Friday, September 6, 2024
Home Blog Page 197

Nature had it right about eggs

Eggs found to be better for muscle building and repair than just egg whites

by Zoey Sky

According to a recent study, individuals who eat at least 18 grams (g) of protein from whole eggs versus egg whites following resistance exercise build protein in their muscles differently. The process, named “protein synthesis,” takes place during the post-workout period, and the post-workout muscle-building response in those who consumed whole eggs is 40 percent greater than those who simply ate the same amount of protein from egg whites.

This discovery implies that instead of throwing away egg yolks, individuals who wish to build muscle must consume whole eggs “to maximize one’s dietary protein intake from eggs. Nicholas Burd, a University of Illinois professor of kinesiology and community health, spearheaded the study.

Burd explains that egg yolks have protein, other key nutrients, and other food components that are lacking in egg whites. These yolks even contain something that boosts the body’s ability to utilize that protein in the muscles.

The study implies that eating protein “within its most natural food matrix” is often more beneficial for the muscles instead of consuming protein from isolated protein sources. Burd et. al. monitored 10 young male participants who finished a single set of resistance exercise. They then consumed either whole eggs or egg whites with 18 g of protein. (Related: Increasing muscle mass, not just losing weight, will help prevent diabetes.)

The scientists administered infusions of two important amino acids, stable-isotope-labeled leucine and phenylalanine, to the participants. The amino acids let the scientists maintain and monitor the amino acid levels in the participants’ blood and muscles. The team took repeated blood and muscle biopsy samples to assess how the egg-derived amino acids showed up in the blood and in protein synthesis in muscles before and after the resistance exercise and eating.

With the labeled eggs, the scientists confirmed that if the participants consumed either the whole egg or the egg whites, the same amount of dietary amino acids were found in their blood. For the study, at least 60 to 70 percent of the amino acids were found in the blood and these helped build new muscle protein.

This implies that the source of one’s protein, be it whole eggs or just egg whites, makes no difference. The “amount of dietary amino acids in the blood after eating generally gives us an indication of how potent a food source is for the muscle-building response.”

But when the researchers directly measured protein synthesis in the muscle, the results painted a different picture. Burd explains that after the participants ate the whole eggs right after the resistance exercise, there was greater muscle-protein synthesis compared to simply eating the egg whites.

Burd concludes that modern society places great importance on protein nutrition, and the study results reveal that we need more protein in our diet than what we believed was required to maintain overall health. He concluded that as the global population increases, we must work together to develop “cost-effective and sustainable strategies for improving the use of protein in the diet.”

Thanks to their study, Burd et. al. were able to confirm that eating egg protein in its natural matrix offers more benefits compared to simply consuming it isolated from the same source.

Other superfoods you can eat to build muscle

If you want to eat other kinds of food that can help you build muscle, check out the list of superfoods below:

• Fish oil — Fish oil helps reduce joint and skin inflammation, lowers body fat, and increases testosterone levels.

• Wild salmon — One of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, wild salmon also gives you 20 g of protein per a 100 g serving.

• Berries — Full of strong antioxidants that prevent cancer, heart, and eye diseases, any kind of berry will do. You can combine cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries with some oatmeal.

• Quinoa — The South American “king of grains,” quinoa contains more fiber and protein than rice or oats. It’s also gluten-free.

You can learn more about how to get in shape and how to build muscle at Slender.news. Sources include ScienceDaily.com and StrongLifts.com. (Natural News).

In Mexico: Media must be on its side to get government ads

New York Times report says news coverage is controlled through ad spending

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

The federal government in México has spent almost US $2 billion on media advertising in the past five years but according to a report in the New York Times, the money has bought much more than just promotional ads and television commercials.

Favorable coverage and editorial influence are also part of the deals made between the government and several media outlets, with some government press secretaries explicitly demanding positive coverage before lucrative contracts are signed, the report says.

The Enrique Peña Nieto-led Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government’s lavish spending is made with a simple proviso, the Times reported: “I do not pay you to criticize me.”

Consequently, if a newspaper, radio station or television broadcaster wants to continue to receive precious advertising revenue from the government, falling into line with its demands is non-negotiable.

A very advertising budget and media organizations that depend on the revenue means that to a large extent the government has come to control the news through its spending, the Times asserted.

That control — labeled “a presidential branding juggernaut” — is “capable of suppressing investigative articles, directing front pages and intimidating newsrooms that challenge it,” the Times said.

Last year, the government spent more than twice its generous media budget, the transparency group Fundar found, while the Supreme Court ruled in November that the government must act on a presidential promise to regulate the allocation of advertising expenditure without bias.

Added to the federal money are millions of dollars that state governments also spend with their preferred media outlets to achieve the same dual end: promoting themselves and their policies through paid advertising and receiving positive editorial coverage in return.

And so a vicious cycle is created.

Federal and state officials tell editors what they should and should not publish, hard-hitting stories are often softened or abandoned altogether and a reported two-thirds of journalists censor themselves due to pressure from advertisers and editors because of the impact that critical or dissenting voices would have on a news outlet’s finances.
“If a professional reporter wants to cover the dirty elements of what is happening in the country today, neither the government nor private companies will give them a penny,” historian Enrique Krauze told the Times.

“This is one of the biggest flaws in Mexican democracy,” added Krauze, the editor of the magazine Letras Libres that also receives some government money.
But it is a flaw that has been around for a long time, starting in the early days of the seven-decade rule of the PRI, and one that is now deeply engrained in the political system.

From 2000 to 2012, when the opposition National Action Party (PAN) was in power, the practice continued.

More recently, former Chihuahua governor César Duarte — currently on the run in the United States — spent more than US $50 million on publicity and buying favorable coverage from media organizations, current state officials said.

Bribery in the state extended to journalists at a local level while new websites were created for the very purpose of attracting advertising revenue and supporting the governor’s agenda.

“The relation between the media and power is one of the gravest problems in Mexico,” Duarte’s successor, Javier Corral, told the Times.

“…It’s carrot and stick: ‘Behave well, and I’ll give you lots of money and advertising. Act badly and I’ll get rid of it,’” he added.

The federal government’s excessive spending on advertising has also been criticized because it has come at the same time as budget cuts in essential services such as health and education.

The director of the magazine Etcétera conceded that the situation is problematic but argued that if the government advertising revenue dried up, the consequences would be even worse.

“Of course, the use of public money limits freedom of expression, but without this public money there would be no media in Mexico at all,” Marco Levario said. “We are all complicit in this,” he added.

However, in a prepared statement the president’s office rejected that its spending affected free speech in any way, arguing that the purpose of its advertising is to inform and educate the public about its work and that it is backed legally by the constitution.

“There is a permanent criticism from Mexican journalists toward the government. Just by opening any newspaper, turning on the television and going to social media, you can verify this,” its statement read.

Among the newspapers the Times said have received considerable amounts of federal or state money in recent years are Excélsior, Milenio, Reforma, La Jornada and El Universal. Some media companies are part of larger conglomerates that also win government infrastructure contracts, further muddying the waters.

Last year, El Universal received about US $10 million in government advertising Fundar found, more than any other newspaper in the country.

But many of the newspapers the New York Times mentioned, including El Universal, also rejected the claims that the government unduly influences what they do and do not publish.
“The editorial line of El Universal is not for sale, it has no price and nobody can buy it,” the newspaper responded today in an editorial.

Source: The New York Times (en), El Universal (sp)

Student debt slavery: Bankrolling financiers on the backs of the young

Higher education has been financialized, transformed from a public service into a lucrative cash cow for private investors

by Mint Press News Desk

The Web Of Debt Blog — The advantages of slavery by debt over “chattel” slavery – ownership of humans as a property right – were set out in an infamous document called the Hazard Circular, reportedly circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts during the American Civil War. It read in part:

Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are glad of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages.

Slaves had to be housed, fed and cared for. “Free” men housed and fed themselves. For the more dangerous jobs, such as mining, Irish immigrants were used rather than black slaves, because the Irish were expendable. Free men could be kept enslaved by debt, by paying them wages that were insufficient to meet their costs of living. On how to control wages, the Hazard Circular went on:

This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money…. It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that.

The government, too, had to be enslaved by debt. It could not be allowed to simply issue the money it needed to meet its budget, as Lincoln’s government did with its greenbacks (government-issued US Notes). The greenback program was terminated after the war, forcing the government to borrow from banks – banks that created the money themselves, just as the government had been doing. Only about 10 percent of the “banknotes” then issued by banks were actually backed by gold. The rest were effectively counterfeit. The difference between government-created and bank-created money was that the government issued it and spent it on the federal budget, creating demand and stimulating the economy. Banks issued money and lent it, at interest. More had to be paid back than was lent, keeping the supply of money tight and keeping both workers and the government in debt.

Student debt peonage

Slavery by debt has continued to this day, and it is particularly evident in the plight of students. Graduates leave college with a diploma and a massive debt on their backs, averaging over $37,000 in 2016. The government’s student loan portfolio now totals $1.37 trillion, making it the second highest consumer debt category behind only mortgage debt. Student debt has risen nearly 164 percent in 25 years, while median wages have increased only 1.6 percent.

Unlike mortgage debt, student debt must be paid. Students cannot just turn in their diplomas and walk away, as homeowners can with their keys. Wages, unemployment benefits, tax refunds and even Social Security checks can be tapped to ensure repayment. In 1998, Sallie Mae (the Student Loan Marketing Association) was privatized, and Congress removed the dischargeability of federal student debt in bankruptcy, absent exceptional circumstances. In 2005, this lender protection was extended to private student loans. Because lenders know that their debts cannot be discharged, they have little incentive to consider a student borrower’s ability to repay. Most students are granted a nearly unlimited line of credit. This, in turn, has led to skyrocketing tuition rates, since universities know the money is available to pay them; and that has created the need for students to borrow even more.

Students take on a huge debt load with the promise that their degrees will be the doorway to jobs allowing them to pay it back, but for many the jobs are not there or not sufficient to meet expenses. Today nearly one-third of borrowers have made no headway in paying down their loans five years after leaving school, although many of these borrowers are not in default. They make payments month after month consisting only of interest, while they continue to owe the full amount they borrowed. This can mean a lifetime of tribute to the lenders, while the loan is never paid off, a classic form of debt peonage to the lender class.

All of this has made student debt a very attractive asset for investors. Student loans are pooled and repackaged into student loan asset-backed securities (SLABS), similar to the notorious mortgage-backed securities through which homebuyers were caught in a massive debt trap in 2008-09. The nameless, faceless investors want their payments when due, and the strict terms of the loans make it more profitable to force a default than to negotiate terms the borrower can actually meet. About 80 percent of SLABS are backed by government-insured loans, guaranteeing that the investors will get paid even if the borrower defaults. The onerous federal bankruptcy laws also make SLABS particularly safe and desirable investments.

Defaulted borrowers risk damaging their credit and their ability to borrow for such things as homes, cars, and furniture, reducing consumer demand and constraining economic growth. Massive defaults could also squeeze the federal budget, since taxpayers ultimately cover any unpaid loans.

Investing in human capital: Student debt and the G.I. Bill

It hasn’t always been this way. Until the 1970s, tuition at many state colleges and universities was free or nearly free. Education was considered an obligation of the public sector, and costs were kept low.

After World War II, the federal government invested heavily in educating the 15.7 million returning American veterans.

The G.I. Bill’s educational benefits helped train legions of professionals, spurring postwar economic growth. It funded the education of 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors and 22,000 dentists, 14 future Nobel laureates, two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, three Supreme Court justices, and three presidents of the United States. Loans enabled by the bill also boosted the housing market, raising home ownership from 44 percent before the war to 60 percent by 1956. Rather than costing the government, the G.I. Bill turned out to be one of the best investments it ever made.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 was part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda, intended “to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education.” The Act increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans for students, established a National Teachers Corps, and included a PLUS loan program that allowed parents of undergraduate and graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attending college. Unfortunately, the well-intended Act had the perverse effect of driving up tuition costs.

Nicaraguans must register to keep their TPS status

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Re-registration period in now open for Nicaraguans with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Current beneficiaries of TPS under Nicaragua’s designation who want to maintain that status through the program’s termination date of Jan. 5, 2019, must re-register between Dec. 15, 2017 and Feb. 13, 2018. Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documentation, have been published in the Federal Register and on www.uscis.gov/tps.

Re-Registration
Period now open for Hondurans with TPS
Current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under Honduras’ designation who want to maintain that status through the current expiration date of July 5, 2018, must re-register between Dec. 15, 2017 and Feb. 13, 2018. Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documentation, have been published in the Federal Register and on www.uscis.gov/tps.

Guerrero bishop met with drug cartel boss
The Catholic prelate has long championed dialogue with criminals to combat violence

A Catholic bishop who has called for dialogue with criminal organizations as a means to reduce violence revealed yesterday that he met four months ago with the head of a Guerrero drug cartel.

Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa made headlines earlier in the year after he asserted that crime gangs are part of the social fabric of remote Guerrero towns, as their presence is accepted and welcomed by local farmers.

Interviewed this week by the newspaper El Universal, Rangel described meeting with Isaac Navarrete Celis, the chieftain of the Sierra Cartel, also known as the Southern Cartel.

The bishop met with Navarrete, also known as “El Señor de la I” and described as one of Guerrero’s most dangerous criminals, at a hideout in the mountains amidst opium poppy plantations.

He felt he had to “intercede” because violence was keeping children from attending school and priests from reaching their parishes.

“I’ve certainly been in contact with and seen these people of crime with the goal of protecting the priests. When it has been necessary to see them I have done so,” Rangel said, recalling that three or four months ago the situation in the mountains of Guerrero “was very delicate.”

“Teachers and priests weren’t allowed in, so I had to go see this man and ask for his help, and thank God there was an understanding…”

Whatever the conditions, Rangel said, he will sit down and talk with criminals if it means bringing peace to Guerrero.

But at this point peace remains elusive as the war continues between Navarrete’s Sierra Cartel, which is aligned with Los Ardillos, and another powerful gang called Los Rojos.

At stake is the Chilapa-Tixtla-Chilpancingo-Leonardo Bravo-Iguala drug-trafficking corridor.

Eight weeks ago, dismembered bodies so badly burned they could not be identified were turning up in the trunks of burned-out cars or left at the roadside.

Rangel was appointed to the Chilpancingo-Chilapa diocese over two years ago, overseeing Catholic affairs in an area that encompasses violent zones such as Chilapa and Chilpancingo, but also the Sierra and part of the northern reaches of the state.

Since the beginning, Rangel has been an outspoken critic of the security strategy implemented by the administration of Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores, and urged there be dialogue.

The bishop has also claimed that drug traffickers and local politicians are allied and hold meetings “in the dark.”

“I know there are several municipalities in which drug traffickers have imposed the mayors of their choice, and even some [state] deputies. Certain politicians in Guerrero are sponsored by groups of drug traffickers,” Rangel told El Universal.

Major exhibition of artifacts from the Ancient City of Teotihuacan

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are pleased to premiere Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, the first major U.S. exhibition on Teotihuacan in over twenty years. The ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan is one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in the world, and the most-visited archaeological site in Mexico.

At its peak in 400 CE, Teotihuacan was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of Mesoamerica and inhabited by a multiethnic population of more than 100,000 people. This historic exhibition will feature more than 200 artifacts and artworks from the site and is a rare opportunity to view objects drawn from major collections in Mexico, some recently excavated – many on view in the U.S. for the first time – together in one spectacular exhibition.

Now through Feb. 11, 2018, at the, at the de Young Museum, SF.

Holiday Party w/ Tortilla Soup & Hip Spanic Allstars

Do not miss the Old School New Year’s Eve Party 2018 featuring Tierra, with Tortilla Soup, Cisco Kid, and special guest Tony Lindsey, former Santana main vocalist.

On Sunday, Dec 31. Cover charge $60-$800. Doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m. At the Holiday Inn, San Jose – 1350 N. First Street, San Jose CA
Special Hotel rates when you ask for Tortilla Soup as 408-453-6200. Call by Tortilla Soup Music Inc 408-828-3229 for more information.

Menopause The Musical in San José

Menopause The Musical® is a groundbreaking celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived “The Change.” Now celebrating 14 years of female empowerment through hilarious musical comedy, Menopause The Musical® has evolved as a “grassroots” movement of women who deal with life adjustments after 40 by embracing each other and the road ahead.

Set in a department store, four women meet while shopping for a black lace bra at a lingerie sale. After noticing unmistakable similarities among one another, the cast jokes about their woeful hot flashes, mood swings, wrinkles, weight gain and much more. These women form a sisterhood and unique bond with the entire audience as they rejoice in celebrating that menopause is no longer “The Silent Passage.” 

Inspired by a hot flash and a bottle of wine, Menopause The Musical® is a celebration of women who find themselves at any stage of “The Change.” The laughter-filled 90-minute production gets audience members out of their seats and singing along to parodies from classic pop songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s.  

Menopause The Musical®, now in its sixteenth year of production, is recognized as the longest-running scripted production in Las Vegas and continues to entertain nightly at Harrah’s Las Vegas. The hilarious musical has entertained audiences across the country in more than 450 U.S. cities, nearly 300 international cities and a total of 15 countries. For more information, visit www.MenopauseTheMusical.com.

Sixteen performances January 9-21, 2018 at the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose, California. Tickets on sale now at $72. Additional fees may apply. Greater discounts for groups of 10+ available by calling 409-924-8501.

Guillermo del Toro’s La Forma del Agua leads Golden Globe nominees

by the El Reportero’s news service

The movie La Forma del Agua (The Shape of Water) by Guillermo del Toro from Mexico, leads with seven nominations the list of Golden Globe nominees, issued today in Beverly Hills, California.

The film, included in the nomination for the Golden Globe awards to be granted on January 7th, is nominee as best dramatic film, script, director and best original music, as well as best actress for Sally Hawkins’ performance, and supporting actor and actress for Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer.

The film by awarded Mexican director Del Toro, is followed by ‘The post’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,’ by directors Steven Spielberg and Martin McDonagh, respectively with six nominations each.

Nominees as best actors are Tom Hanks for The Post, Denzel Washington for Roman J. Israel, Esq., Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread, Gary Oldman for Darkest hour and young actor Timothee Chalamet for Call me by your name.

Nominees as best actresses are Jessica Chastain, Sally Hawkins, Frances MacDormand, Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams, for their performances in ‘Molly’s game, The shape of water,Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The post, and All the Money in the World, in that order.

The nominees for best drama series in television are The Crown, Game of Thrones, The handmaids tale, Stranger things, and This is us, while nominees for best animated films are Coco, Baby boss, Ferdinand, Loving Vicent, and The breadwinner.

Nominees for best motion picture in foreign language are A Fantastic Woman form Chile, First They Killed My Father from Cambodia, In the Fade from Germany, Loveless from Russia and The Square from Sweden.

Nominees for comedies and musicals are The disaster artist, Get out, The greatest showman, Lady bird, I, Tonya.

Bolivia to host several international events in 2018

Bolivia will host in 2018 several international events related to ancient civilizations and cultures, migration policies, fundamental issues today in the policies of the South American country.

According to the foreign minister Fernando Huanacuni, the Andean-Amazonic country will have an intense international agenda as it will host the Second Forum of Ancient Civilizations in May, 2018, in the city of La Paz.

In that event, the participation of countries as China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Greece, Peru and Mexico to exchange antique knowledges and face problems and challenges of those cultures in present times, he said.

Also for September it is scheduled the forum of the Global Pact on Migration, event in which several topics will be discussed such as the handling and management of the transborder waters and the diplomacy of the vital resource, both proposed by Bolivia.

Huanacuni also remarked that the South American nation will asume in March next year, the presidency pro-tempore of the South American Council on Infrastructure and Planning (Cosiplan) of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

Such instance has the objective to discuss policy and strategy to plan and implement integration of infrastructure in the region, in commitment with social, economic and environmental development.

Recently, the viceminister of Transport, Galo Bonifaz, informed that Cosiplan is the operative arm of Unasur and among the prioritary projects proposed by Bolivia, is the Bioceanic Railway Corridor of Integration.

The megawork, whose extension will be of 3,755 kilometers and will require an investment estimated at over 10 billion dollars.
The train already has the support of several European nations such as Germany and Switzerland, besides other South American nations as Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay.

Considered the 21st Century Panama Canal, the train will join the Brazilian port of Santos with Peruvian Ilo, passing through Bolivia and will benefit six of the 12 countries of the region.

Lenin won because he was bold and daring in a sea of degeneracy

by Eric King

“Take action, whatever the conditions are, because action itself can create new possibilities. Do not shy away from action or from speaking the truth.”
“Lenin believed that he had lost out on the possibility for a revolution for the next hundred years. He was wrong. Events rarely play out how we expect them too.”

Last month was the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Partially because of that fact, I have been reading a great deal about the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Bolshevik party. What I have learned has surprised me.

I am someone who studies revolutions. I thought that I understood the Russian Revolution but I had, in fact, missed two central elements of the revolutionary period: uncertainty and fear.

To begin with, during the early stages of the Russian Revolution it was uncertain as to who actually held power. The Bolsheviks seized control of many of the governmental buildings in Petrograd, including the Winter Palace, the former home of the Romanov Dynasty, but it wasn’t clear that this gave them the right or ability to rule Russia.

There were still several other institutions of power within Russia, including the Duma (or legislature), which later became the Constituent Assembly (the Bolsheviks never held a majority of seats in either of them), the workers councils (called Soviets) which the Bolsheviks were also a minority in, and the soldiers councils, where the Bolsheviks had majority support, but most of the soldiers were still hundreds of miles away fighting at the front.

Who actually had power in this chaotic political situation was determined by who was willing to assert it.

When the Bolsheviks claimed power on November 8th, 1917, they were bluffing. If any organized force had opposed them, they would have been immediately toppled. But, because the political situation in Petrograd and Russia as a whole was so disorganized, the Bolsheviks used that to their advantage and claimed power. 

This seizure of power was able to succeed for two reasons. Firstly, the common enemy of the Monarchists and their White Army. Secondly, the promise, made by the Bolsheviks, of democratic participation for non-Bolshevik political parties. The Bolsheviks were able to pick up the mantle of fighting for the revolution against the White armies who wanted to restore the Romanov monarchy to power, which would topple the political dreams of everyone on the Left from the Social Liberals to the most stringent Bolsheviks. 

The non-Bolshevik Left had a good sense of Russian history and they knew what happened to failed revolutionaries. They understood that if the White armies took power, it wouldn’t matter to the Whites if they had allied with the Bolsheviks or not. The entirety of the Left would be branded as traitors and be subject to execution. This is the way of Russia. If your coup or revolution fails, your entire political faction or ethnic group is subject to being brutally murdered. Plus, they thought that they would be able to take part in the new revolutionary government, but as the civil war dragged on, every non-Bolshevik party was eventually banned.

There are a number of lessons that we can learn from this understanding of the rise of Bolshevism and the Russian Revolution.

Lesson number one is that being bold, confident, and self-assured in an age of confusion and fear is a type of power in itself. We have already seen this in our time. The rise of the Alt-Right and identitarian movements has largely been due to the fact that they have been a certain and confident voice in a time of delusion and degeneracy. The Bolsheviks had a bold and inspiring ideology, and the writings and speeches of Richard Spencer come close to that level of inspiration. As the current Western form of government and society collapses, people will look for new ideas that are not only clear and confident but also inspiring. When people are living in filth and degeneracy, they don’t want someone to only remind them of how filthy and degenerate their society is. They want someone to show them a way out.

The second lesson that we can learn from the rise of Bolshevism is that events rarely meet our expectations. When the Bolshevik committee did not support his call for an immediate revolt after the Kerensky government took power, Lenin believed that he had lost out on the possibility for a revolution for the next hundred years. He was wrong. Events rarely play out how we expect them too. 

Take action, whatever the conditions are, because action itself can create new possibilities. Do not shy away from action or from speaking the truth.  T.S. Elliot said, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.”  The fight for our ideas and for our people is eternal.

Let no one convince you that the future is written.  There is no future outside of that which we make.  All political orders fall. There has not been one yet that hasn’t.  And unless you believe that degenerate bug men have cracked the code and figured out how to make an eternally lasting political order, we know at least one thing for certain: The political order that we currently live under will fall. 

When it does, people will need, as the slogan says, a guiding light in a sea of degeneracy. (Russia Insider).

Law enforcement “Bill of Rights” adds bricks to blue wall of silence

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

Much has been said about police actions and lack of accountability, at an era when the internet and social media are the carriers of the latest news, and mostly coming from regular people with a cell phone. I found this article and read it, and found it to be very interesting in regard to so many questions people ask, especially if a member of his family or friend has been victimized by the actions of a police officer and seen ‘no justice.’ So I bring it to you as educational reading.
I add, however, that most of the members of the police force are good people with good intensions to protect us all. — MR

Law enforcement “Bill of Rights” adds bricks to blue wall of silence

The Law Enforcement “Bill of Rights” operates, in many cases, in opposition to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, by sharply limiting accountability and transparency when it comes to police brutality and other misconduct

by Thandisizwe Chimurenga

LOS ANGELES — Most of us living in the United States were familiar with the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution – by the time we left high school. Those rights — such as freedom of speech, religion, the press, and to assemble — are guarantees granted to each and every individual within the U.S. Unfortunately most of us never heard about a second “bill of rights:” that exclusively protecting law enforcement personnel.

The Law Enforcement “Bill of Rights” operates in many cases in opposition to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, by sharply limiting accountability and transparency when it comes to police brutality and other misconduct.

The “right of privacy,” for example, is extended to what some say are outrageous lengths for police officers, with the state of California apparently leading the way in that regard. Even the Los Angeles Times lamented that “far from being a beacon of transparency, California — when it comes to the public’s ability to assess the performance of its law enforcement agencies — is the nation’s information black hole.”

Anything having to do with the disciplining of a police officer is considered part of his or her personnel file and is thus subject to privacy. In California, not even prosecutors are allowed to view those files.

After the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the subject of Maryland’s Police Officer Bill of Rights came to light. According to state law, police officers under investigation for brutality or misconduct are allowed to have representation — and they can take up to 10 days to obtain counsel. Critics say the 10 days is time used by the officers to “get their stories straight.” In the words of Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather McDonald:

[A] 10-day window of immunity from questioning is clearly excessive. It creates the appearance, if not the reality, of officers’ colluding to tailor their stories to exculpate themselves.”

In Los Angeles, the Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has a “secret list” of 300 deputies it considers problematic. Only high-level sheriff’s office officials can view this list, which was compiled as a means of keeping the department on its toes. In the event that one of the listed deputies has to appear in court, his or her credibility as a witness could be impugned and the case lost.

For this reason, it makes sense that the county prosecutor should also be able to view the list. Yet the discipline meted out to these officers is considered a personnel issue and thus their records are held private even from the prosecutor. The state’s supreme court will be taking up this issue sometime in 2018.

California’s laws for police privacy are so stringent that individuals who file brutality complaints against officers cannot receive information on the status of the investigation or its outcome. State Senator Mark Leno was the sponsor of a bill last year that would have uncloaked that basic level of accountability. A Senate committee laid the bill to rest and, to date, another one has not been proposed.

The effort to shield police officers’ actions in the name of privacy would seem to work more like a tactic to shield them from accountability. A bill in the Virginia state legislature that also died in committee last year would have kept the names of officers completely hidden from the public. Not just officers involved in shootings; not just officers accused of misconduct; but all police officers in all circumstances.

In 2014, the California Supreme Court ruled that the names of officers involved in shootings could be made public. But it also acknowledged the Copley decision that disciplinary proceedings are part of an officer’s protected personnel file.

Such egregious existing or contemplated imbalances in police-specific versus public rights have been the source of broad outrage, especially when highlighted by each in an ongoing parade of high-profile incidents in which police brutality or misconduct appears to have been shielded at the expense of getting at the truth. From this outrage and these provocations has grown a movement to restore the balance of rights contemplated by the Constitution.

Campaign Zero is a project that was born out of the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, following the August 2014 death by police of unarmed civilian Michael Brown. Deray McKesson, a leading figure in the Black Lives Matter movement, and others created the project as a concrete way to address needed police reforms. One of those reforms is a review of the contracts negotiated for police by their unions. Many of the protections shielding law enforcement officers that aren’t enshrined in state laws are contained in their employment contracts.

Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an award-winning, freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, California. She is a staff writer for MintPress News, Daily Kos and co-hosts a weekly, morning drive-time public affairs/news show on the Pacifica Radio network. She is the author of No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant and Reparations … Not Yet: A Case for Reparations and Why We Must Wait; she is also a contributor to several social justice anthologies.

Depression and your diet

Deficiencies in Vitamin B and other nutrients can play a role in depression

by Nancy Schimelpfening

If you have chronic depression, more than one factor may be causing your symptoms (low mood, lethargy, disinterest in things you typically enjoy doing, and so forth). One of these is a possible deficiency in one or more essential nutrients. This could be great news, because along with medication, therapy, and any other treatment your doctor prescribes, making simple changes to your diet may help you to feel better.

Only a medical professional can determine if you have a nutritional deficiency, so before you fill your fridge with new foods or stock up on supplements, get an official diagnosis. Keep in mind too that the body benefits most from vitamins and minerals that come from food rather than pills. In fact, even if you aren’t low in any particular nutrient, eating a balanced diet in general, one made up of fresh foods rather than processed ones, will help you feel better overall.

B-Complex Vitamins

The B vitamins are essential to mental and emotional well-being. They’re water-soluble, meaning they can’t be stored in the body, so you need to get them in diet daily. B vitamins may be depleted by alcohol, refined sugars, nicotine, and caffeine. Excesses of any of these can play a part in a B-vitamin deficiency. Here’s how each of the B vitamins may work:

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine).  The brain uses this vitamin to help convert glucose, or blood sugar, into fuel. Without it the brain rapidly runs out of energy. Thiamine deficiencies are rare but can accompany alcohol use disorders and lead to a variety of psychiatric and neurologic symptoms.

• Vitamin B3 (niacin). A  niacin deficiency can cause pellagra, a disease that can cause psychosis and dementia. Because many commercial foods contain niacin, pellagra has virtually disappeared. However, deficiencies of vitamin B3 can produce agitation and anxiety, as well as mental and physical slowness.

Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid). Deficiencies of this vitamin are rare but may lead to fatigue and depression.

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). This vitamin helps the body process amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins and some hormones. It is needed to make serotonin, melatonin, and dopamine. Vitamin B6 deficiencies, although very rare, cause impaired immunity, skin lesions, and mental confusion. A marginal deficiency sometimes occurs in alcoholics, people with kidney failure, and women using oral contraceptives. An older class of antidepressant, the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), has also been linked to deficiencies of vitamin B6, but these aren’t prescribed much anymore. Many nutritionally oriented doctors believe that most diets do not provide optimal amounts of this vitamin.

Vitamin B12. Because vitamin B12 is important for red blood cell formation, a deficiency can lead to anemia as well as a variety of neurologic and psychiatric symptoms.

Deficiencies take a long time to develop, since the body stores a three- to five-year supply in the liver. When shortages do occur, they are often due to a lack of intrinsic factor, an enzyme that allows vitamin B12 to be absorbed in the intestinal tract. This condition is known as pernicious anemia.  Since intrinsic factor diminishes with age, older people are more prone to B12 deficiencies.

Folic acid: This B vitamin is needed for DNA synthesis. It is also necessary for the production of SAM (S-adenosyl methionine). A poor diet, illness, alcoholism, and certain drugs can contribute to folic acid deficiencies. Pregnant women are often advised to take this vitamin to prevent neural tube defects in the developing fetus.

Vitamin C

When too little vitamin C plays a role in depression symptoms, supplements certainly can help, especially if you’ve had surgery or an inflammatory disease. Stress, pregnancy, and breastfeeding increase the body’s need for vitamin C, while aspirin, tetracycline, and birth control pills can deplete the body’s supply.

Minerals

Deficiencies in a number of minerals have been associated with depressive symptoms as well as physical problems.  Among them are magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, manganese, and potassium. A nutritionist or dietitian can determine if you’re low in any of these minerals and suggest ways to include more of them in your diet.

Russia may join Venezuela with an oil-backed criptocurrency

A new rumor suggests Russia should issue an oil-backed cryptocurrency to combat U.S. defense of the petrodollar

Tom is a regular contributor not only here at Russia Insider but also at Seeking Alpha and Newsmax Media. Check out his blog, Gold Goats ‘n Guns and please support his work through his Patreon where he also publishes his monthly investment newsletter
by anonymous
Analysis

Last week, Venezuela announced it would develop a national cryptocurrency backed by its oil reserves, the Petro.  Now there is a report that Russia is considering the same thing.  Iran will likely follow suit.

As of right now this is just a rumor, but it makes some sense.  So, let’s treat this rumor as fact for the sake of argument and see where it leads us.
The U.S. continues to sanction and threaten all of these countries for daring to challenge the global status quo.  There is no denying this.  And so much of what we see in the geopolitical headlines are knock-on effects of this challenge.

The geopolitcal “why”

From the Middle East to North Korea, the Danish changing their laws to block Nordstream 2 to the Saudis breaking off relations with Qatar, everything you read about in the news is a move on the geopolitical “Go” board.

Because at the heart of this is the petrodollar. Contrary to what many believe, the petrodollar is not the source of the U.S. dollar’s power around the world, but rather the U.S.’s main fulcrum by which to keep competition out of the markets.

It is a secondary effect of the dollar’s dominance in global finance today.  But it is not the main driver.  Financial markets are simply too big relative to the size any one commodity market for it to be the fulcrum on which everything hinges.

It was that way in the past. But it is not now.  That said, however, getting out from underneath the petrodollar gives a country independence to begin building a financial architecture that can be levered up over time to threaten the institutional control it helped create.

U.S. foreign policy defends the petrodollar along with other systems in place – the IMF, the World Bank, SWIFT, LIBOR and the central banks themselves – to maintain its control.
The main oil producers, however, can escape this control simply by selling their oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.  That’s not enough to dethrone the dollar, but, like I just said, it is where the process has to start.

Therefore, any and all means must be employed to defend the dollar empire by keeping everyone inside that system.  So, it looks like the petrodollar is all-important, but only in the long-run.  In the short run, monetary policy, diplomacy and political stability are far more powerful actors on the system.

Russia’s crypto-upside

However, this announcement by Russia is still very important.  Because it deepens Russia’s tools to combat U.S. hybrid war tactics, which include financial sanctions.  They’ve already announced their plans for a crypto-ruble, as well as supporting cryptocurrency research, massive Bitcoin mining operations, and the possibility of a BRICS-Coin as well.
And, most importantly, the legal frameworks under which all of this will operate.  In short, these things create certainty in the minds of companies doing business in Russia that the government will act in predictable ways.  Those ways may still not be profitable enough to lay off other risks and attract capital, but predictability first and fine-tuning second.

Adding in a cryptocurrency backed by their oil reserves which can trade on the open market then only makes sense.  It allows smaller oil and gas companies to avoid the worst of U.S. banking sanctions.  It will help create secondary markets for corporate debt and equity issuance, fast-international clearing without the need for centralized systems like SWIFT, etc.

This can facilitate a shift in the oil supply chain economy away from banks sanctioned by the U.S. and spur development in that space across not only Russia, but the entire region served by the Eurasian Economic Union.

Especially if this potential “Neft-coin”(Neft is Russian for ‘oil’) is convertible into crypto-Rubles and, by extension, Rubles themselves.  There will be no barrier for Russian businesses to use the “Neft-coin” to get around sanctions.

Moreover, since the crypto-Ruble will only be taxed at 13 percent, the capital gains tax rate in Russia, this, in effect, could be a back-door way for companies to lower their corporate tax rate to 13 percent from the current 20 percent Russian corporate tax rate. I am just spitballing here.  But, if I were Vladimir Putin I would consider this, highly to compete with the U.S. pushing their corporate tax rate down from 35 percent.

The other side of the coin

Those are the benefits, but what are the potential drawbacks?

The problem with backing any currency with physical reserves is the fluctuations in value of those reserves.  It’s not like oil is a low-beta commodity or anything.  But, like everything else in the commodity space, price movements are supposed to be smoothed out by the futures markets helping to coordinate price with time.

But the bigger problem is the estimation of those reserves the coin’s value is based on.  First, how do you accurately quantify them?  Can holders of Petro or Neft-coin trust the Russian or Venezuelan governments to provide accurate assessments of their reserves?

Second, there is the ability of the country to pull it out of the ground and sell it into the market at anything close to a fair price.  This isn’t a concern for Russia, the world’s second-largest supplier of oil with a very stable government, but Venezuela is the opposite.  And, its “Petro” would probably trade at quite a discount early on to the dollar price of oil.

It will open up all kinds of arbitrage opportunities.

Moreover, the blockchain that backs this “Neft-coin” is subject to hacking by hostile actors… I wonder who those will be?

Don’t think for a second that various U.S. ‘intelligence’ agencies are not developing ways to attack anything crypto-based that either of these countries put in place.  And, as well, don’t think that the Russians, masters themselves of cryptography, aren’t thinking of ways to combat this at a fundamental level.

Bitcoin solves other problems

Now, there are schemes emerging in the blockchain space that can mitigate this possibility very simply.  And it all depends on the architecture of this “Neft-coin” or Venezuela’s “Petro.”  Tying either of these coins to a massive proof-of-work based blockchain like Ethereum or Bitcoin would be the right way to do this.

Like I said at the outset, this is purely speculation on my part, but it’s important to ask these questions now to see what shakes out.

Moves like this and assets like Bitcoin itself happen because of that very natural human desire to be free from external control which enriches the few at the expense of the many. 

(This article was cut to fit space. To view the complete article visit: http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-may-join-venezuela-oil-cryptocurrency/ri21891?ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=4b21778752&mc_eid=23f6201406).

1...196197198...599Page 197 of 599

SELECTIONS

POPULAR TICKETS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Welcome to our Marvin J. Ramirez website! We are an innovative newspaper located in the heart of San Francisco. With a relentless passion for telling powerful stories, we inform our community with truthful news, insightful analysis, and compelling reporting.

Contacto: lreportero@aol.com

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2023. Agenciadigital.pw. All rights reserved.