Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay MDS. Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), at 89.5FM in the northeast San Pablo Bay Area, or on a Smart Phone [link], Desktop U-stream [link], Live Mp3 (.pls) stream [link], Netbook [link].
Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link]. Send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Northbay Uprising News scripts [link]. Archived webpages at (archive.org) and at (archive.is) are available even if the original is taken down. News links are provided for educational purposes only, and do not constitute an endorsement of political tendencies, or, of foreign governments. Circumvent "Error 451" [archive.is/WOZXx] by using the proxy server at [webproxy.to] or, by using Tor Browser [torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en].
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InDIYpendent Media
Spotlight from the Northbay Uprising Media Collective
Fly Benzo: New Music uploaded... an anthem for anyone going through adversity or repression. Please 'Like', 'Share', and Comment with your feedback... Thanks for the support...
#OneLove #ConsciousMindsAtWork #Motivation #FlyBenzo
[https://soundcloud.com/flybenzo/motivation]
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Recommended Radical Newsletters:
* Popular Resistance newsletter: "Justice Takes a Lifetime" (2016-03-19, popularresistance.org) [archive.is/eJVWx]
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ACTION HEADLINES!
Stories are reviewed and provided by Northbay MDS Committees and Affiliates
BAY AREA SOLIDARITY
Updates on campaigns for Peace, Justice, & Freedom across the greater Bay Area, Norcal, and Socal
[NoCementFactory.com] [facebook.com/groups/NoCementVallejo]
* (2016-03-16) [archive.is/BDCBu]: Artist Jean Cherie's Lady Cementha, her ORCEM inspired sculpture. See it at Artiszen Cultural Arts Center in Vallejo [http://artiszen.org]
* "Say ‘no’ to VMT/Orcem" letter by Sejal Choksi-Chugh of San Francisco Baykeeper to the editor of timesheraldonline.com) [archive.is/SqU67]
* VMT Ocrem Project is wrong says SFBCDC letter (.pdf) [http://is.gd/UZMmr8].
Go to Page 44. The last page is a GREAT letter from SFBCDC that states VMT/Orcem expert is DEAD WRONG.
- Comment: from the letter "The Seaport Plan makes it difficult for BCDC to authorize new Port
facilities where the demand can be met at an existing facility, making a Bay Plan amendment for the Port use at VMT difficult to obtain. " Does this mean VMT is dead?
- Comment: The Delta Tunnels to divert water from the delta to Southern California may also be a factor here. The timing of this controversial and highly toxic plant to create cement right at the main opening to the delta region isn't coincidental. That project will require mountains of cement.
* Public Agency letters responding to DEIR (.pdf) [http://is.gd/xE0v3G]. Good information here and none say it's a slam dunk.
* "The God of Mischief: In Loki We Trust" [archive.is/R1tIe]: When he introduced himself as Mr. Loki, I knew we were in for trouble. As a lover of mythology I knew that Loki is the Norse god of mischief, made popular in recent fantasy Thor movies. Sure he spells it “Loewke”---but he still reeked of mischief and lies!
At the December 14 Propel Vallejo working meeting, VMT & Orcem brought in their expert to convince us that their project was safe and right for South Vallejo. And because it fit with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development commission plan there was no way for those of us opposed to fight it. No way for us to afford an amendment to the SFBCDC plan.
Orcem's expert LIES!
A number of people smelled something rotten, so called/wrote Erik Buehmann who sent the City of Vallejo this response. It was shared last night by Andrea as the last item on the agenda of a very long (good) night with the Propel Vallejo group polishing a solid plan.
Since Erik spells his name with a “K” in the Norse tradition—he is my new Thor! God of thunder and justice!
* Fresh Air Vallejo [freshairvallejo.com]
Say No To Asthma and Cancer – Say No To Orcem and VMT
The stakes just went way up. Valero is asking the federal government via the Surface Transportation Board to decide about inter state commerce and rail. Time to get legal.
How many people are aware that this is the railroad track that passes with in a 1/2 block of the Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo.
From the Sperry Site it crosses Sonoma, near 5th st.;
cuts thru a corner of Wilson Park;
crosses Georgia St. near the Police Dept.;
goes thru the middle of Gibson Park before it crosses Florida St.;
near Tennessee street it parallels Monterey, running alongside the sports fields of Vallejo High School, directly behind the newly built Community Bible School at Nebraska St.;
Once it passes the school sports fields, it pulls in alongside Broadway through Valle Vista and Redwood streets, until it crosses Sereno Dr. near the ER at Kaiser Hospital;
From there it parallels Almond Street until it crosses Tuolumne St.. From there it travels under highway 37 into American Canyon and on into Napa where it run along the Napa River for awhile.
* "Valero delay tactic – unnecessary interference in local politics" (2016-03-16, by Marilyn Bardet, beniciaindependent.com) [archive.is/kbk0X] [begin excerpt]: Last night, March 15th, the first hearing of the Benicia City Council was held on Valero’s appeal of the unanimous vote of the planning commission to deny certification of the final EIR and the proposed Crude By Rail Project, a permit for which would allow construction of a rail terminal on Valero property that would serve to off-load two 50-car trains each day loaded with domestic shale oil and/or Canadian tar sands. [ ... ]
In all previous testimony, and in their official letter of appeal, which had been submitted to the City in the wake of the final planning commission hearing in February, Valero has asserted that under federal preemption, requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) would be superseded, hence that any impact evaluations or determinations regarding mitigations directly or indirectly involving rail would be considered irrelevant and unenforceable. In their appeal letter, Valero went so far as to describe the commission’s decisions for denial as representing an “abuse of discretionary powers”, insisting that commissioners had virtually ignored the full authority of federal preemption.
Thus, it was to be expected that Valero’s Don Cuffel would repeat “the Valero basics” about why the Project would be safe and economically beneficial, while pointing to what Valero considers the various errors of “the opposition”, including those representing opposing legal views presented in the course of public hearings.
But the twist came when attorney John Flynn took the podium and surprised the council, city staff and the public by announcing that Valero was now recommending “a delay” in the appeal process they’d initiated, to allow time for them to petition the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) for the agency’s perspective on the scope of federal preemption law governing rail operations. They admitted the delay could take at least three months. [end excerpt]
From the No Coal in Oakland people-- a lot of education in this article for those of you who realize this may be a complex fight (and please note TLS's clever move ensnaring Black pastors who have dire concerns about job opportunities for their congregations and communities):
* "Coal's Frontman in Oakland: Who Owns TLS?" (2016-03-16, nocoalinoakland.info) [archive.is/uUGcf]
* "The Senator Versus Coal; East Bay State Senator Loni Hancock has thrown down a legislative gauntlet to stop coal exports from going through Oakland — and the rest of California" (2016-03-16, eastbayexpress.com) [archive.is/tQfIs]
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* "Today on the 2nd Anniversary of Alex Nieto’s killing by SFPD officers, we issue the following: COMMUNITY DEMANDS TO END SFPD IMPUNITY" (2016-03-21, by Adriana Camerena) [archive.is/101Ei]
* "Black and Brown Unity against Police Impunity Historic Rally at SF City Hall" (206-03-19, Benjamin Bac Sierra) [archive.is/1bEBy], attached video [https://youtu.be/Ico-FeIp_kA]:
On Friday, March 18, 2016 Black and Brown leaders joined in an unprecedented rally at San Francisco City Hall. To watch this video is to watch history. Do not watch the mainstream media for fake reality; do yourself a favor and blessing and watch this entire video for the pure truth: SF Supervisors, religious leaders, community advocates, singers. If you would like to see me speaking, begin watching at 26:00 minutes into the video, but I urge you to watch the entire action. Thank you Ray Balberan for creating this video.
Amongst other things, we exposed a bona fide threat from SFPD Officer Roger Morse, one of Alex Nieto’s killers. On Facebook, immediately following the verdict, SFPD Officer Roger Morse threatened the Nieto family and Alex Nieto’s friend, presumably me. The following is a copy of the actual text posting on social media’s Facebook by Officer Morse:
“Smiling (referring to Alex Nieto). Ugh how about burning down his house and tazing his friend who pressed charges.”
Officer Roger Morse’s post is a threat in the English language.
I, Benjamin Bac Sierra, hold a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, a teaching credential certificate and Master’s from San Francisco State, and a Juris Doctor degree from U.C. Hastings College of the Law. I am a college English instructor and cannot read his statement in any other way except in the correct English manner described above. Any implications that others are attaching to his words are pure speculation. The words must stand on their own, and we must trust the police officer writer knows how to write in English. I have heard no other explanation from the source himself.
FIRE OFFICER MORSE! FIRE OFFICER MORSE! FIRE OFFICER MORSE!
* (2016-03-20, Al Osorio): Mi hermano en la lucha Frank Lara en solidaridad de DC
Frank Lara's comrade from northern California is being harassed and targeted for defamation by racists, as documented in the following example:
* Sharmoota Maile Hampton gets "fixed" (2016-03-22) [archive.is/YrLAB], by this guy [archive.is/bcTQ5] [archive.is/DYdiw]
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* "Afrikatown Needs Your Support in Securing Our Home!" (2016-03-17, Qilombo Community Center of Afrikatown, qilombo.org):
Support Afrikatown! Fundraiser page [https://www.gofundme.com/9nunnd5g].
Message from a member: As many of you know, my life revolves around the liberation and health of all people. The last few years of my life have been at Qilombo, a radical community center in one of the more impoverished parts of West Oakland. The love, labor and tears that have went into the home we call Qilombo has resulted in the history-making event of Oaklands first Afrikatown.
Our garden is the first piece of land we liberated for the Afrikatown District, an autonomous zone intended for all people, radicals and neighbors alike, to strategize and create an alt to capitalism, white supremacy, and colonialism.We made this decision to fundraise after a whole YEAR of contemplating our next steps: this land is already ours, we have liberated her for the use of the People, yet how can we secure this land for future generations?
We want to have inheritable land and inheritable knowledges for our people. Purchasing the Community Garden will allow us to secure one part of Afrikatown and expand the rest by any means necessary.
We are asking that everyone who gets this urgent message do one or more tasks:
1) Donate [https://www.gofundme.com/9nunnd5g]
2) Send this message out to everyone you know: friends, family, comrades, classmates, etc
3) Blast our fundraiser on your social media: twitter, Facebook, instagram, tumblr, tinder, etc
4) Throw fundraisers in your locale!
Have time to spare? Learn more about the history and vision of Afrikatown -
The scope of Qilombo’s work has been broad, and our accomplishments have been multifaceted. One recent campaign which has been highly successful is the launch of Afrikatown, a community revitalization project that combats gentrification through public art centering Afrikan culture and heritage. West Oakland has been a center of Black culture, commerce and revolutionary activity for generations. The Black Panther Party grew out of the streets of North and West Oakland, and the neighborhood has been a centerpiece of the Black Power movement since the 1960s. With the influx of tech corporations to the Bay Area there has been a massive wave of gentrification that has brought swarms of wealthy white people into the neighborhood. This has meant skyrocketing property values, rising rents and an epidemic of evictions that are displacing Black and Brown residents on a massive scale.
Many neighborhoods have been rebranded to appeal to wealthier, whiter new residents. KONO, NOBE, Brooklyn, and Uptown are all new additions to Oakland’s landscape. In our neighborhood, a new organization called the Hoover District Resident Action Council has formed to rebrand our neighborhood (which most people call Ghost Town), in order to raise property values and appeal to gentrifying developers. They are advocating for increased policing and surveillance, the privatization of public space, and rebranding the neighborhood “Hoover District.” The type of “development” envisioned by this Council is not the kind that serves poor Black and Brown people. Like many other such councils that have sprung up around Oakland, their goal is to facilitate gentrification, feeding the epidemic of displacement that is pushing Black people out of Oakland at an astounding rate. Afrikatown is Qilombo’s response to these plans, and to the gentrification of West Oakland. It is an attempt to reclaim and hold space for Afrikan people, to celebrate Afrikan culture, heritage and legacies of resistance. By turning our block into Afrikatown we are responding to our community’s need for transformation that is not centered around the desires of rich white colonizers, and that resists the city’s plans for displacing Black and Brown people.
The project was accomplished in partnership with Planting Justice, the Community Rejuvenation Project and students from Merritt College, Laney College and San Francisco State University. We planted a community garden in the vacant lot next door to our property, and painted a large mural highlighting Afrikan and Indigenous resistance. We hung banners on lamp posts declaring “Welcome to Afrika Town,” and painted the sidewalk and abandoned buildings on the block red, black and green, the colors of Afrikan liberation. We also created a revolutionary walk of fame, with stars on the sidewalk featuring the names of famous Afrikan freedom fighters like Assata Shakur, Malcolm X and George Jackson. Since Afrika Town was launched we have held daily barbeques, community feeds, free clothing distros, open mics and speak outs in the Afrika Town community garden. Black and Brown people from all over the neighborhood have seen our newly visible street presence and been brought into the garden, into Qilombo, and into our ceaseless conversation about liberation.
Since the launch of Afrikatown, a real estate agent hired by the absentee landlord of the lot next door began to threaten to demolish our community garden. This landlord has done nothing on the lot for over a decade, yet the moment we began to utilize the space for the community he decided to try to evict us. The realtor has already showed up once with a bulldozer to demolish the garden, and a group of committed volunteers blocked its path and forced it to turn around. Volunteers organized a 24 hour vigil to defend the garden, with community members taking shifts to keep watch. The defense of the Afrikatown garden has brought support pouring in from the community. More people than ever have been joining us, donating supplies to help maintain our occupation of the land, and participating in our events and programs. Our first "win" was named "Liberation Day" and we proudly announced that our Community Garden was for the People and that we had liberated the land for us all (especially for all poor peoples, and for Afrikan and Indigenous peoples, and for Ohlone people).
Across the political spectrum, the importance of Afrikatown of Oakland has become evident -
The resistance to gentrification and capitalism that takes place in Oakland plays a HUGE role in inspiring and inciting others across the country to do the same. Qilombo and Afrikatown has not just gained supporters of our cause, but accomplices to the crime that is liberation. More and more people are willing to take action by liberating land, developing alternative economies, practicing mutual aid, learning from the inevitable conflicts that stem from our own felt dehumanization and internalized oppression. Afrikatown is a template for the ways we can transform our world and ourselves.
Although our fight is for our neighbors, for the traumas and beauty that makes Oakland, we also know that our fight is a universal one, a radical must throw the first stone to be cast and one of many stones laid out for future generations to walk on. In the midst of rampant gentrification, Afrikatown has carved out a space for Afrikan people to come together, build community, hold space in the face of displacement and strategize for liberation.
RADICALS, NEIGHBORS, GARDENERS, DREAMERS: PLEASE DONATE TO THE FIRST AFRIKATOWN IN OAKLAND.
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BAY AREA SOLIDARITY: Updates on campaigns across the Nation!
* "The Social Crisis in Detroit. On the Verge of an Urban Rebellion; The majority of residents angered by refusal of ruling class to address fundamental issues" (2016-03-05, by Abayomi Azikiwe) [archive.is/RNKYX]
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* " 'What Would Thoreau Do?' Community Builds Replica of Walden Pond Cabin to Block Pipeline; The timber-frame cabin becomes a 'symbol of resistance' to Kinder Morgan pipeline in Massachusetts" (2016-03-18, commondreams.org) [archive.is/tS7iL]
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TOWARDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS
Seattle Solidarity Network[seattlesolidarity.net]
Youtube page [http://is.gd/Fpi1QQ]
* "Direct action stops abusive debt collection by corporate housing giant" (2012-01-26, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/Lpsug]: SeaSol's latest victory is against a 16-billion dollar company which calls itself "one of the nation's largest" residential landlords. A young low-income tenant named Anelise was ordered out of one of their Seattle apartments in 2009 for being unable to pay the rent after losing her housing assistance. She moved out as ordered, then arranged a $200 monthly payment plan to cover the back rent she still owed. Two years later, Anelise had paid off her entire back-rent debt for the months she had lived in the apartment, but the company still was not satisfied. They demanded thousands more from her, claiming she owed them rent for all the months when the apartment had sat empty after they'd kicked her out. If she didn't keep paying, they'd ruin her credit and make it difficult to find housing in the future.
Anelise decided to fight back. Not only was she furious at the injustice, but having recently lost her job, she simply could no longer afford to keep paying the company rent for time when she had not even lived in their building. She joined SeaSol, and we agreed to take on her fight. On September 29th, 2011, thirty people marched with her into the corporate office in Belltown to present our demand: back off and leave Anelise alone, and cancel any further debt that she allegedly owed.The company's response, on October 11th, was to flatly refuse to drop any of the alleged debt, to threaten to send the debt to a third-party collection agency, and to say that our "tactics...will not be tolerated."
So we escalated our campaign. We picketed their offices. Whenever the Executive Vice President showed up at industry and charity events, our people were there to embarrass and denounce him. When potential renters went to view the company's apartments, they were greeted by vast numbers of posters saying "WARNING RENTERS!!" and detailing the company's unscrupulous practices.
After two months of this, the company had had enough. They signed an agreement formally dropping all claims of further debt owed by Anelise.
Thanks to everyone who helped SeaSol and Anelise win this fight!
* "Anti-racism fight begins vs property development boss" (2009-08-03, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/nRr6i], attached video "SeaSol demand delivery: Lorig corporate office" [youtube.com/watch?v=hKjK6PbftFg]
* "Multi-city campaign forces Greystar to return tenants' stolen money" (2015-09-15, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/P24R7]:
Longtime SeaSol member Neftali and his husband Yusdel met with some fellow SeaSol members after moving out of the Corinthian Apartments in Seatac. During their yearlong tenancy (April 2014-May 2015), Neftali and Yusdel suffered horrible living conditions, largely related to the plumbing in their building.For about two weeks they did not have a functioning bathroom. Greystar's compensation offer? A pair of free movie tickets. The issues with their plumbing were so extensive that contractors had to tear down an outer wall of their apartment in October. Rather than relocate Neftali and his family, Greystar forced them to live in an apartment with a missing wall for over a week, leaving their unit exposed to the street. Meanwhile water rained down from ceilings and raw sewage bubbled up from drains, damaging rugs & paint before the leaks were finally fixed. When Neftali and Yusdel moved out, Greystar charged them for the damage. When Neftali asked that the bogus charges be removed, the landlord arrogantly told him to go take Greystar to court. Neftali refused, saying, “The judge is your friend. I’m going to talk to my friends.”
Initial research revealed that hazardously neglectful management and wanton theft of tenants’ money is business as usual for Greystar, the largest apartment manager in the U.S.
A few highlights from other Greystar tenants' online reviews:
"A closet door broke right off of a rotting wall and collapsed on me!" (yelp)
"I'd rather be shot in the face than to live in that apartment again!" (pissedconsumer.com)
"All over the apartment is mold and my kids are so sick... The lady who was our neighbor died in her apartment and [Greystar] left her there for a month..." (ripoffreport.com)
"We had asked that the second floor balcony be secured better because our toddler could slip through the railings. Greystar's eviction attorney came to our home and asked me to hold my toddler out through the railings to prove that he could fit" (yelp)
You get the idea. Greystar's CEO, Bob Faith, explains his business model here: "CEO of Deathstar apartment management corp explaining how he makes apartments more profitable" [https://youtu.be/R9H_ft36OsM].
("Many times we take over an asset that was managed by a smaller organization that hadn't been focused on the bottom line, and we can drive dramatic savings out of the expense side of the equation")
In other words, they boost profits by dramatically cutting back on maintenance and allowing thousands of peoples' homes to decay and fall apart.
Usually they get away with it all, but when they ripped off Neftali, they messed with the wrong guy. Neftali and Seasol formed a nine-person fight committee and voted to take on Greystar. On July 21, Neftali, Yusdel, and 22 others marched into the Seattle office of Greystar to deliver our demand of $575.01. We gave this large company a week to meet our demands, vowing to take further action after the 28th of July.
After a week had passed, SeaSol utilized connections with solidarity networks in other cities to launch a multi-city postering campaign against Greystar buildings. This coordinated effort got Greystar’s attention, and regional manager Garett Randall met with Neftali and SeaSolers, offering to pay approximately half of the demand. During the meeting, as he heard about Neftali and Yusdel’s experience, Randall laughed uncomfortably and said “I wouldn’t have lived there” multiple times. This manager also mentioned that Greystar would not pay back any money unless Neftali signed a confidentiality agreement restricting his legal rights. Neftali and Yusdel refused to accept, and fought on to win their entire demand.Neftali, Yusdel, and SeaSol worked tirelessly to put up posters at Greystar buildings around Seattle. We held a poster-wearing action in front of a large downtown building that attracted a lot of negative attention for an incensed property manager there who followed Neftali around, tearing down posters as he put them up. We set up a website highlighting the shameful business practices of Greystar and encouraging prospective tenants not to rent from them. Meanwhile, postering continued across the country.
At a second meeting with Garett Randall on August 19, Neftali refused again to sign the ridiculous legal document and was walking away from the table when Randall ran up to him and shoved a check for $575.01 into his hands, preferring to give in to Neftali, Yusdel and SeaSol’s demands rather than face continued widespread direct action against Greystar.
A victory party was held in Seattle on August 22. We are very pleased with this victory after a well-organized collaboration with other solidarity networks. Thanks to comrades in Seattle, Oakland, Santa Rosa, Boston, Philadelphia, and many other cities, for acting in solidarity with Neftali and Yusdel.
* "Day laborer takes action after Meniz Co. steals wages" (2015-01-27, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/L0UCY]
* "Workers demand unpaid wages from house-painting boss" (2008-07-20, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/7UNRx]
boycottadmiralpub.com campaign page archive [archive.is/vN1Cu]
* "Seasol Takes on Paycheck-Stealing Boss" (2013-02-07, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/up9eO]
* "Seasol Victory over Greedy, Paycheck-Stealing Boss" (2013-03-10, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/6R8QQ]
* "Sticky-Fingered Bosses Forced to Pay Day Laborer" (2015-06-05, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/DYlBM]:
José did nine days of cleaning and landscaping work for these bosses as a day laborer in mid-2014. The owners of the company hired him at a rate of $15/hr for a total of 78 hours. When the time came to pay José for his work, the company decided to steal his wages ($1,170) instead. Frustrated, José contacted the Seattle Solidarity Network, who voted to take on his fight. José and a group of SeaSolers confronted Victor and Johnny at a coffee shop, demanding that José be paid in full. Both thieves were startled and confused as José confidently handed over the demand. We gave them two weeks to pay up.
After two weeks, the bosses hadn't paid what they owed, so SeaSolers put up posters exposing their deeds around the office at 5470 Shilshole Ave NW in Ballard. When that wasn't enough, we contacted and then visited one of their clients, a condo management company based in West Seattle. They promptly ceased doing business with the wage thieves.
Next, we sent out a letter to members of the brothers' church, and followed up with a flyering action there in early March. The social pressure was on, but they continued to refuse to pay José’s wages.
In mid-March, SeaSol escalated the fight by delivering a demand to the company’s largest client, CWD Group. CWD, in their management of multiple condo buildings, hired Victor and Johnny to do cleaning work despite their public record of having been cited by the state for wage theft. We let CWD know that if they did not make sure that José’s wages got paid, we would hold them responsible for hiring a slimy, wage-stealing company to do their cleaning. We also let them know that we would soon be contacting the condo associations which employ CWD. Our response from a representative from CWD group read: “Once you left I contacted Victor ... to follow-up on this situation. To my understanding, although Victor disagrees, he hired an attorney to draft a settlement letter (Release) and is prepared to pay Jose the money he believes is owed.” Victor and Johnny knew that they needed to start at least pretending to pay, and fast, if they wanted to keep their largest client.
Discussions of payment through the brothers’ skeezy lawyer throughout April weren’t going anywhere. It became clear that they weren’t going to pay up unless SeaSol and José took further direct action. Involving their largest client seemed to be the best way to put economic pressure on the wage thieves. We decided to target Ballard Condos, a 160-unit building managed by CWD, and cleaned by Jose, for our next actions. We sent letters about the fight to every unit in the building, and on Sunday, May 17, we held a very loud 7:30am “Wake up to Wage theft” action at Ballard Condos. Our noisy Sunday morning picket got the attention of Condo owners and CWD. Victor and Johnny took notice.
Following the picket, the worn-down bosses tried to pay José’s wages with some ridiculous conditions attached, and then dropped said conditions and paid José in full on June 2. We had a victory party to celebrate this fight on Saturday June 27th, with about 30 SeaSolers in attendance. Congratulations to José and to everyone who helped out with this fight.
* "Condo owners wake up to wage theft" (2015-05-22, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/eMd4p], attached video "Ballard Condominiums early morning 'wake up to wage theft' picket" [https://youtu.be/EqhubJHUxl8]* "SeaSol Takes on the Low Income Housing Institute" (2011-11-11, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/AF7iY] [begin excerpt]:
Deceit and Cynicism in "Racist" LIHI Press Release -
As their twentieth anniversary celebration approached, LIHI and Sharon Lee intensified their attack on George and SeaSol. In an October 19th press release on LIHI letterhead, Sharon Lee called SeaSol racist on completely spurious and cynical grounds. LIHI argued that because SeaSol took the side of George, who they repeatedly identified as a white man in the press release, we must be racist. However, George is Latino. It is unlikely having met George at the September 13th meeting that Ms. Lee did not know this. We wonder if Ms. Lee’s identification of George as a white man was a cynical ploy, counting on the fact that his name "reads white," to slander a dedicated social justice organization.
The second ground for LIHI's racism claim is that SeaSol distributed posters in the International District. Sharon Lee's highlighting of ID postering as evidence of our supposed racism is ridiculous. The ID is a heavily trafficked neighborhood just a few blocks from the Frye apartments. Sharon Lee also knew at the time that we postered in many other neighborhoods in Seattle, including Belltown, the University District, Ballard, and elsewhere. We have a proud history of fighting racism, taking on fights for people of color, and at times including anti-racist demands as part of our campaigns – as our website attests. Furthermore, we are a multi-racial organization, and seek to end racism through organizing all peoples to work together to empower and support each other. The claims of racism made against us are incredible.
Sharon Lee Supporter Threatens to Kill SeaSol Member -
SeaSol members have now twice been threatened during our dispute with LIHI. In the most recent incident, a SeaSol member putting up posters in Sharon Lee's neighborhood in the evening was pushed, threatened, and followed by the unidentified man in the video below. The assailant can clearly be heard saying "I will find you and I will kill you." [end excerpt]
attached videos:
- "Sharon Lee gets caught" [https://youtu.be/xff8kZpddAc]
- "SeaSol Picket attacked by Sharon Lee's boyfriend" [youtube.com/watch?v=-VOZpyX-xd4]
- "Sharon Lee Supporter Threatens to Kill SeaSol Member" [youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ZoF6S84o4]: The video captures the tail end of an assault on a SeaSol member. The member was postering in LIHI's executive director Sharon Lee's neighborhood. This assailant began following him, taking down the posters, shoving him, and shouting after him. At that point our member began filming for his own safety.
* "Seattle Solidarity Network Supports Camp Dearborn" (2016-03-05, seattlesolidarity.net) [archive.is/j9MoB]: Nearly a month ago, the residents at the Nicklesville Dearborn encampment took a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Scott Morrow from the Nicklesville 501c3 (as well as a founding board member of the Low-Income Housing Institute and the organization SHARE, which has worked with the houseless population here in Seattle for several decades now). Immediately after the vote went through, services critical to the survival to the encampment were cut off such as garbage pickup and food/water deliveries. About a week and a half later, rather than an attempt to resolve the situation, the camp received an ultimatum to either vote Morrow back into power by a specific date and time or face a camp shutdown and subsequent eviction. In the face of this threat, the camp voted once more to keep Morrow out of the camp and risk everything in order to try and find a solution that would work for both the camp and City Hall’s agenda for addressing the issue of houselessness here in Seattle. This final vote of no confidence was met with an announcement that the camp was being shut down.
With the potential eviction looming overhead, the camp began reaching out to community organizations such as SAFE and Seattle Solidarity Network. At our first meeting with the camp, one of the things that immediately drew our attention was the level of organization and commitment the residents had to maintaining the general code of conduct that they had been operating under when they still had the support of Morrow, LIHI, and the religious sponsor of the camp. Their determination to risk what little they had to their name stood as a testament to their capabilities and desire to serve as a model for other transitional encampments.
In response to the deadline given to them, the residents of Camp Dearborn decided to host an “Open House/Move-In Day” event just hours before the camp was officially closed. This event served a couple of purposes; it was an opportunity to invite the community into the camp to see that they had been working hard to keep it in good shape and within compliance of City regulations, a chance for community members to meet some of the residents and personalize the issue of houselessness, and provided a chance for people to move in to the camp to help hold the space in the event of an attempted eviction. With the help of Seattle Solidarity Network, SAFE, and other organizers, about 100 community members turned out for the event throughout the evening. It was a festive environment with music, stories being shared, and a load of much-needed donations coming into the camp. When the midnight deadline for camp closure rolled around, things got tense for a bit as police activity in the area increased but they came and went and the camp remained. While the anxiety lingered, one could not help but feel as if maybe the City had finally gotten the message that the community would not allow these people to swept back out onto the streets.
The camp still has a long ways to go in order to find a more permanent solution to their situation but a lot of progress has been made since the alleged closing of the camp over a week ago. They now have a willing financial sponsor of the camp through Patacara Community Services, a great organization that has been critical in keeping the camp going since the initial cut-off of services. Seattle Police Department has also come by the camp several times to state their commitment to allowing for a solution to take place that does not require any sort of sweep of the camp. Now it comes down to keeping things in order and running smoothly at the camp while a religious sponsor and new location are found.
Seattle Solidarity will remain committed to assisting the residents of Camp Dearborn in maintaining their right to self-management and resisting any attempts to evict them. If you are interested in getting involved with this fight, feel free to visit the camp at 1010 S. Dearborn to see what you can do to help them maintain the camp. Food, water, and firewood donations are always needed but as with any group, this is a diverse group of people so speaking directly with them is always going to be the best way to help get their needs met.
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* "Neighbourhoods, The "community organizing" husked" (2016-02, Alternative Libertaire AL #258, machine translation via ainfos.ca) [archive.is/wn7ZA] [begin excerpt]:
When the Citizens Alliance launches into a new neighborhood, the goal is to quickly get the commitment of a maximum of people. By becoming members, they will work with the organizer or the host to communicate with their neighbors and neighboring dynamic organization in progress. The organizer will thus look to the "put in motion" to more quickly, so they are maximally themselves structuring their neighborhood. "Can we go see all the neighbors you know? Do you have time to go see your side other tenants in your rise to speak to them? "
Gradually, a group was formed. After 4 to 5 weeks, members will meet for group meetings. From the first meeting, the organizer will propose modes (animation, decision making) that will allow to acquire all democratic habits. These practices will then become the culture of the group, will be appropriate for members, which will never be naive before the false steps of institutional consultations.
We find these practices in neighborhood assemblies, which bring together 50 to 100 members. It is during these meetings that the members decide what actions to take priority.
At the meeting of a neighborhood, the members decided to tackle the problem of dilapidated and poorly insulated windows in some homes. This problem does not apply to all members, but all agreed to treat all first. We treat others then. A letter has already been sent to the landlord to request the replacement of the offending windows, but no response was obtained. The Assembly therefore decided to take a pressing action the following week.
A group of five members is appointed by the Assembly to prepare the action. On the day, blankets on their shoulders, many tenants are set at the local office of the landlord "was cold in our apartments, so today we just warm up in your office," they said, claiming that their windows are insulated. The local press is there to immortalize the scene. A manager comes in, says he does not like the method, but listening to the claims and promises an appointment before the weekend.
A spokesman for the group prepares the negotiation by role-playing with the organizer. The Citizens Alliance will finally get the commitment of the donor to replace the emergency 75 most dilapidated windows. Such actions obviously seeks victories, but these victories, they aim to encourage the members confidence in their ability to collectively intervene and to voice their social interests in the public square.
While one side our society demonizes the conflict, accusing the troublemakers to prepare the civil war, and on the other hand we can not count those that fatalism leads to the submission or the disaffection, the community organizing believes in inclusive under social conflict. Paradoxically, it is assuming to oppose the institutions that can take its place in society. [end excerpt]
---
* "We start the engines of self-management; For the re-opening of the timber factory in Patrida Imathia (northerm Greece)" (2016-03-03, anarkismo.net) [archive.is/x0QXz]:
We demand the government to show us when the assets of a company deteriorate… Why when former employees been paid their arrears the property is changed, and when the bosses sell out machines and made money is not? We understand very well what is happening, how the bosses managed the business. In 20-30 years in that same workplace, we saw so many that no-one can imagine.
We, the former and current employees of the company E.Papadopoulos - N.Pagouras SA, are determined, and our momentum is our right. We do not give up the struggle. We do not give away neither our accrued interests nor our compensations.
We start the engines of self-management -
With self-management and struggle for the re-opening of the timber factory in Patrida Imathia (northerm Greece).
So every worker in 2010 was having just 150-160 stamps instead of 300 (with 25 days of work a month) and used to be paid in front over a month, 200-400 euros.
On 4/10/2011 the company brought before the regional Court an application for a declaration of bankruptcy, which after repeated postponements of the hearing date in 2/22/2012 and in 11/11/2012, was going to be heard in 3/13/2013. The same day the company acknowledged in writing all the outstanding arrears and advances to the staff up to September 2011.
All these years the tactic the bosses followed was meant to relieve the company by their responsibilities towards their lenders. And although the court decided otherwise, they began selling the machinery, impairing the property of the company, destroying our pride, our lives. First the truck, after the caterpillar, then forklifts, metals, cables, coppers, a jeep and other stuff... And again promises for payments if we stop our struggle and again attacks to us, taking advantage of the time passing and by the claim of bankruptcy not been heard yet. Any worker who dared to ask for his/her money, faced threats by bosses that banging their hands on the desk saying with a macho behaviour: "I have not money, do anything you want and get ...", as if we “ate” the money together. We forced to beg for our accrued interests and lifetime efforts. Insults and scorn were our reward.
The last act of their project is played since September 2015, when someone appeared as an investor to buy the company instead of a lentil dish (for peanuts). And he continues the work of the previous bosses, leaving unpaid bills of social security, GST, taxation, electricity, etc ... some hundred thousand of euros.
So we arrived in January 2016, when we declared work retention and occupied the factory. We declare that our patience was been exhausted and want the immediate return to the factory of all sold machines, equipment, cars, trucks, heavy duty machinery, and the cables by the sale of which bosses made money.
We demand the government to show us when the assets of a company deteriorate… Why when former employees been paid their arrears the property is changed, and when the bosses sell out machines and made money is not? We understand very well what is happening, how the bosses managed the business. In 20-30 years in that same workplace, we saw so many that no-one can imagine.
We, the former and current employees of the company E.Papadopoulos - N.Pagouras SA, are determined, and our momentum is our right. We do not give up the struggle. We do not give away neither our accrued interests nor our compensations.
We are determined to start the factory without bosses, and by self-management to raise ourselves, recovering our dignity.
What our former rulers of E.Papadopoulos-N.Pagouras SA could not do, we can do it. Following the example of VIOME in Greece (Thessaloniki) , we say that without us no cog turns, we workers can do without bosses.We start the engines!
[signed] Robin Wood,
former employees of the company E.Papadopoulos-N.Pagouras.
Patrida, Imathia
February 2016
[https://robenworkers.wordpress.com]
---
* "10 Strategies to Survive and Thrive Economic Collapse" (2016-02, Activist Post) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/Ca1tLO], an interesting pamphlet free from the Activist Post online journal [archive.is/lVQGR] [activistpost.com], posted physically at APDO 376-4013 San Jose - Costa Rica.
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* "[Dis]Obey" (by Alex Garcia de Aztlan copyright 1985, facebook.com/AlexGarciadeAztlan) [archive.is/xviqp]
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SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!Black Power! Revive the Community! Defend the Nation!
* (2016-03-20, Afi Ref, BRLP Oakland):
Pigs tryna take credit for the decrease in the homicide, when the real story behind the scenes is Black Riders been pushin major ceasefire ops where hostilies amongst individuals in warring street tribes were redirected at the pigs. Pigs aint doin shit niggas aint cooperatin wit em. Its BRLP out here doin the day to day work standing in between these gun redirecting em towards the fascist state! This method is proven effective![comment] Real Talk and on top of that those pigs ignore the fact violent crime has been decreasing statistically Nationally annually for over a decade. between them straight lying about violence against police increasing nationally when the DOJ report showed violence towards pigs was down 14.5 % and Violence from the pigs to the citizens is at a 40 year high. They pigs lie to look good. take credit where there is none and vilify innocents to get away with murder. FTP BP
[Ali Ref responds] Exactly, when we do outreach we just break it down how the pigs need crime to keep they job. They gotta keep a quota of incarceration & citation to keep up with the demand for prison labor. Ud be surprised how many folks dont know that the 1st police force in Amerikkka was the slave catcher.
* "Black Riders Liberation Party New Generation Black Panther for Self Defense 3/17/16 Saving our Schools" [https://youtu.be/wJUzKMGQEyc]: Black Riders Liberation Party Detroit Chapter Confrontation face off wit the Demonsistc Demolition Destruction Devil-oppers (Developers) who are trying to destroy a school building instead of letting the people utilize it! We gon Liberate the land for the people! Black Power!
* "Meanwhile in Flint Michigan..." (2016-01-24, BRLP) [archive.is/mQfze] [begin excerpt]: The BLACK RIDERS - New Generation Black Panther Party for Self-Defense sponsored a water delivery relief effort to provide the basic needs and desires of the People. This was done in response to the recent toxic water crisis brought about because of the neglect of the racist U.S. Government and their plans to exterminate our people. We must defend, serve, and support our People! Hundreds of bottles of water was provided on Friday January 22,2016... Black Power! All Power to the People! RBG 4 LIFE! [end excerpt]
* (2016-03-20, FOX 4 News) [archive.is/Z7C9g]: Threats of an armed protest in front of a S. Dallas mosque by anti-Muslim group BAIR (Bureau of American Islamic Relations) drew nearly 100 people in opposition. Members of The Nation of Islam, Huey P. Newton Gun Club & Black Panthers say they were there to "observe" & make sure BAIR didn't intimidate the community.
BAIR didn't show up because it says there was an agreement to have a meeting with Dallas PD and some of the groups first.
* "Black Anarchism: A Reader" (.pdf) [http://is.gd/8COldP], (.html) [http://is.gd/AcP7Os], introduction [archive.is/DoOjg]:
For more than 150 years, black anarchists have played a critical role in shaping various struggles around the globe, including mass strikes, national liberation movements, tenant organizing, prisoner solidarity, queer liberation, the formation of autonomous black liberation organizations, and more.
Our current political moment is one characterized by a global resurgence of Black rebellion in response to racialized state violence, criminalization, and dispossession. Black and Afro-diasporic communities in places like Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Haiti, Colombia and the US have initiated popular social movements to resist conditions of social death and forge paths toward liberation on their own terms. Given the anti-authoritarian spirit of these struggles, the time is ripe to take a closer look at anarchism more broadly, and Black anarchism in particular.
The deceptive absence of Black anarchist politics in the existing literature can be attributed to an inherent contradiction found within the Eurocentric canon of classical anarchism which, in its allegiance to a Western conception of universalism, overlooks and actively mutes the contributions by colonized peoples. In recent years, Black militants, and others dedicated to Black anarchist politics, have gone a long way toward bringing Black anarchism into focus through numerous essays, books, interviews, and public talks, many of which are brought together for the first time in this reader.
Our hope is that this reader will serve as a fruitful contribution to ongoing dialogues, debates, and struggles occurring throughout the Black diaspora about how to move forward toward our liberation globally. “Anarchism,” noted Hannibal Abdul Shakur, “like anything else finds a radical new meaning when it meets blackness.” While this reader brings us closer to “a radical new meaning” for anarchism, there are glaring gaps that need to be filled to get a fuller picture of Black anarchism, particularly the vital contributions of black women, queer militants, and more folks from the Global South.
In struggle,
Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra
===*===*===
STUDENT POWER!
information collected by the Committee to Defend Public Education!
(1:26 PM) Tune in to KDVS today between 2:30 and 3:30 pm for live interviews with the 5th Floor, Mrak Hall protesters on KDVS, 90.3 on FM, or listen on this link: [https://kdvs.org/programming/listen-now]
See also: [http://tinyurl.com/firekatehi] or [http://tinyurl.com/firekatehi2]
(Update 2:52 pm) It appears that the planned appearance of protesters on KDVS has been preempted due to Katehi's appearance on the 5th Floor of Mrak, necessitating that the planned interviewees not leave the 5th floor.
(Update, March 17, 2016, 8:56 pm) Note: Kevin Gong, the host of the radio program mentioned in the previous updates, was fired from KDVS by the new director.
* "Standoff in Mrak Hall continues between students, Katehi" (2016-03-18, davisenterprise.com) [archive.is/XGKc2]
* "Protesters outside Katehi’s office plan to stay during spring break; Group remaains camped out on fifth floor of UC Davis’ Mrak Hall; Students demand chancellor’s resignation over corporate board involvement; Spring break begins Monday on campus" (2016-03-18, sacbee.com) [archive.is/MQ2e4]
* "3 more state lawmakers want UC Davis chancellor to leave; Assemblymembers Luis Alejo, Jim Cooper, Lorena Gonzalez call on chancellor to leave; Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi no longer serves on boards in question; Alejo met with Katehi, found explanations ‘unsatisfactory and disappointing’ " (2016-03-17, sacbee.com) [archive.is/Hmp2u]
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* "Puerto Rico Students Shut down University over Austerity Cuts; The students are calling for people all over the country to join the protest against "unpayable debt" and austerity" (2016-03-17, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/ztKKa]
===*===*===
WORKER'S POWER!
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee [http://is.gd/VOkmLr]
* "Labor for Bernie Activists Take the Political Revolution into Their Unions" (2016-03-17, labornotes.org) [archive.is/5paeD], writeup (2016-03-18, Troublemakers Dispatch):
Last June a small group of volunteers kicked off a network called “Labor for Bernie.” Since then the underdog presidential candidate has won endorsements from more than 80 local unions and four internationals.
“People were stopping me in the hall at work, or even in the street," said Ken Roos, vice president of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 1984 in New Hampshire. "They would say, ‘Bernie’s the man, we gotta go for Bernie.”
What's next? Join a national meeting of Labor for Bernie activists at the upcoming Labor Notes Conference [archive.is/9SxlL].
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* (2016-03-18, Sacramento Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, facebook.com/sacramentolabor) [archive.is/2I6T4]: Sac PD shows up to talk some sense into the manager and owners while the Western Workers Organizing Committee delivers NLRB violation papers to Burger King manager for firing and suspending workers for trying to organize a union in their workplace.
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* Border action support of the Driscoll Boycott and the San Quintin workers (2016-03-21, Desiree Rojas) [archive.is/rFJy5], attached video [http://is.gd/PrvUBk]: This film brings tears to my eyes. The federal border patrol prohibited us from reaching the border fence that divided us from the San Quintin agricultural workers who marched for 5 days. We had a large gathering in support of the Driscoll Boycott. I urge all of my friends and family to boycott ALL Driscoll berries. The San Quintin workers live in horrifying conditions, work up to 12 hour days, at $2.00 a day. This is slavery. Share and boycott Driscoll Berries !!!!* (2016-03-21): Photos from yesterday's action to be in solidarity with our siblings in San Quintín #TheWorkersStruggleHasNoBorders
[facebook.com/mailehampton.hampton/posts/1668915960027920]
* "Love over everything..." photo (2016-03-20, by Maile Hampton, with Brown Berets De SacrAztlán [https://www.facebook.com/SacBerets])
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* "How to "Hoffice" with Other Freelancers for More Health, Happiness and Productivity" (2016-02-24, shareable.net) [archive.is/8OHGn] [begin excerpt]: One of the biggest disruptions of the information age is a rise of freelancers, self-employed workers, and other indie workers. As futurist Jeremy Rifkin has said, "we’re moving from big, vertically integrated companies towards diverse horizontal value chains and a self-organized ecosphere of makers."
While this transformation may improve the overall sustainability of our society, there are also big drawbacks. One is isolation. Many workers have lost the belonging, community, and face-to-face team work that big companies offer. At the same time, more people are workplace-less and are forced to work from home, cafés, libraries or co-working spaces. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
information collected by the Committee to
DEFEND THOSE WITHOUT HOMES!
* "Salinas homeless urged to 'stand their ground' " (2016-03-11, thecalifornian.com) [archive.is/7TbLx]
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* "Parallel People Power: Freedom SleepOut #37 at City Hall While Salinas Activists Protest" (2016-03-20, by Robert Norse) [archive.is/Iljwq]
* "Rage Against City Council Bigotry--Freedom SleepOut #36" (2016-03-14, by Robert Norse, for the Freedom Sleepers campaign) [archive.is/fSvUK]: A week after City Council enraged and disappointed a room full of activists, Freedom Sleepers resume their regular weekly protest and invite the disenfranchised to join them. If supporters hold fast, there will be coffee in the morning.
Homeless folks at the Red Church and on Pacific Avenue Monday night continued to report citations for sleeping, being driven out into the rain, and regular harassment.
RELATED SANTA CRUZ ACTIONS -
Meanwhile "Dogwood", a homeless activist seeking to generate a more visible and public response, has announced a protest to begin at the Town Clock at 3 PM with a march down Pacific Avenue to City Hall to join the Freedom Sleepers. See "Speak Out Against the Sleeping Ban " at [archive.is/0oBqv]."Push Back" Pat Colby has announced she'll be at the police station Thursday March 17 at 12:30 PM to help folks reclaim their property from the police. At present, police only allow folks to pick up their seized property 12:30 -2:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This restriction severely impacts unhoused people whose survival gear is confiscated--still a grim occurrence here.
HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) will be present at the Project Pollinate day-long event on Saturday the 19th at San Lorenzo park between 11 and 1 PM to help organize resistance to the criminalization of the homeless.
HUFF hopes to organize a caravan to Salinas on March 22nd to support the Salinas Union of the Homeless resisting the planned destruction of the Chinatown encampment (see below).
We'll be signing up people and looking for vehicles.
HUFF will also be assisting people to call the River St. Shelter at 459-6644 to get on the Waiting List, which immunizes those on the list for three days from camping ticket prosecution.
Insider, Silver-Tongued Steve Pleich's predictions of higher City Council support for the right to sleep proved overly optimistic. He notes that City Councilmember Micah Posner may be introducing a call for City staff to find legal places to park RV's in town. Several months ago, City Council, under the leadership of Councilmember Richelle Niroyan criminalized homeless RV parking at night.
SIGNS OF EARLY SPRING IN THE STRUGGLE
Sacramento activists, after weeks of protest, seem much closer to forcing its local politicians to legalize if not support encampments. See "Let Sacramento’s homeless have their tent city"--an editorial by the conservative Sacramento Bee at http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article65032512.html
In addition, Sacramento housing activist Paula Lomazzi notes on her facebook page that the Justice Department is moving to block local and state fines for poor people in actions arising out of the Ferguson struggle:
See http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/14/politics/court-fines-poor-people-doj/index.html
In Salinas, National Lawyers Guild attorney Anthony Prince has filed a second lawsuit demanding police leave homeless property alone. He has called for making Salinas "the Selma of 2016" recalling the civil rights struggles of the 60's.
Specifically, he wants folks to stand up to a scheduled police raid on the long-standing homeless encampment in Salinas's Chinatown on March 23, by having a mass rally on the 22nd and sleepout there. See http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/my-safety/2016/03/11/salinas-homeless-urged-stand-their-ground/81679316/ .
* "Rumblings of Resistance After the Council Crushes Reform?" (2016-03-13, by Robert Norse) [archive.is/kqPTj]
===*===*===
COMMUNITY FASCISM WATCH
Community Fascism in Vallejo, the "City of God":
* "Ready for Sampayan" letter by Paula Bauer to the editor of the Vallejo Times Herald, timesheraldonline.com [archive.is/Yfq2K]: Let’s hope that our next mayor understands the United States Constitution better than current mayor Osby Davis.
A government-sanctioned prayer breakfast has no place in Vallejo or anywhere else in America. Mr. Davis should know this since the Center For Freedom From Religion has written to him on more than one occasion and explained separation of church and state to him. He apparently doesn’t believe it applies to him since he continues to flaunt his religion under the seal of the City of Vallejo by once again hosting a prayer breakfast under his official government title.
I’m looking forward to January 2017 when Mayor Bob Sampayan takes the oath of office. I’m pretty sure Mayor Sampayan will not continue this unconstitutional, unholy alliance joining one man’s government position with that man’s religion.
===*===*===
Documenting human-rights abuse by domestic security agencies
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
[NorthbayCopwatch.blogspot.com] [copblock.org] [wecopwatch.org] [filmingcops.com]* "Fresno, California Police Chief, Keith Foster, arrested for selling drugs" (2015-03-27, copblock.org) [archive.is/zkWkQ]
* "Fresno Whistleblower Found Stabbed In Torched Home Days After Warning That Cops Might Kill Him; “Corrupt Fresno cops are going to try to kill me this weekend, possibly tonight,” the activist wrote on Facebook just before his death" (2016-01-29, mintpressnews.com) [archive.is/oekmW]
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* " 'Urban Warfare Training' and the Militarization of America" (2016-03-06, wsws.org) [archive.is/SQpZE]
* "Emergency responders said Friday the terror attack that killed 14 people in California in December showed police need a protected radio channel and ambulance personnel need safety gear" (2016-03-19, AP Newswire) [archive.is/0HkSI], photo caption: In this Dec. 2, 2015 file photo authorities search an area near where police stopped a suspected vehicle in San Bernardino, Calif. State lawmakers want to see if lessons can be learned from the way first-responders reacted to the San Bernardino terror attack that killed 14 people last year.---
* "Disabled people account for 1 in 3 of all excessive force claims against police – study" (2016-03-16, rt.com) [archive.is/jV6K7]
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Domestic Security Agencies and private-sector partners
* "Call It What It Is: America Is a Police State" (2016-03-02, by Brandon Turbeville) [archive.is/EnDDz]
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* "Cities across US increase security in wake of Brussels attacks" (2016-03-22, rt.com) [archive.is/0EyvS]
* "Brussels attacks show ISIS is 'winning' - former CIA #2" (2016-03-22, rt.com) [archive.is/bnTHa]
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* "Sandy Hook Puzzles" (2016-03-01, by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts) [archive.is/TAlVZ]
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* "US govt mistakenly leaks Snowden’s name in case that shuttered Lavabit" (2016-03-18, rt.com) [archive.is/Gy5td]
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* "Chief Of Drug Task Force Caught Raping Women, Including a Child, in Exchange for Leniency; One victim testified in court that Reese came to her home and became aggressive with her and handcuffed her, sexually assaulted her, and then told her that if she tried to tell anyone, no one would believe her because she was 'just a junkie' " (2016-03-02, mintpressnews.com) [archive.is/BfW3y]
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* "Good news: Microsoft hired more women. Bad news: They were scantily clad 'schoolgirls' " (2016-03-19, rt.com) [http://is.gd/0sXyN7/]
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A "good cop / bad cop" routine using actors from a public-sector domestic security agency and from a private sector partner. The IT products produced by Apple Co. had NSA backdoors since 1993 or earlier.
* "Apple goes to court" (2016-03-17, fightforthefuture.org)
The FBI is trying to force Apple to write software that could be used to hack every iPhone on the planet — and next week, a federal court will decide whether or not Apple has to comply.
Last month, the FBI got a judge to order Apple to create a backdoor into the iPhone so they could access the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. The thing is, they didn’t ask Apple to crack just that one phone — they asked Apple to create a backdoor that would let the FBI access any iPhone [archive.is/TB6Dn].
Undermining the security that protects our most valuable information is completely unacceptable. Encryption saves lives every day. The engineers and security professionals who protect our hospitals, our airports, our water treatment facilities, and so much more depend on the security of their phones to keep us all safe.
This case isn’t just about phones. What the FBI wants Apple to do would set a precedent that puts us all in danger. Security saves lives. Now we need to #SaveSecurity.
We’re going to deliver tens of thousands of signatures to the courthouse right before the hearing, when we know everyone will be paying attention to the case.
As dangerous as this backdoor is on its own, though, the most terrifying part of this case is the precedent it sets. If Apple can be forced to write software to open the iPhone, the government will have grounds to request the same access of every device [archive.is/yFkPo]. But it gets worse.
If Apple provides this backdoor to the US government, other countries, many with horrific human rights records will request the same access — and Apple won’t have nearly the same standing to tell them no.
P.S. I just wrote an op-ed for VICE Magazine today that helps explain what's really at stake in this case, and specifically how it will impact LGBTQ communities. Check it out here [archive.is/HIF22].
---
* "Wikileaks Drops Hillary Email Bomb That Could End Her Campaign but FB Censored It" (2016-03-21, theantimedia.org) [http://is.gd/kHloMI/]
* "Steven Argue Censored By Facebook, Probably For Supporting Kurds" (2016-03-22) [archive.is/8GvEP]---
* (2016-03-20) [archive.is/ylNkb]
Facebook just censored me.
I protested the censorship with the comments - "The picture that is against Facebook standards is a simple historical photo, nothing more."
I took a screen shot of the warning... see text at the top of the photo...
Evidence:
- Photos [archive.is/v7DXj] [archive.is/6ujxX] [archive.is/5rExg]
- Video [youtube.com/watch?v=OJTv2nFjMBk]
* "Osama bin Laden, A.K.A. CIA Asset 'Tim Osman' " (2001-11-08, whatreallyhappened.com) [archive.is/8gUuZ]: Tim Osman (Ossman) has recently become better known as Osama Bin Ladin. "Tim Osman" was the name assigned to him by the CIA for his tour of the U.S. and U.S. military bases, in search of political support and armaments. [...] There is some evidence that Tim Osman ... visited the White House. There is certainty that Tim Osman toured some U.S. military bases, even receiving special demonstrations of the latest equipment. Why hasn't this been reported in the major media?
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Five-Eyes, and other transnational partners
* "Peacefully protesting pensioner arrested outside NSA spy base" (2016-03-17, rt.com) [archive.is/HKehx]
===*===*===
from the Committee to
FREE 'EM ALL!
[PoliticalPrisonersUSA.blogspot.com]
End the Drug War! Stop Jim Crow! Close the Torture Chambers! [solitarywatch.com] [facebook.com/incarceratedworkers] [supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org] [denverabc.wordpress.com] [prisonlegalnews.org] [prisonbooks.info] [nycabc.wordpress.com] [powmedicaljustice.com] [sacprisonersupport.wordpress.com]. Become a Human Rights Pen Pal! [link].
March 23rd is the day of Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement and, nationwide, groups conducted actions as part of Together to End Solitary. In Oakland, Hip Hop for Change! [hiphopforchange.org] and the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS) [prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com] had an event in solidarity with the CA prisoners who challenged the torture of solitary confinement and created the historic Agreement to End Hostilities [archive.is/MjflO]. They say in their press release [archive.is/4mLat], "We hope to help cultivate strong community connections inside and outside prisons and grow community support in the prisoner class struggle. The work to end solitary confinement and create true social justice continues. Social justice does not include destroying lives, families and communities with incarceration, isolation, and torture. Right now we must stop the cruel Sleep Deprivation [archive.is/JVcf4] that began many months ago against people in solitary at Pelican Bay and CA Central Women’s Facility."
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* "Ex-Black Panther Member Albert Woodfox Pursuing Legal Action Over his "cruel" Solitary Confinement" (2016-03-17, lawyerherald.com) [archive.is/UFtvu]
* "Former Black Panther granted trial to contest 22 years in solitary confinement; Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz, who was convicted in 1970 for first-degree murder, to argue against his long-term isolation after Albert Woodfox was freed last month" (2016-03-15, theguardian.com) [archive.is/LeEOW]
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* "Alabama Governor Blames Prisoner Uprisings On “Overcrowding And Understaffing” " (2016-03-15, inthesetimes.com) [archive.is/65mFa]
* " 'Inmates are annoying insects that should be killed off the face of the Earth': Holman Prison Correctional Officer" (2016-03-16, stopjudicialcorruption.com) [archive.is/x978d]
* "List of Demands from Men Incarcerated at Holman Prison in Alabama" (2016-03-14, medium.com) [archive.is/TwLv9]:
Two uprisings occurred at Holman prison in Alabama over the past four days. One, starting on Friday night involved fires being set after the Warden was stabbed. The second on Monday morning, involved 70–100 men barricading themselves inside their dormitory. The men at Holman Prison have released a set of demands. Sent to me via video, the six demands are listed below:
1. We inmates, at Holman Prison, ask for immediate federal assistance.
2. We ask that the Alabama government release all inmates who have spent excessive time in Holman Prison — due to the conditions of the prison and the overcrowding of these prisons in Alabama.
3. We ask that the 446 laws [Habitual Felony Offender laws] that Alabama holds as of 1975 be abolished.
4. We ask that parole board release all inmates who fit the criteria to be back in society with their families.
5. We ask that these prisons in Alabama implement proper classes that will prepare inmates to be released back into society with 21st century information that will prepare inmates to open and own their own businesses instead of making them having to beg for a job.
6. We also ask for monetary damages for mental pain and physical abuse that inmates have already suffered.
For more information on Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offenders Law (their version of the 3 strike laws), read this quick explanation and then these two longer ones here and here (.pdf) [http://is.gd/3t0AzZ].
For more information on Alabama’s parole process, and how people who are eligible for parole aren’t receiving it: read here.
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* "Amnesty International investigator on Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa's death" (2016-03-18, by Michael Richardson) [archive.is/F9RiV]
* "Mumia Abu-Jamal on Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa's death" (2016-03-16, by Michael Richardson) [archive.is/SeyPr]
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* "What Courage! [?] Texas Officials Torture Elderly Black Prisoner (2015)" (2016-01-21, rashidmod.com) [archive.is/itAMD]:
What distinguishes a just and humane military force from a barbaric one is discipline and the capacity to refrain from violence against the weak and infirm – the young and elderly in particular. Amerika, however, has never lived up to these principles. It has actually always targeted the most vulnerable, with intentions of either exterminating entire populations as with its “treatment” of Native Americans or to make life so precarious, desperate, and intolerable that their victims will submit out of sheer terror (although the result is usually the opposite), as with its innumerable, direct (and proxy) wars against and invasions of Third World societies.
But for those who live within U.S. borders, life is supposed to be regulated by the principles of civil and “democratic” society, not military force. The reality, however, for the poor and especially for people of color has always been one akin to military occupation and containment – and the most vulnerable have never been spared. From urban communities occupied by increasingly militarized police to inhumane prisons, I’ve lived and witnessed it for most of my life. In fact, I’m witnessing it right now.
Here’s a snapshot.
Targeting an Elderly Man -
It’s 25 degrees outside. In my segregation cellblock, here at the Clements Unit Prison in Amarillo, Texas, it is so cold that some of us remain bundled up inside blankets and/or sheets on top of being fully clothed.
Mr. Floyd Reed, #343987, is housed in the cellblock with me and lives several cells down the tier. He’s in his sixties, a New Afrikan/Black man who is respected by most others in the pod who refer to him as “Mr. Reed.”
On November 10, 2015, a group of guards threatened they were going to pull him out of his cell and beat him; “It’ll be all of us against you,” they taunted. He called them the cowards that they are and told them, “Bring it on.”
A couple of days later – November 12 – a guard, Abraham Dolleh, was assigned to work a full 12-hour shift on our pod. All day he verbally taunted and abused Mr. Reed, including walking by, kicking his cell door, calling him various names and threatening him. Dolleh once told Mr. Reed, “I’ll kill your bitch ass!”
That afternoon Dolleh served dinner in the pod and refused Mr. Reed his meal. This is the same Dolleh who took another prisoner’s meal in this cellblock, as I previously wrote about.1
In turn, Mr. Reed admittedly stopped up the commode in his cell and, repeatedly flushing it, flooded the area in and around his cell, to get ranking staff to come to the pod.
In segregation it is virtually impossible to get prompt attention of a supervising guard or medical staff to abuses by lower ranking guards or other immediate needs, unless the prisoner resorts to some form of “disruptive” behavior. When this occurs the ranking officer almost always lectures prisoners that “this is not the way to get things done,” (although in reality it is the only way to get them to come to the pod to try and have them address or resolve the situation). The ranking guard then often uses the prisoner’s “misbehavior” as justification for not resolving the problem and/or even if they do address the issue, to subject the prisoner to disciplinary action or escalate the abuse.
So, the prisoner must choose, either to passively accept the abuse, which will only encourage further abuse (which might be anything from having been beaten by guards, to denial of life-sustaining medications or needed emergency medical care, to being refused meals, etc.) or to act out – as Mr. Reed did – to summon a ranking officer in hopes of obtaining some level of relief, although knowing he’s running the risk of suffering further punishment, or added abuse, by the ranking guard who’s been angered by the prisoner having forced her/him to come to the area. Mr. Reed received no redress, only compounded abuse and torture, which continues as I write this.
He was doomed if he did and doomed if he didn’t.
Escalating the Abuse -
In response to Mr. Reed’s flooding, a lieutenant, Stephen Thomas, along with a mob of other guards, came to his cell, although not to hear Mr. Reed’s complaints of Dolleh’s misconduct and his denied meal. Instead, Thomas proceeded to verbally abuse him for flooding and told Reed, “I’m gonna take all your shit!” In other words, he was going to take all of Mr. Reed’s in-cell property and leave him in a completely empty cell—a response not permitted for a prisoner’s flooding. The only appropriate response was to turn off the water to his cell and turn it on every few hours to permit him to drink and flush the commode, which meant, Thomas intended to create a situation or fabricate a scenario to speciously justify taking everything from Mr. Reed, on top of having his in-cell water turned off.
Thomas and the mob of guards then left the pod, only to return a few minutes later dressed out in helmets, gas masks, and body armor, threatening use of force. Mr. Reed was confronted by a sergeant, Julio Lucero, brandishing a large canister of gas and demanding in hostile tones that he submit to a strip search or be met with force. Mr. Reed was apparently trying to pack his belongings, obviously concerned the guards would dump them in the water on the floor under the guise of packing them for him, which was their intent.
Lucero told him to stop packing, stating, “We’ll pack your property for you,” and directed him to come to the cell door to be strip-searched or he’d be gassed. Mr. Reed complied, went through the strip-search routine, and was then handcuffed behind his back and brought out of the cell, whereupon he began protesting that he’d flooded because Dolleh refused his meal for no reason. A portable audio-video camera was trained on Mr. Reed.
I witnessed as guards, including Dolleh, dropped, dumped, and dragged his property (a large amount of which were books and documents) in and through the water on the cell and tier floor. I spoke out so I could be heard and recorded on the camera, which was not trained on Mr. Reed’s property, that Thomas was allowing the guards, including Dolleh who took his meal, to drop and drag his property in the water, and they were avoiding filming it in on camera.
After the cell was stripped completely empty, Thomas had Mr. Reed taken inside, stripped and left completely naked in the cold, wet cell. Reed protested these abuses in the only limited ways he could, which did nothing to stop them, which were calculated to demean, humiliate, and torture the elderly man, in violation of multiple fundamental laws.
Mr. Reed was left with nothing in the cold, still flooded cell. Not even basic necessities like toilet paper, utensils, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. – this, on top of being completely naked.2
A female nurse was then called to Mr. Reed’s cell to look in at him while naked, asking if he had any medical concerns, which he denied, at which point the audio-video camera was turned off. As everyone began leaving Mr. Reed’s cell area, Thomas yelled to him, “Bye bitch! You’re my bitch!” He then yelled to Dolleh, who was sitting at the pod table, to fabricate disciplinary reports against Mr. Reed stating he’d tried to throw his dinner meal at Dolleh and had misused his property – all to falsely justify Mr Reed’s recorded complaints of being denied his meal and the retaliatory taking of all his property.
Approximately an hour later, a female guard, Annie Pina, was assigned to work the pod for the next six hours, during which time she made routine rounds every 30 minutes looking in to each cell, including at the completely nude Mr. Reed.3 Around 7pm that night a female captain, April Demaroney, also made rounds and looked in on Mr. Reed. He asked her for clothing and bedding but was told by her, “No, you’re on property restriction.”
The next morning Thomas returned to work, went to Mr. Reed’s cell and ordered him to throw out boxer shorts and socks he had in the cell, stating they’d seen other prisoners send him the items on pod surveillance video footage by sliding them to him under the cell doors on lines. He was again left naked in the empty cold cell. Thomas then had a large, heavy mattress placed across the bottom of Mr. Reed’s cell door, so nothing could be passed to him under the door. Thomas also told several prisoners next to and across from Mr. Reed that if they sent him anything else, they would also have all their property taken.
Mr. Reed was without any running water until 9:26 pm on November 13, when he convinced a lieutenant Christopher Kyle to turn his in-cell water back on. He was thus without drinking water and could not flush his commode for over 24 hours.
It is now December 2, 2015, and Mr. Reed still has none of his personal property, including no hygiene supplies, no utensils, etc. Several guards have taunted him that all his belongings were thrown away by Thomas and Co.
He received a mattress several days following November 12 by a guard, who, in defiance of Thomas and others, tried to smuggle it to him by stuffing it through the slot in his cell door, which was seen on the pod surveillance camera. In turn the segregation lieutenant had the guard moved to another pod.
Following which, on November 26 a guard, Richard Spears, refused Mr. Reed his morning Thanksgiving “cold” tray. Later that day he put his arm in the door’s hatch to prevent its being locked in order to have a ranking guard come to the pod.
In response, Lucero and a lieutenant Chad Perry had Mr. Reed confronted with a team of riot armored guards, strip-searched, brought out of the cell, and all items, including Mr. Reed’s clothing, removed from the cold cell yet again and his mattress placed across the front of his cell door.
Conclusion -
Mr. Reed has yet to be treated according to the law or prison rules. According to him, Thomas had seven misconduct reports written against him on November 12, all of which were dropped because staff were captured on video tape throwing his personal belongings away, and ranking officials did not want these facts brought out on record in a disciplinary proceeding.
I have witnessed that he is being denied his legal mail, because his identification card was taken on November 12 along with his other property and not since returned. He thus cannot “prove” his identity to mailroom clerks who bring legal mail to his cell. Also, some have told him they’ve been told not to give him his mail, but instead to put it in storage because he’s on property restriction.
Officials would have the world believe that abuse of people of color in Amerika is the work of only a handful of “dirty” cops and guards. Bullshit! As Mr. Reed’s case demonstrates, abuses are carried out by the joint cooperation of officials of all ranks. It is a daily occurrence here, and no regard is given for the vulnerability of those targeted. Actually, the vulnerable and weak are made especial targets, since bullies are typically cowards, and to cowards, weakness invites attack. Only cowards could find a sense of personal satisfaction in abusing an elderly man, and dressing up in body armor with weapons to mob attack a single man. Odds are they would be utterly terrified to face themselves.
Dare to struggle, Dare to win!
All Power to the People!
Footnotes -
(1) See Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, “We Cannot Live by Bread Alone: Texas Abuses Prisoners with Denied Food and Bread and Water Diets” (2015) [archive.is/oeIIs].
(2) Strip cells, where prisoners are denied bedding, clothing, hygiene items, etc. have been deemed unconstitutional violations of the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause for decades. See, e.g., Chandler v. Baird, 926 F. 2d 1057, 1063 (1991); Mitchell v. Maynard, 80 F. 3d 1434, 1442 (1996); McCray v. Burrell, 622 F. 2d 705, 706 (1980); O’Connor v. Keller, 510 F. Supp. 1359, 1371-74 (1980), and so on.
(3) Prisoners have a “constitutional right to bodily privacy because most people have a special sense of privacy in their genitals, and involuntary exposure of them in the presence of people of the other sex may be especially demeaning and humiliating.”
Also, on March 28, 2014 the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [sic!] Director, William Stephens, issued a directive to all institutions under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, standard 115.15 that places “limits on cross-gender viewing and searches.” In this directive Stephens required TDCJ officials to protect prisoners from “non-medical staff of the opposite gender viewing their breasts, buttocks or genitalia …”
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* "Leonard Peltier's clemency application has been filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney"
(2016-03-15, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee):
Leonard Peltier's clemency application has been filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice.
Some of you may recall that Leonard's 1993 application for clemency was denied by George W. Bush as one of his last actions as President in 2009. After a required waiting period, Leonard became eligible to re-file. For the past nearly six months, a team has worked on the final version of the application (which is far more involved than just filling out a form).
What does this mean for supporters? Focus on the White House. We have less than a year (roughly 310 days) to convince President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.
Please call President Obama for Leonard Peltier: [202-456-1111] or [202-456-1414] every work day.
Please also frequently email President Obama: [whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments];
post a comment on Obama's Facebook page: [facebook.com/potus];
send a tweet to President Obama: @POTUS;
and/or write a letter: President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.
If ever there was a time to be very active on Leonard's behalf it's now!
Thank you for your support.
Onward!
The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Note: You may wish to read the press release by Amnesty International-USA at
[archive.is/OaMca]
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* "The Massive Prison Industry In The United States: Big Business & Slavery" (2015-12-20, by Arjun Walia) [archive.is/pUdhz]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
Campaigns, info, and more [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com]. Science [discardstudies.com]
* "Flint’s not the only place where the drinking water’s unsafe; More than 1 million Californians are dealing with contaminated water; In parts of the San Joaquin Valley, uranium has been detected; The symptom is unsafe drinking water, but the real illness is injustice" (2016-03-17, sacbee.com) [archive.is/obJM0]
* "New Vallejo water rate could help prevent catastrophic failure" (2016-02-17, timesheraldonline.com) [archive.is/zRrJN] [begin excerpt]: Reached by phone Wednesday, David Kleinschmidt, the city’s public works director, said that such rate increases are needed to prevent a catastrophic failure to Vallejo’s water system.
He said years of deferred maintenance to the city’s underground water pipes has caused the situation to become dire.
“We have pictures of pipes, as we go in to repair them, and it makes you shake your head and say, ‘oh, my gosh,’” he said.
Kleinschmidt confirmed the system could suffer a catastrophic failure at any moment, which would prevent residents and businesses from accessing water. He cited last August’s water main break, which caused half the city to lose access to water for a period of time. During the August 2014 south Napa earthquake, his department responded to 20 water main breaks, he added.
Public works is seeking $85 million or 80 percent of full funding needed to reduce deferred maintenance to the water system over the next 10 years. Kleinschimdt said the department actually needs $106 million to replace old pipes and maintain the water system, but recognized that it may be a “big task” getting that amount of funding from the public. [end excerpt]
* "Three water pipe breaks keeps Vallejo crews busy over night" (2016-01-05, timesheraldonline.com) [archive.is/cjrlP]
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* "WATER DISTRICT RECEIVES FUNDING TO MONITOR AND IMPROVE FISH HABITATS" (2016-03-19, Bay City News) [archive.is/MgFxA]: The Marin Municipal Water District has secured more than $830,000 in funding to improve fish habitat and monitor population status in Lagunitas Creek and other coastal streams in the region, district officials said Friday.
The funding came by way of two grants from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Restoration Grants Program.
The projects will focus on increasing winter habitat carrying capacity and life cycle monitoring for coho salmon and steelhead trout, according to district officials.
The coho salmon and steelhead trout are two federally recognized endangered species.
The Lagunitas Creek Winter Habitat Enhancement Implementation - Phase II project received $724,913 to support the construction of large, engineered log structures that will improve winter habitat for the endangered fish, district officials said.
The enhancements will provide fish with areas to ride out storms in floodplains and backwater habitat where the water flow is not as fast as in other parts of the stream, according to district officials.
The Lagunitas Creek Coastal Monitoring Plan Salmon Lifecycle Monitoring - Phase II project received $105,913 to support monitoring coho salmon in the Lagunitas Creek watershed.
The lifecycle monitoring project will also evaluate populations of coho and steelhead salmon between the Russian River and Golden Gate including Salmon, Walker, Lagunitas, Pine Gulch and Redwood Creeks, district officials said.
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* "Lake Huron's Chinook salmon fishery unlikely to recover due to ongoing food shortage" (2016-03-14, ns.umich.edu) [archive.is/jk5LA]
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* "Targeted tree planting to combat flooding" (2016-03-11, southampton.ac.uk) [archive.is/mKDTj] [begin excerpt]: The scientists found that more extensive floodplain forest and river restoration (for example in 20–25 per cent of the total river length) resulted in a reduction in flood peak height of up to 20 per cent. As the trees age and the forests become more mature and complex up to 100 years post planting there are larger reductions in flood peak height.
The work was funded by the Environment Agency, which is interested in the potential for river restoration techniques to be incorporated into wider flood risk management programmes.
Professor in Physical Geography, David Sear, from the University of Southampton, who supervised the project, says: “With increasing interest in alternatives to conventional hard flood defences, there is an urgent need for evidence that these alternatives can work. This research reminds us that natural processes, when targeted carefully, can reduce downstream flood risk alongside other societal benefits including biodiversity and recreation.”
Dr Simon Dixon, from the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), lead author of the study, says: “As our research shows, targeted tree planting and restoration can contribute to reducing flood risk. We believe that tree planting can make a big contribution to reducing flood risk, and should be part of a wider flood risk management approach, including conventional flood defences. Tree planting would represent an extra element that helps to slow down the arrival of rain water to vulnerable locations. [end excerpt]
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* "Four tremors recorded in Oklahoma since Sunday; USGS last year tied oil and gas activity to the increase in seismic events" (206-03-14, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/QcmkT]
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* "Fertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades" (2016-03-15, uwaterloo.ca) [archive.is/9EpAZ]
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* "The Disney Parks That Could Have Been" (2016-03-16, travelandleisure.com) [archive.is/GNmA5] [begin excerpt]:
Mineral King at Sequoia National Park, California -
After the early success of Disneyland, Walt Disney looked to other modes of recreation he could influence. With a skiing boom following the 1960 Winter Olympics being held in California and the winter season being slow at Disneyland, a ski resort seemed like a no-brainer. Drawing inspiration from a trip to Switzerland, Walt dreamt up a year-round facility that would have skiing, attractions, and recreation across 15,000 acres in partnership with the United States Forest Service. Despite his plan to reduce the number of cars on site by building a train to the area and encouraging walking and biking, The Sierra Club went on to oppose the project, even filing a lawsuit that escalated to the Supreme Court. After much negotiation, the project was scaled back greatly, and when the state would not pay for the infrastructure necessary to build roads to the park, the project was scrapped entirely. Disney’s ski lodge dreams were gone but not forgotten — they tried again in 1978 with a location on Independence Lake, and even in Yosemite in 2000, but neither project ever went through. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
SAN PABLO BAY EPA: Health and the Human Ecology
Monopolists enforce a regime that does not recognize the natural right to health and life. Info [detoxproject.org].
* "All Eyes on Flint, but Drinking Water Crisis Stretches Nationwide; USA Today investigation finds 350 schools and day-care centers failed lead tests a total of about 470 times from 2012 through 2015" (2016-03-17, commondreams.org) [archive.is/gqSWq]
* "Portland, OR to sue Monsanto for water contamination" (2016-03-17, rt.com) [archive.is/R2mAQ]
* " ‘Mind-boggling’: 17,000 New Jersey children to be tested for lead poisoning" (2016-03-17, rt.com) [archive.is/2WNvF]
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* "Poisoned and Marginalised? The Role of Agroecology in Resisting the Corporate Stranglehold on Food and Agriculture" (2016-03-04, by Colin Todhunter) [archive.is/7rF9m]
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Evidence for the hazards of microwaves?
* "Ruby red improves in the microwave oven Researchers test a new way to treat colour problems in rubies" (2016-03-02, springer.com) [archive.is/OUvb2], original scientific report (.pdf) [http://is.gd/bNNnwk]
===*===*===
SAN PABLO BAY EPA: Save The Birds [link]! and the Bees [link]!
A campaign to preserve and expand the habitat and populations of pollinators in the San Pablo Bay Area.
* "Pesticides affect bees' ability to locate flowers, drink nectar" (2016-03-14, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/K0OKw]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
NO NUKES! campaign
[StopNuclearDeath.blogspot.com] [nuclear-news.net] [nukeresister.org] [nukefree.org]
* "Fukushima: Highly Radioactive Cesium-Bearing Microparticles Released into Japan’s Natural Environment. Impacts on Human Health" (2016-02-03, by Noriko Yamaguchi, Masanori Mitome, Akiyama-Hasegawa Kotone, Maki Asano, Kouji Adachi, and Toshihiro Kogure) [archive.is/mvUD9]
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* "Energy giants call German nuclear phase-out 'expropriation' " (2016-03-15, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/dO3DL]:
Three energy giants Tuesday told Germany's top court that they should be compensated for the nuclear phase-out Chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided after the Fukushima disaster five years ago.
Energy giants E.ON, RWE and Sweden's Vattenfall want the Constitutional Court to rule that the move amounted to an "expropriation" of their assets.
They hope that would bolster damages claims they have already launched in lower regional courts where they are reportedly demanding a total of at least 15 billion euros ($17 billion) in separate cases.
Merkel's government decided after Japan's March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima reactor meltdowns to halt operations of Germany's eight oldest nuclear plants, and to shutter the other nine by 2022.
Today, eight of Germany's 17 nuclear plants remain in operation.
The move, shortly before key regional elections, marked a sharp reversal for Merkel. She had earlier overturned a phase-out ordered by a previous government in 2002 and extended the lifespan of Germany's nuclear fleet until 2036.
The chief of Germany's biggest power company E.ON, Johannes Teyssen, said: "Our constitutional complaint is not directed against the political decision to phase out nuclear energy. We explicitly respect this decision.
"But we cannot simply accept that parliament disregarded constitutional requirements by providing for no compensation.
"For our shareholders -- including many small stock holders who have their savings and pensions invested with us -- this creates a significant financial loss which under current law will not be compensated for. Our constitutional complaint argues against, and only against, this point."
- Billions in losses -
The energy companies have booked heavy losses amid the nuclear phase-out and shift towards green energy, much of it produced by wind and solar plants operated by households, small businesses and municipalities.
The glut of government-subsidised renewable power has led to a collapse in wholesale electricity prices.
E.ON this month said it suffered a seven-billion-euro net loss in 2015, blaming in part the massive write-downs on the value of its electricity plants.
The companies filed the first of a spate of dozens of legal cases in 2012, most in the courts of the German states where particular plants are located.
Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall is also seeking 4.7 billion euros in damages from Germany before a US tribunal.
Critics argue that the big energy companies benefited from massive state subsidies when the nuclear plants first went into operation.
Safely decommissioning all the plants and storing their radioactive parts and waste will cost around 50 billion euros, experts estimate.
Industry observers say the companies hope to use a favourable constitutional court ruling as leverage in parallel talks on state aid for decommissioning the atomic plants.
However, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said Tuesday that "the government will not agree to any deals".
She also defended the decision to abandon nuclear power, saying that "against the background of the decades-long controversial societal debate, there could be no more 'business as usual'" after Fukushima.
The Constitutional Court hearings run until Wednesday, and a ruling is not expected for several months.
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY SOVEREIGNTY Think-tank
[SovereignSanPabloBay.blogspot.com] [permaculture.org]
* "Energy Efficiency And Biogas Generation At Wastewater Plants; Anaerobic digestion systems are being upgraded to accept food waste and FOG to boost energy generation" (2012-07, biocycle.net) [archive.is/f2OmZ]
* "Central Marin Commercial Food-to-Energy (F2E) Program" (.pdf) (2012-11-27, townofsananselmo.org) [http://is.gd/D6n4sx] [begin excerpt]: What is Anaerobic Digestion?
Anaerobic digestion (also known as food-to-energy (F2E) is the decomposition of organic solids in an
oxygen-free environment. Through this technique, a natural biogas is created (consisting primarily of
methane gas) which is captured and utilized as a source of renewable energy. By diverting food waste
from landfills, fugitive green house gas (GHG) emissions are averted. Food waste is very biodegradable and has a much higher volatile solids destruction rate than biosolids. Therefore, residuals will only increase slightly and may be used as an alternative daily cover.
* "Central Marin Commercial Food-to-Energy (F2E) Program" (epa.gov) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/S9Ug2D]
* "Technical Report: - Central Marin Sanitation Agency" (cmsa.us) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/A2vj4k]
* "PG&E’s Green-Energy Seed Grant Grows in Marin" (2014-04-04, pgecurrents.com) [archive.is/7JhKx]
* "Marin launches food scraps-to-energy program for restaurants" (2014-03-18, marinij.com) [archive.is/3fUDp]
* "Central Marin Food to Waste" (2013-12, baywork.org) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/TghDQX]
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* "Growing Pure Algae 24 7 and Without Sunlight" (2016-03-17, biofueldaily.com) [archive.is/BliyD]
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* "Scientists unlock key to turning wastewater & sewage into power; Two Virginia Tech researchers have discovered a way to maximize the amount of electricity that can be generated from the wastewater we flush down the toilet" (2016-02-23, vtnews.vt.edu) [archive.is/UrHiz], attached video [youtube.com/watch?v=yh-67zu-kx4]
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* "Researchers create synthetic biopathway to turn agriculture waste into ‘green’ products; Process could enable biomanufacturing of 1 billion pounds of spandex each year" (2016-02-08, discover.umn.edu) [archive.is/A4kXn]
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* "Renewable plastic from carbon dioxide and plants" (2016-03-09, energy.stanford.edu) [archive.is/Wc8gT]
* "Researchers harness the reducing potential of renewable sugars; Dr Jason Camp’s work on sugar-powered catalysis 'opens up exciting opportunities' " (2016-02-16, The University of Huddersfield of Yorkshire Universities, hud.ac.uk) [archive.is/7XmZM]
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* "Iowa State engineers develop hybrid technology to create biorenewable nylon" (2016-02-08, news.iastate.edu) [archive.is/ofFKH]
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* "Taming Oceans for 24/7 Power" (2016-03-02, oist.jp) [archive.is/oPXUH] [begin excerpt]: In the journal, Renewable Energy [archive.is/uL0TQ], the Quantum Wave Microscopy Unit [groups.oist.jp/qwmu] at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) proposed a design for a submerged marine turbine to harness the energy of the Kuroshio Current, flowing along the Japanese coast. This design is especially suitable for regions regularly devastated by storms and typhoons, such as Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. The turbine operates in the middle layer of the current, 100 m below the surface, where the waters flow calmly and steadily, even during strong storms.
“Our design is simple, reliable, and power-efficient”, says Dr Katsutoshi Shirasawa, a staff scientist in the Quantum Wave Microscopy Unit. The turbine comprises a float, a counterweight, a nacelle to house electricity-generating components, and three blades. Minimising the number of components is essential for easy maintenance, low cost, and a low failure rate.
The OIST design is a hybrid of a kite and a wind turbine: an ocean-current turbine is anchored to seabed with a line and floats in the current while water rotates its three blades. Ocean currents are rather slow, averaging 1-1.5 m/s. However, water is over 800 times as dense as air, and even a slow current contains energy comparable to a strong wind. Additionally, currents do not stop or change direction.
The OIST team, led by Prof. Tsumoru Shintake, head of the Quantum Wave Microscopy Unit, built a prototype turbine and conducted various experiments to test its design and configuration. Results confirmed the robustness and stability of the turbine construction. The achieved efficiency is comparable to that of commercial wind turbines.
The design can easily be scaled up or down, depending on local conditions and needs. Dr. Shirasawa and his colleagues aspire to build an energy farm featuring 300 turbines 80 m in diameter. The expected output is about 1 GW — the equivalent of one nuclear reactor, capable of powering over 400,000 homes. This project will be an important step toward development of green energy. [end excerpt]
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* "Chemically Storing Solar Power; A photo-electrochemical cell has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It can chemically store the energy of ultraviolet light even at high temperatures" (2016-02-15, tuwien.ac.at) [archive.is/1Kknq]
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* "WELTEC Group Acquires 3.3 MW Biogas Plant; Comprehensive Restructuring Makes Plant Operation Sustainable" (2016-02-17, weltec-biopower.com) [archive.is/XzGkE]
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* "Desert cactus purifies contaminated water for aquaculture, drinking and more" (2016-03-13, acs.org) [archive.is/knKMh]
* "Cactus Guts Can Purify Fish Tanks" (2016-03-16, American Chemical Society) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uiTham0yvg]: Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source — the mucilage or inner “guts” of cactus.
===*===*===
articles recommended by the Committee for
ANIMAL RIGHTS
Protect Earth's Sentient Life!
* "Reverse engineering human biology with organs-on-chips" (2016-03-10, medicalxpress.com) [archive.is/p9AwE]
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the process of fascism and for whom it benefits. [UnitedStatesFascism.blogspot.com] [exposefacts.org]
* "Human Rights Hypocrisy: US Criticizes Cuba" (2016-03-18, commondreams.org) [archive.is/wIngu]
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* "U.S. Rep. to Snyder: Emergency manager law brought Flint 'to its knees' " (2016-03-17, freep.com) [archive.is/ojyeK]
* "6 most-heated moments during Snyder's Flint water crisis testimony" (2016-03-17, freep.com) [archive.is/buS14]
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* "United Technologies: Boss Gets $192 Million, 110-Foot Yacht as 2100 Jobs Move to Mexico at $3 an Hour" (2016-03-18, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/JejoO]
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* "Agenda 21 Via The Anti-Government Movement" (2016-01-21, activistpost.com) [archive.is/7VadX]
Thesis: Agenda 21 and the environmental movement.
Antithesis: Enter the anti-government overreach crowd. Sounds good but is it?
Synthesis: Model States legislation and ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council)
[begin excerpt]: Not only are the states pushing for this land transfer but also some elements in the federal government as well. In a memo entitled “Views and Estimates for Fiscal Year 2016” from the chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, Bob Bishop (R-UT), and sent to the House Budget Committee, Rep. Bishop states, “The solution is to convey land without strings to state, local, and tribal governments.” He also asks for $50 million in taxpayer dollars to cover the transfers. This all may sound good until you look at what will now become of these lands.
The populations of most western states is relatively small, and the people of these states would either face a tax increase that most can’t afford or the states would have to sell off these lands to the highest bidder. Or, worse yet, the local governments will take federal grants to offset the cost.
The cost of fire prevention and control alone would put a major burden on these states, as pointed out in a pdf [http://is.gd/36k0Yr] by westernpriorities.org. Wildfire suppression in these states cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Ranchers would have to pay higher grazing fees in most of these states if they were even allowed to continue using the land. State agencies would be forced to grow to compensate for the federal agencies that were vacating. States could also follow the Economic Development route and industrial parks could pop up everywhere. [end excerpt]
* "Report: Most of the Coal Mined by the Three Biggest Coal Companies in the US Belongs to the American Public" (2016-03-17, greenpeace.org) [archive.is/CDvfl]
* "Most of the Coal Mined by the Biggest Coal Companies in the U.S. Belongs to the American Public; The biggest coal mining companies in the country depend on subsidized federal coal, even as they attack federal climate and clean air policies" (2016-03-17, medium.com) [archive.is/8PwNd]
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* "US Congressman Says Bankers Should Find Way to 'Neuter' Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Blaine Luetkemeyer is part of a group of lawmakers identified by the Center for Public Integrity as 'especially solicitous to the banking industry' " (2016-03-16, commondreams.org) [archive.is/jYYJh]
* "Bloomberg’s Matt Winkler Tells Some Whoppers About Wall Street Reform" (2016-03-16, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/yrK5m]
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* "Koch Fronted Regulatory Hit Woman Edges Closer to Seat on SEC" (2016-03-17, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/8NLj7]
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* "Why American Independent Internet Radio May Go Extinct in 2016" (2016-01-05, radiosurvivor.com) [archive.is/FkB12]
* "Online-only radio stations offer a distinct freedom of expression" (2015-12-28, greenvilleonline.com) [archive.is/Jvf4O]
* "New royalty rates endanger online radio stations" (2016-01-14, sfchronicle.com) [archive.is/YpfiS]
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* "Is the Left Prepared for the Right's Terrorism? The Left needs to be resilient and serious, because the future isn't going to be nonviolent" (201127, by Vincent Emanuele) [archive.is/eOJ6R]
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* "The U.S. Is Becoming a Terrifying Nation for Women" (2016-03-17, by Sonali Kolhatkar) [archive.is/UgnEs]
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* "Trump’s America Is Here: Man Kills 3 People For Not Speaking English; This Milwaukee man killed 3 innocent people for the simple crime of not speaking English" (2016-03-15) [archive.is/o1z0S]
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* "The new mind control The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do" (2016-02-18, aeon.co) [archive.is/F5QUq]
* "The Nation’s Official Election Watchdog Is Self-Destructing" (2016-03-16, whowhatwhy.org) [archive.is/GaVGj]. In an exclusive interview, FEC commissioner Ann Ravel tells WhoWhatWhy that her agency’s dysfunction is the reult of Republican appointees who have little interest in enforcing the nation’s campaign finance laws.* Photo (2014, Gage Skidmore, via Flickr): Former chairman and current member of the FEC, Lee E. Goodman, speaking at the 2014 Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC)
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* (whowhatwhy.org): Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's experiment with trickle-down economics has created a rolling budget crisis in his state. Now there is speculation the Governor may raid tobacco settlement funds to funnel $400 million into the state deficit.- "New, disastrous Kansas job loss exposes pure folly of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts; Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has been waiting in vain for a string of months of strong job creation to supply new revenue to the state treasury" (2015-09-18, kansascity.com) [archive.is/OduHv]
- * "Kansas Senate hearing points to secret deal to secure $400 million for state deficit; Brownback officials push back against contention administration plans to sell future tobacco payments for quick cash" (2016-030-18, cjonline.com) [archive.is/BoPuP]
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* "Jim Bakker: Bernie Sanders Is Our Adolf Hitler" (2016-03-21, rightwingwatch.org) [archive.is/UxLk3], attached video [http://is.gd/LyPd8E]: Televangelist Jim Bakker warned last week that public schools are teaching anti-American views to students as part of a nefarious plot to bring down the U.S., which he said explained Bernie Sanders’ popularity among young voters.Bakker said that Sanders’ support from young people proves that the U.S. is transforming into Nazi Germany.
“One of the most popular politicians right now is a socialist,” Bakker said. “And who is his biggest following? The young people of America, from the colleges. Maybe you understand a little bit what it felt like to live when Hitler was reigning and the church had to sit by and keep watching it and watching until millions, tens of millions — they had to build factories to kill people. All it takes is a couple bombs and all of America will be dead within a year, less than a year, just months.”
“I can’t tolerate this much longer,” he added. “I can’t tolerate it.”
* "Alex Jones: Bernie Sanders Supporters Like Nazis Clamoring For Adolf Hitler" (2016-02-05, rightwingwatch.org) [archive.is/INa4j], attached video [http://is.gd/mGf1qi]: Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones, broadcasting from a dim, bunker-like studio yesterday, pleaded with Bernie Sanders supporters to abandon their candidate, telling them that Sanders is aiding a scheme devised by “European royalty” to “scapegoat the free market as the problem and to sell communism and socialism and wealth-redistribution as a solution.”
As Jones puts it, the super-super-rich intend to use socialism to seize the wealth of the regular rich, thus consolidating their power.
Jones later added that Sanders fans are like the Germans who supported Adolf Hitler: “This is the most ganged-mentality, dumbed-down, it’s like, ‘We want to elect Hitler, he says he’ll invade France and give us free stuff.’”
The InfoWars broadcaster previously said that Sanders wants to throw people him into forced labor camps [https://archive.is/5h7Ww].
---
Far from being a benign system for the equal opportunity to acquire wealth (a "meritocracy"), capitalism as an ideology upholds artificial famine and poverty, contributing to hundreds of millions of premature death every decade across the Global Market regime. Yet, in order to prevent hostility to such a system, ideological capitalists use fabricated topics to denounce "communism". Even the USSR's socialism was so effecient at preserving lives, the historical famines afflicting Eurasia were halted, and the population rose with a higher quality of life under their socialist regime. The USA's dominance over dozens of state juriisdictions in Latin America could not prevent famine, and, instead, entrenched famine. This inhumane capitalist regime over the world is the sole reason why socialism is becoming more popular!
* "How Did America Forget What ‘Socialist’ Means? With Obama cuddling up to Cuba, it’s time to remind ourselves of the evils of socialism" (2016-03-22, by Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C.) [archive.is/JM8VD] [begin excerpt]: Socialism is not roads, welfare, and free education. Socialism has always had a more ominous goal and shares close historical and ideological connections with more reviled terms: Marxism and communism. Karl Marx took socialism to what he viewed as its natural conclusion: The “abolition of private property.” [...]
“In striving for socialism,” Lenin said in 1917, “we are convinced it will develop into communism.” The result in more than 40 national experiments since then has been either totalitarian dictatorship or economic collapse, costing some 100 million lives before the communist experiment collapsed in Europe and the Soviet Union. [...]
Only socialist countries have achieved the tragic distinction of launching rockets into outer space while millions of their citizens starve to death in famine. Now that’s inequality!
The Center for Global Policy at George Mason University has recorded an interesting historical development. Its Political Instability Task Force plotted a chart showing the percentage of countries in which mass killings were occurring from the end of World War II until the present day. For most of the second half of the 20th century, that percentage increased steadily. Then, in the early 1990s, a precipitous drop occurred, and in the 2010s we have seen the lowest percentage of countries on Earth with ongoing mass killings ever recorded. What happened in the early 1990s? The Cold War ended and millions were freed from behind communist walls and secret police holding cells. [end excerpt]
Believes everything the State Department claims without cynicism or irony... that's a Libertarian.
* "Fig. 80-4: Anarco-capitalism" meme [archive.is/rU3kw]
===*===*===
USA FASCISM: Military State
* "Lockheed Martin forms energy group" (2016-03-16, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/qaKvm]: Defense company Lockheed Martin said it formed a new commercial line that would focus on expanding into the energy technology market.
The company is combining its energy products and technologies lines under a single entity called Lockheed Martin Energy. Frank Armijo, the company's newly-minted vice president, said the structure would build on a strong foundation in energy technologies.
"With our broad energy capabilities now under a single organization, we'll focus our business growth strategy, enhance collaboration, advance new technology and ultimately build Lockheed Martin Energy into a true leader in the expanding energy market," he said in a statement.
The Department of Defense has called for the addition of 3 gigawatts worth of renewable energy to help meet the electricity demands of military facilities. The mandate is part of a broader departmental directive to use renewable energy resources for at least 25 percent of its energy consumption.
Last month, Lockheed signed a 17-year purchase agreement to get solar-generated electricity from Duke Energy Renewables. Duke has a new solar facility in North Carolina that, as the largest plant of its kind east of the Mississippi River, is producing 80 megawatts of total energy. Lockheed secures about 40 percent of the total output.
Overseas, the defense company said it secured a $43 million contract to help with the development of a 5 megawatt power plant in Germany that will transform waste into energy.
Lockheed Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson said that, apart from national defense, "the challenges of extreme weather, climate change [and] environmental degradation" were emerging as rising security interests.
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* "You could buy an Australian island for what the Pentagon says it would cost to take inventory — of one item; In response to a FOIA request, the Pentagon admits that its master list of contracts is not searchable and it has no clue how many specific items it has on hand" (2016-03-17, publicintegrity.org) [archive.is/ussqw]. Whowhatwhy.org writes:
Pentagon Claims Processing FOIA Request Would Cost $660 Million -
The Pentagon estimates that responding to one Freedom of Information Act request would take 15 million hours at a cost of $660 million. So if you want to know how many so-called HotPlugs the Department of Defense has in stock, you may need to have to wait for an answer -- until the year 3700 (if one Pentagon staffer works on the request every work day from now until then).
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* "Dispelling myths about Special Operations Forces" (2016-03-17, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/7sne4], written by a military apologist who knowingly ignores the death-squad activities and support for war crimes conducted by Special Operations Forces.
* "The Long History of 'Green Men' Tactics - and how they were defeated" (2016-03-17, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/UDH2o], a Russophobic article written by a USA security agent as a propaganda piece in favor of his employer.
===*===*===
USA FASCISM: Two Party Dictatorship
* "US Election 2016" (2016-03-16, by ex-CIA agent David Simpson, dninews.com) [archive.is/TjwDZ]: 2016 will be the 58th time American voters supposedly select a national leader. A careful analysis of the viable candidates in play brings us to the conclusion that one wants a war with Russia, another is chained to another country before his own and the last is Russia's best hope, if he isn't assassinated on the road to the election. In reviewing the Presidential candidates for the US presidency, we can narrow the field to three viable possibilities at this point, Clinton, Sanders or Trump.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also in the U.S. Senate and was the 42nd First Lady of the United States, became the first Democrat to announce a major candidacy for the presidency. Her background as Secretary of State would normally render her candidacy dead on arrival. Her personal actions in Benghazi caused the first death of a US Ambassador in a quarter of a century. Needless to say, the main stream media does not point out her involvement in the US creation of ISIS or her participation in the overthrow of Ukraine's lawfully elected Yanukovich government. Clinton is tied to the Council On Foreign Relations and receives advice from a number of vehemently anti-Russian sources including Zbigniew Brzenzinski who after the violent overthrow of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich and the 16 March Crimean referendum, Brzenzinski authored an article for The Washington Post entitled "What is to be done? Putin’s aggression in Ukraine needs a response". He led with a link on Russian aggression comparing Russian President Putin's "thuggish tactics in seizing Crimea" and "thinly camouflaged invasion" to Adolf Hitler's occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938, and characterized Putin as a cartoon Benito Mussolini, and has advocating that the U.S. go to war with Russia on multiple occasions. Rather, he suggested that NATO should be put on high alert and recommended further support of Ukraine's entry into NATO as a tactic to secure the US investment of 5 Billion dollars in the overthrow of the legally elected Yanukovich government.
Clinton is a lifelong agent of the Oligarchy in America and a quick review of her top financial contributors proves this. The top five include a global law firm foreign contributions are channeled through (DLA Piper), Emily's List an American liberal fund raising group and 3 wall street banks-Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. Not really your everyday citizens putting this sociopath into power. Clinton is on track to take in over 2.5 Billion dollars in "contributions" in an attempt to buy her way into power. Clinton has numerous legal and ethical issues that the Obama administration turns a blind eye to in an attempt to support her accession to power. The US Attorney General has said that even if the FBI seeks Clinton's indictment on criminal charges, they can decline to bring charges citing discretionary prosecution. Clinton is a fanatic supporter of Zionism in Israel and has made it clear that regardless of Russia's treaties with Iran she will take America to war over Iran, much less Russia stating, “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m president, we will attack Iran. We would be able to totally obliterate them.”
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is an United States Senator from Vermont. He is candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Sanders had been the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, though his caucusing with the Democrats entitled him to committee assignments and at times gave Democrats a majority. Sanders rose to national prominence following his 2010 filibuster against the proposed extension of the Bush tax cuts. He favors policies similar to those of social democratic parties in Europe, particularly those instituted by the Nordic countries, and has built a reputation as a leading progressive voice on issues such as campaign finance reform, corporate welfare, global warming, income inequality, LGBT rights, parental leave, and universal healthcare. Sanders has long been critical of U.S. foreign policy and was an early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq War. He is also outspoken on civil liberties and civil rights, particularly criticizing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system as well as advocating for privacy rights against mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the NSA surveillance programs. Sanders weak points are a life long commitment to Israel that has seen him and Clinton competing for American Jewish voters and money, and while promising to deliver these points in foreign policy,1. Move away from a policy of unilateral military action, and toward a policy of emphasizing diplomacy, and ensuring the decision to go to war is a last resort.2 Ensure that any military action we do engage in has clear goals, is limited in scope, and whenever possible provides support to our allies in the region.3 Close Guantanamo Bay, rein in the National Security Agency, abolish the use of torture, and remember what truly makes America exceptional: our values. 4 Expand our global influence by promoting fair trade, addressing global climate change, providing humanitarian relief and economic assistance, defending the rule of law, and promoting human rights. Readers are cautioned the last US President from the same political party, one Barack Hussein Obama, promised to deliver the exact same thing and in every situation lied and did none of what was promised. Sanders true place in history could be as a "spoiler" candidate, running as an Independent and drawing votes away from Clinton, should he go rogue after the Democratic convention.
Donald John Trump is an American businessman, politician, television personality, and a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election. He is chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts (a gaming and hotel enterprise now owned by Carl Icahn). His business activities, television work, outspoken manner, personal life, and legal activity have made him an international celebrity. Trump has run for public office, first campaigning for the U.S. presidency in 2000, and winning two Reform Party primaries. On June 16, 2015, Trump again announced his candidacy for president, this time as a Republican. He quickly became the front-runner after gaining significant support among those dissatisfied with "establishment politics." His plain-spoken style and controversial comments have led to extensive media coverage, where his politics have been described as populist, nativist, protectionist and authoritarian. As of March 9, 2016, he has won 15 contests in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.
Trump has gained widespread support for the idea that he and his supporters call "telling it like it is," with a significant disdain for political correctness. He is running counter to the Republican establishment, which widely opposes his candidacy and worries that his winning could hand the election to the Democratic nominee. However, Trump's candidacy has largely succeeded, partly because of widespread media coverage. He has frequently made bold and controversial statements about issues that largely appeal to working-class voters. Numerous segments of the traditional Republican establishment have united to stop Trump and popular talk show host Glen Beck is under investigation for threatening to personally kill Trump himself. Many in intelligence believe Trump is at high risk for assassination as his views do not converge with America's oligarchy and it's desires.
Perhaps the strong point of Trump is his independence and lack of connection to neo cons and oligarchs determined to continue a new cold war with Russia and China for business profit. Trump offers himself as a business person willing to negotiate from a position of equal respect rather than as an authoritarian dictator as has the Obama Administration behaved. Of the three possible options at this point it is obvious that Trump is the best hope Russia may have in possibly repairing the breach between east and west. It is however also the very policy that in the end may get Mr.Trump killed by the financial elites that see his willingness to seek peace as the end of their free ride.
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* "Washington’s Neocon Occupation Upholds The Illusion Of Choice In The Two-Party Duopoly" (by Mnar Muhawesh, mintpressnews.com) [archive.is/f7Leq]
* "Donald Trump: A “Joke Candidate” or a Threat? The “Political Establishment” in Outright Panic Mode" (2016-03-04, by Bill Holter) [archive.is/5ml7Y]
* "George Soros pumping millions into Democrats, alarmed by Trump’s rise" (2016-03-16, rt.com) [archive.is/zSKZS]
* "Trash the Party: One Wing of the Duoploy Almost Down, One to Go" (2016-03-02, by Glen Ford, blackagendareport.com) [archive.is/ZsfqI]
* "The Presidential Debates belong to the People, not Political Parties" petition text (independentdebate.com) [archive.is/uzaK3]* "Millions of CA Voters Unaware They Don’t Have a Say in Presidential Primaries" (2016-03-15, ivn.us) [archive.is/bNgyz]
* "GOP Committeeman: Primaries Don’t Matter, We Can Change the Rules Anytime" (2016-03-14, ivn.us) [archive.is/yiBVQ]
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* "Jill Stein: Democratic Party Has Track Record of Sabotaging Reformers Like Sanders" (2016-03-15, ivn.us) [archive.is/RnfcG]
* "Truth in Media: Donors, Lobbyists among Democratic Superdelegates" (2016-03-15, ivn.us) [archive.is/FBe0H]
* "How Clinton Media Machine blocked Sanders Civil Rights play; Inside the Takedown of Bernie Sanders’s Civil Rights Record" (2016-03-03, by Russ Baker, whowhatwhy.org) [archive.is/lQUjX]
* "Bernie Sanders Is Currently Winning the Democratic Primary Race, and I’ll Prove It to You" (2016-03-23, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/w3L8f]
* "Something Is Going Seriously Wrong at Arizona Polls Today" (2016-03-22, usuncut.com) [http://is.gd/Dm1EGA]
* "5 Outrageous Examples of Voter Suppression in the Arizona Primary" (2016-03-23, usuncut.com) [http://is.gd/meAho3]
* "Over a Million AZ Voters Disenfranchised; Sanders Voters Stand in Long Lines Only to be Denied the Right to Vote; Official Results Appear Flipped/Rigged" (2016-03-22, justicegazette.org) [archive.is/IfImW]: Tonight, voters in Arizona, who are continuing to stand in line to vote are angry that the state's Democratic primary has been called for Hillary Clinton when the majority of Bernie Sanders's voters have not been allowed to vote. As election day began, it was learned that 1.3 million voters who reportedly would have voted for Sanders were disenfranchised from voting in the Democratic primary. Additionally, significant numbers of registered Democratic voters who were told they were not on the Democratic voting lists included long-time Democrats who had voted in the Democratic primaries before without any problem. Others who properly switched their party were told they were also not on the list. At best , these Democratic voters were told, they could vote a provisional ballot which would not be counted today.
Those who continued to wait in long lines late into the night to vote had to combat discouragement from a corporate media that kept telling their votes wouldn't matter as Clinton had already won.
What is odd is that those reporting they were denied the right to vote were primarily Sanders supporters. Last weekend, Sanders campaign workers in Arizona were concerned that their voter information database may have been hacked. This database contained information from voter surveys, showing which specific voters were supporting which Sanders as opposed to Clinton. The final day, volunteers had to go out with paper lists because of the hacking problem. Were these extensive lists used to determine which voters would be removed from the voter roles? Adding to the confusion were the closing of 140 polling locations in Arizona's most populous County, limiting Maricopa residents to 60 polling place. The long lines favored the leisure class, particularly the top one-percenters, who are favoring Clinton, and disfavored the ninety-nine percenters who the Clinton team doesn't want voting. It is difficult to expect middle and lower class voters, most of whom backed Bernie Sanders, to take four or more hours off work to vote. Yet, videos show significant numbers of Sanders supporters did just that.
Writers for the Justice Gazette were in Phoenix on March 21st and conducted their own poll, which showed a probable victory for Bernie Sanders of at least 60 to 40%. Observers who have engaged in polling and speaking with Arizona voters, say "Impossible" and "Bull...t" to the official numbers which which supposedly include 100% of Maricopa County which had thousands of voters still standing in line with a likely four or more hours to wait as they were told that 100% of the Maricopa results were in and the county had already voted for Clinton. Voters who actually voted have expressed shock as they do not believe the results either. Even more in shock are those voters who continue to wait in long lines, hoping that they will be able to vote when they get to the front of the line. Even if more than a million Arizona voters were not allowed to vote for Sanders, the people of Arizona know he was their popular choice. The media cannot keep the people from talking to each other.
It is interesting that TylerPedigo.co0 had a projection more in line with that found by the Justice Gazette polling. The official result is essentially the inversion of both the polling and the projection. This is all indicative of vote-flipping. Vote flipping is an easy trick that takes place when the votes for the winning candidate are flipped with the losing candidate. According to voting software experts, this can be done within one minute without a trace. A paper trail doesn't stop this as it can be done at the tabulator level or while making the paper trail appear accurate. Even if the vote was flipped, with the extent of the disenfranchisement and calling of the election while thousands of voters were waiting in line to vote smacks of election fixing.Arizonans want their votes counted, not created. The Arizona Democratic Party, which is biased in favor of Clinton and in favor of the rigged result has promised to look into the matter. Voters are not holding their breath and many are calling for a new election in which all the votes and not just the Clinton votes are counted.
Suppose only 20% of those disenfranchised or forced to vote provisional ballots for Sanders are added into his total. That result would be more consistent with the polling.
When an election is won by rigging and preventing the voters from voting, that is not a victory but a lie. The Justice Gazette calls for a new election in which all the voters in Arizona can vote or for the forfeiture of Clinton's delegates in that state.
Below are three videos uploaded to Youtube.com by Arizona voters. Two are of the long voting lines with an estimation that it would take until 1 A.M. for voters in the line waiting after the 7 P.M. closing time to vote. Another video shows one of the voters who was registered to vote in the Democratic primary but who was refused a regular ballot.
[https://youtu.be/ILfZGLCiffc]
[https://youtu.be/372d73CS-RQ]
[https://youtu.be/YqmpcpSpXQg]
How can an election result in a major loss for the winner?
1) Disenfranchise people trying to vote for the popular candidate --happened today in Arizona.2) Cut the number of polling places to provide confusion and make it harder for supporters of the popular candidate to vote. --happened today in Arizona.
4) Force voters for the popular candidate to vote provisional instead of regular ballots--happened today in Arizona.
5) Get the news media to call the election before it's over in order to discourage supporters of the popular candidate who are still standing in line waiting to vote--happened this evening in Arizona.
If a determined candidate still doesn't think cheat can cheat the majority of voters out of a victory for her opponent with the above techniques, she can simply have one of her software experts flip the vote. It doesn't matter if there is a paper-trail as long as the tabulator is a machine.
Watch the video of Hacking Democracy [https://youtu.be/czSqKSMr3Rw], from Public Interest Pictures, which shows how easy it is to rig tabulators and other voting machines.
Ask yourself, how the news media called the election on 1% of the vote for Hillary Clinton as tens of thousands of Arizonians in the various counties continued to have more than a four hour wait ahead of them to vote. How did they know that those who hadn't yet voted could not vote in a way that would make a difference? Was the vote being determined by something other than the voters? If the media calls were honest, why why did the networks wait so long after the end of voting in Idaho and Utah to call those two states where it could not be denied that Sanders won by a landslide?
* "Petitioning The Federal Election Commission: Open an investigation into Hillary Clinton and the DNC for Election fraud" (retrieved 2016-03-23, via change.org) [archive.is/FdRwY]
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* "The Clinton Foundation: Hillary Beholden To Banks, Corporations, And Foreign Governments" (2016-01-22, by Brandon Turbeville) [archive.is/CXPlR]* "Bill Clinton’s odious presidency: Thomas Frank on the real history of the ’90s Welfare reform. NAFTA. The crime bill. Prisons. Aides wondered if Bill knew who he was. His legacy is sadly clear" (2016-03-14, salon.com) [archive.is/yypax] [begin excerpt]: Clinton spoke of change the way other politicians would talk about God or Providence; we could succeed economically, he once announced, “if we make change our friend.” Change was fickle and inscrutable, an unmoved mover doing this or that as only it saw fit. Our task—or, more accurately, your task, middle-class citizen—was to conform to its wishes, to “adjust to change,” as the president put it when talking about NAFTA.
The first time I myself tuned in and noticed some version of this inevitability-speak was in 1993, during that fight over NAFTA. The deal had been negotiated by the departed president, George H. W. Bush, but the Democratic majority in Congress had balked at the original version of the treaty, forcing the parties back to the table. As with so many of the achievements of the Clinton era, it eventually took a Democratic president, working with Republican members of Congress, to pass this landmark of neoliberalism.
According to the president himself, what the agreement was about was simple: “NAFTA will tear down trade barriers,” he said when signing it. “It will create the world’s largest trade zone and create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone.” The stationery of an outfit that lobbied for the treaty was emblazoned with the argument: “North American Free Trade Agreement—Exports. Better Jobs. Better Wages.”
But it wasn’t reason that sold NAFTA; it was a simulacrum of reason, by which I mean the great god inevitability, invoked in the language of professional-class self-assurance. “We cannot stop global change,” Clinton said in his signing speech.
The phrase that best expressed the feeling was this: “It’s a no brainer.” Lee Iacocca uttered it in a pro-NAFTA TV commercial, and before long everyone was saying it. The phrase struck exactly the right notes of simplicity combined with utter obviousness. Globalization was irresistible, the argument went, and free trade was always and in all situations a good thing. So good, it didn’t even really need to be explained. Everyone knew this. Everyone agreed.
Yet there were people who opposed NAFTA, like labor unions, for example, and Ross Perot, and the majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives. The agreement was not a simple or straightforward thing: it was some 2,000 pages long, and according to reporters who actually read it, the aim was less to remove tariffs than to make it safe for American firms to invest in Mexico—meaning, to move factories and jobs there without fear of expropriation and then to import those factories’ products back into the U.S.
One reason the treaty required no brains at all from its supporters is because NAFTA was as close to a straight-up class issue as we will ever see in this country. It “boils down to the oldest division of all,” Dirk Johnson wrote in The New York Times in 1993: “the haves versus the have-nots, or more precisely, those who have only a little.” The lefty economist Jeff Faux has even told how a NAFTA lobbyist tried to bring him around by reminding him that Carlos Salinas, then the president of Mexico, had “been to Harvard. He’s one of us.”
That appeal to class unity gives a hint of what Clintonism was all about. To owners and shareholders, who would see labor costs go down as they took advantage of unorganized Mexican labor and lax Mexican environmental enforcement, NAFTA held fantastic promise. To American workers, it threatened to send their power, and hence their wages, straight down the chute. To the mass of the professional-managerial class, people who weren’t directly threatened by the treaty, holding an opinion on NAFTA was a matter of deferring to the correct experts—economists in this case, 283 of whom had signed a statement declaring the treaty “will be a net positive for the United States, both in terms of employment creation and overall economic growth.”
The predictions of people who opposed the agreement turned out to be far closer to what eventually came to pass than did the rosy scenarios of those 283 economists and the victorious President Clinton. NAFTA was supposed to encourage U.S. exports to Mexico; the opposite is what happened, and in a huge way. NAFTA was supposed to increase employment in the U.S.; a study from 2010 counts almost 700,000 jobs lost in America thanks to the treaty. And, as feared, the agreement gave one class in America enormous leverage over the other: employers now routinely threaten to move their operations to Mexico if their workers organize. A surprisingly large number of them—far more than in the pre-NAFTA days—have actually made good on the threat.
Mexico has not fared much better. In the decades before NAFTA, its economy often grew rapidly; since NAFTA was enacted, Mexico has experienced some of the feeblest growth of any country in Latin America, despite all the stuff it now makes and exports to the U.S. The country’s poverty rate has not changed much at all while every other country in the region has made considerable progress. One reason for all this is the predictably destructive effect that free trade with American agribusiness has had on the fortunes of millions of Mexican family farmers.
These results have never really shaken the self-assured “no-brainer” consensus. Instead, the phrase returns whenever new trade deals are on the table. During the 1997 debate over “fast track,” restricting the input of Congress in trade negotiations, Al From, the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, declared confidently that “supporting fast track is a no-brainer.” For some, free-trade treaties are so clearly good that supporting them doesn’t require knowledge of their actual contents. The influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, for example, still thought so when the debate was over an altogether different treaty. “I wrote a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Initiative,” he told Tim Russert in 2006. “I didn’t even know what was in it. I just knew two words: free trade.” [end excerpt]
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* "GOP Tax Plans Would Be the Largest Redistributions to the Rich in American History" (2016-03-22, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/QzCg4]
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* "Decoded" (by Alex Garcia de Aztlan copyright 1985, facebook.com/AlexGarciadeAztlan) [archive.is/6OTYR]
* "The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism" (2016-03-02, truthdig.com) [archive.is/8P3gx]
* "It Can’t Happen Here... Can It? Trump’s Storm Troopers and the Possibility of American Fascism" (2016-03-14, by Bob Dreyfuss) [archive.is/ercSb]
* "Lion Guard in Born" (2016-03-15, lionsoftrump.net) [archive.is/m4WDR]:
On March 11, 2016, five decades of radical left coddling reached its newest and most disgusting low as members of the free stuff cult, by deception and violence, attacked the Trump 2016 rally in Chicago, Illinois. In his magnanimity and concern for public safety, Donald Trump responded by canceling the rally. The Spartacists posers crowed they had canceled the rally, chanting they “Stumped Trump.” As a single event, it was minor and unsurprising, Chicago was the scene of the 1968 Democrat Convention Riot and, in the current year, the city is teeming with anti-American agitators and a skyrocketing murder rate. But this was not an isolated incident, this was part of a long train of abuses imposed upon the American public by treasonous horde.
The wicked deeds of this horde are not merely historical events; as many witnessed this weekend, an American hating brigand attempted to take the life of Donald Trump. He did not get there as part of some grand conspiracy, no one dare implies the Secret Service or Trump’s own security knowingly allowed this marauder into the rally. How did this son of a Democrat establishment cog get so close to Donald Trump? The same way as the scores of hooligans infiltrated the Trump rally in Chicago: lies.
Numerous tweets discovered after the leftist hate-nanny in Chicago revealed, these agents of chaos posed as Trump supporters to get tickets and to get access to the event. Amazingly, these people were gloating before the event started. Posting to social media their plans and appearances in a desperate attempt for social approval of their Maoist tactics. When seeing these egotistical tweets, there were two choices: endure the outrage of this conceit or stand up to it. To “Make America Great Again” there could only be one choice: stand up to it.
The foes arrayed against the movement to Make America Great Again are not invincible. If there is one word to describe them, they are vain. They act not out of a sense of patriotism but a compulsive need for affirmation that they are morally superior. With the advent of social media, this quest for recognition has taken new directions. In the past, these rabble would find much needed approval at their turncoat gatherings, seeing fellow cultists recite the same slogans and pantomime the same charades. Today, these malcontents can get their approval before they even engage in their pretentious farces by merely broadcasting their plans. They are not hesitant to announce their depravity because they think there are no consequences for their conduct. They gloat while under the hallucination they are above the law.
In the current year, it is very difficult to disabuse them of such a fantasy. Within 24 hours, the man who attempted to assassinate Mr. Trump in Dayton, Ohio, was released from jail and being interviewed on CNN. Within 24 hours an avowed anti-American bigot that tried to kill a presidential candidate was being interviewed by a major US news network like a national hero. Today in the United States, hating America and attacking American patriots is celebrated, while loving the USA and defending patriots is ridiculed as “extremism” or other sophistries. With the establishment, both left and right, against any effort to Make America Great Again, we cannot expect traditional channels of influence to stem this perfidious tide. Make America Great Again cannot be a mere slogan, it has to become a life choice in the face of force that wants to make America cinders forever.
At his Kansas City rally Sunday night, Donald Trump correctly identified the cultists attacking his rallies as the same forces trying to destroy America. As patriotic Americans, we must stand up to them. How to stand up to them is the issue. One suggestion is creating a paramilitary organization to patrol future Trump rallies and stop any violence by the America-hating fiends. While not a bad idea, it calls on fellow Trump supporters to engage in the sort of brawling the mainstream media wants to use against the Trump campaign. It also seems redundant, Mr. Trump already had secret service protecting his life and well paid security protecting his events from gate crashers. Mr. Trump’s problem is not the barbarians at the gate, it’s the sappers within them!Another suggestion is to scour social media for all threats against Mr. Trump and his rallies and to report them to the secret service. While this can be useful with blatant threats against the life of Mr. Trump and his supporters, it is unreasonable to expect the Secret Service to use its limited resources to screen out reprobates trying to cause another Chicago. Trump’s security may have more resources for screening, but it is doubtful they have the necessary resources to gather intelligence and identify infiltrators before they can act. This creates a gap in Mr. Trump’s security, where those who wish to intimidate Trump’s supporters can sow discord at Trump rallies. While reporting would-be assassins to the Secret Service and Trump’s security helps, it is not enough to stop another Chicago or Dayton.
The Lion Guard is a call to put the words “Make America Great Again” into action and aid Trump’s security and show our adversaries we are disciplined, perceptive, and watching. Everyone who identifies with the idea of Lion Guard is called to search out for any Anti-M.A.G.A. social media account that is planning to infiltrate, disrupt, attack, or otherwise do harm to Mr. Trump, any Trump rally, or any Trump supporter. Archive any post or other broadcast plotting these assaults and the identity of the plotter(s) and share it on your own social media account, with the Trump Campaign, with the Secret Service and/or with Lion Guard. Fellow Trump supporters at the rally, will see these exposed plots find the plotters in the rally crowd and report them to Trump’s security for prompt expulsion because they breached the terms of their ticket. If you want to make sure there are Trump supporters on watch at every rally, start a Lion Guard chapter in your town TODAY. But remember, Lion Guard is principally to observe and report these vandals to the proper authorities, not confront them with force; we will not give the media more fodder against Mr. Trump and his plans to Make America Great Again.
The Lion Guard needs partner in Mr. Trump’s quest to Make America Great Again to stand up and really want to do something to make every Trump rally a safe and positive environment for American patriots. Every plot we expose and stop is one less incident for the mainstream media to use. Every plot we expose and stop is one more blow to the morale of the America-hating horde. Every plot we expose and stop is another accomplishment to Make America Great Again.* Comment: I know Trump. I watched him cheat thousands of workers out of money they were owed for his failed projects. He destroyed half of New Jersey and the lives of so many people. He has zero credibility and cares about only one thing, Trump. If you think he cares about anything other than himself, you're a fool.
* Photo: Dragon Con in Atlanta from August of 2015
* "Donald Trump Insists That Wages Are ‘Too High’ " (2015-11-11, nytimes.com) [archive.is/zqqEI]
* "Trump says wages are too low" (2015-12-28, money.cnn.com) [archive.is/bSqgK]
* "The Virtues of Saying Anything: Donald Trump and Torture" (2016-03-05, by Dr. Binoy Kampmark) [archive.is/yqoDL]
* "Not Satisfied With His War On Immigrants, Trump Picks A Fight With Native Americans" (2015-09-01, thinkprogress.org) [archive.is/liAbE]
* " 'Natives Against Trump': Protesters Block Road to Donald Trump Rally in Arizona" (2016-03-19, indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com) [archive.is/W6UQj]
* (2016-03-19, facebook.com/telesurenglish) WHOA! Protesters have blocked a main road in Fountain Hills, Arizona ahead of a planned Donald J. Trump rally to prevent Trump supporters from getting there.
One of their banners read "Dump Trump", another banner stretched out over a pickup truck said "Shut Trump Down." #DumpTrump #CrushTrump #ShutItDown
The result: A massive traffic jam and Trump supporters having to walk 3 miles to get to the rally.
* "Trump warns of riots, pulls plug on Republican presidential debate" (2016-03-16, Reuters Newswire) [archive.is/APum4], earlier version of the article [archive.is/vr9RJ].
* "Donald Trump Rally Talking Points" [archive.is/z3MXD], used by certain "anti-Trump" protesters, and perceived by Trump supporters as proof for a "Democrat Party conspiracy" to disrupt the Trump rally.
* "Mayor Rahm Emanuel Cut Police Power for UIC Trump Rally – Ordered No Arrests" (2016-03-14, thegatewaypundit.com) [http://is.gd/MrLGQ5]
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Without a two-party system to manage democracy, we would have any nut and yahoo elected into office!
* "Vermin Supreme on C-SPAN turning Randall Terry Gay" [https://youtu.be/sN9nxFLXrKU]
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USA FASCISM: State Media Watch
Documenting propaganda issued by the monopolist media and members of the state security regime that uphold the economic dictatorship, imperialist wars, and the "New Jim Crow" regime [mediamatters.org]
* "America’s Laughable ‘News’ Media" (2016-03-13, by Eric Zuesse) [archive.is/194en]The AFP is perceived as a reputable source for all monopolist media outlets. Yet, far from being a neutral source for information, AFP (like its partner monopolist newswires AP, UPI, and Reuters) is beholden to the purposes of capitalism, as shown in the following article:
* " 'Daredevil' goes global in Netflix milestone" (2016-03-19, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/1jesJ]
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* "US Contribution to Death of Honduran Activist Goes Unmentioned in US Coverage" (2016-03-04, fair.org) [archive.is/FXFWI]
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* "Were Changes to Sanders Article ‘Stealth Editing’?" (2016-03-17, publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com) [archive.is/r8hOP]. Comment by whowhatwhy.org: NYT Public Editor Criticizes Changes to Story on Sanders - After a story on the legislative accomplishments of Bernie Sanders was already published (and distributed by the senator’s campaign), New York Times editors made substantive changes to the piece and changed its tone without explanation. Now, the paper’s public editor said they were wrong to do so and should have, at least, told readers which changes were made and why.
* "Blackout Tuesday: The Bernie Sanders Speech Corporate Media Chose Not To Air; Though the talking heads were allowed to ramble on and on (and on) Tuesday night, the major cable and network news made no time for people to watch this..." (2016-03-16, commondreams.org) [archive.is/IzD7W]
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* "CNN Airs CCTV Footage From 2011 Claiming it Was from Tuesday’s Brussels Attacks" (2016-03-22, thefreethoughtproject.com) [http://is.gd/gH5JuF], attached CNN footage [http://is.gd/LLb6d1]:
Tuesday morning, the city of Brussels was shaken by multiple bombing attacks at the airport and later at the metro station right next to the European Union headquarters.
According to the French BFMTV station, citing police sources, Belgian authorities had advanced knowledge an attack was imminent, though location and time were unclear.
During a midday press conference on Tuesday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said, “What we feared has happened.”
As the world took to the internet and tuned in to their televisions for answers on these tragic events, multiple news outlets, including the Free Thought Project, were hurriedly putting out all the information we could obtain.During this massive search and presentation of information, some disinformation made its way out on the airwaves, as well as the interwebs.
While claiming to have CCTV footage from Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels, CNN ran a clip of a chaotic scene of a smoke-filled subway tube with people running for their lives.+
Citing the non-existent Twitter handle, @OnlinMagazine as their source, CNN showed a looped video of people frantically attempting to escape a burning subway while Chris Cuomo pretended he was a reporter.The issue with this looped chaos used by CNN for dramatic effect is that it’s not from March 22, 2016, in Brussels — It’s from the April 11, 2011, bombing of the Minsk Metro in Belarus.
No retraction has been made and, in fact, the video is still available for viewing on the media giant’s YouTube channel [youtube.com/watch?v=r9wDA0BxAa8].
Since the attacks early this morning, the fake videos have gone viral, being spread all over social media. However, none of the actual CCTV footage has been released.
In instances of attacks like this one, CCTV footage is always carefully reviewed before its release. The idea that it could have been released only hours after the attacks is ridiculous, which highlights, at best, the incompetence of such a large news organization, or, at worst, a deliberate release of false information meant to deceive their viewers. Either way, this is one more reason not to trust the mainstream media.
Please spread this article to prevent people from discrediting themselves by sharing known misinformation.
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USA FASCISM: Artificial Poverty and Starvation
[talkpoverty.org]
Poverty and Starvation are artificially sustained through the economic dictatorship's two party system. Solutions using the two party system are outlined here, and while these solutions may never be adopted under the current economic dictatorship, it shows how the regime sustains a policy of human rights abuse.
* "People’s Budget Formally Unveiled Amid GOP Dystopia and Dysfunction" (2016-03-15, ourfuture.org) [archive.is/KEX9k]
* "How to Fight Poverty Through Full Employment" (2016-03-17, talkpoverty.org) [archive.is/Y8QCC]
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* "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD PEOPLE: U.S. market ideology is undermining human rights for elders" (2016-03-15, by David Bacon) [archive.is/yFduf]
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* "What we talk about when we talk about millennials; When we speak about generational angst, we should not forget that we are really talking about class, and class expectations" (2016-03-18, newstatesman.com) [archive.is/Vi2E9]
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* "The Department of Justice Throws Its Weight Behind Ending the Jailing of the Poor for Unpaid Fines" (2016-03-16, ACLU) [archive.is/n9CL3]
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* "Why Poor People Stay Poor; Saving money costs money. Period" (2014-12-05, by Linda Tirado, slate.com) [archive.is/YjXzw]
* " ‘Poor people don’t plan long-term. We’ll just get our hearts broken’ ; Why do so many poor people eat junk food, fail to budget properly, show no ambition? Linda Tirado knew exactly why… because she was one of them. Here, in an extract from her book, Hand to Mouth, she tells her story in her own words" (2014-09-21, theguardian.com) [archive.is/sA8Vo]
* "Linda Tirado: ‘It was insane. I got 20,000 emails in a week’ ; The author of Hand to Mouth on the shock of going viral online, being vilified by critics, and now being able to afford to have her teeth fixed" (2014-09-21, theguardian.com) [archive.is/veEmZ] [begin excerpt]: Whatever it was I managed to capture had enough power truly to upset some people. A lot of them hoped I was a poor little rich girl, living in a McMansion. Emotionally, it would have been easier to deal with. But I’ve never claimed to be anything that I’m not. Guys, I called the thing “Why I make terrible decisions”. So, I gave my welfare records to the Washington Post. Those things, and the teeth video, closed it down [in her essay, Tirado wrote that her teeth had rotted because she could not afford dental care, and that this made her unsuitable for working front-of-house in restaurants and offices; when this was disputed she posted a video online in which the ugly gaps in her teeth can clearly be seen]. The trouble is that a lot of people simply don’t understand the stratification in the lower classes. I wasn’t born in Appalachia with no running water. At Burger King I made $28,000 a year. Yes, you can survive on that money. But that’s not the point. It’s a 90-hour week. What is your life like while you’re surviving? Can you keep a family on it? [end excerpt]
First, don't be born poor. Everyone has a choice what they're born into, and the first step is to take responsibility how you were born. Everyone has an equal chance at the start, that's America's liberty. Afterwards, it's your choices that dictate whether you stay poor, or rich.
* "Will Your Child be Rich or Poor? 15 Poverty Habits Parents Teach Their Children" (2013-09-24, richhabits.net) [archive.is/IMfn2] [begin excerpt]:
Here are some statistics from my five-year study on the daily habits that separate the wealthy from the poor?
72% of the wealthy know their credit score vs. 5% of the poor
6% of the wealthy play the lottery vs. 77% of the poor
80% of the wealthy are focused on at least one goal vs. 12% of the poor
62% of the wealthy floss their teeth every day vs. 16% of the poor
21% of the wealthy are overweight by 30 pounds or more vs. 66% of the poor
63% of the wealthy spend less than 1 hour per day on recreational Internet use vs. 26% of the poor
83% of the wealthy attend/attended back to school night for their kids vs. 13% of the poor
29% of the wealthy had one or more children who made the honor roll vs. 4% of the poor
63% of wealthy listen to audio books during their commute vs. 5% of the poor
67% of the wealthy watch 1 hour or less of T.V. per day vs 23% of the poor
9% of the wealthy watch reality T.V. shows vs. 78% of the poor
73% of the wealthy were taught the 80/20 rule vs. 5% of the poor (live off 80% save 20%)
79% of the wealthy network 5 hours or more per month vs. 16% of the poor
8% of the wealthy believe wealth comes from random good luck vs. 79% of the poor
79% of the wealthy believe they are responsible for their financial condition vs. 18% of the poor
The fact is the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few Rich Habits. Poor parents teach their children the Poverty Habits and wealthy parents teach their children the Rich Habits. We don’t have a wealth gap in this country we have a parent gap. We don’t have income inequality, we have parent inequality.
[ ... ]
Wealthy people do certain things every single day that sets them apart from everyone else in life. Wealthy people have good daily success habits that they learned from their parents. These daily habits are the real reason for the wealth gap in our country and the real reason why the rich get richer. Unless we teach our children good daily success habits, and level the playing field, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to get poorer. [end excerpt]
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* "Global pizza chain tired of paying human drivers pittance unleashes delivery robot" (2016-03-19, rt.com) [archive.is/abtgR]
===*===*===
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the global economic dictatorship
* "Central Bank Governors Are Liars" (2016-03-04, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky) [archive.is/XKZYL]
* "When Terrorism becomes Counter-terrorism: The State Sponsors of Terrorism are 'Going After the Terrorists' " (2015-12-22, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky) [archive.is/cPety]
* "The U.S. has Installed a Neo-Nazi Government in Ukraine" (2014-03-02, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky) [archive.is/lcXIZ]
Click here to learn more (globalresearch.ca) [http://is.gd/mrDMdD]
* "Understand the Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order" by Prof Michel Chossudovsky- Look Inside this Bestselling Book! [archive.is/bMzsR].
Michel Chossudovsky takes the reader through an examination of how the World Bank and IMF have been the greatest purveyors of poverty around the world, despite their rhetorical claims to the opposite. These institutions, representing the powerful Western nations and the financial interests that dominate them, spread social apartheid around the world, exploiting both the people and the resources of the vast majority of the world’s population.
As Chossudovsky examines in this updated edition, often the programs of these international financial institutions go hand-in-hand with covert military and intelligence operations undertaken by powerful Western nations with an objective to destabilize, control, destroy and dominate nations and people, such as in the cases of Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
To understand what role these international organizations play today, being pushed to the front lines and given unprecedented power and scope as ever before to manage the global economic crisis, one must understand from whence they came. This book provides a detailed, exploratory, readable and multi-faceted examination of these institutions and actors as agents of the ‘New World Order,’ for which they advance the ‘Globalization of Poverty.’
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A consortium of European Union monopolist energy companies invades Mercosur.
* "Shell starts production offshore Brazil; Dutch supermajor gaining stronger foothold in region following merger with BG Group" (2016-03-14, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/Iswn3]
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* "PetroPeru Using Indigenous Children to Clean up Oil Spill Threatening Amazon River" (2016-03-15, environews.tv) [archive.is/A09y2]
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* "Human Rights, Corruption and the Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement: The Assassination of Activist Berta Caceres" (2016-03-04, by Mark Taliano) [archive.is/rRHvf]
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* "Hillary Clinton: “Humanitarian” Warmonger In Chief" (2016-03-01, washingtonsblog.com) [archive.is/J7Kqn]
The USA State Department works in cooperation with private partners and foreign security agencies to retain stability of the global market regime at the cost human rights.
* "A woman beheaded in the road. Five headless corpses hanging from cranes. As a documentary exposes the horror of life in Saudi Arabia, why DOES Britain cosy up to this kingdom of savagery? Sight is one scene in a shocking documentary to be aired this week, it will shed the light on the strict everyday life in Saudi Arabia. Middle Eastern nation is one of the world's bloodiest and most secretive, yet Saudi Arabia remains one of Britain’s closest allies worldwide" (2016-03-20, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/bcHGk]
* "Wretched human rights situation in Europe and Japan" (2016-03-17, naenara.com.kp) [archive.is/ikkxf]
===*===*===
WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Weapons for a New World Order
* "The Magic of Microbes: ONR Engineers Innovative Research in Synthetic Biology" (2016-02-10, navy.mil) [archive.is/LNF8F]
* "Synthetic Biology’s First Malaria Drug Meets Market Resistance; Commercial use of genetically engineered yeast to make medicine has modest impact" (2016-02-23, by Mark Peplow) [archive.is/xxYTN]
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* "Stretchable, flexible ‘meta-skin’ cloaks objects from radar at a range of frequencies; "Invisibility cloak" may be further developed to operate in visible or infrared light ranges" (2016-03-07, kurzweilai.net) [archive.is/lmphN] [begin excerpt]:
The skin has rows of split ring resonators embedded inside layers of silicone sheets. The resonators are filled with galinstan, a metal alloy that’s liquid at room temperature. That allows for stretching and flexing the polymer meta-skin, enabling it to be tuned to reduce reflection at a wide range of radar frequencies, unlike previous metamaterials.
Applications could include sub-wavelength imaging (of smaller objects), electromagnetic frequency tuning, shielding (from interference or detection), and scattering suppression (allowing a signal to be sent in specific directions rather than scattered). [end excerpt]
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* "AlphaGo v Lee Sedol" (2016-03-13, by Richard Chen):
This topic will be really obscure, but I just had to write something about it, because it truly is historic, even if it's not being written about widely. Please just ignore it if it's not your thing.
Some of you may know that I play Go as a hobby (Weiqi in Chinese, Baduk in Korean). An AI programmed by Google defeated the world's strongest Go player, Lee Sedol from Korea, last week. (Well, technically I think he's No. 2 right now, but nobody doubts that he is currently the strongest player in the world - the current No. 1 is very young.) The series is not over, but AlphaGo, the AI, is up 3-1, and so has already won.
Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess back in the 90s, and an ordinary PC can beat the strongest grandmaster today. But because Go is many, many orders of magnitude more complicated than chess, it had eluded programmers for decades. In a game of Go, there are more possible positions than there are atoms in the universe. This is not as scary as it sounds, because many positions are similar to each other, so a human can still meaningfully learn how to play the game. But because of the complexity, the game is impossible for a computer to solve using exhaustive search (calculating every single possibility), even with today's technology.
Deepmind, Google's AI subsidiary based in the UK, used neural networks to create an AI which, instead of testing every possible move, "learnt" by playing against itself to develop a sense of which moves work and which don't. It's an extremely crude, brute-force mechanism for trying to mimic human intuition. Instead of trying to "solve" every possible move, AlphaGo developed educated guesses about which moves are best by playing, literally, millions and millions of games against itself over a period of months.AlphaGo beat the European champion 5-0 last year. I don't know what its architecture is like. It's very big - like thousands of computers linked up together in Google data centers around the world. Last week it started playing Lee Sedol.
It was actually very depressing for a lot of Go players, because AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol three times in a row. But last night Lee Sedol won a game, and it was just beautiful.
He came up with a move that nobody anticipated. I've attached a picture of it. Lee Sedol was playing White. His move, Move 78, is the white stone with a triangle in the middle. Even if you don't play Go, I think you can appreciate it. There are a few loosely scattered white stones inside a massive well or funnel of black stones in the top center. In almost any game, that territory (you score in Go by surrounding territory with your stones and capturing opponent stones in your territory) is already Black's territory. It's a massive territory, close to game ending. Invading it is . . . well, usually it means giving free moves to the opponent, because nothing in there will survive.
With Move 78 Lee got out and wrecked the whole black territory on the top, and forty moves or so later AlphaGo resigned. Apparently the AI realized ten moves afterwards that it had made a serious mistake. It was funny to watch, because like in a Sci-Fi movie, it then went bonkers (for the first time in the series) and started playing crazy moves that made no sense.
It was . . . well, it was just beautiful. After the game Lee Sedol said that it was "the only move".
Probably in another six months it won't be possible for a human to win any longer, and the world will move on. But still, it's really something. A geek version of Maradona's Hand of God, I suppose. Actually there's a Japanese term, "kami no itte" used to describe a move like this, which means exactly "Hand of God".
There's a commentary on Move 78 here, but it doesn't show the board close up. [youtube.com/watch?v=gNtSzpdWac0]
Photo caption: AlphaGo v Lee Sedol Game 4
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