Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay MDS. Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), at 89.5FM in the northeast San Pablo Bay Area, or on a Smart Phone [link], Desktop U-stream [link], Live Mp3 (.pls) stream [link], Netbook [link]. Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link]. Send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Northbay Uprising News scripts [link]. Archived webpages at (archive.org) and at (archive.today) 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.
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There are political prisoners locked up simply for their political beliefs... for their belief in LIBERATION - FREEDOM from OPPRESSION and EXPLOITATION. Some of these men and women have been held in prison for decades. What role will we play in ending this oppression and exploitation? Join us as we commemorate the Black Prison Movement efforts to expose the inhumane and unjust prison system, educate prisoners on politics and human rights, while uniting prisoners of different backgrounds.
Black August Resistance!!
Each year officially since 1979 we have used the month of August to focus on the oppressive treatment of our brothers and sisters disappeared inside the state run gulags and concentration camps America calls prisons. It is during this time that we concentrate our efforts to free our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, and all other captive family and friends who have been held in isolation for decade after decade beyond their original sentence. Many of these individuals are held in the sensory deprivation and mind control units called Security Housing Units (S.H.U. Program), without even the most basic of human rights." - BAOC
Black August is a month of great commemorative significance for the Afrikan peoples of the Diaspora, particularly those in the U.S. and especially the California prison isolation units, where the commemorative tradition originated. Black August, as noted by one our most dedicated New Afrikan Freedom Fighters, Mumia Abu-Jamal," is a month of divine meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us".
Black August originated in the concentration camps (prisons) of California in 1979 and its' roots come from the history of resistance by Black/New African/African brothers in those prisons. It's original purpose is to honor and commemorate the lives and deaths of several fallen Freedom Fighters, amongst them were Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, W.L. Nolan, James McClain, William Christmas and Khatari Gaulden; to bring education and awareness to family members, friends, associates and communites about the conditions for the Black/New Afrikan prisoners held within those concentration camps (in particular in California) and to educate our people about and honor the history and actions of continued resistance of Black/New Afrikan/Afrikan peoples to oppression, colonization and slavery in the U.S. and throughout the Diaspora, with particular emphasis on freedom fighters and historical acts of resistance."
Buy a BAOC t-shirt to help raise funds for their work! More info here [archive.is/yBpn7].
Ras Ceylon writes: 1st day of Black August 2015, I had to stop by and visit the OG (original guerrilla) Shaka At-Thinnin, comrade of the dragon George Jackson and original #BAOC (Black August Organizing Committee) founder to show solidarity wit Black August Resistance 2015 & buying a few Black August T-shirts:
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send Jabari to UNIA-ACL Conference [gofundme.com/UNIA510]
Help send the President of U.N.I.A 510 division to 58th international conference in Chicago IL
View the conference flier here [archive.is/UM6iT].
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InDIYpendent Media
Spotlight from the Northbay Uprising Media Collective
EASTWEST: Bay Area Analysis, Revolt, History, and Subversion [fireworksbayarea.com].
EastWest returns with a full cover issue. Tackling such topics as Oakland's attempt at containing the Ferguson inspired revolt with curfews and repression, a look at the burgeoning weed bubble, a look at the drought from a anti-colonial perspective, action and repression news, and an in depth interview with anti-eviction organizer James Tracey.
Pick up a hard copy at Qilombo, OMNI, Long Haul Infoshop, Station 40, Modern Times, Bound Together Books, and many more!
Download a copy (.pdf) [http://is.gd/8YzxrG]
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ACTION HEADLINES!
Stories are reviewed and provided by Northbay MDS Committees and Affiliates
information collected by the
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM COALITION
[SolanoPeaceJustice.blogspot.com], to end the USA's endless wars, in harmony with Principle 1 & 6 of International Law [archive.today/tmncz], and the 5 protocols of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) [archive.is/LhUTj].
Peace Calender for Sonoma County [archive.is/pM2ik]
STOP URBAN SHIELD!!
[facebook.com/pages/Stop-Urban-Shield/515805795263322]
What is it?
Stop Urban Shield is a broad coalition of grassroots community and social justice organizations that have united against Urban Shield, a SWAT team training and weapons expo that brings together local, regional, and international police-military units to collaborate on and profit from new forms of surveillance, state repression, and state violence.
Last year, Stop Urban Shield and broader community organizations and members built upon Oakland's rich history of organizing against policing and for self-determination by forcing the City of Oakland to stop hosting Urban Shield. This was a huge victory.
Urban Shield mistakenly thinks that they can evade accountability to our communities by moving the convergence to the City of Pleasanton, even though the City of Oakland, along with cities all across the Bay Area, California and the U.S. will still be fully participating.
Let's show them they're wrong! As communities around the country rise up demanding an end to racist police violence, it is now more important than ever to build upon our victories and work toward shutting down Urban Shield entirely.
While Urban Shield is just one front in the fight against the state's attempt to militarize every aspect of our lives - from its war-making here and abroad, to the increasing presence of police in our schools, to the systemic murder of Black and Brown people at the hands of police - stopping Urban Shield would be a major victory against this growing trend of militarization in cities everywhere, from Oakland to Ferguson to Baltimore. Join us in resisting violence against our communities and in fighting for genuine visions of justice, safety, and self-determination.
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* "Hancock Drone Resisters sentenced to 15 days for refusing to pay fines, etc." (2015-07-30, upstatedroneaction.org): Syracuse, N.Y. Four anti-drone resisters were sentenced last night in Judge Joseph J. Zavaglia’s DeWitt (NY) Town Court for alleged trespass at a “die-in” on April 28, 2013 at Hancock Air Base, home to the 174th Attack Wing of the NY National Guard, just north of Syracuse, NY. At their four-day trial this past June trial the six-person jury acquitted the four of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration.
The four are members of Upstate Drone Action Coalition – a scrupulously nonviolent, loosely-knit grassroots network which, since 2009 has actively opposed the Hancock Reaper drones flying missions over Afghanistan. The Reaper, an unmanned robot, is notorious for violating international law by killing, maiming and terrorizing civilians in several U.S. undeclared wars.
There have been over 160 anti-drone arrests at Hancock resulting in bails as high as $10,000, numerous trials, many incarcerations, and Orders of Protection (a legal device usually meant to protect spouses and other vulnerable persons against violence).
The four defendants are: Joan Pleune of Brooklyn, Beverly Rice of Manhattan, Ellen Barfield of Baltimore, and Jules Orkin of Bergenfield, New Jersey. Pleune is a former Freedom Rider; Barfield, Rice and Orkin are active with Veterans for Peace.
All four were identically sentenced to one year’s conditional discharge, $250 fine, $125 court costs and a two-year order of protection. Both Pleune and Rice told Judge Zavaglia, through their attorney Lewis Oliver, that they would not agree to the conditional discharge – which led him to sentence the two women to 15 days in Jamesville Penitentiary. Pleune and Rice were taken from court in handcuffs.
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PROTEST & MARCH AGAINST THE MADNESS OF NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
On the 70th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, members of the Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center in Walnut Creek will march for 25 miles to the Livermore Labs in Livermore, a peace march that will last from Tuesday, August 4th to Thursday, August 6th, with a stop over at the Lutheran Church in Danville where they will spend the night. On Wednesday the group will complete the hike, ending the day in Livermore where they will join with other protesters from around the bay area and spend that night at the Peace Camp at Del Valle Reservoir and then return to Livermore Labs for the Thursday morning protest.
70 Years of Nuclear Weapons: At What Cost?
Join the 70th Anniversary Hiroshima Action on Thursday, August 6th - 8:00 AM, at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, located at Vasco and Patterson Pass Roads
Bay Are peace and justice advocates are marking the historic 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and protesting the fact that the U.S. spends billions to create "new and modified" nuclear weapons. Those who choose to do so will peaceably risk arrest. Others will offer witness and support.
Free parking is available for reserve a seat on vanpools to the rally and action. They will leave from the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station. For more information, contact Tri-Valley CAREs at 925-443-7148.
* VFP Golden Rule Project [facebook.com/pages/VFP-Golden-Rule-Project/221122271247448]
* "The Golden Rule Sets Sail from Eureka to San Diego Sailing for a Nuclear Free World" (2015-07-23, Veterans For Peace), photo with crew [archive.is/Ymo4w], article [archive.is/iMqqp] [begin excerpt]: The historic Golden Rule peace boat, restored by Veterans For Peace and many friends, sets sail from the Eureka marina at noontime on Thursday, July 23, on its way to San Diego.
The 30-foot ketch and its crew ignited an international movement to stop the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in 1958, when they attempted to sail into a nuclear bomb test zone in the Marshall Islands. The Golden Rule will now continue its mission to educate millions of people about the perils of nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons are still with us and the threat of nuclear war is very real,” said the Golden Rule’s captain David Robson, a Veterans For Peace member from Baltimore, Maryland. “We are dismayed that the U.S. government plans to invest One Trillion Dollars into upgrading its nuclear arsenal, instead of reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons, as called for in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.”Joining David Robson on the sail to San Diego is first mate Jan Passion of Pleasant Hills, California, and crew members Michael Gonzales of Trinidad, California and Helen Jaccard of Seattle, Washington.
“The ongoing nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, Japan reminds us of the dangers of radiation poisoning posed by nuclear power plants,” said Golden Rule crew member Helen Jaccard. “Nuclear power is the flip side of nuclear weapons, and we don’t need either of them,” said Jaccard.
The first voyage of the renewed Golden Rule sailboat will be from Eureka on California’s north coast to San Diego near the U.S./Mexico border. After an estimated 7-10 days, the Golden Rule will arrive in time for the national convention of Veterans For Peace, August 5-9. That week is also the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more than 200,000 people. The convention theme is “Peace and Reconciliation in the Pacific.” [end excerpt]
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* "W. E. B. Du Bois to Malcolm X: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb" (2015-07-30, zinnedproject.org) [archive.is/h2gm5]
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* " End US Financing Of The War In Mexico: Military Murders 12 Year Old Hidilberto Reyes" (2015-07-26, soaw.org) [archive.is/PN1RL]
* "The U.S. Aids and Abets War Crimes in the Philippines" (2015-07-22, truthdig.com) [archive.is/iX18J]
* "Pentagon assures it will check Iran's 'malign' influence" (2015-07-30, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/ETK5K]
* "Americans pack Times Square to denounce Iran deal" (2015-07-23, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/7Tvkh]. The pro-war "protests" were organized by lobbyists for weapons manufacturers and by foreign clandestine agencies allied with the USA State Department. Modern war targets civilian populations first and foremost. The supporters for war knowingly support the murder of millions just because those people live under an "evil regime".
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A comment of the war crimes of the "Liberal" Labor Party of Great Britain, one of the two state parties similar to the Democrat Party of the USA:"When it comes to imperialism, a lot has changed. The Old Labor Party decapitated their enemies with knives. Now, the Labor Party prefers bombing from a mile up in the air."
[Comment from a good liberal in London]: "No, you haven't lived through old Labor years! Your imperious, know it all attitude, is unbelievable. So Attlee was a brutal imperialist... Setting up the National Health Sytem, nationalising our utilities, building council houses and pre-fabs in order to house the thousands made homeless by World War 2, claiming all public-transport for the people, and achieving 97% full employment. All backed by a new welfare state. Is this imperialism? WHAT????"
[Reply]: "Rounding up 10% of Malaysia's population into internment camps for the profit of British mining and rubber corporations, and then allowing British soldiers to decapitate anybody who resists. Yes that sounds very much like imperialism. Attlee was an imperialist madman for most of the same reasons I would call the Imperial Japanese army an army of imperialist plunder. Following the USA into the Korean war and dropping more bombs on Korea than in the entire World War 2 campaign. All this just to stop the spread of socialism and anti-colonial liberation. Yes that's my idea of what imperialism is."
Comment in support: "The amount of people I see being apologists to Labor Party imperialism because they "built the welfare state" is fucking disgusting. That level of arguing works on the idea that it's ok to murder millions and plunder entire nations as long as we Brits have a comprehensive and universal healthcare system...well no, fuck that, we are only free when the whole world enjoys the benefits of an socio-economic system based off social ownership, not when a small minority of a western society live off of a Keynesian style capitalist market that is only kept afloat by its support of imperialist campaigns and super profits"
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Starting a few years ago, KPFA FM radio show hosts who identified as Black Liberation organizers or as "extreme Leftists" were fired without reason and their shows canceled. The radio station is historically a target for hostile takeovers by the clandestine agencies of the State Department, Military, the Justice Department, and private-sector agencies.
* "Pacifica in exile newsletters: KPFA secession documents" (2015-07-30, pacificainexile.org) [archive.is/7ZEX5]
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* photo (2015-07-27) [archive.is/UjvZQ]: They got Comrade Jihad tonight in the jlthe demonstrations for Richie along with Rich's Brother and about 5 others. We need legal support for those arrested, people to spread the word about the senseless killing of another Afrikan in our community and more organizers to come out tomorrow at 4: 20 pm
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* "Man Arrested and Convicted for Using Washable Chalk at Police Protest" (2015-07-24, by Mike Rhodes) [archive.is/Wa2sl]
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* "City Declares Humanist Hall a Neighborhood Nuisance; Gentrifying neighborhood threatens historic venue’s survival, according to staff" (2015-07-24, postnewsgroup.com) [archive.is/ygL3P]
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* "Two Oakland Activists Accused of Freeing Animals Are Charged as Terrorists" (2015-07-24, by Will Potter, Green Is the New Red) [archive.is/LoakR]
* Court Support for Nicole and Joseph (call-to-action, 2015-07-28) [archive.is/2JJAR]
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SOLANO PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY
[SolanoPFP.blogspot.com] Use the ballot for our own People's candidates and legislation, campaign for the future!
A piece of Bay Area history:
* "Potrero Hill Populated by Powerful Women" (2015-07, potreroview.net) [archive.is/uiTH5]. Minor correction to the article: Kayren Hudiburgh did not come in second in the official tally in the 1974 Assembly race. Foran the Democrat got over 70 percent of the vote. The Republican got 15 percent and Kayren was credited with just over 13 percent relegating her to third place in this three way race.
While Hudiburgh was placing second in this three way contest during the evening after the polls closed, by the next day the second place finish had eluded her. The Democratic Party which controls San Francisco politics so strongly is suspected by many of us of some Chicago style tampering with the results in order to prevent a second place finish by a third party candidate.
There was no funding available to conduct a recount - the candidate requesting this procedure is required to pay all costs for such an effort.
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TOWARDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS
* "Emerging Forms of Leftism in the Millennial Generation" (2015-07-27, thenorthstar.info) [archive.is/rm9kp] [begin excerpt]: A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in late-2011 may have provided a glimpse into our social and political future, if Millennials have anything to say about it [archive.is/S03TV]. During the height of the Occupy movement, and following the collapse of the latest capitalist Ponzi scheme (mortgage-backed securities), those who identified between the ages of 18 to 29 had a more favorable view of “socialism” than they did “capitalism.” The emerging forms of Leftism within the Millennial generation are far removed from the highly romanticized brand of Communism that occupied prior generations. The Soviet system has been six-feet deep for going on two decades. The Cold War bogeyman of the past has given way to new forms of fabricated “evils” like “Islamic extremists,” “border-crossing drug cartels” and “terrorists.” For these reasons, “Socialism” is no longer a scary word. And the total absence of Left-wing politics in the United States is a void that is screaming to be filled. This need – and opportune time – has created a healthy combination of traditional and new political philosophies, including everything from Anarchism, Syndicalism, and participatory economics to a revival of Marxism and radical labor movements. [end excerpt]
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!
* "60,000 call for justice for Tamir Rice" (2015-07-27, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/6hHKr]
* (2015-07-25) [archive.is/48UPL]: Over 1000 are gathered in Cleveland, Ohio this weekend for the first convening of The Movement for Black Lives. #m4bl
* "Eyewitness Report from Cleveland: Black Lives Matter!ar" event page [archive.is/5SFsM]: Featured Speaker Jamier Sale. In Cleveland, Ohio, a delegation of the Party for Socialism and Liberation joined 1000 other attendees at the first ever Movement for Black Lives National Convening. The activists met and engaged with others who are part of the resurgence of the struggle against racist police terror. Then, shortly after the conference ended, a stunning indictment was handed down in Cincinnati, charging a police officer with murder in the death of a Black motorist. This indictment is clearly a result of a powerful country-wide movement. The thousand people gathered in Cleveland said clearly, “Black Lives Matter!”
The Black Riders Liberation Party calls on all members of urban youth organizations to develop a dialogue to promote peace among all factions of every tribe. We are not asking to put the guns down but to turn them on the true oppressors the muthafuckin pigs...they kill us indiscriminately and we are left without a solution or so the neo liberal boot licking house negro would tell the people BUT there is a solution, A military political solition. To arm the masses of our people and then organize a resistance task force for our communities to correct the actions of the pigs...when they oink oink...we BANG BANG !!!
* campaign flier [archive.is/MEPyM]:
Black Riders Liberation Party
There is a rally Friday at the Dirkson Federal Building
We will be demanding the release of Jeff Fort aka Imam Malik al Shabazz
FREE IMAM MALIK
We ride because we demand the cases of all black people held captive in the jails and prisons of Amerikkka be re-opened, re-investigated, and re-tried by members of the Black community.
We ride because we feel that Black people living in incarceration have been tried unfairly by the U.S. Justice Department. We have been the right of trial by one's peers, resulting in guilty verdicts for an enormous amount of innocent Black people. We have been and are being tried by juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the Black community. It is time that these cases be re-opened and re-tried by Black people that the innocence of Black inmates can be determined by a jury of their peers, as stated in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
We as Black people shall then deal with our own people by granting freedom from incarceration to those whose re-trial has validated it, and deferring charges and sentences for those proven to be guilty by their peers.
We want amnesty for all Political Prisoners.
Friday, August 7th
219 South Dearborn
at 11:00 AM
The Almighty Nation of Moorish and Moabites People of America [www.facebook.com/MoorsandMoabitesofAmerica], Jeff Fort's website [archive.is/E5eSF]
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information collected by the Committee for
STUDENT POWER!
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee
WORKER'S POWER!
* "City of Richmond: A first — at last, rent control!" (2015-07-28, 1021 NewsWire):
SEIU 1021 and a coalition of unions and community groups are celebrating victory after the Richmond City Council made this city of 108,000 residents the first ever to enact rent control protections in Contra Costa County. The law also requires evictions be based on just cause.
The strong rent-control law is the first step in a broader agenda developed by the community/labor coalition to fight economic inequality in the city. They fought for the measure in response to a reported 30 percent increase in rents in just a few years. The coalition includes local unions and a range of resident, tenant, anti-poverty and other progressive organizations.
Richmond is the 10th Bay Area city to pass a rent control law and the 16th in California — the first in the state in three decades.
"I have lived in Richmond all my life," said SEIU 1021 member Robbie Hurtado. "My rent has been increasing every year from 10% to 20%. I support rent control because it levels the playing field between the property owner and renters."
"This is a real step towards economic justice," said Alysabeth Alexander, vice president for politics of SEIU 1021. "The rapid growth of Silicon Valley is causing displacement throughout Northern California, causing a true housing crisis that demands immediate action."
The stories below highlight the important role played by SEIU 1021 in the rent control coalition:
* "Richmond passes rent control" (2015-07-22, Tenants Together) [archive.is/Rvlbd], photos and comments [archive.is/g8FAz]
* "Richmond 1, Gentrification 0" (2015-07-25, beyondchron.org) [archive.is/ibkBg]
* "Richmond becomes first city in Contra Costa to approve rent control" (2015-07-22, contracostatimes.com) [archive.is/SGjK0]
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* "Court orders El Super to reinstate Fermin Rodriquez, fired organizer" (2015-08-03, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/jEB3o]
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* "Fig workers fired for waving UFW flags?" (2015-08-04, ufw.org):
These workers fired after doing this!
A crew of fig workers need your immediate help. The workers with Stellar Distributing Inc. demonstrated support for the United Farm Workers by waving UFW black-eagle flags at an orchard near the Central Valley town of Madera, Calif. That was after union organizers met with them on Saturday, August 1. When the fig workers showed up for work Monday morning, August 3, a Stellar company supervisor told the crew there was no work for them.
We immediately went to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which enforces the law guaranteeing farm workers’ right to organize. We demanded the workers get their jobs back as their right to show union support is legally protected.
The company’s illegal actions didn’t stop there. Later that day, UFW organizers went to the orchards to talk with other crews during their lunch break, another right guaranteed by the law.
The company's response? Company agents chained the gates shut and used company vehicles to block the road onto the property.
This act is also illegal since California law guarantees the right of farm workers and union organizers to meet during non-working hours in the fields.
Update: "Grower offers to return fired fig workers to work after UFW files charges" (2015-08-05, ufw.org) [archive.is/Fji9N]
* "Heat isn’t the only danger" (2015-07-22, UFW.org) [https://secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/july2015]:
The health of grape pickers is often at risk due to dangerous working conditions, lack of access to adequate medical care and insurance -- and even the callous indifference of their employers. You can help.
In California’s fertile Central Valley, where the temperature can reach 115 degrees, heat can and has killed. Margarita Garcia had a scare last summer. “The temperature was more than 100 degrees and I felt that I was overheating,” she says. She said she looked for shade outside the vineyards, but there was none and “There was only one jug of water all day for 40 workers.”
Heat is not the only danger workers face. Exposure to poisons and on-the-job injuries make agriculture one of the most dangerous jobs in America.
Petrolino Cruz recalls a day two years ago. “My co-workers and I arrived in the morning to the field, and when we started to get out of our cars we smelled something strange and very strong.” A supervisor said that a neighboring field had been fumigated. Petrolino and two other workers started to experience nausea, vomiting and dizziness. While Petrolino was sent to the hospital, others were required to work in the same field that day while it still had “a very bad smell."
Last year, Paula Macias bent over to pick up a tray full of grapes. She heard a loud “pop” followed by back pain so severe that she couldn’t stand up. “The foreman began to laugh at me and did not want to send me to the doctor,” Paula says. The day after Paula’s injury, her foreman told her he didn’t want any problems to result from it. So he instructed her to start working under a different name. When she refused, he fired her!
The lives and health of farm workers are at constant, serious risk. They urgently need our help, and they need it now. We pass laws and file lawsuits to defend their health and safety. We go out in the fields to organize workers and we document and file heat violations on their behalf.
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HANDS OFF OUR HOMES!
[HandsOffHomes.blogspot.com]
* "S.F. tenants groups fight ‘gotcha’ evictions" (2015-07-29, sfchronicle.com) [archive.is/ftXeU]
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In his most recent philosophical tantrum, performance artist and poet Gómez-Peña reflects on the dangers of the ultimate “creative city,” and what it means to become a foreigner in his own neighborhood, waiting for the much touted eviction notice.
* "Notes From Technotopia: On The Cruelty Of Indifference" an anti-gentrification philosophical tantrum (2015, by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, art by John Cristicello, with thanks to Balitronica, Emma Tramposch and Anastasia Herold for helping prepare the first version of this manuscript):
Dear Ex-local artist, writer, activist, bohemian, street eccentric, and/or protector of difference...
Imagine a city, your city and your former “hip” neighborhood, being handed over by greedy politicians and re/developers to the crème de la crème of the tech industry. This includes the 7 most powerful tech companies in the world. I don’t need to list them: their names have become verbs in lingua franca; their sandbox is the city you used to call your own.
Their Faustian iDeal involves radically transforming your city within a few years into an unprecedented “creative city,” a bohemian theme park for the young techies and “hipsters” who constitute their Darwinian work force. It comes with dormitories, food courts with catchy theme bars and entertainment centers. Sounds like science fiction, que no?
Imagine that during the reconstruction process, the rent - your rent - increases by two or three hundred percent overnight. The artists and the working class at large can no longer pay it. You are being forced to leave, at best to a nearby city, at worst back to your original hometown. The more intimate history you have with the old city, the more painful it is to accept this displacement. You have no choice.
While you hang on by a thread waiting for the eviction notice, every day you continue to lose old friends and colleagues you might never see again. They were less lucky than you and got evicted earlier. Heartbroken and exhausted, you spend a large part of your civic time attending anti-gentrification demonstrations and collaborating with other artists and activists in anti-eviction actions and techno-artivist projects, but still it only gets worse by the day. The number of dramatic eviction cases increases constantly and both the diminished politicized citizenry and the progressive media begin to experience compassion fatigue.
As your community rapidly shrinks, so does your sense of belonging to a city that no longer seems to like you. You begin to feel like a foreigner and internal exile: freaky Alice in techno-Wonderlandia; the Alien Caterpillar who inhaled. Unless you own your home and studio, as a renter, your hours “here” are numbered and you carry this feeling of imminent orphanhood like a very tight and stylish noose around your neck. After all, you perceive yourself as a dandy.
Imagine that all the classic and familiar places in your hood including funky, decades-old Latino restaurants and immigrant bars full of memories and ghosts, barber & specialty shops, bohemian sex clubs, experimental art galleries, indie theaters and bookstores –yes, shops where bound books are sold, -- the emotional spaces which have been your main source of inspiration, creativity and community -- are also forced to close because the pinche greedy landlord tripled the rent overnight or some millionaire bought the building or the entire block to rent out micro-units to airbnb. And all the new laws and acts protect him. Your imagination becomes a painful exercise in forced tolerance and providential acceptance.
In a few months, these wonderful places that for decades provided the city with a strong cultural identity are destroyed and reopened as (get ready) homogeneous “live/work/play” spaces, “micro-condominium” buildings and tech plazas in the works. Coño! The new city begins to look like a generic global metropolis imagined by Italo Calvino. To make the lives of the transient work force somewhat pleasant, hundreds of similar smart cafes, trendoid restaurants, overpriced “eateries” and “celebrity bars” open up in each neighborhood. Even the last standing old-school dive bars are being “discovered” (a euphemism for taken over) by the transplants via their Yelp or Foursquare mobile app.
But you, no matter how long you lived here or how much you have paid in rent – even if it is enough to own your hipster remodeled Victorian upper unit - You are not welcome.
You hit the streets again: What you used to call an average priced dinner is way above your price range now. Your sacred $4 night cocktail, now served by an aloof “celebrity bartender,” costs $15 and your daily jugos and licuados, now called “cold pressed gluten-free organic cleansing juices,” go for $12 in a “recyclable sustainable” bottle. But don’t worry: Remember that this is just a perverse exercise of radical imagination, or rather, a psychomagic challenge to deliver your daily dose of survival humor.
Imagine that your own building, a legendary (ex) artist building is now just another revolving airb&b miniunit for zombie techies who make well over $200 grand a year, but behave not unlike obnoxious teenage frat boys. If you are the only one of 3 Mexican tenants left, when you open the front door for a new neighbor, they either perceive you as the building's janitor or report you to the manager as a “suspicious character.” And yes, in Technotopia: your new identity is that of “suspicious character.”
The nightmare unfolds: Full of Maseratis, Ferraris, Porsches and Mercedes Benzes, the private parking lot is now protected with barbed wire fences and a digital display keypad encoded by microchips; and so are the “vintage bike” racks and trash containers. Video surveillance cameras are omnipresent. The new management wishes to keep the homeless, the day laborers and the “scary” young “people of color” at a distance…that is, before the cops get them. They are unpleasant memories of the old city of sin and compassion; kids from former distasteful and economically disadvantaged, at-risk neighborhoods.
The newly empowered cops drive around the hood looking for (criminal) “difference.” The homeless and the “gang bangers” aren’t the only ones being removed from the streets to make them safe for the new dot.com cadre. With them go the poets, the performance artists, the experimental musicians, the frail transvestites, the politicized sex workers, the gallant mariachis, the cool low-riders, the urban primitives, the angry punks, the defiant radical feminists and the very activists who used to protect us all from the greedy landlords and politicians who conceived of this macabre project.
It’s the latest American version of ethnic and cultural cleansing. It’s invisible to the newcomers, and highly visible to those of us who knew the old city. The press labels it “the post-gentrification era.”
“Prehistory is only 7 years old and nostalgia is pure style, a bad selfie of a fictional memory.”—Anonymous tweet.
There are suspicious fires happening constantly, in apartment buildings and homes inhabited by mostly Latino and black working class families. And you cannot help but to wonder if landlords and redevelopers are setting these fires? “Is there a secret garden of violence in the heart of techno-bohemian paradise?”-Anonymous tweet.
You also begin to wonder, who are these random people and newly evasive neighbors taking over your neighborhood? Metaphysically speaking, where did they really come from? And how long will they stay? Are they merely browsing in the mythological backyard of Technotopia? Will they return to the suburbs when the Chicano intifada begins?
Day after day, allured by the new digital bonanza, hundreds, thousands of new people arrive, unfamiliar people, without manners or style, social or historical consciousness; mostly middle and upper class white people from the suburbs and small cities from throughout the country, along with some wealthy foreign entrepreneurs and programmers from similarly upwardly mobile techno cultures. Undistinguishable from tourists, so many of them look like they were just dropped here by a UFO straight out of a Minneapolis or a Houston suburb, complete with their yoga mat, mobile gym and tech gear bearing the logo of the company they work for; their designer dogwear and strollers, all glued to their smartphones to the point where they can’t even acknowledge your presence as you pass them on the street.
Soon, these normative looking humans will destroy their very object of bohemian desire; the multicultural fetishes which attracted them “here” in the first place. And they will one day wake up to an ocean of unbearable sameness. The good thing is, they don’t know it yet, and they probably wouldn’t notice anyway. And if a few of them know it, let’s face it, they don’t give a shit. They’re all “comfortable” and exalted. The whole city is catering to their desires. Besides, they’ve got 25 posts per day on their digital agenda and hundreds of superficial tweets to write.
What these cyber-adventurers have in common is that they are in a hurry, determined to make lots of money…mañana! Their neo-colonial dreams must be attained instantly. It’s the latest San Francisco Gold Rush, the 2nd digital bonanza, a true new Wild West. It’s definitely the last chapter in savage capitalism, and they wish to be cast in the biggest, hippest reality show ever!
…But dear reader/audience member, don’t take it personally, you are always an exception to the rule. You are somewhat different. –Tweet.
Upon their arrival they are willing to take any job on their way to a better one, displacing the working class, which made the city function for decades. They are even willing to be waiters, gardeners (as long as they are referred to as ‘landscape designers’), house cleaners (or rather ‘facilities personnel’) and even nannies & dog walkers to the rich and famous. The difference between then and now is they charge 3 times as much, and have no sense of labor ethics or a culture of service. After all, it’s just a temporary job on their way to Utopia 5.0.
Their dream begins to come true as they ascend in the instant socio-economic pyramid of the new city. They hit the jackpot. They get their official membership card to the bohemian theme park on an app and they begin to share in a post human culture.
“In this imaginary city, we no longer have citizens: we have self-involved ‘consumers’ with the latest gadgets in hand.” --Tweet.
It’s a virtual mob, not an informed citizenry, and they are slowly taking over every square inch of space and oxygen. Their navigation and communication devices are installed in their iPhone or iPad. And so are their identities, hollow dreams, “real” experiences; their nuvo-families, and all of their fictional memories.
You have seen these strangers: they seem to belong to micro-communities of 2 to 5 people. When they are not at work, they go to smart cafes…to work more. They rarely make eye contact with anyone. They walk staring at their mobile communication devices in search for an anxious, “spontaneous” human connection by following a GPS map to their next appointment. They also stare at the screen while having dinner with colleagues because they’re “checking in”, messaging someone on Facebook, or taking a selfie with a famous person they will never see again. They even do this while listening to live music at a club. When driving, they have no etiquette. They get easily irritated by the unbearable traffic they themselves created and behave like the bad drivers they imagine reside in the Third World.
They rarely attend artistic activities. They’d rather go to exciting themed events and parties sponsored by companies. And they go to network, not to make friends, flirt, or find a lover. With the exception of sporadic online speed dating on Tindr or Ok Cupid, their sexual life is “frugal” for the lack of a meaner word… On their wildest nights, nothing ever happens out of the ordinary. Their most exciting days are Pride, Dia de los Muertos and Burning Man, where they get to be extreme tourists.
”But dear reader/audience member, don’t take it personally, you are always an exception to the rule.” – Tweet
For the poetic record: They are mostly “white,” (meaning gender or race illiterate). 70% are male and have absolutely no sense of the history of the streets they are beginning to walk on. In the way they behave, they make you wonder if they know, geographically and culturally speaking, where they are located and if they are even aware of the profound impact of their presence in the lives of the older inhabitants? Last night at a bar one of them felt compelled to confess to me he was angered by a “racist poster” he saw outside: The photo of a handsome mariachi with a gun: “Gringas si; gringos no.” I felt sorry for his lack of humor.
“In the way these vatos behave you begin to wonder if they exist in the same city you are or in a parallel quantum reality you are making up?”-Tweet
In fact, they are easily annoyed by “difference” and have no problem letting you know or confessing it online. Verbigratia: “Don’t believe the hype: This neighborhood is not a safe place! There’s still way too many Mexicans, hookers, lesbians & street freaks. Don’t come to live here!” In the “creative city”, racism, sexism, homophobia and classism are passé…
I continue citing my poetic field notes: “These techno-vatos have no sense of philanthropy. Their savings are to be spent in gourmet food, gadgets, clubbing, fancy apartments and very expensive puppies, like French bull dogs, Italian Greyhounds, and Pomeranians … It’s a solipsistic frontier economy. And if you are mildly politicized you cannot help but to wonder, If each one of them prosperous locos would donate 5 % of their income to a social cause, we could improve housing, social services and schools for the poor, and the yearly art budget for the Arts Commission…but in this Darwinian age, that would be considered old-school communism, not venture capitalism…”Here”, the future will come in a few days and the money they make must be spent in the immediate process of getting there. But ‘there’ is actually nowhere”—Tweet.
Besides, the mandate of the city fathers, in cahoots with the developers and new entrepreneurs is to create by any means necessary a city for the white rich. Our ex-major Willie Brown, paradoxically a black “progressive democrat” put it succinctly once: “we want to create the Monaco of the U.S., and if you can’t afford it, you can leave!” Thanks, Brother Willie!
Well, it already happened…and yes we, the holders and perpetrators of cultural difference, “can’t afford it” but here’s the thing: We are doing everything possible to stay and remain a nuisance to the new urbanites and the greedy landlords and politicians who invited them.
By now, I am clearly experiencing philosophical vertigo and political despair. The symptoms are devastating questions in my diary:
“Are we the artists and activists left, merely stubborn? Are we delusional and engaged in a losing battle? Are we waiting for the San Andreas Fault to open up or for the Mission shamans to conjure up the collapse of the new economy? But what if all the Mission shamans have already been evicted? Will the city get so unbearably expensive that the leaders of the tech industry themselves will decide to relocate to another place? If only we stick around a little longer… Is it too late to talk about this? Is someone somewhere online reading my words?... Hello?
(…)
3 pages later my questions continue: “Should I attend tomorrow’s anti-gentrification march or is it time to finally pack up and go back to Mexico City? I wonder what is worse, overt organized crime or the gentler forms of organized crime in Technotopia? What is more violent: the menacing gaze of a homeboy or the absolute indifference of a techie? Dangerous difference or dangerous sameness?”
During the revision of the final draft, I become fully aware of my poetic subjectivity. I know that my words are somewhat careless, partially unfair and devastating but I can’t help them. I am not a journalist. I am a performance artist and a poet, and my city has been taken away from me. It really hurts to walk the new streets of my refurbished ex-bohemian city. What can I say? I am deeply affected by the cruelty of indifference of its new population and I get sad when I stare at this unbearable ocean of cultural sameness and boring techno-normativity. I miss the grit, the funk, the unexpected, my dozens of close friends who have left for good. Am I repeating myself? Do I need to add a dictionary?
Dictionary (in progress):
Creative: A euphemism for successful
Here: Nothingness
Hipster: No one really knows. You just think you know. If you think you know, you most definitely are not one.
Local: Someone who used to live “here” when here was a place
Eviction: A euphemism for the eradication of difference
Google bus: A travelling gas-guzzling half-full office with chairs and no cubicles
Networking: A safe alternative to making actual conversation
Radical: An adjective for a franchise
Technotopia: San Francisco sans difference//A-critical techno-utopia
Underground: Another franchise
Vintage: 2nd hand object or a previously worn item of clothing sold for over $100
White: A bizarre state of mind that makes you attribute race to others with darker skin
===*===*===
BAY AREA SOLIDARITY
Updates on campaigns for for Peace, Justice, & Freedom across the greater Bay Area, Norcal, and Socal
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Starting a few years ago, KPFA FM radio show hosts who identified as Black Liberation organizers or as "extreme Leftists" were fired without reason and their shows canceled. The radio station is historically a target for hostile takeovers by the clandestine agencies of the State Department, Military, the Justice Department, and private-sector agencies.
* "Pacifica in exile newsletters: KPFA secession documents" (2015-07-30, pacificainexile.org) [archive.is/7ZEX5]
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* photo (2015-07-27) [archive.is/UjvZQ]: They got Comrade Jihad tonight in the jlthe demonstrations for Richie along with Rich's Brother and about 5 others. We need legal support for those arrested, people to spread the word about the senseless killing of another Afrikan in our community and more organizers to come out tomorrow at 4: 20 pm
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* "Man Arrested and Convicted for Using Washable Chalk at Police Protest" (2015-07-24, by Mike Rhodes) [archive.is/Wa2sl]
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* "City Declares Humanist Hall a Neighborhood Nuisance; Gentrifying neighborhood threatens historic venue’s survival, according to staff" (2015-07-24, postnewsgroup.com) [archive.is/ygL3P]
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* "Two Oakland Activists Accused of Freeing Animals Are Charged as Terrorists" (2015-07-24, by Will Potter, Green Is the New Red) [archive.is/LoakR]
* Court Support for Nicole and Joseph (call-to-action, 2015-07-28) [archive.is/2JJAR]
===*===*===
SOLANO PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY
[SolanoPFP.blogspot.com] Use the ballot for our own People's candidates and legislation, campaign for the future!
A piece of Bay Area history:
* "Potrero Hill Populated by Powerful Women" (2015-07, potreroview.net) [archive.is/uiTH5]. Minor correction to the article: Kayren Hudiburgh did not come in second in the official tally in the 1974 Assembly race. Foran the Democrat got over 70 percent of the vote. The Republican got 15 percent and Kayren was credited with just over 13 percent relegating her to third place in this three way race.
While Hudiburgh was placing second in this three way contest during the evening after the polls closed, by the next day the second place finish had eluded her. The Democratic Party which controls San Francisco politics so strongly is suspected by many of us of some Chicago style tampering with the results in order to prevent a second place finish by a third party candidate.
There was no funding available to conduct a recount - the candidate requesting this procedure is required to pay all costs for such an effort.
===*===*===
* "Emerging Forms of Leftism in the Millennial Generation" (2015-07-27, thenorthstar.info) [archive.is/rm9kp] [begin excerpt]: A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in late-2011 may have provided a glimpse into our social and political future, if Millennials have anything to say about it [archive.is/S03TV]. During the height of the Occupy movement, and following the collapse of the latest capitalist Ponzi scheme (mortgage-backed securities), those who identified between the ages of 18 to 29 had a more favorable view of “socialism” than they did “capitalism.” The emerging forms of Leftism within the Millennial generation are far removed from the highly romanticized brand of Communism that occupied prior generations. The Soviet system has been six-feet deep for going on two decades. The Cold War bogeyman of the past has given way to new forms of fabricated “evils” like “Islamic extremists,” “border-crossing drug cartels” and “terrorists.” For these reasons, “Socialism” is no longer a scary word. And the total absence of Left-wing politics in the United States is a void that is screaming to be filled. This need – and opportune time – has created a healthy combination of traditional and new political philosophies, including everything from Anarchism, Syndicalism, and participatory economics to a revival of Marxism and radical labor movements. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!
Black Power! Revive the Community! Defend the Nation!
* "60,000 call for justice for Tamir Rice" (2015-07-27, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/6hHKr]
* (2015-07-25) [archive.is/48UPL]: Over 1000 are gathered in Cleveland, Ohio this weekend for the first convening of The Movement for Black Lives. #m4bl
* "Eyewitness Report from Cleveland: Black Lives Matter!ar" event page [archive.is/5SFsM]: Featured Speaker Jamier Sale. In Cleveland, Ohio, a delegation of the Party for Socialism and Liberation joined 1000 other attendees at the first ever Movement for Black Lives National Convening. The activists met and engaged with others who are part of the resurgence of the struggle against racist police terror. Then, shortly after the conference ended, a stunning indictment was handed down in Cincinnati, charging a police officer with murder in the death of a Black motorist. This indictment is clearly a result of a powerful country-wide movement. The thousand people gathered in Cleveland said clearly, “Black Lives Matter!”
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* "Hunger, Starvation and Malnutrition Real Threat for African Americans" (2011-08-10, rollingout.com) [archive.is/pSQ4g]
* "Terrifying moment a black child's birthday party was interrupted by 'armed' white men carrying Confederate flags 'shouting n-word death threats' " (2015-07-27, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/sjU1G]
* "Chicago woman shouts N-word at black mom — then lectures her about the Constitution" (2015-07-30, rawstory.com) [archive.is/E0hVv]
* "An open letter to black America from a white, Jewish man of privilege" (2015-07-22, tikkun.org) [archive.is/bWPQg]
* "Chicago woman shouts N-word at black mom — then lectures her about the Constitution" (2015-07-30, rawstory.com) [archive.is/E0hVv]
* "An open letter to black America from a white, Jewish man of privilege" (2015-07-22, tikkun.org) [archive.is/bWPQg]
* "SF Picket Rally Against Hanging Nooses At SF Recology" call-to-action (2015-07-27) [archive.is/Pw2Ux]. Daryl Washington who is an IBT 350 member stood up against racist terror and a hanging noose on the job and was retaliated against for speaking out.
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* "Dozens protest outside home of DPS trooper who arrested Sandra Bland" (2015-07-27, cw39.com) [archive.is/Ij7Ws]
* "At Sandra Bland Funeral, Mourning a Life Cut Short in Texas" (2015-07-25, nytimes.com) [archive.is/JvfGW], photos [archive.is/Dc8R0]
* "The Martyrdom of Sandra Bland and the Struggle Against State Repression" (2015-07-22, counterpunch.org) [archive.is/xulq0]
* "The Assassination of Sandra Bland " (2015-07-22, commondreams.org) [archive.is/fh7T8]
* "Facing Down Taser, Sandra Bland Was Told By Officer: 'I Will Light You Up!' " (2015-07-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/gTMuJ]
* Descrepencies in the Sandra Bland jail video [archive.is/s82NS]
* "A Black Teen Died This Week In An Alabama Jail Cell, And Authorities Say It Was Suicide" (2015-07-24, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/XLGrk]
* "Sandra and Kindra: Suicides or Something Sinister?" (2015-07-20, nytimes.com) [archive.is/70x26]
* Indications that Sandra Bland's mugshot is faked [archive.is/XiH6f]. Among the many indications Sandra Bland had been tortured to death before being taken to jail are the six (6) different signatures she supposedly provided while being processed [archive.is/t9I6S]
* "Megyn Kelly guest: If Sandra Bland ‘had been my daughter I would have been embarrassed’" (2015-07-24, rawstory.com) [archive.is/IeLFF] [begin excerpt]: Appearing on the Kelly Files, a Fox News guest known for defending police assaults against blacks once again took the side of the police in the arrest of Sandra Bland, saying he was more concerned with the language Bland used on the arresting officer than with her arrest over a traffic signal.
Host Megyn Kelly has taken a considerable amount of heat for attacking a black teenager who was assaulted by a police officer at a Texas pool party, calling the victim “no saint.” But this time she left it to her guest Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to go after Bland, who died under mysterious circumstances in a Houston jail cell.
Defending Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia who pulled Bland from her car before using a Taser on her, Clarke said the police officer had every right to use the weapon on her although he was mildly disapproving of Encinia’s use of the phrase: “I’ll light you up!”
“Look, what we train officers to say when we’re going to use a Taser is ‘Do X or I’m going to tase you,'” Clarke explained, before attacking Bland. “But I’m not going to get hung up on that. I was more appalled by the language she was using with an authority figure. If she was my daughter I would have been embarrassed at the kind of language she was using on the scene.”
“She did some things that caused an officer to have to move up in terms of his response to keep her safe and to keep himself safe,” Clarke added.”That’s unfortunate that the autopsy report, you know, the manner of death is suicide.”
Clarke previously has blamed the rising tide of blacks dying at the hands of police on children being raised in single-mother homes. [end excerpt]
Maile Hampton writes (2015-07-26): So far the people I've heard say all lives matter are politicians, police officers, ignorant folk who want to completely derail from the issue itself- and now people literally vandalizing a mural of Sandra Bland, with the saying all lives matter. It's ironic; this says all lives matter, while defacing a mural of a victim implying that Sandra's life in fact doesn't matter at all. This is unbelievable. If you STILL don't see the need for the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, you are part of the problem. This mural didn't even say black lives matter, it's of a victim. Someone decided she didn't deserve her own mural. Sickening.
* "#SandraBland mural in Ottawa vandalized with the words in less than 24 hours #AllLivesMatter" (2015-07-29, Urban Cusp) [archive.is/goIcx]
* "White CNN panelists tell Black man that #blacklivesmatter hurts white people’s feelings; During a panel discussion on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Ken Cuccinelli and SE Cupp told Bakari Sellers that the 'Black Lives Matter' movement isn't inclusive" (2015-07-26, contemptor.com) [archive.is/5AMnE]
* "The next time someone says ‘all lives matter,’ show them these 5 paragraphs" (2015-07-21, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/1ni7P7]
* "A guide to debunking the need for “All Lives Matter” and its rhetorical cousins" (2015-06-15, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/tSInj9]
* “ 'All Lives Matter' and other signs that diminish a movement" (2014-12-10, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/5tDgov]
---
* "7 Ways to Turn Your Anger Over Sandra Bland Into Action In Support of Incarcerated (and Formerly Incarcerated) Black Women" (2015-07-24, blackgirldangerous.org) [archive.is/kLHs9]
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There will always be spying against the captive nations, and throughout the 20th century this spying has lead to the deaths of hundreds (by my count) of "Black liberation" organizers and nationalists. The question is now how many are being executed using the information collected by the spying operations... Ironically, a segment of the dominant culture feel that the spying serves against violence, influenced by the monopolist media which censors all the non-violent protesters who were tortured in the streets and jails of St. Louis County and who are facing restrictions on employment because of their arrests.
* "Exposed: Big Brother Targets Black Lives Government spying can be an 'effective way to chill protest movements,' warns Center for Constitutional Rights" (2015-07-24, commondreams.org) [archive.is/C3dpj]
* "Exclusive: Feds regularly monitored black lives matter since Ferguson" (2015-07-24, firstlook.org) [archive.is/HUtYX]
---
* "Update on 'Operation Ghetto Storm' " (2015-07-22, telesurtv.net):
- Part 1, "The Enduring War on Black People in the US" [archive.is/dIB4j]
- Part 2, "The Turning Wheels of State-Sanctioned Killing" [archive.is/31VTI]
- Part 3, "What Can Stop Police From Killing a Black Person #every28hours?" [archive.is/AdXrA]
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African Inter-communal Newsservice fundraiser [crowdrise.com/africanintercommunalnewsservice/fundraiser/lakesiawashington]: Please donate - Police terrorists taking Black lives everywhere. Prisons locking Black men and women up and throwing away the key. New COINTELPRO operations against new generation Black revolutionaries. We need a means of communication that gets the truth out on the streets about uncompromising resistance, the right to self defense. We are trying to raise money to put out more, bigger and better issues of the Black Riders newspaper, African Inter-Communal News Service to give the community a powerful revolutionary voice. All power to the people!
---
* "Dozens protest outside home of DPS trooper who arrested Sandra Bland" (2015-07-27, cw39.com) [archive.is/Ij7Ws]
* "At Sandra Bland Funeral, Mourning a Life Cut Short in Texas" (2015-07-25, nytimes.com) [archive.is/JvfGW], photos [archive.is/Dc8R0]
* "The Martyrdom of Sandra Bland and the Struggle Against State Repression" (2015-07-22, counterpunch.org) [archive.is/xulq0]
* "The Assassination of Sandra Bland " (2015-07-22, commondreams.org) [archive.is/fh7T8]
* "Facing Down Taser, Sandra Bland Was Told By Officer: 'I Will Light You Up!' " (2015-07-21, commondreams.org) [archive.is/gTMuJ]
* Descrepencies in the Sandra Bland jail video [archive.is/s82NS]
* "A Black Teen Died This Week In An Alabama Jail Cell, And Authorities Say It Was Suicide" (2015-07-24, huffingtonpost.com) [archive.is/XLGrk]
* "Sandra and Kindra: Suicides or Something Sinister?" (2015-07-20, nytimes.com) [archive.is/70x26]
* Indications that Sandra Bland's mugshot is faked [archive.is/XiH6f]. Among the many indications Sandra Bland had been tortured to death before being taken to jail are the six (6) different signatures she supposedly provided while being processed [archive.is/t9I6S]
* "Megyn Kelly guest: If Sandra Bland ‘had been my daughter I would have been embarrassed’" (2015-07-24, rawstory.com) [archive.is/IeLFF] [begin excerpt]: Appearing on the Kelly Files, a Fox News guest known for defending police assaults against blacks once again took the side of the police in the arrest of Sandra Bland, saying he was more concerned with the language Bland used on the arresting officer than with her arrest over a traffic signal.
Host Megyn Kelly has taken a considerable amount of heat for attacking a black teenager who was assaulted by a police officer at a Texas pool party, calling the victim “no saint.” But this time she left it to her guest Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to go after Bland, who died under mysterious circumstances in a Houston jail cell.
Defending Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia who pulled Bland from her car before using a Taser on her, Clarke said the police officer had every right to use the weapon on her although he was mildly disapproving of Encinia’s use of the phrase: “I’ll light you up!”
“Look, what we train officers to say when we’re going to use a Taser is ‘Do X or I’m going to tase you,'” Clarke explained, before attacking Bland. “But I’m not going to get hung up on that. I was more appalled by the language she was using with an authority figure. If she was my daughter I would have been embarrassed at the kind of language she was using on the scene.”
“She did some things that caused an officer to have to move up in terms of his response to keep her safe and to keep himself safe,” Clarke added.”That’s unfortunate that the autopsy report, you know, the manner of death is suicide.”
Clarke previously has blamed the rising tide of blacks dying at the hands of police on children being raised in single-mother homes. [end excerpt]
Maile Hampton writes (2015-07-26): So far the people I've heard say all lives matter are politicians, police officers, ignorant folk who want to completely derail from the issue itself- and now people literally vandalizing a mural of Sandra Bland, with the saying all lives matter. It's ironic; this says all lives matter, while defacing a mural of a victim implying that Sandra's life in fact doesn't matter at all. This is unbelievable. If you STILL don't see the need for the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, you are part of the problem. This mural didn't even say black lives matter, it's of a victim. Someone decided she didn't deserve her own mural. Sickening.
* "#SandraBland mural in Ottawa vandalized with the words in less than 24 hours #AllLivesMatter" (2015-07-29, Urban Cusp) [archive.is/goIcx]
* "White CNN panelists tell Black man that #blacklivesmatter hurts white people’s feelings; During a panel discussion on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Ken Cuccinelli and SE Cupp told Bakari Sellers that the 'Black Lives Matter' movement isn't inclusive" (2015-07-26, contemptor.com) [archive.is/5AMnE]
* "The next time someone says ‘all lives matter,’ show them these 5 paragraphs" (2015-07-21, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/1ni7P7]
* "A guide to debunking the need for “All Lives Matter” and its rhetorical cousins" (2015-06-15, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/tSInj9]
* “ 'All Lives Matter' and other signs that diminish a movement" (2014-12-10, fusion.net) [http://is.gd/5tDgov]
---
* "7 Ways to Turn Your Anger Over Sandra Bland Into Action In Support of Incarcerated (and Formerly Incarcerated) Black Women" (2015-07-24, blackgirldangerous.org) [archive.is/kLHs9]
---
There will always be spying against the captive nations, and throughout the 20th century this spying has lead to the deaths of hundreds (by my count) of "Black liberation" organizers and nationalists. The question is now how many are being executed using the information collected by the spying operations... Ironically, a segment of the dominant culture feel that the spying serves against violence, influenced by the monopolist media which censors all the non-violent protesters who were tortured in the streets and jails of St. Louis County and who are facing restrictions on employment because of their arrests.
* "Exposed: Big Brother Targets Black Lives Government spying can be an 'effective way to chill protest movements,' warns Center for Constitutional Rights" (2015-07-24, commondreams.org) [archive.is/C3dpj]
* "Exclusive: Feds regularly monitored black lives matter since Ferguson" (2015-07-24, firstlook.org) [archive.is/HUtYX]
---
* "Update on 'Operation Ghetto Storm' " (2015-07-22, telesurtv.net):
- Part 1, "The Enduring War on Black People in the US" [archive.is/dIB4j]
- Part 2, "The Turning Wheels of State-Sanctioned Killing" [archive.is/31VTI]
- Part 3, "What Can Stop Police From Killing a Black Person #every28hours?" [archive.is/AdXrA]
---
The Black Riders Liberation Party calls on all members of urban youth organizations to develop a dialogue to promote peace among all factions of every tribe. We are not asking to put the guns down but to turn them on the true oppressors the muthafuckin pigs...they kill us indiscriminately and we are left without a solution or so the neo liberal boot licking house negro would tell the people BUT there is a solution, A military political solition. To arm the masses of our people and then organize a resistance task force for our communities to correct the actions of the pigs...when they oink oink...we BANG BANG !!!
* campaign flier [archive.is/MEPyM]:
Black Riders Liberation Party
There is a rally Friday at the Dirkson Federal Building
We will be demanding the release of Jeff Fort aka Imam Malik al Shabazz
FREE IMAM MALIK
We ride because we demand the cases of all black people held captive in the jails and prisons of Amerikkka be re-opened, re-investigated, and re-tried by members of the Black community.
We ride because we feel that Black people living in incarceration have been tried unfairly by the U.S. Justice Department. We have been the right of trial by one's peers, resulting in guilty verdicts for an enormous amount of innocent Black people. We have been and are being tried by juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the Black community. It is time that these cases be re-opened and re-tried by Black people that the innocence of Black inmates can be determined by a jury of their peers, as stated in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
We as Black people shall then deal with our own people by granting freedom from incarceration to those whose re-trial has validated it, and deferring charges and sentences for those proven to be guilty by their peers.
We want amnesty for all Political Prisoners.
Friday, August 7th
219 South Dearborn
at 11:00 AM
The Almighty Nation of Moorish and Moabites People of America [www.facebook.com/MoorsandMoabitesofAmerica], Jeff Fort's website [archive.is/E5eSF]
information collected by the Committee for
STUDENT POWER!
Defend Public Education
* "Right-Wing ALEC Now Says School Vouchers Are for Kids in Suburbia, Not the Poor" (2015-07-23, prwatch.org) [archive.is/R28Ks]
===*===*===information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee
WORKER'S POWER!
* "City of Richmond: A first — at last, rent control!" (2015-07-28, 1021 NewsWire):
SEIU 1021 and a coalition of unions and community groups are celebrating victory after the Richmond City Council made this city of 108,000 residents the first ever to enact rent control protections in Contra Costa County. The law also requires evictions be based on just cause.
The strong rent-control law is the first step in a broader agenda developed by the community/labor coalition to fight economic inequality in the city. They fought for the measure in response to a reported 30 percent increase in rents in just a few years. The coalition includes local unions and a range of resident, tenant, anti-poverty and other progressive organizations.
Richmond is the 10th Bay Area city to pass a rent control law and the 16th in California — the first in the state in three decades.
"I have lived in Richmond all my life," said SEIU 1021 member Robbie Hurtado. "My rent has been increasing every year from 10% to 20%. I support rent control because it levels the playing field between the property owner and renters."
"This is a real step towards economic justice," said Alysabeth Alexander, vice president for politics of SEIU 1021. "The rapid growth of Silicon Valley is causing displacement throughout Northern California, causing a true housing crisis that demands immediate action."
The stories below highlight the important role played by SEIU 1021 in the rent control coalition:
* "Richmond passes rent control" (2015-07-22, Tenants Together) [archive.is/Rvlbd], photos and comments [archive.is/g8FAz]
* "Richmond 1, Gentrification 0" (2015-07-25, beyondchron.org) [archive.is/ibkBg]
* "Richmond becomes first city in Contra Costa to approve rent control" (2015-07-22, contracostatimes.com) [archive.is/SGjK0]
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* "Court orders El Super to reinstate Fermin Rodriquez, fired organizer" (2015-08-03, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/jEB3o]
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* "Fig workers fired for waving UFW flags?" (2015-08-04, ufw.org):
These workers fired after doing this!
A crew of fig workers need your immediate help. The workers with Stellar Distributing Inc. demonstrated support for the United Farm Workers by waving UFW black-eagle flags at an orchard near the Central Valley town of Madera, Calif. That was after union organizers met with them on Saturday, August 1. When the fig workers showed up for work Monday morning, August 3, a Stellar company supervisor told the crew there was no work for them.We immediately went to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which enforces the law guaranteeing farm workers’ right to organize. We demanded the workers get their jobs back as their right to show union support is legally protected.
The company’s illegal actions didn’t stop there. Later that day, UFW organizers went to the orchards to talk with other crews during their lunch break, another right guaranteed by the law.
The company's response? Company agents chained the gates shut and used company vehicles to block the road onto the property.This act is also illegal since California law guarantees the right of farm workers and union organizers to meet during non-working hours in the fields.
Update: "Grower offers to return fired fig workers to work after UFW files charges" (2015-08-05, ufw.org) [archive.is/Fji9N]
* "Heat isn’t the only danger" (2015-07-22, UFW.org) [https://secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/july2015]:
The health of grape pickers is often at risk due to dangerous working conditions, lack of access to adequate medical care and insurance -- and even the callous indifference of their employers. You can help.
In California’s fertile Central Valley, where the temperature can reach 115 degrees, heat can and has killed. Margarita Garcia had a scare last summer. “The temperature was more than 100 degrees and I felt that I was overheating,” she says. She said she looked for shade outside the vineyards, but there was none and “There was only one jug of water all day for 40 workers.”Heat is not the only danger workers face. Exposure to poisons and on-the-job injuries make agriculture one of the most dangerous jobs in America.
Petrolino Cruz recalls a day two years ago. “My co-workers and I arrived in the morning to the field, and when we started to get out of our cars we smelled something strange and very strong.” A supervisor said that a neighboring field had been fumigated. Petrolino and two other workers started to experience nausea, vomiting and dizziness. While Petrolino was sent to the hospital, others were required to work in the same field that day while it still had “a very bad smell."
Last year, Paula Macias bent over to pick up a tray full of grapes. She heard a loud “pop” followed by back pain so severe that she couldn’t stand up. “The foreman began to laugh at me and did not want to send me to the doctor,” Paula says. The day after Paula’s injury, her foreman told her he didn’t want any problems to result from it. So he instructed her to start working under a different name. When she refused, he fired her!
The lives and health of farm workers are at constant, serious risk. They urgently need our help, and they need it now. We pass laws and file lawsuits to defend their health and safety. We go out in the fields to organize workers and we document and file heat violations on their behalf.
HANDS OFF OUR HOMES!
[HandsOffHomes.blogspot.com]
* "S.F. tenants groups fight ‘gotcha’ evictions" (2015-07-29, sfchronicle.com) [archive.is/ftXeU]
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In his most recent philosophical tantrum, performance artist and poet Gómez-Peña reflects on the dangers of the ultimate “creative city,” and what it means to become a foreigner in his own neighborhood, waiting for the much touted eviction notice.
* "Notes From Technotopia: On The Cruelty Of Indifference" an anti-gentrification philosophical tantrum (2015, by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, art by John Cristicello, with thanks to Balitronica, Emma Tramposch and Anastasia Herold for helping prepare the first version of this manuscript):
Dear Ex-local artist, writer, activist, bohemian, street eccentric, and/or protector of difference...
Imagine a city, your city and your former “hip” neighborhood, being handed over by greedy politicians and re/developers to the crème de la crème of the tech industry. This includes the 7 most powerful tech companies in the world. I don’t need to list them: their names have become verbs in lingua franca; their sandbox is the city you used to call your own.
Their Faustian iDeal involves radically transforming your city within a few years into an unprecedented “creative city,” a bohemian theme park for the young techies and “hipsters” who constitute their Darwinian work force. It comes with dormitories, food courts with catchy theme bars and entertainment centers. Sounds like science fiction, que no?
Imagine that during the reconstruction process, the rent - your rent - increases by two or three hundred percent overnight. The artists and the working class at large can no longer pay it. You are being forced to leave, at best to a nearby city, at worst back to your original hometown. The more intimate history you have with the old city, the more painful it is to accept this displacement. You have no choice.
While you hang on by a thread waiting for the eviction notice, every day you continue to lose old friends and colleagues you might never see again. They were less lucky than you and got evicted earlier. Heartbroken and exhausted, you spend a large part of your civic time attending anti-gentrification demonstrations and collaborating with other artists and activists in anti-eviction actions and techno-artivist projects, but still it only gets worse by the day. The number of dramatic eviction cases increases constantly and both the diminished politicized citizenry and the progressive media begin to experience compassion fatigue.
As your community rapidly shrinks, so does your sense of belonging to a city that no longer seems to like you. You begin to feel like a foreigner and internal exile: freaky Alice in techno-Wonderlandia; the Alien Caterpillar who inhaled. Unless you own your home and studio, as a renter, your hours “here” are numbered and you carry this feeling of imminent orphanhood like a very tight and stylish noose around your neck. After all, you perceive yourself as a dandy.
Imagine that all the classic and familiar places in your hood including funky, decades-old Latino restaurants and immigrant bars full of memories and ghosts, barber & specialty shops, bohemian sex clubs, experimental art galleries, indie theaters and bookstores –yes, shops where bound books are sold, -- the emotional spaces which have been your main source of inspiration, creativity and community -- are also forced to close because the pinche greedy landlord tripled the rent overnight or some millionaire bought the building or the entire block to rent out micro-units to airbnb. And all the new laws and acts protect him. Your imagination becomes a painful exercise in forced tolerance and providential acceptance.
In a few months, these wonderful places that for decades provided the city with a strong cultural identity are destroyed and reopened as (get ready) homogeneous “live/work/play” spaces, “micro-condominium” buildings and tech plazas in the works. Coño! The new city begins to look like a generic global metropolis imagined by Italo Calvino. To make the lives of the transient work force somewhat pleasant, hundreds of similar smart cafes, trendoid restaurants, overpriced “eateries” and “celebrity bars” open up in each neighborhood. Even the last standing old-school dive bars are being “discovered” (a euphemism for taken over) by the transplants via their Yelp or Foursquare mobile app.
But you, no matter how long you lived here or how much you have paid in rent – even if it is enough to own your hipster remodeled Victorian upper unit - You are not welcome.
You hit the streets again: What you used to call an average priced dinner is way above your price range now. Your sacred $4 night cocktail, now served by an aloof “celebrity bartender,” costs $15 and your daily jugos and licuados, now called “cold pressed gluten-free organic cleansing juices,” go for $12 in a “recyclable sustainable” bottle. But don’t worry: Remember that this is just a perverse exercise of radical imagination, or rather, a psychomagic challenge to deliver your daily dose of survival humor.
Imagine that your own building, a legendary (ex) artist building is now just another revolving airb&b miniunit for zombie techies who make well over $200 grand a year, but behave not unlike obnoxious teenage frat boys. If you are the only one of 3 Mexican tenants left, when you open the front door for a new neighbor, they either perceive you as the building's janitor or report you to the manager as a “suspicious character.” And yes, in Technotopia: your new identity is that of “suspicious character.”
The nightmare unfolds: Full of Maseratis, Ferraris, Porsches and Mercedes Benzes, the private parking lot is now protected with barbed wire fences and a digital display keypad encoded by microchips; and so are the “vintage bike” racks and trash containers. Video surveillance cameras are omnipresent. The new management wishes to keep the homeless, the day laborers and the “scary” young “people of color” at a distance…that is, before the cops get them. They are unpleasant memories of the old city of sin and compassion; kids from former distasteful and economically disadvantaged, at-risk neighborhoods.
The newly empowered cops drive around the hood looking for (criminal) “difference.” The homeless and the “gang bangers” aren’t the only ones being removed from the streets to make them safe for the new dot.com cadre. With them go the poets, the performance artists, the experimental musicians, the frail transvestites, the politicized sex workers, the gallant mariachis, the cool low-riders, the urban primitives, the angry punks, the defiant radical feminists and the very activists who used to protect us all from the greedy landlords and politicians who conceived of this macabre project.
It’s the latest American version of ethnic and cultural cleansing. It’s invisible to the newcomers, and highly visible to those of us who knew the old city. The press labels it “the post-gentrification era.”
“Prehistory is only 7 years old and nostalgia is pure style, a bad selfie of a fictional memory.”—Anonymous tweet.
There are suspicious fires happening constantly, in apartment buildings and homes inhabited by mostly Latino and black working class families. And you cannot help but to wonder if landlords and redevelopers are setting these fires? “Is there a secret garden of violence in the heart of techno-bohemian paradise?”-Anonymous tweet.
You also begin to wonder, who are these random people and newly evasive neighbors taking over your neighborhood? Metaphysically speaking, where did they really come from? And how long will they stay? Are they merely browsing in the mythological backyard of Technotopia? Will they return to the suburbs when the Chicano intifada begins?
Day after day, allured by the new digital bonanza, hundreds, thousands of new people arrive, unfamiliar people, without manners or style, social or historical consciousness; mostly middle and upper class white people from the suburbs and small cities from throughout the country, along with some wealthy foreign entrepreneurs and programmers from similarly upwardly mobile techno cultures. Undistinguishable from tourists, so many of them look like they were just dropped here by a UFO straight out of a Minneapolis or a Houston suburb, complete with their yoga mat, mobile gym and tech gear bearing the logo of the company they work for; their designer dogwear and strollers, all glued to their smartphones to the point where they can’t even acknowledge your presence as you pass them on the street.
Soon, these normative looking humans will destroy their very object of bohemian desire; the multicultural fetishes which attracted them “here” in the first place. And they will one day wake up to an ocean of unbearable sameness. The good thing is, they don’t know it yet, and they probably wouldn’t notice anyway. And if a few of them know it, let’s face it, they don’t give a shit. They’re all “comfortable” and exalted. The whole city is catering to their desires. Besides, they’ve got 25 posts per day on their digital agenda and hundreds of superficial tweets to write.
What these cyber-adventurers have in common is that they are in a hurry, determined to make lots of money…mañana! Their neo-colonial dreams must be attained instantly. It’s the latest San Francisco Gold Rush, the 2nd digital bonanza, a true new Wild West. It’s definitely the last chapter in savage capitalism, and they wish to be cast in the biggest, hippest reality show ever!
…But dear reader/audience member, don’t take it personally, you are always an exception to the rule. You are somewhat different. –Tweet.
Upon their arrival they are willing to take any job on their way to a better one, displacing the working class, which made the city function for decades. They are even willing to be waiters, gardeners (as long as they are referred to as ‘landscape designers’), house cleaners (or rather ‘facilities personnel’) and even nannies & dog walkers to the rich and famous. The difference between then and now is they charge 3 times as much, and have no sense of labor ethics or a culture of service. After all, it’s just a temporary job on their way to Utopia 5.0.
Their dream begins to come true as they ascend in the instant socio-economic pyramid of the new city. They hit the jackpot. They get their official membership card to the bohemian theme park on an app and they begin to share in a post human culture.
“In this imaginary city, we no longer have citizens: we have self-involved ‘consumers’ with the latest gadgets in hand.” --Tweet.
It’s a virtual mob, not an informed citizenry, and they are slowly taking over every square inch of space and oxygen. Their navigation and communication devices are installed in their iPhone or iPad. And so are their identities, hollow dreams, “real” experiences; their nuvo-families, and all of their fictional memories.
You have seen these strangers: they seem to belong to micro-communities of 2 to 5 people. When they are not at work, they go to smart cafes…to work more. They rarely make eye contact with anyone. They walk staring at their mobile communication devices in search for an anxious, “spontaneous” human connection by following a GPS map to their next appointment. They also stare at the screen while having dinner with colleagues because they’re “checking in”, messaging someone on Facebook, or taking a selfie with a famous person they will never see again. They even do this while listening to live music at a club. When driving, they have no etiquette. They get easily irritated by the unbearable traffic they themselves created and behave like the bad drivers they imagine reside in the Third World.
They rarely attend artistic activities. They’d rather go to exciting themed events and parties sponsored by companies. And they go to network, not to make friends, flirt, or find a lover. With the exception of sporadic online speed dating on Tindr or Ok Cupid, their sexual life is “frugal” for the lack of a meaner word… On their wildest nights, nothing ever happens out of the ordinary. Their most exciting days are Pride, Dia de los Muertos and Burning Man, where they get to be extreme tourists.
”But dear reader/audience member, don’t take it personally, you are always an exception to the rule.” – Tweet
For the poetic record: They are mostly “white,” (meaning gender or race illiterate). 70% are male and have absolutely no sense of the history of the streets they are beginning to walk on. In the way they behave, they make you wonder if they know, geographically and culturally speaking, where they are located and if they are even aware of the profound impact of their presence in the lives of the older inhabitants? Last night at a bar one of them felt compelled to confess to me he was angered by a “racist poster” he saw outside: The photo of a handsome mariachi with a gun: “Gringas si; gringos no.” I felt sorry for his lack of humor.
“In the way these vatos behave you begin to wonder if they exist in the same city you are or in a parallel quantum reality you are making up?”-Tweet
In fact, they are easily annoyed by “difference” and have no problem letting you know or confessing it online. Verbigratia: “Don’t believe the hype: This neighborhood is not a safe place! There’s still way too many Mexicans, hookers, lesbians & street freaks. Don’t come to live here!” In the “creative city”, racism, sexism, homophobia and classism are passé…
I continue citing my poetic field notes: “These techno-vatos have no sense of philanthropy. Their savings are to be spent in gourmet food, gadgets, clubbing, fancy apartments and very expensive puppies, like French bull dogs, Italian Greyhounds, and Pomeranians … It’s a solipsistic frontier economy. And if you are mildly politicized you cannot help but to wonder, If each one of them prosperous locos would donate 5 % of their income to a social cause, we could improve housing, social services and schools for the poor, and the yearly art budget for the Arts Commission…but in this Darwinian age, that would be considered old-school communism, not venture capitalism…”Here”, the future will come in a few days and the money they make must be spent in the immediate process of getting there. But ‘there’ is actually nowhere”—Tweet.
Besides, the mandate of the city fathers, in cahoots with the developers and new entrepreneurs is to create by any means necessary a city for the white rich. Our ex-major Willie Brown, paradoxically a black “progressive democrat” put it succinctly once: “we want to create the Monaco of the U.S., and if you can’t afford it, you can leave!” Thanks, Brother Willie!
Well, it already happened…and yes we, the holders and perpetrators of cultural difference, “can’t afford it” but here’s the thing: We are doing everything possible to stay and remain a nuisance to the new urbanites and the greedy landlords and politicians who invited them.
By now, I am clearly experiencing philosophical vertigo and political despair. The symptoms are devastating questions in my diary:
“Are we the artists and activists left, merely stubborn? Are we delusional and engaged in a losing battle? Are we waiting for the San Andreas Fault to open up or for the Mission shamans to conjure up the collapse of the new economy? But what if all the Mission shamans have already been evicted? Will the city get so unbearably expensive that the leaders of the tech industry themselves will decide to relocate to another place? If only we stick around a little longer… Is it too late to talk about this? Is someone somewhere online reading my words?... Hello?(…)
3 pages later my questions continue: “Should I attend tomorrow’s anti-gentrification march or is it time to finally pack up and go back to Mexico City? I wonder what is worse, overt organized crime or the gentler forms of organized crime in Technotopia? What is more violent: the menacing gaze of a homeboy or the absolute indifference of a techie? Dangerous difference or dangerous sameness?”
During the revision of the final draft, I become fully aware of my poetic subjectivity. I know that my words are somewhat careless, partially unfair and devastating but I can’t help them. I am not a journalist. I am a performance artist and a poet, and my city has been taken away from me. It really hurts to walk the new streets of my refurbished ex-bohemian city. What can I say? I am deeply affected by the cruelty of indifference of its new population and I get sad when I stare at this unbearable ocean of cultural sameness and boring techno-normativity. I miss the grit, the funk, the unexpected, my dozens of close friends who have left for good. Am I repeating myself? Do I need to add a dictionary?
Dictionary (in progress):
Creative: A euphemism for successful
Here: Nothingness
Hipster: No one really knows. You just think you know. If you think you know, you most definitely are not one.
Local: Someone who used to live “here” when here was a place
Eviction: A euphemism for the eradication of difference
Google bus: A travelling gas-guzzling half-full office with chairs and no cubicles
Networking: A safe alternative to making actual conversation
Radical: An adjective for a franchise
Technotopia: San Francisco sans difference//A-critical techno-utopia
Underground: Another franchise
Vintage: 2nd hand object or a previously worn item of clothing sold for over $100
White: A bizarre state of mind that makes you attribute race to others with darker skin
===*===*===
information collected by the Committee to
DEFEND THOSE WITHOUT HOMES!
* "Despite Heavy Police and Security Presence, Campers Make it Through the Night at City Hall" (2015-07-21, by Alex Darocy) [archive.is/RCmVV]
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* "Chinese Company Assembles 10 3D-Printed Concrete Houses in a Day for Less Than $5,000 Each" (2014-04-06, inhabitat.com) [archive.is/ySGZO]
* "Chinese company ‘builds’ 3D-printed villa in less than 3 hours" (2015-07-22, inhabitat.com) [archive.is/2izqO] [begin excerpt]: This efficient and timesaving process dramatically reduces construction costs to just 2,500 – 3,000 yuan ($400 – $480) per square meter. According to An Yongliang, the developing engineer at Zhuoda, the 3D-printed villa only takes about 10 days to produce from initial construction to final assembly, while it typically takes half a year to build a traditional villa. The house is capable of withstanding high-magnitude earthquakes because the modules, each weighing over 100 kilograms per square meter, bear weight independently. The steel-framed structure home can also be filled with heat-insulating materials. The Zhuoda Group has filed over 22 patents on their technology and is keeping their top-secret material under wraps. However, the company’s vice president Tan BuYong has revealed that the new material is sourced from industrial and agricultural waste, is fireproof and waterproof, and is free from harmful substances such as formaldehyde, ammonia, and radon. [end excerpt]
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* "Chinese Company Assembles 10 3D-Printed Concrete Houses in a Day for Less Than $5,000 Each" (2014-04-06, inhabitat.com) [archive.is/ySGZO]
* "Chinese company ‘builds’ 3D-printed villa in less than 3 hours" (2015-07-22, inhabitat.com) [archive.is/2izqO] [begin excerpt]: This efficient and timesaving process dramatically reduces construction costs to just 2,500 – 3,000 yuan ($400 – $480) per square meter. According to An Yongliang, the developing engineer at Zhuoda, the 3D-printed villa only takes about 10 days to produce from initial construction to final assembly, while it typically takes half a year to build a traditional villa. The house is capable of withstanding high-magnitude earthquakes because the modules, each weighing over 100 kilograms per square meter, bear weight independently. The steel-framed structure home can also be filled with heat-insulating materials. The Zhuoda Group has filed over 22 patents on their technology and is keeping their top-secret material under wraps. However, the company’s vice president Tan BuYong has revealed that the new material is sourced from industrial and agricultural waste, is fireproof and waterproof, and is free from harmful substances such as formaldehyde, ammonia, and radon. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
It's so effed up how they demonize us in the media. The police did not know about his criminal background until after they killed him.
* "Man killed by Oakland police had violated his parole" (2015-06-10, kron4.com) [archive.is/K6RbK]
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* "Oakland Man Dies Following Police Encounter; Richard Linyard's family demands answers from local cops" (2015-07-22, bet.com) [archive.is/iEDIu]
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* "Donations Sought for Family of 17-Year-Old Killed by Santa Cruz Sheriffs" (2015-07-13, Santa Cruz Police News) [archive.is/iCQTq]
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Ol' Roy asks: "But why provoke someone who has a very tough job, who risks his life every day to protect you, who doesn't know if he'll make it home to his family at the end of the day, who is overwhelmed with paperwork explaining what he did all day to make sure the bad guys didn't get you - why provoke that man or woman? Why not just be polite and cooperate with them? Why oh why not?"
Northbay Copwatch answers: " 'Provoke' includes asking a legal question, Roy. Using the pretext of 'provoke', many pigs will beat (torture) you, and all you done was say a basic legal question concerning the legality of detention. Just One Question gets you tortured in this 'Land of the Free'.
'Am I being arrested or detained?' often 'provokes' a cop if they don't want to answer the question.
We know many tortured, enough that the pattern shows a model of operation that's reminiscent of the old Jim Crow regime that affected some of us back then (the 1950s/60s) and are affecting more today, especially low-income people. It's time to say, again, ABOLISH THE POLICE and replace it with a new system of public safety that relies on rebuilding our society, not brandishing military aid and guerrilla war against the People, this unconstitutional torture regime... and Kill the Drug War!"
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* "San Jose cop followed black family home and held them at gunpoint for no reason: lawsuit" (2015-07-30, rawstory.com) [archive.is/bULkQ]
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* "Why NYPD’s ‘Predictive Policing’ Should Scare You" (2015-01-29, citylimits.org) [archive.is/LMSwm]
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* "When Police Decide What Teachers Can Teach" (2015-07-18, progressive.org) [archive.is/Ms8xg] [begin excerpt]: As the nascent #BlackLivesMatter movement seeks reform of a criminal justice system that preys upon communities of color, law enforcement are increasingly attempting to quell protest and political dissent. Exhibit A: The case of Marylin Zuniga.
Zuniga, a public school teacher at Forest Street Elementary School in Orange Township, N.J., is a socially conscious member of her community. She coaches a “Girls on the Run” program, a confidence and self-esteem boosting initiative for third, fourth, and fifth grade girls. In addition, she coordinates a “Books and Breakfast” monthly program providing healthy breakfasts and free books to Newark children and families.
Zuniga incurred the wrath of the Fraternal Order of Police, which bills itself as “the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers.” Her offense: She taught her third grade students about imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal during Black History Month, and the students later decided to write get-well letters to the ailing prisoner-activist.
“All year long we were exploring different social justice issues, what was happening in Ferguson with Michael Brown, what was happening in New York with Eric Garner,” says Zuniga, who received a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching from Columbia University in 2014. “In February, I decided to do a civil rights leaders series focusing on black leaders not covered in our curriculum and our textbooks.”
These included Ella Baker, Ida B. Wells, Angela Davis and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Zuniga presented her students with a quote from Abu-Jamal: “So long as one person is silenced, there is no justice.”
“I would present them with a quote and they would discuss what that person did for our community,” Zuniga explains. “So we talked about Mumia being a journalist from Philadelphia, a commencement speaker, internationally recognized, and he advocated for his community.”
The students became fascinated with Abu-Jamal and, when they learned he was ill, wrote get-well letters to him.
During spring break, Zuniga was notified that the Orange school board suspended her with pay. At two public hearings held in April and May, Zuniga received an outpouring of support, after which she was terminated. The district superintendent said writing the letters “is in no way condoned nor does it reflect curriculum, program or activities approved by the district."
Zuniga, who plans to file a lawsuit, says the district “was contacted by the Fraternal Order of Police demanding my termination. Of course they had an influence on the decision to terminate me. This raises a lot of questions: Who decides what will be in our curriculum? Who decides what can or cannot be discussed?”
“No serious educator could believe that there was any legitimate educational reason to remove Ms. Zuniga from the classroom,” said Alan Levine, Zuniga’s attorney. “The haste with which school officials suspended Ms. Zuniga following the FOP’s highly publicized attack on her leaves no doubt what prompted their action. [end excerpt]
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Documenting human-rights abuse by domestic security agencies
It's so effed up how they demonize us in the media. The police did not know about his criminal background until after they killed him.
* "Man killed by Oakland police had violated his parole" (2015-06-10, kron4.com) [archive.is/K6RbK]
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* "Oakland Man Dies Following Police Encounter; Richard Linyard's family demands answers from local cops" (2015-07-22, bet.com) [archive.is/iEDIu]
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* "Donations Sought for Family of 17-Year-Old Killed by Santa Cruz Sheriffs" (2015-07-13, Santa Cruz Police News) [archive.is/iCQTq]
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Ol' Roy asks: "But why provoke someone who has a very tough job, who risks his life every day to protect you, who doesn't know if he'll make it home to his family at the end of the day, who is overwhelmed with paperwork explaining what he did all day to make sure the bad guys didn't get you - why provoke that man or woman? Why not just be polite and cooperate with them? Why oh why not?"Northbay Copwatch answers: " 'Provoke' includes asking a legal question, Roy. Using the pretext of 'provoke', many pigs will beat (torture) you, and all you done was say a basic legal question concerning the legality of detention. Just One Question gets you tortured in this 'Land of the Free'.
'Am I being arrested or detained?' often 'provokes' a cop if they don't want to answer the question.
We know many tortured, enough that the pattern shows a model of operation that's reminiscent of the old Jim Crow regime that affected some of us back then (the 1950s/60s) and are affecting more today, especially low-income people. It's time to say, again, ABOLISH THE POLICE and replace it with a new system of public safety that relies on rebuilding our society, not brandishing military aid and guerrilla war against the People, this unconstitutional torture regime... and Kill the Drug War!"
---
* "San Jose cop followed black family home and held them at gunpoint for no reason: lawsuit" (2015-07-30, rawstory.com) [archive.is/bULkQ]
---
* "Why NYPD’s ‘Predictive Policing’ Should Scare You" (2015-01-29, citylimits.org) [archive.is/LMSwm]
---
* "When Police Decide What Teachers Can Teach" (2015-07-18, progressive.org) [archive.is/Ms8xg] [begin excerpt]: As the nascent #BlackLivesMatter movement seeks reform of a criminal justice system that preys upon communities of color, law enforcement are increasingly attempting to quell protest and political dissent. Exhibit A: The case of Marylin Zuniga.
Zuniga, a public school teacher at Forest Street Elementary School in Orange Township, N.J., is a socially conscious member of her community. She coaches a “Girls on the Run” program, a confidence and self-esteem boosting initiative for third, fourth, and fifth grade girls. In addition, she coordinates a “Books and Breakfast” monthly program providing healthy breakfasts and free books to Newark children and families.
Zuniga incurred the wrath of the Fraternal Order of Police, which bills itself as “the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers.” Her offense: She taught her third grade students about imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal during Black History Month, and the students later decided to write get-well letters to the ailing prisoner-activist.
“All year long we were exploring different social justice issues, what was happening in Ferguson with Michael Brown, what was happening in New York with Eric Garner,” says Zuniga, who received a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching from Columbia University in 2014. “In February, I decided to do a civil rights leaders series focusing on black leaders not covered in our curriculum and our textbooks.”
These included Ella Baker, Ida B. Wells, Angela Davis and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Zuniga presented her students with a quote from Abu-Jamal: “So long as one person is silenced, there is no justice.”
“I would present them with a quote and they would discuss what that person did for our community,” Zuniga explains. “So we talked about Mumia being a journalist from Philadelphia, a commencement speaker, internationally recognized, and he advocated for his community.”
The students became fascinated with Abu-Jamal and, when they learned he was ill, wrote get-well letters to him.
During spring break, Zuniga was notified that the Orange school board suspended her with pay. At two public hearings held in April and May, Zuniga received an outpouring of support, after which she was terminated. The district superintendent said writing the letters “is in no way condoned nor does it reflect curriculum, program or activities approved by the district."
Zuniga, who plans to file a lawsuit, says the district “was contacted by the Fraternal Order of Police demanding my termination. Of course they had an influence on the decision to terminate me. This raises a lot of questions: Who decides what will be in our curriculum? Who decides what can or cannot be discussed?”
“No serious educator could believe that there was any legitimate educational reason to remove Ms. Zuniga from the classroom,” said Alan Levine, Zuniga’s attorney. “The haste with which school officials suspended Ms. Zuniga following the FOP’s highly publicized attack on her leaves no doubt what prompted their action. [end excerpt]
---
Domestic Security Agencies and private-sector partners
* "Uncovering ECHELON: The Top-Secret NSA/GCHQ Program That Has Been Watching You Your Entire Life" (2015-08-03, techcrunch.com) [archive.is/xvWgL]
* "China’s Cyberspying Is ‘on a Scale No One Imagined’–if You Pretend NSA Doesn’t Exist" (2015-08-04, fair.org) [archive.is/wWfA9]
* "Snowden: NSA uses fake Facebook to hack into users’ computers" (2014-07-12, washingtontimes.com) [archive.is/RQcUC]
* "A Surveillance Bill by Any Other Name Smells Just As Foul" (2015-07-28, aclu.org) [archive.is/tSTwK]
* "Cyber Bill Gives Companies Perfect Cover to Gut Your Privacy" (2015-07-28, freepress.net) [archive.is/SB2I2]
* "Making 1984 a reality" (2015-07-28, fightforthefuture.org):
Congress is trying to sneak through CISA, the mega-surveillance bill, to turn every website from Facebook to your insurance company into spies for 7 different government agencies.
That means the FBI, DEA, and even local police will have all the data they want to build cases against anyone they want, including you.
They want your financial, insurance, browsing, personal communications, and more — they're going to get it unless we stop them. We've stopped CISA before, but this time's for real and we know how to do it.
US Congress has such a poor grasp of how the Internet works, much less what makes the Internet awesome, that they don't even see how their attempts to make 1984 a reality with these big-brother spy powers will corrupt the Internet. That's why today we're going to overload Congress with FAXES — a technology that hopefully they'll understand because it's just as outdated as their ideas about the Internet.
We're calling this mass fax attack Operation: Fax Big Brother. And it's going to be huge because we're enlisting the help of the entire Internet. Every tweet that uses the #faxbigbrother will get turned into a fax that goes straight to all 100 Senate office faxes (many of which actually don't use paper anymore, which is both :) and :( ).
This is the 5th time we're seeing CISA. We killed it 4 times already. But, they keep bringing it back. Why? Because 1. The US Congress is run by money and their biggest donors, the defense contractors, want to bulk up their budget requests and info-gathering is THE cash-cow of the day. 2. They're failing at using basic security measures like good passwords and encryption — and following the OPM hack, they're looking for a scapegoat instead of focusing on fixing their security holes.
In short, CISA is a nightmare bill that would turn everything we learned from the Snowden revelations into a legally-protected and exponentially bigger program than ever before because surveillance would be built into every website.
To make matters worse, CISA would give companies legal immunity in exchange for handing over your data, functionally putting them above the law. So Wall Street, Facebook, AT&T and your insurance company would become government contractors for surveillance, getting paid for their help — and you can't sue them for it.
Experts agree that CISA would make all of us more vulnerable to attack. In other words, Congress is on the verge of breaking the Internet again.
* "DOOGIE HUCKSTER A Terrorism Expert’s Secret Relationship with the FBI" (2015-07-27, firstlook.org) [archive.is/lvPX6]. whowhatwhy.org writes: The Intercept examines the bona fides of Van Kohlmann, regarded as an expert on terror. The boyish Kohlmann is a preferred witness in government terrorism prosecutions and a now-ubiquitous commentator on all things terrifying for NBC and MSNBC. One problem: he’s not really an expert. His research hasn’t been peer reviewed. He’s a consultant for the FBI. And one agent called him “the Doogie Howser of Terrorism.”
---
* "In 1967, the CIA Created the Label "Conspiracy Theorists" ... to Attack Anyone Who Challenges the "Official" Narrative" (2015-02-23) [archive.is/GUDvC] [begin excerpt]: Specifically, in April 1967, the CIA wrote a dispatch which coined the term “conspiracy theories” … and recommended methods for discrediting such theories. The dispatch was marked “psych” – short for “psychological operations” or disinformation – and “CS” for the CIA’s “Clandestine Services” unit.
The dispatch was produced in responses to a Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times in 1976.
Summarizing the tactics which the CIA dispatch recommended:
- Claim that it would be impossible for so many people would keep quiet about such a big conspiracy
- Have people friendly to the CIA attack the claims, and point back to “official” reports
- Claim that eyewitness testimony is unreliable
- Claim that this is all old news, as “no significant new evidence has emerged”
- Ignore conspiracy claims unless discussion about them is already too active
- Claim that it’s irresponsible to speculate
- Accuse theorists of being wedded to and infatuated with their theories
- Accuse theorists of being politically motivated
- Accuse theorists of having financial interests in promoting conspiracy theories
In other words, the CIA’s clandestine services unit created the arguments for attacking conspiracy theories as unreliable in the 1960s as part of its psychological warfare operations. [end excerpt]
* "Uncovering ECHELON: The Top-Secret NSA/GCHQ Program That Has Been Watching You Your Entire Life" (2015-08-03, techcrunch.com) [archive.is/xvWgL]
* "China’s Cyberspying Is ‘on a Scale No One Imagined’–if You Pretend NSA Doesn’t Exist" (2015-08-04, fair.org) [archive.is/wWfA9]
* "Snowden: NSA uses fake Facebook to hack into users’ computers" (2014-07-12, washingtontimes.com) [archive.is/RQcUC]
* "A Surveillance Bill by Any Other Name Smells Just As Foul" (2015-07-28, aclu.org) [archive.is/tSTwK]
* "Cyber Bill Gives Companies Perfect Cover to Gut Your Privacy" (2015-07-28, freepress.net) [archive.is/SB2I2]
* "Making 1984 a reality" (2015-07-28, fightforthefuture.org):
Congress is trying to sneak through CISA, the mega-surveillance bill, to turn every website from Facebook to your insurance company into spies for 7 different government agencies.
That means the FBI, DEA, and even local police will have all the data they want to build cases against anyone they want, including you.
They want your financial, insurance, browsing, personal communications, and more — they're going to get it unless we stop them. We've stopped CISA before, but this time's for real and we know how to do it.
US Congress has such a poor grasp of how the Internet works, much less what makes the Internet awesome, that they don't even see how their attempts to make 1984 a reality with these big-brother spy powers will corrupt the Internet. That's why today we're going to overload Congress with FAXES — a technology that hopefully they'll understand because it's just as outdated as their ideas about the Internet.
We're calling this mass fax attack Operation: Fax Big Brother. And it's going to be huge because we're enlisting the help of the entire Internet. Every tweet that uses the #faxbigbrother will get turned into a fax that goes straight to all 100 Senate office faxes (many of which actually don't use paper anymore, which is both :) and :( ).
This is the 5th time we're seeing CISA. We killed it 4 times already. But, they keep bringing it back. Why? Because 1. The US Congress is run by money and their biggest donors, the defense contractors, want to bulk up their budget requests and info-gathering is THE cash-cow of the day. 2. They're failing at using basic security measures like good passwords and encryption — and following the OPM hack, they're looking for a scapegoat instead of focusing on fixing their security holes.
In short, CISA is a nightmare bill that would turn everything we learned from the Snowden revelations into a legally-protected and exponentially bigger program than ever before because surveillance would be built into every website.
To make matters worse, CISA would give companies legal immunity in exchange for handing over your data, functionally putting them above the law. So Wall Street, Facebook, AT&T and your insurance company would become government contractors for surveillance, getting paid for their help — and you can't sue them for it.
Experts agree that CISA would make all of us more vulnerable to attack. In other words, Congress is on the verge of breaking the Internet again.
* "DOOGIE HUCKSTER A Terrorism Expert’s Secret Relationship with the FBI" (2015-07-27, firstlook.org) [archive.is/lvPX6]. whowhatwhy.org writes: The Intercept examines the bona fides of Van Kohlmann, regarded as an expert on terror. The boyish Kohlmann is a preferred witness in government terrorism prosecutions and a now-ubiquitous commentator on all things terrifying for NBC and MSNBC. One problem: he’s not really an expert. His research hasn’t been peer reviewed. He’s a consultant for the FBI. And one agent called him “the Doogie Howser of Terrorism.”
---
* "In 1967, the CIA Created the Label "Conspiracy Theorists" ... to Attack Anyone Who Challenges the "Official" Narrative" (2015-02-23) [archive.is/GUDvC] [begin excerpt]: Specifically, in April 1967, the CIA wrote a dispatch which coined the term “conspiracy theories” … and recommended methods for discrediting such theories. The dispatch was marked “psych” – short for “psychological operations” or disinformation – and “CS” for the CIA’s “Clandestine Services” unit.
The dispatch was produced in responses to a Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times in 1976.
Summarizing the tactics which the CIA dispatch recommended:
- Claim that it would be impossible for so many people would keep quiet about such a big conspiracy
- Have people friendly to the CIA attack the claims, and point back to “official” reports
- Claim that eyewitness testimony is unreliable
- Claim that this is all old news, as “no significant new evidence has emerged”
- Ignore conspiracy claims unless discussion about them is already too active
- Claim that it’s irresponsible to speculate
- Accuse theorists of being wedded to and infatuated with their theories
- Accuse theorists of being politically motivated
- Accuse theorists of having financial interests in promoting conspiracy theories
In other words, the CIA’s clandestine services unit created the arguments for attacking conspiracy theories as unreliable in the 1960s as part of its psychological warfare operations. [end excerpt]
from the Committee to
FREE 'EM ALL!
[PoliticalPrisonersUSA.blogspot.com] End the Drug War! Stop Jim Crow! Close the Torture Chambers!
Become a Human Rights Pen Pal! [link]. [solitarywatch.com] [facebook.com/incarceratedworkers] [supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org] [denverabc.wordpress.com] [prisonlegalnews.org] [prisonbooks.info][nycabc.wordpress.com] [powmedicaljustice.com] [sacprisonersupport.wordpress.com]
* "Solitary Confinement: Punished for Life" (2015-08-03, nytimes.com) [archive.is/qv2gg]
* "Nationwide Actions to Honor Two Year Anniversary of Largest Prisoner Hunger Strike in History" (2015-07-22, prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com) [archive.is/HKIhd]
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* "On visiting George" (2015-07-29, by Dr. Tolbert Small, sfbayview.com) [archive.is/kkbyQ]
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* "Whistleblower Exposes Torture and Child Abuse at For-Profit Prison" (2015-07-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/AhGWo]
* "For-Profit Prison Accused of Subjecting Juveniles to 'Disgraceful' Conditions; G4S already stands accused of human rights violations from Israel to South Africa to the United Kingdom" (2015-07-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/eO0zO]
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* "Dylann Roof Is Not a “Terrorist” — But Animal Rights Activists Who Free Minks From Slaughter Are" (2015-07-28, firstlook.org) [archive.is/KEgwc]. Glenn Greenwald examines the oddity of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Passed in 2006, it classifies a range of activities—including surreptitious filming of factory farming and agriculture-related whistleblowing—as federally-designated acts of “terrorism.” Meanwhile, Dylan Roof’s desire to spark a race war didn’t quite rise to the level of a terrorist act, according to the Department of Justice.
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
Campaigns, info, and more [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com]
* "Because Homeland Security Allows Chemical Plants to Self-Report Toxic Releases, 44% are Wrong" (2015-08-02, allgov.com) [archive.is/6rVm4]
* "Analysis: Republican Attacks on Endangered Species Up 600 Percent Per Year" (2015-07-28, commondreams.org) [archive.is/aOgfU]
* "Man-made earthquakes Concealed Origins of Catastrophes" (2012-10-25, q-mag.org) [archive.is/M5ixo]
articles recommended by the
NO NUKES! campaign
[StopNuclearDeath.blogspot.com]
* "International Journal of Health Services: 14,000 U.S. deaths tied to Fukushima reactor disaster" (2011-12-19) [archive.is/amlj6]
* "An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United Staes follows arrival of the radioactive plume from Fukushima: is there a correlation?" (.pdf) [http://is.gd/vT52CZ]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the Committee for
ANIMAL RIGHTS
Protect Earth's Sentient Life!
* "From "Terrorism" to Activism: Moving from the Green Scare to Animal Rights" (2015-07-30, ccrjustice.org) [archive.is/mlYD2]
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
[UnitedStatesFascism.blogspot.com] Current trends among fascists, monopolists, and their vanguards.
More about the photo [archive.is/t7EdB].
The Powell Memo (.pdf) [http://is.gd/CnAiGC] (.htm) [archive.is/aLdWx], written for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1971, laid out a plan by which business could become more prominent in America. (Here is an easily-readable copy.) Implementation of Powell's suggestions is described in "The Revolt of the Bosses" (.pdf) [http://is.gd/gozcF0] in the book 'Gangs of America, The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy' by Ted Nace.Thom Harmann's 'Unequal Protection, The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights' traces the conflict between democracy and corporations in America since before the founding of our nation (Boston Tea Party, remember?). The conflict is not new. The Powell memo, however, marked the beginning of a new approach to corporate organizing efforts. Corporate efforts to influence or control our government began to be organized in a new way in the 1970s. The main objective of this effort appears to be to make America a more fertile field in which to make money. However, right-wing "Christian" money and ideologies are involved, so other objectives could lie below the surface.
* "Prejudice, Racism, Privilege In The US" (2015-07-25, popularresistance.org) [archive.is/omEQj]
* "Wall Street's Solution to Puerto Rico Debt Crisis? Shutter Schools, Fire Workers; New report commissioned by bondholders and hedge fund managers calls for sweeping austerity measures" (2015-07-28, commondreams.org) [archive.is/OroGg]
* "Wall Street’s Secret Dividend from the Fed May Go to Fixing Potholes" (201-507-29, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/KvMIz]
* "Treasury to SEC: You’re Flying Blind on the $4.1 Trillion Hedge Fund Risks" (2015-08-04, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/SYHQO]
* "How Big Corporations Cheat Public Education" (2015-07-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/qA0LN]
* "70,000 Petitioners Demand Protections for Truth-telling Contract Poultry Farmers" (2015-08-03, whistleblower.org) [archive.is/IAyiG] [begin excerpt]:
Howell, who has been raising birds for Perdue in North Carolina for 20 years, asserts that his employer and the other big chicken companies (including Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson Foods, and Sanderson Farms) deceive farmers and engage in practices that make it more difficult for contract farmers to get ahead in the business. According to Howell, the farmers have little to no say about how their operations run, and they can be punished if they don’t do exactly what the companies say.
In his petition, Howell states: "I contacted the Food Integrity Campaign because I was sick of what was happening to farmers like me and I wanted people to know the truth… Poultry farmers can barely survive, living life at or below the poverty line. This system leaves many of us with no way out and too afraid of retaliation to publicly challenge the system."
FIC Director Amanda Hitt commented: "There's a growing pool of brave contract farmers like Rudy Howell who are coming forward to expose Big Chicken's bad behavior. His story corroborates those of countless others who are being bullied into silence, even when they’re trying to address problems that the public cares about like food safety and animal welfare. These farmers need enforced protections so the industry can be held accountable and the public can be informed about the chicken they're buying." [end excerpt]
* "How the American South Drives the Low-Wage Economy; Just as in the 1850s (with the Dred Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Act), the Southern labor system (with low pay and no unions) is wending its way north" (2015-06, prospect.org) [archive.is/AUX7z]
---
* "Technology & Election Fraud Research: The Evidence" [votescam.org/the_evidence] [http://is.gd/QQkdgu]
* "Stealing Our Votes and Our Democracy?" [youtube.com/watch?v=KB3C4pdz8Ws]
* "Beware: Elections Ahead! -- Voting in the Dark" [youtube.com/watch?v=wYbu_14sdyY]
* "Hackable Computers Will Be Counting Your Votes" [youtube.com/watch?v=qMQMePcKLBc]
* WheresThePaper.org [archive.is/MpKF2] [begin excerpt]: Voting equipment became big news in the 2000 presidential election when Florida's punch-card ballots weren't punched right. Within weeks [archive.is/qnnDQ], "experts" declared that America might need to spend $3.5 billion to $9.5 billion to replace older voting technologies with new computerized voting equipment. Even when defective, however, punch-card ballots could still be read and the votes counted without difficulty. Dan Rather produced evidence in 2007 that Sequoia, the company that made the defective punch-card ballots, had intentionally used defective paper and printing methods--but no governmental body has taken follow-up action.
Since 2000 America has seen many "crises" that resulted in hasty, ill-advised and expensive action by Congress. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) is one example. HAVA authorized expenditures of $3.86 billion so states could buy new computerized voting equipment and also replace paper-based, local voter registration systems with new computerized voter registration systems that are centralized at the state level. The changes HAVA encouraged and required have caused chaos in American elections, including obviously-wrong election results and easily-accomplished illegal "purges" of valid voter registrations [archive.is/p4Ezu].
Many states used HAVA funds to buy "Direct Recording Electronic" voting systems, called DREs or touchscreens. In the November, 2004, election, an estimated 25-30 percent of American voters cast their ballots on DREs.
Vendors said that everyone should "trust the computer" because DREs were "tested" in secret ways by private testing companies paid by the vendors. Moreover, ad hoc organizations then gave "certification" to machines that had passed this secret testing process.
Why does our law hold our Election Boards to such low standards?
In many states, full recounts are triggered only by a "close election." The concept of a "close election" is related to paper ballot or mechanical "lever" voting systems where fraud requires a lot of work by a large number of people in a large number of polling places or at the central count location. This goes back to the acceptance of fraud by local bosses if they control large numbers of election workers. With computerized fraud, in contrast, the idea of a "close election" is meaningless, because one person can falsify the results of every machine in an entire state in a matter of seconds and provide any margin of victory he/she wishes.
Courts have repeatedly looked at small errors in election tallies, such as a few hundred or thousand ballots lost or switched to the wrong candidate, and said that these irregularities don't make any difference because "the election outcome would not be changed" by those ballots. Yet the Yale study showed that if an election is run with software that switches only a single vote per machine from one candidate to another, many election outcomes can be changed without having a close election [archive.is/Kmb7K].
* "Votescam" [votescam.org], the underground classic by journalists James and Kenneth Collier, links to six chapters [archive.is/b10H0].. The Collier's infamous 25 year investigation, begun in Dade County, Florida, 1970, reveals the origins of today's insider vote-rigging cartels, with their fingers on the electronic keys that control democracy. Part harrowing personal journey, part who-done-it page turner, Votescam is a vital slice of American history. It answers one of our most pressing post-1960s questions: "What the hell happened to our country?"
* "How to rig an election" (2012-11, by Victoria Collier) [archive.is/zhh1C]
* [codered2014.com]: Computerized vote counting has opened the door, over the past decade, to large-scale fraud and election theft. Virtually all the vote counting equipment is produced and programmed by a few corporations with right-wing ties. There is strong and pervasive forensic evidence that votecounts are being shifted to the right, altering many election outcomes. Political intransigence strangely seems to be electorally rewarded rather than punished. As a result, American politics has veered, even as the pendulum appears to swing, inexorably and often inexplicably to the right. This amounts to a rolling coup that is transforming America while disenfranchising an unsuspecting public.
* "Computerized Election Theft and the New American Century" (2014-10-13, truth-out.org) [archive.is/dEzCU]
* "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century" (.pdf file) [http://is.gd/GzxYO2], website (2004) [archive.is/wChkC].
* "Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century" press release (2004) [archive.is/HW4EC] [begin excerpt]: Punch cards also date back to the 1890s, but really became stylish around 1964. But the early "Votomatic" machines had such problems that in 1988, the National Bureau of Standards published a report by Saltman recommending the immediate abandonment of this technology. Since punch cards were by then the most widely used system, it's taken awhile to let go of them.
One way to rig a punch card system is to consolidate ballot-counting in one area so that precincts are mish-mashed together; Then, the scoundrel team picks someone to quietly add punches to the votes for the other candidate. The double-punched cards become "overvotes" and are thrown out.
In Duval County, Florida in 2000, over 20,000 overvoted punch cards appeared, primarily in two black precincts. No one was allowed to look at them, much less do a statistical analysis on the probability of such a high overvote rate in a discrete area. Governor Jeb Bush has recently cut the funding for the library that safeguards the six million votes from Florida 2000, and when moving the collection, it is likely that the ballots will be destroyed, eliminating any further examination of Duval County. [end excerpt]
* "What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election" [archive.is/5i4iL]. In this first comprehensive look at the most critical states voting process in the 2004 presidential election, three pathbreaking investigative journalists (one a member of the legal team that sued the state of Ohio for election fraud), compile documentary evidence of massive potential theft and fraud in the presidential voteproblems that may have changed the outcome of the presidential election in Ohio, and thus the nation.
As you can see by reviewing the documents below, What Happened in Ohio? includes trucking receipts that show voting machines were pulled back from minority districts; ballots that contain evidence of tampering; mathematical analysis demonstrating the statistical impossibility of voting totals; testimonials from hundreds of voters, campaign workers, and poll workers about conditions that effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters; copies of flyers instructing Democrats to vote on Wednesday; official letters sent to tens of thousands of longtime voters incorrectly informing them they had been deemed inactive and ineligible to vote; photos taken of the original exit poll data broadcast on election night before it was retroactively corrected by the networks; and much, much more.
Robert Fitrakis of the Free Press was an international election observer for the 1994 El Salvador presidential election and co-authored and edited the International Observer Election Report. Fitrakis’ investigative reporting on election irregularities and fraud began prior to the Florida debacle of the 2000 election. He uncovered the history and Republican and CIA connections to the electronic voting machine companies in several articles throughout 2000 prior to Election Day. He worked with the late Athan Gibbs, inventor of TruVote voting machines that supplied a paper trail, in exposing the flaws of computer voting machines.
* "Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" (2004-02-25, by Bob Fitrakis) [archive.is/OIQUl]
* "Footprints of Systemic Election Fraud: 1988-2008 State Exit Poll Discrepancies" (2011-09-24, by Richard Charnin) [archive.is/GO7eD], when compared to the True Vote Model polls [archive.is/Eq38T]
* "Unadjusted 2008 State Exit Polls: Further Confirmation of the True Vote Model" (2011-09-22, by Richard Charnin) [archive.is/pw4UP]
* "WITNESS TO A CRIME: A Citizen's Audit of an American Election" (by Richard Hayes Phillips) [archive.is/MMmer], annotated table-of-contents [archive.is/4vBqe], introduction [archive.is/pFyIs], bullet points [archive.is/R2QGf], sample chapters [archive.is/MG3O9] [archive.is/YakWM], (.pdf) [http://is.gd/46qmOb].
Richard Hayes Phillips has been the leading investigator of the fraudulent 2004 presidential election in Ohio. His work was relied upon by John Conyers in challenging the Ohio electors in Congress, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in his article for Rolling Stone magazine, and by Algenon L. Marbley in issuing his federal court order protecting the ballots from destruction. Assisted by teams of volunteers equipped with digital cameras, Phillips amassed some 30,000 images of forensic evidence. Then he analyzed it all himself, examining 126,000 ballots, 127 poll books, and 141 voter signature books from 18 counties in Ohio.
Phillips' long-awaited book, "Witness to a Crime: A Citizens' Audit of an American Election," was published by Canterbury Press on April 12. The book is 448 pages, with a hard cover and a dust jacket. The book includes eight color plates, and a CD with 1200 digital images of actual ballots, poll books, voter signature books, ballot accounting charts, and other forensic evidence from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio.
From the book:
* "Stealing votes in Columbus" (2004-11-23, by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.): The Free Press on Election Day posted a disturbing story, later confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch. The Free Press reported that Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder deliberately withheld voting machines from predominantly black Democratic wards in Columbus, and dispersed some of the machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.
Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party. Sources close to the Board of Elections told the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President George W. Bush in Columbus on Election Day.
The idea was to discourage turnout in Democratic wards by forcing voters to wait in long lines at the polling places. Such a strategy would be far more effective than encouraging turnout in Republican wards. Elections are all about margins. There are 74 wards in Columbus. George W. Bush won 12 wards, with a margin of 7.35%. John F. Kerry won 62 wards, with a margin of 37.62%. Affecting Kerry’s turnout would greatly reduce his margin of victory in Columbus, giving the Republicans a much better chance of overtaking Kerry given a strong enough showing in suburban and small town Republican strongholds.
Thus I conclude that the withholding of voting machines from predominantly Democratic wards in the City of Columbus cost John Kerry upwards of 17,000 votes. A more detailed calculation could be done on a precinct by precinct basis, but that is not necessary here. The purpose is to illustrate the magnitude of the conspiracy.
Matt Damschroder did not act alone. There are 74 wards and 472 precincts in Columbus, Ohio. It is not possible for one person to have delivered all the voting machines, and it is unlikely that nobody else was involved in planning where to deliver them. Anyone who associated with Mr. Damschroder on or shortly before Election Day should be investigated for possible complicity.
[end excerpt]
* "Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine Operation Paid for “Vote switching” Software" (2004-12-06, globalresearch.ca) [archive.is/V66cw]
* "Sworn affadavit: vote-rigging prototype developed for FLA congressman" (2004-12-06, dailykos.com) [http://is.gd/3w6Mxo] [begin excerpt]: A programmer was asked by former Florida state representative Tom Feeney to develop vote-rigging software (Feeney is now in the U.S House of Representatives). The programmer is a former NASA contractor, and his affadivit is here (.pdf file) [http://is.gd/NlAaeg]. The programmer, Clinton Curtis, said that he was told the program needed to be "touch-screen capable, the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment, [and that] the programming was to remain hidden even if the source code was inspected." [end excerpt]
* "In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s office silent" (2004-12-06, bluelemur.com) [archive.is/tQyi5]
* "Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House" (2006-06-01, by Robert F. Kennedy) [archive.is/w74Of]
* "Landslide Denied; Exit Polls vs. Vote Count" (2006, by Jonathan Simon, JD, and Bruce O’Dell) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/JjqV74]
* "Fingerprints Of Election Theft: Were Competitive Contests Targeted?" (by Jonathan Simon, JD, Bruce O’Dell, Dale Tavris, PhD, Josh Mitteldorf, PhD) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/BfF2m6]
* Testimony for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots, Texas Legislature (2007-04-04, by Bruce O’Dell) [archive.is/ERrBU]
* "Peering Through Chinks in the Armor of High-Tech Elections" (by Pokey Anderson)
[http://is.gd/O6bWM2]
* "Vendors are Undermining the Structure of U.S. Elections" (2008-08-18, by Ellen Thiesen)
executive summary [archive.is/tdVdy], full report (.pdf) [http://is.gd/wf3DRA]
* "Believe it (Or Not): The Massachusetts Special Election for US Senate" (by Jonathan Simon) (.pdf) [http://is.gd/z21mmp]
* "E2014: A Basic (Chilling) Forensic Analysis" (2014-12-16, by Jonathan Simon) [archive.is/Qrq34]
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The article is popular as it intellectualizes the idea that to be active against racism is to be a "liberal nut-job", that you are a good person if you personally feel good about racism and don't act against it.
* "Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion" (2015-07-27, thedailybeast.com) [archive.is/ryJdb].
Also, from the same online journal, further proof they hate anti-Racism:
* "Whitewashing the Black Panthers: A new PBS documentary tries to excuse a murderous and totalitarian cult" (2015-07-25, thedailybeast.com) [archive.is/XaeiC]
* Republican Party "Saucy Suffragettes" Party as Voting Rights Are Rolled Back" (2015-07-28, prwatch.org) [archive.is/5Hlk5]
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* "How To Win The Media War Against Grassroots Activists: Stratfor’s Strategies" (2013-07-29, mintpressnews.com) [archive.is/YZGvP] [begin excerpt]: While its client work was noteworthy, the formula Duchin created to divide and conquer activist movements — a regurgitation of what he learned while working under the mentorship of Rafael Pagan — has stood the test of time. It is still employed to this day by Stratfor.
Duchin replaced Pagan’s “fanatic activist leaders” with “radicals” and created a three-step formula to divide and conquer activists by breaking them up into four subtypes, as described in a 1991 speech delivered to the National Cattleman’s Association titled, “Take an Activist Apart and What Do You Have? And How Do You Deal with Him/Her?”
The subtypes: “radicals, idealists, realists and opportunists.”
Radical activists “want to change the system; have underlying socio/political motives’ and see multinational corporations as ‘inherently evil,’” explained Duchin. “These organizations do not trust the … federal, state and local governments to protect them and to safeguard the environment. They believe, rather, that individuals and local groups should have direct power over industry … I would categorize their principal aims … as social justice and political empowerment.”
The “idealist” is easier to deal with, according to Duchin’s analysis.
“Idealists…want a perfect world…Because of their intrinsic altruism, however, … [they] have a vulnerable point,” he told the audience. “If they can be shown that their position is in opposition to an industry … and cannot be ethically justified, they [will] change their position.”
The two easiest subtypes to join the corporate side of the fight are the “realists” and the “opportunists.” By definition, an “opportunist” takes the opportunity to side with the powerful for career gain, Duchin explained, and has skin in the game for “visibility, power [and] followers.”
The realist, by contrast, is more complex but the most important piece of the puzzle, says Duchin.
“[Realists are able to] live with trade-offs; willing to work within the system; not interested in radical change; pragmatic. The realists should always receive the highest priority in any strategy dealing with a public policy issue.”
Duchin outlined a corresponding three-step strategy to “deal with” these four activist subtypes. First, isolate the radicals. Second, “cultivate” the idealists and “educate” them into becoming realists. And finally, co-opt the realists into agreeing with industry.
“If your industry can successfully bring about these relationships, the credibility of the radicals will be lost and opportunists can be counted on to share in the final policy solution,” Duchin outlined in closing his speech. [end excerpt]
* "CLG's Webhoster, May First, Is Under Expanded DOS Attack - All Services Affected" (2015-07-31, legitgov.org) [archive.is/NF1aA]
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The Federal Reserve System is the highest power of banking in the USA, and it is a private cartel which is not beholden even to the President or the Congress, yet, as the following article shows, it is acting like an unelected branch of government as it holds the highest power to regulate all banking in the USA, and chooses to enforce cultural values against what it personally deems to be against.
* "Banking for Pot Industry Hits a Roadblock" (2015-07-30, nytimes.com) [archive.is/Of2Cl] [begin excerpt]: The Fourth Corner Credit Union in Denver applied in November to the Federal Reserve for a “master account,” which would allow it to interact with other financial institutions and open its doors to some of the hundreds of state-licensed marijuana businesses in Colorado.
Although recreational marijuana has been legalized in Colorado, it is still illegal on the federal level, discouraging most traditional banks from working with pot businesses.
The Fed’s branch in Kansas City, which has been reviewing the application, privately informed the Fourth Corner Credit Union earlier in July that it had not been approved for a master account, the credit union said on Thursday. The credit union, which has the backing of Colorado’s governor, fired back on Thursday night by filing a lawsuit in federal court in Denver against the Fed, demanding “equal access” to the financial system.
This year, the president of the Kansas City Fed, Esther George, wrote that the Fed had “discretion” in deciding which master accounts to open. She also said the Fed would consider the decision made by the National Credit Union Administration on whether to grant the Denver credit union deposit insurance, similar to the $250,000 coverage that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provides for standard bank accounts.
Shortly before the Fed made its decision this month, the credit union administration, an independent federal agency, privately informed the Fourth Corner Credit Union that it was not eligible for insurance, partly because it had not proved how it would “mitigate the risk associated with serving a single industry that does not have an established track record of success and remains illegal at the federal level.”
Mr. Mason filed a separate suit against the credit union administration on Thursday night, claiming that the agency had violated his credit union’s constitutional right to due process.
But his bigger issue is with the Fed. He says that even without insurance from the credit union administration, he could secure private deposit insurance and open if he could obtain a master account with the Fed. Such accounts make it possible to take credit and debit card payments and move money electronically.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Mason contends that the Fed’s own rules give it little discretion in deciding who should and should not be able to have a master account, and do not allow it to rely on other agencies, like the credit union administration.
“We weren’t treated fairly,” he said. “We weren’t treated according to procedure.” [end excerpt]
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* "National Review's Bad Conscience: Why the magazine is quick to accuse liberals of fascism and Nazism" (2015-07-29, newrepublic.com) [archive.is/t66uZ]
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* "Scam videos try to destroy Planned Parenthood - again" (2015-07-22, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/HTb4Q]
* "'I Stand With Planned Parenthood': Fact Checkers Expose Anti-Choice Smear Campaign" (2015-07-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/Jm3Xw]
* "Planned Parenthood in trouble" (2015-07-26, moveon.org):
Reuters reports that Senator Rand Paul is trying to force a vote to block federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has started a "fast-track process" to bring Paul's legislation to the floor for a vote soon [archive.is/lZmjV].
This is just the latest attack against Planned Parenthood since a heavily edited, blatantly misleading video was released attacking Planned Parenthood two weeks ago [archive.is/gtkb6].
"The folks behind it are part of the most militant anti-abortion movement," said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards today. "This entire effort is a political smear campaign" [archive.is/NphGj].
Within days of the video's release, Republicans in Congress started scheduling votes to defund Planned Parenthood—and preparing even broader attacks on abortion rights [archive.is/Esxr3].
Then, another deceiving, doctored video was released, continuing the smear campaign against the largest reproductive health care provider in America [archive.is/6bbSN].
And now—today—Sen. Paul announced he's trying to force a vote to eliminate Planned Parenthood's federal funding [archive.is/NphGj].
The mainstream news media has done a miserable job fact-checking this story, so let's set the record straight: The claim that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of fetal tissue is a disgusting lie.
Here's the truth: When a woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy and donate tissue for medical research, Planned Parenthood honors those wishes. These donations are hugely valuable for research into diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's [archive.is/6U7O8].
This is 100-percent legal, consistent with medical ethics, and no different than what happens in thousands of other medical situations every day.
Here's something else you might not have heard in the media: The anti-choice activists behind the video probably broke the law with their secret recording [archive.is/jq3Xs]. And one of their leaders runs an organization whose members have bombed abortion clinics and assassinated an abortion provider [archive.is/lwnYQ].
Planned Parenthood is under attack because of its strong advocacy for reproductive rights and abortion services. But the organization is also a health care provider more generally. Over 2.7 million people turn to Planned Parenthood's nonprofit clinics in the U.S. each year for affordable health care services—including cancer-prevention tests, well-woman visits, and access to birth control [archive.is/JvBeN].
This is it. If Sen. Paul's bill passes and gets sent to President Obama's desk—or the vote is even close—it'll lead to even more vicious attacks on Planned Parenthood over the coming months and years.
* "Is Fetal Tissue Essential to Science?" (2015-07-25, newsweek.com) [archive.is/5SZa5]
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* "California's biggest "secret" - oil industry capture of the regulatory apparatus" (2015-07-27, by Dan Bacher, indybay.org) [archive.is/SBQyh]
* "'Corporate Influence Has Won': House Passes Anti-GMO Labeling Bill; Legislation dubbed the DARK Act had backing of powerful groups who poured money into defeating state-level GMO-labeling efforts" (2015-07-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/v6Hf2]
* "House of Representatives Ignores Will of the People in Passage of Anti-labeling DARK Act" (2015-07-23, centerforfoodsafety.org) [archive.is/Yg3bA]
* "Consumers, Health Advocates and Farmers Mobilize Massive Movement in Opposition to Congressional “DARK Act” Aimed at Preempting Labeling and Safety Testing of Genetically Engineered Foods" (2015-07-23, organicconsumers.org) [archive.is/WbJac]
* "San Diego gathering features the worst of American politics" (2015-07-22, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/SCxf8]
* " 'Dark Cloud' of ALEC Converges at Annual Corporate-Political Lovefest" (2015-07-23, commondreams.org) [archive.is/ovPJE]
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* "Jeb Bush hits back at criticism over Medicare comment" (2015-07-23, politico.com) [archive.is/QQ0Gu]. whowhatwhy.org writes: The Next Bush In Line has his own tempest to deal with after he said Medicare will have to be phased out for all but those currently reliant on the entitlement system. He is, of course, going with the “taken out of context” defense. He also wants to resurrect his brother’s Social Security privatization scheme [http://is.gd/rI4oGo] … much to the delight of Democratic Party strategists. Ironically, a new report shows that the cost of Medicare is declining [http://is.gd/n6q0Ec].
* "Jeb Bush Wants You To Work Harder, But He Doesn’t Want You To Have ‘Benefits And Stuff’" (2015-07-23, addictinginfo.org): I don’t know how it’s possible, but instead of being the sane Bush, as we were promised, Jeb is Mitt Romney redux.
A couple of weeks ago, Bush stuck his silver foot in his mouth by saying that people need to work longer hours. The problem with that is that since Reagan, we do work longer hours but we don’t get paid for them.
That didn’t go over well, but Bush doubled down anyway and on Wednesday, he complained to a crowd that Hillary Clinton wanted workers to get “benefits and stuff.”
Here’s the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gblQ_rCTbJg] and I’ll let you sit with that for a moment.
Okay, Jebbie, let’s look at the benefit situation in the U.S. Most people who work full time (86 percent) receive health insurance through their jobs (.pdf) [http://is.gd/snjFLu]. If that is taken away, the need for the government to step in becomes even more imperative. People get sick. When hospital and doctor bills can’t be paid, the American people will pick up the tab. The Affordable Care Act, fortunately, has picked up the slack for many, but not enough, of the people who don’t get insurance from their employers.
Sadly, 26 percent of full-time workers don’t get any sick pay. Only 24 percent of part-time workers get sick pay at all. What that means is people are feeling forced to go to work sick or risk losing pay or worse, their jobs. Not only are they exposing their fellow workers to illness, if they work with the public, they are exposing everyone. Disgustingly, one of the industries that’s least likely to offer sick pay is the food service industry [archive.is/ZOWI0], which means violently ill people may be picking, cooking or serving our food. That’s appetizing, right?
Another big one of those benefits Jeb thinks are ridiculous are vacation days. About 40 percent of people don’t even use the vacation days they have, if they have one, in part because they are afraid they may not come back to a job [archive.is/ZOWI0]. About a quarter of Americans get no vacation time at all.
By contrast, workers in the European Union are required by law to have at least 20 paid vacation days a year [archive.is/oO3wy]. Some employers even pay for employees’ vacations, to a point.
Perhaps we should appreciate Jeb’s honesty. At least with him, we know that he doesn’t give a flying fig about American workers, or for that matter, the American people. Bush has had almost no donations from private people, yet he’s miles away from the pack in fundraising, largely because of his Super PAC, which has raised a whopping $103 million, much of which is coming from the same people who supported his brother [archive.is/lWgCD]. I guess there’s something refreshing about a candidate who puts his priorities right on the table, but if you think we have an oligarchy now, watch out for Bush III.
* "Jeb Bush Wants Us To Work More, Have No Benefits And No Medicare When We Retire" (2015-07-23, addictinginfo.org): I get the feeling a lot of Dickens was read in the Bush household, only they were taught to empathize with the villains. Jeb Bush, in his run to be the third Bush presidency, doesn’t even try to hide his oligarchic views.
He wants people to work more hours, but without “benefits and stuff.” Now, he wants the people who don’t have benefits to not have health insurance either. He wants to eliminate Medicare.
In an event sponsored by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, Bush said about Medicare [archive.is/S7qe0]: “The left needs to join the conversation, but they haven’t. I mean, when [Rep. Paul Ryan] came up with, one of his proposals as it relates to Medicare, the first thing I saw was a TV ad of a guy that looked just like Paul Ryan … that was pushing an elderly person off the cliff in a wheelchair. That’s their response. And I think we need to be vigilant about this and persuade people that our, when your volunteers go door to door, and they talk to people, people understand this. They know, and I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.”
Right now, nearly 50 million people are on Medicare [archive.is/O5fZR]. Bush’s home state of Florida is second only to California in the number of Medicare beneficiaries, making it the highest number per capita, but that’s likely because of the large number of retirees. There was a time not that long ago, when the program was on its last leg, but the Affordable Care Act saved it. According to Mother Jones [http://is.gd/pGUK0a] [begin excerpt]: Ten years ago, Medicare was a runaway freight train. Spending was projected to increase indefinitely, rising to 13 percent of GDP by 2080. This year, spending is projected to slow down around 2040, and reaches only 6 percent of GDP by 2090. Six percent! That’s half what we thought a mere decade ago. If that isn’t spectacular, I don’t know what is. [end excerpt].
I’m sure Bush knows that, but you have to remember that it was his brother who took the nation’s tax surplus and gave it to the wealthy and then drove the rest of the economy into a deep recession by putting two wars on credit cards. There’s nothing fiscally responsible about being a Bush, but it is in keeping with Bushes and virtually all Republicans to punish the poors and the rest of us, because dammit, we don’t work hard enough and we sometimes have the audacity to get old and sick.
If his reign over Florida is any indication of how he’ll rule the country, it isn’t pretty for the poors and middle class. One of his biggest successes, according to him, is that he cut taxes in the state by $19 billion [archive.is/kvz8i]. It was actually his brother (and Congress) who did that and only for rich people, when he phased out the federal estate tax. All Jeb did was not raise taxes. Jeb did repeal a tax on intangible assets, like stocks and bonds – again, something poor people don’t have.
I have a hard time believing that other GOP candidates don’t believe exactly the way Bush does. They’re just letting him be the one to say it, just as they’re letting Donald Trump be the one to say what they are thinking about immigrants. Unfortunately, poor Republicans are too dumb to realize that they’d be voting against their own interests if they choose any of these guys.
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Judging by her explanation for the selection of historical figures for USA currency, she really is winning hearts and minds over to capitalism
* "Ylianna Guerra, Miss Texas, defends personal wealth, capitalism: ‘This is the land of opportunity’ " (2015-07-14, washingtontimes.com) [archive.is/vxfyQ] [begin excerpt]: Miss Texas Ylianna Guerra defended individual wealth and America as “the land of opportunity” during the interview segment of Sunday’s Miss USA pageant. Ms. Guerra, 22, of McAllen, was asked during her Q&A if the U.S. government should limit CEOs’ salaries. “Last year, CEOs in the United States made around 300 times as much as the average worker salary. Should the government impose boundaries on salaries of executives?” the questioner asked.
“That’s a very good question,” Ms. Guerra responded. “You know, I think that if you work hard enough, you can attain anything. This is the land of opportunity and CEOs — I believe that they work hard enough for their money, so I believe that they should be able to attain whatever it is they are working for.”
Her answer was met with a large round of applause and she was widely praised by the conservative Twittersphere, but the admiration didn’t last long after she flubbed her second question, The Blaze reported [archive.is/10eHY].
When asked who should be the first woman to appear on the $10 bill, Ms. Guerra said, “On the bills that we have right now, they are all of presidents, and so I think we should just wait until the upcoming election. We have both a Republican and Democratic candidate running for president, and I think we should just wait and see.”
Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were not U.S. presidents. [end excerpt]
* "Beauty Queen Defends Capitalism, America" (freebeacon.com) [archive.is/OzTr0]
* "15 Things Americans Would Know if There Were a 'Liberal Media'; If we have a liberal media, as conservatives claim, why isn't it flooded with stories about US prisons, wealth inequality and outsourcing?" (2013-08-07, alternet.org) [archive.is/Qlj8c]
* "Gallup: American Conservatives Turn On Pope Francis" (2015-07-22, talkingpointsmemo.com) [archive.is/jI6B5]
* "Pope Francis Not Hurt by Communist Crucifix from Bolivian President" (2015-07-22, atheistrepublic.com) [archive.is/yVOUv]
* meme from the Freedom from Atheism Foundation [archive.is/T0tNr], presented without irony to "prove" that atheists are the dominant culture and oppressing all religions. Yes, "conservatives" actually believe the statistic that the meme presents! The act of debating rationally against superstition brings up the phrase "militant atheists" which vividly describes atheists with guns ready to hurt religious people, yet there have been absolutely no incidents of "militant atheists" engaging in suppression of religion in the USA... it is the opposite as "conservative" Christian militias and soldiers are currently engaging in lynchings and murders of non-believers. Read more about how atheists describe themselves at[www.atheistrepublic.com]. As noted atheist Douglas Adams once said, "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
AC Grayling on Religious Apologists’ Complaining About Aggressive Atheism:
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Two Party Dictatorship
The Republican Party and their supporters are well aware of the facts in the following article. Being aware, what makes them want to nominate Donald Trump when his only experience in running a business is with "disaster capitalism"? What does his experience have for those who are retired, students, or the working poor?
* "Donald Trump was a stock market disaster" (2015-07-22, marketwatch.com) [archive.is/U839v]
* "Lobbyists Fundraising for Clinton, Bush, Rubio and Kasich Are Coworkers" (2015-07-22, firstlook.org) [archive.is/fy5vo]
* "Guess Who Else Is Fundraising for Clinton: Private Prison Lobbyists" (2015-07-24, commondreams.org) [archive.is/1DSNY]
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State Media Watch
* "New York Times Pushes False Narrative on the Wall Street Crash of 2008" (20145-08-03, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/ZzRx8]
===*===*===
GEOPOLITICAL NEWS
Provided by Northbay MDS Committees, and the 5th World News service [FifthWorldNews.blogspot.com], including Institutions of Self-Government not recognized by the United Nations. USA State Dept.'s legal statement supporting unilateral declarations of independence (2009-07) [.pdf link]: "The legal principle of territorial integrity does not prevent non-state entities from peacefully declaring its independence." Legal mandate set by the UN International Court (2010-07-22) [archive.today/mc6sX]: "No general prohibition may be inferred from the practice of the Security Council with regard to declarations of independence,” and “General international law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence."
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
Documenting the global economic dictatorship
* "Today’s Strangled, Muzzled, Darkened and Halted “Free” Markets" (2015-07-22, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/kmW9Y]
* "As Elites Aim To Finalize Secret 'Profit Over People' Trade Deal, An Alarm Sounds" (2015-07-29, commondreams.org) [archive.is/kzJeR]
* "Obama Administration’s Cynical Bid to Salvage the TPP by Turning a Blind Eye to Malaysia’s Trafficked Persons’ Mass Graves Will Only Fuel Criticism of the Pact" (2015-07-27, citizen.org) [archive.is/aEmw2]
Julian Assange, hero of the People, scourge of world fascism... and a rapist (?)
* "Julian Assange lawyer admitted Assange “pushed at the boundaries of what they felt comfortable with” – i.e. non-consensual sex" (2012-04-20, bethgranter.com) [archive.is/Bd6pP]
* "When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along" (2010-12-02, crikey.com.au) [archive.is/eUWMA]
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Weapons for a New World Order
* "Plasmonic device has speed and efficiency to serve optical computers" (2015-07-27, pratt.duke.edu) [archive.is/zO7Ix] [begin excerpt]: Researchers have developed an ultrafast light-emitting device that can flip on and off 90 billion times a second and could form the basis of optical computing. At its most basic level, your smart phone’s battery is powering billions of transistors using electrons to flip on and off billions of times per second. But if microchips could use photons instead of electrons to process and transmit data, computers could operate even faster. The group is now working to use the plasmonic structure to create a single photon source—a necessity for extremely secure quantum communications—by sandwiching a single quantum dot in the gap between the silver nanocube and gold foil. They are also trying to precisely place and orient the quantum dots to create the fastest fluorescence rates possible. [end excerpt]
* "Penn Researchers Discover New Chiral Property of Silicon, With Photonic Applications" (2015-07-23, upenn.edu) [archive.is/FtDDZ] [begin excerpt]: By encoding information in photons via their spin, “photonic” computers could be orders of magnitude faster and efficient than their current-day counterparts. Likewise, encoding information in the spin of electrons, rather than just their quantity, could make “spintronic” computers with similar advantages. University of Pennsylvania engineers and physicists have now discovered a property of silicon that combines aspects of all of these desirable qualities. [end excerpt]
* "Tiny mechanical wrist gives new dexterity to needlescopic surgery" (2015-07-23, vanderbilt.edu) [archive.is/ghv6C], video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEgUB5pVRmo#t=64]
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* "Mirage Men: UFO researcher Mark Pilkington on deception and psychological warfare" (2010-10-06, wired.co.uk) [archive.is/C7ak7] [begin excerpt]:
Question: What do you make of the recent UFO sightings over Iran? (The Iranian authorities even claim to have shot one down last year). The unidentified objects are described as glowing or having lights on them, do this rule out secret US spy drones?
Answer: There was a UFO wave over Iran in 2004 when I first began researching Mirage Men -- many of them, not surprisingly, seen over their burgeoning nuclear facilities. The Iranian Air Force announced that they'd be having a UFO conference to investigate the sightings, but I never heard any more about that. It's interesting to see how in Iran, just as in the UK or the US, initial reports of lights in the sky will quite quickly transform into more dramatic stories -- the second wave of sightings in 2004 involved strange robot creatures with claw arms hovering in the skies. This kind of escalation is a natural part of the folkloric narrative process, though it's also possible that these stories were faked by witnesses or journalists to sell newspapers, or were even planted by Iran's enemies to stir up unease. Bright lights don't necessarily rule out spy planes or drones, maybe they were there to distract attention from another covert operation. Or perhaps the purpose was to generate unease and fear amongst the population with the eventual goal of destabilising the regime. The US planned to fly "ghost planes" over Libya in 1986 for similar reasons, though the project was never carried out. [end excerpt]
* "Did Iranian Fighters Battle UFOs?" (2014-01-14, forbes.com) [archive.is/FEdjT]
* "Mirage Men revealed by Greenwald?" (2014-02-25, miragemen.wordpress.com) [archive.is/dEWwJ] [begin excerpt]: A Powerpoint presentation made available on journalist Glenn Greenwald’s web site, Firstlook.org, may just have revealed the Mirage Men – or at least one branch of their operations.
The presentation is called The Art of Deception, Training for a New Generation of Online Covert Operations and was given by GCHQ’s Human Science Operation Cell (HSOC), linked to the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), whose existence was uncovered by Greenwald via the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
While the textual content of the presentation is not online, we can infer from the slides that the powerpoint outlines applied techniques for deploying psychology, deception, illusion, dissimulation, magic, religion and belief in their intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. These are the tools of the trade for the Mirage Men.
And, sure enough, scroll down to pages 35 to 37 in Strand 2: Influence and Information Operations and you will find three slides of UFO photographs…
While we don’t want to fall into the trap of confirmation bias that they refer to in slide 11, it is tempting to read the images as demonstrating that GCHQ consider the UFO subject, its attendant beliefs, and the vocal community surrounding it, to be a useful field of operations for their activities.
The slides of UFOs and classic flying saucers might illustrate the ways that people have a tendency to see what they want to see, or want to believe in, and the ways in which their perceptions can be managed with just a few contextual nudges.
Slide 24 ‘Gambits of Deception’ lays out the building blocks of a classic Mirage Men-style deception operation, whereby all the elements of attention, perception, content, affect and behaviour modification can be shaped and steered. These are the magician’s secret weapons; as the card reads, in order to obtain their desired outcome the successful illusionist will need to “control attention / mask & mimic / exploit prior beliefs / create cognitive stress (and then) channel behaviour”. [end excerpt]
---* "Penn Researchers Discover New Chiral Property of Silicon, With Photonic Applications" (2015-07-23, upenn.edu) [archive.is/FtDDZ] [begin excerpt]: By encoding information in photons via their spin, “photonic” computers could be orders of magnitude faster and efficient than their current-day counterparts. Likewise, encoding information in the spin of electrons, rather than just their quantity, could make “spintronic” computers with similar advantages. University of Pennsylvania engineers and physicists have now discovered a property of silicon that combines aspects of all of these desirable qualities. [end excerpt]
* "Tiny mechanical wrist gives new dexterity to needlescopic surgery" (2015-07-23, vanderbilt.edu) [archive.is/ghv6C], video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEgUB5pVRmo#t=64]
---
* "Mirage Men: UFO researcher Mark Pilkington on deception and psychological warfare" (2010-10-06, wired.co.uk) [archive.is/C7ak7] [begin excerpt]:
Question: What do you make of the recent UFO sightings over Iran? (The Iranian authorities even claim to have shot one down last year). The unidentified objects are described as glowing or having lights on them, do this rule out secret US spy drones?
Answer: There was a UFO wave over Iran in 2004 when I first began researching Mirage Men -- many of them, not surprisingly, seen over their burgeoning nuclear facilities. The Iranian Air Force announced that they'd be having a UFO conference to investigate the sightings, but I never heard any more about that. It's interesting to see how in Iran, just as in the UK or the US, initial reports of lights in the sky will quite quickly transform into more dramatic stories -- the second wave of sightings in 2004 involved strange robot creatures with claw arms hovering in the skies. This kind of escalation is a natural part of the folkloric narrative process, though it's also possible that these stories were faked by witnesses or journalists to sell newspapers, or were even planted by Iran's enemies to stir up unease. Bright lights don't necessarily rule out spy planes or drones, maybe they were there to distract attention from another covert operation. Or perhaps the purpose was to generate unease and fear amongst the population with the eventual goal of destabilising the regime. The US planned to fly "ghost planes" over Libya in 1986 for similar reasons, though the project was never carried out. [end excerpt]
* "Did Iranian Fighters Battle UFOs?" (2014-01-14, forbes.com) [archive.is/FEdjT]
* "Mirage Men revealed by Greenwald?" (2014-02-25, miragemen.wordpress.com) [archive.is/dEWwJ] [begin excerpt]: A Powerpoint presentation made available on journalist Glenn Greenwald’s web site, Firstlook.org, may just have revealed the Mirage Men – or at least one branch of their operations.
The presentation is called The Art of Deception, Training for a New Generation of Online Covert Operations and was given by GCHQ’s Human Science Operation Cell (HSOC), linked to the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), whose existence was uncovered by Greenwald via the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
While the textual content of the presentation is not online, we can infer from the slides that the powerpoint outlines applied techniques for deploying psychology, deception, illusion, dissimulation, magic, religion and belief in their intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. These are the tools of the trade for the Mirage Men.
And, sure enough, scroll down to pages 35 to 37 in Strand 2: Influence and Information Operations and you will find three slides of UFO photographs…
While we don’t want to fall into the trap of confirmation bias that they refer to in slide 11, it is tempting to read the images as demonstrating that GCHQ consider the UFO subject, its attendant beliefs, and the vocal community surrounding it, to be a useful field of operations for their activities.
The slides of UFOs and classic flying saucers might illustrate the ways that people have a tendency to see what they want to see, or want to believe in, and the ways in which their perceptions can be managed with just a few contextual nudges.
Slide 24 ‘Gambits of Deception’ lays out the building blocks of a classic Mirage Men-style deception operation, whereby all the elements of attention, perception, content, affect and behaviour modification can be shaped and steered. These are the magician’s secret weapons; as the card reads, in order to obtain their desired outcome the successful illusionist will need to “control attention / mask & mimic / exploit prior beliefs / create cognitive stress (and then) channel behaviour”. [end excerpt]
#OPDeathEaters [WorldFascists.blogspot.com]
* "Child Trafficking Bust Hits Close to Home in Sonoma County" (2015-07-30, patch.com) [archive.is/FRdAB]
===*===*===
Canada, Quebec, & the federation of First Nations
* "Canada’s Prime Minister Dissolves Parliament, Kicking Off Election Campaign" (2015-08-02, wsj.com) [archive.is/apDhS] [begin excerpt]: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered the country’s Parliament to be dissolved, kicking off an extended election campaign in which the Conservative leader will vie for a fourth term amid a deteriorating economy.
The move, announced Sunday, doesn’t alter the timing of Canada’s scheduled Oct. 19 elections, but it lengthens the official campaign season to 11 weeks—more than double that of recent Canadian races. The longer period plays to the Conservative Party’s strengths because it has a far bigger war chest to tap than its two main political rivals.
The 56-year-old Mr. Harper, who has served as prime minister since January 2006, is the second-longest serving leader within the Group of Seven major industrialized countries. But his re-election bid comes as Canada’s economy has stalled amid steep declines in the price of oil, its top export. His party also faces a serious election threat emerges from the left-leaning New Democratic Party, which currently leads in the polls. [end excerpt]
* "Premier of Canada's Alberta dissolves legislature, calls election" (2015-04-07, ca.reuters.com) [http://is.gd/5PPngj] [begin excerpt]: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice on Tuesday called an election in Canada's wealthiest province, the largest source of U.S. crude imports, as he looks to extend his party's 43-year reign even as weak oil prices threaten to push the economy into recession.
Prentice, a former investment banker and federal minister who took over the leadership of the ruling Progressive Conservatives in September, dissolved the provincial legislature and called an election for May 5 as he seeks to add another majority on top of the party's 12 straight election victories.
Though his party controls 70 seats in the 87-member legislature, recent polls suggest the Progressive Conservatives' popularity is about on par with the opposition Wildrose Party after Prentice last month introduced a deficit budget heavy on tax hikes and user fees as the government tries to replace revenue from the hobbled oil industry. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Nations resident in the USA
American Nation including the State Sovereignty movement [tenthamendmentcenter.com] & militias, Dominionism, Constitutionalism, Sovereign Citizens, and other vanguards of the American nation.
* "The Battlelines are Drawn: Rightwing Neo- Secession or a Third Reconstruction" (socialpolicy.org) [archive.is/ihxII] [begin excerpt]: Like the first secession, this second neo-secession is centered in the South even though it is a national movement with unusual strength in the upper Rocky Mountain and plains states, as well as rural areas throughout the country. Similarly racism, especially anti-Black racism, lies at its foundation even as the rightwing assaults all democratic, women’s, immigrant and labor rights, social and environmental programs. [end excerpt]
* "KKK Posing as Victim of 'Cultural Genocide' " (2015-07-09, tikkun.org) [archive.is/ivwYM]* "Alabama governor names public school-hating Christian fundamentalist to oversee public education" (2015-07-30, rawstory.com) [archive.is/jZX1L]
* "The Little Führer: A day in the life of the newest leader of white nationalists" (2015-07-26, projects.aljazeera.com) [archive.is/E94Zd], with photos [http://is.gd/vp6p5z]: "Blue-collar White workers and White poor people don't have anyone to speak for them, and right now they are being screwed by the system." —Matthew Heimbach, Traditionalist Youth Network founder
A group gathers for a photo during a Confederate flag rally that ended in a parking lot in Knoxville, Tennessee after motorcading through the city on Thursday, July 17, 2015
---
The sovereign nations of "Indian Country"
[indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com] [bsnorrell.blogspot.com]
* "The Emerging Truth about Junipero Serra and the California Missions" (2015-07-10, tikkun.org) [archive.is/qQO4k]
---
* "Here Is What We Know About the Death of Choctaw Medicine Man Rexdale W. Henry" (2015-07-28, indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com) [archive.is/JeaQg]
* "Manning: Sarah Lee Circle Bear Died While in Police Custody; Family Seeks Justice" (2015-07-28, indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com) [archive.is/SB7Wv]
===*===*===
Regional insights for the lands of
Anahuac, Carib, and Abya Ayla ("Latin" America)
English language news [upsidedownworld.org] [narconews.com] [narcosphere.narconews.com] [nacla.org] [coha.org] [cepr.net] [cedema.org], Spanish language news [contrainjerencia.com]
The following article describes a company which has chosen to ignore the human-rights abuse of USA allies like Colombia and Honduras, and who works alongside death-squads in imposing a fascist system of economics. This is the face of those who advise the most oppressive dictators in the Western hemisphere in managing an economy open to foreign investment above all else.
* "JJ Rendon received Humanitarian Innovation Award for lifetime achievement in human rights and democracy" (2015-07-24, proceso.hn) machine translated [archive.is/iKGG8] [begin excerpt]:The renowned political strategist JJ Rendon received the Humanitarian Award for Innovation in recognition of his long career and work done on behalf of human rights, defense of democracy and political strategy, taking on dictatorial governments.
The prize was awarded by the organization Humanitarian Innovation Forum (HIF) and Rendon received him at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in New York.
Humanitarian Innovation Award is given annually to a leading international influence to promote the values of HIF in the field of science and the arts and this time fell on the psychologist, strategist and political publicist Venezuela on its merits as a promoter of rights human, defender of democratic regimes and advisor to more than 28 presidential campaign in Latin America.
Rendon is a fierce opponent of the government of his country, led by Nicolas Maduro Chavez, who has repeatedly attacked the political strategist. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA)
[HandsOffBolivarianVenezuela.blogspot.com]
* "ALBA Bloc Workers Created in Venezuela" (2015-07-24, plenglish.com) [archive.is/3CuSG]: Representatives of unions from Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Venezuela formally constituted the Workers Block of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA), it was learned here today.
In a press release the Socialist Bolivarian Workers Central (CBST, in Spanish) states that around 12 million people participate in this initiative, because besides ALBA signatory countries, observer states are invited to join the bloc.
The director of the CBST, Jacobo Torres, said that the Bloc created today is, first and foremost, a tool for the defense of political processes and revolutions underway in Latin America.
Secondly, he said, it facilitates to move forward in the consolidation of integration projects that were the basic inspiration of late President Hugo Chavez.
He said that next November 5, as part of the commemoration for the 10th anniversary of the defeat of ALCA (Americas Free Trade Area) and the birth of the alliance, an international solidarity meeting organized by the Bloc of ALBA Workers and the Union Meeting Our America will take place in Venezuela.
---
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
[venezuelanalysis.com] [rnv.gob.ve]
* "Venezuela Announces 4-Year Human Rights Plan" (2015-07-16, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/IsxAs]
* "Eyewitness: Observing PSUV primaries in Venezuela" (2015-07-16, liberationnews.org) [archive.is/Ve5ok]
* "Venezuela: Polls says 62% want ruling socialists to stay in gov't" (2015-07-06, greenleft.org.au) [archive.is/p07Vq]
* "New Poll: 52% of Venezuelans Say Opposition Lacks Plan for the Nation" (2015-07-27, venezuelanalysis.com) [archive.is/EHkWz]
* "Venezuela's 29 opposition parties unite in a bid to unseat socialists" (2015-07-23, ctvnews.ca) [archive.is/J8qcX]
* "Venezuela Introduces Plan to Fight Organized Crime" (2015-07-14, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/A9UvB]
* "Two Ex-Venezuelan Military Officers Arrested for Suspected Drug Trafficking" (2015-07-22, venezuelanalysis.com) [archive.is/e30xd]
* "Venezuelan President Demands Identities Of Miami-Based Exile Group" (2015-02-03, ibtimes.com) [http://is.gd/YCpiD9]
* "Venezuela pulls $1.5 billion from its IMF reserves" (2015-07-09, reuters.com) [archive.is/L1Juw]
---
Republic of Cuba
---
Pluri-National State of Bolivia
* (2015-07-25, TeleSUR English) [archive.is/tuJD7]: Progressive policies under Bolivian President Evo Morales, including redistributive and inclusive development measures that prioritize the poorest sectors of society, have been credited with enabling the rise in earnings for the poorest 40 percent in Bolivia.* "ALBA Bloc Workers Created in Venezuela" (2015-07-24, plenglish.com) [archive.is/3CuSG]: Representatives of unions from Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Venezuela formally constituted the Workers Block of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA), it was learned here today.
In a press release the Socialist Bolivarian Workers Central (CBST, in Spanish) states that around 12 million people participate in this initiative, because besides ALBA signatory countries, observer states are invited to join the bloc.
The director of the CBST, Jacobo Torres, said that the Bloc created today is, first and foremost, a tool for the defense of political processes and revolutions underway in Latin America.
Secondly, he said, it facilitates to move forward in the consolidation of integration projects that were the basic inspiration of late President Hugo Chavez.
He said that next November 5, as part of the commemoration for the 10th anniversary of the defeat of ALCA (Americas Free Trade Area) and the birth of the alliance, an international solidarity meeting organized by the Bloc of ALBA Workers and the Union Meeting Our America will take place in Venezuela.
---
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
[venezuelanalysis.com] [rnv.gob.ve]
* "Venezuela Announces 4-Year Human Rights Plan" (2015-07-16, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/IsxAs]
* "Eyewitness: Observing PSUV primaries in Venezuela" (2015-07-16, liberationnews.org) [archive.is/Ve5ok]
* "Venezuela: Polls says 62% want ruling socialists to stay in gov't" (2015-07-06, greenleft.org.au) [archive.is/p07Vq]
* "New Poll: 52% of Venezuelans Say Opposition Lacks Plan for the Nation" (2015-07-27, venezuelanalysis.com) [archive.is/EHkWz]
* "Venezuela's 29 opposition parties unite in a bid to unseat socialists" (2015-07-23, ctvnews.ca) [archive.is/J8qcX]
* "Venezuela Introduces Plan to Fight Organized Crime" (2015-07-14, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/A9UvB]
* "Two Ex-Venezuelan Military Officers Arrested for Suspected Drug Trafficking" (2015-07-22, venezuelanalysis.com) [archive.is/e30xd]
* "Venezuelan President Demands Identities Of Miami-Based Exile Group" (2015-02-03, ibtimes.com) [http://is.gd/YCpiD9]
* "Venezuela pulls $1.5 billion from its IMF reserves" (2015-07-09, reuters.com) [archive.is/L1Juw]
---
Republic of Cuba
---
Pluri-National State of Bolivia
---
Republic of Ecuador
* "Bilingual Schools Strengthening Ecuador's Plurinational State" (2015-04-02, telesurtv.net) [archive.is/unraa]
===*===*===
United States of Mexico
* "Mexico Investigation Unearths More Mass Graves, but Still No Answers; On Sunday, parents of the Ayotzinapa students, missing for 10 months, led hundreds through the streets of Mexico City to call for justice" (2015-07-27, commondreams.org) [archive.is/pylK6]
===*===*===
Central America, an "Economic Sacrifice Zone"
---
Republic of Guatemala
* "Fears mount in Guatemala as elections approach" (2015-08-03, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/iBW2H]
---
Republic of Honduras
[northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/10/world-fascism-watch-honduras.html] Most of the comments are collected from the daily "Presente Honduras Digest", and from the "Honduras Solidarity Network" listserve, authored by experts in geopolitics and history of Latin America. Libre is the "leftist" party working to uphold human rights and sovereignty, JOH is the dictator of Honduras supported by the USA.
* "Honduran arrested in Costa Rica with 59 kilos of cocaine hidden in his truck" (2015-07-27, proceso.hn) machine translated [archive.is/vYNiH], original [archive.is/Jodyn].
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): C-Libre emitted no less than 5 alerts in the last 24 hours - a sign of how tense the situations for human rights defenders is in Honduras and it shows the myriad ways in which the government goes after them. UNAH authorities made public various information about some student protest leaders. At the same time, they announced a dialogue without even knowing how the students are organized and which associations represents them. The students peacefully left their protest at the UNAH in the Sula Valley. The government found it necessary to arrive with some 200 police officers and soldiers. On the same day, other students started a new protest at the UNAH in Tegucigalpa. The students in La Ceiba, meanwhile, also face an eviction as a big military and police contingent arrived at the university.
- "Honduras: University Authorities exposed personal data of student leaders" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/HXvkd]
- "Authorities agree Unah dialogue ignoring the student fronts" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/HEMfR]
- "Students peacefully delivered UNAH-VS facilities" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/NB1fF], original with photos [http://is.gd/yHeShx]
- "Students are taken now UNAH buildings" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/M0y6X], original with photos [http://is.gd/GOrjyh]
- "Police and military ready to evacuate students in Choluteca CURLP" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/55cnN], original with photos [http://is.gd/b1KgaC]
* (2015-07-24, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 45): Several students who actively participate(d) at the protests denounce being followed by private security guards.
- [http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3644:alerta-seguimiento-en-la-unah&catid=54:den&Itemid=171]
- [http://www.pasosdeanimalgrande.com/index.php/en/denuncias/item/924-sigue-el-clima-de-represion-desconocido-monto-seguimiento-a-estudiante-de-la-unah]
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43):
Yesterday the trial against journalist David Romero Ellner began - less than 24 hours after he was informed about it. Furthermore, he denounces continuous monitoring and intimidation by the MP as well as by the Presidential Honor Guard.
Journalist Dina Meza, meanwhile, has reported some 20 security incidents so far this year, 13 alone in June.
A police officer attacked the reporter Giovanni Sierra striking his camera.
The radio reporter Adelmo Arturo Cortez Milla was murdered in Gracias, Lempira.
- David Romero in court: "There is order to condemn me and they put me in prison" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/fx6lt]
- "Presidential Honor Guard and agents lurk; Prosecutor denounces journalist" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/1n23K]
- "PEN president of Honduras at risk by 20 incidents against" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/NdZL1]
- "Police intelligence strip handful of journalistic team" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/har1M]
- "Adelmo murder the speaker Arturo Cortez Mile in Gracias, Lempira" (2015-07-22, proceso.hn) [archive.is/NNGrD]
* (2015-07-22): At this moment, David Romero Elner, director of Radio Globo and Globo TV, is in a state of protection at the CONADH (Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos en Honduras / National Commissioner of Human Rights), after being taken out of the supreme court (where he was facing a political case of persecution this morning) by the outraged people in Honduras, who decided that the dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez was NOT going to take him to jail in a clear defense of freedom of expression in Honduras. The police was ready to take David Romero away to jail when the people spontaneously, decided to physically take him with them and bring him to CONADEH. David Romero Elner says he will remain at the CONADEH for as long as he needs to. Many members of the FNRP/LIBRE Party including President Zelaya and Xiomara Castro de Zelaya are at CONADEH accompanying David. Xiomara Castro was with the people at the time when they took David out of court. As I write, David is giving a press conference from the CONADEH and he is saying that will remain there indefinitely. Hundreds of people came to court and are outside of the CONADEH protecting David Romero, including the director of Canal 36 Cholusat Sur, Eldras Amado Lopez.
Video [https://www.facebook.com/11noticias/videos/864113967011505]
* (2015-07-24, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 45): Journalist Julio Ernesto Alvarado must fear again to be ordered to stop his journalistic work as the secretary of the University Council of the UNAH announced that they would go to higher level instances than the IACHR to have the special protective measures for Alvarado withdrawn. David Romero Elner, meanwhile, is in a state of protection at the CONADEH. He was taken out of the Supreme Court and taken to CONADEH by a mass of followers who feared that he would be unjustly imprisoned. CONADEH's Roberto Herrera C?ceres annouced that they are elaborating a report on Romero's case.
- [http://www.clibrehonduras.com/alerta/funcionaria-cuestionada-por-irregularidades-pretende-revertir-medidas-de-la-cidh-favor-de]
- [http://criterio.hn/seguidos-de-david-romero-irrumpen-juicio-y-se-lo-llevan/]
- [http://criterio.hn/david-romero-se-refugia-en-edificio-del-conadeh/]
- [http://criterio.hn/conadeh-elaborara-informe-sobre-caso-de-david-romero/]
---
* "They denounce landowner who killed a farmer and threatens the lives of others and others in Santa Barbara" (2015-07-22, pasosdeanimalgrande.com) machine translated [archive.is/zXL9v]. Dina Meza writes about the murder of campesino Moises Duran Sanchez by the 'terrateniente' Saul Rios.
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): The participants of the hunger strike walked yesterday from the protest site to the UN handing in a letter for Ban Ki-Moon. Meanwhile, campesinxs of the Aguan took the highway in Tocoa to demand the installation of a CICIH as well as real solution to their problems.
* "Peasants of Aguan get government attention after making road in Tocoa, Colón" (2015-07-20, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/3yjWz], original with photos [http://is.gd/uNQXAJ]
- "Hunger strikers walk to the UN to deliver a letter demanding the Cicih" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/jwJEq], original with photo [http://is.gd/SIelAl]
- "Outraged hunger strike sent message to Ban Ki-moon" (2015-07-22, defensoresenlinea.com) machine translated [archive.is/NDraU] [begin excerpt]:
a letter asking the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon three points so it is their struggle:
1. Installation of an International Commission Against Impunity in Honduras.
2. Removal of the Prosecutor General and Deputy Prosecutor
3. Impeachment for those responsible for acts of corruption in the country, especially in the financial collapse of the Honduras Institute of Social Security (IHSS) which caused over 2800 deaths between 2012-2014.
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43):
Lena Gutierrez, Nationalist congresswoman and vice-president of Congress, is being investigated for corruption in the Astropharma case. She now paid 20 million Lempiras to defend herself in bail money. Libre announced that they will try to stop her taking over her position as vice-president again.
Cholusat Sur informs about the case of Thelma Iris Lopez, the former mayor of Santa Barbara. The municipality received 14.5 million Lempiras just days before she was about to hand over her job as mayor in January 2015. In this short time she apparently spent 11 million Lempiras, which are not documented - a further twist: she is the mother of Congress' secretary and Nationalist congressman Mario Perez.
- "Lena Gutiérrez pay 20 Million Bond" (2015-07-21, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/yFU0E]
- "LIBRE does not allow direct sessions; Lena returns to Parliament" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/mR9lz]
- "Mother of the Secretary of the CN, Mario Perez, accused of spending 11 million in 25 Days" (2015-07-21, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/mBbKj]
- "Santa Barbara Mayor confirms that the mother of Mario Perez gave the Mayor in Red" (2015-07-22, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/5i9qv]
- "Pave with government funds in Cologne Street where the Secretary of lives CN Mario Perez" (2015-07-22, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/hO5yP]
* "Ex-administrador of social security on trial today for ambulances overrated" (2015-07-21, ellibertador.hn) machine translated [archive.is/nB5hU]. The trial against the former administrative manager at the IHSS, Jose Ramon Bertetty Osorio, starts today.
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): It has been quiet about the ZEDE's lately, even though JOH has just visited South Korea, one of the main foreign promoters of the idea. OFRANEH now writes about JOH's meeting with Daewoo, a subsidiary of the metallurgical complex POSCO, which itself was responsible for elaborating the feasibility study on ZEDEs. POSCO has seen several corruption charges and has just recently had its main offices in Pohan searched.
- "City Model (ZEDE), POSCO DAEWOO and rampant corruption" (2015-07-22, ofraneh.wordpress.com) machine translated [archive.is/GdKdF]
* [http://www.proceso.hn/caliente/item/106618-capturan-a-cuatro-polic%C3%ADas-militares-por-asaltar-a-una-dama.html]. Four military police agents were arrested for stealing 25'000 Lempiras from a woman.
---
* [http://www.pasosdeanimalgrande.com/index.php/en/contexto/item/925-gobierno-local-aplica-medidas-racistas-y-represivas-contra-vendedores-y-vendedoras-indigenas]. CINPH denounces racist and repressive measures taken against indigenous street sellers by the local authorities in La Esperanza, Intibuc?.
---
* "Clinton & the Coup: Amid Protests in Honduras, Ex-President on Hillary’s Role in His 2009 Ouster" (2015-07-28, democracynow.org) [http://is.gd/K5XyuL]
NEW AFRIKAN PEACE MOVEMENT[northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/10/world-fascism-watch-honduras.html] Most of the comments are collected from the daily "Presente Honduras Digest", and from the "Honduras Solidarity Network" listserve, authored by experts in geopolitics and history of Latin America. Libre is the "leftist" party working to uphold human rights and sovereignty, JOH is the dictator of Honduras supported by the USA.
* "Honduran arrested in Costa Rica with 59 kilos of cocaine hidden in his truck" (2015-07-27, proceso.hn) machine translated [archive.is/vYNiH], original [archive.is/Jodyn].
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): C-Libre emitted no less than 5 alerts in the last 24 hours - a sign of how tense the situations for human rights defenders is in Honduras and it shows the myriad ways in which the government goes after them. UNAH authorities made public various information about some student protest leaders. At the same time, they announced a dialogue without even knowing how the students are organized and which associations represents them. The students peacefully left their protest at the UNAH in the Sula Valley. The government found it necessary to arrive with some 200 police officers and soldiers. On the same day, other students started a new protest at the UNAH in Tegucigalpa. The students in La Ceiba, meanwhile, also face an eviction as a big military and police contingent arrived at the university.
- "Honduras: University Authorities exposed personal data of student leaders" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/HXvkd]
- "Authorities agree Unah dialogue ignoring the student fronts" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/HEMfR]
- "Students peacefully delivered UNAH-VS facilities" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/NB1fF], original with photos [http://is.gd/yHeShx]
- "Students are taken now UNAH buildings" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/M0y6X], original with photos [http://is.gd/GOrjyh]
- "Police and military ready to evacuate students in Choluteca CURLP" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/55cnN], original with photos [http://is.gd/b1KgaC]
* (2015-07-24, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 45): Several students who actively participate(d) at the protests denounce being followed by private security guards.
- [http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3644:alerta-seguimiento-en-la-unah&catid=54:den&Itemid=171]
- [http://www.pasosdeanimalgrande.com/index.php/en/denuncias/item/924-sigue-el-clima-de-represion-desconocido-monto-seguimiento-a-estudiante-de-la-unah]
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43):Yesterday the trial against journalist David Romero Ellner began - less than 24 hours after he was informed about it. Furthermore, he denounces continuous monitoring and intimidation by the MP as well as by the Presidential Honor Guard.
Journalist Dina Meza, meanwhile, has reported some 20 security incidents so far this year, 13 alone in June.
A police officer attacked the reporter Giovanni Sierra striking his camera.
The radio reporter Adelmo Arturo Cortez Milla was murdered in Gracias, Lempira.
- David Romero in court: "There is order to condemn me and they put me in prison" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/fx6lt]
- "Presidential Honor Guard and agents lurk; Prosecutor denounces journalist" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/1n23K]
- "PEN president of Honduras at risk by 20 incidents against" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/NdZL1]
- "Police intelligence strip handful of journalistic team" (2015-07-22, clibrehonduras.com) machine translated [archive.is/har1M]
- "Adelmo murder the speaker Arturo Cortez Mile in Gracias, Lempira" (2015-07-22, proceso.hn) [archive.is/NNGrD]
* (2015-07-22): At this moment, David Romero Elner, director of Radio Globo and Globo TV, is in a state of protection at the CONADH (Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos en Honduras / National Commissioner of Human Rights), after being taken out of the supreme court (where he was facing a political case of persecution this morning) by the outraged people in Honduras, who decided that the dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez was NOT going to take him to jail in a clear defense of freedom of expression in Honduras. The police was ready to take David Romero away to jail when the people spontaneously, decided to physically take him with them and bring him to CONADEH. David Romero Elner says he will remain at the CONADEH for as long as he needs to. Many members of the FNRP/LIBRE Party including President Zelaya and Xiomara Castro de Zelaya are at CONADEH accompanying David. Xiomara Castro was with the people at the time when they took David out of court. As I write, David is giving a press conference from the CONADEH and he is saying that will remain there indefinitely. Hundreds of people came to court and are outside of the CONADEH protecting David Romero, including the director of Canal 36 Cholusat Sur, Eldras Amado Lopez.
Video [https://www.facebook.com/11noticias/videos/864113967011505]
* (2015-07-24, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 45): Journalist Julio Ernesto Alvarado must fear again to be ordered to stop his journalistic work as the secretary of the University Council of the UNAH announced that they would go to higher level instances than the IACHR to have the special protective measures for Alvarado withdrawn. David Romero Elner, meanwhile, is in a state of protection at the CONADEH. He was taken out of the Supreme Court and taken to CONADEH by a mass of followers who feared that he would be unjustly imprisoned. CONADEH's Roberto Herrera C?ceres annouced that they are elaborating a report on Romero's case.
- [http://www.clibrehonduras.com/alerta/funcionaria-cuestionada-por-irregularidades-pretende-revertir-medidas-de-la-cidh-favor-de]
- [http://criterio.hn/seguidos-de-david-romero-irrumpen-juicio-y-se-lo-llevan/]
- [http://criterio.hn/david-romero-se-refugia-en-edificio-del-conadeh/]
- [http://criterio.hn/conadeh-elaborara-informe-sobre-caso-de-david-romero/]
---
* "They denounce landowner who killed a farmer and threatens the lives of others and others in Santa Barbara" (2015-07-22, pasosdeanimalgrande.com) machine translated [archive.is/zXL9v]. Dina Meza writes about the murder of campesino Moises Duran Sanchez by the 'terrateniente' Saul Rios.
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): The participants of the hunger strike walked yesterday from the protest site to the UN handing in a letter for Ban Ki-Moon. Meanwhile, campesinxs of the Aguan took the highway in Tocoa to demand the installation of a CICIH as well as real solution to their problems.
* "Peasants of Aguan get government attention after making road in Tocoa, Colón" (2015-07-20, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/3yjWz], original with photos [http://is.gd/uNQXAJ]
- "Hunger strikers walk to the UN to deliver a letter demanding the Cicih" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/jwJEq], original with photo [http://is.gd/SIelAl]
- "Outraged hunger strike sent message to Ban Ki-moon" (2015-07-22, defensoresenlinea.com) machine translated [archive.is/NDraU] [begin excerpt]:
a letter asking the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon three points so it is their struggle:
1. Installation of an International Commission Against Impunity in Honduras.
2. Removal of the Prosecutor General and Deputy Prosecutor
3. Impeachment for those responsible for acts of corruption in the country, especially in the financial collapse of the Honduras Institute of Social Security (IHSS) which caused over 2800 deaths between 2012-2014.
---
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43):
Lena Gutierrez, Nationalist congresswoman and vice-president of Congress, is being investigated for corruption in the Astropharma case. She now paid 20 million Lempiras to defend herself in bail money. Libre announced that they will try to stop her taking over her position as vice-president again.
Cholusat Sur informs about the case of Thelma Iris Lopez, the former mayor of Santa Barbara. The municipality received 14.5 million Lempiras just days before she was about to hand over her job as mayor in January 2015. In this short time she apparently spent 11 million Lempiras, which are not documented - a further twist: she is the mother of Congress' secretary and Nationalist congressman Mario Perez.
- "Lena Gutiérrez pay 20 Million Bond" (2015-07-21, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/yFU0E]
- "LIBRE does not allow direct sessions; Lena returns to Parliament" (2015-07-22, criterio.hn) machine translated [archive.is/mR9lz]
- "Mother of the Secretary of the CN, Mario Perez, accused of spending 11 million in 25 Days" (2015-07-21, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/mBbKj]
- "Santa Barbara Mayor confirms that the mother of Mario Perez gave the Mayor in Red" (2015-07-22, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/5i9qv]
- "Pave with government funds in Cologne Street where the Secretary of lives CN Mario Perez" (2015-07-22, cholusatsur.com) machine translated [archive.is/hO5yP]
* "Ex-administrador of social security on trial today for ambulances overrated" (2015-07-21, ellibertador.hn) machine translated [archive.is/nB5hU]. The trial against the former administrative manager at the IHSS, Jose Ramon Bertetty Osorio, starts today.
* (2015-07-23, Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 45, Issue 43): It has been quiet about the ZEDE's lately, even though JOH has just visited South Korea, one of the main foreign promoters of the idea. OFRANEH now writes about JOH's meeting with Daewoo, a subsidiary of the metallurgical complex POSCO, which itself was responsible for elaborating the feasibility study on ZEDEs. POSCO has seen several corruption charges and has just recently had its main offices in Pohan searched.
- "City Model (ZEDE), POSCO DAEWOO and rampant corruption" (2015-07-22, ofraneh.wordpress.com) machine translated [archive.is/GdKdF]
* [http://www.proceso.hn/caliente/item/106618-capturan-a-cuatro-polic%C3%ADas-militares-por-asaltar-a-una-dama.html]. Four military police agents were arrested for stealing 25'000 Lempiras from a woman.
---
* [http://www.pasosdeanimalgrande.com/index.php/en/contexto/item/925-gobierno-local-aplica-medidas-racistas-y-represivas-contra-vendedores-y-vendedoras-indigenas]. CINPH denounces racist and repressive measures taken against indigenous street sellers by the local authorities in La Esperanza, Intibuc?.
---
* "Clinton & the Coup: Amid Protests in Honduras, Ex-President on Hillary’s Role in His 2009 Ouster" (2015-07-28, democracynow.org) [http://is.gd/K5XyuL]
===*===*===
[NewAfricaPeace.blogspot.com], with the Green Charter Committee, for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity and Liberation!
* "Save Saif al-Islam Gaddafi" [facebook.com/pages/Save-Saif-al-Islam-Gaddafi/1455338638104600]: A court in Libya has sentenced Saif al-Islam, the most prominent son of Libya's slain leader Muammar Gaddafi, to death by firing squad. We are against death penalty and in our opinion this decision is wrong. We believe also that Saif al-Islam has not received a fair trial. We urge the international community to intervene to stop this judgment. Sign the petition [www.change.org/p/world-save-saif-al-islam-gaddafi].
* "Saadi Gaddafi torture video shows name guarantees ‘maximum mistreatment’ & no justice" (2015-08-04, rt.com) [archive.is/e0XVI]
The USA-lead war against the Jamahiriya of Libya was to stop the 5-year plan for a Pan-African socialist union funded by a sovereign gold-based banking system and economic system. After the war, the USA installed a racist coalition of militias to rule over the majority of Libya while the stronghold cities of the Jamahiriya were starved and deprived of water until submission. The new rulers also hated African people and massacred thousands of them...
USA Freedom in Libya:
---
Nine Communists have been condemned to 111 years as political prisoners in Morocco.
* "Committee of the Detainees: False and unfair provisions against political detainees, prisoners of conspiracy" (2015-04-24) [archive.is/Whct0]:
For the political prisoners jailed in Fez, the harsh provisions are:
15 years in prison:
- Abdul Wahab Alrmadi
- Abdul Nabi Haol
- Mustafa Haol
- Ben Belkacem Izz
- Mohammed Gluz
- Yassin Christ
- Hisham Pulvt
Three years in prison:
- Osama Zntar
- Zacarias Mnhih
With the acquittal on political prisoners Omar Tibi Arbab Abdul Razzaq and Suhaila Qriva and Ibrahim Haboubi
* "Save Saif al-Islam Gaddafi" [facebook.com/pages/Save-Saif-al-Islam-Gaddafi/1455338638104600]: A court in Libya has sentenced Saif al-Islam, the most prominent son of Libya's slain leader Muammar Gaddafi, to death by firing squad. We are against death penalty and in our opinion this decision is wrong. We believe also that Saif al-Islam has not received a fair trial. We urge the international community to intervene to stop this judgment. Sign the petition [www.change.org/p/world-save-saif-al-islam-gaddafi].
* "Saadi Gaddafi torture video shows name guarantees ‘maximum mistreatment’ & no justice" (2015-08-04, rt.com) [archive.is/e0XVI]
The USA-lead war against the Jamahiriya of Libya was to stop the 5-year plan for a Pan-African socialist union funded by a sovereign gold-based banking system and economic system. After the war, the USA installed a racist coalition of militias to rule over the majority of Libya while the stronghold cities of the Jamahiriya were starved and deprived of water until submission. The new rulers also hated African people and massacred thousands of them...
USA Freedom in Libya:
---
Nine Communists have been condemned to 111 years as political prisoners in Morocco.
* "Committee of the Detainees: False and unfair provisions against political detainees, prisoners of conspiracy" (2015-04-24) [archive.is/Whct0]:
For the political prisoners jailed in Fez, the harsh provisions are:15 years in prison:
- Abdul Wahab Alrmadi
- Abdul Nabi Haol
- Mustafa Haol
- Ben Belkacem Izz
- Mohammed Gluz
- Yassin Christ
- Hisham Pulvt
Three years in prison:
- Osama Zntar
- Zacarias Mnhih
With the acquittal on political prisoners Omar Tibi Arbab Abdul Razzaq and Suhaila Qriva and Ibrahim Haboubi
===*===*===
Republic of Estonia
===*===*===\
Republic of Ukraine (EU / NATO associate state)
* "Summary of Ukraine’s debt crisis" (2015-07-24, ft.com) [archive.is/Ljc5z]
European Union (EU) / NATO
Documenting economic and political trends across the EU jurisdictions, and international operations, map [archive.is/iqAFG]
Documenting economic and political trends across the EU jurisdictions, and international operations, map [archive.is/iqAFG]
Republic of Estonia
* "Waffen SS Veterans Convention Gathers in Rural Estonia" (2015-07-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/TMepo]
----
Republic of Greece
* "Greek Austerity and Its Resemblance to African Debt Peonage" (2015-07-26, commondreams.org) [archive.is/FSwaH]===*===*===\
Republic of Ukraine (EU / NATO associate state)* "Ukraine agribusiness firms in 'quiet land grab' with development finance; Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from World Bank’s private lending arm used to expand industrial farms amid mounting concern about local effects" (2015-07-30, theguardian.com) [archive.is/WhDfk]
* "Ukraine Spirals Into the Abyss: Pensioner Suicides and Open Talk of Default With the currency in free-fall and food and fuel skyrocketing, leaders don traditional garb and a brave face" (2015-07-23, observer.com) [archive.is/5Vj0T]
* "EU extends loan to assist with Ukrainian reforms" (2015-07-22, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/R6q0m]
* "Exposing the Racism at the Heart of Maidan The Maidan Revolution is not ultimately about democracy or human rights or Ukraine’s European integration. Rather as the article attached shows, it is the expression of some Ukrainians’ paranoid hatred of Russia" (2015-07-29, russia-insider.com) [archive.is/Vxvqm]
* "Ukraine Bars Communists From Elections" (2015-07-24, rferl.org) [archive.is/0XGgI]
* "Ukraine’s communists, under attack, seek solidarity" (2015-07-29, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/UYK60]
* "Ukraine completes fortification construction on border with Donbass" (2015-07-22, novorossia.today) [archive.is/KNYKi]. A Swiss citizen observes: "USD$45 million for that? According to the fact that we Swiss do have more than 21000 bunkers... According to the fact that every bunker we built did cost several millions, I presume that Porkoshenko constructionss are made of a lot of sand, and very few concrete.. For sure, as great as the French "Ligne Maginot", which was very fast dismantled by the German army... Well, that's highly ridiculous. Just got the cost of our investment in bunkers: USD$9 billion!!! Come on! Be serious!"
---
* " 'White Führer' of Azov Battalion invited to European Parliament" (2015-07-29, off-guardian.org) [archive.is/g4jxx]
* "Czech MEP Invites Ukrainian Neo-Nazi to European Parliament" (2015-07-29, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/CegPL]
---
* "Power thinking: Autonomy-seeking ethnic group, Right Sector movement in Ukraine conjured up by RT?" (2015-07-29, rt.com) [archive.is/fuCAN]
---
Two insightful article which show why many people of the Republic of Ukraine support the mass murder of ethnic-Russians in Novorossiya:
* "How Moscow hijacked the history of Kyivan Rus’ " (2014-05-14, euromaidanpress.com) [http://is.gd/6tGydw].
* "Tatar historian: ‘Russians are no more European than are the Tatars’ " (2015-06-09, euromaidanpress.com) [http://is.gd/p89680].
I'm not an expert in Russian history, but I've learned that Rurik and Sviatislav were originally Varangian Vikings from Scandinavia and they united various Slavic tribes under one principality. All Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarussians come from the same origin, the Kievan Rus. Whatever distinctions exist today are primarily cultural, political or linguistic, not ethnic.
* "Ukrainian MP Threatens French Legislators With Jail Time, Car Confiscation" (2015-07-28, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/AX96a]
* "84% of Ukrainians would entrust Putin with Ukraine" (2015-07-28, by Dina Simonyan) [archive.is/gx8Kh]
===*===*===
Union of People's Republics of NovorossiyaFor more info, with maps, and link, visit [NovorossiyaSolidarity.blogspot.com].
* "Kiev's Blockade of East Ukraine Has Resulted in Its Economic Integration With Russia" (2015-07-29, russia-insider.com) [archive.is/9oPDJ]
* "Doctor from Spain came to Donbass with the most courageous and honorable mission to Donbass" (2015-08-05, novorossia.today) [archive.is/gdZaq]
---
People's Republic of Donetsk (DPR, or DNR)* (2015-07-28, dnr-online.ru) [archive.is/uR5KS]: Today, deputy head of the Donetsk city administration Nikolai Volkov told deputies of the DPR People’s Council about the situation regarding free bread distribution in the areas located next to the contact line.
“The campaign “Bread to each home” is being held in Donetsk in order to provide civilians living in the front-line settlements with free bread. The campaign was initiated by the head of the Donetsk city administration Igor Martynov. 100 tonnes of flour were received from the Russian Federation to bake social bread. 2,300 loaves are delivered to people on a daily basis. The cargo arrives in Kuibyshevsky, Kievsky, Kirovsky and Petrovsky districts of Donetsk, as well as the village of Staromikhailovka. The amount of flour on hand allows us to implement this campaign for three more weeks. Besides, 1,800 loaves of bread are baked every week at the initiative of the private entrepreneur in Proletarsky district, and are distributed to needy citizens for free,” – Nikolai Volkov said.---
People's Republic of Lunghask (LPR, or LNR; Luhansk, Lugansk)* "Famous clowns of Moscow held a concert and entertainment program for orphans of Lugansk today" nine photos (2015-07-20, lug-info.com) [archive.is/e66H5]
---
occupied People's Republic of Kharkov (KPR, or KNR)* "In Kharkiv, Opposition Bloc legal status denied, its office attacked by neo-Nazis" (2015-08-03, newcoldwar.org) [archive.is/uJd5j]
---
occupied People's Republic of Odessa (OPR, or ONR) / People's Republic of Bessarabia
* "Ukraine’s Bessarabia elects People’s Governor to defend itself from Kiev, Saakashvili" (2015-07-29, rt.com) [archive.is/pZ7px]
---
occupied People's Republic of Transcarpathia---
Moldovan Republic of Pridnestrovie (Transnistria, Trans-Dniestr, Transdniestria, or Transdnieper)
More info at [http://is.gd/G6paP5]
---
Attacks against the People's Republics of Novorossiya (a daily calender)
* "Donetsk residents vent anger at OSCE and Red Cross for “silence” over Ukraine shelling" (2015-07-27, newcoldwar.org) [archive.is/H1bln]
---
Novorossiya Armed Forces (NAF) Operations
* photo [archive.is/iKa6c]: Another Putin's spetsnaz invading Donbass or an old woman defending her land with her fellow citizens inside NAF?
* "Member of the Communist Party of Spain Fighting Against Nazism in Donbass" [youtube.com/watch?v=TSwUD1-g3Eg]
===*===*===
Federation of Russia
The dictators of the world market are threatening to unleash terror and nuclear death against the People of Russia, and of Eurasia, because it is a sovereign civilization in alliance with other civilizations through the EEU and SCO, all capable of directing a change of management of the world market towards stability and human rights opposed to what the dictators of the World Market (through the USA) gave the People of Libya, Honduras, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico...
* "Regime change in Russia? Think again, neocons" (2015-07-25, rt.com) [archive.is/DgdY2] [begin excerpt]: The new neocon instigated ‘Cold War’ on Russia, which was supposed to weaken the Russian economy and lead to Maidan-style anti-government protests in the country, has actually boosted President Vladimir Putin’s popularity, as new polls show.
The approval ratings of the man who Western neocons have demonized for the last twelve years is at record levels - with almost 90 percent of Russians saying they had a positive view of the president.
It’s not only Putin’s popularity that is the stumbling block to neocon plans for ‘regime change’. The main opposition to Putin and his United Russia party, are not pro-NATO, pro-Israel ‘liberals’, but the Communist Party, which is the second most popular party in the country.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov polled over 17 percent in the last presidential election, while the Communists won 92 seats in the 450 State Duma elections in December 2011.
The Communists have urged Putin to be even more assertive against those they regard as Russia’s enemies. In May 2013, they called for Russia to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council after Israel had illegally bombed Syria.
“Syria is not the first, and obviously not the last victim of the global expansion of the US and its NATO allies. Events of the past twenty years show that Russia is also in the crosshairs. Therefore, our country borders’ protection passes through the Syrian cities, which have now become the scene of fierce fighting. The Russian side should not turn a blind eye to the subversion of America and its satellites directed against our allies,” the Communist Party Central Committee statement declared.
The serial regime changers in the West are faced with a situation that the most credible opposition to the person they want to see toppled would actually follow policies that they would hate even more.
So what do they do? With breathtaking disdain for the views of the Russian people, they completely ignore the fact that the Communists are the second largest party in Russia - and instead portray so-called ‘liberals’ - who have minimal levels of popular support (currently around 1 percent), as the ‘democratic opposition’.
The neocon line is: ‘in the name of democracy, the parties whose views are the most unpopular with the electorate, should be running Russia.’ Their interpretation of the word ‘democracy’ is beyond Orwellian.
“Although ‘regime change’ has become a dirty phrase, the best thing that could happen to Russia, its neighbors and the world would be a change from Vladimir Putin’s brand of strongman authoritarianism to some form of democracy,” opined Alexander Motyl in Newsweek in January. The article first appeared on the Atlantic Council’s blog.
So, in other words, the man with sky-high approval ratings needs to be toppled, so someone much less popular can rule Russia. And all in the name of spreading “democracy”!
In any case, the neocon plans for promoting their form of undemocratic democracy in Russia face another big stumbling block, namely Russia’s foreign agents law. This legislation requires all NGOs which receive funding from abroad and that engage in political activities to register as ‘foreign agents’. Russian political parties are also forbidden to receive sponsorship or enter into any business deals with NGOs that have ‘foreign agent’ status.
This makes the possibility of a foreign-funded ‘color coded revolution’ in Russia much harder to pull off. Neocons, needless to say, don’t like the law. [end excerpt]
---
* "French lawmakers to visit Crimea" (2015-07-21, novorossia.today) [archive.is/kce5Y]
---
Russian Repression Report: Actual incidents and false stories explained
* "Why Russia Shut Down NED Fronts" (2015-07-31, consortiumnews.com) [archive.is/6FKXU]
* "The Difference Between Censorship in the US and Russia" (2015-07-30, russia-insider.com/en) [archive.is/NV9g9]
===*===*===
* "The Eurasian Big Bang: How China and Russia Are Running Rings Around Washington" (2015-07-23, tomdispatch.com) [archive.is/8p0By]
===*===*===
Republic of Turkey (NATO member state)
* "Turkey’s new “war on terror” mainly targeting Kurds" (2015-07-26, juancole.com) [archive.is/H2Diz]
* photo (2015-07-26, Thoreau Redcrow) [archive.is/rNoGz]: I personally interviewed 6 refugee camps of Yezidis in Kurdistan right after this and all of them said exactly the same thing as this photo. In Aug 2014, The PKK heroically saved 200,000 Yezidis on Mount Sinjar from ISIS genocidal decapitation and sexual slavery, and the reward they now get is staying on the bogus U.S. terrorist list, and being bombed by Turkey with U.S. bombs. Sickening. This is what happens when governments operate without a moral compass.
---
* "Turkey rounds up 1,300 'radicals' across the country" (2015-07-31, rudaw.net) [archive.is/nmZOU]
===*===*===
Arab Republic of Syria
[sana-syria.org] [joshualandis.com/blog] [syriasolidaritymovement.org] [syrianfreepress.wordpress.com] [syrianews.cc]
* "Syria's Assad grants amnesty for draft dodgers, defectors" (2015-07-25, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/xwIzW]
* "Israeli strike on Syrian town kills 5 pro-regime forces: monitor" (2015-07-29, AFP newswire) [archive.is/hlKHM]
* "Hundreds of civilians killed in US-led air strikes on Isis targets – report; Airwars project details ‘credible reports’ of at least 459 non-combatant deaths, including 100 children, in 52 air strikes" (2015-08-03, theguardian.com) [archive.is/a0ATu]
* "Report: US-led strikes in Iraq, Syria killed 459 civilians" (2015-08-03, AP newswire) [archive.is/p70MC]
* "Syrian rebels backed by the U.S. will have air cover, source says" (2015-08-03, cnn.com) [archive.is/qXe8f]
Fake news about Syria:
* "Syria 'Industrial' Killing: Report Details Deaths Of 11,000 In Assad Jails" (2014-01-21, Reuters newswire) [archive.is/Jx0pG]
===*===*===
Kurdistan in Turkey
* "Iraqi Kurdish vehicles stoned by pro-PKK Kurds in Turkey" (2015-07-27, rudaw.net) [archive.is/AjLxx]
---
Kurdistan in Iraq
---
Rojava (Western Kurdistan)
[rojavareport.wordpress.com]
* "Turkey-Kurdish Conflict: Every Regional Power Has Betrayed the Kurds So Turkish Bombing Is No Surprise" (2015-07-28, independent.co.uk) [archive.is/1yMXi]
* "Turkish air raids destroy clinic in Kurdistan Region" (2015-07-30, rudaw.net) [archive.is/J3lIf]
* "Turkey strikes Islamic State, Kurdish militants in drive for 'safe zone'" (2015-07-25, reuters.com) [archive.is/QRRU0]
* "Turkey resumes mass shelling of PKK, claims 190 killed" (2015-07-31, rudaw.net) [archive.is/bAZCV]
* "Turkey pounds PKK, allows US to use base against IS" (2015-07-29, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/H1J7P]
* "Kurdish party chief dismisses Turkey anti-IS raids as a 'show'" (2015-07-30, AFP newswire) [archive.is/rYnyx]
* "Spanish communist student joins fight against Islamic State" (2015-07-26, systemiccapital.com) [archive.is/nGhzZ]
===*===*===
State of Israel and international operations
[dukium.org] [icahd.org]
* "Israel wants US compensation for Iranian deal" (2015-07-14, alternativenews.org) [archive.is/WTavM] [begin excerpt]: Israeli leaders were not surprised by Tuesday's announcement of a deal ending the twelve year international standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme and are preparing to focus their efforts on stopping its approval in Congress. According to the Israeli press, Israel's diplomats were instructed to put an emphasis on loopholes in the agreement, concentrating on the technical details of the supervision mechanism and concessions made on Tehran's military programme.
"We'll put an emphasis on Iran's conduct - the burning of flags, not meeting their commitments," an official, who preferred to remain anonymous, said to Ynet, a popular news portal in Israel.
Israel, he added, will warn Congress that "within ten years, Iran will have a short nuclear breakout time, and until then it will continue funding terrorism, using the billions it will receive."
Israeli diplomats were instructed, however, to avoid condemning U.S. President Barack Obama's administration for pushing through the deal.
"There is no point in criticising the administration for now, because soon we will need to speak with the Americans about the amount of compensation to Israel,” another anonymous source told Arutz Sheva, an Israeli right wing news portal. [end excerpt]
* "Israeli think tank with GOP ties at center of Iran deal opposition" (2015-07-22, mcclatchydc.com) [archive.is/QABbH]
* "Huckabee: Iran nuclear deal will march Israelis ‘to the door of the oven’ " (2015-07-26, washingtonpost.com) [archive.is/8RkqP]. Correction: The headline was falsified. Huckabee said Barack Obama 'will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven', not the Iran deal itself.
* "Huckabee comparison of Iran deal to Holocaust reflects power of money" (2015-07-27, peoplesworld.org) [archive.is/PiouZ]
* "Netanyahu’s 'Disastrous' Appeal and 'Obsession with Jewish Identity' " (2015-08-04, accuracy.org) [archive.is/y1zCx]
* "A new, extremely dangerous kind of Jewish fanaticism: The Shin Bet has been dealing in the past year with a radical group of young messianic Jews aiming to bring down the Zionist state and replace it with a holy kingdom. In order to fulfill their goal, they are willing to sacrifice their lives and have no problem killing" (2015-08-03, ynetnews.com) [archive.is/4mBlG]
* "‘One nation, one state, one leader’ — frightening slogan at Tel Aviv protest" (2014-08-10, mondoweiss.net) [archive.is/JQeWW]. Photo might be staged.
* "Settler Terror Underground Seeks to Overthrow Israeli Government, Say Investigators" (2015-08-03, haaretz.com) [http://is.gd/kuWdNL]
* "Cabinet okays jailing Israelis without charge in crackdown on Jewish terror" (2015-08-02, timesofisrael.com) [archive.is/grkB1]
---
World Jewish Diaspora and history
a section dedicated to the culture and stories of a global nation
* "Jews in the Red Army, 1941–1945" (yadvashem.org) [archive.is/az2BG]
The historical Empire of Khazaria (600s through 1000s AD) was a powerful ally of the Greek Roman Empire (Byzantium) in its endless war with Persia (Parthia), with a proud history that has only been uncovered in the last 40 years. Map showing the greatest extent of the Khazar realm, circa 850AD [archive.is/gU5yp]. The leaders of Khazaria converted to Judaism in the 600s, and are described as being of "Turkish" origin, not referring to the people of the modern Republic of Turkey but to the old "Turk" tribes of central Eurasia who are otherwise identified as Slavic.
Being on the nexus of the northern Eurasian trade roads, the Empire of Khazaria was considered the protector of international merchants of all Abrahamic faiths (including Islam) but gave preference to the merchants of the official state religion Judaism, coining currency that proclaimed Moses to be the Apostle of G*d, an example is shown here [archive.is/fQE4C] on a coin discovered in a treasure found in Denmark. Islamic merchants traded with the kingdoms located in modern England and France [archive.is/FyWlp], but Judaic merchants of Khazaria are not known to have had a presence in either region, being constrained by what could be described as a religious "cold war" (that became hot at any moment) with both the Latin Roman Empire and the western Islamic kingdoms of the Mediterranean Sea. Khazaria merchants and scholars traveled across Eurasia to China as shown by archaeological sites containing Khazarian writing [archive.is/vJN60].
The Khazar writing system was Turkic in origin [archive.is/ThOuY], and was used alongside the Hebrew script when in correspondence with other Judean communities in Eurasia and Africa [archive.is/XLbB6]. The Empire of Khazaria included the region of of the modern Republic of Ukraine, and among the many cultural traits retained since before the adoption of the Khazar state religion was the usage of the "tamgas", examples from Khazar shown here [archive.is/MWwhH] [archive.is/n27OG], which was a property marker used for cattle (brands), coinage, and real estate (signs) used by almost all nations in central Eurasia [archive.is/fqR7S].
After the end of the Empire of Khazaria, Jewish coinage experts and scholars found refuge in the Kingdom of Poland [archive.is/0UyPB] and elsewhere, or stayed in the area and gave rise to the old "Pale of Settlement" [archive.is/VmLeG]. Also, the old system of the Tamgas continued to be used in eastern Europe, especially in the area of the modern Republic of Ukraine [archive.is/OMiC4], as shown in this comparison of an old Tamga on a Kiev coin [archive.is/K2Rsh], and the modern logo for the Republic of Ukriane [archive.is/GgLgN].
* "Khazaria.com: A Resource for Turkic and Jewish History in Russia and Ukraine" [khazaria.com]
* "Itil area prior to Mongols" [archive.is/qZNcE]
* "The Thirteenth Tribe" book by Arthur Koestler, download a .pdf copy here [http://is.gd/NxVdec], intro [archive.is/Pbk0s]. The Thirteenth Tribe is a book that attempts to explain the origins of Eastern Europe's Jewish population,largely decimated by the Nazi onslaught during the Second World War. Koestler shows through extensive research, how a trading empire was set up by a tribe we know as the Khazars between the expanding power blocs of Christianity and Islam; how the people were converted to Judaism by their king as a way of standing apart from both, and how the people and their wealth were dispersed through the countries of Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Khazar Empire.
It is a controversial history; because it challenges both the assumptions of Nazi philosophy and Zionism that the European Jews were racially different from the populations of the countries in which they later settled. Koestler, as a Hungarian Jew himself, was particularly interested in the major part the Khazars played in the founding of the Hungarian nation; a fact which later led to the tragedy of 1944, when the Nazis exterminated over half-a -million Hungarian Jews, who were virtually indistinguishable from their Christian neighbours. Arthur Koestler was born in 1905 in Budapest. Though he studied science and psychology in Vienna, at the age of twenty he became a foreign correspondent and worked for various European newspapers in the Middle East, Paris, Berlin, Russia and Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, which he covered from the Republican side, he was captured and imprisoned for several months by the Nationalists, but was exchanged after international protest. In 1939-40 he was interned in a French detention camp. After his release, due to British government intervention, he joined the French Foreign Legion, subsequently escaped to England, and joined the British Army. Like many other intellectuals in the thirties, Koestler saw in the Soviet experiment the only hope and alternative to fascism. He became a member of the Communist Party in 1931, but left it in disillusionment during the Moscow purges in 1938. His earlier books were mainly concerned with these experiences, either in autobiographical form or in essays or political novels. Among the latter, Darkness At Noon has been translated into thirty-three languages. After World War 2, Mr. Koestler became a British citizen, and all his books since 1940 have been written in English, He now lives in London. but he frequently lectures at American universities, and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 1964-65. In 1968 Mr. Koestler received the Sonning Prize at the University of Copenhagen for his contributions to European culture. He is also a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, as well as one of the ten Companions of Literature, elected by the Royal Society of Literature. His works are now being republished in a collected edition of twenty volumes. He died in 1981, in a 'suicide pact' with his wife - a tragedy that has aroused some suspicion since, in conspiracy circles. First published in Britain in 1976, this classic book by Arthur Koestler in now out-of-print and unavailable at public libraries.
===*===*===
State of Palestine, exile community, and occupied territories
[english.palinfo.com] [qassam.ps]
===*===*===
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & GCC Council member states
* "Saudis to acquire hundreds of advanced Patriot missiles" (2015-07-29, UPI newswire) [archive.is/RIqiq]
* "Saudi Arabia Calls On World To Ban Criticism of Religion; The director for external relations at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs on July 25 called on all countries to ban criticism of religion" (2015-07-27, clarionproject.org) [http://is.gd/8IVgPr]. Mark Mason writes: Now we observe how Israel and Saudi Arabia, ostensibly enemies, have morphed into Frenemies. They are pals now because both states take the international stage claiming that anything their respective states do is protected by freedom of religion. Both states claim that any internal dissent or external criticism of state policy is labelled anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic and therefore illegitimate. This is a clever but very old tactic used to defend arbitrary, tyrannical state power. The ideology is effectively the divine right of kings joined with the divine right of the religious state. Of course, this claim is without any rational defense. Human rights trump religious behavior. Religious BELIEFS are protected by the right to free speech and free thinking. Actions and policies of the state are categorically open to debate, scrutiny, and dissent. No, Israel and Saudi Arabia cannot do anything they want to do merely by claiming god told them to do it. The European Enlightenment is ever under attack by centers of illegitimate power.
===*===*===
Ansar Allah Revolutionary Government of Yemen ("Houthis")* "Saudi Army Helicopters Dropped Barrel Bombs on Civilians Near Yemen Border" (2015-07-24, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/XzFHv]
===*===*===
Islamic Republic of Iran, and international operations
* "Ten indications Iran wants business not bombs" (2015-07-27, whowhatwhy.org) [archive.is/C6WT7]
===*===*===
People's Republic of China
History & the Current Context [historyandcurrentcontext.blogspot.com/1979/10/peoples-republic-of-china.html]
* "When China Sneezes, the U.S. Stock Market Could Catch a Bad Cold" (2015-07-28, wallstreetonparade.com) [archive.is/T4uGt]
* "China's Mao-Deng development model" (rainbowbuilders.org) [archive.is/H1m8h] [begin excerpt]: The Chinese combination of Maoism focused on social development followed by a very slow and gradual liberalization under Deng Xiaoping turns out to be an extremely efficient development model. Unfortunately, for mainly ideological reasons, Mao's and Deng's policies are generally considered to be in conflict with each other. Only a comparative approach with other developing countries based on consistent long-term statistics provided by international organizations can allow us to understand the positive interaction between these two approaches to development.
The discussion about China's recent development under the Communist Party of China (CPC) is often reduced to the question whether Maoism was the right approach or whether Mao's policies were a disaster and Deng Xiaoping put China on the right track. This discussion is extremely polarized, to say the least. Among the Western academic world and media, there is virtually only one opinion: whoever does not consider Mao a bloody dictator and a disaster for China is unable to think freely and has been brainwashed by communist propaganda. Actually, a comparative study of long-term statistics shows a completely different picture: The combination of Maoism with Deng's reforms has allowed China to develop faster than any other country in the world. This is true not only for economic development, but also for social development like the reduction of mortality and the spreading of literacy.
The needs and aspirations of the people should always be put in the center of any discussion of development. Photo Otto Kölbl, Siping (Jilin province, China), 2012.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Gorgeous-looking robot waitress debuts in Zhejiang" four photos (2015-07-30, CCTVNews) [archive.is/9N1od]
===*===*===
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in northern Korea
Info collected by Juche-Buddhism Friendship Society, for Peace through Knowledge! [Juchebuddhism.blogspot.com]
* "China bets on North Korea in gamble to save rustbelt" (2015-07-22, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/fuRtu]
* 18th International Trade Pyongyang Spring Trade Fair photos [archive.is/jKkaa] [archive.is/5SZWN] [archive.is/QY0IJ] [archive.is/0PV93]
---
* "Holiday in North Korea? Still considered one of the world's most closed-off nations, North Korea aims to expand its tourist industry" (2015-07-30, aljazeera.com) [archive.is/uu9Is]
---
* "How is North Korea changing? Let’s ask this British guy who’s been there 143 times" (2015-07-31, washingtonpost.com) [archive.is/JBj7h] [begin excerpt]: There are 2 or 3 million people in Pyongyang and you can't have a country which is 10 percent elite. It stops being elite. It's like having a limited edition of a million something. A true elite in North Korea would be a very tiny group of people, not this middle class, which must number in the tens of thousands at least. [end excerpt]
---
* "Cuba, Korea, Venezuela: Building Peace; Fighting Imperialism" (2015-08-02, cpgb-ml.org) [archive.is/zrSQc] [begin excerpt] Last weekend, the CPGB-ML held its 2015 summer celebration of internationalism and BBQ. THe meeting was attended by over 100 of our members and supporters, and was addressed by representatives from the Cuban, DPR Korean and Venezuelan Embassies, who brought greetings from their governments and people, and updated comrades present on the latest developments in their struggles, and the contemporary situation in their countries. Each of these countries, stands on the front line of the anti-imperialist struggle, and delivers a message of solidarity from their anti-imperialist, progressive and socialist movements, peoples and governments. Harpal Brar introduces the speakers, who addressed the CPGB-ML’s international BBQ, held at Saklatvala Hall in Southall, west London, on Saturday 25 July : Jorge Luis Garcia, Councillor of the Cuban Embassy; Hyon Hak Bong, the DPR Korean ambassador to the UK; and Helena Menéndez, press secretary of the Venezuelan Embassy, who spoke on behalf of their governing parties. [end excerpt]
* "Cuba, Korea, Venezuela: Building Peace; Fighting Imperialism" video (2015-08-02) [youtube.com/watch?v=CJ7OBhDwK7s]: Representatives from the Cuban, DPR Korean and Venezuelan Embassies discuss the meaning of their struggles, and the contemporary situation in their countries.
* "Kim Jong-un receives honorary economics doctorate from Malaysian university" (2013-10-25, telegraph.co.uk) [archive.is/6Bap2]
* "Kim Jong-un given 'global statesman' prize previously awarded to Gandhi" (2015-08-02, independent.co.uk) [archive.is/BQC1E] [begin excerpt]: The news was announced by the daughter of Indonesia's founding president, after whom the award is named. Rachmawati Soekarnoputri said: "We will give the award to President Kim Jong-un because he has been consistent in carrying out the ideals of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, which is to fight imperialism.
"So this will be a sequel, where we give the award to Kim Jong-un for his persistence in fighting neo-colonialism." [end excerpt]
Also included in the article is a review of recently published fake news articles. [begin excerpt] Earlier this month, it was reported that the North Korean dictator had ordered the execution of a man who runs a turtle farm. The man had apparently been criticised by Mr Kim for not looking after the turtles well enough. The farmer had retorted that this was due to issues with electricity, water and equipment- complaints which the politician dismissed as "nonsensical". The Daily NK reported that the man was shot shortly after the incident. In June, the country was widely ridiculed when it announced it had invented a wonder drug capable of curing Aids, Ebola and cancer. The dictatorship is known for making outlandish claims about its own prowess. The state also claims that Kim Jong-il invented the hamburger and had magical powers which meant he did not need to use the toilet. [end excerpt]
More fake news about the DPRK...
* "North Korea Lands First Ever Man On Saturn, Confirms Central News Agency; North Korea has issued a statement to the State News Agency that their recent space exploration mission to Saturn was a huge success" (NYmeta.co) [archive.is/DhEFZ], comments [archive.is/gigAf]
* "Anti-DPRK Propaganda War – a Cavalcade of Comedy" (2014-08-01, redyouthuk.wordpress.com) [archive.is/oetVr] [begin excerpt]: People living in western Europe and North America are bombarded with stories about north Korea – often centred around rumour, mysterious ‘intelligence’ sources, or the south Korean and US governments.
Most stories are nothing but rumours, spread to portray the DPRK as crazy and unpredictable, but now, more and more often, we are seeing major news sources such as the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Independent being forced to apologise and write retractions after these blatant lies have been exposed.
If you would like to get behind the hostile imperialist propaganda barrage and understand a little more of the truth about the DPRK, we recommend this short interview with CPGB-ML member Keith Bennet on George Galloway’s RT programme Sputnik [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7_GnhOSEyY].
* "North Korea orders house-to-house searches to confiscate banned music; Kim Jong-un has issued a decree demanding the destruction of tapes and CDs that could threaten the regime. Daily NK reports" (2015-07-28, theguardian.com) [archive.is/SHqlN]. The Guardian has to put a disclaimer in about Daily NK being a US funded organization. (Remember the US is at war with the Norks.) That said, the report seems to be one of those rumors that later disappear without other confirmation, reported by the likes of Daily NK and RFA. Think about it. CDs and tapes only? Most foreign vdeo and music are likely to be in SD cards and cell phones.
Tracy Chapman's Revolution and other works were banned in ROK (south Korea, or SK) until late 1980s. Under the SK National Security Law, you'd likely get in trouble still for possession some offensive media. Seems NKHR lives in an alternate reality without context or history. Pretty much any document originating from NK can get you into trouble in SK; while North Koreans happily watch Southkorean sitcoms on USB drives ... [claims another source inside North Korea, lol]
---
* "CIA Covert Operations in Asia: North Korea" (2015-04-17, drakulablog.com) [archive.is/XyoWX]
* "Korean Reverend in Canada Confesses to Subversive Plots against DPRK" (2015-07-31, KCNA) [archive.is/DvhvO]
---
* "The defector who wants to go back to North Korea Son Jung-hun escaped 12 years ago in search of a better life. Now, disillusioned with the South, he is planning to return" (2014-04-22, theguardian.com) [archive.is/3VHhE]
Statue of Worker's Party of DPRK [archive.is/p8L1X]
North Korean Workers Party Monument [archive.is/9ToIQ]
===*===*===* "China bets on North Korea in gamble to save rustbelt" (2015-07-22, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/fuRtu]
* 18th International Trade Pyongyang Spring Trade Fair photos [archive.is/jKkaa] [archive.is/5SZWN] [archive.is/QY0IJ] [archive.is/0PV93]
---
* "Holiday in North Korea? Still considered one of the world's most closed-off nations, North Korea aims to expand its tourist industry" (2015-07-30, aljazeera.com) [archive.is/uu9Is]
---
* "How is North Korea changing? Let’s ask this British guy who’s been there 143 times" (2015-07-31, washingtonpost.com) [archive.is/JBj7h] [begin excerpt]: There are 2 or 3 million people in Pyongyang and you can't have a country which is 10 percent elite. It stops being elite. It's like having a limited edition of a million something. A true elite in North Korea would be a very tiny group of people, not this middle class, which must number in the tens of thousands at least. [end excerpt]
---
* "Cuba, Korea, Venezuela: Building Peace; Fighting Imperialism" (2015-08-02, cpgb-ml.org) [archive.is/zrSQc] [begin excerpt] Last weekend, the CPGB-ML held its 2015 summer celebration of internationalism and BBQ. THe meeting was attended by over 100 of our members and supporters, and was addressed by representatives from the Cuban, DPR Korean and Venezuelan Embassies, who brought greetings from their governments and people, and updated comrades present on the latest developments in their struggles, and the contemporary situation in their countries. Each of these countries, stands on the front line of the anti-imperialist struggle, and delivers a message of solidarity from their anti-imperialist, progressive and socialist movements, peoples and governments. Harpal Brar introduces the speakers, who addressed the CPGB-ML’s international BBQ, held at Saklatvala Hall in Southall, west London, on Saturday 25 July : Jorge Luis Garcia, Councillor of the Cuban Embassy; Hyon Hak Bong, the DPR Korean ambassador to the UK; and Helena Menéndez, press secretary of the Venezuelan Embassy, who spoke on behalf of their governing parties. [end excerpt]
* "Cuba, Korea, Venezuela: Building Peace; Fighting Imperialism" video (2015-08-02) [youtube.com/watch?v=CJ7OBhDwK7s]: Representatives from the Cuban, DPR Korean and Venezuelan Embassies discuss the meaning of their struggles, and the contemporary situation in their countries.
* "Kim Jong-un receives honorary economics doctorate from Malaysian university" (2013-10-25, telegraph.co.uk) [archive.is/6Bap2]
* "Kim Jong-un given 'global statesman' prize previously awarded to Gandhi" (2015-08-02, independent.co.uk) [archive.is/BQC1E] [begin excerpt]: The news was announced by the daughter of Indonesia's founding president, after whom the award is named. Rachmawati Soekarnoputri said: "We will give the award to President Kim Jong-un because he has been consistent in carrying out the ideals of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, which is to fight imperialism.
"So this will be a sequel, where we give the award to Kim Jong-un for his persistence in fighting neo-colonialism." [end excerpt]
Also included in the article is a review of recently published fake news articles. [begin excerpt] Earlier this month, it was reported that the North Korean dictator had ordered the execution of a man who runs a turtle farm. The man had apparently been criticised by Mr Kim for not looking after the turtles well enough. The farmer had retorted that this was due to issues with electricity, water and equipment- complaints which the politician dismissed as "nonsensical". The Daily NK reported that the man was shot shortly after the incident. In June, the country was widely ridiculed when it announced it had invented a wonder drug capable of curing Aids, Ebola and cancer. The dictatorship is known for making outlandish claims about its own prowess. The state also claims that Kim Jong-il invented the hamburger and had magical powers which meant he did not need to use the toilet. [end excerpt]
More fake news about the DPRK...
* "North Korea Lands First Ever Man On Saturn, Confirms Central News Agency; North Korea has issued a statement to the State News Agency that their recent space exploration mission to Saturn was a huge success" (NYmeta.co) [archive.is/DhEFZ], comments [archive.is/gigAf]
* "Anti-DPRK Propaganda War – a Cavalcade of Comedy" (2014-08-01, redyouthuk.wordpress.com) [archive.is/oetVr] [begin excerpt]: People living in western Europe and North America are bombarded with stories about north Korea – often centred around rumour, mysterious ‘intelligence’ sources, or the south Korean and US governments.
Most stories are nothing but rumours, spread to portray the DPRK as crazy and unpredictable, but now, more and more often, we are seeing major news sources such as the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Independent being forced to apologise and write retractions after these blatant lies have been exposed.
If you would like to get behind the hostile imperialist propaganda barrage and understand a little more of the truth about the DPRK, we recommend this short interview with CPGB-ML member Keith Bennet on George Galloway’s RT programme Sputnik [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7_GnhOSEyY].
Tracy Chapman's Revolution and other works were banned in ROK (south Korea, or SK) until late 1980s. Under the SK National Security Law, you'd likely get in trouble still for possession some offensive media. Seems NKHR lives in an alternate reality without context or history. Pretty much any document originating from NK can get you into trouble in SK; while North Koreans happily watch Southkorean sitcoms on USB drives ... [claims another source inside North Korea, lol]
---
* "CIA Covert Operations in Asia: North Korea" (2015-04-17, drakulablog.com) [archive.is/XyoWX]
* "Korean Reverend in Canada Confesses to Subversive Plots against DPRK" (2015-07-31, KCNA) [archive.is/DvhvO]
---
* "The defector who wants to go back to North Korea Son Jung-hun escaped 12 years ago in search of a better life. Now, disillusioned with the South, he is planning to return" (2014-04-22, theguardian.com) [archive.is/3VHhE]
Statue of Worker's Party of DPRK [archive.is/p8L1X]
North Korean Workers Party Monument [archive.is/9ToIQ]
Republic of Indonesia
* "Intolerance, Religious Lynchings and the Future of Indonesia" (2011-02-21, japanfocus.org) [archive.is/joa1b]
* "Indonesians Need Revolution!" (2014-05-09, counterpunch.org) [archive.is/IqoPG] [begin excerpt]: Indonesia is now undeniably a ruined country. It has sunk to the level of sub-Saharan African nations (I work in Africa, and can easily compare). It has malls and luxury hotels in several cities, but in between them it is an absolute nightmare, with all the basic services either missing, or on a totally inadequate level.
Even Rwanda has much better roads than Indonesia. Even Zimbabwe has much better public schools. Even Kenya has more reliable mobile and Internet networks. Even Botswana has better public hospitals.
The regime is lying about everything, including the number of people who live here, and about the number of poor (in reality the great majority of the population). Education is almost non-existent. The so-called education system is here only to brainwash, and to maintain the status quo. And it shows: the country of over 300 million (real number) has not one great scientist or thinker, in stark contrast to places like Nigeria, which has many.
And there is no real opposition.
Of course such a failed state is fully supported by Western academia and the mass media, because it does what it is told to do: it became a huge, brainwashed country, which is now plundering and exporting its riches, while not even having a clue that many parts of the world are now fighting for true independence from Western tyranny, and for socialism.
I believe that Indonesia has to first be ruled by some form of a socialist system, before we can even start talking about ‘democracy’.
Because first of all, Indonesian people have to be educated and to know what they want and what their country is all about. The interests of the people have to be put first! The entire society has to work day and night in order to improve the lives of the majority. Basically, we need the opposite of what is Indonesia right now, which is: the majority-serving business interests of the local gangsters and their foreign handlers.
There has to be a strong drive to educate the people. As it is now, after the US-sponsored 1965 military coup and consequent bloodbath, Indonesian culture has been destroyed and replaced by local and mainly US pop. Thinking has been strongly discouraged. Decent education is strictly for the elites, and those who are educated are using their knowledge to extract even more from the country, and not to improve it as a whole. [end excerpt]
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Occupied State of West Papua ===*===*===
Kingdom of Hawai‘i / Occupied State of the Hawaiian Islands
[hawaiiankingdom.org/blog] [facebook.com/KamehamehaVIII]
===*===*===
research from the Committee for the Study of
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* "The Confederacy lost the civil war, but found acceptance in fighting America’s imperialist wars of conquest" (2015-07-26, rupensavoulian.wordpress.com) [archive.is/m0WXe]
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* "British Fascism: Why British Nobility Hailed Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany" (2015-07-22, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/hRXO7]
Churchill on Mussolini: "I could not help being charmed, like so many other people have been, by his gentle and simple bearing and by his calm, detached poise in spite of so many burdens and dangers.' Mr Churchill declined to discuss Fascism in its national aspect, he said: 'Different countries have different ways of doing the same thing...If I had been an Italian, I am sure that I should have been whole-heartedly with you from start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism. But in England we have not yet had to face this danger in the same deadly form...But that we shall succeed in grappling with Communism and choking the life out of it – of that I am absolutely sure."
Extracts from press statements made by Churchill, January 1927 (Churchill Papers, CHAR 9/82B), after a visit to meet Mussolini.
Fascism is capitalism in decay.
Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out, prompting Winston Churchill to order soldiers and tanks to the city to prevent any further gatherings due to fears by the British government of a Bolshevist uprising.
So scared of a Marxist-Leninist style uprising in Britain, the British government resorted to soldiers to squash workers power. Just as Vladimir Lenin once said: "Fascism is capitalism in decay".
The interesting thing is that at the head of the protests in George square that day was john McLean, the bolshevik representative to scotland, the title was given to him by lenin, the government was so scared of McLean that they refused him the ability to travel after the soviet government offered to travel him to Moscow to meet lenin because they believed McLean and the Bolsheviks would organise and they would send him home with munitions.
---
In September 1941, Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain, received a warm welcome at the tank factory he visited in the Midlands to take delivery of the first tank (named after comrade Stalin) off the production line. Ambassador Maisky gave a speech which is still kept in the BBC archives and is available online. [bbc.co.uk/archive/ussr/6701.shtml]
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* Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) Interview with Jacob Jugashvili (2012-07-21) [archive.is/LP2gB] [begin excerpt]: I think the best way to celebrate Stalin’s birthday is to unmask the lies about him and USSR history of his time. There are few major lies that used in accusation of Stalin as “criminal”. One of the fundamentals of those lies is the fact that people (as well those who create those lies) is totally unaware about the type of management of the USSSR, therefore consider Stalin a dictator. There was no personal dictatorship in the USSR. There was a dictatorship of the communist party. More than that. It was not a dictatorship of the party itself but its apparatus – Central Committee’s organ – Politbureau. SO Stalin never was a dictator, even after he became the head of the Soviet government in May of 1940. Stalin was not a dictator but a leader. Criminal can not be a leader. If Stalin was even linked to a single crime(sanctioned the punishment of the innocent or supported unfair decision etc) the Soviet people wouldn’t have choosen him as a Leader, especially when the very existence of the people was in danger. All peoples, not only Russians, if they face the danger and realize it, they choosse only most justiful and clever person as the Leader. The understanding of the difference between those two notions is crucial for understanding of the true history of the USSR and Stalin’s role in it. You can easily destroy The antistalinist lies after you understand this. [end excerpt]
* introduction to "1937. Stalin's Justice: Not Subject to Appeal" book by Grover Furr, Vladimir Bobrov [archive.is/5T2cv]
* “It is difficult for me to imagine what “personal liberty” is enjoyed by an unemployed hungry person. True freedom can only be where there is no exploitation and oppression of one person by another; where there is not unemployment, and where a person is not living in fear of losing his job, his home and his bread. Only in such a society personal and any other freedom can exist for real and not on paper.” J. V. STALIN
Matt Florence of the CPGB-ML writes:
It is a common criticism of the Soviets that they signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, agreeing not to attack eachother. It's not often mentioned that the Soviets were the very last European government to sign a non-aggression pact with Germany.
Originally the Soviets had asked France and Britain in forging an anti-nazi alliance but neither France nor Britain responded to the Soviet request. So with no other choice and all other countries that could have aided them are now ignoring them (or openly siding with Hitler), the Soviets signed a non-aggression pact called the Molotov Ribbentrop pact. This meant that the Soviets and Germans agreed not to attack eachother.
This agreement gave the Soviet Union almost 2 years to prepare for war, and in this time the Soviets moved their heavy industry into the Ural mountains where the Germans could not commandeer them.
Thanks to skills in Soviet diplomacy, the Soviet Union never had to fight both the Japanese and the Germans at the exact same time.
* "How many people has Communism killed?" [www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOnIp69r6vg]
* "Soviet Communism - the truth" (2012-11-02) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oYNx5fdknc]: Harpal Brar, chairman of the CPGB-ML, returned to 'The Durham Union' (Durham University students' union debating society) for the the third time on 19 October 2012. On this occasion, he was invited to propose the motion "Capitalism has failed". The footage from the debate will follow shortly. After a heated debate, Alex Morgan, from Durham Union Radio asked for an interview with Harpal. This is the footage from that interview, with a short intro and outtro.
Alex asks such questions as "Hasn't communism failed - what does being a British communist mean today?", "Doesn't communism inevitably lead to totalitarianism?", "Weren't the Red Army's victories only won under the greatest repression of troops?", "Didn't millions die under stalin in gulags, death camps and purges?" & aren't "Aren't people today rising up for capitalism?"
All the major planks of bourgeois anti-communist propaganda are touched upon, and Harpal, drawing on his profound ideological and historical knowledge and understanding, demolishes them all.
It's compulsive viewing. All topped off with a little humour and gentle mocking of the bastion of privilege that would paint itself as the great upholder of British 'democracy'.
Alex uploads his interviews here [soundcloud.com/alex-morgan123/the-chairman-of-the-communist].
More evidence and information in this short pamphlet: "Lies concerning the History of the Soviet Union" [archive.is/4oiu]
Watch Harpal's previous debates:
Durham Union 2011: "This house would fight for Queen and Country" (Against)
- Part 1: [youtube.com/watch?v=YElsXd-Atl4]
- Part 2: [youtube.com/watch?v=Iugdra6imfM]
- Summation: [youtube.com/watch?v=eRC_4sa23OE]
Durham Union 2010: "Britain has a duty to impose democracy" (Against)
- Part 1: [youtube.com/watch?v=lK0rB7bdKTM]
- Part 2: [youtube.com/watch?v=Iugdra6imfM]
- Part 3: [youtube.com/watch?v=eRC_4sa23OE]
Oxford Union 2008: "Capitalism can save the planet" (Against) [youtube.com/watch?v=pZsQZU4wdjs]
More information on the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), our paper, publications, leaflets and statements, and links to blogs, discussion forums, pictures and videos can be found here [cpgb-ml.org] [redyouth.org].
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RoC, RoK, RoV, and the Republic of the Philippines governments allied with the USA helped murder millions in old 'Indochina', Indonesia and in northern Korea during the 1950s/1960s, while they blockaded the mainland of China with an impenetrable maritime border. "Close them off and make them scream" is a quote I once read concerning the inhumane purpose of the blockade, so when famine struck the mainland, no food could be sent to aid the People.
A survivor says, "I remember when Indonesia conducted a genocide of ethnic Chinese, the vast majority of whom were communist. The Republic of China (RoC) advised those people to stay in Indonesia rather than picked up by the PRC (Communist China) and go back to the Chinese homeland. The RoC is partly responsible for the murder of untold thousands of Chinese people in Indonesia, communist or not."
* "Indonesian killings of 1965–66" (retieved 2015-07-29, wikipedia.org) [archive.is/e2e37]
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The USA Drug war, as a war against the People of the USA, was preceded by the Federal Civil Defense Administration's war against dissidents throughout the 1950s. Entire cities became a kind of open prison where the civilians who are loyal to the governing regime spied on and organized attacks against suspected "communists"... meanwhile, illicit business cartels were left untouched, even the Mafia was denied as existing by FBI Director J. "Edna" Hoover.
The sickening thing about this Radio Free Europe advertisement is that the USA was (is) much worse than the USSR in the methods of censoring information about the old (and new) Jim Crow regime, yet their propagandists saw no wrong in lecturing the USSR about "human rights". Compare the USSR-lead crackdown in east Germany (1956) to the USA crackdown in the satellite state of Guatemala (1953), or compare any USSR "police action" in Central Europe throughout the 1950s to the USA's endless death-squad regimes in Central America throughout the same time period. Many advisors and contributors to Radio Free Europe were fascists who survived WW2 and were given sanctuary in the USA for employment with the State Department. Their vision of "liberty" and "freedom" was based purely on the ability to accumulate and exploit wealth (capitalism) over all other human rights, and when their operation to overthrow the USSR was successful, the first thing they did was kill millions of elders and children through an artificial starvation regime. If you can't afford the price of living, you are to die... this if liberty under fascism.---
* "The long, repressed history of black leftism: Black power belongs at the center of American leftist strategy" (2015-07-28, america.aljazeera.com) [archive.is/yNJag]
* "Photos of the Black Panther Party stir memories at the Norton" (2015-07-28, browardpalmbeach.com) [archive.is/aHBMS]
Bill Jennings writes [archive.is/sx97B]:
Ray was the best teacher, I'm proud to have been one of this students. I first meant Ray@ the United Front Against Fascism in 1969. Later we became close comrades when we both worked out of (the Black Panther Party's) Central HQ's in West Oakland in 1971. He was the only Central Committee Member to go out and sell the BPP newspaper, he and I would walk through West Oakland and sell papers. Loved it.
The Black Panther Party had thousands of members (beyond the more militant cadre) working within their communities to spread the idea of socialism and national liberation. The following mural honors the sacrifices of those members who are mostly unnamed in modern studies of the original Black Panther Party.
The National Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation was aided in-part by the Communist International and the USSR, from which the following anti-Jim Crow posters were printed:
* (1930) [archive.is/S9zXT]
* (1930) [archive.is/QsNNN]
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For your library, a .pdf copy of a classic historical documentation [http://is.gd/4FJk8a].
from the online intro [archive.is/EMvkJ]:
Written and published in the USA in 1942, when the Roosevelt Administration had decided to front out the German lobby and the many Nazi sympathisers in the States; and take his country into the war against Hitler.The North American public, who had been told repeatedly of the 'evils' of communism and the Soviet Union, needed to be persuaded that they had in fact been lied to by their ruling class for many years.
This book revealed how the Western Powers - notably Britain and the USA - had attempted to subvert, manipulate and ultimately destroy the 1917 Revolution and the Soviet Union.
This book makes uncomfortable reading for Western liberals; the book demonstrates that the Russian Revolution was wounded to the point of self-destruction; through this pressure autonomous, co-operative idealists were forced to accept an over-powerful central state. Ultimately, the tragedy of the slaughter in Eastern Europe was by a force created by these Western industrialists and militarists - the Nazis.
It is a lesson from history; because, as we all know, soon after the War ended, the Nazi's in the USA were persecuting and ruining the lives of numerous people on the left, including many people from the previous administration.
To have been caught with a copy of this book in your house during the McCarthyism era would have probably lost you your job; and if you were in the wrong place, your freedom or your life.
So we are now happy to provide you with the chance to read it.
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