Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), at 89.5FM in the northeast San Pablo Bay Area, or online at [is.gd/kJ1EUt].
Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay MDS.
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 [is.gd/r18EVD].
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InDIYpendent Media
Spotlight from the Northbay Uprising Media Collective
June 20, 2016 Radical Rap. Please note, the first song you hear (partial song) is by Adamh Roland of RiotFolk, called "Rich, White, Gay. The final song is a Two Spirit Honoring Song drummed and sang at the Pulso del Amor Continúa event in San Francisco June 18, 2016. Live download link [is.gd/PmfIxw].
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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]Saturday, July 2, 2:00 - 4:30 PM
Deadly Connections: Challenging Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Climate Change
Starry Plough Pub, 3101 Shattuck Ave, at Prince St, Berkeley
Presented by The Peace and Freedom Party
In an age of endless war, economic crisis, and global warming, the provocative actions of the United States against nuclear armed Russia and China raise again the threat of nuclear annihilation. Our discussion of this important topic features two confirmed speakers from the Western States Legal Foundation, which has provided legal representation to antinuclear activists since 1982: Andrew Lichterman, Senior Research Analyst, and Phyllis Olin, Board President. Eugene Ruyle, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, CSU, Long Beach, will also speak.
FREE! Please buy food & drink at the Pub. All ages welcome! FREE!
Contact: Gene Ruyle, cuyleruyle [at] mac.com, 510-332-3865
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Laborfest Film: The Hand That Feeds
Wednesday, July 6, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St., Berkeley
The Hand That Feeds (88 min.) (2014) Directed by: Rachel Lears & Robin Blotnick
At a popular bakery café, residents of New York's Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma López has never been interested in politics, but in January 2012, he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back.
Risking deportation and the loss of their livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. Discussion to follow. Sponsored by Global Studies Program.
See also: [laborfest.net/2016/2016schedule.htm]
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PROTEST THE NATO SUMMIT
JULY 9, 2016, 12 NOON
At 50 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco, California 94102
[facebook.com/events/1238712506139331]
ABOLISH NATO - The NATO summit is taking place right now in Warsaw, Poland. Generals and other unelected bureaucrats are planning for endless war! STOP THEM!
We will have a Moment of Silence for the victims of NATO violence
Sponsored by the California Peace Coalition [lapeacecouncil.org]
Read more from the latest issue of the Peace Messenger! From the World Peace Council, .pdf copy, at [is.gd/jeNx3s], with articles at [is.gd/5oYMCY].
NO TO NATO!
- In Los Angeles at Grand Park, Downtown Los Angeles.
Grand Park is located in Downtown Los Angeles, and stretches from The Music Center on the west to City Hall on the east between First and Temple. For more information, visit [facebook.com/events/255492094842516]
Contact the California Peace Coalition
- In So. Cal. [213-448-4363]
- In Nor. Cal. [707-561-0683]
Post Office Box 741104 Los Angeles, CA. 90004
* "Anti-NATO Demonstration in New York" (wpc-in.org) [archive.is/lupsD]
Given the serious escalation of the danger of a disastrous confrontation between the United States and Russia, we must make our alarm at the upcoming NATO Summit known in a more public way.
To this end, we have organized a demonstration for Saturday July 9th to coincide with the NATO Summit in Warsaw Poland. Other actions are planned around the US and the world, particularly in Warsaw. We think it is important for the New York region to make its voice heard.
We consider the following general slogans to be a basis for unity:
• No to NATO; No to War!
• Yes to Peace; No to NATO!
• Abolish NATO, Don't Expand It!
• Money for Jobs, Not for NATO!
• No More War Games!
• End NATO Provocations Against Russia!
• NATO Provocations Threaten Nuclear War!
• No to A New Cold War!
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"Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War"
A talk by MARK DANNER/ Hosted by Linda Khoury
Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 PM
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley
In SPIRAL: Trapped in the Forever War award-winning journalist Mark Danner offers readers a shrewd analysis of why America's War on Terror has persisted for well over a decade and why it seems to have no end in sight. In this "chilling cautionary tale of Orwellian repercussions" (Kirkus Reviews) Danner describes the ways in which the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have led America into a perpetual and continuously widening war that has put the country in an endless "state of exception."
Advance tickets: $12 : http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2561867 ::
T: 800-838- 3006 or Books, Inc, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe's, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway's
S.F. - Modern Times
$15 door
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Laborfest: Defend Public Education-Conference
Saturday, July 30, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Richmond High School - 1250 23rd St. Richmond, CA (Room TBA)
Defend Public Education, Charters: Connecting the Dots and Privatization - Conference
This conference will look at th history of the charter movement, how it has taken over the regulation of our education system, and how it is re-segregating education in California and nationally.
Public education in California is facing destruction in every direction. Supporters of charters and privatization over the last 30 years have seized control of the California Board of Education and also the Commission on Teacher Credentials (CTC). The deregulation of education rules in California allows a massive expansion of privately run charter schools in shopping malls and highly toxic industrial sites, even when local communities and school boards oppose their establishment.
Sponsored by: Fairmede Hilltop Neighborhood Council, United Public Workers For Action, Voices Against Privatizing Public Education, Defend Public Education
See also: [laborfest.net/2016/2016schedule.htm]
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Petaluma Progressive Festival
Sunday, July 31, noon-5:00 PM
Note, this annual event is typically held in September and this year is being held in July!
This year the San Francisco Mime Troupe returns! Featured Speakers to be announced.
Free event! For more information visit: [progressivefestival.org]
Walnut Park 201 4th St., Petaluma
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Veterans For Peace Annual Convention
at Clark Kerr campus of University of California Berkeley, CA
Aug 11-15, 2016
[facebook.com/events/515549201948082]
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Dr. Helen Caldicott on Nuclear Weapons: Can they be Abolished?
Saturday, August 12, 2:00 PM
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St, San Francisco
"Nuclear Weapons: Can They Be Abolished?" will be the theme of a free, public lecture by the famed activist Dr. Helen Caldicott It will include a Q&A session.
The event is jointly sponsored by the SF Public Library (BST Dept.) and the new Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament -- made up of various peace groups organized by the SF-based War and Law League. For more information and a flier that can be circulated, see http://warandlaw.org.
Dr. Caldicott is an Australian physician, better known as the world's foremost antinuclear activist and the author of ten books, some of which may be available at the event. She has spent the last 45 years educating the public on nuclear perils. Her organizing of physicians in many lands culminated, in 1985, in a Nobel Peace Prize to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
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Remembering the Kellogg Briand Pact
Aug 27
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International Day of Peace
Sep 21
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First SOAW bi-national convergence
Oct 7-10
at the U.S./Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona
[is.gd/CbG7kX]
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Armistice Day in your city
Nov 11
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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
* Interview with Frisco 5’s Sellassie (2016-06-16, by JR Valrey, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/0QJPe]
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* "It's a Holiday In Sacramento. California Punks tell Neo Nazis to fuck off!! — at California State Capitol" (2016-06-26, facebook.com/deadkennedys) [archive.is/q0AXy], read the comments at the link, contained are the kinds of opinions that believe People's self-defense campaigns are the same as vanguards of ideological mass-murderers.
Fundraiser for the victims of stabbings and pig malfeasance (live link) [rally.org/june26th]
* Nazi from Sunday caught red-handed (or knife handed), and has been identified [archive.is/cVKzw].
Photos [archive.is/doE26] [archive.is/ONZEr] [archive.is/1CEQ7] [archive.is/erj3N] [archive.is/rfZgt]
* "Multiple people stabbed at Sacramento far-right rally & counter-protest" (2016-06-26, rt.com) [archive.is/IzSyY]
* "All Hell Breaks Loose as Neo-Nazis Violently Clash With Counter-Protesters in Sacramento" (2016-06-26, usuncut.com) [archive.is/PgFxs]
* (2016-06-27, facebook.com/AnarchistPOC) [archive.is/IpxME]:
Please send all your prayers, energy, and healing to this revolutionary who in the midst of defending Sacramento from fascist violence:
"As I come around the corner I see this person lying in a pool of blood. Medics in black face masks surround them, doing what they can to stop the bleeding as people with shields and flags run past into the melee."Hundreds of comrades showed up today to shut down a Nazi rally in Sacramento, and were met with riot police and White Supremacists wielding knives. As anarchists lay wounded in the field I looked up at two white men, standing on the steps of the Capitol building, hands raised. 'Sieg heil!' they shouted before being silenced by the swing of a bat. They emerged, faces dripping with blood, hiding behind the guard of the police.
"Violence is hidden in every averted stare, every phone call to police, every camera mounted on a wall. It lurks just beneath the surface all the time, but in moments when the veil is pierced I realize how many moments I spend pretending to be okay, pretending any of this is okay. In these moments lives are changed forever.
"Crouching behind a shield made from an old cabinet and some rope, I think I've never felt so afraid. Pride feels so far off as I move beside my queer, trans, straight, angry comrades. I cant stop crying. I cant stop crying. Thank you to everyone who came out today. We fought them off, at least for today.
"#naziscum #sacramento #rally #antifa #antifascista
"Keep this comrade and all the others who were stabbed/hospitalized today in your hearts."
* (2016-06-26, Maile Hampton) [archive.is/f6eAd]: Solidarity with my comrades who held it down in Sacramento at the Nazi rally. Solidarity with my comrade who was jumped by multiple nazis and maced and the multiple people who were stabbed by nazis and klansmen. I'm proud of everyone who held it down and rebelled against fascism, anti semitism, racism, and straight up nazis and the klan. Solidarity. The people, United, WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED. #FuckANazi #Sacramento #NotInOurCity #NotAnywhereInTheUS
* (2016-06-27, Maile Hampton) [archive.is/2eUmQ]:
Everyone saying "there was violence on both sides :("
Sit the hell down and remember that today the KKK, nazis and other white supremacist groups came to Sacramento. They are actively perpetuating and carrying out violence against marginalized communities. Remember that people were jumped and stabbed today by these white supremacist organizations and the cops said it wasn't their job to prevent stabbings. What happened today on the protesters end was self defense. Wherever there is fascism, racism, sexism, white supremacy, anti semitism, there will be resistance. And rightfully so.
It is right to rebel against fascism bigotry and racism.
Comments [archive.is/Onz9t].
* (2016-06-27, Maile Hampton) [archive.is/bVAxr]:
Nazi apologists:
*compares people who defend themselves against nazis to actual nazis*
*defends nazi's free speech*
*insinuates people should've just taken the stabbings and not defended themselves*
*insists on non violence but isn't the one in threat of violence*
Me:
*gives facts and counter examples*
*gets blocked*
Which side are you on? It's sad that It's even a question. Either you're on the side of the people supporting the resistance of fascism, or you're on the side of the nazi's, telling the victims they shouldn't defend themselves and that non violence is the only way to achieve liberation, comparing them to nazis.
Which side are you on my people, which side are you on
I'M ON THE FREEDOM SIDE.
#ByAnyMeansNecessary
* (2016-06-27, Emily Avocado) [archive.is/W1Bjn]: This goes out to all the news sources who REFUSED to publish that this rally was of neo-nazi, white supremacist, and white nationalist intent. MANY news outlets, locally and nationally, showed sympathy to these would-be murderers and reasoned that the organizing group, the Traditionalist Workers Party, wasn't white-supremacist enough to be deemed a real threat. They sure fell for it cause these assholes are as shitty as they come. This delusional fuckwit showed his pathetic and impressionable nature all the way into the ambulance. photo [archive.is/VBBUK] by Darrow Sprague.
Comments [archive.is/7KWuF].
* "Anti-'Genocide' protests around nation were organized by neo-Nazis" (2012-02-29, splcenter.org) [archive.is/cAVac]
Nazi groups "Pioneer Little Europe" is hunting down regional AntiFa members and collaborators, labeling them "terrorist", and exposing them online like the image below, and here [archive.is/wUvbV].
===*===*===
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!Black Power! Revive the Community! Defend the Nation!
National News [blackagendareport.com] [atlantablackstar.com] [sfbayview.com]
* "Black Power, Black Lives and Pan-Africanism Conference underway now in Jackson, Mississippi" (2016-06-18, by Kali Akuno, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/wiPqL]
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* "Ex-cop posts video calling on ‘lone-wolf patriots’ to shoot black protesters at GOP convention" (2016-06-20, deadstate.org) [archive.is/fLaMJ]
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* "New Poll Shows Almost Half of Americans Think "Reverse Racism" Is a Real Problem" (2016-06-27, mic.com) [archive.is/pAtVE]
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STUDENT POWER!
information collected by the Committee to Defend Public Education!
* "Obama Insiders Angling to Buy For-Profit College Amid Crackdown; One helped with 'effort to more tightly regulate for-profit colleges at the very agency now charged with approving the ownership change' " (2016-06-29, commondreams.org) [archive.is/bQfku]
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WORKER'S POWER!
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee [is.gd/VOkmLr]
* "AFGE’s members plan 38 anti-privatization rallies coast to coast to boost VA" (2016-06-24, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/7CGTK] [begin excerpt]: Saying the Veterans Affairs Department is embattled, members of the American Federation of Government Employees - which represents VA's rank-and-file workers - spent a detailed conference brainstorming on ways to improve the agency, while saving its health care system from right wing privatizers. [end excerpt]
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Most non-union work places which exploit young adults and teenagers do so out of a business culture which is unaccountable and against the law.
* "Teen working for California-based pizza chain says she was fired after asking for equal wage" (2016-06-24, sfgate.com) [archive.is/NV6Rn]: Jensen Walcott easily got a summer job at a Kansas City, Kansas slice house franchise called Pizza Studio. After being hired on the spot, the 17-year-old was told she'd be making $8 an hour — slightly higher than the state's $7.25 minimum. She was also thrilled to find out she'd be working alongside a friend of hers named Jake Reed.
That excitement didn't last long; she soon discovered that Reed, who was also 17, had comparable work experience, and was working the same position, was hired at $8.25 an hour.
Walcott told Fox Kansas City that when she called her manager to ask about the pay difference, she was initially put on hold.
"I was like maybe when I'm on hold right now, she will just offer me $8.25 and everything is gonna be good but... she didn't do that," Walcott said. When she was taken off hold, her manager fired her, saying she could do so because "discussing wages is against its policy."
A similar fate met Reed. "She said you're fired. Basically just like a 10 second phone call," he told Fox.
As attorney David White confirms, the National Labor Relations Board maintains that employees may discuss pay with each other, meaning that Walcott was in the right. He thinks that Walcott and Reed may have a case against the Calabasas, California-based pizza chain, though the two haven't decided yet if they will take legal action.
As the American Association of University Women found, for the year 2014, women in Kansas earned just $0.79 for each dollar men in Kansas did. That rate is slightly higher in California.
Meanwhile, Pizza Studio recently opened its second Bay Area franchise location inside Concord's Sunvalley Mall.
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* "WFTU International Meeting titled 'Multinational Corporations, EU policies and the role of Trade Unions' " (2016-06-27, wftucentral.org) [archive.is/vWdAe], (.pdf) [is.gd/EwG1Ie]:
The WFTU International Meeting titled “Multinational Corporations, EU policies and the role of Trade Unions” on June 27th and ended on June 28th in Brussels.
The meeting took place inside the European Parliament in Belgium. 25 Trade Unionists from 11 countries took place. The WFTU Secretariat was represented by Ahmed Ibrahim, Financial Secretary of WFTU.
The resolution of the meeting:
RESOLUTION OF WFTU INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFERENCE ON “MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS
Trade union leaders from 11 countries have gathered in Brussels – Belgium to discuss and coordinate our activities in our countries and regions in order to face the activities and policies of transnational corporations that are adversely affecting the livelihood and rights of the workers in our countries and regions.
Transnational corporations, international monopolies are stealing the natural resources of our countries, are dislocating poor farmers and the indigenous people from their land; they destroy the environment, are trying to take over our nations’ public services and the attainment of basic rights of the population. This way, they manage to take financial and political control of many countries. In certain countries they finance and collaborate with paramilitary mechanisms in order to strike against trade union activity by persecuting, threatening and assassinating trade union activists and labor leaders.
We express our solidarity with all the workers in the world who are facing exploitation, cruelty, persecution and anti labor policies. We stress our solidarity with the workers of France who are giving a great fight against the new antilabor “labor law” promoted by the Hollande government. We will continue supporting the activities and struggles of the class oriented trade union movement in France. We also express our solidarity with the workers and people of Colombia and their fight for peace with social justice. We will be vigilant for the implementation of the final agreements and we demand the immediate end of paramilitarism, so all union activists can freely practice their activities.
The character of the activity of transnational corporations provide us with great potentials for action, struggle and with our international trade-union co-ordination we can safeguard the rights of the workers we represent and the population of our countries. While transnational corporations from Colombia to France and from Turkey to Bangladesh are promoting exploitation and misery for the workers, we coordinate our action and demand DIGNITY: in our wages, in our working relations, in trade union rights, in occupational health and safety.
We are making a call to the international community and the international labor movement to strengthen our coordination, communication and international solidarity in what has to do with facing the activity of transnational corporations. We join our voices in support of the call of the 17th World Trade Union Congress of the WFTU (to be held in Durban – South Africa on October 5-8 2016) for stronger, more dynamic, more mass based, more class-oriented, trade union movement, Trade unions with deep and stable roots within the industries, within the multinationals and within all sectors. For the defense of the rights of the international working class.
Resolutions also adopted regarding the workers in Nestle-Turkey and the Sosyal-Is in its collective bargaining with Metro.
===*===*===
HANDS OFF OUR HOMES![HandsOffHomes.blogspot.com][rentsandrants.blogspot.com]
* "Napa County supports housing-by-right proposal" (2016-06-25, napavalleyregister.com) [archive.is/okxU7] [begin excerpt]: Napa County supports Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial proposal to allow some multifamily housing projects by right, though the city of Napa is taking a more tentative approach.
Brown wants to cut through red tape that can stall or kill affordable housing projects. Under his plan, cities and counties would automatically approve proposals meeting certain criteria.
Among the criteria – projects must be multifamily with at least 20 percent of the units affordable, with lower thresholds near bus stops. They must be in urban areas and conform to the community’s general plan and zoning.
Gone would be city council and board of supervisors approval hearings for specific, eligible multifamily housing projects, though there would still be hearings when the land is targeted for the use. Gone also would be review for eligible projects under the California Environmental Quality Act that can lead to project-killing lawsuits.
And, according to opponents, gone would be the voice of neighbors who want to help shape their neighborhoods and not have inappropriate multifamily projects built there. [...]
The county finances affordable housing projects in cities, Florin told supervisors. He pointed to the county’s failed efforts to help build the 57-unit Napa Creekside Apartments on Valle Verde Drive in Napa.
The Napa City Council approved Napa Creekside Apartments in 2012, but some neighbors said the project was too dense for the area and the environmental study was insufficient. Neighbors sued, leading to court battles that stalled the project. Earlier this year the developer pulled out, citing litigation and rising costs. [end excerpt]
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* "North Beach tenant's rent increased from $1,800 to $8,000 a month" (2016-06-26, sfgate.com) [archive.is/2OMrv]
* "Mapping the Incredible Spread of Million-Dollar Homes Across San Francisco; 96 percent of homes in the city’s Westwood Park neighborhood cost $1 million or more" (2016-05-19, citylab.com) [archive.is/OPK7x]
* "Why does San Francisco seem to have such a huge homeless problem?" (2016-02-18, fusion.net) [archive.is/RXJ9C]
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* "Rents in LA Are Rising Way Faster Than Incomes; 34 A new study confirms that many Angelenos are struggling to afford housing" (2016-06-28, la.curbed.com) [archive.is/6hlCm]
===*===*===
information collected by the Committee to
DEFEND THOSE WITHOUT HOMES!
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* "City Of L.A. Considers Banning People From Living In Vehicles, Again" (2016-06-24, laist.com) [archive.is/Cl3Vz]
===*===*===
Documenting human-rights abuse by domestic security agencies
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
[NorthbayCopwatch.blogspot.com] [copblock.org] [wecopwatch.org] [filmingcops.com]
* "Non-military federal agencies have more firearm authority than entire US Marine Corps ‒ report" (2016-06-24, rt.com) [archive.is/76WK5]
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* "NJ Transit keeps recordings of your conversations for a month, it says" (2016-06-22, nj.com) [archive.is/EKwIN] [begin excerpt]: In April, the state American Civil Liberties Union and commuter groups demanded that NJ Transit disclose information about the surveillance after an NJ Advance Media article revealed that the conversations of passengers on light rail trains were being recorded.
"Audio and video remain in the surveillance device for approximately 30 days, with new video and audio overwriting (recording over) previous files," said Nancy Snyder, an NJ Transit spokeswoman. "It is our practice and procedure."
NJ Transit had denied a public records request for the written policy that covers their surveillance program on June 10 under the grounds that no such policy existed.
"Your request is denied because no such records exist, therefore, there are no public records subject to disclosure," wrote Peter Spall, NJ Transit senior public records specialist.
Civil rights advocates say that NJ Transit still needs to build formal policies around those "practices and procedures."
"Without a written policy, there is no accountability to the public and the public needs to know that NJ Transit takes our rights seriously," said Jeanne LoCicero, state ACLU deputy legal director. "It's irresponsible to spend millions of dollars on equipment without creating a policy to guide employees and to safeguard the public."
Surveillance equipment cost NJ Transit $750,000 to install on River Line trains, and the $1.9 million expense to install it on Hudson-Bergen and Newark light rail trains was funded by a federal Homeland Security grant. [end excerpt]
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* "The Latest Law Enforcement Trend: Porn Sniffing Dogs" (2016-06-22, by Joshua Krause) [archive.is/wgphL]
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* "How union contracts shield Police Departments from DOJ reforms; Even when the federal government cracks down on police abuses, collective bargaining agreements often stymie reforms" (2016-06-21, inthesetimes.com) [archive.is/znJlO]
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Domestic Security Agencies and private-sector partners
* "Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer" (2016-06-23, eff.org) [archive.is/gLjsQ]
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* "FBI, Cleveland police ‘door knock’ activists expected to protest RNC" (2016-06-23, rt.com) [archive.is/QXoeU] [begin excerpt]: With less than a month to go before the Republican National Convention, Cleveland police are teaming up with FBI agents to conduct so-called “community outreach.” The activists they’re visiting, however, call it “intimidation.”
To ensure a “safe and secure” Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 18 to 21 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is collecting intelligence on and from potential activists, the FBI’s Cleveland division spokeswoman, Donna Sullivan, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The “door-knock” visits are a form of intimidation to Jocelyn Rosnick, a representative of the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, she told the Plain Dealer. Rosnick’s group is providing legal aid to many RNC protesters, but she clarified that not all of the activists visited were planning to attend RNC protests.
Teams of federal and local law enforcement officers started the reconnaissance this week, inquiring into activists’ previous addresses, affiliations and future plans for the RNC. In response, a “Know Your Rights” workshop is planned for Friday, activists told the Plain Dealer.
“There's an implication of force behind [the visits],” Maggie Rice, an organizer with Food Not Bombs Lake County said. “They say that they're friendly and just talking, but it still implies that there could be consequences there.”
Earlier this month, at a city council public safety committee meeting, Cleveland police made it known they would include undercover work in their operations related to the RNC protests. Activists are anticipating that and more.
“None of us plan to answer our doors when the FBI comes knocking, and none of us plan to cooperate in any way,” Rice told the Plain Dealer. [end excerpt]
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* "FBI can collect home IP addresses without warrant when probing websites – court" (2016-06-25, rt.com) [archive.is/dbAT0]
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* "Bundy supporter attempts to bomb Bureau of Land Management" (2016-06-23, rt.com) [archive.is/XOOrM] [begin excerpt]: The head of a Utah-based militia was caught trying to use an explosive device at a Bureau of Land Management facility. He had hoped to bomb a remote location in Arizona, but the plan fell apart when he tasked an undercover FBI agent to build the weapon. [...]
Undercover FBI employees infiltrated the group and participated in training for an "anti-government action" that Keebler told them would mean "going on the offensive,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported [archive.is/GahwR]. [end excerpt]
* "FBI Just Created And Foiled Their Own Terrorist Plot To Demonize Those Who Question Government" (2016-06-24, by William Grigg) [archive.is/3OtAA] [begin excerpt]: One likely purpose of this FBI-scripted operation is to depict the late LaVoy Finicum — who has emerged as a folk hero for many residents of the rural West — as a would-be terrorist bomber. The arrest affidavit takes great care to accuse Finicum of scouting out the location eventually used in the FBI-controlled false flag attack. That allegation, which Finicum is no longer alive to dispute, is already being retailed by some progressive media outlets.
One’s personal feelings on the unfoldings in Oregon earlier this year are irrelevant when considering the reality of the situation. This attempted ‘bombing,’ like the overwhelming majority of FBI-foiled terror plots, was little more than a staged scene with easily manipulated actors — being entirely scripted, directed, and produced by the federal government. Though this was theater on a virtually fictional scale, the fruits of the federal government’s success in thwarting their own scheme will be the loss of liberty for all — in spite of the current target only being ‘preppers’ and ‘anti-government constitutionalists.’ [end excerpt]
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* "Shock Report: FBI’s Facial Recognition Database Contains 90 Percent NON-CRIMINALS" (2016-06-23, by Matt Agorist) [archive.is/jKs9r]
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* "4 Pieces Of The Orlando Shooting Narrative That Don’t Add Up" (2016-06-25, Isaac Davis) [archive.is/TJBdh]
* "Orlando shooting survivor was target of 'insensitive' conspiracy theories while she recovered from bullet wound" (2016-06-18, nydailynews.com) [archive.is/M5oqS]
* "Orlando shooting victim hits out at skeptics who accused her of being an actor paid to pretend she was injured - and claimed the attack never happened; Patience Carter, 20, was among the 53 people injured at Pulse nightclub; Conspiracy theorists accused her of being an actor pretending to have been inside at the time of the shooting; They also claimed the attack, which left 50 dead including the shooter, was staged, as the theory spread on social media; Carter is recovering from a gunshot wound to her right leg and returned home on Friday; She told skeptics on Instagram: 'Your outrageous insensitivity that makes me want to heal even faster, and grow even stronger' " (2016-06-19, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/0cMHU]
* " ‘No evidence’ for gay claims about Orlando shooter – FBI" (2016-06-24, rt.com) [archive.is/w5Mkv]
* "Police told not to pursue Orlando shooter for ‘15 or 20 minutes — could’ve been longer’ until SWAT arrived" (2016-06-21, msn.com) [archive.is/OoHwV]
* "Confirmed: Orlando Cops Told To Stand Down — Not To Pursue Shooter For '15-20 Minutes' " (2016-06-25, by Matt Agorist) [archive.is/XVPUm]
* "For The 2nd Mass Shooting In A Row, Media Allowed To Trample Evidence At Shooter’s Home" (2016-06-19, Claire Bernish) [archive.is/azRSE]
* "Media Casually Tours Orlando Shooter’s Apartment Only 24 Hrs After Shooting?" (2016-06-19, by Melissa Dykes) [archive.is/LOXdg]
* "Doctor listed on psych-evaluation carried out on Omar Mateen by G4S says she never saw him and was not living in Florida at the time it was conducted; Psychologist, Dr Carol Nudelman, said she didn't evaluate Orlando shooter Omar Mateen for his position at security firm G4S in 2007; However, her name appears on the document in Florida's state records that cleared him to carry a firearm as a private security guard; G4S officials called the discrepancy a 'clerical error' and said Mateen had been evaluated, but by a different psychologist; Company didn't move Mateen to unarmed position despite evidence that concluded comments he made were serious enough to transfer him" (2016-06-17, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/nzhbh]
* "Strange: How did Orlando Victim "Antonio Devon Brown" Die in Pulse Nightclub shooting, When he was killed in 2013 in West Virginia?" (2016-06-19, superstation95.com) [archive.is/ulCBj]
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The Defense Information School (DINFOS) trains members of all branches of the United States military in the fields of broadcasting, journalism, public affairs, and visual information.
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* "Homeland Security pushes to ban the words 'sharia' and 'jihad' in new program to steer millennials away from ISIS; Department of Homeland Security is asking for $100million to help steer American millennials away from radical Islam; In a new report, DHS cautions against Islamic words which contribute to an 'us versus them' mentality; They say terms like 'Muslim Americans' and 'the Muslim world' should be replaced with 'American Muslims' and 'Muslim communities" (2016-06-17, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/AjgUK]
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* "CIA Ties To Hollywood On Verge Of Being Exposed" (2016-06-27, Clarice Palmer) [archive.is/ggH3E] [begin excerpt]: According to VICE News [archive.is/2hLzi], the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC), included an amendment to S. 3017 that would require the Director of National Intelligence to submit reports detailing the relationship between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agencies and Hollywood. It would also require 15 other agencies to disclose the nature of their relationships with the film industry. These reports would have to be presented annually to congressional oversight committees.
Between 2006 and 2011, VICE reported, the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) had a role in at least 22 of the U.S. entertainment industry’s projects. Some of the productions listed by VICE included the films Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, television shows like Top Chef and Covert Affairs, and documentaries such as the History channel’s Air America and the BBC’s The Secret War on Terror. The book, The Devil’s Light, also had the help of the CIA. [end excerpt]
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* "The New Censorship; How did Google become the internet’s censor and master manipulator, blocking access to millions of websites?" (2016-06-22, usnews.com) [archive.is/1uMP0] [begin excerpt]:
1. The autocomplete blacklist. This is a list of words and phrases that are excluded from the autocomplete feature in Google's search bar. [...]
As recently reported, at the moment autocomplete shows you "Ted" (for former GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz) when you type "lying," but it will not show you "Hillary" when you type "crooked" – not even, on my computer, anyway, when you type "crooked hill." (The nicknames for Clinton and Cruz coined by Donald Trump, of course.) If you add the "a," so you've got "crooked hilla," you get the very odd suggestion "crooked Hillary Bernie." When you type "crooked" on Bing, "crooked Hillary" pops up instantly. Google's list of forbidden terms varies by region and individual, so "clitoris" might work for you. Can you resist checking? Screengrabs [archive.is/QSlzK] [archive.is/E6lnL].
[...] The key here is browsers. No browser maker wants to send you to a malicious website, and because Google has the best blacklist, major browsers such as Safari and Firefox – and Chrome, of course, Google's own browser, as well as browsers that load through Android, Google's mobile operating system – check Google's quarantine list before they send you to a website. (In November 2014, Mozilla announced it will no longer list Google as its default search engine, but it also disclosed that it will continue to rely on Google's quarantine list to screen users' search requests.)
If the site has been quarantined by Google, you see one of those big, scary images that say things like "Get me out of here!" or "Reported attack site!" At this point, given the default security settings on most browsers, most people will find it impossible to visit the site – but who would want to? If the site is not on Google's quarantine list, you are sent on your way.
OK, that explains how Google blocks you even when you're using a non-Google browser, but why do they block you? In other words, how does blocking you feed the ravenous advertising machine – the sine qua non of Google's existence?
Have you figured it out yet? The scam is as simple as it is brilliant: When a browser queries Google's quarantine list, it has just shared information with Google. With Chrome and Android, you are always giving up information to Google, but you are also doing so even if you are using non-Google browsers. That is where the money is – more information about search activity kindly provided by competing browser companies. How much information is shared will depend on the particular deal the browser company has with Google. In a maximum information deal, Google will learn the identity of the user; in a minimum information deal, Google will still learn which websites people want to visit – valuable data when one is in the business of ranking websites. Google can also charge fees for access to its quarantine list, of course, but that's not where the real gold is.
Chrome, Android, Firefox and Safari currently carry about 92 percent of all browser traffic in the U.S. – 74 percent worldwide – and these numbers are increasing. As of this writing, that means Google is regularly collecting information through its quarantine list from more than 2.5 billion people. Given the recent pact between Microsoft and Google, in coming months we might learn that Microsoft – both to save money and to improve its services – has also started using Google's quarantine list in place of its own much smaller list; this would further increase the volume of information Google is receiving. [end excerpt]
* "Google’s sister company wants to be in charge of public transportation" (2016-06-28, rt.com) [archive.is/SkXAg]
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* "Facebook Accused Of Listening To Everything You Say — Here’s How To Stop It" (2016-06-19, by Jay Syrmopoulos) [archive.is/wCeUQ]
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* "These 5 tech companies are sitting on $430 billion in cash" (2015-05-11, money.cnn.com) [archive.is/E84WW]
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The product "Tunnel Bear" [archive.is/mkZs3] was created to circumvent the censorship regimes of the EEU and SCO member states. Sadly, when one wishes to use the VPN product, hailed as it were as the perfect tool to access censored websites, to access webpages targeted by the USA State Dept., it is useless. For example, websites for the DPRK.
* "TunnelBear VPN Circumvents Geoblocking; Access UK and US websites from anywhere in the world" (2012-08-08, pcworld.com) [archive.is/CWiZM]
- (2012, thenextweb.com) [archive.is/jRFIW]: “TunnelBear: The most beautiful VPN app we've ever seen... the easiest VPN programs I've ever used... well worth upgrading to the paid version."
- (2011-07-18, lifehacker.com) [archive.is/wGkVC]: “Using TunnelBear is really easy. Just download and install it, sign up for an account, and choose the location of the content you want to access."
(2012-08-08, pcworld.com) [archive.is/CWiZM]: “If you're looking for a reliable cheap fast VPN, give TunnelBear a go. I get the feeling you won't be disappointed.”
- (2012-01-23, macworld.co.uk) [archive.is/0lPz7]: “We’ve used several anonymising services in the past. TunnelBear is more consumer-friendly, with a very-easy-to-configure interface."
- (2012-11-22, blogs.wsj.com) [archive.is/a5aLp]: “All you have to do is turn the knob to “ON” and you are protected."
- (2012-11-22, uk.news.yahoo.com) [is.gd/xQojNV]: “A most useful mammal."
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH: Five-Eyes, and other transnational partners
* "Facebook and the Israeli Government Cozy Up" (2016-06-20, imemc.org) [archive.is/eemb0] [begin excerpt]: Facebook, in present-day Israel, has hired Jordana Cutler as its head of Policy and Communications. Cutler is a longtime senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and chief of staff to Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
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].
* "Feds Say Prisons Bring Economic Benefits To Communities, But It’s All A Pack Of Lies" (2016-06-25, Justin Gardner) [archive.is/xwYUm]
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* "Hunger strike at Wisconsin’s Waupun state prison against conditions of a ‘living hell’ " (2016-06-22, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/x5qnN]
* "Wisconsin prisoner hunger strike enters second week, spreads to multiple facilities – you can help! ‘Dying to Live’ Food Refusal Campaign Against Solitary Torture started June 10" (2016-06-22, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/KT5At], photo caption: “Dying to Live” hunger strikers’ supporters stop to pose for this picture before delivering their letter to Wisconsin DOC Secretary Jon Litscher in Madison on June 21. The prisoners are willingly starving themselves to end solitary confinement.
* "Wisconsin DOC is force feeding prisoners who are on hunger strike to end solitary confinement" (2016-06-24, by Ben Turk, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/3ZX3u]
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* "Upon leaving Pelican Bay SHU Solitary Confinement: My Firsts (of Many :-) )" (2016-06-23, by Brutha Baridi Williamson, via prisonerhumanrightsmovement.wordpress.com) [archive.is/2jW10] [begin excerpt]: Leaving out of Pelican Bay Solitary Confinement Torture Prison-Facilities/Units-Cages for the first time on Jan. 23rd, 2015 (after arriving there Nov. 29, 1990), I remember witnessing my first sunrise as the CDCr [CA Dept. of Corrections and rehabilitation] “gray goose” transportation bus travelled up the mountainside along Highway 101. Staring out the window at the skyline as it transformed into a mixture of blended orange-red-violet-blue colors, I sat there in deep silence just appreciating the beauty of Nature … It would be the first of many first time experiences of using my natural senses again after being buried alive in that concrete box deprived of the natural use of those senses for the last twenty five (25) years . . . a quarter century. [end excerpt]Photo caption: Baridi Williamson in 2016
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* "Just Stand: A Video Interview With Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3" (2016-06-27, angola3news.blogspot.com) [archive.is/6t6Vx]:
Since Albert’s release on his birthday, February 19th, a few short months ago, he’s been really busy… After nearly a month of visiting with family and friends in New Orleans sharing more birthday cake than he’s been able to consume in over forty years, Albert has been catching up with his dreams. This trio of video-interviews with Albert recorded recently, during a visit to Sacramento, will give you a glimpse of just how well Albert is doing. This first release, entitled "Just Stand" is in three parts: (1) A Message to Supporters, (2) Visiting Yosemite National Park and (3) Spending Quality Time With Family.- A MESSAGE TO SUPPORTERS [https://youtu.be/lzrXrkiEzH0] - After thanking the many supporters around the world that never gave up in fighting for his release, Albert sent them this message: "What they should take from my freedom is that you stand. You don't back away. You don't make unnecessary compromises. You stand, and no matter how painful, you stand."
- VISITING YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK [https://youtu.be/0r8SP1JQe_E] - Just a few days before this interview was conducted, Albert visited Yosemite National Park, where he endured a challenging uphill climb. Albert reflects: "As you get older, you always wonder what you lose, and I think it felt very, very great to know that my will and determination have not changed, even though I've grown older. I know I have changed somewhat physically, [but] mentally, emotionally, and spiritually I'm as strong as I ever was."
- SPENDING QUALITY TIME WITH FAMILY [https://youtu.be/lDyarrREavQ] - In this segment, Albert discusses his relationship with his family, with whom he tries to spend as much time as he can: "I'm a Dad, a Grandpa, and a Great Grandpa. I'm so grateful that my family accepted me back."
Albert has been spending time in Houston with his brother Michael and his family as well as time in New Orleans with his daughter, grandson and grandchildren. His first speaking engagement was a trip to Pittsburgh for the International Conference on Solitary Confinement at University of Pittsburgh with King. When that was over, he spent a week in Austin with King and Austin supporters before heading off to California to fulfill one of his long held dreams, a trip to Yosemite. On the way he stopped in Los Angeles to attend the Death Penalty Focus Gala, where he was joined by an old friend from Angola, recently released Gary Tyler and about twenty exonerees attending on behalf of the Innocence Project. He also had a chance to drop in on long-time supporter and artist, Rigo 23 and family before heading north. After Yosemite, Albert attended the Malcolm X Festival in Oakland. On his return to New Orleans, Albert and King’s cousin, Noonie, cooked up a “surprise” birthday party for King and celebrated with many local supporters.
The next few months are equally as busy. In August King and Albert will be in New York at the National Lawyers Guild Convention where Albert will accept the Arthur Kinoy award. After the NLG conference, Albert and King will spend time with BPP comrades in New York. In September they will be in Oakland for the Political Prisoner’s Conference and later in the month they will be speaking at a number of venues in Chicago. They’ll return to Oakland in October for the 50th Anniversary gathering of the Black Panther Party. Then in late October, they visit the UK and France to meet with Amnesty supporters, along with special events in the UK including London, Liverpool and Cambridge As you’ll be able to see from the short interviews and attached photos, Albert deals with all the activity like a champ – it’s hard to believe that he’s spent four decades in a box, as he handles himself with grace and humor regardless of the situation presented.
Freedom for our comrade, elder, and political prisoner Leonard Peltier is long overdue. Please sign Amnesty International USA's new online petition calling on President Obama to release him [is.gd/7fNpx1]. Please also consider supporting the Leonard Peltier Statue Project [is.gd/BTS2JY]. Free all political prisoners!
Photos:
- [archive.is/OCLdN]: Albert enjoys a canoe ride in Austin, TX.
- [archive.is/ef5C9]: Albert Woodfox stands strong during a recent visit to Sacramento, California
- [archive.is/KqlHV]: Albert and Rigo 23, with the latest artwork from Rigo 23 illustrating that all of the Angola 3 are Free.
- [archive.is/yElvW]: King and Albert in Austin- reunited in freedom!
- [archive.is/ZkkVZ]: Comrades from Houston and Austin join King and Albert for a welcome home party for Albert.
- [archive.is/NykJ0]: Albert with Louisiana exonerees John Thompson and Gary Tyler at Death Penalty Focus event.
- [archive.is/1pEXn]: Albert and King’s cousin, Elnora put together a sizzling surprise birthday party for King at the Craig Center in Algiers on June 11th. The theme was “white linen.” This photo of Albert dancing with longtime supporter Shana Griffin, was taken by the esteemed Ted Quant to memorialize the evening. View more photos from the party here [archive.is/MbbbR].
Support Our Work!Stepping Across to Freedom
Click here to donate [is.gd/ujdNhj].
Please join us in laying the foundation for Albert’s new life. We’ll never be able to make up for over four decades in solitary but those of us in minimum security know how costly life out here can be. 100% of all donations will be given directly to Albert.
You can use the "Support Our Work" donate button (directly above) or go directly to our fiscal sponsor, Community Futures Collective and designate "Albert" in the memo.
From the entire Angola 3 community- thank you.
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* "Prosecution cover-up of FBI role in Omaha Two case raises questions" (2016-06-27, by Michael Richardson) [archive.is/uWiwz]
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* "Coalition for Oscar Lopez' freedom announced; The new entity will redouble efforts in the United States to win his release" (2016-06-23, elnuevodia.com) [archive.is/75PXT], translated:
As part of the continuous efforts to win Oscar Lopez Rivera's release, several organizations and leaders of diverse sectors of Puerto Rico came together in a coalition that will accentuate its actions in the United States with the hope that president Barack Obama will finally grant a presidential pardon before he leaves office.
The Coalition for the Freedom of Oscar Lopez Rivera "has the mission of making itself heard by Obama, and we are confident he will not disappoint us," said former secretary of state and chair of the new coalition, Ingrid Vila Biaggi, in a press release.
"It is crucial that Obama understands that Oscar is not alone, and that we are not going to rest until we bring him back to his homeland," she affirmed.
The executive board of this coalition is comprised of Vila Biaggi; the president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, Mark Anthony Bimbela; the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz; Fernando Cabanillas, spokesperson for 32 x Oscar; Eduardo Villanueva, spokesperson for the Comito Pro Derechos Humanos; Noel Colon, past president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association; Florencio Merced and Madeline Ramirez, public relations professionals, and Clarisa Lopez, Lopez Rivera's daughter.
The Coalition for the Freedom of Oscar Lopez Rivera will coordinate activities with sectors active in this struggle in the United States and Puerto Rico. These efforts will culminate on Sunday, October 9, with a mass activity under the theme, "Free Oscar Lopez Now, The Event," in Washington, D.C.
According to Vila Biaggi, the new entity will communicate its plans and efforts on the website [freeoscarlopeznow.com]. On the website, people can also make donations to help pay the costs of putting on and promoting the culminating event in October.
"This new space on the internet is key to keep communicating about Oscar Lopez' case outside of Puerto Rico," the chair of the Coalition stressed.
Lopez Rivera, 73 years old, is serving a 70 year sentence in a federal prison for seditious conspiracy, but he is not connected to any violent act. He recently marked the 35th anniversary of his arrest.
According to Vila Biaggi, he has spent more time in prison than the deceased anti-apartheid leader and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela.
To donate, interested people can go to [antrocket.com/es/freeoscarlopeznow]. They can also follow these efforts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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* "Prison Boycott in Illinois Targets Costs of Incarceration" (2016-06-22, truth-out.org) [archive.is/EZGq9]
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* "Aging, Sick and Incarcerated: The Need for Compassionate Release" (2016-06-18, truth-out.org) [archive.is/1koz2]
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* (2016-06-08, postnewsgroup.com) [archive.is/0f3jI]:
QUALITY PRISON HEALTH CARE - IT'S A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Ten years ago, it was discovered that inmates in the California State prison system were dying of preventable causes at the rate of one per week. The system was so overcrowded that Federal Judge Thelton Hendrson ruled that the care of the inmates were receiving was so poor that it was unconstitutional. California's entire State prison system was placed under the control of a federal monitor and ordered to reduce the state's prison population. After further review by the judicial system a panel of three judges in the California Appellate Court subsequently cited the existence of substandard care and a shortages of physicians. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently cited substandard health care and shortages of physicians in upholding that ruling — specifically stating that it is cruel and unusual punishment to imprison inmates without "proper" health care. The California state prison system was in a shambles. Today Alameda County has an important decision to make with regard to the quality of health care provided to the inmates in its correctional facilities. Based on the Supreme Court's ruling, it is a well settled fact that access to quality health care, even in the prison system, is not only a fundamental right, but a constitutional right. Alameda County stands to put itself, and the over 60,000 inmates processed on an annual basis, at risk with regard to the provision of Comprehensive Medical Care provided in the County's correction and detention facilities. The County is responsible for providing medical care at its two facilities which includes the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and the Glenn Dyer Detention Facility in Oakland, which together house over 2,800 inmates. The types of care provided in these facilities
is wide ranging, including convalescence care, intravenous treatment, detoxification, psychological services, on-site dialysis, prenatal care, dental treatment and oral surgery and lab services including x-rays and tuberculosis and diabetes screening. In other words, the County is responsible for providing full medical care, to a captive population that has no other resources available to them while under County custodial care. Of the 60,000 inmates processed annually through the County's correctional and detention facilities, 55% are of African American descent, and over 35% are Latino. Though unfortunate, it is a well-documented fact that both African Americans and Latinos suffer the greatest heath challenges of any population. The County must be cautious lest it move into the realm of being unconstitutional in its level of care provided to its inmate population. "The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world, a rate 5 to 10 times higher than countries like Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. Within that system, a Black man is six times more likely to be incarcerated in the United States than a white man is," said NAACP Oakland Branch President George Holland. "We, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations have been vigilant in our fight for prisoners' rights. We will not stand by and watch the unraveling of their constitutionally guaranteed right to medical care, when we know it is people of color whose rights are being trampled on. Moreover," continued Holland, "we think that those who provide the medical care ought to reflect the diversity of the incarcerated which is something that is reflected by the current medical providers in Alameda County jails whom we know and trust."
WILL ALAMEDA COUNTY MAKE AN IRRESPONSIBLE AND COSTLY CHOICE? Recommended Provider Lacks Experience, and at a Greater Cost Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) is responsible for procuring services for Comprehensive Medical Care for the inmate population housed in its corrections facilities. ACSO requires a highly qualified vendor to provide inmate health services as care starts from the moment the inmate is brought and accepted into ACSO's custody, throughout the term of intake until release from custody. The contract provides for the vendor to be responsible for all aspects of administration and coordination of medical services in addition to the provision of health services. Like any full service clinic in a non-custodial setting the vendor is responsible for administering and pre-scribing medicine, women's health, dental care, coordination with mental health care providers and specified clinic hours for specialty care in several area including optometry, physical therapy, AIDS/HIV and tuberculosis screenings. Corizon Health has served Alameda County's prison population since 1988. In addition to the services provides to Alameda County, Corizon Health provides healthcare services to 50 clients at 431 facilities across the nation serving over 321,000 inmates in 25 states. Corizon Health prides itself on providing its client partners with high quality healthcare coupled with reentry services to improve health and safety of its clientele, reduce recidivism and better the communities in which they operate. Alameda County staff, however, has recommended awarding the contract for healthcare services to California Forensics Medical Group (CFMG), a company that has provided health services to small and medium sized counties throughout California. The average population served by CFMG is about 450 beds, one sixth the size of Alameda County's volume of patients. A preliminary review of the CFMG's proposal raises several questions as to its qualifications and ability to serve the County's needs. Even more unsettling than issues related to experience, staffing and medical records other is-sues have surfaced in the press regarding CFMG's reports and complaints that CFMG allegedly provides insufficient mental health and detoxification services, two of the most persistent needs in jails. According to the Sacramento Bee and the Department of Justice database, in an article
published on January 17, 2015, in a 10-year period ending in May 2014, 92 people died of suicide or a drug overdose while in the custody of a jail served by CFMG. Some of the more recent cases highlighted in the Sacramento Bee article include the following:
* In 2008, a Sonoma County Grand Jury found that drug and alcohol withdrawal was a factor in three inmate deaths;
* Additionally, in 2013, a Ventura County Grand Jury cited CFMG's detoxification program failures as a cause of death of a 53-year old inmate; and finally
* In May 2014, a Santa Cruz Grand Jury investigated five deaths, two of which involved drug or alcohol detoxification. That rate of death was reported to be about 50 percent higher than in other county jails, and if that were not enough, it is also a disturbing fact that that most of the people who died in these instances were not yet convicted of a crime, as is the case for most jail fatalities. In spite of the inadequacies outlined above, the County's costs to award the medical care 'con-tract to CFMG are higher than the current provider's costs. Based on current budget projections, Alameda County is facing a severe budget shortfall - $65.1 million. The procurement process outlined in the Request for Proposal indicated that the County would award the contract to the responsible bidder whose response conforms to the RFP and who presents the greatest value to the County. It further noted that the combined weight of the evaluation criteria is greater in importance than cost. While it is difficult to understand how the County, running at a deficit, can suggest that cost is not the most critical factor amongst those vendors deemed responsive. "My members bid on procurement service contracts on a regular basis. We expect the process to be run fairly and with the greatest integrity," say Oakland African American Chamber of Com-merce President Rev. Dr. Charley Hames, Jr. - "Based on my history and knowledge in thousands of procurement processes, I am not confident that the Alameda County process was conducted in the most reliable manner aimed at getting the best vendor to serve the County's needs. In my experience, when vendors combine long term experience with lower costs, the contracting agency wins."
CORIZON - PARTNERING FORA STRONGER COMMUNITY
The inmate population, in Alameda County, like any other County correctional facility, has constant and regular turnover. The care provided, cannot begin and end within the confines of the facilities' walls. Community based organizations (CBOs) and the services they provide are criti-cal to ensure that inmates can be successful once they leave the correctional facilities. Corizon Health partners with a host of CBOs to support the inmates both while they are incarcerated and as they make their transition back into their home communities. Corizon Health coordinates with Centerforce, a nonprofit group that provides programing for both the incarcerated and recently released inmates. Centerforce strives to improve the lives and strengthen the communities of incarcerated people and their loved ones. Corizon Health works with Centerforce to provide classroom instruction for mothers that are incarcerated in Alameda County's correction and detention facilities. The Maximizing Opportunities for Mothers to Suc-ceed (MOMS) program goal is to reduce recidivism of (pregnant and parenting) women, reunite incarcerated mothers with their children, and to break the multigenerational recidivism cycle. The program utilizes tools such as intensive education, individual and group support, housing assistance, substance abuse counseling, therapeutic play groups and child counseling, and other services during and after incarceration. Corizon has and Centerforce have reached over 250 MOMS to date providing both an eight-week, in-custody parenting program and offering post-release case management for up to one year. Corizon has also worked with Centerforce in it Back to Family (BTF) program aimed at fathers who are currently incarcerated or recently released to strengthen their relationships with their children. BTF offers a variety of services including father focused parenting groups, visitation support, facilitated family playgroups in the community, support groups for caregivers to help incarcerated fathers build and sustain healthier connections to their children. Corizon understands that it plays a critical role in not only the physical health of the inmate but also in their psychological and overall well-being. "CBO's play an important role not only in reducing recidivism, but also in providing a continuum of care to the inmate, be it in the realm
of AIDS/HIV testing and prevention, management of infectious diseases, methadone treatment centers or prenatal education and counseling centers. That's why we make it a hallmark of the Corizon Health medical care service delivery model," says Corizon Health .clinical Director, Dr Harold On. "We have even found that collaboration with reentry programs such as Open Gate Program, a reentry program that provides outreach and special admissions to the College of Alameda provide an enhancement to the psychological services we are able to provide during incarceration." Dr. Harold Orr and Dr. Glenda Newell Harris have also created a task force called Inside/Out-side. The task force is comprised of a network of care providers who work behind the bars as well as those who work in the community ofAlameda County. This is a prime example of how Corizon works in furtherance of ensuring that the inmates have access to resources to help them continue down the path to success after leaving the County facilities. Another community based organization that Corizon has partnered with is the Roots Commu-nity Health Center, a clinic in East Oakland that provides care to many of the recently released inmates who reside in Oakland. Corizon has an integrated discharge program with the clinic that has enabled Corizon to connect over 400 inmates who are returning home to a health care provider. This partnership allows the formerly incarcerated persons to better manage their health which allows a smoother reentry into society. Corizon also manages a diverse staff of doctors, dentists, nurses, optometrists, physical thera-pists and administrative personnel. The staff of over 200 persons are proud to work for an em-ployer like Corizon. Union workers indicate that Corizon is a good team player. Sources within the union have stated that Corizon is considerate of their staff and equally respectful of the inmate population. They also reported that Corizon has been fair to the workers and that the current con-tract is one of the best contracts they work under in the area. Sources also suggested that this is not the time to enter a realm of uncertainly - it is not fair to the workers nor to the largely minority inmate population.
ELIMINATION OF SMALL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIESOne gross oversight in the counties RFP for Alameda County's medical services was the re-quirement that the winning bidder must provide 10% of its business to small, local and emerging businesses (SLEB). This is the largest contract awarded by the Alameda County. The program was developed to promote and foster inclusiveness, diversity and economic development, as
well as provide on-going evaluation to ensure that all local businesses are provided equal oppor-tunities in County contracting and procurement activities. The SLEB program is administered by the Auditor-Controller's Agency.
Alameda County citizens should question, how theAlameda County Board of Supervisors can consider award-ing a contract to a vendor with less experience, questionable qualifications, higher costs, and a questionable record - one that could put the County at risk for millions of dollars in lawsuits if it continues to operate as it has for the past decade.
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
Campaigns, info, and more [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com]. Science [discardstudies.com]
* "California Oil Spill Leaves 'Gooey Mess'—And a Reminder of Big Oil's Dangers; 'It is distressing to once again see this kind of devastation visited upon a sensitive location' " (2016-06-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/M0wo3]
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* "Ban coal in Oakland" (2016-06-21, 1021 NewsWire):
The Oakland City Council is poised to make a decision about the community's health and economic well-being at a special meeting Monday, June 27. The issue at hand - whether or not the Port bulk cargo terminal being built at the former Oakland Army Base should include coal.
SEIU 1021 has joined the rest of the local labor movement, as well as environmental and community groups to oppose the transport of coal on trains through East Bay communities and its export through the Port of Oakland. On the other side, pushing for coal, are a couple of politically connected heavy-weight developers financially supported by coal companies with operations in Utah desperately in need of finding customers in an increasingly climate-conscious world.Since the Oakland Army Base closed and ceded its land back to the city more than 25 years ago, locals have debated how to use it for the region's maximum economic benefit. Though many ideas were floated, the final decision was perhaps the wisest - with international trade booming and the Port of Oakland's land finite, make it a bulk cargo export terminal.
The development proposal proceeded under a plan by local developer Phil Tagami, a former Port Commission President appointed by then-Mayor and now-Governor Jerry Brown, and Jerry Bridges, a former Oakland Port Executive Director. The project had much community input - the Alameda Labor Council and its member unions spent time and money making sure it included provisions for good jobs for area residents, a community benefits agreement with local hire requirements, and union recognition provisions. An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was done and approved. As it all came together with consensus, the developers threw in the monkey wrench.
Suddenly Tagami and Bridges wanted to add coal exporting into the mix. Suddenly they argued the project could not be economically viable without coal, and that many if not all the promised jobs would be gone. Suddenly, with the EIR already completed, they claimed coal would present no adverse health effects to the community. And when some city council members balked, Tagami threatened to sue Oakland for millions if he didn't get his way.
Why, asked West Oakland residents and the mayors of 12 East Bay cities the coal trains would travel through, was a coal and petroleum coke facility at Howard Terminal adjacent to Jack London Square, deemed unhealthy and inappropriate by a unanimous Port Commission decision in 2014, but sending coal through their neighborhoods was just fine. Why, the unions wondered, would the few jobs at the coal facility determine the fate of all they had planned and worked for? Why, environmentalists asked, did coal become so essential to this project after the EIR was done.
And another question: Where is the California governor's concern about climate change - a concern that took him to Paris last year to speak for the global climate accords - where was that now when his old buddy wants to export climate change's biggest foe - coal?
Even the union that would get the jobs loading the coal onto ships - the longshoremen of ILWU Local 10 - oppose it, claiming it would be unhealthy for their community and unhealthy to work around. They claim the experience of longshoremen along the entire West Coast shows that not only are other bulk commodities safer, they are more financially stable. International demand for coal is plummeting as concerns about pollution and climate change spread.
Last week a Public Health Advisory Panel, with a distinguished list of medical and public health experts, released the results of an independent inquiry into the health and safety hazards of transporting up to 10 million tons of coal per year through the proposed bulk export terminal. It found that coal trains significantly increase concentrations of fine particulate matter in communities along rail lines due to emissions of both coal dust and diesel exhaust.
The report concluded that the coal trains would inevitably increase the frequency and severity of poor health outcomes.
"This is a public health issue, and public health experts should have a voice in this process," Health Panel Representative Dr. Bart Ostro, former Chief of Air Pollution Epidemiology for the California EPA, said in a press release on the study. "If this project is allowed by the Oakland City Council, coal and diesel pollutants are likely to combine to push outdoor air concentrations of particulate matter above state, federal and international levels deemed safe. Any increase in air pollution will have a significantly greater impact on West Oakland, immediately adjacent to the terminal. This is an area already disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of air pollution and with high rates of emergency room visits and hospitalization for asthma and heart disease as well as cancer risk from existing pollution."
The Oakland City Council will likely get an earful from the community at its special meeting on this matter. SEIU 1021 is working on turnout to make sure they get the message.
* "Oakland Ban on Dirty Coal Kills Plan for Massive Export Terminal; Port developers were quietly planning new port facility which would have shipped up to ten million tons of coal out of Oakland each year, increasing national coal exports by 19 percent" (2016-06-28, commondreams.org) [archive.is/hNuki]
* "Coal is banned in Oakland" (2016-06-29, 1021 NewsWire):
The Oakland City Council decisively slapped down plans for a port coal export terminal when it voted unanimously Monday, June 27 to ban all coal storage in Oakland and all transport of coal through the city.
The coal terminal was proposed as part of a larger port export facility being built at the former Oakland Army Base adjacent to the Port of Oakland. Developer Phil Tagami, a politically connected former Oakland Port Commission president and one of Oakland’s biggest developers, saw an opportunity to make a fortune as coal companies with operations in Utah desperately sought new customers for its product as international markets for it are collapsing in an increasingly climate-conscious world.
But local people rose up against having the poisonous product in their city. SEIU 1021 joined with the Alameda Labor Council and its member unions, as well as environmental, faith and community groups, to build a large and vocal movement. They pressed the Oakland City Council to ban coal in Oakland.
The Council commissioned a study from the environmental consultant ESA on the health effects of the proposed coal facility on Oakland. When the study concluded there would be significant public health harm from the inevitable exposure to coal dust, including lung disease and cancer, the Council had scientific and legal grounds to agree to the ban.
In the Council Chambers packed to overflowing the main proponents and opponents of the project were given 15 minutes for presenting their arguments before several hours of public testimony ensued. Laying waste to the simplistic and outdated frame of jobs vs environment that coal proponents have used to mask a money-grubbing project, the first speaker against coal was Josie Camacho, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, whose member unions helped develop the port project – before coal was introduced – and made sure it would provide good jobs to area residents via a project labor agreement, a community benefits agreement containing local hire requirements, and union recognition provisions.
Backed by some 40 labor activists, including many SEIU 1021 members, Camacho told the Council that the area unions rejected the notion that this is a matter of jobs versus community health, or jobs versus climate justice. Port development will be profitable and create jobs regardless of the commodity shipped through it.
Furthermore, she said, it was insulting to labor that the developer has attempted to use the community’s desire for jobs to push through a project that poses grave danger to their health and the environment. Coal jeopardizes the health and safety of working class families in Oakland, many of whom live along the train line and are the most vulnerable and economically marginalized in the community. She called for a total ban on coal in Oakland.
When the talking was over the Council voted 7-0 (with District 6 City Council member Desley Brooks absent) for the total ban on coal.
Crybaby developer Tagami, unable to accept that he won’t be able to multiply his riches while poisoning Oakland, reverted to his threats to sue the city. The City Council is confident it can prevail. If Tagami does sue, it would likely jeopardize his participation in future Oakland developments where he has made millions over the last 20 years.
The Council will hold a second and final reading and vote of the ban at its regular meeting Tuesday, July 5.
Photo caption: Labor activists crowd around Alameda Labor Council leader Josie Camacho as she testifies before the Oakland City Council.
* Propaganda in favor of the coal terminal in Oakland promising no pollution for the community.
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This PDF is a collection of articles and statistics on how much we can expect property values to fall from pollution, heavy rail road, trucks.... [is.gd/ZE9Klq]
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* "Delta management plan tossed by judge" (2016-06-24, Bay Area News Group) [archive.is/hb96Z]
===*===*===
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].
* "San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin re-proposes toxic ‘special sauce’ for Treasure Island – George Lucas’ memorabilia museum" (2016-06-13, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/w2Lm6] [begin excerpt]: Treasure Island resident Andre Patterson shows the tumors that have developed on his body since he came to the island. There is ample evidence to prove the City of San Francisco and other power brokers knew the Navy had saturated Treasure Island with radiation and chemicals. Now, political high-rollers plan on redeveloping the island with high-rent condos. The big question is: Where will they put the poor people of Treasure Island who were enticed out to the island and are sick from radiation and chemical exposure?
Does Peskin acknowledge that this city agent, TIDA, abrogates its responsibility toward residents presently living with lung diseases, cancers and tumors caused by island toxins? Resident Felita Sample, for just one example, lives 50 feet from Bigelow Court, a cleanup zone on which health physicist Don Wadsworth’s company, New World Environmental, discovered a cache of radiation a million times above human toleration.
Agonizing kidney pain gives Felita daily nausea and prevents her from keeping down food. She told me that, on one occasion, without her partner Andre Patterson’s help, she might have died of dehydration. Andre himself let me photograph and video two large lumps on his back and shoulder. TIDA officials neither admit this violent human rights abuse nor offer these ailing citizens equivalent affordable housing in San Francisco or in another place of their choosing. [end excerpt]
Photo caption: Treasure Island resident Andre Patterson shows one of his tumors. Another, on his back, is even larger.
Photo caption: A technician measures the radiation under the floor slab of a home on Treasure Island at 80,000 cpm.
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* "New lawsuit accuses 3M of contaminating Tennessee River, drinking water" (2016-06-27, rt.com) [archive.is/WpGhF]
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* "In U.S. drinking water, many chemicals are regulated — but many aren’t" (2016-06-10, washingtonpost.com) [archive.is/5FhTx]
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* "Unsafe at any Level? Dangerous Chemicals Everywhere" (2016-06-27, by Jonathan Latham, whowhatwhy.org) [archive.is/7XlR8] [begin excerpt]: Though the chemical industry gets wide praise for eliminating the hazardous chemical BPA from our water bottles and other daily use products, the replacement material may turn out to be even worse.
Before we consider the new danger, let’s look at the old one.
BPA (bisphenol-A) — is a chemical found in plastic bottles, in the lining of food cans, in bottle tops, and in water supply lines. It can seep into whatever it contains.
BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, said to be “a lightweight, high-performance plastic that possesses a unique balance of toughness, optical clarity, high heat resistance, and excellent electrical resistance.”
As well as being a primary ingredient of plastics, BPA also interferes with hormones — the powerful chemical messengers that control nearly every major function of the body. For this reason, it is called an “endocrine disruptor.” [end excerpt]
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* "Landmark Study Shows Our Bodies are Rife with Cancer-Causing Chemicals; First-of-its-kind analysis details 'the astounding number of carcinogens we are exposed to in almost every part of life that are building up in our systems' " (2016-06-14, commondreams.org) [archive.is/HVgLK]
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* "An N.Y.U. Study Gone Wrong, and a Top Researcher Dismissed" (2016-06-27, nytimes.com) [archive.is/XTacG] [begin excerpt]: New York University’s medical school has quietly shut down eight studies at its prominent psychiatric research center and parted ways with a top researcher after discovering a series of violations in a study of an experimental, mind-altering drug.
A subsequent federal investigation found lax oversight of study participants, most of whom had serious mental issues. The Food and Drug Administration investigators also found that records had been falsified and researchers had failed to keep accurate case histories.
In one of the shuttered studies, people with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress caused by childhood abuse took a relatively untested drug intended to mimic the effects of marijuana, to see if it relieved symptoms.
“I think their intent was good, and they were considerate to me,” said one of those subjects, Diane Ruffcorn, 40, of Seattle, who said she was sexually abused as a child. “But what concerned me, I was given this drug, and all these tests, and then it was goodbye, I was on my own. There was no follow-up.” [...]
Pfizer said that N.Y.U. was responsible for conducting the trial, and that the company had previously tested the same drug, known as an F.A.A.H. inhibitor, for osteoarthritic pain, without significant side effects. “The safety profile we observed does not preclude future development of our compound,” a Pfizer spokesman said by email.
Careful oversight is a centerpiece of ethical research practice, particularly when studies involve people taking an experimental drug. Earlier this year, six patients in a French trial of another experimental drug with similar, marijuana-like effects were hospitalized with severe neurological problems; one has reportedly died. [end excerpt]
* "Feed Me, Pharma: More Evidence That Industry Meals Are Linked to Costlier Prescribing" (2016-06-25, truth-out.org) [archive.is/Suo57] [begin excerpt]: Evidence is mounting that doctors who receive as little as one meal from a drug company tend to prescribe more expensive, brand-name medications for common ailments than those who don't.
A study published online Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine [archive.is/agwQk] found significant evidence that doctors who received meals tied to specific drugs prescribed a higher proportion of those products than their peers. And the more meals they received, the greater share of those drugs they tended to prescribe relative to other medications in the same category.
The researchers did not determine if there was a cause-and-effect relationship between payments and prescribing, a far more difficult proposition, but their study adds to a growing pile of research documenting a link between the two.
A ProPublica story [archive.is/yCcCz] published in March found that doctors who took payments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries prescribed a higher proportion of brand-name medications than those who didn't. It also found that the more money a doctor received, the higher the percentage of brand-name drugs he or she prescribed, on average.
Similarly, a Harvard Medical School study [archive.is/ikrKL] published in May found that Massachusetts physicians prescribed a larger proportion of brand-name statins -- the category of drugs that treat high cholesterol -- the more industry money they received. There was no significant increase in brand-name prescribing for those who received less than $2,000. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
NO NUKES! campaign
[StopNuclearDeath.blogspot.com] [nuclear-news.net] [nukeresister.org] [nukefree.org]
* "New Report Exposing Coverup Of Fukushima Proves Conspiracy Theorists Right" (2016-06-21, by Claire Bernish) [archive.is/XUQ2z]
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* "FitzPatrick nuke, the source of lake oil spill, shut down suddenly Friday" (2016-06-27, syracuse.com) [archive.is/Q69mo]
* " ‘Sheen’ spotted on Lake Ontario near nuclear power plant" (2016-06-27, rt.com) [archive.is/koTxC]
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the process of fascism and for whom it benefits. [UnitedStatesFascism.blogspot.com] [exposefacts.org]
* "Even a Time Finance Columnist Is Now Questioning American Capitalism; Rana Foroohar’s “Makers and Takers” breaks down crisis-prone U.S. economy" (2016-05-05, inthesetimes.com) [archive.is/7XNZq]
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* "House Republicans Think the Fed Is In Conspiracy With the Rich: Are They Right?" (2016-06-23, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/7xf5t] [begin excerpt]: Millions of Americans think that Congressional Republicans are in conspiracy with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cato Institute, Koch brothers, and the Mercatus Center to advance an agenda of increasing corporate profits while sacking the needs of the poor and middle class [archive.is/ycaaX]. That doesn’t mean, however, that Republicans can’t sometimes spot a conspiracy on the part of others.
Yesterday, four Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, during the semi-annual monetary policy testimony by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, presented a persuasive argument that it’s really the Federal Reserve (which was flattered by many House Democrats at the hearing) that’s sacrificing the poor and middle class in order to benefit the rich and “the Goldman Sachs CEOs of the world.”
Congressman Ed Royce, Republican from California, said that he was “concerned that the Federal Reserve has created a third pillar of monetary policy, that of a rising and stable stock market.” Royce said that Yellen’s predecessor, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had told the Committee that the goal of quantitative easing was to increase asset prices like the stock market in order to create a wealth effect.
Royce raised the specter that the Fed is actually being held hostage by the stock market and Wall Street, stating:
“Every time in the last three years when there has been a hint of raising rates and the stock market declined accordingly, the Fed has cited stock market volatility as one of the reasons to stay the course and hold rates at zero.”
Under law, the Fed’s two primary pillars of monetary policy are to promote the goals of maximum employment and stable prices. Yellen denied that the Fed has a third pillar of shoring up the stock market.
Royce is clearly on to something. When the stock market tanks, the share prices of the big Wall Street banks plummet to a greater degree than the overall market because of the trillions of dollars (yes trillions) in derivatives they hold and the lack of transparency as to whether the counterparties on the other side of these trades will be solvent in a plummeting market [archive.is/fcYXH].The Federal Reserve is in no position to quietly sit back and watch the equity capital of its most dangerous banks melt away in a stock market selloff when it is desperately attempting to boost capital levels at these same mega banks. [end excerpt]
Photo caption: Fed Chair Janet Yellen Testifying Before the House Financial Services Committee on June 22, 2016
* "Wall Street Banks Are Trading as a Herd Because They are Highly Interconnected" (2016-01-20, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/fcYXH], chart caption: Wall Street Mega Banks Are Highly Interconnected: Stock Symbols Are as Follows: C=Citigroup; MS=Morgan Stanley; JPM=JPMorgan Chase; GS=Goldman Sachs; BAC=Bank of America; WFC=Wells Fargo.
* "The Market Just Held a Stress Test: Morgan Stanley, Met Life and Citigroup Flunk" (2016-06-27, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/6i4hN]
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* "How Obama, Clinton, & the DNC forced fracking on the world" (2016-06-23, rt.com) [archive.is/CNkXb]
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Though not strictly about fascism in the USA, the following shows how sports events are conducted in the USA... an indication of the business culture which dominates all spheres of social life.
* "Drake Writes Letter About NBA Finals Being Rigged For Cleveland" (2016-06-24, newswireja.com) [archive.is/4Gau1]
===*===*===
USA FASCISM: Military State
* "Hyten’s Commander’s Strategic Intent – We’re All In Space Together" (2016-06-14, intelsatgeneral.com) [archive.is/9o9PE] [begin excerpt]: While Gen. John Hyten’s “Commander’s Strategic Intent” is meant to offer a roadmap of the future for the 22,000 airmen and 9,000 civilians of Air Force Space Command, that’s hardly its limit.The General’s priorities: “Win today’s fight”, “Prepare for tomorrow’s fight,” along with “taking care of our Airmen and our Families” are definitely applicable to other parts of the Air Force and other Services within the Department of Defense.
Those team members include industry partners, whose expertise is needed to create “Resiliency Capacity … our new metric to measure the ability to respond effectively to adversary intent and actions – to deliver combat effects in a contested environment,” Hyten added.
Industry expertise also is needed to help Space Command in its “Third Offset” quest to maintain and extend technological superiority over potential adversaries that are pouring resources into battlespace technology as never before. And, Hyten added, that battlespace is no longer limited to land, sea and air. It includes cyberspace and a 73 trillion-cubic-mile area bounded by geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles above the earth.
It’s an area in which decisions must be made on actions being conducted at 17,500 mph. And it’s an area in which industry has vast experience, but one which is becoming crowded and contested, as the Air Force often says.
The military and industry have much at stake in the newly defined battlespace, with satellites of both driving the ability to fight in both traditional and non-traditional areas of operation. Without Global Positioning Satellites, military and civilian navigation is hamstrung. Without commercial communications satellites, worldwide commerce grinds to a halt and the military fights a World War II-type battle, as Hyten said in an interview with “60 Minutes” last year.
Space, once considered benign other than the harshness of the domain, is a contested environment now. Coping requires martialing U.S. resources, both military and commercial. It requires planning and building architecture for the future, with both partners involved at the front end of the planning process. It also requires clear communication of needs to allow industry to plan and invest to do its part in meeting military goals. [end excerpt]
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* "BAE Systems to assist Army with geospatial intelligence systems" (2016-06-21, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/KpqjM]
===*===*===
USA FASCISM: Two Party Dictatorship
* "Liberal Elites Hate the Left" (2016-06-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/JzOiC], photo caption: The rise of the so-called New Democrats, which began under President BIll Clinton, was accompanied by an overt hostility to the progressive left.* "Hillary Democrats Against Economic Justice" (2016-06-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/VXXqT]
* "Clinton's "First Major Betrayal"? DNC Surrogates Defeat Anti-TPP Measure; 'The Clinton campaign's reversal on TPP is not just bad policy—it's terrible politics,' says Bernie Sanders advisor" (2016-06-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/ES8Vp]
* "High powered Wall St. breakfast among gaps & missing entries in Clinton’s State Dept diary" (2016-06-25, rt.com) [archive.is/PI6PU]
* Hillary Clinton is a New Democrat. As was Bill and as is Obama.
They have abandoned the working and middle class, and like the GOP before them, focus their efforts on boosting the professional and upper class.
Let's take a look at how well the working and middle classes do under the New Democrats and under the GOP:
And let's see how the upper 20% and the upper 5% do under the New Dems and the GOP:
"Your" National Democratic Committee!
The committee voted down an amendment for the establishment of a $15 an hour minimum wage.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment establishing protections for pensions, to keep them from being cut.
The committee voted 7-6 against a carbon tax amendment.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment banning fracking.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment blocking energy companies from using eminent domain for fossil fuel extraction.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment to make climate change a test for building future Keystone pipelines.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment for a single payer healthcare system.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment to specify mechanisms on how to make healthcare a right.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment (proposed by Dr. Zogby) to add language eliminating the possibility of any use of force in the Syrian conflict.
The committee voted 7-6 against an amendment calling for the end of the U.S., exportation of fracking to foreign nations.
* (2016-06-27, justforeignpolicy.org): On the TPP and settlement expansion in the West Bank, we mostly lost the first round of the fight over the Democratic Platform. The Platform Drafting Committee rejected an amendment opposed to the TPP and rejected an amendment opposed to settlement expansion in the West Bank.
There were five Sanders appointees on the fifteen-member drafting committee. There were also three other "progressive" House Democrats on the committee: Barbara Lee, Luis Gutierrez, and Elijah Cummings. Five plus three is eight; eight is a majority of fifteen. If these three "progressive" House Democrats had voted the right way, we would have won amendments against the TPP and settlements.
Call Barbara Lee now at 202-225-2661. When you reach a staffer, you can say something like:
"I am very disappointed by the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee's rejection of amendments against the TPP and against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. I demand that you publicly explain your votes."
Please ask the office for a written response.
When you've made your call, please report it here [justforeignpolicy.org/act/gutierrez-cummings-lee-platform-votes].
Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,
[signed] Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns
Just Foreign Policy
* "Killing the messenger" (2016-06-27, commondreams.org):
It’s always been hard to keep afloat as an independent voice in the news media.
But right now it's particularly hard.
We are in the midst of one of our worst fundraising campaigns in the 19 years Common Dreams has been publishing. And our survival is on the line.
As we all know, the US presidential campaign has divided many in the progressive community.
We are proud of our news team’s extensive coverage and analysis of the political revolution that swept the nation and continues to be a hopeful and powerful force for change.
But, now this message of hope is hurting Common Dreams.
Many of our long-time supporters are not happy with us. And they are letting us know.
Here’s just a sampling of what some of our larger donors have been writing to us:
- "I have been a supporter (including substantial financial support!) for many years. Why have you wasted so much space on Bernie Sanders? What has he ever accomplished?"
- "I had donated to you before, but no more - I guess I’m not a Progressive. I am a Hillary supporter."
- "I have donated generously to CD for years but now I'm with Hillary."
- "I would love to throw you a few bucks as I have done in the past, but I am a Hillary fan. Contributing at this time will not be possible."
Our survival has always been touch and go. We can’t afford to lose any of our funding base. We must find new supporters and we must ask those who are still with us to step up and contribute as never before.
(2016-06-28, part 2): Yesterday I wrote to you, and to everyone who has given to Common Dreams in the past, to let you know that our critical Mid-Year fundraiser was going badly.
I explained that we have been hearing from many long-time donors who were disgruntled with our election coverage. Apparently they hoped we would be covering a coronation - and not a hard-fought primary campaign.
Since last night’s email went out, we have heard from many more. Here's a few:
- "Take your socialist views and shove them. Bernie can't win. I do not want a more conservative Supreme Court. You folks don't seem to understand how that would set us back decades."
- "I had contributed $900 to you in 2015. Expect my contributions to decline to almost nothing in 2016 because I am appalled and thoroughly disgusted at your treatment of the Democratic Party primaries for President."
- "We're sick of the Hillary hate coming from liberal sites. The venom from the left towards Ms. Clinton is obscene."
We are proud of the excellent election coverage and analysis our hardworking news team has put together over the past year. We wouldn't change a thing.
* "Ask Not What Sanders Wants, But What His Grassroots Army Demands; 'They want real change in this country,' Bernie Sanders writes in Post op-ed, and 'they want it now' " (2016-06-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/Wotvi]
===*===*===
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]
* "Television News Illusion: 'Reporter In The Field On Location' " (2016-06-22, by Jon Rappoport) [archive.is/qi5sl]
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* "What’s Really Behind the Washington Post’s Efforts to Marginalize Bernie Sanders?" (2016-06-20, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/flX38]
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Adding to the narrative of the New Cold War, state media outlet Washington Post is shown to publish fabrications without apology, according to dictates by the USA State Department (which subsidizes the newspaper).
* "Russian diplomats harassed by US, not other way around – Moscow on Wash Post article" (2016-06-29, rt.com) [archive.is/j3B00]
===*===*===
USA FASCISM: Artificial Poverty and Starvation
[talkpoverty.org]
* "IMF warns United States about high poverty rates" (2016-06-23, rt.com) [archive.is/cfPkL]
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* " 'Pinklining': How women of color are disproportionately hurt by Wall Street’s predatory practices; Report highlights how financial industry targets women of color, transferring their wealth & reinforcing inequality" (2016-06-23, salon.com) [archive.is/CwK1s]
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* "End Big Pharm's price gouging" petition link [is.gd/582rOE]:
Year after year, the cost of prescription drugs increases by double digits - 10% last year and 12% in 2014. But seniors and Americans with disabilities aren't getting double digit cost of living increases to keep up.
That means that these massive drug price hikes are a de-facto cut to Social Security checks - and Big Pharma billionaires are pocketing the profits. This is theft of our earned benefits!
But the American people won't stand for these abuses any longer. Right now, we have an opportunity to fight the pharmaceutical industry head-on.
Click here to stand with Social Security Works and our partners to tell the Democratic Party Platform Committee to commit to end pharmaceutical price gouging in the 2016 Party platform.
The Party platform can set the agenda for the next president and the next Congress. And this is a fight we can win.
On average, 37% of each Social Security check goes toward out-of-pocket health-care costs, and a huge part of these costs are drug prices. This has devastating consequences for Americans around the country. 20% of the population - 35 million people - didn't fill a prescription because they could not afford to.
There is no reason for this to be happening in the United States, the wealthiest country in the history of the world! No one should have to choose between putting food on the table and taking the medications they need to stay healthy.
Tell the Democratic Party Platform Committee to include detailed plans to rein in drug prices and stop Big Pharma from stealing the American people's earned Social Security benefits.
In 2013, the United States spent nearly 40% more per person on prescription drugs than Canada, the next most expensive industrialized nation.
We must fight back!
Please, sign the petition today to rein in abuses by the pharmaceutical industry.
Thank you, [signed] Michael Phelan, for Social Security Works
===*===*===
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the global economic dictatorship
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* "$15b or else: TransCanada files NAFTA appeal over Keystone XL failure" (2016-06-27, rt.com) [archive.is/nG7Qq]
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* "Repeat Oil Spills Turning Peruvian Amazon into 'Sacrifice Zone' for Big Oil 'The situation is criminal' " (2016-06-28, commondreams.org) [archive.is/O2aSR]
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* "Common Good Under Attack as Civil Society Groups Targeted Worldwide; Annual report by CIVICUS documents a year shaped by conflict and popular resistance" (2016-06-28, commondreams.org) [archive.is/WDw14]
---
The following is written by an author who favors private monopoly over economic spheres, and presents the falsehood that state-managed economic enterprises are unable to operate "competitively" like private monopoly on the world market regime. In the article, the author, with a naive outlook, writes critically about state-managed enterprises in a manner that overlooks how monopolists conduct the same exact manner of clandestine warfare, and how monopoly risks installing unaccountable private bureaucracies which conduct far greater harm against more people in the world than state-managed enterprises.
* "Man, The Corporation, and War" (2016-06-29, by Brian Collins, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/UwLlC] [begin excerpt]: It is debatable whether China seeks a peaceful rise as a peer in the community of nations or represents a challenger hungry for hegemony. Yet the structures and behaviors underpinning international order for the past two-plus decades are certainly being challenged in an unprecedented fashion. China and other countries are manipulating their state capitalist economic systems in ways anathema to the free market traditions more common to the globalized landscape. State capitalism and the SOEs it breeds provide a decidedly attractive model, especially for authoritarian countries, but lack one necessary ingredient for long-term success: accountability. Currently SOEs are neither accountable to employees, shareholders, the law, nor (perhaps most importantly) the market.
For instance, China’s interest in indigenous innovation and desire to become a global science and technology power by 2020 will inevitably disappoint as a consequence of its enduring system of unaccountable ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics.’ Without the governance structures inherent to accountable governments and organizations, state capitalist countries and corporations will fail to satisfy the potential of individual entrepreneurship. As such, they handicap themselves in the long-term race for power and influence. Juggernaut nation-states are powered by economic engines, of which the individual business is the base element. The character of business is important as the foundation upon which strength (or weakness) is built. [...]
Admittedly, state capitalists today operate differently than the command economy models of the 20th century commonly associated with the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellite governments. Modern state capitalists engage with the global economic order rather than operating in isolation. That said, the motivation for perpetuating such a system remains anachronistically the same. In the opening pages of the book, Kurlantzick quotes former Chinese premier Wen Jiabaom who captures a good deal of conventional wisdom when remarking, “[t]he socialist system’s advantages enable us to make decisions efficiently, organize effectively, and concentrate resources to accomplish large undertakings.” Persisting attitudes such as this are perhaps one reason why state capitalism has grown over the last 20 years. Yet despite the positive assessment of those such as Premier Wen, the potential benefits of SOEs are limited. [...]
First, in young democracies, state capitalism could corrode nascent democratic culture and institutions by placing too much power in the hands of too few elites. Second, political instability can follow from the application of state capitalism. Third, state capitalism could lead to economic collapses on a scale that reverberates negatively across the globe. Fourth, state capitalism could become so attractive that it becomes a model in increasing use. And fifth, autocratic state capitalists such as China and Russia will use their companies as weapons of war. [...]
Read more at: Joshua Kurlantzick, "State Capitalism: How the Return of Statism is Transforming the World" (Oxford University Press, 2016). [end excerpt]
===*===*===
information collected by the
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM COALITION
[SolanoPeaceJustice.blogspot.com], for justice, dignity and human rights in accordance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (.pdf) [is.gd/TftqGs], 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].
* "The reality of the war on drugs is a war on the people" (2016-04-23, hondurassolidarity.org) [archive.is/1hTBq]
* "Military Spending is the Capitalist World’s Fuel" (2016-04-22, counterpunch.org) [archive.is/iZAyI]
* "UN Report Shows U.S. is Source of Most Refugees and Wars" (2016-06-21, blackagendareport.com) [archive.is/OApUp]
* "How Many Muslim Countries Has the U.S. Bombed Or Occupied Since 1980?" (2014-11-06, by Glenn Greenwald, theintercept.com) [archive.is/TcsKE]
* "The False Lure of Military Intervention in Syria" (2016-06-22, nytimes.com) [archive.is/S9BHK]
* "The Syria 'dissent' memo and US bureaucratic support for Kerry war strategy" (2016-06-28, middleeasteye.net) [archive.is/uUSBk]
* "Russia is in charge in Syria; How Moscow took control of the battlefield and negotiating table" (2016-06-28, by Sam Heller, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/qiF8I]
* "Brexit and the Diseased Liberal Mind" (2016-06-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/22Br5] [begin excerpt]: A few years ago the American writer Chris Hedges wrote a book he titled the Death of the Liberal Class. His argument was not so much that liberals had disappeared, but that they had become so coopted by the right wing and its goals – from the subversion of progressive economic and social ideals by neoliberalism, to the enthusiastic embrace of neoconservative doctrine in prosecuting aggressive and expansionist wars overseas in the guise of “humanitarian intervention” – that liberalism had been hollowed out of all substance.
Liberal pundits sensitively agonise over, but invariably end up backing, policies designed to benefit the bankers and arms manufacturers, and ones that wreak havoc domestically and abroad. They are the “useful idiots” of modern western societies. [end excerpt]
* "The Brexit Vote. What Does it Mean? Hopefully, a Breakup of the EU and NATO, the Avoidance of World War III" (2016-06-24, by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts) [archive.is/npBQz] [begin excerpt]: The EU and NATO are evil institutions. These two institutions are mechanisms created by Washington in order to destroy the sovereignty of European peoples. These two institutions give Washington control over the Western world and serve both as cover and enabler of Washington’s aggression. Without the EU and NATO, Washington could not force Europe and the UK into conflict with Russia, and Washington could not have destroyed seven Muslim countries in 15 years without being isolated as a hated war criminal government, no member of whom could have travelled abroad without being arrested and put on trial. [...]
Washington, in an effort to save its power over Europe, launched a campaign, willingly joined by presstitutes and the brainwashed left-wing, who flocked to the One Percent’s banner, that presented the effort to preserve British liberty and sovereignty as racism. This dishonest campaign shows beyond all doubt that Washington and its media whores have no regard whatsoever for liberty and the sovereignty of peoples.
Washington regards every assertion of democratic rule as a barrier to its hegemony and demonizes every democratic impulse. Reformist leaders in Latin America are constantly overthrown by Washington, and Washington asserts that only Washington and its terrorist allies have the right to choose the government of Syria, just as Washington chose the government of Ukraine.
The British people, or a majority of them, gave Washington the bird. But the fight is not over. Perhaps it hasn’t really yet begun. Here is what the British can likely expect: The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and George Soros will conspire to attack the British pound, driving it down and terrorizing the British economy. We will see who is the strongest: the will of the British people or the will of the CIA, the One Percent, and the EU and neocon nazis. [end excerpt]
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* "Second Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer christened at Bath Iron Works; The future USS Michael Monsoor is named after a Navy SEAL who was killed saving the lives of others in Iraq" (2016-06-18, pressherald.com) [archive.is/iLZKQ], photo [archive.is/7zGet]
* "Veterans for Peace Protest Two Simultaneous Christenings at Bath Iron Works" (2008-10-18, vfpmaine.org) [archive.is/3R0wM]
---
The USA Military currently claims to be underfunded with a trillion dollar budget larger than the military budgets of the entire world combined, and they claim they are so underfunded, they could not stop an "invasion" by the EEU (Federation of Russia) against USA puppet-states in eastern Europe.
* "US commander warns NATO couldn't repel Russian Baltic invasion" (2016-06-22, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/42ywH]
* "German foreign minister accuses Nato of 'warmongering' against Russia" (2016-06-18, telegraph.co.uk) [archive.is/0OeQC]
* " ‘Cold War pensioner’: Defense Ministry blasts US general over ‘Russophopic’ essay" (2016-06-28, rt.com) [archive.is/dLfxF]
* "US destroyer gets dangerously close to Russian patrol boat in Mediterranean – Moscow" (2016-06-28, rt.com) [archive.is/BMRcN]
* "How Long Before U.S. and Russian Jets Clash Over Syria? Two of the world’s most powerful air forces are operating towards opposite goals. What could possibly go wrong?" (2016-06-25, nationalinterest.org) [archive.is/TWKRY]
* "VFP Members In Russia This Week" (2016-06-25, veteransforpeace.org):
Advisory Board Members Ray McGovern, Kathy Kelly, Lifetime members Col Ann Wright and William H. Warrick III, and VFP members, David and Jan Hartsough have joined the Center for Citizens Initiative (CCI) delegation to Russia [http://ccisf.org]. The group's goal is to increase understanding and reduce international tension and conflict.
* "What’s At Stake" (2016-06-23, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/G9Z7D] [begin excerpt]: In the historic port city of Yalta, located on the Crimean Peninsula, we visited the site where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, in February of 1945, concluded negotiations ending World War II.
These leaders and their top advisors were also present at the creation of the United Nations and other instruments of international negotiation and non-military cooperation. Tragically, the creation of the “Cold War” was underway soon after. Reviving tensions between the United States and Russia make it seem as though the Cold War might not have ended.
We also met with groups of young adults, teachers, and veterans of foreign wars. At each meeting, participants readily agreed that new peace agreements are needed.
Olga, a tour guide, told me that she was fairly sure most young people here in Yalta would know what NATO is, what the acronym stands for, and they would know about recent NATO developments. Our delegation has been wondering how to cope with a quite different reality in the U.S., where many people may be poorly informed about NATO and would know even less about the Anti -Ballistic Missile treaty that the U.S. more or less tore up in 2001.
The Federation of American Scientists, in its 2016 inventory of nuclear forces, states that approximately 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States who each have roughly 4,500-4,700 warheads in their military stockpiles.
Konstatin, a veteran from the USSR war in Afghanistan, now a grandfather, spoke to us about Yalta’s history during World War II. “Many people perished here,” he said. “More than a million perished during WWII. This tourist resort was founded from the bones of people killed in the war.” Some 22 million Russians overall died during World War II, most of them civilians. Konstatin urged all of us to find ways for avoiding further war, and he spoke about how funds spent on weapons are crucially needed to help heal children afflicted by disease or hunger. [end excerpt]
MT. DIABLO PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER presents
An Evening with RICK STERLING
Trip Member, Center for Citizen Initiatives
Thursday, July 21st
6 PM Potluck, 7 PM presentation
Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church - Owl Room
55 Eckley Ln., Walnut Creek, California
Since 1983, Center for Citizen Initiatives has worked to develop ordinary citizens' capacities to avert international crises, focusing on relations between the U.S. and Russia. Now, amid a rising crisis in relations between the U.S. and Russia, it organized a delegation which assembled in Moscow for a two-week visit to the region.
Sterling will give a presentation on his current trip with this delegation. The group of 20 tour members include CCI director Sharon Tennison, Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, retired U.S. military officer and diplomat Ann Wright and Peace Activist David Hartsough, to name a few.Photo: CCI group meeting with local government officials and representatives of local groups in the city of Simferopol, Crimea.
More information on this historic trip may be found here: CCI website.
Sterling is a retired aerospace engineer, Vice-Chair Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, co-founder Syria Solidarity Movement, Board President Task Force on the Americas.
Tickets: $10 in advance or $15 at the door. FREE for Students.
Half price for MTDPC Members.
More info call (925) 933-7850
PLEASE BRING A DISH TO SHARE I
IF YOU ARE ATTENDING OUR 6-7 pm POTLUCK
PLEASE JOIN US!
During the war against the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, many anti-UN militants in the USA were reporting a rise in UN military convoys across the USA and believed this was an indication of a potential "socialist take-over" of the USA, ignoring how the USA uses the UN military to occupy a foreign jurisdiction, which is what the UN did after the Yugoslavia war. Today, the USA is considering all options for the war against the Arab Republic of Syria...
* "What are military UN trucks doing in Virginia? Bemused motorists spot white 'combat vehicles' on the interstate; U.N. 'tactical vehicles' have been spotted in Virginia driving on interstate; Motorists have been positing pictures online sparking debate about them; One website asks if the U.N. is preparing for economic collapse in America" (2016-06-27, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/4aqaX]
* "U.N. Vehicles, Mysterious Troop Movement Spotted In VA, NC, W.VA, Ohio" (2016-06-26, Brandon Turbeville) [archive.is/PfjLQ] [begin excerpt]: In the midst of reports circulating around an uptick in U.S. military movement inside the United States, a recent sighting of U.N. vehicles being carried on flatbed trucks is now making its rounds on the Internet and alternative media networks.
The U.N. vehicles were spotted near I-81 near Lexington, VA and were being carried by flatbed, two to a trailer.
Not much information exists beyond the sighting, except to say that there have been numerous reports of an increase in military movement in the NC, VA, West VA, and Ohio region. [...]
Although the troop movement may indeed have been a routine convoy and the United Nations vehicles may also have been a routine shipment from a manufacturing facility or even a simple and benign transport, the controversy brewing in the United States elections and the potential for civil unrest, the dangers of economic collapse, and the potential conflict with Russia are all potentials for use of United Nations “peace keepers” inside the United States as many have posited in the past as well as for some type of “martial law” scenario. [end excerpt]
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* "Investigation on Black Market Fate of CIA Weapons Raises New Questions; New investigation from New York Times and Al Jazeera implicates Jordan, but omits key details" (2016-06-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/6Uwqv]
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* (2016-06-26, Vic Sadot), four photos [archive.is/kiZV4] [archive.is/JWklq] [archive.is/nqYX9] [archive.is/YQjzu]:
USS Liberty Veteran and Survivor Don Pageler speaking in Historic Fellowship Hall in Berkeley, CA on June 25, 2016 about the attack on the USS Liberty by Israel on June 8, 1967. The story was suppressed for many years, and the sailors who survived were forbidden to talk about it. Don received a Purple Heart. But he went through a long period of PTSD, "survivor's guilt", and therapy. He is literally a man with a mission to honor his fallen comrades and to remember this tragic history. It was a gripping personal story placed into historical context of the 6 Days war in which Israel did not want its communication intercepted. The Golan Heights were seized from Syria at this time, and the Israeli surprise attack knocked the Egyptians out of the war in short order. It may have been meant to bring the USA into the war on the side of Israel. President Lyndon Johnson, Sec of State Robert MacNamara, and Admiral McCain ordered the incident to be covered up. In fact, it would not have played well to the American heartland to learn that President Johnson had recalled the fighter jets that responded to the distress call that the USS Liberty crew was able to get out while under attack. An intelligence signals ship is not heavily armed, but was flying a huge American flag and could not be mistaken for an Egyptian ship cruising in international waters. Johnson said he did not care if they all died; he did not want to embarrass an ally. The speaker event was video recorded. It will be released in days to come. The Kansas native will speak on Tuesday, June 28 at Peacock Hall in Rossmoor Walnut Creek, 1001 Golden Rain Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94595 at 4 pm, and on Wednesday, June 29 at 4:30 pm at the First Presbyterian Church, 72 Kensington Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960. All events are free, but donations may be requested for the venue and for the USS Liberty Veterans Association. The Berkeley event was sponsored by No Lies Radio and the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.
For more information see [http://honorlivertyvets.org]
Tuesday, June 28, 4:00 PM
Film: The Day israel Attacked America
Peacock Hall, Rossmoor, 1001 Golden Rain Rd, Walnut Creek
Rossmoor Voices for Justice in Palestine
Proudly presents
In 1967 a US Navy surveillance vessel, the USS Liberty, came under attack for 2 hours by the Israeli Air Force and Navy. The ship was bombed with napalm and life rafts were machine gunned in the water. Surviving crewmembers were sworn to secrecy and the incident was dismissed as a "tragic mistake".
DON PAGELER, is a survivor of that Israeli assault and will be our guest at our upcoming meeting on June 28 at Peacock Hall in Rossmoor @ 4 PM. He will answer questions about the attack based on his personal experience. Why was the USS Liberty purposely left defenseless resulting in the death of 34 US sailors and the wounding of 174 shipmates?
Although this tragic assault occurred decades ago it is still emblematic of the US-Israeli relationship today. ---a relationship in which we have allowed our interests to become subservient to the interests of Israel. As example of this subservience, we, a country trillions of dollars in debt, give Israel 10 million dollars a day. Israel has universal health care and free college tuition. We have neither.
We hope you can join us for an eye-opening discussion. ALL ARE WELCOME !!!
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* "ANSWER delegation shows solidarity at international conference in Korea" (2016-06-23, answercoalition.org) [archive.is/3VgsB]
---
* "The Fraudulent Case for a Syrian Escalation; Washington’s armchair warriors are pounding the drums for a major U.S. military escalation in Syria but a new report shows there’s little reason to think that would help" (2016-06-23, consortiumnews.com) [archive.is/Xq8vZ]
* "US Bombing Syrian Troops Would Be Illegal; Secretary of State Kerry met with dissident State Department “diplomats” to hear their call for U.S. airstrikes on Syrian government troops, but the plan is both dangerous and illegal" (2016-06-22, consortiumnews.com) [archive.is/3MoZr]
---
* "Orlando Killer's Secret Shared by Other Terrorists" (2016-06-16, davidswanson.org) [archive.is/O6u6l] [begin excerpt]: As with becoming a whistleblower or an activist or an artist there must be numerous reasons why any individual becomes a terrorist -- whether military, contract, or independent. Various irrational hatreds and fears (and promises of paradise after death) and the ready availability of weaponry certainly play roles.
But did you know that every single foreign terrorist in the United States in recent decades, plus domestic terrorists claiming foreign motivations, plus numerous poor suckers set up and stung by the FBI, plus every foreign terrorist organization that has claimed or been blamed for attempted or successful anti-U.S. terrorism have all claimed the same motivation? I'm not aware of a single exception.
If one of them claimed to be motivated by the needs of Martians, we might set that aside as crazy. If every single one of them claimed to be acting on behalf of Martians, we would at least get curious about why they said that, even if we doubted Martians' existence. But every single one of them says something much more believable. And yet what they say seems to be a secret despite being readily available information.
Typically, this information is reported toward the end of articles with unrelated headlines, such as the Washington Post's article on Wednesday headlined "Orlando shooter posted messages on Facebook pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS and vowing more attacks" [archive.is/IRWXq]. One has to read the article to discover why he would have pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Then one finds these quotations of what he wrote or said:
"America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state."
"You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes . . . now taste the Islamic state vengeance."
"Mateen claimed he carried out the attack because he wanted 'Americans to stop bombing his country.' While Mateen's parents are from Afghanistan, he was born in the United States. Another witness said Wednesday that Mateen said, 'America needs to stop bombing ISIS in Syria.'"
There's a video on CNN of a survivor [is.gd/uzEcuw]. The accompanying headline tells you nothing. But if you watch the video, you hear her say that she and other survivors listened to the killer call 911 and tell them that "the reason why he was doing this was he wants America to stop bombing his country." She also says that he asked if there were any black people present, and then told them "I don't have any problem with black people. This is about my country. You guys suffered enough."
So this, like every other such act, was a deranged and indefensible commission of mass murder driven by resentment of U.S. bombing, and by some sort of belief in the larger cosmic justice to be found in killing the right type of people as revenge against that bombing. (Just as Americans defend bombing people in Afghanistan who've never even heard of the crimes of September 11, 2001, because of those crimes.)
National Public Radio [archive.is/9Gqa6], like the rest of U.S. society, holds such a strong belief in the importance of not knowing this, that it falsely reported the other day that, following a terrorist bombing in Spain, the people of Spain elected a rightwing government. In fact, the people of Spain became aware that the bombing was blowback for participation in a U.S. war; they elected a leftist government; and Spain pulled out of Iraq. And there was not another bombing in Spain. [end excerpt]
Compare the above with how the Orlando shooter's comments were presented in the monopolist media [archive.is/Zw7dh].
---
* "Saudis Question U.N. Leader Over Report on Rights Violators" (2016-06-22, nytimes.com) [archive.is/0spdx] [begin excerpt]: Mr. Ban had initially included the coalition on an ignoble list of armies accused of killing and maiming children in 2015, only to take it off a few days later, saying bluntly that he had been threatened with the loss of funding to humanitarian programs.
The list was included in a report, Children and Armed Conflict. Whether the coalition, which has been repeatedly accused by human rights organizations of indiscriminately bombing nonmilitary targets in Yemen, might be restored to the list remains a matter of debate. The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah bin Yahya Almouallimi, insisted that the decision to remove it from the list was “irreversible.” On Wednesday, it was left to Mr. Ban to manage the ungainly diplomatic moment with an oblique statement that urged Saudi officials to “improve the situation on the ground.” [end excerpt]Photo caption: The deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, with the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. The prince arrived 45 minutes late, delaying Mr. Ban’s schedule for the rest of the day.
* "U.N. Bows To Saudi Financial Threats, Removes KSA From Child Killers List" (2016-06-23, by Brandon Turbeville) [archive.is/B5atW]
---
* "Mexico: Oaxaca Teachers' Murders Protested In SF -- 'Massacre Made In USA' "
[https://youtu.be/4RrK-S3Q9qs], production of Labor Video Project [laborvideo.org].
The massacre of the striking CNTE Mexican Independent teachers' Union, community people and supporters of public education in Oaxaca Mexico was protested in San Francisco on June 22, 2016. Teachers including from the UESF, AFT 2121 and Tim Paulson, the head of the San Francisco Labor Council and labor activists condemned the massacre by police and military who have been supplied by the United States. Protesters also connected the privatization and corporatization of education in Mexico with the charters and the attack on public education in the United States. The use of the military and police on the striking teachers is bringing a growing anger and those unions in San Francisco that participated demanded that the US government cut off military weapons to Mexico. Al Rojas, a founder of the United Farmworkers Union of America also attacked the so called comprehensive immigration reform that according to Rojas will further militarize the border and also expand the use of "guest workers" that will be used as cheap labor by Driscoll and other US corporations. He further charged that the UFWA is setting up broker offices in Mexico in cahoots with the Mexican government to bring in these indentured workers to the US and make them union members. Other participants pointed out that Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton were responsible for NAFTA and continue to support this reactionary trade bill that has enslaved the Mexican people including unionists and peasants and is forcing the privatization of education backed up by the US supplied military and police.
Additional media:
- [https://youtu.be/xu4qLP_O3Sk]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr0snX6OqQg]
- [http://youtu.be/QVw_g87oeCY]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuVDgT9GDlY]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnuu1Javuv8]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYYv9sLaFjk]
* "Massacre in Oaxaca at the Hands of the Mexican Federal and State Authorities"
2016-06-19, statement from
- NATIONAL UNION OF EDUCATION WORKERS (SNTE)
- NATIONAL COORDINATION OF EDUCATION WORKERS (CNTE) SECTION 22
OAXACA CITY -- Section 22 of the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) blames [Mexican President] Enrique Peña Nieto, [Interior Secretary] Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, [Chief of Staff] Aurelio Nuño, [Oaxaca Governor] Gabino Cue, and [Oaxaca Education Secretary] Moises Robles for the murders and massacres unleashed against the people of the state of Oaxaca by the Federal Police and local gendarmes.
From Oaxaca we denounce the excessive use of heavy weapons used directly against our fellow teachers, fathers and mothers, students, and members of sister social organizations who have joined joined the social struggle.
On multiple occasions, the teachers' union has expressed its willingness to sit down and dialogue with the State and Federal governments. Public calls have been issued to this effect. But instead of prioritizing a meeting at the negotiations' table, these officials have responded with arrests -- and now with a climate of inconceivable repression not only against the teachers, but also against the people as a whole.
From the city of Oaxaca, we wish to inform public opinion that the bodies of five people killed by the Federal and State authorities have been identified, with a sixth body still to be identified. They are the following:
* Andres Aguilar Sanabria: professor of Indigenous Education.
* Yalid Santiago Jimenez: 29-year-old native of the district of Santa Maria Apazco Nochixtlan, who was traveling in a pick-up truck that was riddled with live bullets by the Federal Police. He was part of the thousands of men and women of Mixteco indigenous origin who have been stepping forward to strengthen the teachers' struggle.
* Oscar Nicolas Santiago: 22-year-old native of Las Flores Tilantongo.
* Anselmo Cruz Aquino: 33-year-old merchant of Santiago Amatlán.
* Jesus Cadena: 19-year-old student of Asunción Nochixtlán.
* The sixth body has yet to be identified.
We hold Oaxaca Governor Gabino Cue responsible for this wave of killings unleashed against the people, as well as the wave of repression meted out by armed police against the teachers, parents, residents and students, many of whom are still seriously injured and in critical condition.
We denounce that our wounded have been denied the right to medical care. It is only thanks to altruistic doctors, all medical graduates who are supporting our struggle, that they have had any medical attention at all. This is happening while police officers are moved, including by helicopter, for medical care.
We warn that the killings that have been unleashed by this government could continue overnight, taking advantage of the impunity of their bullets.
[Note: As a picket line was held outside the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco on June 22, a four-person delegation met with the Deputy Consul inside the Consulate. The four people on the delegation then reported back to the labor and community activists on the picket line. They informed the activists that the Deputy Consul made the commitment to send the statement below to the authorities in Mexico City. They were also told that the Consulate did not have any information on the situation other than what has been printed in the mainstream media, but the Deputy Consul added that the Mexican government had agreed to sit down and dialogue with the leadership of the CNTE without preconditions. The four people on the delegation were Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council; Lita Blanc, president of United Educators of San Francisco; Ted Lewis, Mexico Desk Director at Global Exchange; and Francisco Herrera, member of AFT Local 2121.]
WE DENOUNCE KILLING OF TEACHERS BY GOVERNMENT FORCES IN OAXACA
We are representatives of teacher unions, labor, religious and human rights organizations here at the Mexican Consulate to protest the police attacks since Sunday that have killed more than eight and wounded more than 100 teachers and their supporters in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
On June 19, federal armed forces fired on teachers and supporters in the town of Nochixtlan, killing at least four people and wounding 30 more. More police shootings have followed as protests continue.
The teachers were protesting the imprisonment, in early June, of the top two leaders of the Oaxacan teachers union and the Oaxacan governor Gabino Cue Monteagudo's imposition of a new federal education code. The changes to education law include requiring tests to qualify as teachers. Teachers -- most of them serving in indigenous, bi-lingual classrooms -- say the test do not reflect the needs of their students and are an unwelcome intervention by a hostile federal bureaucracy.
We have delivered a letter to Consul General Andres Isaac Roemer Slomianski calling for an end to the killings, lethal attacks and repression against teachers and their supporters. Demands also include release of the imprisoned union leaders and others detained in the protests, reinstatement of teachers fired for striking, and national negotiations without conditions with the teachers union, the National Coordination of Education Workers (Spanish acronym CNTE).
We also are sending a message to the U.S. Congress to suspend military aid to Mexico until the Mexican government stops these massive abuses of labor and human rights.
* "Protest Violence Against Oaxaca Teachers; Local Educators Protest Slaughter of Teachers in Mexico, Outraged At June 21 Killings in Oaxaca" (2016-06-23, California Teachers Association):
Outraged by the killing of nine teachers, educators say they will protest at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. Reports indicate nine teachers were executed, 23 disappeared, 21 were arrested, and more than 100 civilians, police and bystanders were injured June 21 in Nochixtlán, located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
“I’m an education advocate and have demonstrated, protested and spoken out,” said Lysa Sassman, Auburn Union Teacher’s Association and one of the event organizers. “Never once did I think I’d lose my life over it. These teachers are my colleagues; they just live in a different country.”
What Educators, labor council members, Hispanic advocacy supporters will protest the June 21 killing of unarmed teachers in Oaxaca, MexicoWhere Mexican Consulate, 2093 Arena Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95834
When Friday, June 24 from 12 noon – 4 p.m.
Sassman and Toby Spencer, San Juan Teachers Association, have taken to social media to publicize the event and to share what’s happening to teaching colleagues in Mexico. “This is not just about privatization,” Spencer said. “The ‘education reform’ movement is an effort to remove teachers from rural and indigenous areas. We must stand with teachers and against violence in the Americas.”
Open Letter by CFT President Josh Pechthalt
To Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
June 22, 2016
Honorable President Peña Nieto,
The California Federation of Teachers, which represents over 120,000 teachers and education employees in California, is extremely concerned about the rising wave of killings and attacks on teachers in Mexico. We ask you to immediately halt these attacks and to guarantee teachers and education workers in Mexico their human, civil, political and labor rights.
In the last several weeks, teachers have been subjected to extreme violations of their rights, including:
--- On Sunday, June 19, at least four teachers and students in Oaxaca protesting the government's corporate education reform program were shot and killed in peaceful demonstrations in Oaxaca, and dozens more wounded, by the Federal police.
--- The three top elected officers of Oaxaca's teachers' union, Seccion 22 of the National Union of Education Workers -- Ruben Nuñez, Francisco Villalobos and Aciel Sibaja -- have been illegally imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary a thousand miles from Oaxaca.
--- Over three thousand teachers have been fired for striking, and thousands more for refusing to administer the standardized tests for students, or to take the standardized tests for teachers, or to take standardized tests for teachers, that are part of the Federal government's education reform.
--- Mexico's Secretary of Public Education, Aurelio Nuño Mayer, has threatened to close the teacher training schools (the "normal" schools) that have developed generations of teachers, especially from poor families. An attack on the Ayotzinapa school in Guerrero two years ago led to the disappearance, and possible murder, of 43 students.
As educators, we are very concerned about the corporate direction of Mexico's Federal education reform program, as we are about similar programs in the United States. We oppose the privatization of public education, and of the corporate-directed programs for standardized testing of students and teachers. We are especially opposed to the use of those tests as the instruments for mass firings, as has been suggested in both countries.
There is no possible excuse for imposing these reforms at gunpoint, for violently suppressing the right of teachers to advocate for themselves and their students, and for firing and jailing teachers when they do so. We call for an immediate halt to the extensive support in money and training received by the Mexican police and military from the United States, given the use of such heavy arms and anti-personnel tactics in the recent killings in Oaxaca, and the illegal imprisonment of teacher union leaders. We will be asking the California's Congressional delegation to hold hearings to investigate the recent events in Oaxaca and the grave violations of the rights of teachers and students in Mexico.
Sincerely,
Josh Pechthalt,
President
California Federation of Teachers
STATEMENT BY CFT PRESIDENT JOSH PECHTHALT
From: Joshua Pechthalt
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 3:13 PM
Subject: Violence against educators in Mexico
CFT Leaders and Staff,
Dear sisters and brothers,
We are extremely concerned about the rising wave of killing and violence faced by our sisters and brothers - our colleagues who are the teachers of Mexico. In the last few weeks these attacks have become bloody and violent:
--- On Sunday, June 19, Federal police shot and killed at least four teachers and students in Oaxaca, who were peacefully protesting the government's corporate education reform program. Dozens more were wounded.
--- The three top elected officers of Oaxaca's teachers union, Seccion 22 of the National Union of Education Workers - Ruben Nuñez, Francisco Villalobos and Aciel Sibaja, have been illegally imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary a thousand miles from Oaxaca.
--- Over three thousand teachers have been fired for striking, and thousands more for refusing to administer the standardized tests for students, or to take the standardized tests for teachers, that are part of the Federal government's corporate education reform.
--- The Federal government has threatened to close the teacher training schools (the "normal" schools) that have developed generations of teachers, especially from poor families. An attack on the Ayotzinapa school in Guerrero two years ago led to the disappearance, and possible murder, of 43 students.
The National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE), the organization of progressive Mexican teachers to which the unions in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan and Chiapas belong, says: "We will defend free education and our freedom of expression, and we demand a process for the democratic transition in our country."
Teachers in Mexico deserve and need our support. We are all facing the same attacks. The same corporate interests in both of our countries seek to privatize public education, undermine our ability to function as professional and socially responsible educators, and end our right to unions and collective bargaining and action.
Please write two letters.
Write one to your local Mexican consulate, with copies to the Mexican President. In that letter, ask the Mexican government to:
--- Stop the killings of Mexico's teachers.
--- Free the Mexican union leaders in Federal prison.
--- Stop the attacks on teachers and students protesting corporate education reform.
Write one to your local Congress member, and ask that U.S. financial support for the Mexican police and military be ended until these attacks, which rely on that support, have been halted.
The addresses of the consulates and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto are on attached sheet. I'm sure you know how to reach your Congress member. Please send me a copy of the letters so that we can continue to use them to gain further support for our Mexican colleagues.
You can find more information about the situation of teachers in Mexico, and their opposition to corporate education reform.
There are ongoing protests at Mexican consulates throughout California. We encourage you to participate and make your voice heard.
In solidarity,
[signed] Josh Pechthalt, President, California Federation of Teachers
STATEMENT BY SACRAMENTO CHAPTER OF THE LABOR COUNCIL FOR LATIN AMERICAN ADVANCEMENT ("El Consejo Sindical para el Progreso de los Latino Americanos" /
"La Voz Unida" AFL-CIO):
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), AFL -CIO, Sacramento California USA, is an organization of trade unionists that fight for justice, democracy and peace. The teachers from the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), who work and struggle for a just, democratic, and peaceful Mexico, remain repressed, persecuted, and imprisoned by the violent Mexican state forces that protect the economic interests of the United States and Mexico. The Mexican government's physical and ideological violent response to the democratic demands of the CNTE teachers proves that the government's political stubbornness is in reality the continuity of the neoliberal project to further privatize and dismantle the educational system at the expense of the worker and the impoverished people of Mexico. With this resolution, the Sacramento chapter of Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), demands a halt to the persecution of leaders of the CNTE, freedom for imprisoned teachers, constitutional guarantees for all Mexican citizens, and the development of democratic proposals to resolve the conflict.
We are aware that the protests continue in the capital and other states in Mexico. We will endeavor to inform the trade union movement in the United States of the anti-democratic actions by the Mexican government and allocate resources to show solidarity with the democratic teachers of Mexico.
The Sacramento chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Labor AFL- CIO, USA CC: CNTE, Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education, and Sacramento Central Labor Council denounce the following:
DISMISSED: In Mexico more than 4,000 teachers have been dismissed for participating in the strike, adding to the 3,360 already fired for missing punitive evaluations, which has culminated to an estimated 8,000 teachers being fired to this day.
JAILED: The seven leaders of Section 22, OAXACA jailed. The two latest arrest of professor Ruben Nunez Gines, the Secretary General of the Section and professor Francisco Villalobos, Secretary of Organization section who were arrested June 11th and June 12th. The professor's relative's homes have been plagued with great violence after leaving a General Assembly of the CNTE in city of Mexico. After their arrests both were sent to a high security prison to Hermosillo, Sonora, about two thousand kilometers from the city Of Oaxaca. The teachers have been falsely charged and imprisoned for funds of illicit origins. The Mexican government's goal is to discredit the Secretary General of the Section and Secretary of Organization by profiling them as criminals; when in reality, they are political prisoners of conscience.
THE EVICTION OF THE SIT-IN TEACHERS IN THE CITY OF MEXICO: On two occasions, during the early morning hours, thousands of police officers evicted teachers who were peacefully sitting in in protest in the Secretary of Public Education's office in the city of Mexico. On the last occasion, the government deported the demonstrators to their states in buses specifically hired for it. Teachers returned, settling in another public space, but with worse conditions.
PREVENTING TEACHERS FROM REACHING THE CITY OF MEXICO OR LEAVE THEIR STATES. Thousands of federal police officers equipped with military weaponry have blocked entrance roads to Mexico City. This blockade has prevented the arrival of buses with teachers from Michoacán, Guerrero, Tabasco, Oaxaca and Chiapas on four occasions when the teachers were summoned for demonstrations in the capital. Today, federal police officers have tried to prevent buses carrying teachers from Oaxaca from leaving their state of Oaxaca.
PREVENTING TRANSIT IN MEXICO CITY: Police operations have encapsulated the contingent of teachers marching in the city to address points of protest.
KILLED: Adding to already hostile situation, in the last three years, following the imposition of educational reform, teachers have been murdered or killed by impacts which were recorded during police repressions, not forgetting, of course the 43 student from the rural teaching college who are missing.
* "International Campaign in Defense of Embattled Mexican Teachers and their Union" (2016-06-27, CNTE/SNTE)
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I write this letter to you and to the members of the Organising Committee of the Mumbai Conference Against War, Exploitation and Precarious Labour concerning the urgent situation facing the teachers and their union, the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE/SNTE), in Mexico.
I was informed on Monday, June 20, by labor activists in Mexico with whom we are working closely to build the Mumbai Conference that teachers in the town of Nochixtlán, Oaxaca, were fired upon with live ammunition by the Federal Police on June 19 as part of the effort by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to break the nationwide strike by teachers against the government's privatizing "education reform" program.
The peaceful demonstration in Nochixtlán was also held to demand the immediate release from prison of the three top elected union officers of Section 22 of the CNTE/SNTE, the union representing the teachers in the state of Oaxaca. These union leaders had been jailed and sent to a federal prison more than 1,000 miles away by the government on trumped-up charges.
According to the initial reports we received, five people in Nochixtlán were killed by the Federal Police, with dozens more wounded, and 22 disappeared. Today, we have learned that the death toll has risen to 10, with the disappeared still unaccounted for.
The Mexican labor activists who contacted us have just sent us a statement issued on June 19 by Section 22 of the CNTE/SNTE in Oaxaca. It is an appeal to the national and international labor and democratic-rights movements urging solidarity with their struggle. [Please see the English translation of their letter below.]
I would also like to inform you that in the United States, at the initiative of top leaders of the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO), the San Francisco teachers' union (UESF), the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, and others, an emergency picket line / delegation was held at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco on June 22 to demand an immediate end to the repression against the teachers and their union in Mexico; the return of all the disappeared; the release from Federal prison of the teacher union leaders; punishment of all those responsible for the killings; and national negotiations, without conditions, with the striking teachers' union: the CNTE/SNTE.
Protest organizers also informed the Deputy Counsel of Mexico that labor and community activists across the United States are demanding that the U.S. government halt all military aid to Mexico, as the weapons made available to the Mexican Federal Police to repress the teachers have all been sent by the United States under the Plan Mérida.
I would also like to add that Josh Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which represents 120,000 teachers and education workers, has sent an Open Letter to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto reiterating many of the demands listed above. [See letter below.]
The anti-union repression against striking teachers in Mexico -- following on the heels of the so-called "reforms" imposed by the international financial institutions (IMF, OECD, World Bank, etc.) -- concerns all workers and trade unions the world over. Everywhere working people are confronted with the same anti-worker policies and the same repression when they stand up and fight back to defend their rights and gains.
That is why I send this appeal to all the workers, youth, and their organizations the world over who are supporting the Mumbai Conference so that (1) you can learn about the appeal from Section 22 of the CNTE/SNTE in Oaxaca and the Open Letter by CFT President Josh Pechthalt, and (2) you can take whatever actions you deem appropriate in your own countries in response to the appeal for solidarity from the Mexican sisters and brothers.
All letters or statements addressed to the Mexican authorities should be sent directly to the office of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to <enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx>, with copies sent to <owcmumbai2016@gmail.com>. In addition, all reports of any actions taken at Mexican embassies or consulates, or any other initiatives, should be sent to <owcmumbai2016@gmail.com>.
I thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this urgent matter.
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin
Member of the Organizing Committee of the Mumbai Conference
Delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
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* "Donate to support COPINH and Berta's family" (2016-03-21, hondurassolidarity.org) live link [is.gd/3vW53W]
More about the call to action for Justice for Berta Caceres (June 15th) live link [is.gd/lKPTMo]
HR Bill No. 5474 - the “Bertha Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” calling for the “suspension of security assistance to Honduran military and police until such time as human rights violations by Honduran state security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”
#HR5474, #bertacaceres
* (2016-06-15, witnessforpeace.org):
This morning Representatives Hank Johnson (GA), joined by Reps. Conyers (MI), Ellison (MN), Kaptur (OH), Serrano (NY), and Schakowsky (IL) introduced a bill calling suspension of U.S. military and police aid to Honduras until human rights violations committed by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.
The bill states that "The Honduran police are widely established to be deeply corrupt and to commit human rights abuses, including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder, with impunity”* and that the military has committed violations of human rights, and therefore asks that the United States suspend all “...security assistance to Honduran military and police until such time as human rights violations by Honduran state security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”
The bill features the following demands:
- All U.S. aid to Honduran security forces must cease, and the U.S. must vote no on all loans from multinational development banks to Honduras until the following conditions are met:
- A full investigation and prosecution into the murders of Berta Cáceres, 100 small-farmer activists in the Aguán Valley, Joel Palacios Lino and Elvis Armando García.
- A full investigation and prosecution of the armed attack against Félix Molina.
- A full investigation and prosecution of those members of the Honduran military and police forces who have committed human rights abuses.
- That the Honduran military withdraw from domestic policing, as mandated in the constitution.
- That the rights of “...land rights defenders; trade unionists; journalists; Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, small farmer and LGBTI activists; human rights defenders; critics of the government; and other civil society activists...” are protected.
- Take steps toward establishing the rule of law and strong democratic systems such as a functioning judiciary branch capable of prosecuting member of the military and police forces.
Organizational support -
AFL-CIO; Alliance for Global Justice; American Federation of Government Employees (AFL-CIO), Local 3354; American Friends Service Committee; Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition (BALASC); Center for Constitutional Rights; CIP Americas Program; Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN; Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES); Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, AFSC Colorado Office; Denver Justice and Peace Committee; Human Rights Observation Honduras; Family Farm Defenders; Friendship Office of the Americas; Friends of the Earth; Grassroots Global Justice Alliance; International Labor Rights Forum; JASS (Just Associates); Just Foreign Policy; International Action Center; Inter Religious Task Force on Central America, Cleveland, OH; Latin America Task Force of Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice, Michigan; Latin America Working Group LAWG; La Voz de los de Abajo, Chicago; Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; National Lawyers Guild; Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala/NISGUA; Nicaragua Center for Community Action (NICCA); Other Worlds, U.S.; Partners for the Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples; Portland Central America Solidarity Committee; Presbyterian Church USA; Rights and Ecology; Task Force on the Americas; SOA Watch; Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Sisters of Mercy of the Americas - Justice Team; Win Without War; Witness for Peace; Witness for Peace Midwest; World March of Women, US Chapter.
* "HONDURAS 2015/2016" (amnesty.org) [archive.is/qhi08], intro: Amid a general climate of crime and violence, human rights defenders, Indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant leaders involved in land disputes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activists, justice officials and journalists were targeted with violence and intimidation by state and criminal actors in retaliation for their work. A weak criminal justice system and corruption contributed to a climate of extensive impunity for these abuses.
* "Berta Cáceres, Indigenous Activist, Is Killed in Honduras" (2016-03-03, nytimes.com) [archive.is/YyEAo]
* "The Death of Berta Caceres" (2016-03-11, newyorker.com) [archive.is/tH07z]
* "No Answers in the Murder of Berta Cáceres" (2016-04-11, newyorker.com) [archive.is/PaHt9]
* "State Department Turns Blind Eye to Evidence of Honduran Military’s Activist Kill List" (2016-06-23, theintercept.com) [archive.is/ITk8Q], attached video [https://youtu.be/jv-nuwvs0aM] [begin excerpt]: STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON John Kirby on Wednesday repeatedly denied that the government of Honduras kills its own citizens, saying more than a dozen times that he has not heard “credible evidence” of “deaths ordered by the military.”
His comments came in the wake of a high-profile assassination of Honduran native-rights activist Berta Cáceres in March, and a report in the Guardian that a high-level deserter from the Honduran army said he is “100 percent certain that Berta Cáceres was killed by the [Honduran] army.”
The deserter explained that Cáceres’s name and picture appeared on a kill list including “dozens of social and environmental activists,” which had been distributed to two elite, U.S.-trained units.
Since Honduras’s right-wing regime seized power in a coup in 2009, media and human rights organizations have compiled overwhelming evidence of Honduran military and police violence.
Kirby said he was aware of “media reports alleging the existence of a Honduran activist hit list,” but noted that “at this time, there’s no specific, credible allegations of gross violations of human rights that exists in this or any other case involving the security forces that receive U.S. government assistance.”
Kirby’s comments were even at odds with the State Department’s own human rights reports on Honduras, which for the last two years have referred to “unlawful and arbitrary killings and other criminal activities by members of the security forces.”
The U.S. maintains a very close relationship with Honduran military. Since a military coup deposed leftist President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, the United States has provided nearly $200 million in military aid to the Central American nation. The U.S. also maintains a network of at least seven military bases in Honduras, which house a permanent force of more than 600 special operations troops. In February, the Wall Street Journal published a video showing American forces teaching Honduran forces how to conduct night raids.
In 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a central role in legitimizing the new coup regime. While President Obama initially called Zelaya’s ouster “illegal” and said it would set a “terrible precedent,” Clinton refused to call it a military coup, and aid continued to flow. She also pushed for a sham election to “render the question of Zelaya moot,” according to Clinton’s memoir – which was later scrubbed of references to Honduras during her presidential campaign.
Officially linking U.S.-backed Honduran forces with human rights violation would trigger legally-required reductions in aid – in addition to putting the State Department in the uncomfortable position of criticizing a client state, and casting doubt on Clinton’s wisdom in backing the coup.
After The Intercept asked Kirby to respond to the report that the U.S. trained Cáceres’s killers, he repeatedly denied the existence of “specific, credible allegations.”
After other reporters joined in the questioning, Kirby expressed frustration that he had repeat that there was “no credible evidence” of state murders more than a dozen times. “The reason you’re being asked to repeat it is because it’s kind of hard to believe,” said Associated Press diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee. [end excerpt]
* "State Department Faces Questioning over U.S. Military Aid to Honduras" (2016-06-23, democracynow.org) [is.gd/DMTnFL]:
Georgia Representative Hank Johnson has introduced a bill to stop all U.S. military funding to Honduras. In news on Honduras, questions are mounting about the legality of U.S. military funding to Honduras, following allegations by a former Honduran soldier that murdered environmentalist Berta Cáceres appeared on a hit list distributed to U.S.-trained special forces before her assassination. First Sergeant Rodrigo Cruz told The Guardian he is "100% certain that Berta Cáceres was killed by the army." State Department Press Secretary John Kirby responded to questions Wednesday about the new reports.
John Kirby: "We’ve seen media reports alleging the existence of a Honduran activist hit list, as you’ve described it."
Reporter: "Sure."
John Kirby: "The U.S. government has not previously heard any credible allegation of hit lists, of deaths ordered by the military, and we do not have any information which would substantiate this report."
Reporter: "You have not? You have not heard of these kill lists?"
John Kirby: "I think that’s what I just said. We don’t have—"
Reporter: "OK."
John Kirby: "We haven’t heard of any credible allegation of hit lists, of deaths."
Reporter: "I mean, since—"
John Kirby: "And we do have any information that would substantiate this report."
Reporter: "One human rights professor called this 'smoking-gun evidence.' If this isn’t credible, what is credible evidence on the level you’re talking about?"
John Kirby: "We haven’t seen, in our view, credible evidence to back up these allegations. If we do, we’ll take it seriously."
State Dept.: "And at this time, there’s no specific credible allegations of gross violations of human rights that exists in this or any other case involving the security forces that receive U.S. Government assistance”.
* "Rep. Johnson introduces 'The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act' ; Congressman leads effort with five colleagues to withhold U.S. funds from Honduran police & military until gross human rights violations are addressed" (2016-06-15):
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the wake of the tragic killing of the Honduran environmental and indigenous leader Berta Cáceres on March 2, 2016, Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) introduced legislation that would suspend U.S. funding to the Republic of Honduras for their police and military operations, including funds for equipment and training, until the Honduran government investigates credible reports indicating the police and military are violating citizens’ human rights.
The U.S. Department of Defense is sending the Honduran government $18 million in 2016 for security assistance.
The “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” (H.R. 5474) would suspend those funds – and prohibit international loans providing for security assistance – from being dispersed unless Honduras makes serious inroads to addressing blatant human rights violations by police and military forces.
“We provide millions of dollars in security assistance to Honduras every year but these same forces have been found to attack and kill environmental, labor and human rights activists like Cáceres without any effective response from the Honduran authorities,” said Rep. Johnson. “It’s time for our government to send a stronger message by leveraging security assistance and multilateral loans in order to put real and lasting pressure on the Honduran government to protect its activists and pursue those responsible for these outrageous crimes.”
In March, Rep. Johnson and Rep. Keith Ellison (MN-05) penned a letter signed by more than 60 Congressional colleagues calling for an independent, international investigation into the murder of Cáceres with backing from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The State Department, The New York Times, the Associated Press and numerous human rights groups have documented that the Honduran police and military are widely believed to be deeply corrupt and commit gross human rights abuses – including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder – with impunity.
The bill – cosponsored by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (MI-13), Rep. Keith Ellison (MN-05), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) and Rep. José E. Serrano (NY-15) – requires investigations into a series of suspicious killings of human rights activists and demands the Honduran government protect the rights of trade unionists; journalists; human rights; defenders; Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, small farmers and LGBTI activists; critics of the government and other civil society activists so they may operate without interference from the police or military.
“Like so many across the globe, I was deeply saddened to hear that beloved human rights activist Berta Cáceres became the latest victim of violence and impunity in Honduras earlier this year,” said Rep. Conyers. “I am proud to support this bill that will ensure that U.S. military and police aid is dispensed only when Honduran institutions have demonstrated a firm commitment to bring perpetrators of violence to justice.”
“Berta Cáceres willingly risked her life to fight for equality and justice in Honduras,” said Rep. Ellison. “In the wake of her death, and the continued violence against organizers, activists, and civilians, it is time to finally address human rights in Honduras. Members of Congress have written letters on this for years, but the situation continues to deteriorate. It’s time to take stronger action. This bill would suspend security aid to Honduras until human rights are protected, members of the Honduran security forces are held accountable, and justice is achieved for the victims.”
“There are rampant abuses of human rights in Honduras by security forces, and unanswered, enduring questions about the murder of Berta Cáceres and other activists,” said Rep. Kaptur. “As President Truman remarked, ‘Once a government is committed to the principal of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go.’ These abuses have led to a climate of fear and intimidation, and until law and order are restored, we have a moral obligation to suspend all police and military aid to Honduras.”
“I am proud to stand with Representative Hank Johnson in calling for a suspension of U.S. aid to Honduran military and police forces,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “The Honduran government has stood by while environmental activists like Berta Cáceres and trade unionists have been murdered for speaking up to protect workers, the environment and their country. It has allowed its law enforcement officials to violate the legal rights of its people and use violence in an attempt to intimidate activists into silence. U.S. taxpayers should not be asked to fund those anti-democratic actions. Until and unless the Honduran government puts an end to those practices and works with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to conduct an impartial and thorough investigation of past abuses, it does not deserve U.S. support.”
“A number of reports from credible human rights organizations establish the extent to which the Honduran police and military are engaging in corrupt practices and gross human rights abuses in Honduras,” said Rep. Serrano. “When these abuses occur, Hondurans often do not have access to a strong and fair judicial system. Impunity cannot and will not be tolerated. Cutting U.S. security assistance to Honduras will send a strong message, limit funding for institutions that are broken, and serve as leverage to force the Honduran government to investigate these crimes, tackle corruption, and restore law and order.”
---
The irony is contained in the following article, where the student describes conditions in the socialist Republic of Cuba without context for the same exact conditions being prevalent in the student's home region. The USA has many cities that are systematically destroyed or economically sacrificed (like Detroit, Vallejo, Flint), yet the world is told it is the wealthiest jurisdiction that commands and protects the global market regime, while on the other hand, the Republic of Cuba was totally blockaded by the USA from participating in the global market regime, yet has not famine or cities crumbling in the manner of the three cities of the USA listed (Detroit, Vallejo, Flint), and the quality of life is better than USA-dominated republics of Honduras, Haiti, Mexico, and etc.
* "American Canyon graduate visits Havana for Spring Break" (2016-06-26, napavalleyregister.com) [archive.is/CNkhc] [begin excerpt]:
Spring break for most college students is about taking trips to have fun. For Solomon Self, it was educating himself firsthand about one of the last remaining Communist nations in the world: Cuba.
Self, a 2015 graduate of American Canyon High School, spent his spring break in Havana along with 15 of his classmates from American University in Washington, D.C., to explore the issue of U.S.-Cuba relations. The timing of the trip in March couldn’t have been much better.
The students arrived in Cuba about a week before President Barack Obama’s historic visit that made him the first American president to visit the longtime adversary since the Cuban revolution in 1959.
For seven days, Self got to interview Cubans of all stripes, from academics to people on the street, to gather information on how they viewed the big issue of the day: Normalizing relations and ending the U.S. embargo.
[...]
“The infrastructure is really bad there; it’s all falling apart,” he said. “I’ve never seen ruins before in the middle of a city. It was like you were in Greece.”
Another thing that stood out to Self was how Cubans who have family members living in Florida dress.
Many of them “looked very American because they wore every brand name you could think of at once,” said Self. “A Polo hat, a Nike shirt, Levi’s jeans, Reebok shoes, a Gucci belt, all at the same time.”
“What we learned was Cuban-Americans in Florida and Miami, when they buy clothes and outgrow them, they send them to family in Cuba,” he said. “They look very eclectic, like they just went through a pile of clothes and put them on.”
Looks aside, the Cuban people left a positive impression on Self.
“They were very, very nice,” he said.
Professor Sally Shelton-Colby, who organized and led the trip, agreed her students were well received.
“Cubans were amazingly open to us,” said Shelton-Colby, Distinguished Diplomat in Residence at American University and former U.S. ambassador to Grenada and Barbados under President Jimmy Carter. She was married to William Colby, head of the CIA under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, until his death in 1996.
The trip was an outgrowth of a class Shelton-Colby teaches: “Why They Hate Us, and Why They Love Us.” The course looks at peoples all around the world – Arabs, Israelis, Russians, Indians, Latin Americans, etc. – and teaches students how the U.S. is perceived globally.
“Some hate us for good reason, and some love us for good reason,” she said.
“The bottom line is Cubans love the American people,” she said by phone from Washington. “They hate the American government” as a result of a long, antagonistic history that included U.S. attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, the aborted overthrow of his regime through the Bay of Pigs operation, and the decades-long economic embargo. [...]
“They were scared that American culture would overtake their own,” said Self.
During a visit to an art gallery, Self saw a painting of a large red banner that mimicked the Coca Cola brand image, but said “Revolucion.”
“They felt like there’s going to be a McDonald’s on every corner, a Starbucks in every hotel,” he said. They fear American companies will turn Cuba “into another U.S. state.”
Shelton-Colby, who believes the embargo will be lifted “sooner than later,” agreed with Self’s assessment. “They don’t want to see a Starbucks on every corner,” she said. [...]
“Nature is a real thing there” when it comes to food production, he said. “We don’t have to deal with that at all” because the U.S. can grow or import whatever consumers desire anytime of year.
“They have limited amounts,” he said.
Self loves Cuban sandwiches. But the one he was served in a Havana restaurant was a far cry from those he has enjoyed in American eateries that are “stacked” with meat, cheese, peppers and more.
“I got one there and it was this big,” he said, holding his hands barely apart. “It basically looked like a slider. This was not what I expected.”
Seeing the widespread poverty in Cuba, Self said the U.S. should lift the embargo for the sake of Cubans. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Weapons for a New World Order
* "US Navy keeps electromagnetic cannon in its sights" (2016-06-25, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/FnKIs]
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Permanent surveillance for the combined markets administered by the USA security regime.
* "Solar Impulse 2 completes historic 70hr Atlantic crossing" (2016-06-23, rt.com) [archive.is/sDGrv]
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* "Intelligent robot that 'remembers and learns' could be scrapped after escaping a lab for a second time; The Promobot IR77 has been fitted with artificial intelligence meaning that it learns from its experiences and surroundings and can remember everybody it meets" (2016-06-22, mirror.co.uk) [archive.is/IIGsL]
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* "Stephen Hawking: Governments Are Engaged In An AI Arms Race That Could Destroy Humanity" (2016-06-28, by Matt Agorist) [archive.is/7ZKhj]
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Articles reflecting the views of war planners
(warontherocks.com)
* "The expensive pretzel logic of deterring Russia by denial" (2016-06-23, warontherocks.com) [archive.is/ljA1B]
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USA Homeland's resident nations:
Nations exist alongside the Federal [archive.is/VXoPR], and State governance [archive.is/Cz2uF]. Demographic maps: 2000 [archive.is/nXHXz], 2010 [archive.is/nKbSA], religion [archive.is/XArBS]. The New Afrikan nation, and the nation of Nueva Aztlan, each have their own separate sections on this news page.
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (USA territory) and the Boriqueno nation[waragainstallpuertoricans.com]
* "Beaches of Puerto Rico are sold to US billionaires…by Puerto Rican government traitors" (2016-06-29, waragainstallpuertoricans.com) [archive.is/kvGpD]
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USA Homeland's resident nations:American Nation, including the State Sovereignty campaigns, and Dominionist Campaigns. [tenthamendmentcenter.com]
* "Texit: Texas Inspired By Brexit, Aims To Break Away From The United States By 2018" (2016-06-28, by Amando Flavio) [archive.is/z07Mp]
===*===*===
Northbay Uprising FM Radio News is broadcast courtesy of 89.5 FM-KZCT [OzcatRadio.com]
On Ozcat Radio, tune-in online [is.gd/kJ1EUt] for:
- The Stranger News, broadcast Thursdays, 5 to 5:30pm, featuring latest news on science, technology, space, and cutting-edge research on the mind, world history, and entheogenics!
- The Northbay UpRising Morningshow, broadcast Tuesdays, 7 to 9am, with local news, and topics on Peace, the Ecology, Do-It-Yourself ideas, and Communitarianism!
- KBBF Weekly News, broadcast Tuesdays at 8:45pm, on the Northbay UpRising morningshow!
- The Ozcat Roundtable, a topical news program broadcast Wednesdays, 3 to 6pm, with hosts Billy I. (pictured), Jeremy, and the Nomad!
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