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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Interview with
Fly Benzo, warrior, poet, scholar, and father from Hunter's Point, San Francisco.
New Music uploaded... a track I wrote and produced as 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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InDIYpendent Media
Spotlight from the Northbay Uprising Media Collective
* "Masters Of War" music (by Vic Sadot, via Soundcloud.com) [http://is.gd/8caRs4]
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ACTION CALENDER
A list of gatherings, workshops, and educational events in the greater Bay Area region
[indybay.org/calendar] [occupyoakland.org/calendar]Demo at Whole Foods: Boycott Driscoll's Berries!
Thursday, March 31
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
On sidewalk in front of Whole Foods
774 Emerson St, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Raging Grannies [info@)raginggrannies.com]
Join the Raging Grannies for our 30 minute "hit and run" action at Whole Foods in Palo Alto. We will sing and pass out fliers we have prepared to customers to tell them: Boycott Driscoll's berries!
The Raging Grannies stand in solidarity with the farmworkers of San Quintín (Mexico) and Washington state as they seek to gain union recognition and try to dismantle oppression they are facing in the fields. Whole Foods sells Driscoll's berries which is why we have chosen this location.
[http://boycottsakumaberries.com]
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D-Q University Pow WowApril 2nd & 3rd, Saturday & Sunday
- Gourd: 11 am & 6 pm
- Grand Entry: 1 pm & 7pm
- Community Dinner: 5pm
Volunteer Day & Open Mic Night Friday, April 1
For Infomation & Vending: Ira Hoaglen [916-947-3704] [IraHoaglen@) yahoo.com]
DQU Phone: [530-750-1820] [www.d-q-u.org]
Campus Address: 33250 Co. Rd. 31, Davis CA 95616
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
D-Q U has a 501c3 for those who wish to donate with a Tax Write-off... No donation is too big!
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Protect Medicine Lake Rally in Sacramento
Tuesday April 19
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
RALLY and Court Hearing
@ US District Courthouse (out front) 501 I St #4-200, Sacramento, CA
PROTECT MEDICINE LAKE!
No power plants, drilling, or fracking in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.
The Medicine Lake Highlands in Northern California, sacred to five distinct Indigenous nations, continues to be threatened by Calpine Energy Corporation’s destructive plans for geothermal power development. In March of 2015, a 9th Circuit Court ruling affirmed the right of the Pit River Tribe and allies to challenge geothermal power production leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management. On April 19, Judge Mendez will hear the suit brought by the Tribe and allies for violations of the Geothermal Steam Act and failure to conduct environmental, cultural, and tribal reviews before renewing Calpine Corporation’s expired leases. MORE INFO:
* [protectmedicinelake.org]
* "Appeals court: Tribe can challenge Medicine Lake Highlands work; Pit River Tribe says geothermal leases interfere with tribe’s use of ancestral land; Leases for steam energy are held by Houston-based Calpine Corp." (2015-07-21, sacbee.com) [archive.is/pVGt3]
* "Pit River Tribe wins appeal against Calpine over Medicine Lake" (2015-07-23, nativenewsonline.net) [archive.is/XrkDS]
* "Calif. Tribe, Enviros Urge Court To End Steam Leases" (2016-02-11, Law360) [archive.is/YjKnQ]
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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
* "Renters Upgrade" Campaign in Oakland [archive.is/2FTtM].
The Time is NOW ... to support the tenant's movement in Oakland in the effort to bring the "Renters Upgrade" ballot initiative to the voters!
* "Renters Upgrade Initiative is a big step for Oakland tenants; A community-authored initiative to strengthen renters' rights in Oakland was filed with the City Clerk Thursday, and hopes to appear on the November 2016 ballot" (2016-03-04, oaklandtenantsunion.org) [archive.is/vVBbx]
* "Oakland Renters, Homeowners, City Workers and Clergy Push For More Renter Protections" (2016-03-03, by Lynda Carson) [archive.is/v9Ei6]
* "Alameda Renters Coalition filing ballot initiative" (2016-02-29, rentsandrants.blogspot.nl) [archive.is/nvmey]
* "The struggle for renter protections in Richmond moves forward" (2016-02-28, by Lynda Carson, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/msHdR]
* "California Apartment Association is stalking the tenant’s movement" (2016-03-25, by Lynda Carson) [archive.is/QW4F8]
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* "Oakland Housing Rights Activists Face 8.5 Years in Prison" (2016-03-17, eastbayexpress.com) [archive.is/UHVMa]
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* Brown Berets de SacrAztan got hit! (2016-03-27) [archive.is/l4ZV6]: Please keep an eye out. All our stuff got stolen along with Mike Williams 's 2002 Ford Escape (silver) getting stolen as well yesterday. Sad that he can't get his licence plate # till Monday cuz offices are closed.
Keep your eyes out for anyone trying to sell any of our Brown Berets De SacrAztlán or Peace & Dignity items.
Multiple T-shirts, posters, stickers, candles
Deeply upset cuz my laptop was among the items stolen... That's where I organize, design art & flyers, type lyrics and hold much of my music, pictures, and documents...
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* "Broad-Based Coalition Tackles Outrageous Fines and Fees in San Francisco Traffic Court" (2016-03-24, by National Lawyers Guild - SF Bay Area Chapter) [archive.is/q01cq]
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* "Fresno Police Target Local Reverend For Organizing Police Protests" (2016-01-08, by Brian Sumner, fresnopeoplesmedia.com) [http://is.gd/md5yoC] [begin excerpt]: The assistant pastor of the New Light for New Life Church of God, who champions reform in law enforcement in Fresno is set appear in court this month.
Rev. Floyd Harris Jr. has long been a thorn in the side of the Fresno police department and the police chief Jerry Dyer. Not the typical pastor, his services often start with short films about the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers. Rev. Harris has followed in their footsteps educating the next generation about their rights when dealing with police, self respect and the value of hard work.
Rev. Harris was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of traffic on Aug 10, 2015 after a contingent of activists and community members shut down an intersection in front of the downtown federal courthouse in Fresno, CA. No permit was issued for the event and many participants were given tickets for blocking the intersection; Floyd was the only one charged with a misdemeanor.
Robert Navarro, the attorney defending the reverend said Rev. Harris’s case has a range of implications and could have a chilling affect on free speech.
Navarro said Harris, 45, is being singled out for his anti-police views. While other protesters were given traffic infractions, only Harris was charged with misdemeanors.
Dyer may try to say that he is not singling Rev. Harris out for his skin color, but make no mistake, he is singling him out. Floyd has been sponsoring, and leading protests and marches against police since 2014 and his public opinions about the chief are not very flattering.
Jerry Dyer has been holding a grudge and blames Floyd for ordering people to block a Wal-Mart during the busy shopping season just before Christmas. This is entirely false. I was there that day. The protest marched to the Wal-Mart and did a die in the street near a parking lot entrance. Due to a miscommunication, no action at Wal-Mart happened and the group marched back to Chestnut Ave.
After marching around the neighborhoods of Chestnut and Kings Canyon and blocking the intersection. A small group of restless people marched back to protest at the Wal-Mart. No one ordered it. A few people who wanted to do it, did it.
Dyer is blaming Rev. Harris again for the actions of others.
Navarro added that only minorities were cited at protests even though individuals of all races gathered in the street to address police violence. The police are saying that Rev Harris is the instigator at these actions, and without his leadership these disruptions wouldn’t happen, essentially blaming the Reverend for everyone else’s participation.
Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer has been dealing protests for a few years now culminating to a peak at the end of 2014, after the deaths of Mike Brown, Joseph Ma(Fresno), Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, etc. Large marches shut down Blackstone, Kings Canyon and eventually the River Park area. His plan has always been to target the leaders and fine them, threatening them with thousands of dollars in restitution if they continue to march in the streets, disrupting traffic. Interestingly enough, none of the marches were declared unlawful. [end excerpt]
* "Fresno Police Chief Says Civil Rights Activist Is "Brainwashing" Youth" (2015-08-28, fresnopeoplesmedia.com) [http://is.gd/d6u6lT]
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* "Anaheim Uprising: The Police Killing of Manuel Angel Diaz" (2014-03-07, YouthCineMedia, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj1CU81DXhMirlqqFx3uq5g) [youtube.com/watch?v=Jsl2Tmpwr-Q]: Unarmed and shot in the back by Anaheim police officer Nick Bennallack, Manuel Diaz's death helped inspire a Latino community to rise up against police brutality.
* "Anaheim Police Shoot Rubber Bullets at crowd!" (2012-07-22) [https://youtu.be/PwngSMV8MQc]. Police released a police dog who attacked several bystanders and shot at close range with rubber bullets into small crowd of women and children and babies in strollers!
* "Photos: Anaheim Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Pepper Balls On Angry Crowd Protesting Officer-Involved Shooting" (2012-07-22, laist.com) [http://is.gd/ujX51l]
* "Anaheim Police Shoot At Women And Children During Protest of Police Killing" (2012-07-22, raniakhalek.com) [archive.is/dKEcO]
Image at [archive.is/YgYi8]
* "ANAHEIM KIDS vs. Anaheim Police department" (2012-07-22, upload by nauiocelotl, youtube.com/channel/UClYI7TIJzHk9Ey9jLqScP_Q) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xe3BmM5fZM]: Children speak out against police brutality.
* "Family of Manuel Diaz march for justice after Anaheim police kill him" (2012-07-24, upload by nauiocelotl, youtube.com/channel/UClYI7TIJzHk9Ey9jLqScP_Q) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mkxhwky_5o]: community members march against police abuse.
* "Anaheim police shoot pellets and rubber bullets to disperse protesters at city hall" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jreWr5eRbeU]
* "Anaheim police shoot rubber bullets at two peaceful protestors" (2012-07-24, upload by nauiocelotl, youtube.com/channel/UClYI7TIJzHk9Ey9jLqScP_Q) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1zjI_0tbM]
* Testimony about "Anaheim police shoot rubber bullets and release dog at community members" (2012-07-24, upload by nauiocelotl, youtube.com/channel/UClYI7TIJzHk9Ey9jLqScP_Q) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5wOzpbZMJ0]
* "Anaheim police provoke riots after killing a man and attacking women and children" (RT News) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8RTYFhhJ94]
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BAY AREA SOLIDARITY: Updates on campaigns across the Nation!
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SOLANO PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY
Use the ballot for our own People's candidates and legislation, campaign for the future!
[SolanoPFP.blogspot.com] [facebook.com/Peace-and-Freedom-Party-45065449911] [peaceandfreedom.org]
#WomensHistoryMonth - first time a political party has ran only women as Presidential candidates in the US!
* "A Sec of State Targeted by Peace & Freedom Party Thursday After He Refuses to Put Presidential Candidate on Ballot; Party Officials Say 'We Want to Know' " (2016-03-23, Peace and Freedom Party of California, peaceandfreedom.org), attached video [http://is.gd/uXwbFb]:
SACRAMENTO – Members of the Peace and Freedom Party of California, along with others concerned about ballot access and democracy, are gathering in front of the Ca. Secretary of State’s office in Sacramento (11th & O) on Thursday, March 24 at 11 a.m.
The Secretary of State is not listing Jill Stein, one of four names submitted by the party for the June 7, 2016 Presidential primary ballot. We want to know why, and Padilla’s office has failed to tell us.
Background: On Jan. 18, 2016, Debra Reiger, the State Chairperson of the Peace and Freedom Party of California, submitted the names of four women who have declared that they are seeking the party’s nomination for President: Lynn Kahn, Gloria LaRiva, Monica Moorehead, and Jill Stein. Padilla’s office has accepted the first three, but has so far left Stein off the list.
Debra Reiger, the party chairperson, has repeatedly asked election officials to explain the omission, but has not received an answer. “They will talk to me about anything else, but they are silent when asked about this,” Reiger said.
Jill Stein, the 2012 Green Party candidate for President, has asked to be on the Presidential primary ballot of both the Peace and Freedom Party and the Green Party in California. She states, “I want to help foster solidarity and build a unified movement to oppose the two parties of the wealthy and their corporations.”
This would not be the first time a candidate has appeared on both the Peace and Freedom Party and Green Party primary ballots. In 2008, both Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were on the Presidential primary ballots of both parties in California.
#PeaceAndFreedom #ItsInOurHands #WeWantToKnow
#JillStein2016 #GreenParty #PSL
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TOWARDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS
* "The Second US Revolution is Starting" (2016-03-27, journal-neo.org) [archive.is/OlqSf]
* "Talks about Sovereignty: A Scientific Approach" (2015-05, by Loco1 of United Struggle from Within, via prisoncensorship.info) [archive.is/r16UM] [begin excerpt]: Lumpen in the United $tates, in general, are always looking for a come up, but they rarely consider at what cost will they come up. They, in general, believe that if they can just grow their underground economy they can free themselves. This viewpoint is a product of the lumpen's relationship to capitalism as belonging to internal semi-colonies. Lumpen are excluded from the prosperous imperialist economy overall, yet given tastes of that wealth via these underground economies that also provide an illusion of acting outside of the system. [...]
With its promises of wealth, stature, independence and self-control, lumpen prisoners are not blamed for lining up to receive what they've been conditioned to know as being freedom. However, they are cautioned that everything that glitters isn't gold. What we see at play is the principll contradiction that defines the lumpen class in our society: the individualist tendencies to come up at the expense of others that are required of an excluded class in a capitalist economy, and the need for collective action to overcome those conditions and attain true freedom. We even see the New Afrikan organizations promoting the ideas of sovereign citizenship have borrowed from the ideas of national liberation movements as well. But rather than fight for national liberation of New Afrika, they define their nation in opportunistic ways as if a nation is something that any group of people can just create out of thin air. We recognize nations as scientific phenomena, that exist in the real world and are defined as a group of people with a common culture, territory, language and economy.
It is important that lumpen prisoners begin to pick out the right things, that which they have persynally tested, inspected, researched and referenced to reality in the method of dialectical materialism. Lumpen prisoners have a problem in the areas of these last four key words: tested, inspected, researched and referenced. This failure is the main cause of the material circumstances leading to the divisions between the individualist lumpen prisoners vs. the self-sufficient collective of prisoners struggling for liberation within the movement towards national independence. [end excerpt]
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* "Spain's communist model village: Marinaleda, in impoverished Andalusia, used to suffer terrible hardships. Led by a charismatic mayor, the village declared itself a communist utopia and took farmland to provide for everyone. Could it be the answer to modern capitalism's failings?" (2013-10-20, theguardian.com) [archive.is/b1O6t]
* "A Job and No Mortgage for All in a Spanish Town" (2005-09-29, nytimes.com) [archive.is/YDDia]
* "Spain's Communist Village Is Making The Rest Of The World Look Bad; Marinaleda, a small village outside of Seville, has tried for the last thirty-five years to construct what has failed numerous times before — a communist utopia. In "The Village Against The World," author Dan Hancox traveled to the countryside of Andalusia, Spain to find the story of the incredible village. Here are a few excerpts that Hancox shared with Business Insider" (2013-12-03, businessinsider.com) [archive.is/6p178]
* "Turks equally pleased with first communist mayor; Fatih Mehmet Macoglu, the first and only communist mayor in Turkey, has impressed critics with his hard work and inclusive politics and seems ready to run for a second term" (2015-12-17, al-monitor.com) [archive.is/x8GyS] [begin excerpt]: Turkey’s first and only communist mayor, Fatih Mehmet Macoglu, has been making headlines with his unexpected successes. Macoglu is the mayor of the small town of Ovacik in Tunceli province with a population of about 3,300.
2014, facing great expectations and even greater hurdles. Notably, in the Nov. 1 general elections, Macoglu’s Communist Party did not receive a single vote in Ovacik. This discrepancy indicates that electing a Communist mayor was not an ideological issue for the residents of Ovacik. The choice was about Macoglu, his passion for service, his determination to help the people and his humility. He is a communist who genuinely praises democracy. [end excerpt]
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SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!Black Power! Revive the Community! Defend the Nation!
* "Student art piece — cop in a KKK hood — prompts Denver meeting" (2016-03-22, denverpost.com) [archive.is/RmPS3].
The offending terrorist piece of child's art, based on "A Tale Of Two Hoodies (Racism)" (2014) [archive.is/G57uZ]:
* "KKK Cop Painting Stirs Sh*tstorm, Student Artist Asks That It Be Taken Down" (2016-03-23, westword.com) [http://is.gd/96f4x6]
* "KKK Cop Painting: Artist Who Inspired It Rips Critics Who "Bullied" Student" (2016-03-24, westword.com) [http://is.gd/mToJKc]
* "Artwork with KKK imagery in Denver's Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building comes under fire; Police unions blast mayor for allowing artwork" (2016-03-22, thedenverchannel.com) [archive.is/4vixt]
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* "BLM ‘tent city’ in Toronto: 100s of Canadians protest police brutality" (2016-03-27, rt.com) [archive.is/LaM6B]
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* "Fresno bar kicks out two black women — and it turns out they are attorneys for the ACLU" (2016-03-24, rawstory.com) [archive.is/FL7Bm]
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* "On the Moorish Science Temple of America and Sovereign Citizens" (2016-01, by 1st Crown of Black Order Revolutionary Organization, via prisoncensorship.info) [archive.is/EIUb4] [begin excerpt]: While most religions and religious groups deal in idealism and metaphysics, Moors are taught to be scientists. For Moors, we are taught that the Islamic path to submission to God (Allah) is simplified as a "Creed." Moorish scientists are taught to maintain the principles of Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice. In fact, Temple members are encouraged to engage the world in the same way as the "spiritual" principles given, Love being the first and Justice being the last. Moors should primarily be concerned with spiritual principles rather than some sort of religious orthodoxy. But again, this is all predicated upon which "Sheik" you are following.
Moorish Science doesn't teach that God (Allah) is some great, mysterious spirit, but that all people have within them the seed of perfect development. Your "devil" or "God" is within you and it is manifested through your thinking and words, actions and deeds; which result from our material conditions.
There are a lot of issues around which the anti-imperialist movement can unite with the MSTA. The struggle against religious thinking is secondary to smashing imperialism, militarism, environmental pollution and other antagonistic contradictions which are manifested in our struggle, mainly national oppression and gender oppression.
Our task should be to try to find common ground in which we can unite with those who have religious thinking as their base. We should unite with them in secular political movement such as BORO, MIM(Prisons), USW, or RAIL.
"Our principle ideological task in organizing such religious progressives — as well as the people who take the bourgeoisie's idealist talk of 'eternal truths' like fraternity, equality and liberty at face value — is to explain our slogan that 'there are no rights, only power struggles.' That is, these rights are denied the oppressed masses through economic exploitation and outright violent suppression. The only way to realize these rights is to overthrow the material systems of imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy — and the only way to combat these material forces is to scientifically analyze the contradictions in society and build a secular revolutionary movement, a movement without religious bias which can unite all the oppressed."(MIM, Religion and the Anti-Imperialist Movement, MIM Theory 13: Revolutionary Culture, 1997, pg 49.) [end excerpt]
* "Islam as Liberation Theology" (2016-01, by Wiawimawo of MIM-Prisons) [archive.is/v4S2a] [begin excerpt]: In the 20th century New Afrikans reached out to Islam in an attempt to find identity outside of Amerikkkan culture. In Islam they found history, identity, independence, integrity and a connection to the larger world, in particular the Third World. Today, revolutionary Islam is reaching out to New Afrikans and the First World lumpen. Just this month, an Al Shabaab-affiliated video was released [liveleak.com/view?i=dcc_1451672037] featuring the stories of young men recruited from Minnesota who were martyred in Somalia fighting the African Union troops who serve their U.$. imperialist master. The first five minutes of this video is a pointed critique of the history of national oppression in the United $tates and the idea of race. It features footage from Rodney King to Michael Brown and uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, prisoners from Georgia to California, and sound bites from Malcolm X to Anwar al Awlaki. It is an agitational piece that clearly promotes the national interests of New Afrika. [end excerpt]
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STUDENT POWER!
information collected by the Committee to Defend Public Education!
* "Victory for Workers and Students at UC Berkeley!" (2016-03-20, socialistorganizer.org) [archive.is/HifR5]
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* "Occupy UC Davis Chancellor's Office" (2016-03-19, video by Jordan Elliott McClure): [http://is.gd/jVPky0]: Members of the UCD community, are calling for the resignation/firing of Chancellor Katehi, and that the hiring process be redesigned.
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WORKER'S POWER!
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee [http://is.gd/VOkmLr]
* "Food Safety Advocates Alert Chipotle Customers About Unsafe Food Supplier; Community Groups Raise Concerns About Chipotle Supplier Taylor Farms, Citing Poor Food Safety Record and Labor Practices" (2016-03-24, teamster.org) [archive.is/QKIos] [begin excerpt]: Taylor Farms, the salad processing giant that supplies Chipotle and other food retailers nationwide, has recalled more than 150,000 food items in the last few months and has also been cited for more than 40 health and safety violations at its facilities in Tracy. A recent outbreak of E.coli was linked to celery processed at Taylor Farms in Tracy, infecting 19 people in seven states.
Food safety advocates were joined by Taylor Farms workers in spirited actions at both locations during the lunch hour rush. Some wore tomato costumes and held signs asking customers “Are you eating dirty tomatoes?” The workers who process Chipotle tomatoes say they have observed mold and bird feces near production lines. They also report that a Chipotle-required food safety test for salmonella is sometimes skipped under management time constraints.
“Workers see issues with food safety all the time – for example rotten or moldy products – but when we raise concerns we are told to go back to work,” said one Taylor Farms worker at today’s protest who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by the company.
Workers and community supporters say there is a lack of adequate training at Taylor Farms in Tracy, which has resulted in at least four chemical spills in recent months and hundreds of worker injuries over the years.
A recent chemical spill of chlorine dioxide led to 20 workers – including two pregnant women – being hospitalized. At today’s protests, food safety advocates said it is not a coincidence that Taylor Farms has had so many problems with food safety while dangerous working conditions plague its operations.
Taylor Farms is also being prosecuted by Region 32 of the National Labor Relations Board with 58 labor law violations. Protesters told customers at Chipotle that these labor abuses contradict the food chain’s “Food with Integrity” program, which includes a commitment to sourcing from businesses that respect workers. Other workers have also complained about sexual harassment and discrimination at the plant that is often ignored by management. [end excerpt]
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* "Workers win class-action lawsuit against Tyson at Supreme Court" (2016-03-23, rt.com) [archive.is/WEpoe]
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* "FUJ Action at Driscoll's HQ Watsonville" event page [archive.is/DC13d]
* "Support Sakuma farmworkers as they launch West Coast tour" (2016-03-24, by Rosalinda Guillen, for The Stand) [archive.is/b61Ym]:
This contract will be a major stepping stone on a long road to justice, giving farm workers the stability and resources to work with dignity and push for broader transformations like ending pesticide use, establishing worker owned cooperatives, addressing climate change issues in food production and increasing wages and building the recognition as a dignified valued workforce in the food system.
Sakuma Brothers Berry Farms and Driscoll’s are feeling the pressure from the growing amount of boycott activity. The boycott of Sakuma and Driscoll berries has grown tremendously since FUJ called for the boycott in the fall of 2013. And even more since the over 80,000 farmworkers who also pick berries for Driscoll in San Quintin Mexico went on strike, formed a union and endorsed the boycott in March of 2014.
Now, as the two unions have joined forces and agreed that they won’t end the boycott until both independent unions have contracts signed with their employers, a major offensive is necessary to build upon our momentum to try and bring the growers to the negotiating table this year.
The goal of this tour is to strengthen all the existing boycott committees that are playing a crucial role in this struggle, and to recruit activists that will form new committees where they don’t exist. In every city we stop we will organize with supporters speak out events, and actions and give people the info they need to form boycott committees.
There will be a major action at the Driscoll’s headquarters in Watsonville, as well as at the U.S. Mexico Border where members of FUJ will meet with farm worker members of the newly formed San Quintin Mexican union, La Alianza de Organizaciones por la Justicia Social on either side of the border, proving that the barriers created by NAFTA cannot stop solidarity between workers.
Rarely do you have an opportunity to take action that can contribute to a dynamic change in our food system by supporting workers leading that change. This is it!
There are two major ways you can make this tour a success and contribute to the victory of Familias Unidas por la Justicia.
1. FUJ leaders and members have been working to raise $10,000 by March 15th to cover gas, food, housing and materials for the time the 8-person crew will be on the road. All individual and collective fundraising efforts are greatly appreciated as the tour is approaching quickly and we are short of our goal! To donate directly to the tour, click here: http://boycottsakumaberries.com/donate/
You can also share our GoFundMe Campaign on social media linked here: http://www.gofundme.com/farmworkerjustice
Or mail a check made out to Familias Unidas por la Justicia, P.O. Box 1206, Burlington, WA 98233
2. If you live on our planned route — listed below — we are eager to collaborate with you. This is your chance to meet Union President Ramon Torres and hear first-hand from the farm workers who are leading this historic movement. E-mail us here: boycottcoordination [at] gmail.com
Here is the tour schedule — check here for updates and more detail as it become available: http://boycottsakumaberries.com/campaign-updates/familias-unidas-boycott-driscolls-tour/
March 18 — Portland, OR — 6-8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave. plus a Boycott Action on 3/19 (see the FUJ calendar for Details)
March 19 — Eugene, OR
March 20 — Medford, OR with UNETE
March 21 and 22 — Arcata, CA
March 24 — Stockton or Modesto, CA
March 25 — Stockton or Modesto, CA
March 26-27 — Sacramento, CA — Join FUJ at Cesar Chavez March on the 26th at noon at the CA State Capitol.
March 28 — UC Berkeley with FIOB + Student Groups. Big event at 5 p.m.
March 29 — UC Berkeley and Oakland — Berkeley event 1-3:30 p.m. and Oakland event 4:30-6:30 p.m.
March 30 — Santa Cruz, CA with Brown Berets
March 31 — Watsonville, CA — Big Action at Driscoll’s Headquarters and event in the evening.
April 4 — Santa Maria, CA
April 5-7 — Los Angeles, CA
April 8-10 — San Diego, CA including big action at US/Mexico Border April 9
April 11 — Delano, CA
April 12 — Fresno, CA with FIOB, Brown Berets and MEChA
April 13 — Bay Area
Rosalinda Guillen is Executive Director of Community to Community (C2C). A former farmworker, Guillen has worked within the labor movement with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers of America and has represented farm workers in ongoing dialogues of immigration issues, labor rights, trade agreements, and strengthening the food sovereignty movement.
[http://www.thestand.org/2016/03/support-sakuma-farmworkers-as-they-launch-west-coast-tour/]
The Stand [http://www.thestand.org/]
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information collected by the Committee to
DEFEND THOSE WITHOUT HOMES!
In the old USSR (Soviet Union) during the 1980s, drug addicts who did not seek employment were still guaranteed a shared apartment in the big city... without personal water units or personal electrical outlets. Guaranteed housing was gifted alongside guaranteed employment or higher education. In the USA, we are consuming propaganda that describes the process of guaranteed houselessness as personal "Liberty".
===*===*===
Documenting human-rights abuse by domestic security agencies
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
[NorthbayCopwatch.blogspot.com] [copblock.org] [wecopwatch.org] [filmingcops.com]
* "Loretta Lynch: government shouldn't require reports of people killed by police; The attorney general says local police are encouraged to maintain records on such killings, but improving police-community relations is more important" (2015-10-02, theguardian.com) [archive.is/kbrF7] [begin excerpt]: Attorney general Loretta Lynch says the federal government should not require police to report fatal shootings of civilians, sharply diverging from her predecessor Eric Holder’s stance on police killings.
In a conversation with NBC journalist Chuck Todd on a range of criminal justice issues, Lynch said on Thursday that she does not support a federal mandate to report people killed by police.
“One of the things we are focusing on at the Department of Justice is not trying to reach down from Washington and dictate to every local department how they should handle the minutia of record keeping, but we are stressing to them that these records must be kept,” she said at the Washington Ideas Forum, hosted by AtlanticLIVE and the Aspen Institute.
Lynch said the Justice Department does “encourage” local departments to maintain records on police shootings but that improving police-community relations is more important. She noted that the small size of the average police department could make record-keeping difficult. [end excerpt]
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* "Sandra Bland’s arresting officer pleads not guilty to misdemeanor perjury charge" (2016-03-24, rt.com) [archive.is/4fLxr]
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* "Chicago Taxpayers Shell Out $7,000 An Hour, 24 Hours A Day To Pay Victims Of Police Brutality" (2016-03-20, by Matt Agorist, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/gWRhzr]
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* (2016-03-18, City of Vallejo City Manager's Bi-Weekly Report) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/l85N9s]: Chief Andrew Bidou introduced Vallejo’s newest members of the department, Officer Hector Campos and Officer Jeremy Callinan. Their hiring increases the staffing to 111 officers for the City of Vallejo. The City welcomes both Officer Campos and Officer Callinan as they enter their field training programs.
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* "Family Of Man Murdered By Fresno Police Files Lawsuit" (2016-03-24, fresnopeoplesmedia.com) [http://is.gd/qRDPfX]:
Wednesday the family of Freddy Centeno filed a lawsuit against the Fresno Police department alleging that Zebulon Price and Felipe Miguel Lucero acted beyond the limits of their authority when they shot Freddy seven times on September 3, 2015.
Freddy was carrying a spray nozzle to a garden hose and the officers barely hesitated before opening fire with less than six seconds elapse from the time they exited their cruiser to the time they opened fire.
Freddy suffered from bi-polar disorder and was schizophrenic. A deadly combination when dealing with poorly trained officers who have little to no experience in dealing with the mentally ill. His family said Freddy had left for a walk and ten minutes later they heard gunshots.
Centeno had been previously evaluated by the Fresno police last March when they learned he had stopped taking his medication during a disturbance call.
Chief Dyer said in August [archive.is/Q76f2] that de-escalation, implicit bias and mental health training was underway.
Wednesday, Fresno police Deputy Chief Robert Nevarez said the responding officers did not have time to implement the training. Unfortunately Deputy Chief Nevarez is right, these officer chose to start shooting before they had the time to asses the situation let alone implement de-escalation techniques.
Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer told The Bee [archive.is/f1uI3] that the video he reviewed showed the officers giving Centeno multiple commands. It also showed Centeno reach into his waistband and pull out the garden hose nozzle. He will hold a news conference Thursday and is considering releasing the police body cam footage, which is normally against department policy.
Why would it be against the department policy to release body camera footage?
Isn’t the objective of the body camera program to be able to provide the public with an objective record of what exactly happened in order to lay to rest any doubts there might have been surrounding the actions of any law enforcement officer involved in a use of force incident.
Even if Dyer did choose to release the full body camera footage there won’t be any evidence that will excuse the officers hasty and violent response to an unarmed Centeno.
* (2016-03-24, Humberto Guizar): Warning Graphic Video - May be unsuitable for children:
Watch video at [http://is.gd/zTNqyZ].
I will go so far as to call this shooting A POLICE ACT OF TERRORISM. The officers shot and killed Mr. Centeno, an unarmed man, commando style because he had a water hose nozzle. I am the attorney for the family. We have filed a lawsuit in Fresno CA, and we will seek justice. Please share this video with everybody you know. We need to show the world what is going on in California.
* (2016-03-24, Al Osorio): Very graphic video - only watch with caution. Fresno PD execute unarmed chicano, video from body cams. apparently Mr Centeño had a water hose nozzle in his hand, causing the officers to become terrified and gun him down. #FTP
* "Cops Mistake Water Nozzle For Gun, Shoot Schizophrenic Man" (2015-09-08, fresnopeoplesmedia.com) [http://is.gd/ENyOIO]
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* "Following the police murders of five Latino men in Salinas, DOJ releases report on SPD" (2016-03-24, by Monterey County News, via Indybay.org Newswire) [archive.is/WUjFW], attached DOJ Assessment (.pdf) [http://is.gd/SXkSKJ]:
Following the murders of five Latino men by officers with the Salinas Police Department in 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice released its assessment of the department during a public press conference in Salinas on March 23. The DOJ report reveals that the overwhelming majority, 75%, of the occurrences of police "use of force" between 2010 and 2015 were against "Hispanics". Salinas police officers shot and killed four men in 2014: Angel Ruiz on March 20; Osmar Hernandez on May 9; Carlos Mejia-Gomez on May 20; Frank Alvarado on July 10; and Jaime Garcia died after being tased by Salinas Police on October 31. The DOJ claims over the next 12 months, the COPS Office will work with the SPD to assist the agency in the implementation of the recommendations and to monitor its progress. According to the report (see PDF file for the full report, below) the assessment showed, "deficiencies in policies, training, internal and external communications, accountability systems, and internal affairs and professional standards and a lack of community-police collaboration strategy." The assessment produced 61 findings and 110 recommendations.
A short excerpt from the DOJ report (.pdf) [http://is.gd/SXkSKJ]:
The SPD use of force (UOF) assessment conducted by the assessment team provides an analysis and recommendations for its UOF policies, procedures, and practices.
It includes an assessment of the SPD’s UOF policies, a descriptive analysis of five years of UOF investigative reports, and an in-depth analysis of a random sample of 47 UOF investigations. This effort allowed the team to provide a comprehensive review of the SPD’s UOF and is the basis for the team’s findings and recommendations.
The assessment team examined UOF policies and procedures including the investigation aspect of UOF from January 2010 through August 2015. They focused on not only the policy content but also on how policies aligned with best and emerging practices, case law, and internal SPD procedures. Through interviews, observations, and document reviews, the team analyzed how the SPD implemented its UOF policies, overall adherence to policies, and specific accountability mechanisms.
The SPD’s internal investigation process and complaint intake and investigation procedures were reviewed. This examination included random selection and analysis of officer-generated use of force reports to determine policy compliance, evaluate the review process, and determine how officers were held accountable for policy violations.
The following are key findings and recommendations from the report for UOF policies, procedures, and training.
- Finding: The SPD’s policies 300 (Use of Force), 308 (Control Devices and Techniques), and 309 (Conducted Energy Device) are too vague in the description of use of force decision-making guidance, oversight, and accountability. (1)
- Recommendation: Overall, the SPD should revise policies 300, 308, and 309 to be more specific and more in line with policing best practices. In doing so, the SPD should consider all of the following recommendations for this finding. (1.1)
- Recommendation: The SPD should update and revise policies 300, 308, and 309 to describe the appropriate level of force to be applied under various circumstances. (1.4)
- Recommendation: The SPD should include and emphasize the importance of de-escalation in its UOF policies. (1.5)
- Recommendation: Specific de-escalation training should be administered, at a minimum, annually. (1.6)– 3 – Executive Summary
- Recommendation: To maintain transparency with the community after a UOF incident, the UOF policies should clearly state what types of information will be released to the public, when, and in what situation in accordance with applicable state law. (1.7)
- Finding: The SPD does not follow its own policy and practice for the use of written statements or recording of suspects and witnesses of UOF incidents. (18)
Recommendation: When possible, the SPD should include audio recordings of suspects, witnesses, and officers as part of the UOF investigation. (18.1)
- Finding: The supervisor investigating the UOF incident is not consistently gathering all the facts from officers. (19)
Recommendation: SPD supervisors should interview all officers who were involved with or at the scene during a UOF incident or indicate why officers were not interviewed. (19.1)
Officer-involved shootings -
The team’s review and assessment of the SPD’s investigations of OISs included three of the last four OISs—all occurring during 2014.3 The examination included a review of the case reports from the investigations to determine compliance with the department’s policies and procedures as well as its application of standard investigatory practices.
The team reviewed not only the investigative process but also the actions of all officers involved in the OIS incidents. The examination into these three OISs included reviews of available audio tapes of witness interviews, including interviews of the officers involved in the incidents. In addition, the team conducted interviews of the investigators who conducted the OIS investigations and gained an understanding of the response and investigation process.
The following are key findings and recommendations for the SPD’s OIS investigation process.
- Finding: The SPD does not have a practice or policy to require all OISs and in-custody deaths to be investigated by an outside agency. (24)
Recommendation: The SPD should adopt the practice of retaining an outside independent agency to investigate all officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths. (24.1)
- Finding: The SPD is limited in its ability to use less lethal weapons. (26)
Recommendation: The SPD should train and outfit all first-line supervisors (sergeants) with less lethal shotguns. (26.1)
- Finding: The administrative investigations (i.e., internal affairs investigations) of the OISs were not completed in a timely manner. (27)
Recommendation: The SPD should establish a 30-day timetable for all administrative reviews (i.e., internal affairs investigations) that are completed after an OIS incident has been reviewed and adjudicated by the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office. (27.1)
- Chart: Race of subjects involved in use of force [archive.is/SCgcV]
- Chart: Salinas Police Department use of force incidents from 2010 to 2015
- Use of force incidents by type of force used
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NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Domestic Security Agencies and private-sector partners
* "Personal freedom in Europe ‘too high’ to fight terrorism – ex-CIA chief" (2016-03-29, rt.com) [archive.is/7qRv6]
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Alphabet Corp. (Google) products are transparent to certain public and private sector security agencies. The following announcement by Alphabet Corp. serves as a "good cop" routine to instill faith in their online services.
* "Google upgrades warnings to alert users to when Big Brother is watching" (2016-03-27, rt.com) [archive.is/f1qzq]
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* " ‘$1.2 billion slush fund’: Justice Dept. resumes controversial asset forfeiture ‘equitable sharing’ " (2016-03-29, rt.com) [archive.is/EJjBq]
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NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Five-Eyes, and other transnational partners
* "FBI using Israeli firm to crack San Bernardino iPhone without Apple" (2016-03-23, rt.com) [archive.is/3PTne]
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* "Paris Attacks Damage Control: New Would-Be Shooter Suddenly “Captured” Minority Report Style" (2016-03-20, by Bernie Suarez, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/73RdWD]
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* "Has An ‘Out of Control’ Intel Community Compromised Australia in Asia Century?" (2013-11-11, 4thmedia.org) [archive.is/2E2kZ]
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* "CIA Agents To Troll Alternative Media Sites In Huge Propaganda Program; The CIA are expanding an existing program that influences mainstream media outlets to promote fake propaganda stories, by having agents troll internet forums, social media, and website comment sections – in an effort to disrupt alternative media sites" (2016-03-23, by Sean Adl-Tabatabai) [archive.is/hlFrt66]
* "Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media; Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda" (2011-03-17, theguardian.com) [archive.is/11pXT]
* "British army creates team of Facebook warriors; Soldiers familiar with social media sought for 77th Brigade, which will be responsible for ‘non-lethal warfare’ " (2015-01-31, theguardian.com) [archive.is/Q4Bdc]
===*===*===
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].
* "Survival Pending Revolution: Basic Tactics" (2016-01, by a Pennsylvania prisoner, via prisoncensorship.info) [archive.is/haTN6]: Survival in this imperial dungeon is a must. Survival is more than looking over ya shoulder wondering when a shank will be placed in your back. Survival in these walls has a broad base.
First, we must be vigilant in what we eat, the reason why is food nourishes the body, mind and soul. There are so many chemicals added to our diet that it kills or destroys us over a period of time. We must change our diet or balance it with more fruits and veggies. What I have done was get on a kosher diet rich in fresh produce, and cut back on a lot of mystery meat. How can we fight with all our strength if what we eat is making us weak?
Another survival method I use is peers. I connect to those held captive in the system of snakes, and politic with them so we can all be on point. Staying away from negative energy which brings chaos. I try to apply each one teach one, in my everyday survival method cause once you help your brother-comrade in need it brings a feeling of joy.
But the enemy can come with all kinds of tricks, and once they see you are a fighter for justice, then you're hauled off to a solitary confinement unit. Now that's when you must use all the tools to survive. One method that I currently use now while housed here is reading a lot of material and applying the principles to my everyday life. And spreading literature helps so us comrades can chop it up (conversate) amongst each other and figure out ways to find solutions rather than being a problem. But I keep a simple program so I can survive in this imperial prison. Stocks of peanut butter in case food supply doesn't come. Batteries for fuel, radio to keep up with current events. And learning more about self, so I can be prepared mentally to overcome this injustice.
MIM(Prisons) responds: On the topic of survival in solitary confinement, we distribute excerpts from the "Survivors Guide for Solitary Confinement" pamphlet that was released by the American Friends Service Committee. It is primarily authored by prisoners and gets into many mental health tactics, including meditation, setting a schedule, and regular exercise. These tactics are useful for any comrade who's serious about political organizing, whether locked up or not.
Sometimes our oppressors will put us in a strip cell with no bedding, no warmth, no food, no water, no medical attention. In those moments, there's little we can do as far as relying on peanut butter reserves. But maintaining everyday practices that keep us health and strong, and with a strong ideological understanding of the reasons we're facing these horrible conditions, will help us remain strong and make it through this torture. Our survival tactics may be individual at times, but our struggle is vast.
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* "Ruchell Cinque Magee: Sole Survivor Still" (2012-10-04, 4strugglemag.org) [archive.is/w3Z2P]
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* "Prison interviews with Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa" (2016-03-21, by Michael Richardson) [archive.is/P0wNI]
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* "Struggle from Within" poem by a Texas prisoner (2016-01, via prisoncensorship.info) [archive.is/llxQS]:
As I contemplate my situation, I
tend to be blinded by the darkness at
the end of the tunnel
No light, no hope, no future.
The only future I can see is the
life behind bars; under the thumb
of corrupt administrators. One man
against injustices that I see, fit for
no man.
Everyone sees it, but doesn't respond.
Just giving into their own destruction.
Not a fight in them. No struggle, no
sacrifices. Content in their situation.
Do me how you want to do me attitudes.
No progress, no future.
Free education. They don't get it. Power
in numbers, they don't use it. Unity, its
non-existent.
We can't let this discourage us. There is
light, there is hope. All it takes is a little
struggle, sacrifice, and unity.
Never underestimate your power.
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
Campaigns, info, and more [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com]. Science [discardstudies.com]
* "Governor Jerry Brown's Real Environmental Record Exposed!" (2016-03-25, by Dan Bacher) [archive.is/cW2Da]
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* "30 Scientists, 100+ Environmental, Health Groups Urge Federal Government to Maintain Moratorium on Offshore Fracking in California" (2016-03-22, biologicaldiversity.org) [archive.is/NhZaw]
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* "Sierra Club Challenges Revised Habitat Protection Plan for Monterey Bay Shores Resort; Ventana Chapter Submits Comments to the California Coastal Commission Challenging the Revised HPP for Monterey Bay Shores Resort" (2016-03-24, Ventana Chapter, Sierra Club) [archive.is/ksj3U], photo caption: Western snowy plover chicks are severely threatened by proposed Monterey Bay Shores Resort in Sand City dunes.* Sierra Club Ventana Chapter Comments on the Habitat Protection Plan for the Monterey Bay Shores Resort Project (2016-03-24) (pdf) [http://is.gd/wEy9n6]
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* "Proponents buried coal’s role in Oakland export terminal; now questions remain" (2016-03-27, sltrib.com) [archive.is/GNGcI]
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* "Petition: Get Roundup off the shelves in Santa Cruz stores" (2016-03-24, via Eleyah Knight) [archive.is/yCnlD]:
Roundup is a commonly used pesticide here in Santa Cruz, California. Its active ingredient, glyphosate, is a harmful, type 1 carcinogenic chemical as declared by the state of California's Environmental Protection Agency. Sign the petition "Get Roundup off the shelves in Santa Cruz stores" here: [http://www.change.org/p/mayor-cynthia-matthews-get-roundup-off-the-shelves-in-santa-cruz-stores].
There are currently no restrictions to who can purchase Roundup and where they are legally able to spray it. Therefore, this dangerous chemical could be available for anyone and sprayed virtually anywhere in the public. This is a huge concern for parents, health conscious individuals, and organic gardeners.
By signing this petition, we are requesting for Roundup to be banned from the shelves of all stores that sell it in Santa Cruz county. It could be easily and much more safely replaced with natural herbicides, such as Dr. Earth, which is sold at health conscious stores like Staff of Life.
As a worldwide tourist destination, Santa Cruz is known for its natural beauty, wildlife, beaches, and redwood forests. It is an abomination to give unlimited access of wildlife destroying chemicals in Roundup to the public. Our famed monarch butterfly as well as the much needed honey bee are both declining rapidly in population, which the spraying of pesticides is largely contributed to.
Even more alarmingly, glyphosate has been thoroughly researched and linked to several rising chronic diseases in humans. Though this information is widely available, Roundup is still constantly purchased and sprayed.
We want our children to have a healthy future, free of unavoidable environmental poisons.
-OEHHA Proposition 65 declaration of cancer causing substances:
[http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/CRNR_notices/admin_listing/intent_to_list/090415LCset27.html]
-Dr. Earth Organic Herbicides:
[http://drearth.net/products/organic-killer-sprays/weed-grass-herbicide/]
-Local Good Times cover story about the bee disappearance in Santa Cruz:
[http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/santa-cruz-news/good-times-cover-stories/7320-guild-save-the-queen.html]
-How Roundup has contributed to monarch butterfly decline:
[http://e360.yale.edu/feature/tracking_the_causes_of_sharp__decline_of_the_monarch_butterfly/2634]
-Academic researched articles and presentations on the dangers of glyphosate:
[https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/]
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* "What is Agenda 21? Come Find Out! With Debbie Bacigalupi" event flier (2016-03-38, Redding Patriots, of Shasta County, California) [archive.is/ezp3i], an example of the anti-ecology propaganda produced by domestic fascists in the USA. Demonizing the idea of preserving the ecology, many capitalist militants will fund fascist vanguards (labeled as the "Patriot Movement") to capitalize on public discontent against an economic downturn, placing the blame on "environmentalism" and advocating for violence against environmentalist organizations.
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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].
* "Going Beyond The Obvious Horror: 5 Lessons From Flint, Michigan" (2016-03-21, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/UTo0h5]
* "Why Medicare for Libby and Medicaid for Flint?" (2016-03-21, Progressive Democrats of America) [archive.is/TY96F]
* "High lead levels found in North Minneapolis - regulator" (2016-03-25, rt.com) [archive.is/iBtk9]
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* "Environmental Advocates and Organic Industry Watchdog Ask USDA to Ban Use of "Produced" Wastewater from Oil and Gas Exploration in Organics" (2016-03-22, Cornucopia.org) [archive.is/mBZKt]
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* "Eighteen Years Too Late: FDA Finally Heeds Public Citizen's Call, Moves to Ban Powdered Latex Surgical Gloves—and all Powdered Medical Gloves; Statement of Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Founder and Senior Adviser, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group" (2016-03-21, citizen.org) [archive.is/t0Ckk]
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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.
* "In First Use of Landmark Law, Minnesota Confirms Neonics Harm Bees; Two beekeepers have received compensation for their hives being damaged from a neighbor farm's pesticide use" (2016-03-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/1x1Xf]
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articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY SOVEREIGNTY Think-tank
[SovereignSanPabloBay.blogspot.com] [permaculture.org]
* "Alternative Economic Relations and the Death of Money" (2016-02-27, strategic-culture.org) [archive.is/cO2ow]:
The central banks of the leading Western nations are flooding the global economy with money. This is most evident in the fact that after 2007-2009 financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), and other central banks began pursuing policies known as quantitative easing (QE). They began buying up debt securities (including many of low quality), pumping additional hundreds of billions of dollars, euros, pounds sterling and other currencies into circulation each year.
The central banks simultaneously adopted a policy of continuously reducing interest rates on active and passive transactions. As a result, interest rates on deposits at the central banks of Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, and also the European Central Bank have plunged into negative territory. Money has become not only plentiful, but almost free.
The paradox is that this monetary expansion by the West’s leading central banks has not led to the expansion of the real economy, but has instead begun to run it into the ground. There are several reasons for this. First of all, an increasing proportion of what is being churned out by the money printing presses is making its way into the financial markets and being used for speculation, because the real sector cannot offer such quick, impressive profits. Second, the notes produced by the printing presses bear less and less resemblance to traditional money. No longer can money be used to measure either the value or price of goods and services. The price of oil is a conspicuous example of this. The fact is that oil prices are now being measured with a tool that we only call money out of habit. It is actually a tool for speculation, manipulation, and the redistribution of wealth in favor of the owners of money – the ones who control the printing presses. It is safe to say that we are now witnessing the death of money.
The producers in the real sector of the economy are being made painfully aware of all of this. Companies involved in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and transportation are unable to make long-term investments, enter into long-term contracts, or commit themselves to promising research and development work. They cannot even engage in normal commerce. Working capital is in short supply (all the money is tied up in the speculators’ financial games), and even when it is available, it now entails risks associated with sharp fluctuations in exchange rates, the inflationary depreciation of money, and the ups and downs of commodity prices. Modern commodity producers are in the same position our ancestors were in thousands of years ago when no universal medium of exchange like money existed.
Naturally, commodity producers are trying to adapt to this era of the death of money – devising new economic relationships. These new relationships go by various names: alternative, non-traditional, non-cash, swaps, barters...
Alternative forms of economic relations may exist on several levels:
- local (trades within a single city, region, or community);
- national (trades within a single country);
- international (trades between actors belonging to different national jurisdictions).
The development of alternative economic relationships is being met with very active resistance by the owners of the money. This is no surprise, since all alternative economic relationships undermine the monopoly held by the central banks on issuing currency and the monopoly held by private banks on issuing non-cash money (from deposit accounts). Under different pretexts, the central banks and governments of various countries are waging a fierce battle against this kind of “creativity” on the part of economic agents. Incidentally, this explains the fact that many of these alternative economic relationships can be found within the “shadow” economy.
The entire spectrum of alternative economic relationships can be divided into three main groups.
1. Transactions involving nothing but the simple exchange of products and without the use of money in any form. Barter is the classic example of such a transaction. In addition to classic forms of bartering, “multi-product” bartering is gaining popularity – a deal in which dozens, hundreds, or thousands of economic agents can play a role.
2. Transactions paid for in part through the exchange of products. These are designed to minimize the use of official money. As a rule, a broad category of international transactions (“countertrade”) usually include some use of currency. Countertrade includes a monetary payment for goods or services exchanged between two countries, but the primary goal is to try to balance the value of those exchanges. The mechanisms used to carry out the transactions can be quite varied. For example, the export revenues earned by suppliers from country A can be stockpiled in their bank accounts, and then spent to import goods from country B. In this example it might be possible to sidestep the use of hard currencies (the US dollar, euro, or British pound sterling), instead basing the transaction on the currencies of the countries involved in the countertrade.
Even if the countertrade does not incorporate commitments such as using export revenues in a bank account to pay for imports, the principle of balance is still important for the countries involved, because it allows them to control the equilibrium of the balance sheets for their trade and payments, which is important for maintaining the stability of the exchange rate of their national currency.
Some of the most widely recognized forms of countertrade are: compensation on a commercial basis; counter purchases; compensation based on industrial cooperation agreements; the repurchase of used products; transactions involving raw materials furnished by the customer (tolling), etc. The most complex of these forms is compensation based on industrial cooperation agreements. In reality this is not merely a swap of products, but a deal to exchange investments for a product. As a rule, this type of deal includes another lender who provides loan capital to the investor.
Various mechanisms for handling clearing arrangements should also be noted here, making it possible to take into account the mutual financial claims and liabilities of each party in an economic relationship. Usually a bank acts as the clearing center. In a clearing arrangement, the balance of financial claims vs. liabilities is periodically registered. The balance can be settled (repaid) in a predetermined currency (the clearing currency). It is possible to extend financing to a participant in a clearing arrangement, if that entity finds itself in the red. A negative balance can also be repaid by supplying goods. The deliberate destruction of currency clearing agreements began in the 1970s, because those were lowering the demand for the products of the US Federal Reserve. Today we are once again seeing growing interest in currency clearing agreements, as an alternative to Washington’s dictate of the dollar.
3. Barter transactions, based on alternative forms of money. One way to survive in the modern world, in which the US dollar is forcibly imposed upon all the actors in economic relationships, lies in the creation of alternative forms of money that could truly fulfill their economic functions (primarily as a measure of value and a medium of exchange). In various countries around the world, large quantities of local forms of money are now being used within individual cities and regions. Of course, this local money is not entirely replacing the official money, but in some cases the local population’s need for official money can be reduced by half or even more. This local money, whether in the form of a paper currency or a computer entry, encourages the exchange of products of labor that are manufactured within a circumscribed area. Barter money particularly stands out amidst the wide variety of alternative money.
Many experts acknowledge that given the growing global instability, the subject of alternative (non-traditional) approaches to trade and settlements is becoming increasingly pertinent.
===*===*===
NORTHBAY ENTHEOGENIC FREEDOM
[NorthbayEntheogen.blogspot.com]
* "Vet Goes On Hunger Strike After The State Took His Kids For Him Legally Using Cannabis For PTSD" (2016-03-20, by Matt Agorist, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/pXzuY1]
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* "SCOTUS Votes 6-2, Rejects Hearing NE, OK Lawsuit Against CO Marjijuana Legalization Law" (2016-03-21, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, leap.cc) [archive.is/d3X5z]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the Committee for
ANIMAL RIGHTS
Protect Earth's Sentient Life!
ANIMAL RIGHTS: Save the Whales!* "Humpback Whale Monitoring Proposal Ignores Record Number of West Coast Entanglements" (2016-03-21, biologicaldiversity.org) [archive.is/BBYtx]
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the process of fascism and for whom it benefits. [UnitedStatesFascism.blogspot.com] [exposefacts.org]
* "How Reaganomics Killed America’s Middle Class" (2015-11-11, The Big Picture, RT News) [youtube.com/watch?v=ZdCNGkZoIZw]: Thom discusses what Ronald Reagan’s economic policies have done to America’s middle class with economist Richard Wolff, author of the book “Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism.”
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* "Selling TPP as the Farm Economy Drops off a Cliff" (2016-03-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/AzjsQ]
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As the old billboard claimed, "Virginia is for Lovers".
* "Child marriage chart reveals girls can wed at 12 in some parts of the US - as lawmakers battle to raise age to 16; Several states - including Massachusetts - allow children to get married 'in exceptional circumstances' " (2016-03-09, independent.co.uk) [archive.is/wcSAP]
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* "U.S. Churches are now costing taxpayers $71 billion a year" (2016-03-21, separationofchurchandstate.org) [archive.is/t7yzr]
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* "Debunking William S. Lind & 'Cultural Marxism' " (2011-08-26, theredphoenixapl.org) [archive.is/JduhV] [begin excerpt]: Anyone who has spent considerable time participating in political discussions is bound to run across the term “Cultural Marxism” at one time or another. It is a term typically used by the most extreme elements on the right, such as neo-Nazis and their fellow travelers, but in recent years it has become more prominent within mainstream conservative circles. Up to recently, the term has been little more than an ill-defined right-wing buzzwordin the same league as “feminazi,” “gay agenda,” “politically correct” or “community organizer.”
That all changed on 22 July, 2011. On that tragic date in Norway, a neo-fascist terrorist, Anders Breivik, launched a killing spree that took the lives of over 70 people. Breivik has a well-established history in Europe’s far right-wing, and the term “cultural Marxism” was featured prominently in his political writings.
Now more than ever, it is essential that people understand the term “cultural Marxism,” and the way in which it is used by the right as a way to both scare and rally its base into action. In short, understanding the term cultural Marxism is a key to understanding how the right thinks, communicates, and works.
First, to understand cultural Marxism as a phrase is nearly impossible. The phrase itself is meaningless. Next time you find yourself in a discussion where your partner invokes cultural Marxism, ask them to define exactly what that means. Most people don’t even attempt to answer. Those that do give a definition that has nothing to do with Marxism. They may be totally convinced that cultural Marxism is destroying their society, to the point of obsession, yet they stammer and hesitate when asked for a coherent definition.
How can one be so obsessed with something they can’t readily explain? Why does the right even bother using this term if it is nearly impossible to define? The answer to the question lies in the Cold War. Here let us examine the use of cultural Marxism, rather than its intended meaning. [end excerpt]
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* "YA dystopias teach children to submit to the free market, not fight authority; The Hunger Games, The Giver and Divergent all depict rebellions against the state, and promote a tacit right-wing libertarianism" (2014-09-01, theguardian.com) [archive.is/h0dHc]. Comment by Tomás C.: I had recently read "The GIver," and all I ever felt reading throughout it was that the book was a big masturbation of the Free Market and so on with a clear disdain toward the planned society as you mentioned. I had the eerie feeling that the author glorified the freedom to starve as opposed to seeking a life free of such worries. I read it half-heartedly just to see what it was all about. It was painful to do so, really.
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USA FASCISM: Military State
* "Military Admits Trillion Dollar F-35 Program Is A Failure" (2016-03-20, Joshua Krause, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/ZwXGkJ]
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* "The Military is from Mars, Civilians are from Venus: Avoiding Planetary Collisions in the Conference Room" (2016-03-22, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/q68kH]
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USA FASCISM: Two Party Dictatorship
* "The CIA’s Presidents" (2016-01-28, 4thmedia.org) [archive.is/yRpqI] [begin excerpt]: Presidents have seldom been autonomous leaders. Those who demonstrated independence, integrity and courage were either marginalized and banished from positions of influence or killed.The CIA is not just a standalone organization. The “Agency” is more of a euphemism than a society of black bag hit squads. The underlying ethos that underpins the operations and missions of the “Intelligence Community” has a distinct purpose. [end excerpt]
* " 'Toxic Obama': The Latest Failed Presidency: He Would Do Anything He Is Told To Do" (2010-07, 4thmedia.org) [archive.is/FWgiE]
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* "Racism and Electoral Politics in 2016" (2016-03-08, by Abayomi Azikiwe) [archive.is/tbj7c]
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* "Strange Days: Conservatives Criticize "Liberal Media" For Being Too Soft On GOP Front-Runner Trump" (2016-03-18, mediamatters.org) [archive.is/lLltB]
* "Chairman Of Electronic Voting Firm Running Tuesday’s Utah Caucus Sits On Soros’ Open Society Foundation Board" (2016-03-21, by Melissa Dykes, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/aP2LJe]
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* "The Clinton Presdency? Another American Crime Family Advances on the White House" (2016-03-28, by Paul Craig Roberts) [archive.is/40fAf]
* "Wall Street’s Candidate for the White House: Michael Bloomberg Indicates He Wants Clinton as President" (2016-03-08, by Eric Zuesse) [archive.is/xEHek]
* "Establishment Dems Hobbling DNC Chair's Grassroots Challenger; 'The Florida Democratic Party will not allow me access to our party's database and software because I am running against an incumbent Democrat' " (2016-03-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/EiKDD]
* "Hillary Clinton’s Pay-for-Play Reality; Whatever one thinks about Hillary Clinton’s sincerity when she professes progressive values, the undeniable reality is that she has immersed herself for decades in the corrupting sludge of Official Washington and its sleazy pay-for-play schemes with Wall Street and other power centers" (2016-02-11, consortiumnews.com) [archive.is/VHcs0] [begin excerpt]:
Lloyd Blankfein revealed that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one “feeling the Bern.” The remarkably unreflective Blankfein said the anti-Wall Street sentiment fueling Sen. Bernie Sanders’s insurgent campaign represented a “dangerous moment” for Wall Street and, by extension, for America. In that revealing moment of truth, Blankfein’s blurb not only encapsulated Wall Street’s growing discomfort with the surging candidacy of, as Blankfein put it, “another kid from Brooklyn,” but it also exposed Wall Street’s lingering detachment from the costly outcomes of its free-wheeling actions.And it didn’t do Hillary any favors — which is something new for Goldman Sachs. Lloyd unintentionally poured gasoline into an already white-hot news cycle that’s raced out of Hillary’s control. And it further reinforced Bernie’s case that Hillary, the former Senator from Wall Street, is just too closely linked to the “rigged economy” to actually reform it. [...]
when Wall Streeters talk about “compromise,” they are referring to their seemingly innate ability to manufacture bipartisan consent in spite of the often-bemoaned acrimony that locks up Republicans and Democrats.
For example, the two big post-Crash bailouts were built on exactly this type of compromise. And yes, there were two bailouts. There was the highly-visible, widely-reported $700+ billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). But there was also a host of “other,” often-secret bailouts and programs that may cost somewhere around $4 trillion to $7.7 trillion or, according to one accounting, as high as $16.8 trillion. Most Americans are unfamiliar with those side-deals built on Washington’s reliable willingness to compromise with Wall Street.
Another good example is the often-criticized and wholly-overrated Dodd-Frank law that was ostensibly designed to “rein-in” the “excesses” of Wall Street. Instead, it seems to have acted like an accelerator. Less than two years after Dodd-Frank was signed into law on July 21, 2010, Bloomberg Business reported that just five banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America , Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs — saw their assets spike to $8.5 trillion. That equaled a staggering “56 percent of the U.S. economy.”
Like a magic trick, they saw their assets rise 13 percent during a post-Crash crisis that, according to the Treasury Department, simultaneously eliminated $19.2 trillion in household wealth. [...]
It’s yet another triumph of political “compromise” for Wall Street. These “compromises” don’t come cheaply, though. According to OpenSecrets.o rg, Goldman Sachs spiked its yearly lobbying budget from $2.8 million in 2009 to $4.6 million in 2010 — when Dodd-Frank was being assembled in Congress. And $3.4 million is their lowest annual total spent since the law was passed. Overall, the financial industry has spent a hefty $3.25 billion on Dodd-Frank-related finagling.
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* "Major Research Findings: Sanders’ Tax Wall Street Plan Would Raise $300 Billion And Create Millions of New Jobs" (2016-03-22, commondreams.org) [archive.is/G106m]
* "With Tax Plan, Sanders Beats Both Clinton and Trump by Double Digits; After accounting for 'No Idea,' the tax plan put forth by the only democratic socialist in the race is the winner... by far" (2016-03-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/ab269]
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* "Touting Isolationism, Trump Employs a String of Neoconservative Advisors; Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump previously indicated that, if elected, his administration would focus on non-interventionist policies. His list of foreign policy advisers, released on Monday, says otherwise" (2016-03-22, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/1Mg3a]
* "CAIR Slams Cruz’s Comments on ‘Muslim Neighborhoods,’ Trump’s Naming of Islamophobic Adviser" (2016-03-22, cair.com) [archive.is/kwFI5]
* "Fact-Check This: Arrogance Of Elites Helps Drive The Trump Phenomenon" (2016-03-20, by Dave Johnson, ourfuture.org) [archive.is/qSDif]
* Report from the Trump Raly at Tucson(2016-03-19, Jason N. Gervase) [archive.is/mqiOG]: Today I went to the Donald Trump rally here in Tucson out of sheer morbid curiosity. It was one of the scariest and most uncomfortable things I have ever experienced. I saw things that will be forever burned in my memory.
Multitudes of people were thrown out while Trump supporters yelled and booed at them, some with racial slurs, like "fuck you", "go back to Africa", "go back to Mexico", "get a fucking job", the list goes on and giving them the middle finger. There were fights! Peaceful protesters were punched in the face! Every race was attacked by Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio, and Trump himself. I was right in the middle of the freak show.
And on top of that, it was far from accessible for the disabled. Bernie's rally in Tucson last night had an ENTIRE section reserved for the disabled and two ASL interpreters were provided. But Trump's rally? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Very telling.
My friends and I became so uncomfortable that we left a little early. We were mocked by people as we walked up the stairs through the crowd to leave ("goodbye!", "go back to your mommy and daddy's house", etc). We did not have a sign or anything but I think the disgusted look on our faces gave us away as non-Trump supporters.
I have never seen so much hate and ignorance in one room. It was just horrifying.
I am utterly scared shitless of America's and our future.
Please, please, do not vote for this disgusting, vile human being.
[EDITED TO ADD: Ever since I posted about my simple yet honest experience at the Trump rally here in Tucson, I have received numerous hate messages from his supporters. I have already gotten a death threat. I have been called stupid, loser, idiot, and a liar (even though there are countless photos and videos that substantiate what I wrote). I have been accused of being paid to do this (lol what?) and of being a Muslim. I've had to block at least ten people already.
I debated taking down the post, then I thought... that's exactly what they want me to do so I won't.
All the name-calling just shows how intelligent (or the lack thereof) and ignorant some of the conservatives are. It also shows that they're unable to effectively communicate as civilized adults. I guess with no logic and education, they have nothing else to turn to.
Trump has created a very toxic atmosphere with an entire army of over-entitled, angry, violent bigots. He needs to be stopped.]
* "Breitbart Website Charges Demonstrations for a Robust Democracy Are Targeted at Trump" (2016-03-21, buzzflash.com, via truth-out.org) [archive.is/dJQPN]
The following examples are shocking behavior for "liberals", and it is theorized some are provocateurs to galvanize the Trump campaign's adherents, to gain strong loyalty in defense of their campaign against "Nazi shock-troops" of the liberals, to embolden similar acts in retaliation against "liberals" and against the Bernie Sanders Campaign.
* "Shocking moment protester BEHEADS effigy of The Donald during his Salt Lake City rally; The Twitter video was recorded during Friday's Trump rally in the city; One clip shows the cardboard figure being beheaded with a plank of wood; Its 'executioner' announces 'I hate Trump' before the 'killing' blow; Another video shows a second man attacking the figure" (2016-03-19, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/6GpS6]
* "Man shatters door at Donald Trump Jacksonville headquarters" (2016-03-19, news4jax.com) [archive.is/7I4TN]
* "You Can’t Live Here If You Are Voting For Donald Trump" (2016-03-20, denver.cbslocal.com) [archive.is/kmkQ2]
* "A Prospect of Marriage of “THE LOBBY” and WHITE Supremacist: NAZIS, ….. and TRUMP" (2016-03-25, by Gordon Duff) [archive.is/l9N6q]
* "Black Donald Trump Supporters Get Cozy With White Nationalist; Sisters Diamond and Silk appeared on a radio show with a man who openly speaks about his fears of 'white genocide' " (2016-03-24, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/nD086]
* "Diamond and Silk tell you what the Democrats don't want you to know" [youtube.com/watch?v=GIsvW0D8bJk]
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* "New Ted Cruz national security advisors are leaders of the Islamophobia industry" (2016-03-18, mondoweiss.net) [archive.is/1mPEh] [begin excerpt]: With Marco Rubio’s exit from the GOP race, the world is now faced with the reality that either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz are just a step away from the White House. [...]
He has now garnered high-profile endorsements fromSenator Lindsey Graham and former Presidential candidate, Carly Fiorina and represents for many – the last hope of a “conservative” candidate to save the party in this election.
But the facts remain – Ted Cruz is the most radical candidate in the field. Don’t believe me? Check out his new advisor on national security: Frank Gaffney.
Engine Behind the Islamophobia Industry -
When the conversation on Islamophobia in America is brought up, many think of headline grabbing publicity artists like Pamela Geller or Robert Spencer. But if you want to know who is arguably the most dangerous figure in the spread of anti-Muslim sentiment, look no further than Gaffney.
The former Reagan-administration official has rebranded himself over the years, shifting his paranoia from Cold War communism to conspiracy theories about an impending Muslim Brotherhood takeover in DC.
A few facts about Gaffney and his extremism:
-He has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group leader. This is a recent development, as the SPLC historically referred to Gaffney as a notable figure in Islamophobia, or one of the industry’s “inner circle.” However, his activities – along with his organization, Center for Security Policy over the years which have helped drive public opinion against Muslims have resulted in being tagged with a hate-group label. Mind you, this is one of the most well-respected organizations in civil rights, who has given him this moniker, alongside Pamela Geller, Brigitte Gabriel, and members of the white supremacist movement.-His influence inside the Beltway has made him one of the driving forces behind legislative Islamophobia in the U.S. Over 30 anti-Sharia bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the U.S. The primary author of these “cut and paste” bills is attorney David Yerushalmi, who is employed by Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy. The bills have helped further demonize Islam, introducing the word “sharia” into the lexicon through a negative lens. A version of the bill introduced in Tennessee would have made the practice of Islam punishable by up to 20 years in prison. There is now a movement to take this to the federal level, as well as anti-sharia verbiage used in the 2012 GOP platform.
-Gaffney advanced the conspiracy theory that President Obama was born in Kenya, and that he was an operative of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has also been integral in attempting to smear and discredit Muslims who participate in public life, such as Huma Abedin. He has also suggested that GOP operative Grover Norquist is a stealth Muslim Brotherhood operative, due to the fact that he is married to an Arab.
-Due to his extremist views, he was actually disinvited from an influential weekly luncheon with DC power players. In recent years, he was blocked from speaking at the CPAC main stage due to his immersion in baseless conspiracy theories.
-As published in the CAIR’s 2013 Islamophobia Report – Legislating Fear, it shows that Gaffney makes roughly $300,000 yearly to spread his whacky conspiracy theories and advance Islamophobic rhetoric. His organization has received over $7 Million – that’s Seven Million Dollars from other organizations in the Islamophobia network.
-Not only is Gaffney the beneficiary of huge sums of Islamophobia Industry money, but his organization also promotes and gives grants to other industry outfits such as the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Organizations like this advance Gaffney’s agenda, under the guise of coming from a Muslim perspective. They have supported oppressive policies such as NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance program, the Oklahoma anti-sharia bill, and most recently an immigration ban on Muslims entering the U.S. [end excerpt]
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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]
* "Forbes Yanks a Negative Article on JPMorgan While the Bank Pays for Content" (2016-03-21, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/xBzHu]
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* "Bernie Sanders: ‘Democratic Socialist’ Or Out-And-Out Stalinist?" (2016-02-19, investors.com) [archive.is/LBAFU]
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* "Unlikely partners? How Western media largely ignored State Dept-Google-Al Jazeera plot against Assad" (2016-03-26, rt.com) [archive.is/pwvHG]
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The meme is referring primarily to an American audience about US newspapers, and there are also a few mistakes on it.
1. Baghdad, Iraq is spelled wrong, and
2. they meant San Bernardino, California, not San Diego.
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USA FASCISM: Artificial Poverty and Starvation
[talkpoverty.org]
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WORLD FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the global economic dictatorship
* How Central Banks (and Even Keynes) Misled the Public About Banking and Money (2016-01-27, by Perry Mehrling, a professor of economics at Barnard College, perrymehrling.com) [archive.is/4UXaX]* "Helicopter Money: Global Central Banks Consider Distributing Money Directly To The People" (2016-03-22, by Michael Snyder, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/ZrJEw3]
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* " ‘Modern day slavery for pilots’: More disturbing accounts of rules bent at Flydubai" (2016-03-25, rt.com) [archive.is/WFODu]
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* "Beware of These 7 Popular Chocolate Brands that Exploit Child Slaves" (2015-10-31, usuncut.com) [archive.is/HTCvc]
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* "Unaoil joins Future Energy Forum as founding member" (2015-11-17, unaoil.com) [archive.is/DMych]
* "World's Biggest Bribe Scandal; The Company that Bribed the World" (2016-03-30, theage.com.au) [http://is.gd/nKtNRd]
* "Unaoil’s Huge New Corporate Bribery Scandal, Explained" (2016-03-30, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/d9dMV]
* "There’s A Huge New Corporate Corruption Scandal. Here’s Why Everyone Should Care" (2016-03-30, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/s9cvZ]
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WORLD FASCISM WATCH: Weapons for a New World Order
* "10 Things Making Up The Anatomy Of A False Flag Disease" (2016-03-20, by Paul A. Philips, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/bsr0Jy]
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* "A Japanese AI program just wrote a short novel, and it almost won a literary prize" (2016-03-23, digitaltrends.com) [archive.is/wIq7Z]
* "Microsoft is deleting its AI chatbot's incredibly racist tweets" (2016-03-24, businessinsider.com) [archive.is/5a4Bx]
* "Microsoft's 'teen girl' AI turns into a Hitler-loving sex robot within 24 hours" (2016-03-24, telegraph.co.uk) [archive.is/9UmGm]
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WORLD FASCISM WATCH: #OPDeathEaters
A study of the personal ideologies and social practices of those who benefit from the global capitalist regime. [WorldFascists.blogspot.com]
* "Capitalism’s Cult of Human Sacrifice" (2015-12-15, by Chris Hedges) [archive.is/BsTbw] [begin excerpt]: Bryan Parras stood in the shadows cast by glaring floodlights ringing the massive white, cylindrical tanks of the Valero oil refinery. He, like many other poor Mexican-Americans who grew up in this part of Houston, struggles with asthma, sore throats, headaches, rashes, nosebleeds and a host of other illnesses and symptoms. The air was heavy with the smell of sulfur and benzene. The faint, acrid taste of a metallic substance was on our tongues. The sprawling refinery emitted a high-pitched electric hum. The periodic roar of flares, red-tongued flames of spent emissions, leapt upward into the Stygian darkness. The refinery seemed to be a living being, a giant, malignant antediluvian deity.
Parras and those who live near him are among the hundreds of millions of human sacrifices that industrial capitalism demands. They are cursed from birth to endure poverty, disease, toxic contamination and, often, early death. They are forced to kneel like bound captives to be slain on the altar of capitalism in the name of progress. They have gone first. We are next. In the late stages of global capitalism, we all will be destroyed in an orgy of mass extermination to satiate corporate greed. [end excerpt]
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* Lyrics to the song "Organics" by "Evil's Toy",
music [youtube.com/watch?v=aQzIscu3JiU]:
Cuts into peritoneum, "can you tell me...
How do you feel?"
No sympathy, only abuse, blood, mixed
With your last meal
Energy for operation, not enough
To resist against the pain
Agony, blasphemy, desire
Lots of money for my honey
Liver, kidney, hearts chilled on ice
Cut the heart, buy it cheap
Divide the liver, again
Cut the kidney, asunder
Spit in wound, let him die
Surgical elimination
Mistrust
Taste the dark side
The modest Surgeon, in town, corruption, money, sex
Join the killing all over the world
Not enough to destroy the silence
Liver shop, heart shop, kidney shop
Head shop, body shop, world shop.
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information collected by the
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM COALITION
[SolanoPeaceJustice.blogspot.com], for justice, dignity and human rights, and an end to the USA's endless wars, in harmony with Principle 1 & 6 of International Law [archive.is/tmncz], the 5 protocols of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) [archive.is/LhUTj], and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [archive.is/U1Ota].
* "A World War has begun. Break the Silence" (2016-03-20, johnpilger.com) [archive.is/Nb3O9]
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* " 'The Obama Doctrine' Is To Whitewash His Foreign Policy" (2016-03-10, moonofalabama.org) [archive.is/6O1wp]
* "The Obama Doctrine The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world" (2016-04, by Jeffrey Goldberg, theatlantic.com) [archive.is/OjnPt]
* "Ten years on, Iraq Lies in Ruins as New Evidence confirms U.S. used Death Squads to Manufacture ‘Civil War’ " (2015-11-12, strategic-culture.org) [archive.is/gZkTr]
* "Children of Syria: The Greed-Driven Western Colonialists’ “EVIL SCIENCE” Still Continues" (2016-03-22, by Peter Koenig) [archive.is/0G7JQ] [begin excerpt]: Hardly anybody talks about and shows the horrendous situation in Syria on the ground, how this US instigated war affects the people, the individuals – and in particular the children.
No future. Three million of them (UNICEF) do not go to school; they are malnourished, many sick, many die – miserable deaths, in unsanitary refugee camps; uncounted children are orphans at young age – have to fend for themselves, are being abused, exploited, mistreated, physically and mentally.
What a future? What a life. – Add to these 3 million from Syria alone the uncounted children from Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan – and the list goes on. All of these children were made homeless and refugees and many also orphans through wars and armed conflicts started by the US and its western ‘allies’.
Be sure always to remember, who is behind these conflicts; who could stop the misery anytime and who has the power to bring peace to humanity rather than constant war and mass killings to satisfy their greed – greed for dominance, greed for resources.
According to the UNHCR about 60 million people worldwide are on the move as refugees. This figure in reality is probably at least 70 million. It also masks another reality – one of abject poverty and misery, caused by a US-led world elite living in superb luxury and comfort, killing for more wealth and more power. The number of children can only be estimated.
It is fair to guess that at least 1/3 of all refugees are children and adolescents, some 25 million. Again, most of these worldwide refugees are the result of US aggressions or conflicts initiated by Washington and carried out by US / NATO armed forces, or by America’s vassals and proxies, i.e. the war in Yemen nominally fought by the Saudis and other Gulf states, but with full backing and arms supplied by the US / NATO.
Young girls and adolescent women are often ending up in the sex-trade. Many of the boys and girls are abused as slaves or at best cheap, hardly-paid labor, working at least 12-hour days and of course – no chance of going to school – a missed opportunity to get a basic education. – What will they do in the future? – Those who may one day be ‘free’ from seeking shelter as refugees, free from slavery and able to enter a ‘normal’ work life?
The number of refugees is increasing with every bombing run by the US and NATO; by drone assassinations, yes, personally approved by Obama, the self-appointed leader of the world who goes around the globe preaching human rights, the biggest human rights abuser in recent history.
US drones have killed tens of thousands in the last 15 years. To that you may add the hundreds, perhaps thousands killed by UK and French drones. At least 90% of those killed are civilians, many of them, maybe as many as half, are children or adolescents.
Many children survive as orphans. Especially when the trigger-happy drone-trained operators in Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas or elsewhere on the US territory, or the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, Djibouti, direct their joysticks towards a wedding or funeral celebration in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan – you name it.
They have a particular liking for these mass family gatherings. The ‘bug splats’ – military slang for people killed by remote control – are the most numerous, the most fun, the bloodiest ‘bang for the buck’, for these inhuman monsters, trained to kill in places tens of thousands of kilometers away from their comfort zone – and ordered to do so by the Assassin-in-chief, Obama; he who proudly says that he approves each killing personally.
How does the man – if he still deserves the term – sleep at night?
Many of these drone ‘pilots’ work from mobile air-conditioned trailers outside large cities in the US, but also from Africa, Afghanistan or the United Arab Emirates. There are at least 60 drone bases around the world, most of them controlled by the CIA and their proxies. Their number may be flexible with a tendency to grow. They are often operating from simple airstrips, easy to set up and easy to dismantle. They are clad in a shroud of secrecy, therefore difficult to monitor.
This is modern American warfare, by robot, removed from emotions. Killing is a mere statistic, a measure accounted for on a spreadsheet. Almost nobody talks about this atrocious way of combat that is easily and painlessly replicated everywhere and endlessly.
How can a future Syria be built without an educated population? There will be a generation gap, for several generations – if ever – before the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region can recuperate its economy, its social and physical infrastructure – its sheer living of normal lives.
Syria, Libya and Iraq were the most progressive countries in MENA: free education and health care; a first-class social safety net and physical infrastructure that functioned; a deep and profound history of humanity, the cradle of our western civilization.
No more. The very ‘western civilization’ has destroyed it all. Bombed into oblivion. They were and Syria still is socialist by definition – a red flag and no-go for the western neoliberal fascist way of thinking and economic model.
Most of these people have done no harm, are no terrorists, especially the children, they were happy to go to school, to play with their friends, to have a home and caring family and daily food on the table.
Now everything is lost. No home. Street children, begging, eating from the gutters, sick, torn and filthy clothing, cold, no shelter – no health care – no care at all.
Washington and Washington directed stooges have taken away their future, have plunged them into misery, those that have survived and are roaming the globe as ‘refugees’.
What a western sanitized term out of the handbook on statistics – when these poor souls are more often than not at the edge of survival, expulsed from one country to another, beaten, threatened with guns, sometimes killed, hovering between a life of despair and death from starvation, disease or sheer neglect.
Because the greed-driven neoliberal western colonialists – the same Europeans and some of them have become North Americans in the 18th, 19th and 20th century – who have ravaged and raped and exploited the world for centuries, these same people – can they still be called people? – are now decimating and destroying what’s left of our globe, for full spectrum dominance.
Killing is the new normal. Desolation and misery of living beings is of no importance. Interference without limitation, that is what the west does best, literally best. [end excerpt]
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* "Remembering Obama’s “Shock And Awe” Bombing Of Libya And How The “Antiwar” Movement Blew It" (2016-03-20, by Phil Restino, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/KrOBkY]
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* "Revelation of Secret Iraq Base Belies Claim of 'No Boots on the Ground' ; A marine's death forced the Pentagon to acknowledge a secret marine base in Northern Iraq—and it also announced plans to quietly deploy another detachment" (2016-03-22, commondreams.org) [archive.is/H4F63]
* "On 13th Anniversary Of Iraq War, Pentagon Confirms US Marine Killed By Islamic State Rocket Fire" (2016-03-20, by Baran Hines, activistpost.com) [http://is.gd/sYsDPB]
* "More Marines headed to Iraq to fight ISIS after rocket attack" (2016-03-20, Marine Corps Times) [archive.is/iFQJ9]
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* "U.S. quiet as ally Bahrain imprisons human rights activist with her infant for tearing up photo of king; Rights groups condemn the arrest of Zainab al-Khawaja and U.S. inaction, while State Dept. refuses to say anything" (2016-03-18, salon.com) [archive.is/2wsV2]
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* "US Has Killed More Than 20 Million In 37 Nations Since WWII" (2015-11-27, popularresistance.org) [archive.is/J1utl]
* "The Worldwide Network of US Military Bases; The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel" (2007-07-01, by Jules Dufour) [archive.is/vPnvH]
* " ’State who?’ Pentagon increasingly dominating US foreign aid" (2016-03-25, rt.com) [archive.is/nOMoC]
* "Time for Washington to amp up the Power to Coerce" (2016-03-22, by David Gompert, and Hans Binnendijk, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/is7aN]: For the United States, the mounting costs and risks of waging war are increasing the importance of its ability to thwart hostile states without attacking them — what we call the “power to coerce.” Meanwhile, globalization of trade, investment, banking, information, media and energy is expanding the options for U.S. power to coerce, especially against nation states that depend on access to these global markets and systems — such as Russia, Iran and China. For its part, the United States is comparatively, though not entirely, invulnerable to coercion, giving it an asymmetric advantage that it could more fully exploit. Unlike “soft power,” which is meant to cause other nations to like us more, or be more like us, the power to coerce can work against aggressors. While it cannot always substitute for hard military force, the power to coerce can raise the threshold for war as a last resort. The term power to coerce describes techniques that not only have the potential to avoid the use of military force and other existing forms of deterrence, but also to stop, reverse or at least punish transgressions short of force. Developments in recent years, regarding Iran, Russia, Arab dictatorships and others, illuminate both the utility and the limits of the power to coerce.
Among the most promising U.S. options in this area are financial sanctions, support for nonviolent political opposition to autocratic regimes and offensive cyber operations. Cutting off access to the global inter-banking network can visit severe and radiating economic pain, and can be calibrated according to the target’s response. Since 2001, with al-Qaeda initially in its crosshairs, the U.S. government has honed its ability to find, track, disrupt and seize financial assets and flows, and to enlist the participation of key states with major banks — which is all it takes to succeed. U.S.-led denial of access to finance and capital markets has become a coercive strategy of choice and seems to have contained Russian intervention in Ukraine and forced Iran to accept limits on its nuclear weapons program.
Support for pro-democracy opposition can also be very threatening to hostile regimes and thus offer strong coercive potential. Social networking and global media can help domestic movements and facilitate external support. At the same time, political upheaval may end not in peaceful transformation, but in crackdown or chaos. Authoritarian reaction, oppression, violent extremism and civil war have occurred, suggesting that support for pro-democracy opposition should be attempted judiciously. In every case, the United States must decide whether its goal is to coerce or topple the target regime.
Offensive cyber operations are also a high-return/high-risk option. Skillfully targeted, they can disturb the functioning and confidence of states and markets, and thus have coercive utility. However, the risks and costs of collateral damage, retaliation and escalation are considerable, especially if the target country is itself a cyberwar power, as China and Russia are. Given its own vulnerabilities, the United States might wish to raise, not lower, the threshold for cyberwar. Indeed, if the United States comes to regard cyberwar as an act of war, its coercive value would be negated.
In addition to these instruments, the United States could develop the ability to foil the manipulation of energy supplies for purposes of coercion by the likes of Russia and Iran. In particular, a large position for the United States in global oil and liquefied natural gas markets would render less effective Russian threats to cut off supplies. Thus, although the United States would maintain its traditional opposition to the use of energy access as a weapon, it may now find itself with the means to back its position.
The state against which coercion is most difficult and risky is China — the state that also poses the strongest challenge to the U.S. military options. China seems at present to be politically resilient, plays a critical role in world trade and finance and has its own coercive options — with its cyber capabilities and holdings of U.S. debt. Russia, Iran and other states less robust than China are more efficacious targets for coercive power. At the other extreme, as the case of North Korea suggests, coercion may not be effective against regimes that are isolated and indifferent to the hardships of their populations.
The United States can and should improve its coercive capabilities. The Treasury Department and intelligence community should continue to sharpen tools for constricting financial access and flows, and for isolating recalcitrant states and banks that do business with them. The State Department and intelligence community should refine their methods to support nonviolent democratic opponents in hostile and repressive states and to assess, case by case, the risks and benefits of using these methods. Just as authorities, responsibilities and command chains are delineated for hard power, so should they be for coercion. More generally, the U.S. government should start preparing systematically for the use of coercion as it does for military warfare, including analyzing options, assessing requirements and capabilities, conducting war games to refine these capabilities and planning with allies.
[About the authors]:
David Gompert, former principal deputy director of National Intelligence, is an adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and distinguished visiting professor for national security studies at the United States Naval Academy. Hans Binnendijk is a senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS and an adjunct political scientist at RAND.
* "Trojan Horses & “Color Revolutions”: The Role of National Endowment for Democracy" (2005, by William Blum) [archive.is/mcDWU]
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* "Koreans in U.S. Stage Action for Peace against War" (2016-03-30, rodong.rep.kp) [archive.is/G1Yoq]: Members of the Association for Supporting Prisoners of Conscience of the Family Movement for Realizing Democracy and Koreans in the U.S. staged a demonstration in Washington on March 25 demanding a stop to the nuclear war drills targeting the north, the conclusion of a peace treaty and probe into the truth about the warship Cheonan sinking incident.
Calling for reunifying the country with the concerted efforts of the Korean nation, the participants underlined the need to withdraw the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces from south Korea at an early date and conclude a peace treaty.
They said that they would struggle together with the organizations for peace against war in the U.S. until peace is realized on the Korean peninsula.
They issued a statement demanding a probe into the truth behind the Cheonan warship sinking incident.
Many honest-minded scholars and media persons clarified that the story about the warship Cheonan sinking by the "north's deed" was cooked up, but the traitors have escalated the tension, resorting to the war racket under the pretext of the incident, the statement noted.
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* "The "Islamophobia" Industry Feeds War Abroad, Grows Police State at Home" (2016-03-26, by Tony Cartalucci) [archive.is/NzqkL]
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* "Judges could be OK with Senate’s ‘CIA torture’ report staying secret; Key question is whether Congress or the CIA controls the report; Obama administration says the report is exempt from FOIA; A Supreme Court finalist will help decide the case" (2016-03-17, mcclatchydc.com) [archive.is/jF1sd]
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The USA State Dept. and Defense Dept. glorified and romanticized the worst elements of fascism across the world during the Cold War. Not because they were better than the socialists they were murdering, but because the USA agencies are full of fascists.
Closing credits of Rambo 3 before & after the USA officially declared the "Long War Against Terrorism", 2001, read more at [http://is.gd/QUkRuh]:
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