum, I saw a drawing of a lama with a huge mouth, eating up the people. This was in 1979, when Mongolia was still a Communist country. The Communists said that religion was a drug, and every religious institution was an exploiter. Even monks were exploiters. Even donations distributed to the monastic community were considered to be a form of exploitation.
When I came to the spot with that picture, the officials were a little bit nervous. I deliberately looked at it and I said, “It’s true.” Of course, I agree. I am not only a socialist but also a bit leftist, a communist. In terms of social economy theory, I am a Marxist. I think I am farther to the left than the Chinese leaders. [Bursts out laughing.] They are capitalists. [Laughs again.]
[question] That’s true. In the real world exploitation exists, and there is a great and unjust gap between rich and poor. My question is, from a Buddhist perspective, how should we deal with inequality and social injustice? Is it un-Buddhist to feel anger and indignation?
[answer] When faced with economic or any other kind of injustice, it is totally wrong for a religious person to remain indifferent. Religious people must struggle to solve these problems.
Here the issue is how to deal with anger. There are two types of anger. One type arises out of compassion; that kind of anger is useful. Anger that is motivated by compassion or a desire to correct social injustice, and does not seek to harm the other person, is a good anger that is worth having. For example, a good parent, out of concern for a child’s behavior, may use harsh words or even strike him. He may be angry, but there is no trace of any desire to hurt him.
Japanese temples often enshrine the fierce manifestation of [the Buddhist deity] Acala. [Opens his mouth to make a face like an angry deity.] But Acala has that fierce expression not out of hatred or a desire to harm sentient beings, but out of concern for them, to correct their mistakes, like a parent’s desire to correct a child’s mistakes. As you rightly mentioned, anger brings more energy, more determination, more forceful action to correct injustice.
The question is a person’s state of mind or the motivation that causes the action. When we act, that act arises out of a cause that already exists in us. If we act when our inner motivation is hatred toward another person, then that hatred expressed as anger will lead to destructive action. This is negative action. But if we act out of consideration for the other person, if we are motivated by affection and sympathy, then we can act out of anger because we are concerned with that person’s well-being.
[end excerpt]
* "Occupy Buddhism Or Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist" (2012-05-01) [http://www.tricycle.com/web-exclusive/occupy-buddhism] [https://archive.today/7EC9F]
* "Exclusive Interview - 'I am a supporter of globalization' " (2009-07-10) [http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/362-exclusive-interview---i-am-a-supporter-of-globalization] [https://archive.today/M5KIt] [begin excerpt]:
[question] These liberal attitudes don't really fit to someone who once called himself a Marxist monk. Do you still see yourself as one?
[answer] Yes, I still believe I am a Marxist monk. I don't see a contradiction here either. In the Marxist theory the focus lies on the just allocation of wealth. From a moral perspective this is a correct claim. Capitalism, on the other hand, values the accruement of wealth - the allocation of it doesn't matter here initially. In a worst case scenario the rich will keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer.
[question] Why is it then that you are so against communism and socialism?
[answer] Communism? What is communism? Is China a communist country? (He laughs out loud). I am confused. The Chinese communists are communists without a communist ideology. But if you mean socialism, like it first existed in the Eastern Block and now in North Korea and Cuba, I believe it goes against human nature; it destroys creativity. It is not enough for people to have just enough to eat, clothes and a roof over their heads. We need to self-actualize ourselves. Buddha encouraged entrepreneurs to become successful through dependability and sales skills. Those who are successful can help others.
[question] Yet you used to be a long-time admirer of Mao Zedong. How could you be so wrong?
[answer] I am still convinced that Mao Zedong was a Marxist, who wanted to help workers and farmers, in his early years up until the mid-1950s. In the mid-1950s I spent six months in Beijing and another four months in many other parts of China. The party leaders, to me, seemed really dedicated to their cause.
[question] What impressed you about Mao?
[answer] He always looked like a farmer - his clothes were old and ruined. And when he spoke, he did so very slowly, so every word had an importance. He never beat around the bush, never said niceties; he always came straight to the point. All of his party members that I met back then were like that, which impressed me.
[question] How did Mao fail, in your opinion?
[answer] Mao once told that the communist party must endure criticism, and that self-criticism was very important. Without criticism every system of power is like a fish without water. But then, in 1957, suddenly all party officials who dared to criticize were eliminated. That was the end of Maoism. The system failed because of its own arrogance and a lack of self-discipline. The abolishment of private property led to many belongings ending up in the hands of a state that devolved into a party elite which exerted an authoritarian reign - much like aristocrats of the past. [end excerpt]
* "I am a Marxist, Dalai Lama says" (2015-01-13) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/I-am-a-Marxist-Dalai-Lama-says/articleshow/45870660.cms] [https://archive.today/Viy0o]
* "I am a Marxist: Dalai Lama" (2015-01-13) [http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/i-am-a-marxist-dalai-lama-726734] [https://archive.today/BVcFc] [begin excerpt]: "We must have a human approach. Capitalism (is) good, socialism (is) wonderful. As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist... still I am Marxist," he said during a lecture at the Presidency University in Kolkata.
"Many Marxist leaders are now capitalists in their thinking. It depends on their thinking, motivation and wider perspective," he said. "In capitalist countries, there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. In Marxism, there is emphasis on equal distribution which is important," he said. [end excerpt]
---
* "Tibetan Parliament passes resolution concerning Dolgyal" (2014-03-19) [http://www.tibetcity.com/news/tibetan-parliament-passes-resolution-concerning-dolgyal/] [https://archive.today/7IY2c]. Many Tibetan Buddhists promote a guardian deity called Dorje Shugden, a deity rejected by the Dalai Lama who has also purged his Tibet-in-Exile government of practitioners devoted to Dorje Shugden, whom he refers to as Dolgyal (Demon King). For more information, read the Wikipedia.org article archived at [https://archive.today/Lj0rB].
Hundreds of practitioners from the USA and EU staged protests coordinated by the "International Shugden Community of Buddhists" against the Dalai Lama during 2014 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Washington DC, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Frankfurt, alongside the release of a book titled "The False Dalai Lama: The Worst Dictator in the Modern World". Members say they can’t get jobs with the Tibet-in-Exile government in India because of their beliefs, and that their nuns and monks have been kicked out of monasteries.
* "Protesters denounce the Dalai Lama as a ‘dictator’ " (2014-03-06) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/protesters-denounce-the-dalai-lama-as-a-dictator/2014/03/06/5f758972-a57c-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html] [https://archive.today/dqGlZ]
* "Shugden Buddhists protest during Dalai Lama’s visit to Berkeley" (2014-02-23) [http://www.dailycal.org/2014/02/23/shugden-buddhists-protest-dalai-lamas-visit-berkeley/] [https://archive.today/0dZFF]
---
* "2008 Tibetan unrest" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tibetan_unrest] [https://archive.today/gF4Oj], showing actions in support of the Tibet Government-in-Exile, in cities across the combined jurisdictions within China which are constituent to the claims by the Tibet Government-in-Exile
---
Articles published by China government:
* "Real Dalai Lama" (2014-03-18) [http://en.tibetol.cn/01/02/201403/t1384918.htm] [https://archive.today/rG6qo]
* "Freedom of religious belief guaranteed in Tibet" (2013-11-25) [http://en.tibetol.cn/01/02/201311/t1366668.htm] [https://archive.today/sJLq5]
* "Tibetans mark Serfs' Emancipation Day" (2014-03-28) [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Harmonioussociety/Minorities/t20140330_1163014.htm] [https://archive.today/lT6Hj]
---
Although the Buddhist Kingdoms of Tibet and Mongolia co-seceded from the Empire of China during January of 1913, neither of these governments had geographers officially delineating their borders. However, the following map shows "Greater Tibet" claimed by the Tibet Government-in-Exile, as recognized by the "Tibet 2008 - 2009" Special Topic Paper from the USA Federal Congressional-Executive Commission on China [http://www.cecc.gov/publications/issue-papers/cecc-special-topic-paper-tibet-2008-2009] [https://archive.today/ia04n], view the official map, archived here [https://archive.today/zweMw].
* "BRIEF HISTORY OF TIBET" [http://www.friends-of-tibet.org.nz/tibet.html] [https://archive.today/Bvxy5], [begin excerpt]
In 1876, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso, at the age of 19, took charge of the duties of state from Regent Choekyi Gyaltsen Kundeling. He was an outstanding personality and helped Tibet to reassert her rightful sovereignty in international affairs.
At this period the British had close and profitable ties with China. The Chinese had persuaded the British that they exercise ‘suzerainty’ over Tibet. Therefore on September 13, 1876, the Sino-British Chefoo Convention, which granted Britain the ‘right’ of sending a mission of exploration into Tibet, was signed. The mission was abandoned when the Tibetans refused to allow them on the grounds that they did not recognise China’s authority. Two more similar agreements, the Peking Convention of July 24, 1886 and the Calcutta Convention of March 17, 1890, were also repudiated by the Tibetans.
The Tibetan Government refused to have anything to do with the British who were dealing over their heads with the Chinese. This coincided with new contacts between Russia and Tibet around 1900-1.
There followed an interchange of letters and presents between the Dalai Lama and the Russian Czar. This strengthened British fears about Russian involvement in Tibetan affairs. As the Russian power in Asia was growing, the British Government felt that their interest was at stake. Tibet was invaded by a British expeditionary force under Colonel Younghusband, which entered Lhasa on August 3, 1904.
A treaty was signed between Tibet and Great Britain on September 7, 1904. During the British invasion Tibet conducted her affairs as an independent country. Peking did not so much as protest against the British invasion of Tibet.
When the British invaded Tibet, the 13th Dalai Lama went to Mongolia. The Manchus, who were then ruling China, made one last attempt to interfere in Tibet through the military campaigns of the infamous Chao Erhfeng. Mhen the Dalai Lama was in Kumbum monastery in the province of Amdo, he received two messages – one from Lhasa, urging him to return with all speed as they feared for his safety and could not oppose the intruding troops of Chao Erhfeng, and the other from Peking, requesting him to visit the Chinese capital. The Dalai Lama chose to go to Peking with the hope of prevailing upon the Chinese Emperor to stop the military agression against Tibet and to withdraw his troops.
When the Dalai Lama finally returned to Lhasa in 1909, he found that, contrary to all the promises he had received in Peking, Chao Erhfeng’s troops were at his heels. During the annual Monlam festival of 1910, some 2,000 Manchu and Chinese soldiers under the command of General Chung Ying entered Lhasa and indulged in carnage, rape, murder, plunder, and wanton destruction. Once again the Dalai Lama was forced to leave Lhasa. He appointed a Regent to rule in his absence and left for the southern town of Dromo with the intention to go to British India if necessary. Events in Lhasa and the pursuing Chinese troops forced him to leave his country once again.
In India the Dalai Lama and his ministers appealed to the British Government to help Tibet. Meanwhile the Manchu occupation force tried to subvert the Tibetan Government and to divide Tibet into Chinese provinces – exactly what, not half a century later, the Communist Chinese would do.
But, when the news of the 1911 Revolution in China reached Lhasa, the Chinese troops mutinied against their Manchu officers and attacked the Amban’s residence. Fighting broke out between rival Manchu and Chinese generals. Then, in a desperate attempt to regain their dwindling hold in Lhasa, the Chinese attacked the Tibetans. By then, however, the Tibetans had reorganised themselves with orders coming from the Dalai Lama in India. Chinese troops in Lhasa, and elsewhere in Tibet were overcome by the Tibetans and finally expelled in 1912. During this period of fighting and confusion the new ruler of China, President Yuan Shih-kai, tried to send military reinforcements to the beleagured troops while at the same time trying to placate the Tibetans. He apologised for the excesses and said that he had restored the Dalai Lama who wrote back saying that he was not asking the Chinese Government for any rank as he intended to exercise both spiritual and temporal rule in Tibet and declared Tibet’s independence.
In January 1913 a bilateral treaty was signed between Tibet and Mongolia at Urga. In that treaty both countries declared themselves free and separate from China.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, having returned from India in January 1913, issued a formal declaration of the complete independence of Tibet, dated the eighth day of the first month of the Water-Ox year (March 1913). The document also clarified:
“Now the Chinese intention of colonising Tibet under the patron-priest relationship has faded like a rainbow in the sky”.
The Great Thirteeth Dalai Lama / Last of the Chinese troops leaving Tibet for repatriation via India 1913
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama started international relations, introduced modern postal and telegraph services and, despite the turbulent period in which he ruled, introduced measures to modernise Tibet. On December 17, 1933 he passed away.
[end excerpt]
BAY AREA SOLIDARITY, fundraisers and campaigns seeking support
On Behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal,
A Contribution Request In loving memory of Samiya and in tribute to her fierce fight for life.
Samiya “Goldii” Abdullah, a daughter of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal died on December 17, 2014 after years of battle with breast cancer. Samiya would have been 37 this January 9 and is survived by two young daughters, Aiyanah and Aaiyah, affectionately known as Dolly and Puddy, ages eleven and four.
(Photo: Wadiya Jamal, Samiya 1978-2014, and Dolly)
Samiya was a remarkable woman. She was accomplished as a musician, an activist and rapper on social justice, particularly in the struggle for Mumia’s freedom. She devoured books and education. During her long, often debilitating illness, Samiya finished her Masters Degree in School and Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania with honors. She was dedicated to her young daughters and wanted them to grow up loving each other as much as she did her brothers and sisters. And she wanted her daughters to see Mumia (called “Pop Pop” by them) walk out of prison and home with their grandmother, Wadiya.
Samiya's active fight for Mumia's freedom, began at the young age of four. Mumia wrote about this in “The Visit” printed in Live from Death Row in 1994. This was recreated in the movie "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary."
"My father is still considered to be a dangerous individual … his mind is what they fear, there is over- whelming evidence that would exonerate him of his conviction. He is an innocent man and the commonwealth has always known this, but being too Black, too smart, and too strong … The government will silence anyone that possesses the power to open the minds of the people." —Goldii
(Photo: Samiya (Goldii) Performs at Mumia's 55th Birthday & Book Release Party, 2009)
Samiya’s strength, character and spirit were nurtured by Wadiya and Mumia and are being passed on to her daughters. On behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal, this is a request for funds to assist Wadiya for care of her granddaughters, Dolly and Puddy. A financial contribution of any amount will be greatly appreciated.
Please send checks or money orders, made payable to Wadiya Jamal:
Wadiya Jamal
P.O. Box 19404
Kingsessing Postal Station
Philadelphia, PA 19143-9998
=== * === * ===
* "Academics, Journalists and Activists Urge Support for Venezuelanalysis.com" [http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11099] [https://archive.today/Mc6vz]
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* "UK Home Office Flat Out Rejected Nuclear Winter Threat in 1984" (2014-12-30) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20141230/1016402236.html] [https://archive.today/BFZiH]
* "Nuclear Winter" art by EmilisB [https://archive.today/ZQwcL]
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Heroes of the 1970s Uprising [http://notmytribe.com/2010/revisiting-the-weather-undergrounds-1970-pantheon-of-empire-fighters-820849.html] [https://archive.today/4hlfu]
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* "Behold: the World's Biggest Archive of Skinhead Ephemera" (2014-12-25) [http://www.vice.com/read/toby-mott-interview-skinhead-book-324] [https://archive.today/XHTPK]
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* "History Lesson: America Is the Same ‘Ol Oligarchy It Was over a Century Ago" (2015-01-05) [http://truthstreammedia.com/history-lesson-america-is-the-same-ol-oligarchy-it-was-over-a-century-ago/] [https://archive.today/4gesi], [begin article excerpt]:
Tinkering around in an old bookstore in a small Texas town, we came across a set of old books on democracy; we got the first seven volumes of a set entitled, “The March of Democracy: A History of the United States“ written by James Truslow Adams — the guy who coined the term “The American Dream” The first book’s copyright is 1932. The last book ends in 1958.
Fascinating stuff…
For example, in volume four “America and World Power,” the book discusses how “Gradually and quite naturally, there grew up the belief in a great conspiracy on the part of the very rich to ruin the poor.”
Read this and tell me — does any of it sound even the least bit familiar to you?
[begin book excerpt] Most strikingly in the public eye were the great Titans of the new business era, the coal and meat “barons” and the copper, railway, steel, and other “kings,” men of the type of the elder J.P. Morgan, of James J. Hill, William H. Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Frick, William H. Clark, and Rockefeller. Such men had certain broad traits in common, differ as they might from each other as individuals. They were men of wide economic but intensely narrow social vision, and of colossal driving power and iron wills. They could lay their economic plans with imperial vision in time and space, but for the effect of their acts on society they cared nothing whatever. They claimed the right to rule the economic destinies of the people in any way that would enure their own personal advantage. Illogically, they insisted upon the theory of laissez-faire for all except themselves, while they demanded and received every favor they wished in the way of special privileges from the government, as in the tariff and the silver purchase Act. The whole machinery of government must be at their disposal when desired — legislation, court decisions, and Federal troops. They combined their business units into “trusts” and combinations of almost unlimited power, yet they insisted on “freedom of contract” when dealing with labor, whose organization in any form they almost wholly refused to sanction. [end book excerpt]
In fact, in volume five, “The Record of 1933–1941,” Adams records the death of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., as the end of the era of this great wealth — never to occur again.
[begin book excerpt] On May 23, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., died at the age of 97. Owner at one time of the largest fortune in the world, his lifespan had covered the entire history of American business from before the Civil War… Nearly $350,000,000 are handled by three of the Rockefeller Foundations for education, medical research and other uses. Whatever may be thought as to the methods of accumulating the beginnings of the fortune in a period of different business ethics and social outlook, no other man through his financial gifts has ever so widely benefited mankind. With our income and inheritance taxes no other such fortune will ever again be accumulated, and his death marked the end of an era in American history. [end book excerpt]
And so that’s the end of the story, kids…
Everything ended happily ever after.
Well, not quite.
Despite appearances, the shift on the part of the Rockefellers and other Robber Barons of the day from outright monopoly to “philanthropic” “non-profit” charity work was not an end to the dominance by the super-rich of the early 2oth Century, but an intensification of their undue influence. The taxation of the wealthy as well as the anti-trust actions of the day, which included busting up megacorpses like Standard Oil and AT&T, were perhaps well meaning but fundamentally failed to reign in the disparity of power.
Instead, new tax laws, in reality, acted to restrict new wealth from reaching the heights of the oligarchy, allowing “the elite” the keep their own, and initiate new members as desired. The tax-free status of many institutions – including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Ford Foundation – allowed the incredibly wealthy to a) shield their fortunes from taxation, b) appear to do good works and boost public opinion of their principle members while c) influencing, writing and developing official public policy through the steering mechanisms of its own tax-free grant making, think tank and research powers. Much social engineering has taken place – with far too little public notice – through these bodies. Additionally, d) many of its directors and board members were in “respectable” positions to shift into official government positions through the revolving door without appearing to be acting on behalf of their corporate masters.
The Reece Committee Hearings, conducted in 1953, attempted to probe the role of tax-free foundations in public life and uncovered many outrageous and conspiratorial actions taking place, including very apparent agendas advancing a one-world corporate-dominated government.
[end article excerpt]
* Dodd Report to the Reece Committee on Foundations (1954) [https://archive.org/stream/DoddReportToTheReeceCommitteeOnFoundations-1954-RobberBaron/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954]
Since 1908, robber baron oligarchs have been using a network of private organizations to hijack foreign diplomacy, localities, and public education, under the disguise of "charitable organizations" or "foundations". This is not a "conspiracy theory", rather it is a fact - as determined in congressional hearings in 1953. This rare PDF file is the digitized prime record of the Dodd report to those hearings. The robber baron families have tried strenuously to keep this matter under wraps, but you can download and preserve your own copy here.
* The Reece Hearings Investigation on Tax Exempt Foundations (1953) [https://archive.org/stream/TheSubversionOfAmericaByTaxExemptFoundations-1953Investigation-The/SubversionOfAmericaByTaxExemptFoundations-1953Investigation-Reece-hearings-h-res-217#page/n0/mode/2up]
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* "Ten Modern Methods of Mind Control" [http://www.globalresearch.ca/10-modern-methods-of-mind-control/5422942] [https://archive.today/OMZjW], [begin excerpt]:
2. Advertising and Propaganda – Edward Bernays has been cited as the inventor of the consumerist culture that was designed primarily to target people’s self-image (or lack thereof) in order to turn a want into a need. This was initially envisioned for products such as cigarettes, for example. However, Bernays also noted in his 1928 book, Propaganda, that “propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” This can be seen most clearly in the modern police state and the growing citizen snitch culture, wrapped up in the pseudo-patriotic War on Terror. The increasing consolidation of media has enabled the entire corporate structure to merge with government, which now utilizes the concept of propaganda placement. Media; print, movies, television, and cable news can now work seamlessly to integrate an overall message which seems to have the ring of truth because it comes from so many sources, simultaneously. When one becomes attuned to identifying the main “message,” one will see this imprinting everywhere. And this is not even to mention subliminal messaging.
3. Predictive Programming – Many still deny that predictive programming is real. I would invite anyone to examine the range of documentation put together by Alan Watt and come to any other conclusion. Predictive programming has its origins in predominately elitist Hollywood, where the big screen can offer a big vision of where society is headed. Just look back at the books and movies which you thought were far-fetched, or “science fiction” and take a close look around at society today. For a detailed breakdown of specific examples, Vigilant Citizen is a great resource that will probably make you look at “entertainment” in a completely different light.
[end excerpt]
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During 2001-09-11, the USA Military CONUS Command over domestic operations was undergoing a wargame overseen by Vice-President Richard Cheney, and all military aircraft was under orders to stand down, even when civilian jets were crashed into the Twin Towers of New York and into the Pentagon at Washington DC.
* "The Claim about the Time of Dick Cheney’s Entry into the White House Bunker"
View the source materials listed after the article at [http://www.consensus911.org/point-mc-3/] [https://archive.today/1Sbmy]:
The Official Account -
Vice President Dick Cheney took charge of the government’s response to the 9/11 attacks after he entered the PEOC (the Presidential Emergency Operations Center), a.k.a. “the bunker”.
The 9/11 Commission Report said1 that Cheney did not enter the PEOC until almost 10:00 AM, which was at least 20 minutes after the violent event at the Pentagon that killed more than 100 people.
The Best Evidence -
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta told the 9/11 Commission that, after he joined Cheney and others in the bunker at approximately 9:20 AM, he listened to an ongoing conversation between Cheney and a young man, which took place when “the airplane was coming into the Pentagon.”2
After the young man, having reported for the third time that the plane was coming closer, asked whether “the orders still stand,” Cheney emphatically said they did. The 9/11 Commission Report, by claiming that Cheney did not enter the PEOC until long after the Pentagon was damaged, implies that this exchange between Cheney and the young man – which can most naturally be understood as Cheney’s confirmation of a stand-down order – could not have occurred.
However, testimony that Cheney was in the PEOC by 9:20 was reported not only by Mineta but also by Richard Clarke3 and White House photographer David Bohrer.4 Cheney himself, speaking on “Meet the Press” five days after 9/11, reported that he had entered the PEOC before the Pentagon was damaged.5
The 9/11 Commission’s attempt to bury the exchange between Cheney and the young man confirms the importance of Mineta’s report of this conversation.
---
* "The Walls Are Crumbling Down Around 9/11 - Why?" (2014-08-05) [http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35537/Jeffrey-Berwick-The-Walls-Are-Crumbling-Down-Around-911-Why] [https://archive.today/Xm2Mk]
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* "An Unconditional Citizen's Income" (2015-01-06) [http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1065.php] [https://archive.today/oTtCv]
Guaranteed Income is addressed in the following article from a monopolist news source in the USA.
* "How to Fix Poverty: Write Every Family a Basic Income Check" (2014-12-14) [http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/26/how-fix-poverty-write-every-family-basic-income-check-291583.html] [https://archive.today/Ad9Zd].
Not mentioned in the article:
* Richard Nixon's "Negative Income Tax (NIT)" (ca. 1968), which had nearly been passed by the Federal Congress [https://web.archive.org/web/20120917040601/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax#Implementation]. Information from [https://archive.today/9yXQs]: The centerpiece of Nixon's welfare reform was the replacement of much of the welfare system with a negative income tax, a favorite proposal of conservative economist Milton Friedman. The purpose of the negative income tax was to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work.
* a basic income guarantee enables high school students who so wish to stay in school rather than having to leave for financial reasons. This, along with a significant reduction in health care costs, was a demonstrated effect of the 3 to 4 year Mincome experiment in Dauphin, Manitoba in the 1970's;
* George McGovern's "demo-grants" (1972). Information from "Welfare alternatives: a report with recommendations based upon the public welfare study of the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, and related materials (1976)" [https://archive.org/details/welfareal00unit]:
The Reform Alternatives -
There are several basic alternatives for improving the income support program mess. These include: incremental reform centered upon the AFDC program; enactment of comprehensive income supplements; enactment of demogrants; reliance upon an enlarged group of non-cash or in-kind programs; and enactment of work-conditional income supplements.
The demogrant approach could be viewed a variant of the comprehensive income supplement approach, under which basic benefit amounts are paid to all citizens regardless of income. The children's allowances paid universally in several European countries are an example of demogrants. The Joint Economic Committee's proposal to substitute a uniform rebatable tax credit per person for our present personal exemption and low-income allowance is another example.
Senator McGovern's 1972 campaign proposal to provide $1,000 to every American citizen is an example of a proposal in which demogrants would be used as the major means of income support. The National Urban League recently has advocated a similar proposal, labeled a refundable credit income tax.
Although the demogrant benefits technically do not phase out with increased income, most responsible programs for large demogrants are accompanied by a proposed overhaul of the present income tax system.
In addition to the elimination of many so-called tax loopholes, these proposals generally change the present progressive tax rate to a flat rate in the 35- to 50-percent magnitude. Of course, this rate effectively determines the income at which families begin to pay taxes because their tax liability exceeds the demogrant for which they qualify. Rates taxes actually paid would be progressive.
Simplicity and low benefit tax rates are the most attractive parts of the universal demogrant alternative. Its universality also may be a political advantage, although the fate of Senator McGovern's $1,000 per person proposal argues otherwise for demogrants large enough to replace the current income support programs.
Along those lines, I must conclude that the cost of any such demogrant alternative makes the approach totally unrealistic at this time. The amount of tax increases required to finance the National Urban League's demogrant proposals, assuming the enactment of the tax reform which the League's plan also advocate, is estimated to have been in the $31 billion to $47 billion range. Furthermore, the National Urban League's rax reform goals are far more ambitious than Cong is likely to achieve in the foreseeable future: the more ambitious option would have increased taxable income by 72.1 percent in 1970. while the less ambitions option would have increased taxable income bv 57.9 percent. The only way Congress could adopt the National Urban League's demogrant option if it falls considerably short of the tax reform proposals would l>e to increase tax rates for persons with moderate incomes far more drastically than I think is acceptable. A comprehensive income supplement plan, such as a negative income tax. moves the system in the same direction as a demogrant approach but is a far more realistic option. A closer look is warranted at both of the detailed proposals of this type which have been developed in recent years, the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy's proposal and HETV's income supplement program.
* John Burton, a Federal Congress member during the early 1970s who considered himself a socialist, introduced a bill in the 1970's to limit income to $50,000 a year, with the excess collected to provide a basic income for the general population.
=== * === * ===
In order to know what makes an enemy evil, you have to know the truth.
It is estimated that the USSR government (1922 to 1992) killed up to 1,500,000 people through political repression, prison conditions, and in suppressing religious uprisings. Compare this to the early 1930s when the USA economic dictators instituted a regime that killed over 7 million people of lower-income through "tramp laws" and other methods of punishing starving workers during the Great Depression (more information below). This does not include the millions of Chicanos (Mexican-Americas) forcibly moved out of the USA, up to 3 million during the early 1930s. Nor does it include the casualties of the Jim Crow regime governing the African-American and all who were not of European descent.
While Stalin ruled the USSR during 1927 to 1953 (26 years), it is said "he killed over 20 million people", meanwhile the population grew, mortality rates from famines decreased, and life expectancy nearly doubled during that time period! The death count is extremely inexact and the original source for the death count is from a CIA agent named Robert Conquest, a man who held the Nazis in high esteem. Many casual researchers do not question the source, and reproduce Mr. Conquest's deathcount without accounting for his errors, like when he includes anybody who was ever an inmate! For an example of this, see "How Many Did Stalin Really Murder?" (2006) [http://www.distributedrepublic.net/archives/2006/05/01/how-many-did-stalin-really-murder/] [https://archive.today/EANZ6], [begin excerpt] The figure comes from the book by Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties (Macmillan 1968). In his appendix on casualty figures, he reviews a number of estimates of those that were killed under Stalin, and calculates that the number of executions 1936 to 1938 was probably about 1,000,000; that from 1936 to 1950 about 12,000,000 died in the camps; and 3,500,000 died in the 1930-1936 collectivization. Overall, he concludes: 'Thus we get a figure of 20 million dead, which is almost certainly too low and might require an increase of 50 percent or so, as the debit balance of the Stalin regime for twenty-three years." I calculate that the Communist regime, 1917-1987, murdered about 62,000,000 people, around 55,000,000 of them citizens. [end excerpt]
Debates abound concerning the deathcount, and the following link contains source reports by USA-based researchers [https://web.archive.org/web/20050211174209/http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/].
During the 1930's, one of many Nazi sympathizers in the USA, Norman Davies, had an important role in the USA monopolist media as a propagandist against socialism and the USSR, claiming that over 60 million died as a result of Stalin's policies, when during the same time period in the USSR the population increased (with the exception of World War 2). Robert Conquest's "Twenty million" deathcount emerged in the 1960s and were considered high even then. While once accepted in academia, they have consistently been revised downwards by later historians. Robert Conquest's methodology and figures are unsustainable today (he himself has revised them downwards), and it has taken decades of subsequent research to show that the figures of 30+ million are incorrect. Today the generally accepted range (largely formulated by statistical or economic historians such as Nove, Ellman, RW Davies and Wheatcroft) tends to be around the 10 million mark for the period 1927-38. Of this figure around 1-1.5 million are believed to be the result of direct repression (ie, execution or death in prison) with the remaining 7-8 million being victim to famines 1932 to 33. Obviously even within these figures there's a considerable range and degree of debate, unsurprising given that most of them are deduced from demographic data and, in the case of Robert Conquest, anecdotal evidence.
---
In the USA, during the dust bowl period, the population was on the move, novels such as The Grapes of Wrath were written, to document The American Famine. According to the US census statistics, the US lost 10 million of its population from 1931 to 1940. A Russian researcher, Boris Borisov worked on uncovering the death toll during the American Famine and his estimates are that 5 million children died of starvation and 2.5 million adults. Boris Borisov describes the movement of the American population out of the dust bowl affected region as a hunger march. President Hoover ordered regular military soldiers to crush social unrest, which comprised of hunger protests.
* "Famine killed 7 million people in USA" (2008-05-18)
pg. 1 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/19-05-2008/105255-famine-0] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090225024152/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/19-05-2008/105255-famine-0],
pg. 2 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-1] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090223215056/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-1],
pg. 3 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-2] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090224000326/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-2]
* "Interview with Boris Borisov" (2008-10-23) [http://rt.com/usa/interview-with-boris-borisov/] [https://archive.today/Yu55L]
[begin excerpt]
Analyzing the period of the Great Depression in the USA, the author notes a remarkable similarity with events taking place in the USSR during the 1930s. He even introduced a new term for the USA – defarming – an analogue to dispossession of wealthy farmers in the Soviet Union. “Few people know about five million American farmers (about a million families) whom banks ousted from them lands because of debts. The US government did not provide them with land, work, social aid, pension – nothing,” the article says. “Every sixth American farmer was affected by famine. People were forced to leave their homes and go to nowhere without any money and any property. They found themselves in the middle of nowhere enveloped in massive unemployment, famine and gangsterism.”
[end excerpt]
* "Where did America’s missing millions go? Holodomor Lessons" (2009-11-15) [http://rt.com/news/prime-time/where-did-americas-missing-millions-go-holodomor-lessons/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141231222120/http://rt.com/news/prime-time/where-did-americas-missing-millions-go-holodomor-lessons/], original version with more photos [http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0903/amholomor.htm] [https://archive.today/rAeIL] [begin excerpt]: It’s interesting to note that the official American statistical data (mind you, in retrospect) does not show the increase, but decrease (!) in population in 1932-1933. This is made clear in the background of more than 5 million refugees, 2.5 million who lost their homes, and 17 million unemployed – which definitely proves the fake character of official USA statistics for the period. Those who falsified American statistics in the period overdid it to such an extent that in the peak crisis years of 1932-1933, they showed mortality rates lower than in the prosperous year of 1928. The mortality records in the states are more impressive: Washington D.C. shows 15.1 deaths for every 1,000 people in 1932, confirming that mortality had grown. The calculation was done for the capital and that’s why the data looks authentic. [end excerpt]
* "America’s Most Desperate: Why are 50 million Americans starving?" (2011-09-30) [http://in.rbth.com/articles/2011/09/30/americas_most_desperate_why_are_50_million_americans_starving_13064.html] [https://archive.today/zKUfU], [begin excerpt]: What most people would describe as hunger, the USDA couches it in the euphemism “food insecure”. And deaths caused by malnutrition are passed off by hospitals and coroners as “natural causes” or “failure of bodily organs”. The US has been loath to admit such gaping holes in its socio-economic fabric. A study titled The American Famine by Russian researcher Boris Borisov says that as many as 8 million Americans died of starvation during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This massive toll lies buried in US census data, but the government has airbrushed the data out of official records. Here is what a child wrote during those years: “We changed our usual food for something more available. We used to eat bush leaves instead of cabbage. We ate frogs too. My mother and my older sister died in a year.” During the Depression millions lost their homes and literally ended up in the streets. [end excerpt]
---
USSR had Central Europe (1945 to 1953), USA has Central America (1910s to today) ... and what Stalin did in the Ukraine, the USA also did to the Central Americans (artificial famines and death squads), forcing people to work on corporate farms where they once their own land, and forcing illiteracy on the poor, and forcing the people to be homeless...
The USA treated the Central Americans worse than what I heard about Stalin. That's something I learned after years of researching. Standard Fruit (Chiquita Bananas) owned most of the land in Guatemala, and killed hundreds of thousands who were defending their land against this Wall Street company... just one example of many...
But, unlike what is said about Stalin, the USA legacy in Central America is censored. Some of the BEST land in the world, and yet the MAJORITY still starve! MILLIONS of children die every decade from persistent famine!
=== * === * ===
The Police version of revolutionary Black Liberation history:
* "The Black Guerrilla Family Prison Gang" (2012-07) [http://www.policemag.com/blog/gangs/story/2012/07/the-black-guerilla-family-prison-gang.aspx] [https://archive.today/422EV]
* Panthers & Palestinian delegation at Pan-African Cultural Festival. Algeria, 1969.
=== * === * ===
One of the gains of the Chinese social revolution and socialist planned economy was that life expectancy doubled during Mao's rule.
* "Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?" [http://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/] [https://archive.today/3dIpS] [begin extract]:
The idea that “Mao was responsible for genocide” has been used as a springboard to rubbish everything that the Chinese people achieved during Mao’s rule. However, even someone like the demographer Judith Banister, one of the most prominent advocates of the “massive death toll” hypothesis has to admit the successes of the Mao era. She writes how in 1973-5 life expectancy in China was higher than in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and many countries in Latin America (see J. Banister, China’s Changing Population, Stanford University Press 1987). In 1981 she co-wrote an article where she described the People’s Republic of China as a ‘super-achiever’ in terms of mortality reduction, with life expectancy increasing by approximately 1.5 years per calendar year since the start of communist rule in 1949 (see J. Banister and S. Preston ‘Mortality in China’ in Population and Development Review Volume 7, No. 1, 1981). Life expectancy increased from 35 in 1949 to 65 in the 1970s when Mao’s rule came to an end (see M. Meissner, The Deng Xiaoping Era. An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994, Hill and Way 1996).
For example, it is claimed by many who have studied figures released by Deng Xiaoping after Mao’s death that per capita grain production did not increase at all during the Mao period. See J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman (eds) Problems of the Planned Economy, Macmillan Reference Books 1990.
But how is it possible to reconcile such statistics with the figures on life expectancy that the same authors quote? Besides which these figures are contradicted by other figures. Guo Shutian, a Former Director of Policy and Law in the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, in the post-Mao era, gives a very different view of China’s overall agricultural performance during the period before Deng’s “reforms.” It is true that he writes that agricultural production decreased in five years between 1949-1978 due to “natural calamities and mistakes in the work.” However he states that during 1949-1978 the per hectare yield of land sown with food crops increased by 145.9% and total food production rose 169.6%. During this period China’s population grew by 77.7%. On these figures, China’s per capita food production grew from 204 kilograms to 328 kilograms in the period in question. See Guo Shutian ‘China’s Food Supply and Demand Situation and International Trade’ in Can China Feed Itself? Chinese Scholars on China’s Food Issue. Beijing Foreign Languages Press 2004.
Jung Chang and Jon Halliday in their book Mao: the Unknown Story reported 70 million killed by Mao, including 38 million in the Great Leap Forward. A second, seriously misleading, quotation comes at the end of the chapter on the Great Leap Forward. First Chang and Halliday write “We can now say with assurance how many people Mao was ready to dispense with.” The paragraph then gives some examples of alleged quotes by Mao on how many Chinese deaths would be acceptable in time of war. The next paragraph begins “Nor was Mao just thinking about a war situation.” They then quote Mao at the Wuchang Conference as saying “Working like this, with all these projects, half of China may well have to die.” This quotation appears in the heading of Chang and Halliday’s chapter on the Great Leap Forward. The way the authors present this quotation it looks as if Mao was saying that it might indeed be necessary for half of China to die to realize his plans to increase industrial production. But it is obvious from the actual text of the speech that what Mao is doing is warning of the dangers of overwork and over-enthusiasm in the Great Leap Forward, while using a fair bit of hyperbole. Mao is making it clear that he does not want anyone to die as a result of his industrialization drive. In this part of the discussion, Mao talks about the idea of developing all the major industries and agriculture in one fell swoop. The full text of the passage that the authors selectively quote from is as follows.
"In this kind of situation, I think if we do [all these things simultaneously] half of China’s population unquestionably will die; and if it’s not a half, it’ll be a third or ten percent, a death toll of 50 million. When people died in Guangxi [in 1955-Joseph Ball], wasn’t Chen Manyuan dismissed? If with a death toll of 50 million, you didn’t lose your jobs, I at least should lose mine; [whether I would lose my] head would be open to question. Anhui wants to do so many things, it’s quite all right to do a lot, but make it a principle to have no deaths." (published in R. MacFarquhar, T. Cheek and E. Wu (eds) The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao. From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward. The Council on East Asian Studies/Harvard University Press, 1989.)
* "China, India and class" (2005) [http://peoplesworld.org/china-india-and-class/] [https://archive.today/SIZPy], [begin excerpt]:
China and India are often equated. Both have populations in excess of one billion, both graduate large numbers of scientists and engineers. A recent survey by the Economist depicted India and China as “two tigers.”
The equation is superficial. Politically, and consequently socially and economically, the Chinese and Indian states are species of a different class. The first was created by a socialist revolution. The latter is still capitalist. India’s workers, unions and workers’ parties, however, have the same class interests as China’s workers and unions, and the Chinese state itself.
Economic differences between China and India are startling. Buried between paragraphs, for instance, without comment, the Economist reported that income per person in India was $619 in1950 less than $410 in 2003 (all in 1990 dollars) — a drop of one-third!
By contrast, income per person more than doubled in China since 1950. And 400 million people have emerged out of extreme poverty in China, with less than 10 percent now below the line.
And there is more to life than income. There is public health, nutrition, conditions of employment, housing, education, environment, transport infrastructure, electric grid, general conditions in the countryside, and so on. Experts in these fields are in broad agreement that these are generally declining in India, indeed in most of the capitalist world, the U.S. included. In China, however, they are generally although not uniformly rising. (The Economist rejected a letter pointing out these differences.) [end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
The first map to show the indigenous nation territories of the upper Mississippi River Basin. Drawn by Pierre-Jean DeSmet for Col. Donald D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the St. Louis Department, it was used during the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty negotiations to show boundaries for the northern plains Indian tribes. A Belgian Jesuit missionary who had traveled through much of the Oregon country and the Great Plains establishing Catholic missions, Father DeSmet compiled a number of important maps of the region. The information for this map was furnished to DeSmet by Jim Bridger, the famous guide and fur trapper who led or directed at least seven trapping and hunting parties through the region between 1835 and 1850.
ACTION CALENDER
A list of gatherings, workshops, and educational events in the greater Bay Area region
North Korea, “The Interview” and Repression of the Left in South Korea
Friday, Jan. 9, 7pm
2969 Mission St., SF
Sony Corps’ racist film “The Interview” has shined a media spotlight on North Korea. What’s the real story behind the movie and the hack of Sony? The mass media obscures the real history—of the U.S. war on Korea, the thousands of U.S. troops massed on the border between South and North Korea, and the reality of two political and social systems on the Korean peninsula. At the same time as the focus here is on a racist film, the U.S.-backed government in So. Korea is carrying out mass repression against the Left and labor movements. Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation for presentations and discussion about these critical issues.
Guest speaker Christine Hong
Hong is an assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz. She is on the executive board of the Korea Policy Institute, the coordinating committee of the National Campaign to End the Korean War, and part of the Working Group on Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific.
Also, update on the mass grassroots anti-police brutality movement and plans for upcoming activities.
2969 Mission St., btwn 25th and 26th Sts.
Near 24th St. BART, #14, 49 MUNI
$3 - $5 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Refreshments served. Wheelchair accessible.
For more info: 415-821-6171 or http://www.PSLweb.org.
Reese Erlich: A Reporter's First Hand Report: Assad, ISIS, Obama and Iraq War III
Saturday, January 10, 7:00 PM
Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak St. (Oak & Lincoln), Alameda
Foreign Correspondent and investigative reporter Reese Erlich discusses his new book Inside Syria: the Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect. Erlich is an award-winning journalist and the author of four books on foreign policy. A full-time freelance journalist and special correspondent, he recently reported for both CBS Radio and GlobalPost from the Kurdish Region of Iraq, interviewing Yazidis and Kurdish peshmerga and analyzing the US bombing campaign. He will discuss the growing influence of extremist rebel groups and why the US bombing campaign will hurt both Americans and people of the region. Erlich has covered the Middle East for almost 30 years, reported from Syria five times and visited all its neighboring countries.
Presented by ALAMEDA PUBLIC AFFAIRS FORUM, a continuing project of the Center for Global Peace and Democracy
Books will be available for sale. Cash or check only; no credit cards.
For more information visit [www.ReeseErlich.com]
Understanding China and its unions
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
With a report from meetings and discussions with some of China's leaders.
Presentation by Wadi'h Halabi
This basic presentation provides analysis that can help working class activists better understand China and its unions, and the nature of the profound US antagonism to China. The speakers meetings, proposals and discussions in China since 2000 are partly used to test the analysis.
Wadi'h Halabi recently returned from meetings and discussions in China -- his fifteenth visit there in fifteen years, all by invitation. His main focus has been on changes in the world political economy, and, especially, identifying and addressing weaknesses that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He believes scientific, Marxist clarity on factors in the Soviet collapse is essential for rebuilding unity of the workers of the world and complete humanity's transition to socialism. Halabi serves on the Economics Commission of the CPUSA.
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NOTE: Sat., Jan 10, 2015, 1 – 3 pm Wadi'h Halabi will speak on “The Material Basis for Revolutionary Optimism Today” sponsored by The Political Affairs Readers Group of the Communist Party, USA (Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Club). Wadi'h Halabi is a member of the Economics Commission of the Communist Party, U.S.A. He is a long-time participant/observer with various organizations in the People's Republic of China. 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
America's Juvenile Justice System / with Nell Bernstein
Wednesday, January 14, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Impact Hub, 2323 Broadway, Oakland
Nell Bernstein, author of the book "Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison" will conduct a compelling conversation about the state of america's juvenile justice system and alternatives to juvenile incarceration. For details call 415-644-9777.
* The 'Unidad Nacional de Apoyo Fiscal' (UNAF) took over the case of the university student Kevin Joshua Solarzano Hernandez, accused of being involved in the murder of public prosecutor Edwin Geovanny Eguiguren. Source in Spanish [http://www.tiempo.hn/nación/item/13593-caso-de-kevin-lo-manejará-la-unidad-de-apoyo-fiscal] [https://archive.today/vqrpB]
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* The employees of the Autonomous National Aqueduct and Sewage Service (SANAA) denounces that they found their offices militarized yesterday after the announcement of the suspension of 500 workers. Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-oficinas-del-sanaa-amanecieron.html] [https://archive.today/B9JmH], (2) [http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/781649-331/polic%C3%ADas-resguardan-instalaciones-del-sanaa] [https://archive.today/yqibU]
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* Since the announcement some days ago that San Pedro Sula will double its toll fee, the protests haven't ceased. But the protesters have been met with police aggression. A teacher has even been detained by the police for protesting. Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/honduras-denuncia-publica-agresion-de.html] [https://archive.today/E9eA9], (2) [http://radioprogresohn.net/index.php/comunicaciones/noticias/item/1536-detienen-a-profesor-por-protestar-contra-aumento-al-peaje-en-san-pedro-sula] [https://archive.today/ISFLW]
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* According to FOSDEH, a difficult macroeconomic situation is awaiting Honduras this year.
Nevertheless, it also succeeded to place $250 million in bonds to to help pay down its debt to private energy providers. Source in Spanish (1) [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/01/fosdeh-honduras-tendra-una-situacion.html] [https://archive.today/fl0sV], source in English
[http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.ch/2015/01/honduran-bond-sale.html] [https://archive.today/pKQ6L]
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* The director of the Honduran Mining Institute (Inhgeomin), Agapito Rodriguez, declared 2015 as a great year for mining. Apparently 31 new companies are about to mine in Honduras! And he even goes on that he has 500 more requests of companies in his office...scary. Source in Spanish [http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/781996-331/liberadas-unas-250-mil-hectáreas-para-inversión] [https://archive.today/hLO1L]
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* Territories Free of Mining on the Rise in Honduras:"Residents of at least seven municipalities in different parts of the country voted against mining in open town hall assemblies (*cabildos abiertos*) over the past year and a half. At least 10 municipalities in Honduras have now been declared territories free of mining." Source: [https://www.beaconreader.com/sandra-cuffe/territories-free-of-mining-on-the-rise-in-honduras] [https://archive.today/8SBJH]
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* OFRANEH denounces that the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Cuyamel river violates the right to prior consultation of the Garifuna community. Source in Spanish [http://conexihon.hn/site/noticia/derechos-humanos/pueblos-indigenas/represa-en-el-río-cuyamel-violenta-el-derecho-de-consulta] [https://archive.today/rugFs]
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* Honduras Resistance facing the Dictatorship -
The Libre Party and the National Resistance Front have called for a political action for this January 27th in Tegucigalpa to begin a series of actions against the Dictatorship of the National Party headed by Juan Orlando Hernandez. The demonstrators are asking for the immediate resignation of the Honduran president.
Source: "Honduran Civil Society Groups Call for the Resignation of President One Year into Term" (2015-01-05) [http://news.kgnu.org/2015/01/honduran-civil-society-groups-call-for-the-resignation-of-president-one-year-into-term/] [https://archive.today/QZl9S]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Guatemala
The Mayan People within Guatemala are organizing against fascism in Guatemala, an ideology which, allied with the USA, has waged war against their nation throughout the 20th century.
* "Mayan People’s Council Organizes National Strike in Guatemala" (2014-06-29) [http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/4914-mayan-peoples-council-organizes-national-strike-in-guatemala] [https://archive.today/wiabt]
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* "How Reagan Promoted Genocide" [https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/15/how-reagan-promoted-genocide-3/] [https://archive.today/26ZeS], [begin excerpt]: Reagan’s White House was reaching out to Israel in a scheme to circumvent congressional restrictions on military equipment for the Guatemalan military. Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s national security team agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but their “civilian support mechanisms,” according to a newly disclosed document from the National Archives. Over the next several years, the military assistance from the Reagan administration helped the Guatemalan army do just that, engaging in the slaughter of some 100,000 people, including what a truth commission deemed genocide against the Mayan Indians in the northern highlands. [end excerpt]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Colombia
* "Families of Murdered Colombians Lose U.S. Lawsuit Against Occidental Petroleum" (2014-12-15) [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=16001] [https://archive.today/C616B]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: European Union (EU)
* "A New Left in Europe: Austerity Gives Rise to New Political Parties. Revolt against imposition of austerity measures engenders a Keynesian outlook" (2015-01-02) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/02/new-left-europe-austerity-gves-rise-new-political-parties] [https://archive.today/TIAuV]
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* "Belgium: The street rumbles again" (2015-01-01) [http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos336/ainfos62336.html] [https://archive.today/5M1jc], [begin excerpt]:
Facing right-handed and repressive government and a socialist-liberal opposition, the Belgian social movement has regained the street at the end of the year. Spontaneous strikes in Walloon railway in October, large national demonstration of the three major Belgian unions in November, the great winter strikes in December... The workers and Belgian workers rumble more.
The working people of our country are beginning to glimpse the future that they reserve: impoverishment, work to the gates of death, the collapse of organized social solidarity, policies and arbitrary arrests, frieze of horses and batons around the "elected" organs, camps for foreigners and all unwanted, proto-fascist state in the head... These same workers and those workers then find their natural defenses; strikes and spontaneous demonstrations, confrontation with the militia of the capital, the excess of union hierarchies, solidarity and mutual aid.
[end excerpt]
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* "Educated youth: Cash for the facs, not for cops" (2015-01-01) machine-translation from French [http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos30528.html] [https://archive.today/kywJD], [begin excerpt]:
Rémi Fraisse, killed by a grenade thrown by the police, was himself a student at Toulouse. In high schools and universities, the resistance is organized and protest police violence aggregates with broader claims. On 6 November, more than twenty high schools are blocked and 2000 students appear. The following week, several high schools are blocked at Saint-Denis and riots broke out in the city center. The movement remains scattered and uncoordinated, but it at least shows that the police can not kill in general indifference.
The various demonstrations against police violence were strongly repressed, often banned, challenging the right to move and to demonstrate. The protestors were gassed, beaten, arrested, sometimes preemptively upstream of the start of the demonstrations, even when peaceful. The forces multiply provocations, launched the demonstrators Rémi Fraisse "had deserved", "1-0"...
[end excerpt]
Original version 2014-12-09 [http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Jeunesse-scolarisee-Du-fric-pour] [https://archive.today/WlxgL].
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Ukriane
* "Ukraine in ‘full-blown financial crisis’ – National Bank head" (2014-12-30) [http://rt.com/business/218735-ukraine-crisis-central-bank/] [https://archive.today/Z4qIW]
* "Where has all Ukraine's gold gone?" (2014-11-20) [http://rt.com/business/207347-ukraine-gold-reserves-gone/] [https://archive.today/TRivg]
* "Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: 'There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault' " (2014-11-18) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-18/ukraine-admits-its-gold-gone] [https://archive.today/qNfZt]
* "The Latest Heist: US Quietly Snatches the Ukraine’s Gold Reserves" (2014-03-21) [http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/03/21/the-latest-heist-us-quietly-snatches-the-ukraines-gold-reserves/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140323101836/http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/03/21/the-latest-heist-us-quietly-snatches-the-ukraines-gold-reserves/]
* "Ukraine’s Gold Reserves Secretely Flown Out and Confiscated by the New York Federal Reserve?" (2014-03-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraines-gold-reserves-secretely-flown-out-and-confiscated-by-the-new-york-federal-reserve/5373446] [https://archive.today/juCUC]
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* " ‘Premier of war’: Czech president says Yatsenyuk not seeking peaceful solution for E. Ukraine" (2015-01-02) [http://rt.com/news/219595-ukraine-prime-minister-war/] [https://archive.today/X1Gjn], [begin excerpt]:
Czech President Milos Zeman has slammed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, calling him “a prime minister of war” because he is unwilling to peacefully solve the civil conflict in the country.
According to Zeman, the current policy of Kiev authorities has two “faces.” The first is the “face” of the country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, who “may be a man of peace.”The second “face” is that of PM Yatsenyuk, who has an uncompromising position toward self-defense forces in Eastern Ukraine.
Zeman said he doesn’t’ believe that the February coup, during which then-President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed from power, was a democratic revolution at all.
"Maidan was not a democratic revolution, and I believe that Ukraine is in a state of civil war,” Zeman said, responding to what he described as "poorly informed people" who compared Maidan with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Photo showing Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk
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* "Ukrainians are suffering from US 'ideological crusade' against Russia" (2015-01-01) [http://rt.com/news/219211-stone-ukraine-us-policy/] [https://archive.today/ekee7]
* "Ukrainian Nazis Pay Private Military Company Academi (formerly Blackwater) for Training, Russian Report" (2015-01-03) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukrainian-nazis-pay-private-military-company-academi-formerly-blackwater-for-training-russian-report/5422667] [https://archive.today/dtWhO]
* "The UN Anti-Nazi Resolution, the Prague Declaration and the History of 'US Accommodation with Nazism'; UN Anti-Nazi Resolution Supported by Israel and Syria, Opposed by the U.S., Canada and Ukraine" (2015-01-04) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-un-anti-nazi-resolution-the-prague-declaration-and-the-history-of-us-accommodation-with-nazism/5422783] [https://archive.today/7pDpC], [begin excerpt]:
The Syrian Arab Republic, together with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia are among the many co-sponsors of this UN Anti-Nazi Resolution, adopted by a majority vote of 133 by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2014. There were 51 abstentions. Only 4 nations opposed this resolution: the United States, Ukraine, Palau and Canada.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt hated the Nazis, and to provide assistance to the anti-nazi struggle in Europe, he often had to circumvent highly placed pro-nazi and anti-semitic State Department officials, who not too covertly wanted Hitler to win World War II and destroy Soviet communism. Roosevelt’s great skill succeeded in arranging for U.S. Lend-Lease policies to aid the anti-nazi struggles of the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and it was his original, fierce determination to put on trial for treason the major U.S. corporations which he knew were engaging in business with the Nazis throughout World War II.
FDR died early in his fourth term as President, and subsequent U.S. Presidents did not suffer such anguish colluding with Nazis or nazi collaborators throughout the entire Cold War, as this October 27, 2014 New York Times article reports. Indeed, today, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs very recently supervised and micromanaged the destabilization and overthrow of Ukraine’s anti-nazi President, Viktor Yanukovich, and installed a new Ukranian government permeated with neo-nazis and nazi sympathizers.
Although throughout the past decade, the United States had consistently opposed the anti-nazi resolution, this year, Ukraine, though previously abstaining, for the first time actually opposed the anti-nazi resolution, an ominous development, as on December 14, 2014 the U.S. Congress approved sending lethal weapons to Kiev, including anti-tank weapons, ammunition and troop-operated surveillance drones, anti-mortar radar systems, etc. as part of $350 million worth of weapons, raising the terrifying spectre that the U.S. is actually militarily supporting a pro-nazi resurgence in Ukraine.
[end excerpt]
Read the entire UN resolution at the link.
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* "Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, March 2014" [http://softpanorama.biz/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Fifth_column/Color_revolutions/Euromaydan/Bulletin/euromaydan14_03.shtml] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103023519/http://softpanorama.biz/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Fifth_column/Color_revolutions/Euromaydan/Bulletin/euromaydan14_03.shtml]
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* "Catastrophe at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant?" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/catastrophe-at-ukraines-zaporozhye-nuclear-power-plant/5422212] [https://archive.today/lPenm]
* "Ukraine signs Westinghouse nuclear fuel deal" (2014-12-30) [http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Ukraine_signs_Westinghouse_nuclear_fuel_deal_999.html] [https://archive.today/VC2jv]
* "Russia Slams Kiev for Switching to US Supplies of Nuclear Fuel" (2014-12-30) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20141230/1016409864.html] [https://archive.today/YEi03]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: State of Israel, Occupied Territories, & Trans-National Operations
The USA Government claims to be immune to the International Crimes Court (ICC), as does it's strategic partners...
* "US Army report calls for ‘military support’ of Israeli energy grab" (2015-01-01) [http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-army-report-calls-military-support-israeli-energy-grab-57185571] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150106052344/http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-army-report-calls-military-support-israeli-energy-grab-57185571], read the USA Military Report here [https://archive.today/gCNww], or in its original format (.pdf file) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150106055135/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1243.pdf]
* "Israel 'won't let its soldiers be dragged to the ICC': PM" (2015-01-04) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_wont_let_its_soldiers_be_dragged_to_the_ICC_PM_999.html] [https://archive.today/yVCqD]
* "What Would Happen If the Int’l Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu?" (2015-01-02) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/02/what-would-happen-if-intl-criminal-court-indicted-israels-netanyahu] [https://archive.today/fbgRv]
* "Israel to ask US Congress to halt aid to Palestinian Authority: Israel was weighing its options Sunday for further punishing the Palestinians after freezing millions in tax revenues as a first response to their bid to join the International Criminal Court" (2015-01-05) [http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/56722-150105-israel-to-ask-us-congress-to-halt-aid-to-palestinian-authority] [https://archive.today/vpTi8]
* "Israeli Lawmaker: If UN Recognizes A Palestinian State, Israel Will Attack Within A Year" (2014-12-30) [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/30/israeli-lawmaker-if-un-recognizes-a-palestinian-state-israel-will-attack-within-a-year/] [https://archive.today/Pn5O4]
* "Israeli settlers attack US consulate convoy in the West Bank (Updated)" (2015-01-02) [http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/israeli-settlers-consulate] [https://archive.today/WlUWi]
* "Congress OKs watered-down bill on US-Israel ties" (2014-12-03) [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/82ddb77ae19f4aa6b1e6ff6bf47f8faf/congress-oks-watered-down-bill-us-israel-ties] [https://archive.today/mhCR9]
* "State Department's response to discrimination by Israel is broken, literally" (2014-12-09) [http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/226347-state-departments-response-to-discrimination-by-israel-is] [https://archive.today/HKjeJ]
* "U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership: Who was Congress serving?" (2014-12-17) [http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/world/2014/12/17/U-S-Israel-Strategic-Partnership-Who-was-Congress-serving-.html] [https://archive.today/jAQH3]
* "Obama Signs Law Strengthening U.S.-Israel Alliance Expands Authority for U.S. Weapons Stockpiles in Israel" (2014-12-21) [http://forward.com/articles/211358/obama-signs-law-strengthening-us-israel-alliance/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150104041847/http://forward.com/articles/211358/obama-signs-law-strengthening-us-israel-alliance/]
ISLAMO-FASCISM
The Islamic State (IS) is a creation of the alliance of the USA, Saudi Arabia and State of Israel to destabilize competing governments allied with the Eurasian Union.
* "IS claims killing of Iranian military adviser in Iraq" (2014-12-29) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/IS_claims_killing_of_Iranian_military_adviser_in_Iraq_999.html] [https://archive.today/z6geh]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of China (RoC)
* "Taiwan kicks off plan to build its own submarines" (2014-12-29) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Taiwan_kicks_off_plan_to_build_its_own_submarines_999.html] [https://archive.today/HTC7j]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of Korea (RoK)
A fascist dictatorship installed under the USA State Department, currently under the regime of the original dictator's daughter, which outlaws political dissent, tortures activists, and enforces artificial famine and malnutrition.
* "Why we should care about the dissolution of the UPP in South Korea" (2014-12-29) [http://indercomar.com/2014/12/why-we-should-care-about-the-dissolution-of-the-upp-in-south-korea/] [https://archive.today/exVUy]
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* "The islands of abuse: Inside South Korea's slave farms for the disabled" (2015-01-02) [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-islands-of-abuse-inside-south-koreas-slave-farms-for-the-disabled-9954527.html] [https://archive.today/AlGES]
* " 'A living hell' for slaves on remote South Korean islands" (2015-01-01) [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/892b62b9c4284959a3e8b7a057427f0f/living-hell-slaves-remote-south-korean-islands] [https://archive.today/EO3L0]
* " 'Salt Farm Slaves' Scandal Shocks Korea" (2014-03-20) [http://www.koreabang.com/2014/stories/salt-farm-slaves-scandal-shocks-korea.html] [https://archive.today/wD0Xb]
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Republic of the Philippines
* "Filipinos are NOT any better than North Koreans" (2011) [http://antipinoy.com/filipinos-are-not-any-better-than-north-koreans/] [https://archive.today/J0Bmn]
* "Tribals opposing big mining killed by Aquino security forces – NDFP" (2013-08-07) [http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20130807_tribals-opposing-big-mining-killed-by-aquino-security-forces-ndfp] [https://archive.today/MQ3IC]
* Observations from "Philippines Shocking History" [https://www.facebook.com/PhilippinesShockingHistory]:
Philippines Where students pay more money than they will earn afterwards..
Where even doctors, lawyers and engineers are unemployed..
Where call-center employees earn more money than teachers and nurses, where doctors study to become nurses for employment abroad
The Condition of ordinary filipino prisoners:
Updates on the BOLIVARIAN ALTERNATIVE (ALBA) and affiliated organization constituting a political union for the People of the Americas.
=== * === * ===
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
* "Maduro Confirms Venezuelan Economy in Recession, Announces 'Recovery Plan' for 2015" (2014-12-31) [http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11122] [https://archive.today/ylMic]
* "Against Judicial Attacks, International Support for Venezuela’s Communes" (2014-12-22) [http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11103] [https://archive.today/iHQ7N]
=== * === * ===
Republic of Cuba
* "The Cuban Revolution: The Current Economic Reforms" (201-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cuban-revolution-the-current-economic-reforms/5422826] [https://archive.today/6OXz5]
* "An Anarchist Critique Of The Cuban 'Revolution' ", 2014-12-29 by Dave, a middle-class Euro-American anarchist in Seattle [http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2014/12/an-anarchist-critique-of-cuban.html] [https://archive.today/XbVA6]
* Speech by President Raul Castro, December 20th, 2014 [http://www.periodico26.cu/index.php/en/principal-es-2/25297-the-unwavering-confidence-in-victory-which-fidel-instilled-in-us-will-continue-to-guide-our-people] [https://archive.today/PmpFa], [begin excerpt]:
There has also been no lack of open exhortations abroad to expedite privatization, including of the main production and service sectors, which would amount to laying down the flags of socialism in Cuba.
It seems that the latter have not bothered to read the Guidelines, which clearly express and I quote, "The economic system which will prevail in Cuba will continue to be based on the people's socialist ownership of the fundamental means of production, governed by the socialist principle of distribution, from each according to his/her capacity to each according to his/her contribution", end of quote.
Closely associated with the model update is the process of gradual, I repeat, gradual decentralization of authority from the ministries to enterprises. In favor of the greater autonomy of socialist state enterprises, among other measures, their social objective was expanded and made more flexible, government contracts were defined and authority was granted for the marketing of surplus production. In addition, the elimination of administrative limitations on the payment of salaries linked to production was mandated.
It is no secret to anyone that, in our social system, unions defend the rights of workers, and to do so effectively must be the first in safeguarding not only the interests of a given collective of workers, but also the interests of the entire working class, which are, in essence, those of the entire nation. We cannot leave any opening for the development or strengthening of self-interest or greed among our workers.
[end excerpt]
* "The Cuban Epic" (2014-01-04) [http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1064.php] [https://archive.today/44Upk], [begin excerpt]:
In Cuba the basic needs of the population are covered. All families have access to food, education and health. The shortage of provisions or the lack of variety in articles of consumption do not include those goods that are indispensable for guaranteeing that coverage.
Cuba has an excellent level of school achievement. A recent study by the World Bank considers that its educational system maintains parameters of professional training in many respects similar to those of Finland, Singapore or Canada (Lamrani, 2014).
And it has achieved a life expectancy index that exceeds by five years that of the rest of the continent, and lower mortality rates in all age groups. It has the lowest average rate of malnutrition in Latin America and one of the highest percentages of homes connected to potable water systems (Navarro, 2014).
Furthermore, the country maintains the highest index of food security in the region and a very low poverty level (4%) compared with the average in Latin America (35%) (Vandepitte, 2011). The United Nations Development Program estimates that Cuba is one of the three countries in Latin America that qualifies as having a high level of development (UNDP, 2014).Cuba brought its methods in teaching literacy, in preventive medicine and military preparation to many countries in Latin America and Africa. This legacy was shared in particular with Angola and Nicaragua in the 1970s and ’80s, with Haiti (following the earthquake) and currently with Venezuela (exchange of teachers for oil) or Bolivia (doctors and surgeons with sophisticated skills).
Further evidence of Cuba's specialization in relief and solidarity actions is the recent sending of a medical team to Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic. No less than the New York Times dedicated a highly favourable editorial to this action, contrasting the risks assumed by those professionals with the U.S. reluctance to send its own missions. More shocking is the refusal of the insurance companies to cover the financing of these operations (New York Times, 2014).
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
Republic of Nicargua
* "IMF team gives Nicaragua good marks", from Nicaragua News Bulletin (2014-05-20) [http://www.nicanet.org]: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) team completed its eight day mission in Nicaragua on May 14 with the group’s chief Przemek Gajdeczka noting that, “In the last few years the economy of Nicaragua has grown at relatively high rates while at the same time strengthening macroeconomic stability. In 2013, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.6% and inflation for the year was 5.7%. In spite of a slowing in tax revenues, public sector deficit was consolidated in line with the budget and public debt has continued to decline.” The IMF predicted a growth of 4.3% for the current year. Gajdeczka said that Nicaragua does not currently have any internal threats but there could be external problems if there were to be a slowdown in the global economy or changes in the availability of international financing. IMF recommendations included “strengthening public finances, modernizing the functioning of the financial system, [and] advancing efforts to change the matrix of electricity generation.” At the same time, the recent changes made to the social security were praised as having strengthened the system.
Central Bank president Ovidio Reyes said that, “It was a positive evaluation.” He added that the de-dolarization of the economy, which had been floated by the government in the days before the IMF visit, had been postponed. “We cannot go against the current,” he said, adding that many contracts are fixed in dollars and the dollar circulates freely in the Nicaraguan economy. “It is a reality that we live with the two currencies [córdobas and dollars],” he stated.
Arturo Cruz Sequeira, former ambassador to the United States and a professor at the INCAE business school, said that the Ortega government has been better at carrying out free market macroeconomic policies with discipline and clear objectives than the Liberal party governments that preceded him. Cruz called it “responsible populism” and said that Ortega “has used the resources from Venezuela to resolve multiple immediate needs of the country and at the same time, within the formal budget, he has handled the economy with great responsibility, within the IMF program,” and has achieved “an equilibrium, satisfying the immediate needs of the people without risking the macroeconomic future.” (Informe Pastran, May 14; La Prensa, May 14)
US. (Informe Pastran, May 15, 16; Radio La Primerisima, May 15)
Updates on the EURASIA UNION (EEU), & the SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION (SCO), and allies
* "The Chinese are Coming: Beijing in the Balkans and Eastern Europe" (2015-01-04) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-chinese-are-coming-beijing-in-the-balkans/5422798] [https://archive.today/YLCfI]
=== * === * ===
Federation of Russia
* "The Functioning of the Russian Central Bank. The Ruble and the US Dollar" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-functioning-of-the-russian-central-bank-the-ruble-and-the-us-dollar/5422850] [https://archive.today/tbO9J], an article by the Russian Federation State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, explaining how foreign agencies (notably the IMF bank based at Washington, D.C.) dominate the private Central Bank of Russia through which the State Government buys loans from private financial entities, an arrangement which cedes sovereign power to foreign bureaucrats.
* "Russia's SWIFT Settlement Alternative" [http://www.batr.org/negotium/123114.html] [https://archive.today/trU8C]
* The following image is useful in showing the current struggle against USA financial domination over the Federation of Russia through the private Central Bank.
Top Left is the political leader of the CCCP 2.0 movement for economic sovereignty and a socialist Eurasian Union, representing diverse organizations including the Orthodox Church of Russia, Trade Unions, and deputies and ministers in all levels of civil government and social institutions.
Bottom Right is a "Russian" Billionaire Oligarch allied with the USA since the 1990s, when Russia's government was replaced in a coup, and publicly owned infrastructure worth trillions was privatised under the direction of the "Harvard Boys" and sold to agents of foreign clandestine operatives at 1% or less of its worth. This concentration of economic power is protected by agencies like the IMF.
In between are the political and financial actors between two opposing forces for the future of Eurasia!
---
* "U.S. War Against Russia Is Now Against Hungary Too" (2014-12-26) [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40564.htm] [https://archive.today/aWYxo]
=== * === * ===
Syrian Arab Republic
* Syria: Bashar Al Assad’s Secular Government’s Battle against ISIS Protects Pluralism, says Catholic World Report. "ISIS, Assad, and What the West is Missing About Syria December 15, 2014 Syria, once home to a unique, multireligious society, is being destroyed. The West is turning a blind eye to the real cause of the tragedy" (2014-12-15) [http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3570/ISIS_Assad_and_What_the_West_is_Missing_About_Syria.aspx?refresh=1] [https://archive.today/QFW3E]
* "OUR FULL INTERVIEW WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD" (2014-11-28) [http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Our-Interview-with-Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-661984] [https://archive.today/R6ILs]
---
* "On the class nature of the Rojava Revolution, Some concrete examples of how the Rojava revolution is anticapitalist" [http://nicolasphebus.tumblr.com/post/106580014578/some-concrete-examples-of-how-the-rojava] [https://archive.today/R4aTs]:
David Graeber, the anarchist anthropologist, just came back from an observation mission
with an Anglo-American delegation to the Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria. He expressed
a lot of enthusiasm for the revolution and was highly critical of leftists and anarchists
who did not want to engage with the Kurdish liberation movement, most notably the PKK, on
the ground that it is not pure enough. He was of course attacked by the ultraleft and was
asked for evidences that the Rojava revolution is indeed anticapitalist. Here's his answer.
-- the economy of Rojava in general and Cizire especially was of an artificially dependent agrarian economy which suppled wheat, cotton, but also petroleum to be processed elsewhere in the country (there were no mills or refineries in Cizire itself.) Roughly half of land and other resources were state owned but run effectively as private fiefdoms by various government officials or members of their family; otherwise there was a bazaar economy supplying basic needs, much of it made up of black market or smuggled goods. After the revolution the bourgeoisie almost universally fled, and Baathist-owned land and buildings were taken under public control and distributed either to local communes, which exist on each neighbourhood level, and are organised on directly democratic lines, or to municipalities governed by delegates chosen by the communes. These are allocated to various projects, ranging from Academies for popular education, to cooperatives. There have also been efforts to create publicly run mills, refineries, dairy processing plants, and the like to process raw materials that had previously had to be sent off to facilities in other parts of Syria.
-- the academy system is a key part of the economic strategy, offering 6 week intensive courses in various forms of expertise that had previously been monopolised by the Baathist, which was very much a rule-by-experts style of administration. There is a conscious strategy of deprofessionalization of knowledge to prevent the emergence of new technocratic classes. Economic academies not only train in technical knowledge but emphasise cooperative management and aim to disseminate such skills to as much of the population as possible.
[end excerpt]
* "No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper" (2014-12-29) [http://www.libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014] [https://archive.today/3j1l1].
=== * === * ===
China
* "China closer to dream of rejuvenation" (2015-01-05)
pg.1 [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150105_1211583.htm] [https://archive.today/O1Ept],
pg. 2 [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150105_1211583_1.htm] [https://archive.today/XmWu1], [begin excerpt]:
Since the "eight-point" guideline was introduced in late 2012, government spending has dramatically dropped and thrifty life and work styles are becoming popular.
A series of economic reforms has been made by the new leadership to activate the economic market and improve economic endogenous force.
More than 700 administrative approval and property registration procedures have been canceled or streamlined, covering both private and state-run enterprises.
Xi explained the "New Normal" of the Chinese economy to the world as one where the economy goes from high-speed growth to medium and high-speed growth with a continuously optimized economic structure, and from factors and investment-driven to innovation-driven.
Signs of the "New Normal" have emerged. In the first half of 2014, growth rate of the services sector surpassed that of the manufacturing industry, a significant change in structural adjustment and transformation.
[end excerpt]
* "China is still the main engine of world economy" (2015-01-05) [http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0105/c98649-8831573.html] [https://archive.today/GB6yc]
* "China is a big winner in state governance" (2015-01-05) [http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0105/c98649-8831407.html] [https://archive.today/U27rb], [begin excerpt]: In his speech, Yang, dean of Academy of State Governance of Renmin University of China, analyzed China’s governance modernization from the perspective of world politics. "In a limited government, the power of government to intervene in the exercise of civil liberties is restricted by law and all national organs exercise their power within the boundary of laws," Yang said. However, any institutional changes in the laws bring unintended consequences. Government and interest groups have controlled too many resources leading to collusions between government and businessmen, which triggers monopoly in many industries. [end excerpt]
* "China's harsher environmental protection law to take effect" (2015-01-04) [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20150104_1211540.htm] [https://archive.today/KfydZ]
* "China experimental fast reactor runs at full capacity" (2014-12-23) [http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/China_experimental_fast_reactor_runs_at_full_capacity_999.html] [https://archive.today/nMkPM]
* China's Military Weapons Online Marketplace (homepage archived 2015-01-04) [https://archive.today/3u7Rg]
=== * === * ===
Vietnam
* "Washington’s Quiet Proxy War Against Vietnam" (2015-01-03) [http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/03/washington-s-quiet-proxy-war-against-vietnam/] [https://archive.today/OI1Cq]
=== * === * ===
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/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly U.S. Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims" (2015-01-02) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/01/north-koreasony-story-shows-eager-u-s-media-still-regurgitate-government-claims/] [https://archive.today/2iCTt]
* "North Korea: Dirty Tricks to Justify US Aggression and Regime Change; Anti-communist manipulation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/north-korea-dirty-tricks-to-justify-us-aggression-and-regime-change/5422646] [https://archive.today/EsEMd]
* "UN Security Council Prepares to Lynch North Korea. Manipulation to Justify Aggressive War?" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/un-security-council-prepares-to-lynch-north-korea-manipulation-to-justify-aggressive-war/5421637] [https://archive.today/0x7Ty]
* "Kim Jong un and the Demonization of North Korea. A Distorted Mirror of Reality" (2014-12-28) [http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-45/45-43/45-43-End%20of%20North%20Korea.html] [https://archive.today/4Hy3h]
* "False Flagging the World towards War. The CIA Weaponizes Hollywood" (2014-12-27) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/false-flagging-the-world-towards-war/5421649] [https://archive.today/Xp8Rt], [begin excerpt]:
The Interview was made with the direct and open involvement of CIA and Rand Corporation operatives for the express purpose of destabilizing North Korea. Star and co-director Seth Rogen has admitted that he worked “directly with people who work in the government as consultants, who I’m convinced are in the CIA”. Originally conceived to be a plot taking place in an “unnamed country”, Sony Pictures co-chairman Michael Lynton, who also sits on the board of the Rand Corporation, encouraged the film makers to make the movie overtly about murdering Kim Jong-Un. Bruce Bennett, the Rand Corporation’s North Korean specialist, also had an active role, expressing enthusiasm that the film would assist regime change and spark South Korean action against Pyongyang. Other government figures from the State Department, even operatives connected to Hillary Clinton, read the script.
The infantile, imbecilic, tasteless, reckless idiots involved with The Interview, including the tasteless Rogen and co-director Evan Goldberg, worked with these military-intelligence thugs for months. “Hung out” with them. They do not seem to have had any problem being the political whores for these Langley death merchants. In fact, they had fun doing it. They seem not to give a damn, or even half a damn, that the CIA and the Pentagon have used them, and co-opted the film for an agenda far bigger than the stupid movie itself. All they seem to care about was that they are getting publicity, and more publicity, and got to make a stupid movie. Idiots.
The CIA has now succeeded in setting off a wave of anti-North Korea war hysteria across America. Witness the ignorant squeals and cries from ignorant Americans about how “we can’t let North Korea blackmail us”, “we can’t let Kim take away our free speech”. Listen to the ridiculous debate over whether Sony has the “courage” to release the film to “stand up to the evil North Koreans” who would “blackmail America” and “violate the rights” of idiot filmgoers, who now see it as a “patriotic duty” to see the film.
[end excerpt]
---
* "North Korea Slashes out against U.S. Human Rights Violations, Statement to the United Nations" (2015-01-05) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/pyongyangs-rebuttal-north-korea-slashes-out-against-u-s-human-right-violations-statement-to-the-united-nations/5422674] [https://archive.today/GkjxY], [begin excerpt]:
Photo showing demonstration at the UN in New York by Pan Korean Alliance for Reunification in U.S.A. (KANCC).
Today the U.S. and other Western countries are increasingly cracking down on the human rights of the peoples of their countries, including on their socio-economic and cultural rights as well as on political freedom and rights.
In the U.S., whose population accounts for 5% of the world’s population, prisoners there account for 25% of the total number of prisoners in the world.
Today, when the world is rushing to scale a new peak of human civilization, medieval torture and other kinds of human rights violations are being committed in the prison camps of the U.S.
Racial discrimination in the U.S., a self-proclaimed model country in the field of human rights, is cutting a wide swath with official and open sanction.
The chain of murders of innocent young black people committed by white policemen recently threw the whole world into a state of consternation.
Many working people, denied the rights to an existence and work, are wandering the streets as unemployed in the U.S. and other Western countries.
Extreme selfishness, misanthropy and such crimes as murder, robbery, rape, prostitution, racial discrimination, and discrimination and maltreatment of American Indians and immigrants are prevalent in American society, and people live in constant fear and misery.
Under the signboard of “defending human rights” the U.S. launches aggressive wars, enslaving peoples of other countries and openly interfering in their internal affairs, and thus violates their human rights. These aggressive wars not only trample upon their sovereignty but also claim the lives of their peoples, threaten their right to existence and restrict their socio-economic and cultural progress. Typical examples are the armed aggression against Grenada, the air campaign against the former Yugoslavia and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[end excerpt]
5th WORLD NEWS
Tibet (Buddhist Kingdom of the Eternal Highlands) is historically recognized as a sovereign theocratic government by the USA, Great Britain (1904), and other national governments and governments-in-exile, with the Office of the Dalai Lama acting as Head of State for Tibet, administering jurisdictional claims overlapping nearly 25% of China's homeland jurisdiction which includes trillions of dollars of rare earth metals (uranium, gold, etc.), with open citizenship to the almost 7 million people who altogether worldwide are the Tibetan nation.
* "How do Chinese and Western media view China-Tibet relation?" (2009) [http://howdochineseandwesternmediasview.weebly.com/50-years.html] [https://archive.today/nlPPd]
* News about Tibet from China: [http://en.tibetol.cn]
* News from the Tibet Government-in-Exile: [http://www.dalailama.com], [http://www.tibetcity.com], [Tibet.Net]
---
* "Dalai Lama Meets Friends of Tibet" (2012-11-26) [http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/883-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-meets-friends-of-tibet-and-attends-centenary-celebrations-of-the-malankara-orthodox-syrian-church] [https://archive.today/1BuLF], [begin excerpt]: Sethu Das, founder of the Friends of Tibet, a people's movement to keep the issue of Tibet alive through direct action, escorted His Holiness the Dalai Lama through a small exhibition of photographs and artifacts related to Tibet in Kochi this morning. Then, before an assembly of friends of Tibet and patients who have benefited from Tibetan medical camps, he gave him a fulsome welcome. He described the development of medical camps providing people with access to the Tibetan Medical Tradition, which have since grown into a programme called Wellbeing. He said, “It is the tragedy that has befallen Tibet that has brought this ancient medical tradition to the notice and benefit of people in India, as it has indeed brought His Holiness’s blessed presence among us today.” Dr Dorje Rabten Neshar read a report explaining that since they began in 2010, the Tibetan medical camps have acquired 2000 registered patients who are served by two Tibetan physicians. These patients have all been alerted by word of mouth alone. Many of them with chronic ailments have made a remarkable improvement and there is a demand for more Wellbeing camps in other towns. [end excerpt]
---
* "The (Justifiably) Angry Marxist An interview with the Dalai Lama" (2013-08-29) [http://www.tricycle.com/blog/justifiably-angry-marxist] [https://archive.today/TErQZ] [begin excerpt]:
[question] One thing that particularly interests me is your use of the word “exploitation.” This is the second time you’ve used that word, and I am surprised since it is a left-wing, Marxist term.
[answer] It’s true. I am also an exploiter. I hold the position of a high monk, a big lama. Unless I exercise self-restraint, there is every possibility for me to exploit others.
On my first visit to Mongolia, they arranged a tour to various institutions and a museum. At the museum, I saw a drawing of a lama with a huge mouth, eating up the people. This was in 1979, when Mongolia was still a Communist country. The Communists said that religion was a drug, and every religious institution was an exploiter. Even monks were exploiters. Even donations distributed to the monastic community were considered to be a form of exploitation.
When I came to the spot with that picture, the officials were a little bit nervous. I deliberately looked at it and I said, “It’s true.” Of course, I agree. I am not only a socialist but also a bit leftist, a communist. In terms of social economy theory, I am a Marxist. I think I am farther to the left than the Chinese leaders. [Bursts out laughing.] They are capitalists. [Laughs again.]
[question] That’s true. In the real world exploitation exists, and there is a great and unjust gap between rich and poor. My question is, from a Buddhist perspective, how should we deal with inequality and social injustice? Is it un-Buddhist to feel anger and indignation?
[answer] When faced with economic or any other kind of injustice, it is totally wrong for a religious person to remain indifferent. Religious people must struggle to solve these problems.
Here the issue is how to deal with anger. There are two types of anger. One type arises out of compassion; that kind of anger is useful. Anger that is motivated by compassion or a desire to correct social injustice, and does not seek to harm the other person, is a good anger that is worth having. For example, a good parent, out of concern for a child’s behavior, may use harsh words or even strike him. He may be angry, but there is no trace of any desire to hurt him.
Japanese temples often enshrine the fierce manifestation of [the Buddhist deity] Acala. [Opens his mouth to make a face like an angry deity.] But Acala has that fierce expression not out of hatred or a desire to harm sentient beings, but out of concern for them, to correct their mistakes, like a parent’s desire to correct a child’s mistakes. As you rightly mentioned, anger brings more energy, more determination, more forceful action to correct injustice.
The question is a person’s state of mind or the motivation that causes the action. When we act, that act arises out of a cause that already exists in us. If we act when our inner motivation is hatred toward another person, then that hatred expressed as anger will lead to destructive action. This is negative action. But if we act out of consideration for the other person, if we are motivated by affection and sympathy, then we can act out of anger because we are concerned with that person’s well-being.
[end excerpt]
* "Occupy Buddhism Or Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist" (2012-05-01) [http://www.tricycle.com/web-exclusive/occupy-buddhism] [https://archive.today/7EC9F]
* "Exclusive Interview - 'I am a supporter of globalization' " (2009-07-10) [http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/362-exclusive-interview---i-am-a-supporter-of-globalization] [https://archive.today/M5KIt] [begin excerpt]:
[question] These liberal attitudes don't really fit to someone who once called himself a Marxist monk. Do you still see yourself as one?
[answer] Yes, I still believe I am a Marxist monk. I don't see a contradiction here either. In the Marxist theory the focus lies on the just allocation of wealth. From a moral perspective this is a correct claim. Capitalism, on the other hand, values the accruement of wealth - the allocation of it doesn't matter here initially. In a worst case scenario the rich will keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer.
[question] Why is it then that you are so against communism and socialism?
[answer] Communism? What is communism? Is China a communist country? (He laughs out loud). I am confused. The Chinese communists are communists without a communist ideology. But if you mean socialism, like it first existed in the Eastern Block and now in North Korea and Cuba, I believe it goes against human nature; it destroys creativity. It is not enough for people to have just enough to eat, clothes and a roof over their heads. We need to self-actualize ourselves. Buddha encouraged entrepreneurs to become successful through dependability and sales skills. Those who are successful can help others.
[question] Yet you used to be a long-time admirer of Mao Zedong. How could you be so wrong?
[answer] I am still convinced that Mao Zedong was a Marxist, who wanted to help workers and farmers, in his early years up until the mid-1950s. In the mid-1950s I spent six months in Beijing and another four months in many other parts of China. The party leaders, to me, seemed really dedicated to their cause.
[question] What impressed you about Mao?
[answer] He always looked like a farmer - his clothes were old and ruined. And when he spoke, he did so very slowly, so every word had an importance. He never beat around the bush, never said niceties; he always came straight to the point. All of his party members that I met back then were like that, which impressed me.
[question] How did Mao fail, in your opinion?
[answer] Mao once told that the communist party must endure criticism, and that self-criticism was very important. Without criticism every system of power is like a fish without water. But then, in 1957, suddenly all party officials who dared to criticize were eliminated. That was the end of Maoism. The system failed because of its own arrogance and a lack of self-discipline. The abolishment of private property led to many belongings ending up in the hands of a state that devolved into a party elite which exerted an authoritarian reign - much like aristocrats of the past. [end excerpt]
* "I am a Marxist, Dalai Lama says" (2015-01-13) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/I-am-a-Marxist-Dalai-Lama-says/articleshow/45870660.cms] [https://archive.today/Viy0o]
* "I am a Marxist: Dalai Lama" (2015-01-13) [http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/i-am-a-marxist-dalai-lama-726734] [https://archive.today/BVcFc] [begin excerpt]: "We must have a human approach. Capitalism (is) good, socialism (is) wonderful. As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist... still I am Marxist," he said during a lecture at the Presidency University in Kolkata.
"Many Marxist leaders are now capitalists in their thinking. It depends on their thinking, motivation and wider perspective," he said. "In capitalist countries, there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. In Marxism, there is emphasis on equal distribution which is important," he said. [end excerpt]
---
* "Tibetan Parliament passes resolution concerning Dolgyal" (2014-03-19) [http://www.tibetcity.com/news/tibetan-parliament-passes-resolution-concerning-dolgyal/] [https://archive.today/7IY2c]. Many Tibetan Buddhists promote a guardian deity called Dorje Shugden, a deity rejected by the Dalai Lama who has also purged his Tibet-in-Exile government of practitioners devoted to Dorje Shugden, whom he refers to as Dolgyal (Demon King). For more information, read the Wikipedia.org article archived at [https://archive.today/Lj0rB].
Hundreds of practitioners from the USA and EU staged protests coordinated by the "International Shugden Community of Buddhists" against the Dalai Lama during 2014 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Washington DC, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Frankfurt, alongside the release of a book titled "The False Dalai Lama: The Worst Dictator in the Modern World". Members say they can’t get jobs with the Tibet-in-Exile government in India because of their beliefs, and that their nuns and monks have been kicked out of monasteries.
* "Protesters denounce the Dalai Lama as a ‘dictator’ " (2014-03-06) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/protesters-denounce-the-dalai-lama-as-a-dictator/2014/03/06/5f758972-a57c-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html] [https://archive.today/dqGlZ]
* "Shugden Buddhists protest during Dalai Lama’s visit to Berkeley" (2014-02-23) [http://www.dailycal.org/2014/02/23/shugden-buddhists-protest-dalai-lamas-visit-berkeley/] [https://archive.today/0dZFF]
---
* "2008 Tibetan unrest" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tibetan_unrest] [https://archive.today/gF4Oj], showing actions in support of the Tibet Government-in-Exile, in cities across the combined jurisdictions within China which are constituent to the claims by the Tibet Government-in-Exile
---
Articles published by China government:
* "Real Dalai Lama" (2014-03-18) [http://en.tibetol.cn/01/02/201403/t1384918.htm] [https://archive.today/rG6qo]
* "Freedom of religious belief guaranteed in Tibet" (2013-11-25) [http://en.tibetol.cn/01/02/201311/t1366668.htm] [https://archive.today/sJLq5]
* "Tibetans mark Serfs' Emancipation Day" (2014-03-28) [http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Harmonioussociety/Minorities/t20140330_1163014.htm] [https://archive.today/lT6Hj]
---
Although the Buddhist Kingdoms of Tibet and Mongolia co-seceded from the Empire of China during January of 1913, neither of these governments had geographers officially delineating their borders. However, the following map shows "Greater Tibet" claimed by the Tibet Government-in-Exile, as recognized by the "Tibet 2008 - 2009" Special Topic Paper from the USA Federal Congressional-Executive Commission on China [http://www.cecc.gov/publications/issue-papers/cecc-special-topic-paper-tibet-2008-2009] [https://archive.today/ia04n], view the official map, archived here [https://archive.today/zweMw].
* "BRIEF HISTORY OF TIBET" [http://www.friends-of-tibet.org.nz/tibet.html] [https://archive.today/Bvxy5], [begin excerpt]
In 1876, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso, at the age of 19, took charge of the duties of state from Regent Choekyi Gyaltsen Kundeling. He was an outstanding personality and helped Tibet to reassert her rightful sovereignty in international affairs.
At this period the British had close and profitable ties with China. The Chinese had persuaded the British that they exercise ‘suzerainty’ over Tibet. Therefore on September 13, 1876, the Sino-British Chefoo Convention, which granted Britain the ‘right’ of sending a mission of exploration into Tibet, was signed. The mission was abandoned when the Tibetans refused to allow them on the grounds that they did not recognise China’s authority. Two more similar agreements, the Peking Convention of July 24, 1886 and the Calcutta Convention of March 17, 1890, were also repudiated by the Tibetans.
The Tibetan Government refused to have anything to do with the British who were dealing over their heads with the Chinese. This coincided with new contacts between Russia and Tibet around 1900-1.
There followed an interchange of letters and presents between the Dalai Lama and the Russian Czar. This strengthened British fears about Russian involvement in Tibetan affairs. As the Russian power in Asia was growing, the British Government felt that their interest was at stake. Tibet was invaded by a British expeditionary force under Colonel Younghusband, which entered Lhasa on August 3, 1904.
A treaty was signed between Tibet and Great Britain on September 7, 1904. During the British invasion Tibet conducted her affairs as an independent country. Peking did not so much as protest against the British invasion of Tibet.
When the British invaded Tibet, the 13th Dalai Lama went to Mongolia. The Manchus, who were then ruling China, made one last attempt to interfere in Tibet through the military campaigns of the infamous Chao Erhfeng. Mhen the Dalai Lama was in Kumbum monastery in the province of Amdo, he received two messages – one from Lhasa, urging him to return with all speed as they feared for his safety and could not oppose the intruding troops of Chao Erhfeng, and the other from Peking, requesting him to visit the Chinese capital. The Dalai Lama chose to go to Peking with the hope of prevailing upon the Chinese Emperor to stop the military agression against Tibet and to withdraw his troops.
When the Dalai Lama finally returned to Lhasa in 1909, he found that, contrary to all the promises he had received in Peking, Chao Erhfeng’s troops were at his heels. During the annual Monlam festival of 1910, some 2,000 Manchu and Chinese soldiers under the command of General Chung Ying entered Lhasa and indulged in carnage, rape, murder, plunder, and wanton destruction. Once again the Dalai Lama was forced to leave Lhasa. He appointed a Regent to rule in his absence and left for the southern town of Dromo with the intention to go to British India if necessary. Events in Lhasa and the pursuing Chinese troops forced him to leave his country once again.
In India the Dalai Lama and his ministers appealed to the British Government to help Tibet. Meanwhile the Manchu occupation force tried to subvert the Tibetan Government and to divide Tibet into Chinese provinces – exactly what, not half a century later, the Communist Chinese would do.
But, when the news of the 1911 Revolution in China reached Lhasa, the Chinese troops mutinied against their Manchu officers and attacked the Amban’s residence. Fighting broke out between rival Manchu and Chinese generals. Then, in a desperate attempt to regain their dwindling hold in Lhasa, the Chinese attacked the Tibetans. By then, however, the Tibetans had reorganised themselves with orders coming from the Dalai Lama in India. Chinese troops in Lhasa, and elsewhere in Tibet were overcome by the Tibetans and finally expelled in 1912. During this period of fighting and confusion the new ruler of China, President Yuan Shih-kai, tried to send military reinforcements to the beleagured troops while at the same time trying to placate the Tibetans. He apologised for the excesses and said that he had restored the Dalai Lama who wrote back saying that he was not asking the Chinese Government for any rank as he intended to exercise both spiritual and temporal rule in Tibet and declared Tibet’s independence.
In January 1913 a bilateral treaty was signed between Tibet and Mongolia at Urga. In that treaty both countries declared themselves free and separate from China.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, having returned from India in January 1913, issued a formal declaration of the complete independence of Tibet, dated the eighth day of the first month of the Water-Ox year (March 1913). The document also clarified:
“Now the Chinese intention of colonising Tibet under the patron-priest relationship has faded like a rainbow in the sky”.
The Great Thirteeth Dalai Lama / Last of the Chinese troops leaving Tibet for repatriation via India 1913
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama started international relations, introduced modern postal and telegraph services and, despite the turbulent period in which he ruled, introduced measures to modernise Tibet. On December 17, 1933 he passed away.
[end excerpt]
BAY AREA SOLIDARITY, fundraisers and campaigns seeking support
On Behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal,
A Contribution Request In loving memory of Samiya and in tribute to her fierce fight for life.
Samiya “Goldii” Abdullah, a daughter of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal died on December 17, 2014 after years of battle with breast cancer. Samiya would have been 37 this January 9 and is survived by two young daughters, Aiyanah and Aaiyah, affectionately known as Dolly and Puddy, ages eleven and four.
(Photo: Wadiya Jamal, Samiya 1978-2014, and Dolly)
Samiya was a remarkable woman. She was accomplished as a musician, an activist and rapper on social justice, particularly in the struggle for Mumia’s freedom. She devoured books and education. During her long, often debilitating illness, Samiya finished her Masters Degree in School and Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania with honors. She was dedicated to her young daughters and wanted them to grow up loving each other as much as she did her brothers and sisters. And she wanted her daughters to see Mumia (called “Pop Pop” by them) walk out of prison and home with their grandmother, Wadiya.
Samiya's active fight for Mumia's freedom, began at the young age of four. Mumia wrote about this in “The Visit” printed in Live from Death Row in 1994. This was recreated in the movie "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary."
"My father is still considered to be a dangerous individual … his mind is what they fear, there is over- whelming evidence that would exonerate him of his conviction. He is an innocent man and the commonwealth has always known this, but being too Black, too smart, and too strong … The government will silence anyone that possesses the power to open the minds of the people." —Goldii
(Photo: Samiya (Goldii) Performs at Mumia's 55th Birthday & Book Release Party, 2009)
Samiya’s strength, character and spirit were nurtured by Wadiya and Mumia and are being passed on to her daughters. On behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal, this is a request for funds to assist Wadiya for care of her granddaughters, Dolly and Puddy. A financial contribution of any amount will be greatly appreciated.Please send checks or money orders, made payable to Wadiya Jamal:
Wadiya Jamal
P.O. Box 19404
Kingsessing Postal Station
Philadelphia, PA 19143-9998
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* "Academics, Journalists and Activists Urge Support for Venezuelanalysis.com" [http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11099] [https://archive.today/Mc6vz]
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* "UK Home Office Flat Out Rejected Nuclear Winter Threat in 1984" (2014-12-30) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20141230/1016402236.html] [https://archive.today/BFZiH]
* "Nuclear Winter" art by EmilisB [https://archive.today/ZQwcL]
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Heroes of the 1970s Uprising [http://notmytribe.com/2010/revisiting-the-weather-undergrounds-1970-pantheon-of-empire-fighters-820849.html] [https://archive.today/4hlfu]
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* "Behold: the World's Biggest Archive of Skinhead Ephemera" (2014-12-25) [http://www.vice.com/read/toby-mott-interview-skinhead-book-324] [https://archive.today/XHTPK]
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* "History Lesson: America Is the Same ‘Ol Oligarchy It Was over a Century Ago" (2015-01-05) [http://truthstreammedia.com/history-lesson-america-is-the-same-ol-oligarchy-it-was-over-a-century-ago/] [https://archive.today/4gesi], [begin article excerpt]:
Tinkering around in an old bookstore in a small Texas town, we came across a set of old books on democracy; we got the first seven volumes of a set entitled, “The March of Democracy: A History of the United States“ written by James Truslow Adams — the guy who coined the term “The American Dream” The first book’s copyright is 1932. The last book ends in 1958.
Fascinating stuff…For example, in volume four “America and World Power,” the book discusses how “Gradually and quite naturally, there grew up the belief in a great conspiracy on the part of the very rich to ruin the poor.”
Read this and tell me — does any of it sound even the least bit familiar to you?
[begin book excerpt] Most strikingly in the public eye were the great Titans of the new business era, the coal and meat “barons” and the copper, railway, steel, and other “kings,” men of the type of the elder J.P. Morgan, of James J. Hill, William H. Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Frick, William H. Clark, and Rockefeller. Such men had certain broad traits in common, differ as they might from each other as individuals. They were men of wide economic but intensely narrow social vision, and of colossal driving power and iron wills. They could lay their economic plans with imperial vision in time and space, but for the effect of their acts on society they cared nothing whatever. They claimed the right to rule the economic destinies of the people in any way that would enure their own personal advantage. Illogically, they insisted upon the theory of laissez-faire for all except themselves, while they demanded and received every favor they wished in the way of special privileges from the government, as in the tariff and the silver purchase Act. The whole machinery of government must be at their disposal when desired — legislation, court decisions, and Federal troops. They combined their business units into “trusts” and combinations of almost unlimited power, yet they insisted on “freedom of contract” when dealing with labor, whose organization in any form they almost wholly refused to sanction. [end book excerpt]
In fact, in volume five, “The Record of 1933–1941,” Adams records the death of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., as the end of the era of this great wealth — never to occur again.
[begin book excerpt] On May 23, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., died at the age of 97. Owner at one time of the largest fortune in the world, his lifespan had covered the entire history of American business from before the Civil War… Nearly $350,000,000 are handled by three of the Rockefeller Foundations for education, medical research and other uses. Whatever may be thought as to the methods of accumulating the beginnings of the fortune in a period of different business ethics and social outlook, no other man through his financial gifts has ever so widely benefited mankind. With our income and inheritance taxes no other such fortune will ever again be accumulated, and his death marked the end of an era in American history. [end book excerpt]
And so that’s the end of the story, kids…
Everything ended happily ever after.
Well, not quite.
Despite appearances, the shift on the part of the Rockefellers and other Robber Barons of the day from outright monopoly to “philanthropic” “non-profit” charity work was not an end to the dominance by the super-rich of the early 2oth Century, but an intensification of their undue influence. The taxation of the wealthy as well as the anti-trust actions of the day, which included busting up megacorpses like Standard Oil and AT&T, were perhaps well meaning but fundamentally failed to reign in the disparity of power.
Instead, new tax laws, in reality, acted to restrict new wealth from reaching the heights of the oligarchy, allowing “the elite” the keep their own, and initiate new members as desired. The tax-free status of many institutions – including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Ford Foundation – allowed the incredibly wealthy to a) shield their fortunes from taxation, b) appear to do good works and boost public opinion of their principle members while c) influencing, writing and developing official public policy through the steering mechanisms of its own tax-free grant making, think tank and research powers. Much social engineering has taken place – with far too little public notice – through these bodies. Additionally, d) many of its directors and board members were in “respectable” positions to shift into official government positions through the revolving door without appearing to be acting on behalf of their corporate masters.
The Reece Committee Hearings, conducted in 1953, attempted to probe the role of tax-free foundations in public life and uncovered many outrageous and conspiratorial actions taking place, including very apparent agendas advancing a one-world corporate-dominated government.
[end article excerpt]
* Dodd Report to the Reece Committee on Foundations (1954) [https://archive.org/stream/DoddReportToTheReeceCommitteeOnFoundations-1954-RobberBaron/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954]
Since 1908, robber baron oligarchs have been using a network of private organizations to hijack foreign diplomacy, localities, and public education, under the disguise of "charitable organizations" or "foundations". This is not a "conspiracy theory", rather it is a fact - as determined in congressional hearings in 1953. This rare PDF file is the digitized prime record of the Dodd report to those hearings. The robber baron families have tried strenuously to keep this matter under wraps, but you can download and preserve your own copy here.
* The Reece Hearings Investigation on Tax Exempt Foundations (1953) [https://archive.org/stream/TheSubversionOfAmericaByTaxExemptFoundations-1953Investigation-The/SubversionOfAmericaByTaxExemptFoundations-1953Investigation-Reece-hearings-h-res-217#page/n0/mode/2up]
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* "Ten Modern Methods of Mind Control" [http://www.globalresearch.ca/10-modern-methods-of-mind-control/5422942] [https://archive.today/OMZjW], [begin excerpt]:
2. Advertising and Propaganda – Edward Bernays has been cited as the inventor of the consumerist culture that was designed primarily to target people’s self-image (or lack thereof) in order to turn a want into a need. This was initially envisioned for products such as cigarettes, for example. However, Bernays also noted in his 1928 book, Propaganda, that “propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” This can be seen most clearly in the modern police state and the growing citizen snitch culture, wrapped up in the pseudo-patriotic War on Terror. The increasing consolidation of media has enabled the entire corporate structure to merge with government, which now utilizes the concept of propaganda placement. Media; print, movies, television, and cable news can now work seamlessly to integrate an overall message which seems to have the ring of truth because it comes from so many sources, simultaneously. When one becomes attuned to identifying the main “message,” one will see this imprinting everywhere. And this is not even to mention subliminal messaging.
3. Predictive Programming – Many still deny that predictive programming is real. I would invite anyone to examine the range of documentation put together by Alan Watt and come to any other conclusion. Predictive programming has its origins in predominately elitist Hollywood, where the big screen can offer a big vision of where society is headed. Just look back at the books and movies which you thought were far-fetched, or “science fiction” and take a close look around at society today. For a detailed breakdown of specific examples, Vigilant Citizen is a great resource that will probably make you look at “entertainment” in a completely different light.
[end excerpt]
=== * === * ===
During 2001-09-11, the USA Military CONUS Command over domestic operations was undergoing a wargame overseen by Vice-President Richard Cheney, and all military aircraft was under orders to stand down, even when civilian jets were crashed into the Twin Towers of New York and into the Pentagon at Washington DC.
* "The Claim about the Time of Dick Cheney’s Entry into the White House Bunker"
View the source materials listed after the article at [http://www.consensus911.org/point-mc-3/] [https://archive.today/1Sbmy]:
The Official Account -
Vice President Dick Cheney took charge of the government’s response to the 9/11 attacks after he entered the PEOC (the Presidential Emergency Operations Center), a.k.a. “the bunker”.
The 9/11 Commission Report said1 that Cheney did not enter the PEOC until almost 10:00 AM, which was at least 20 minutes after the violent event at the Pentagon that killed more than 100 people.
The Best Evidence -
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta told the 9/11 Commission that, after he joined Cheney and others in the bunker at approximately 9:20 AM, he listened to an ongoing conversation between Cheney and a young man, which took place when “the airplane was coming into the Pentagon.”2
After the young man, having reported for the third time that the plane was coming closer, asked whether “the orders still stand,” Cheney emphatically said they did. The 9/11 Commission Report, by claiming that Cheney did not enter the PEOC until long after the Pentagon was damaged, implies that this exchange between Cheney and the young man – which can most naturally be understood as Cheney’s confirmation of a stand-down order – could not have occurred.
However, testimony that Cheney was in the PEOC by 9:20 was reported not only by Mineta but also by Richard Clarke3 and White House photographer David Bohrer.4 Cheney himself, speaking on “Meet the Press” five days after 9/11, reported that he had entered the PEOC before the Pentagon was damaged.5
The 9/11 Commission’s attempt to bury the exchange between Cheney and the young man confirms the importance of Mineta’s report of this conversation.
---
* "The Walls Are Crumbling Down Around 9/11 - Why?" (2014-08-05) [http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35537/Jeffrey-Berwick-The-Walls-Are-Crumbling-Down-Around-911-Why] [https://archive.today/Xm2Mk]
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* "An Unconditional Citizen's Income" (2015-01-06) [http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1065.php] [https://archive.today/oTtCv]
Guaranteed Income is addressed in the following article from a monopolist news source in the USA.
* "How to Fix Poverty: Write Every Family a Basic Income Check" (2014-12-14) [http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/26/how-fix-poverty-write-every-family-basic-income-check-291583.html] [https://archive.today/Ad9Zd].
Not mentioned in the article:
* Richard Nixon's "Negative Income Tax (NIT)" (ca. 1968), which had nearly been passed by the Federal Congress [https://web.archive.org/web/20120917040601/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax#Implementation]. Information from [https://archive.today/9yXQs]: The centerpiece of Nixon's welfare reform was the replacement of much of the welfare system with a negative income tax, a favorite proposal of conservative economist Milton Friedman. The purpose of the negative income tax was to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work.
* a basic income guarantee enables high school students who so wish to stay in school rather than having to leave for financial reasons. This, along with a significant reduction in health care costs, was a demonstrated effect of the 3 to 4 year Mincome experiment in Dauphin, Manitoba in the 1970's;
* George McGovern's "demo-grants" (1972). Information from "Welfare alternatives: a report with recommendations based upon the public welfare study of the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, and related materials (1976)" [https://archive.org/details/welfareal00unit]:
The Reform Alternatives -
There are several basic alternatives for improving the income support program mess. These include: incremental reform centered upon the AFDC program; enactment of comprehensive income supplements; enactment of demogrants; reliance upon an enlarged group of non-cash or in-kind programs; and enactment of work-conditional income supplements.
The demogrant approach could be viewed a variant of the comprehensive income supplement approach, under which basic benefit amounts are paid to all citizens regardless of income. The children's allowances paid universally in several European countries are an example of demogrants. The Joint Economic Committee's proposal to substitute a uniform rebatable tax credit per person for our present personal exemption and low-income allowance is another example.
Senator McGovern's 1972 campaign proposal to provide $1,000 to every American citizen is an example of a proposal in which demogrants would be used as the major means of income support. The National Urban League recently has advocated a similar proposal, labeled a refundable credit income tax.
Although the demogrant benefits technically do not phase out with increased income, most responsible programs for large demogrants are accompanied by a proposed overhaul of the present income tax system.
In addition to the elimination of many so-called tax loopholes, these proposals generally change the present progressive tax rate to a flat rate in the 35- to 50-percent magnitude. Of course, this rate effectively determines the income at which families begin to pay taxes because their tax liability exceeds the demogrant for which they qualify. Rates taxes actually paid would be progressive.
Simplicity and low benefit tax rates are the most attractive parts of the universal demogrant alternative. Its universality also may be a political advantage, although the fate of Senator McGovern's $1,000 per person proposal argues otherwise for demogrants large enough to replace the current income support programs.
Along those lines, I must conclude that the cost of any such demogrant alternative makes the approach totally unrealistic at this time. The amount of tax increases required to finance the National Urban League's demogrant proposals, assuming the enactment of the tax reform which the League's plan also advocate, is estimated to have been in the $31 billion to $47 billion range. Furthermore, the National Urban League's rax reform goals are far more ambitious than Cong is likely to achieve in the foreseeable future: the more ambitious option would have increased taxable income by 72.1 percent in 1970. while the less ambitions option would have increased taxable income bv 57.9 percent. The only way Congress could adopt the National Urban League's demogrant option if it falls considerably short of the tax reform proposals would l>e to increase tax rates for persons with moderate incomes far more drastically than I think is acceptable. A comprehensive income supplement plan, such as a negative income tax. moves the system in the same direction as a demogrant approach but is a far more realistic option. A closer look is warranted at both of the detailed proposals of this type which have been developed in recent years, the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy's proposal and HETV's income supplement program.
* John Burton, a Federal Congress member during the early 1970s who considered himself a socialist, introduced a bill in the 1970's to limit income to $50,000 a year, with the excess collected to provide a basic income for the general population.
=== * === * ===
In order to know what makes an enemy evil, you have to know the truth.
It is estimated that the USSR government (1922 to 1992) killed up to 1,500,000 people through political repression, prison conditions, and in suppressing religious uprisings. Compare this to the early 1930s when the USA economic dictators instituted a regime that killed over 7 million people of lower-income through "tramp laws" and other methods of punishing starving workers during the Great Depression (more information below). This does not include the millions of Chicanos (Mexican-Americas) forcibly moved out of the USA, up to 3 million during the early 1930s. Nor does it include the casualties of the Jim Crow regime governing the African-American and all who were not of European descent.
While Stalin ruled the USSR during 1927 to 1953 (26 years), it is said "he killed over 20 million people", meanwhile the population grew, mortality rates from famines decreased, and life expectancy nearly doubled during that time period! The death count is extremely inexact and the original source for the death count is from a CIA agent named Robert Conquest, a man who held the Nazis in high esteem. Many casual researchers do not question the source, and reproduce Mr. Conquest's deathcount without accounting for his errors, like when he includes anybody who was ever an inmate! For an example of this, see "How Many Did Stalin Really Murder?" (2006) [http://www.distributedrepublic.net/archives/2006/05/01/how-many-did-stalin-really-murder/] [https://archive.today/EANZ6], [begin excerpt] The figure comes from the book by Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties (Macmillan 1968). In his appendix on casualty figures, he reviews a number of estimates of those that were killed under Stalin, and calculates that the number of executions 1936 to 1938 was probably about 1,000,000; that from 1936 to 1950 about 12,000,000 died in the camps; and 3,500,000 died in the 1930-1936 collectivization. Overall, he concludes: 'Thus we get a figure of 20 million dead, which is almost certainly too low and might require an increase of 50 percent or so, as the debit balance of the Stalin regime for twenty-three years." I calculate that the Communist regime, 1917-1987, murdered about 62,000,000 people, around 55,000,000 of them citizens. [end excerpt]
Debates abound concerning the deathcount, and the following link contains source reports by USA-based researchers [https://web.archive.org/web/20050211174209/http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/].
During the 1930's, one of many Nazi sympathizers in the USA, Norman Davies, had an important role in the USA monopolist media as a propagandist against socialism and the USSR, claiming that over 60 million died as a result of Stalin's policies, when during the same time period in the USSR the population increased (with the exception of World War 2). Robert Conquest's "Twenty million" deathcount emerged in the 1960s and were considered high even then. While once accepted in academia, they have consistently been revised downwards by later historians. Robert Conquest's methodology and figures are unsustainable today (he himself has revised them downwards), and it has taken decades of subsequent research to show that the figures of 30+ million are incorrect. Today the generally accepted range (largely formulated by statistical or economic historians such as Nove, Ellman, RW Davies and Wheatcroft) tends to be around the 10 million mark for the period 1927-38. Of this figure around 1-1.5 million are believed to be the result of direct repression (ie, execution or death in prison) with the remaining 7-8 million being victim to famines 1932 to 33. Obviously even within these figures there's a considerable range and degree of debate, unsurprising given that most of them are deduced from demographic data and, in the case of Robert Conquest, anecdotal evidence.
---
In the USA, during the dust bowl period, the population was on the move, novels such as The Grapes of Wrath were written, to document The American Famine. According to the US census statistics, the US lost 10 million of its population from 1931 to 1940. A Russian researcher, Boris Borisov worked on uncovering the death toll during the American Famine and his estimates are that 5 million children died of starvation and 2.5 million adults. Boris Borisov describes the movement of the American population out of the dust bowl affected region as a hunger march. President Hoover ordered regular military soldiers to crush social unrest, which comprised of hunger protests.
* "Famine killed 7 million people in USA" (2008-05-18)
pg. 1 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/19-05-2008/105255-famine-0] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090225024152/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/19-05-2008/105255-famine-0],
pg. 2 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-1] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090223215056/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-1],
pg. 3 [http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-2] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090224000326/http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/105255-2]
* "Interview with Boris Borisov" (2008-10-23) [http://rt.com/usa/interview-with-boris-borisov/] [https://archive.today/Yu55L]
[begin excerpt]
Analyzing the period of the Great Depression in the USA, the author notes a remarkable similarity with events taking place in the USSR during the 1930s. He even introduced a new term for the USA – defarming – an analogue to dispossession of wealthy farmers in the Soviet Union. “Few people know about five million American farmers (about a million families) whom banks ousted from them lands because of debts. The US government did not provide them with land, work, social aid, pension – nothing,” the article says. “Every sixth American farmer was affected by famine. People were forced to leave their homes and go to nowhere without any money and any property. They found themselves in the middle of nowhere enveloped in massive unemployment, famine and gangsterism.”
[end excerpt]
* "Where did America’s missing millions go? Holodomor Lessons" (2009-11-15) [http://rt.com/news/prime-time/where-did-americas-missing-millions-go-holodomor-lessons/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141231222120/http://rt.com/news/prime-time/where-did-americas-missing-millions-go-holodomor-lessons/], original version with more photos [http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0903/amholomor.htm] [https://archive.today/rAeIL] [begin excerpt]: It’s interesting to note that the official American statistical data (mind you, in retrospect) does not show the increase, but decrease (!) in population in 1932-1933. This is made clear in the background of more than 5 million refugees, 2.5 million who lost their homes, and 17 million unemployed – which definitely proves the fake character of official USA statistics for the period. Those who falsified American statistics in the period overdid it to such an extent that in the peak crisis years of 1932-1933, they showed mortality rates lower than in the prosperous year of 1928. The mortality records in the states are more impressive: Washington D.C. shows 15.1 deaths for every 1,000 people in 1932, confirming that mortality had grown. The calculation was done for the capital and that’s why the data looks authentic. [end excerpt]
* "America’s Most Desperate: Why are 50 million Americans starving?" (2011-09-30) [http://in.rbth.com/articles/2011/09/30/americas_most_desperate_why_are_50_million_americans_starving_13064.html] [https://archive.today/zKUfU], [begin excerpt]: What most people would describe as hunger, the USDA couches it in the euphemism “food insecure”. And deaths caused by malnutrition are passed off by hospitals and coroners as “natural causes” or “failure of bodily organs”. The US has been loath to admit such gaping holes in its socio-economic fabric. A study titled The American Famine by Russian researcher Boris Borisov says that as many as 8 million Americans died of starvation during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This massive toll lies buried in US census data, but the government has airbrushed the data out of official records. Here is what a child wrote during those years: “We changed our usual food for something more available. We used to eat bush leaves instead of cabbage. We ate frogs too. My mother and my older sister died in a year.” During the Depression millions lost their homes and literally ended up in the streets. [end excerpt]
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USSR had Central Europe (1945 to 1953), USA has Central America (1910s to today) ... and what Stalin did in the Ukraine, the USA also did to the Central Americans (artificial famines and death squads), forcing people to work on corporate farms where they once their own land, and forcing illiteracy on the poor, and forcing the people to be homeless...
The USA treated the Central Americans worse than what I heard about Stalin. That's something I learned after years of researching. Standard Fruit (Chiquita Bananas) owned most of the land in Guatemala, and killed hundreds of thousands who were defending their land against this Wall Street company... just one example of many...
But, unlike what is said about Stalin, the USA legacy in Central America is censored. Some of the BEST land in the world, and yet the MAJORITY still starve! MILLIONS of children die every decade from persistent famine!
=== * === * ===
The Police version of revolutionary Black Liberation history:
* "The Black Guerrilla Family Prison Gang" (2012-07) [http://www.policemag.com/blog/gangs/story/2012/07/the-black-guerilla-family-prison-gang.aspx] [https://archive.today/422EV]
* Panthers & Palestinian delegation at Pan-African Cultural Festival. Algeria, 1969.
=== * === * ===
One of the gains of the Chinese social revolution and socialist planned economy was that life expectancy doubled during Mao's rule.
* "Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?" [http://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/] [https://archive.today/3dIpS] [begin extract]:
The idea that “Mao was responsible for genocide” has been used as a springboard to rubbish everything that the Chinese people achieved during Mao’s rule. However, even someone like the demographer Judith Banister, one of the most prominent advocates of the “massive death toll” hypothesis has to admit the successes of the Mao era. She writes how in 1973-5 life expectancy in China was higher than in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and many countries in Latin America (see J. Banister, China’s Changing Population, Stanford University Press 1987). In 1981 she co-wrote an article where she described the People’s Republic of China as a ‘super-achiever’ in terms of mortality reduction, with life expectancy increasing by approximately 1.5 years per calendar year since the start of communist rule in 1949 (see J. Banister and S. Preston ‘Mortality in China’ in Population and Development Review Volume 7, No. 1, 1981). Life expectancy increased from 35 in 1949 to 65 in the 1970s when Mao’s rule came to an end (see M. Meissner, The Deng Xiaoping Era. An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994, Hill and Way 1996).
For example, it is claimed by many who have studied figures released by Deng Xiaoping after Mao’s death that per capita grain production did not increase at all during the Mao period. See J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman (eds) Problems of the Planned Economy, Macmillan Reference Books 1990.But how is it possible to reconcile such statistics with the figures on life expectancy that the same authors quote? Besides which these figures are contradicted by other figures. Guo Shutian, a Former Director of Policy and Law in the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, in the post-Mao era, gives a very different view of China’s overall agricultural performance during the period before Deng’s “reforms.” It is true that he writes that agricultural production decreased in five years between 1949-1978 due to “natural calamities and mistakes in the work.” However he states that during 1949-1978 the per hectare yield of land sown with food crops increased by 145.9% and total food production rose 169.6%. During this period China’s population grew by 77.7%. On these figures, China’s per capita food production grew from 204 kilograms to 328 kilograms in the period in question. See Guo Shutian ‘China’s Food Supply and Demand Situation and International Trade’ in Can China Feed Itself? Chinese Scholars on China’s Food Issue. Beijing Foreign Languages Press 2004.
Jung Chang and Jon Halliday in their book Mao: the Unknown Story reported 70 million killed by Mao, including 38 million in the Great Leap Forward. A second, seriously misleading, quotation comes at the end of the chapter on the Great Leap Forward. First Chang and Halliday write “We can now say with assurance how many people Mao was ready to dispense with.” The paragraph then gives some examples of alleged quotes by Mao on how many Chinese deaths would be acceptable in time of war. The next paragraph begins “Nor was Mao just thinking about a war situation.” They then quote Mao at the Wuchang Conference as saying “Working like this, with all these projects, half of China may well have to die.” This quotation appears in the heading of Chang and Halliday’s chapter on the Great Leap Forward. The way the authors present this quotation it looks as if Mao was saying that it might indeed be necessary for half of China to die to realize his plans to increase industrial production. But it is obvious from the actual text of the speech that what Mao is doing is warning of the dangers of overwork and over-enthusiasm in the Great Leap Forward, while using a fair bit of hyperbole. Mao is making it clear that he does not want anyone to die as a result of his industrialization drive. In this part of the discussion, Mao talks about the idea of developing all the major industries and agriculture in one fell swoop. The full text of the passage that the authors selectively quote from is as follows.
"In this kind of situation, I think if we do [all these things simultaneously] half of China’s population unquestionably will die; and if it’s not a half, it’ll be a third or ten percent, a death toll of 50 million. When people died in Guangxi [in 1955-Joseph Ball], wasn’t Chen Manyuan dismissed? If with a death toll of 50 million, you didn’t lose your jobs, I at least should lose mine; [whether I would lose my] head would be open to question. Anhui wants to do so many things, it’s quite all right to do a lot, but make it a principle to have no deaths." (published in R. MacFarquhar, T. Cheek and E. Wu (eds) The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao. From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward. The Council on East Asian Studies/Harvard University Press, 1989.)
* "China, India and class" (2005) [http://peoplesworld.org/china-india-and-class/] [https://archive.today/SIZPy], [begin excerpt]:
China and India are often equated. Both have populations in excess of one billion, both graduate large numbers of scientists and engineers. A recent survey by the Economist depicted India and China as “two tigers.”
The equation is superficial. Politically, and consequently socially and economically, the Chinese and Indian states are species of a different class. The first was created by a socialist revolution. The latter is still capitalist. India’s workers, unions and workers’ parties, however, have the same class interests as China’s workers and unions, and the Chinese state itself.
Economic differences between China and India are startling. Buried between paragraphs, for instance, without comment, the Economist reported that income per person in India was $619 in1950 less than $410 in 2003 (all in 1990 dollars) — a drop of one-third!
By contrast, income per person more than doubled in China since 1950. And 400 million people have emerged out of extreme poverty in China, with less than 10 percent now below the line.
And there is more to life than income. There is public health, nutrition, conditions of employment, housing, education, environment, transport infrastructure, electric grid, general conditions in the countryside, and so on. Experts in these fields are in broad agreement that these are generally declining in India, indeed in most of the capitalist world, the U.S. included. In China, however, they are generally although not uniformly rising. (The Economist rejected a letter pointing out these differences.) [end excerpt]
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The first map to show the indigenous nation territories of the upper Mississippi River Basin. Drawn by Pierre-Jean DeSmet for Col. Donald D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the St. Louis Department, it was used during the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty negotiations to show boundaries for the northern plains Indian tribes. A Belgian Jesuit missionary who had traveled through much of the Oregon country and the Great Plains establishing Catholic missions, Father DeSmet compiled a number of important maps of the region. The information for this map was furnished to DeSmet by Jim Bridger, the famous guide and fur trapper who led or directed at least seven trapping and hunting parties through the region between 1835 and 1850.
ACTION CALENDER
A list of gatherings, workshops, and educational events in the greater Bay Area region
North Korea, “The Interview” and Repression of the Left in South Korea
Friday, Jan. 9, 7pm
2969 Mission St., SF
Sony Corps’ racist film “The Interview” has shined a media spotlight on North Korea. What’s the real story behind the movie and the hack of Sony? The mass media obscures the real history—of the U.S. war on Korea, the thousands of U.S. troops massed on the border between South and North Korea, and the reality of two political and social systems on the Korean peninsula. At the same time as the focus here is on a racist film, the U.S.-backed government in So. Korea is carrying out mass repression against the Left and labor movements. Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation for presentations and discussion about these critical issues.Guest speaker Christine Hong
Hong is an assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz. She is on the executive board of the Korea Policy Institute, the coordinating committee of the National Campaign to End the Korean War, and part of the Working Group on Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific.
Also, update on the mass grassroots anti-police brutality movement and plans for upcoming activities.
2969 Mission St., btwn 25th and 26th Sts.
Near 24th St. BART, #14, 49 MUNI
$3 - $5 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Refreshments served. Wheelchair accessible.
For more info: 415-821-6171 or http://www.PSLweb.org.
Reese Erlich: A Reporter's First Hand Report: Assad, ISIS, Obama and Iraq War III
Saturday, January 10, 7:00 PM
Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak St. (Oak & Lincoln), Alameda
Foreign Correspondent and investigative reporter Reese Erlich discusses his new book Inside Syria: the Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect. Erlich is an award-winning journalist and the author of four books on foreign policy. A full-time freelance journalist and special correspondent, he recently reported for both CBS Radio and GlobalPost from the Kurdish Region of Iraq, interviewing Yazidis and Kurdish peshmerga and analyzing the US bombing campaign. He will discuss the growing influence of extremist rebel groups and why the US bombing campaign will hurt both Americans and people of the region. Erlich has covered the Middle East for almost 30 years, reported from Syria five times and visited all its neighboring countries.
Presented by ALAMEDA PUBLIC AFFAIRS FORUM, a continuing project of the Center for Global Peace and Democracy
Books will be available for sale. Cash or check only; no credit cards.
For more information visit [www.ReeseErlich.com]
Understanding China and its unions
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
With a report from meetings and discussions with some of China's leaders.
Presentation by Wadi'h Halabi
This basic presentation provides analysis that can help working class activists better understand China and its unions, and the nature of the profound US antagonism to China. The speakers meetings, proposals and discussions in China since 2000 are partly used to test the analysis.
Wadi'h Halabi recently returned from meetings and discussions in China -- his fifteenth visit there in fifteen years, all by invitation. His main focus has been on changes in the world political economy, and, especially, identifying and addressing weaknesses that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He believes scientific, Marxist clarity on factors in the Soviet collapse is essential for rebuilding unity of the workers of the world and complete humanity's transition to socialism. Halabi serves on the Economics Commission of the CPUSA.
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NOTE: Sat., Jan 10, 2015, 1 – 3 pm Wadi'h Halabi will speak on “The Material Basis for Revolutionary Optimism Today” sponsored by The Political Affairs Readers Group of the Communist Party, USA (Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Club). Wadi'h Halabi is a member of the Economics Commission of the Communist Party, U.S.A. He is a long-time participant/observer with various organizations in the People's Republic of China. 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
America's Juvenile Justice System / with Nell Bernstein
Wednesday, January 14, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Impact Hub, 2323 Broadway, Oakland
Nell Bernstein, author of the book "Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison" will conduct a compelling conversation about the state of america's juvenile justice system and alternatives to juvenile incarceration. For details call 415-644-9777.
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