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More plot details about the Manson Family film

by the El Reportero’s news services

Just before the news of Charles Manson’’s death, Sony confirmed that it has secured the distribution rights to Quentin Tarantino’’s Manson Family movie.

The director has been shopping his script around various studios for months, having severed his working relationship with The Weinstein Company following the sexual abuse scandal surrounding his friend Harvey Weinstein.

Ever since the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Tarantino has released his movies through Weinstein’s companies, first Miramax then TWC, but now he’s moved on to ensure his next film is not tainted by the association.

The movie will be the acclaimed director’s first film since 2015’s The Hateful Eight, and it seems his script will offer a similar sort of revisionist history.

According to Vanity Fair, the film will be set during the summer of 1969 when Charles Manson and his family orchestrated the murders of Sharon Tate and some friends at the home the pregnant actress was renting in California.

Though the story will not focus on Manson himself, rather two wannabe film stars hoping to make their break in Hollywood:

It’s certainly a plausible way for Tarantino to approach the Manson story without focusing solely on those killings. The cult leader was associated with some well respected names within the entertainment industry including Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and music producer Terry Melcher, who was the previous occupant of the house Sharon Tate was staying at when she was murdered.

According to Deadline, Tarantino has approached a couple of his former stars to appear in the movie including Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds) and Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained). Tom Cruise is another big name star the director has reportedly spoken to about joining what he hopes is a stellar ensemble cast.

Tarantino can certainly afford some A-list names considering the reported $100 million production he’s managed to get Sony to agree to. That’s the same amount he got for 2012’s Django Unchained which went on to make $425.4 million at the international box office.

With production expected to begin in June 2018 in time for a 2019 release,the year that will mark the 50 year anniversary of the Manson Family’s infamous murders – Sony are no doubt betting on the movie achieving the same.

Former Beatle Ringo Starr announces concerts in Spain

British musician and former member of legendary group The Beatles Richard (Ringo) Starr will offer several concerts in Spain for 2018 as part of a world tour in which Starr is promoting his most recent discographic album ‘’Give More Love.’’

In his official website, the British artist announced that the first stop of four dates in Spain will be at the Saint Jordi Club of Barcelona on June 26. Two days later, Ringo Starr -former drummer of the famous group The Beatles- will perform at the WiZink Center of Madrid.

The tour will include presentations at the Collisseum of La Coruña on June 29, and the artist, together with his own group All Starr, will perform at the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao.
The musicians will start the European tour in Paris and will include, among others, seats in Austria, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Italy. Give More Love is the 19th disc in Starr’s career, it has 10.

Puerto Rico, a protagonist in Latin Grammy ceremony

Puerto Rico, the Caribbean island that continues devastated today after the passing of Hurricane Maria, was the protagonist in the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards through music and solidarity messages to that territory with colonial status. During the ceremony held last night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in addition to the awarding ceremony and performances of renowned artists, the defense of immigrant rights and the examples of support to the island stood out.

The three-hour show open with a minute’s silence to remember the victims of the natural disasters that hit Mexico, Texas, Puerto Rico and other places in the Caribbean region in recent months.

COMPROMISED: Sex-abuser Congressmen are open to massive blackmail

by Jon Rappoport

Most people are naïve about how intelligence operations are run. Holding damaging secrets on public figures equals the opportunity for blackmail. This strategy was probably discovered by cave men.

—Sex-abuse claims filed against members of Congress—beyond Al Franken and John Conyers—

Where are all the names of these Congressmen? We’re now told that, in the past 10 years, $17 million has been paid out to accusers in small sums. An unknown part of that money was compensation for explicitly sexual offenses.

There are more cases where the accusers simply gave up and refused to pursue claims. They’re potentially waiting in the wings.

Not only are the Congressmen guilty, they’re open to blackmail. As they vote on bills; as they decide which lobbyists to favor; as they decide what advice to follow from intelligence agencies; as they decide whether to take meetings with agents from other countries; they’re always looking over their shoulders, wondering: HOW MUCH DO THESE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ME? WHAT SHOULD I DO TO STAY SAFE?

And in some hotel room, late at night, when a person slips them a folder with details of their sexual misdemeanors or felonies, what are they going to do? How are they going to resist whatever is being asked for?

COMPROMISED.

This is the political elephant in the room the mainstream press isn’t talking about.

What about the NSA and the CIA and other spying agencies in the US (and other countries)? How much devastating information about sexual abuse have they gathered on these Congressmen?

How much covert control have the agencies chosen to exercise?

WE OWN YOU.

The levels of complexity can be dizzying. Suppose a guilty Congressman learns actual secrets about another politician? His impulse is to blow the whistle. But can he? What will he bring down on his own head?

Suppose he knows vital secrets about Monsanto, Dow, Exxon, Eli Lilly?

I’LL KEEP YOUR SECRETS IF YOU KEEP MINE.

A BROTHERHOOD OF SECRET-KEEPERS.

An awareness, over the years, spreads through Congress: “Many of us are guilty and we need to protect each other.”

Because it isn’t just the sexual secrets anymore. It’s the subsequent immoral actions taken and not taken, based on being compromised. Based on being controlled.

“Appreciate your committee vote to kill the bill yesterday, Senator. I assure you that thing in Miami last summer…”

“When does our deal end? When are we even? This is worse than prison.”

“It’s not worse. And it never ends. But don’t worry, be happy. Keep playing the game. It’s no skin off your nose.”
“What about honor?”

“Please. You gave that away a long time ago. In Miami. But we also know about the hotel rooms in New York, Washington, Chicago, LA…”

The Congressman can’t believe the bind he’s in. He’s having the above conversation with a man from the CIA. He and the CIA are supposed to be on the same team. And they are, if he’ll understand who is higher in the pecking order, who gives the commands.

One day, he’ll wake up and realize that, among the four women he abused, three were innocent, but one was sent in by the Agency with the task of seducing him. If necessary, at a later date, she could use their night together as blackmail. (For a rough variation on this theme, see numerous accounts of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s 2008 hooker scandal, which caused his resignation from office. Spitzer was attacking Wall Street and Big Pharma.)

Then we come to the issue of reporters, who themselves could be compromised, because they’re secretly guilty of sexual abuse.

For example, long-time political reporter, Glenn Thrush (Politico, NY Times, MSNBC), has just been accused of kissing and groping four women. The Times has suspended him from his position covering the White House.

If Thrush, at any time, has been aware of politicians’ misdeeds, did he cover them and expose them fully—or was he “under the gun” to play ball because of his own secrets?

One could reasonably ask this question about Thrush’s relations with the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.

Case in point. WikiLeaks (October 2016) released an email from Thrush to John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign manager. Thrush was writing an article that referred to Podesta. He emailed Podesta part of the draft, asking him to “fact-check” it. Astonishingly, Thrush remarked in the email:

“No worries Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u. Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this. Tell me if I fucked up anything.”

Podesta replied: “no problems here.”

Politico’s vice president of communications, Brad Dayspring, made an impassioned and transparently moronic defense of his reporter:

“Glenn is one of the top political reporters in the country [!], in no small part because he understands that it is his job to get inside information, not appear perfect when someone illegally hacks email [!]…I can speak with firsthand knowledge and experience that Glenn checks the validity of often complex reporting with everybody, on both sides of the aisle.”

So who is Brad Dayspring, the ardent defender of his “top political reporter?”

Years earlier, on October 25, 2011, while Dayspring was working as Communications Director for House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, ADWEEK reported.
“Turns out Dayspring’s personal Twitter feed, @BDayspring… follows 1,007 accounts, one of which is SexyTwitPics… Description: ‘We RT [retweet] only the HOTTEST Pics DIRECTLY from Sexy Ladies’ Twitter Accts! (No random girls, xxx, guys) Ladies Mention us w your pics! 18+’”

Maybe it’s a stretch, but I’d say the level of intelligence Dayspring exhibited in defending Glenn Thrush is matched by his interest in SexyTwitPics.

One of the elephants in the room is, of course, Bill Clinton. For several decades, people having been writing about his sexual predations. It’s assumed that he and his allies (including his wife) have been able to avoid final excommunication from politics because of their power—but it would be foolish to assume he has been free from blackmail.

We wouldn’t be talking about some reporter with a damning file on Bill Clinton. We would be talking about an agency like the CIA and their file. No one who is a serial abuser simply shrugs off the CIA and blithely walks away.

In other words, the Clintons may have nine lives precisely BECAUSE they made a deal with the devil…

(Jon Rappoport is the author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit From The Matrix, and Power Outside The Matrix).

Lawsuit aims to shed light on Department of Justice’s surveillance of journalists

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

I introduce you to the following article written by a respected investigative journalist, which brings out aspects of our constitutional guaranteed freedom of speech, and a lawsuit against the Department of Justice of the EE.UU. — MR.

The Department of Justice is being sued over a staggering 27 ongoing investigations into potential leaks

by Kevin Gosztola

The Justice Department has twenty-seven ongoing leak investigations, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That is a staggering number, and now, the Knight First Amendment Institute and Freedom of The Press Foundation are suing for records on how those investigations may infringe upon the First Amendment rights of journalists.

In a filing submitted to the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, the two organizations seek “the immediate release of agency records concerning the restrictions imposed by statute, regulation, or the First Amendment on government surveillance targeting members of the news media,” as well as those regulations or laws that implicate “freedoms of speech, association, or the press.”

The two organizations requested records from the Justice Department, National Security Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, CIA, and other agencies in October but received only two documents in response.

 Particularly, the Knight Institute and Freedom of the Press Foundation would like records on the Justice Department’s “Media Guidelines” and the media subpoena policies Sessions pledged to review.

“The apparent hostility toward the press from senior government officials combined with increasing government surveillance create a dangerous environment for reporters and whistleblowers,” Knight Institute Staff Attorney Carrie DeCell stated. “The public has a right to know if the limits on surveillance of journalists are sufficient to ensure a free press.”

The two organizations would like the court to order agencies to thoroughly search for records and process and release responsive records immediately.

They also would like the court to order disclosure of any “wrongfully withheld records.”

“Recent reports of government investigations into journalists, political dissenters, and political protesters call into question the adequacy of existing limitations on the government’s surveillance authority to protect First Amendment rights,” the complaint states [PDF]. “For example, earlier this year the DOJ demanded that the web host for a website called DisruptJ20.org, which organized protests on the day of President Trump’s inauguration, turn over data encompassing 1.3 million IP addresses and other information associated with the thousands of individuals who had visited the website.”

“The DOJ narrowed its demand only after public condemnation on First Amendment grounds. “On August 4, Sessions suggested the Justice Department received “nearly as many criminal referrals involving unauthorized disclosures” as were “received in the previous three years combined.”

He mentioned a new “counterintelligence unit” was created to manage cases and that the Justice Department is also reviewing policies that affect media subpoenas.

Sessions suggested media should be respected but that “respect is not unlimited. [The media] cannot place lives at risk with impunity.”
Dan Coats, who is the director of national intelligence, joined Sessions to publicly condemn the “culture of leaking.”

“If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you. We will investigate you. We will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law, and you will not be happy with the result,” Coats declared.

Yet, few specific examples of “dangerous” leaks were given in statements filled with chest-thumping banalities that are all too common when it comes to government pledges to hunt down leakers and bring them to justice.

When Sessions testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 14, he asserted that leaks had reached “epidemic proportions,” and the Justice Department would get to the bottom of these leaks.

Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin asked Sessions, “Will you commit not to prosecute investigative journalists for maintaining the confidentiality of their professional sources?”

“I will commit to respecting the role of the press and conducting my office in a way that respects that and the rules in the Department of Justice,” Sessions replied. “We have not had a conflict in my term in my office yet with the press, but they’re some things—[The] press seems to think they have an absolute right. They do not have an absolute right.”

Sessions was referring to the publishing of previously classified information or what officials deem to be “sensitive national security information.”

In addition to leak investigations, the Knight Institute and Freedom of the Press Foundation are concerned about how the FBI uses “national security letters” (NSLs) and the lack of limits or regulations to protect news media. NSLs are used by federal authorities to obtain records from companies about their customers and apparently exempt from the Justice Department’s “Media Guidelines.”

“The fact that the Justice Department has completely exempted national security letters from the ‘Media Guidelines’ and can target journalists with them in complete secrecy is an affront to press freedom,” declared Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation. “There’s absolutely no reason why these secret rules should not be public.”

Faced with leaks about the investigation into the role of officials from President Donald Trump’s campaign in alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump’s administration has turned to leak investigations to try and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

President Barack Obama’s administration prosecuted a record number of individuals for leaks. But it appears the Trump administration may be even more aggressive than the Obama administration. The most high-profile case currently involves Reality Winner, a former NSA contractor who allegedly leaked a document to The Intercept on alleged Russian hacking to interfere in the election.

The efforts to clamp down on leaks are virtually guaranteed to make the work environment in government agencies more toxic. It will likely breed distrust and suspicion among personnel. That will likely fuel more dysfunction, and in turn, lead to more leaks.

Top photo | Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a briefing on leaks of classified material one week after President Donald Trump complained that Sessions was weak on preventing such disclosures, Aug. 4, 2017.

Carob flour has healing benefits, it’s a natural medicine

by Thomas Natural News

Carob flour has been used for years as a substitute for coffee, cocoa and egg. Nowadays it is a superfood that deserves its own place during the culinary kitchen dance of cooks. This flour contains many proteins and minerals. Besides this nutritive aspect which benefit your total health, there are substances that work the same way as an antidepressant medicine. Some researchers say carob flour has cancer protective properties. In short we can notice that there are many reasons to dive into carob.

History carob flour

In classical Egypt people already used carob flour as a sweetener. The carob tree originally comes from the Mediterranean region, including South-Europe, North-Africa, Middle-East and The Canary Islands. The tree sometimes gets no bigger than 7 meters but some trees do climb all the way up to 20 meters. Carob trees blossom in September and August. Humans eat the seed but they rather like the legumes themselves.

Differences uses, different polyphenols

The legumes are to be roasted and milled. Saint John´s Seed Bread is being made differently. In Europe sometimes it is still happening on a low scale that bread is being made of the seeds of carob. ´Each way of use leads to a different amount of total polyphenols,´ German researchers say in 2004. In the unprocessed seed there are more flavonol-glycosides and hydrolyzable tannins. In the roasted seed there is more of gallic acid.

Carob in nature medicine

Natural medicine researchers have been studying carob for a long time but not all their studies are scientifically proven yet. Carob is one of those substances that work both against diarrhea as constipation. By the astringent force it works against diarrhea. But the polyphenols make it mild laxative. Incidentally, a diarrhea is also counteracted by drinking a tea from the tannin-rich bark of the carob tree. Tannins are the substances that provide the astringent action. The astringent effect can also have impact on the throat. It can cure cough. Moreover, carob is soothing.

A natural antidepressant

In 2011, Indian researchers did a study of the antidepressant effect of carob. It turned out that carob inhibits the breakaway of serotonin. Many synthetic drugs are based on the serotonin inhibitory activity. The researchers found that carob is accompanied by adrenaline and noradrenaline. The researchers did their tests on mice.

Nutrients in Carob

Both carob fruit, -flour as -syrup are full of minerals, proteins and carbohydrates. There is a lot of calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium and phosphorus in carob. Carob syrup contains the highest amount of potassium, phosphorus and calcium. These substances are also much in carob flour, which also has sodium in it. In 2009 Turkish researchers add that the essential fatty acids come in good in quantities in carob flour.  

Carob milk

Carob flour can be turned into milk. You cook 100 grams of flour in one liter of water and let it boil for two minutes. Then let it cool down. If it is cold enough, you put it in the bottle. This bottle saves up to three days in the refrigerator. You can use it as an alternative, vegetable milk. It might not be good for your health to rely on this type of milk only. There are other vegetable milks such as oatmeal milk, chickpeas milk, rice milk and almond milk. Using these varieties is better then using a single milk product because more different nutrients will be supporting your health.

Cancer-Fighting operation carob

Italian researchers found in 2002 that both the leaves and pods of the carob have anti-cancer effect. That may have to do with the essential fatty acids that are herein. Read more about fatty acids in the book by Brian Peskin: The hidden story of cancer. In the study cell lines of liver cancer were tested on mice. It is said that their discovery is of importance for the development of functional food against cancer. Portuguese researchers published a study in 2011 showing that the antioxidants in carob have an anticancer effect as well. The female Galhosa cultivar had the most polyphenols. The researchers assume that when a plant contains more polyphenols, it has more healing power.

Food and beverage tips carob

It can be a substitute for chocolate, coffee and egg. Many people know this. Sometimes humans tend to forget that carob in itself has irreplaceable medicinal and culinary features.

You can use the fine powder to make it a true vegan milk which is then to be used to make a milkshake.
You make a porridge of oatmeal and add carob flour.

It is to be added to a muesli:

You can use it to create flour mixes for pancakes and bread.

You can add the carob flour to regular flour you use for making cookies, muffins, cakes and pies.
It is fine to use as thickener for sauces and soups.

Carob flour can be used as extra seasoning in dessert. Put it in the yogurt with some banana.

Make a hot drink with coffee, cocoa, carob, stevia and vanilla. You can add hot carob milk or another vegetable milk.

Inside Paraguay’s illegal canabis plantations

by Matias Maxx

PEDRO JUAN CABALLERO – Paraguay – Cowboy hats and flasks adorned with imitation jaguar and snakeskin prints dot the market of the Paraguayan border town of Pedro Juan Caballero.

Cross the two-lane avenue outside and one will have entered Brazil.

Not far away, one will find casinos, motels and brothels typical of a crime-ridden frontier.

The town is on a key trafficking route into Brazil, with two major gangs – the First Command of the Capital (PCC) from Sao Paulo and the Red Command (CV) from Rio de Janeiro – competing to import Bolivian cocaine, firearms and other contraband.

In June 2016, a ceasefire between the factions came to an end when lead gangster Jorge Rafaat, allied with the CV and known as the “king of the frontier” was executed in his armored Hummer. His death has been attributed to the PCC.

Pedro Juan Caballero is just the start of a journey into a more tranquil, hidden – but no less illegal – world just a few kilometers from the border with Brazil.

It is here – for the most part, untroubled by police or other authorities – that gigantic plantations exist to grow the vast majority of the cannabis smoked by millions of Brazilians.

The plantations

Eighty percent of cannabis produced in Paraguay is smuggled to Brazil, according to data from Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD). 

Three million Brazilians regularly use the drug, according to the Second National Survey on Alcohol and Drugs at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and in the first six months of 2017, Brazil’s Federal Police seized 126 tonnes of the drug, most of it originating from Paraguay.

Unlike Colombia and Uruguay, planting cannabis is illegal in both Brazil and Paraguay.

The Paraguayan plantations are believed to cover 7,000 hectares. Those working on land reveal a widespread system of impunity, guaranteed by a network of corrupt police officers and other officials.

Among these plantation workers is Adriano*, a 25-year-old Brazilian who manages a plantation for its “owner”. Adriano spends most of the year in the fields with the workers who plant and pick cannabis, mediating any problems between them and the field boss.

Adriano’s boss, Gerson*, is a 50-year-old Brazilian who was born into a family that has always exploited cannabis.

While he is the “owner” of two plantations, he is not the legitimate owner of the farms, which are usually appropriated public land – including forests and protected national parks – or rented from the owner of a much larger estate.

In a Toyota pick-up truck, loaded with food and cleaning products, Gerson drove to his plantation, talking to Adriano about the threats they face from police units.

The Paraguayan police do not cause many problems, Gerson said.

When stopped, the pair paid a bribe of about $70 and were allowed to continue.

The Brazilian police are similar, Gerson added, except one feared military police unit.

“They do not mess around,” he said. “With them, it is either jail or a coffin.”

Like the town they had just left behind, the Brazilian and Paraguayan roads run side by side. The only difference between the two is that if the Brazilian asphalt is bad, the Paraguayan is often nonexistent.

Along the way, the pick-up changed side, and country, several times, in an effort to avoid police stations.

While passing through the nearest town to the plantation, which has less than 1,000 inhabitants, Gerson rolled up the tinted windows to avoid being seen. 

The headquarters on the farm is a simple house with a bedroom full of bunk beds, a bathroom with hot water and a television and satellite dish.
Adriano explains that in his five years at various plantations in the region, it is the first time that he has such comfort; usually, he would spend months camped out on the plantations.

Adriano and Gerson are armed with pistols.

But unlike the frontier, in the countryside disputes between groups are almost unheard of and police operations are usually announced beforehand and the outcome negotiated.

The ‘operations’

No one wants to draw too much attention to what is going on.

According to Gerson, politicians are bribed to delay the pavement of roads that would improve access to the region, helping to complicate any police operation. 

On one occasion, Gerson’s informants called to tell him that SENAD were planning to carry out an operation in an area that included a plantation of his and four others.

Immediately, Gerson’s team went to the farm and hid many tonnes of dried cannabis.

A day later, Gerson received a visit from Cabanas*, a Paraguayan man in his 70s, with a cowboy hat and a pistol in his holster.

He is the “boss” of the region and acts as an intermediary between the landowners and the Paraguayan government.

Cabanas said that police were proposing cancelling the operation if each plantation boss paid 10 million guarani ($1,800). It was unclear how many bosses there were, but Gerson said there hundreds of plantations in the region.

He explained that it is always the same at harvest time: the police threaten to invade the farms as a means of upping their bribes.

Last year, Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes arrived in the region with SENAD officials, local media reported at the time. He used a machete to cut down cannabis plants, sending a signal to traffickers that illegal plantations would not be tolerated.

“It’s all negotiated,” Gerson said when asked about the operation.

“We deliver a little crop for them, take everything that’s worth something out of there and leave the plants alone,” he said.

‘No one is ever arrested’

When asked about these claims, Francisco Ayala, the SENAD communication director, said that it “must be assumed that there is no institution that is 100 percent transparent or 100 percent incorruptible, especially when it comes to drug trafficking, a business that moves many millions, which often makes it possible to buy what you wish, or the temptation to fall in the drug trafficking network”.

Ayala told Al Jazeera that “any security force is in constant danger of its members falling into corruption”, but that SENAD has implemented policies to try to prevent this. 

“We believe that this historic level of seizures that has taken place in the last three years, we have never before seen these levels of destruction of marijuana crops or seizures of cocaine, is precisely the result of this policy of purification and internal transparency,” Ayala said.

“We are not infallible, there might always be corruption, but this policy is getting results and as the drug trade has been damaged in recent years in various regions of the country.”

This article was cut to fit space. To view the complete article visit: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/09/paraguay-illegal-cannabis-plantations-170907074143504.html

(This report was produced by Agencia Publica, a non-profit investigative journalism agency based in Brazil. SOURCE: Al Jazeera News).

In ongoing drug war, US-trained Mexican troops go unpunished for human rights violations

When pursuing their various “wars” on drugs and “wars” on terror, the U.S. and the governments it supports in these “wars” are apt to overlook human rights abuses committed by the militaries and police forces upon which they rely. A new report details how this has played out in the Mexican military

by Whitney Webb

MEXICO CITY – A study published Tuesday by the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has revealed the woeful inadequacy of the Mexican government in pursuing cases of human rights violations committed by soldiers against civilians — in spite of recent reforms that allow such cases to be heard by civilian, rather than military, courts. According to its website, WOLA is “a leading research and advocacy organization advancing human rights in the Americas.”

WOLA’s report, titled “Overlooking Justice: Human Rights Violations Committed by Mexican Soldiers Against Civilians are Met with Impunity,” examined data made available by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR). The data showed clearly that the vast majority of investigations, even those in which abundant evidence exists to show proof of wrongdoing, fail to result in punishments for those accused of abuses of human rights, such as extrajudicial killings, torture, kidnappings and the use of excessive force. In all, only 16 of the 505 criminal investigations PGR launched between 2012 and 2016 ended with a conviction.

Furthermore, of those 505 cases, only two involved commanding officers — with the vast majority examining the conduct of rank-and-file soldiers, many of whom claim to have been following the orders of their superiors. WOLA cited this trend as a strong indication that Mexico’s military leadership operates with relative impunity.

The WOLA study also found that the PGR put minimal effort into amassing the evidence needed to successfully prosecute cases, suggesting that many were set up to fail. In addition, it found numerous examples of the Mexican military intervening in cases by limiting civilian access to testimony or by altering crime scenes — actions which further derailed investigations into potential abuses.

Ximena Suárez, WOLA’s Associate for Mexico and lead author of the report, stated in a press release:

Civilian oversight of the military is essential to any democracy, yet the PGR has failed to hold the military accountable for human rights violations. This is particularly important given the government’s reliance on soldiers to patrol streets and take the leading role in the fight against organized crime.”

In response to the report, the Mexican government defended its rights record.

A government statement, cited by the Associated Press, said that the PGR is working toward “structural and institutional changes to put an end to impunity and pursue human-rights violations” through the creation of special investigative units and that the Mexican military would undergo increased human-rights training.

As Suárez noted, Mexico in recent years — since former Mexican president Felipe Calderón authorized an “all-out war” on drug cartels in 2006 — has become particularly reliant on its military for its controversial crackdown on drug gangs as well as for general policing activity. This “war” — claiming over 23,000 lives last year alone — has continued under the current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, despite drawing criticism that it has militarized the streets of Mexico and actually worsened the situation. Current legislation being considered by the Mexican Congress would further expand the Mexican military’s role in matters of public security, while further weakening the civilian justice system.

The Mexican military, despite its high body-count since the drug war began and its tendency to commit human rights violations against civilians, continues to enjoy strong support from the United States.

Since 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense has given over $521 million in assistance to the Mexican military via its Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program and Section 1004 Counter-Drug Assistance Program. In addition, over the course of the drug war, the U.S. military has overseen and paid for the training of large parts of the Mexican military — a program that has increased in recent years, jumping from $3 million in 2009 to $15 million in 2013. Between 2010 and 2015, the U.S. military taught 7,678 elite courses to nearly 9,000 members of the Mexican military, at an estimated cost of $60 million. These courses have covered a wide range of topics, including sniper training, explosives, and psychological operations (psyops).

The U.S. government has also funded the other side of the conflict, having allowed the sale of more than $1.25 million worth of guns to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel in a failed sting operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

In addition, to support from the U.S. government, the U.S. corporate media has also been supportive of the Mexican military, even when it has been caught committing extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses. A 2016 article from The New York Times stated that some consider extrajudicial killings committed by the military a “form of pragmatism,” as the armed forces “cannot rely on the shaky legal system” to properly prosecute those suspected of drug trafficking.

CBS News last year stated that “Mexico’s armed forces have increasingly been pulled into the conflict because police forces are often corrupt or unreliable. That has had its own toll on the troops, who are frequently ambushed and accused of illegally executing detained cartel suspects in some cases.” CBS failed to note that the same police forces that are “corrupt or unreliable” have also been trained, in many cases, by the U.S. government.

The substantial support the Mexican military received from the U.S. is second only, within Latin America, to that received by Colombia. Like the Mexican military, the Colombian military – trained and funded to a large degree by the United States via “Plan Colombia” — has also been exposed as serially violating human rights of Colombian civilians and sharing corrupt connections to drug traffickers, even taking part in the drug trade themselves.

Indeed, the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) has described the Colombian military as being among “the biggest heroin and cocaine trading institutions” in the world. Colombian military officials have also assisted in training the Mexican military in recent years.

Ultimately, the U.S.’ aid and support for the Mexican military is likely to continue – regardless of whether the military’s human rights abuses continue to go unpunished or not. For much of the past century, the U.S. has repeatedly provided aid to militaries and paramilitary groups throughout Latin America that have partaken in grave human rights abuses as well as genocide.

Yet, despite the abuses, U.S. aid to Latin America has only grown, particularly since the advent of the U.S.’ War on Drugs in Latin America. As MintPress News has previously noted, however, the consequence of this war – as opposed to decreasing drug trafficking – has instead concentrated it in the hands of a wealthy oligarchy that supports the U.S.’ ambitions for dominance of the region.

Mexican immigrant acquitted of murder of Kate Steinle

by the El Reportero’s wire services

A Mexican immigrant was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 30, in the politically charged shooting and death of a woman, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The case against José Inés García Zarate, who immigrated illegally to the United States, became a rallying cry for President Donald Trump during his campaign for the White House, as he pushed to halt illegal immigration and penalize so-called sanctuary cities, including San Francisco.

Zarate, who had been deported to Mexico five times since first entering the U.S. as a juvenile, said the July 1, 2015, shooting of Kate Steinle on a pier in San Francisco, was an accident.

The San Francisco jury, while acquitting him of murder and manslaughter charges, found him guilty of the lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter covering the case said on Twitter.

Honduras under tension due to presidential elections results

Honduras dawned in tension on Nov. 30 after the presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship party, Salvador Nasralla, has denounced to the public that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) manipulated the data.

Nasrallah said he would ignore the results of the general elections offered by the TSE, noting that the electoral entity is deceitful, corrupt and serves the president and candidate for reelection, Juan Orlando Hernández.

‘I was the target of a trap and I do not fall into traps,’ said the opposition candidate when referring to the signing of a pact with the Organization of American States (OAS) in which he committed, like Orlando Hernández, to accept the results.

Nasrallah said that hours after the signing of that agreement polling data were altered during several cuts on the TSE computer system.

‘We do not recognize the results because on Wednesday the server fell down and then files were downloaded that we can not allow and you can verify it, these are minutes that are not signed by the representatives at the polling stations,’ he said.

Although the opposition candidate will have to demonstrate his allegations of fraud, the delayed publication of the results by the TSE have done nothing but generate doubts and suspicions inside and outside the country.

Mexico Ranks Fifth in the World in Human Trafficking

Mexico ranks today fifth in the world for the crime of human trafficking, acknowledged Renato Sales Heredia, National Security Commissioner.
The official accepted that it is a problem for the country and a form of modern slavery that it is necessary to prevent and confront in collaboration with other nations.

He commented that human trafficking is a crime that deeply hurts, that hurts dignity, by turning people into objects, because they are offered as merchandise.

‘It transgresses not only the dignity of the most vulnerable: of minors, of women, of migrants; but also those of their families, their parents, brothers, children, and affects us all, society and the community,’ he said.

During the inauguration of the first Hemispheric Summit on Human Trafficking, he commented that it is necessary to have policies that combat crime in the country, as well as a culture change among Mexicans.

The Diagnosis of Trafficking in Persons was made by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) in 2014 and updated in 2016.

According to the information gathered from local prosecutors, 87.9 percent of trafficking victims are Mexicans and 93.4 percent are women.

To celebrate the El Show de Pepe

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

The Pepe Show, led by Pepe González, celebrates eight years of existence. And for that he invites all lovers of good salsa music and Peruvian culture to join in celebrating this anniversary.

Mary Navarro will be a special guest directly from Peru, with the best of Creole music. Also the salsa pride Pepe and His Orquésta.

On Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017, at Club Chalaca Annexo, 428 3rd. St. Oakland, Oakland. For more information call 415-531-9933.

Exhibition of Mechanical Sculptures returns to the Exploratorium

This year’s show features nearly 30 automata, 3 artists in residence, and workshops teaching visitors to build their own automata

On Nov. 16, the Exploratorium’s returning winter exhibition, Curious Contraptions, will open to the public. The collection of automata features the work of eleven artists from around the world and gives visitors a chance to interact firsthand with charming and often hilarious mechanical objects brought to life by intricate arrangements of handmade cams, cranks, and other simple mechanisms.

“I’m so excited about this year’s show,” says Nicole Minor, who curates the seasonal Curious Contraptions exhibition.

The Exploratorium is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every Thursday, the museum reopens from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for adults only. For more about how to get here, visit exploratorium.edu/directions. For tickets and pricing information, visit exploratorium.edu/tickets.

Annual fundraising event honoring excellence in the art of film

SFFILM has announced the date and venue for SFFILM Awards Night (formerly the Film Society Awards Night), its annual fund-raising celebration that pays tribute to filmmaking achievement. The historic 60th anniversary edition of this glamorous event and awards presentation will take place on Tuesday night December 5 at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, 39 Mesa Street, Suite 110, The Presidio, San Francisco.

JUNTOS Collective joins the Global #GivingTuesday Movement

JUNTOS Collective will participate in it’s second annual  #GivingTuesday, hosting Voices: An Evening of Untold Stories. This event, open to the general public, will honor JUNTOS supporters, and invite new faces to hear stories and share dances from past program participants. The event will include drinks and small bites, performance shorts, guest speakers and unique raffle prizes. 

JUNTOS Collective, a non-profit organization enabling free contemporary dance workshops and performances in underserved communities of Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, joined #GivingTuesday last year, inspired by the generosity, collaboration and philanthropy that the movement encouraged. The organization was able to successfully raise the funds to sponsor 3 trips abroad during this global day of giving. 

One of the many stories supported by this fundraiser, involves the journey of Megan Stricker, a JUNTOS Alumni who had the opportunity to live and teach dance in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca this past summer. Megan taught dance to a community of Mixe people for four weeks, one of Mexico’s oldest indigenous cultures.

On Dec. 2 at The Golden Stateroom. Tickets to Voices: An Evening of Untold Stories can be purchased in advance at http://bit.ly/JUNTOSvoices.

No pyramid photos without a permit

Photographer was ‘trespassing’ when he used a drone to take photo at Chichén Itzá

by the El Reportero’s news services

A breathtaking pre-dawn aerial photograph of the Kukulcán pyramid in Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, got its author instant online notoriety — and legal action by Mexican authorities.

César Mendiburu Heredia used a drone to take the photo, which he shared on the social news aggregator Reddit. The accompanying caption indicated the photographer knew he could be in trouble.

“I took this aerial (and probably illegal?) photo of Chichén Itzá last weekend.”

Mendiburu did not break any drone regulations but the device he used to shoot Chichén Itzá is considered by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) as special photographic equipment.

As such, he should have completed an official form and paid 10,227 pesos (about US $540) if he wanted to shoot video, or 5,113 pesos ($270) if he only wanted to take photographs.

INAH’s legal liaison José Arturo Chab Cárdenas told El País that since the archaeological zone is property of the nation, it is subject to several federal laws. According to those regulations, Mendiburu’s photograph is illegal, because it was shot at a time when the archaeological zone was not open to the general public.

Even if the photo was obtained through a remotely operated vehicle, “it’s trespassing . . . it’s like breaking into a museum in the wee hours of the morning.”

In a press release issued on Wednesday, INAH said it had began a legal process against Mendiburu, as the photograph contravened the federal law on archaeological, artistic and historic monuments and zones. – Compiled by Mexico News Daily.
Source: El País (sp), El Universal (sp)

Havana Film Festival to Pay Tribute to James Ivory

The 39th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, which will take place in this capital city from December 8th to 17th, will pay tribute to U.S. director James Ivory with eight films from his fruitful career, said organizers today.

Ivory will be paid homage by screening films he shot between the mid-1980s and 2005, including the awarded films ‘The remains of the day’ and ‘Return to Howards End,’ said president of the festival Pavel Giroud.

The films to honor Ivory, 89, also include ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bridge’, ‘A Room with a View’, ‘The White Countess’, ‘The City of Your Final Destination’, ‘Jefferson in Paris’ and ‘Le Divorce’.

The 39th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, which is the most important cinema event organized in Cuba, will also pay tribute to the October Revolution on occasion of its centenary, with a restored copy of ‘October’, a silent film by Russian great filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, premiered in 1928 and considered a classic film.

The 39th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema will be held in 10 movie theaters of Havana, in which more than 400 films from the region and other parts of the world will be screened.

More than 9,000 files about Chinese philosopher Confucius go digital

More than 9,000 archives from philosopher Confucius, which became one of the greatest symbols of China, have gone digital with the aim of preserving and disseminating them among the new generations.

According to journalistic information, this is a vast collection of materials about the teachings of the thinker, some aspects of the traditional society of this country and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu, where their direct descendants lived for centuries.

The project was approved in 2013 and the subsequent scanning and digitization work took four years.

Confucius (551-479 a.n.e) and his thought guided the civilization of this country for thousands of years.

He founded a school that influenced many generations in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan. After his death, disciples and followers preached his moral and religious doctrines.

There are about 1,300 temples in his honor in and outside the country, and even several nations have opened institutions to teach the Chinese language and culture that bear his name.

Why the army of reality always needs more soldiers

by Jon Rappoport

What we call Reality is a hall of mirrors. It reflects itself back and forth and builds up a consensus.

People do the same thing. They confirm with one another that the reality they believe is real is, in fact, real.

And having established that, they live out their lives and make the best of it.

But what happens if you defect? What happens if you’re not satisfied to live out the rest of your life inside the space of what everyone assumes is real?
More to the point, what happens if you’re not satisfied to live out the rest of your life inside the space of what YOU assume is real?

This is where a lot of people get off the train. They assert, with great assurance, that what they have discovered is the ultimate frontier. They’ve broken through the illusion. They’ve found out who is running the show from behind the curtain.

And with those discoveries in their pocket, they will live out their lives, confident in the knowledge that they can’t be fooled. They’ve won the prize.
Actually, peering behind the curtain and seeing what’s there is step one. The journey has barely begun.

No matter what degree of truth one has found, living out the rest of a life in that truth is going to be disappointing. It’s eventually going to be boring. It’s eventually going to be insufferable.

You want to lift that curtain, and you should. You should find out everything you can about who and what is behind it, and how they operate. But how long before you stop patting yourself on the back?

How long before you decide to create, with great passion and commitment, your own reality, the one you profoundly desire?

The process of creating reality never ends. It’s the ongoing voyage. It’s the reason things become new. It’s the reason boredom loses. It’s the reason you have no end. It’s the reason you can’t be stopped.

It’s the means by which you don’t decline. It’s the means by which you keep imagining something you haven’t imagined before.

It’s the reason you don’t “live out your life.”

It’s the reason “living out your life” seems about the worst thing you can do.

No excuses will suffice to rationalize staying in one place. No complaints will make you feel better. No “ultimate” space or time is good enough, as it is, to convince you that you should just play out the string inside it.

Right now, we are witnessing tech giants—Google, Facebook, You Tube, Twitter—hiding and de-listing news they deem “fake.” On one level, this is an obvious attempt to control political content. But on a much deeper level, this is an effort to shore up They want to consolidate their Army of believers and expand its ranks. Outsiders and their ideas and analyses are a threat.

Outsiders, heaven forbid, might decide to launch other creative realities that bleed into the consensus and dissolve it.

The independent and free individual mind has its own immune system. It responds when it detects the intrusion of collectivist concoctions.
“Alert! Fake collective reality is showing up. Take action. Resist. Reject.”

Yes, but then?

The individual then has the power to invent his own future, according to his own vision. This is where the journey really gets interesting.

This is where new space and new time emerge, and the space of consensus shrinks and withers.

This is where the Army of Reality has no answer.

In my private consulting practice, I’ve worked with a number of clients, each of whom has his own invention of reality—a project and an enterprise that spills over the conventional boundaries.

Each enterprise is quite different. Each approach is quite different.

What’s similar is the available energy for the work.

Where does that energy come from?

It comes from the individual himself.

When imagination and the creative impulse are unleashed, energy appears in large quantities. New and fresh energy.

Frontier energy.

Cutting-edge energy that quite naturally and automatically begins to shred Army of Reality energy.
Life renews. Life begins again.

The fabric of old limiting ideas falls apart, and the individual steps out on to a unique launching platform.
His own.

This is the voyage that can never be stopped.

Because it doesn’t depend on the fake news and fake consensus and the fake illusion of power of The Group.

(Jon Rappoport, is the author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit From The Matrix, and Power Outside The Matrix).

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