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Can peace journalism de-escalate conflict in the age of Trump?

Peace Journalism aims to improve the conditions for peace through a considered editorial approach and practice. It is a means to peace

by Michael Greenwell

It came as a slight relief to see at least some measured coverage of Donald Trump’s recent visit to South Korea. Sections of the media have been predicting World War III – and focusing on barbed and incendiary comments between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jon-un – so stories that take a more measured tone should be welcomed … by everyone.

North Korea has now launched another ballistic missile, and further doomsday journalism could inflame current hostilities in the region. Any positive influence to avoid actual military action and encourage all nations to stick to a peaceful, negotiated resolution is in the whole world’s interest.

The US president missed the press opportunity to stand at the border of North Korea on his recent trip, and it’s encouraging that he didn’t glower at the checkpoint, eyeballing his opponent like a boxer before a fight. It may well be helpful if he now tempers his reaction to the most recent launch. So far, he has said: “We will take care of it.”

Journalists report what is in front of them – so when Team Trump adopts a more moderate tone, coverage can be less hyperbolic and antagonistic. The prior brinkmanship was leading the world to war, but a mutual realisation of the issue by the media and governments may have a symbiotic cooling effect. Unless you believe that governments and the media act in isolation to one another – refuting a “feedback loop” – it appears that the administration and editors have at least started to tone it down.

Gabi Wolsfeld theorized this potential dynamic as the “politics-media-politics cycle”. Wolsfeld observed coverage of conflict in Israel by the country’s media and attempted to analyze its influence on the protagonists. Wolsfeld even suggested that the media created a more conducive atmosphere for the assassination of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Drawing clear conclusions about the existence of such a cycle – a relationship between the actions of dominant actors, subsequent media coverage, and consequential actions potentially influenced by that media coverage – is extremely challenging. But analyzing the coverage (and behavior) of a bombastic Trump in previous press conferences, while establishing its impact on subsequent events, is enabled by the discipline of Peace Journalism.

Close analysis of events through the lens of Peace Journalism can help theorize when media coverage may have helped escalate or de-escalate conflict. Peace Journalism aims to improve the conditions for peace through a considered editorial approach and practice. It is a means to peace.

Johan Galtung first theorized the notion of Peace Journalism in contrast to the notion of “War Journalism”. War Journalism foregrounds violence and body counts. Today, Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick are leading proponents of Peace Journalism and adopt a critical, realist perspective when looking at the drivers of War Journalism. Lynch practices journalism that foregrounds marginalized voices in favor of dominant actors, provides accurate context and history – instead of polarised, short-term narratives – and presents peaceful options over grievances and violence.

The format of rolling news, journalistic convention, and the (perceived) demand for war reporting, makes change hard. But the media could have a powerful role to play. Propaganda on the radio, and specifically Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, fuelled genocide in Rwanda, while child soldiers in Liberia imitated warlords on the news.
Perhaps it’s time that Peace Journalism enabled constructive analysis when framing conflict coverage and identified relationships between the media and escalation.

Trump’s cataclysmic rhetoric, for now, has diminished, and studying any influence by the media (if the heat of conflict turns up or down) is important. Indeed, it could be crucial with this media fixated, tweet-happy President.

So how can the media provide coverage that supports peaceful ends and addresses structural inequalities?

There could be hope in Manuel Castells’ “network society”, whereby consumers increasingly drive digital content. Could journalists and audiences adapt in unison to more constructive narratives about conflict and the path to peace? Lynch and McGoldrick have evidence of positive audience responses to more conflict-sensitive coverage, so could audiences dictate supply through demand?

Conflicts and coverage vary. There is no possibility of repeating conflicts and comparing influential factors and consequential results. Conflict contexts are not amenable to controlled study. Drivers and events cannot be studied empirically.

Media owners (and dominant interests) diverting from that old adage of “if it bleeds, it leads”, social media, finding a responsible journalistic model, and consumers bolstering demand for it could all help. But currently news institutions are falling short when it comes to constructive peace coverage.

However, there is hope, as some recent coverage of South Korea shows, and it continues with deeper ethical discussion and teaching around hybrid forms of journalism, as at the Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism at Nottingham Trent University.

Peace Journalism opposes War Journalism, but does not oppose quality journalism. There needs to be more commitment to its implementation and understanding of its purpose. Peace Journalism demands a multi-disciplinary approach, enriches studies and seemingly appeals to the next generation. And after all, it is they who will inherit the legacy of Trump and the society that is defined by its media. Mint Press News.

The speculative assault on Venezuela

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Dear readers, amid the great difficulties that Venezuela is going through, I share with you this excellent and positive article that brings some good ideas toward resolving some of the most difficult problems that this great South American nation is experiencing. It was written by Elías Jaua, a Venezuelan politician and former university professor who served as Vice President of Venezuela. Hope you enjoy it. – MR

There is justified indignation at the outlandish way the parallel dollar price is rigged and the consequent escalating speculation in private sector goods and services

by Elías Jaua

Stories of distress from friends and relatives steadily increase, the text messages multiply from thousands of compatriots who have my phone number and my e-mail address, also via Twitter and Facebook and via my radio program Meet The People. They all have a common denominator, namely their justified indignation at the outlandish way the parallel dollar price is rigged and the consequent escalating speculation in private sector goods and services.

The revolutionary leadership at all levels needs to understand that indignation, work through it, guide it and change it into a revolutionary force to dismantle the perverse speculative model that attacks us as a society and damages our economic and social rights.

The problem’s origin lies in the monopolistic, oligarch controlled private sector which is, as our Comandante Chávez explained, “genetically speculative,” after having grown accustomed to being the main beneficiary of Venezuela’s oil income.

Since the middle of the 20th century, Venezuelan capitalism developed a policy of fixing the ceiling of production and distribution of goods so as to control supply in such a way as to generate a permanent speculative spiral enabling limitless, immense profits.

The necessary, just and positive expansion in demand from Venezuela’s population as a result of the inclusive policies of the Bolivarian Revolution, instead of stimulating productive expansion in the nation’s private sector, in fact, increased the speculative voracity of income extraction via under-supply and informal dealing. In terms of national currency, that speculative extraction directly hurts ordinary Venezuelans and in terms of U.S. dollars, it hurts the Venezuelan State.

To this historic deviation you also have to add the collapse of the oil price, the resulting 70 percent contraction in Venezuela’s foreign exchange earnings, the rigging of an illegal exchange rate, concerted corruption between State bureaucrats and the private sector cutting national income, as well as the hoarding and contraband of goods, including cash money. And on top of all that, the foreign sanctions and economic aggression facilitated by an anti-patriotic, anti-democratic political opposition.

It is not easy for me to answer that question as a Bolivarian government Minister. So I apologize for not offering detail about measures that are the job of our comrades in the State’s economic institutions to explain and implement. All I can say is that I know very well the heroic efforts they are making on different fronts to reverse the economic situation that is hurting us as a people up against growing macro and microeconomic obstacles and pressure from the United States and the European Union.

But beyond the macro and microeconomic policies they are working on, I do suggest four levels of action:

Political dialogue with the opposition so as to reach, via an agreement of mutual recognition and stability, guarantees that they will stop supporting aggression against and boycott of our economy. An agreement favoring tranquility for all Venezuelans.

As regards ethical administration, deepening the battle against corruption carried forward by the Attorney General’s office, so as to recover oil production and income and expand the fight to restore public morality to the illegal entry, circulation and export of goods we produce or import, and to take that fight into the finance sector too.
By finely detailed planning of how to use reduced foreign exchange income on essential inputs to activate a broad-based modernization of the national productive economy installed and expanded by the Bolivarian Revolution in the private, communal and State sectors.

By renewing the Revolution’s confidence in our people’s productive capacities. It was shown that we were only able to break through the productive ceilings imposed by monopolies and oligarch controlled business when, from 2004 onward, Comandante Chávez encouraged the expansion of ownership, finance and productive organization to small and medium-sized businesses, cooperatives, communal enterprises, new State companies, networks of freely associated producers, and to rural, industrial and fishing workers’ councils, among others.

It is all there in our own national statistics and those of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. That period saw the highest industrial and agricultural growth in decades.

Venezuela’s private monopoly and oligarch controlled business sector will not change overnight. Their origins as a legacy from the era of oil income dependency make that difficult. They exist and we have to work with them without strengthening their extortionate hold on our society so as to avoid them overwhelming us. One example is the meat boycott currently imposed by the big cattle ranchers.

That is their nature, as our Comandante Chávez always reminded us when he referred to Venezuelan capitalism with well-known sayings like, “armadillos don’t shave and tortoises don’t climb trees”.

We are going to address this speculative assault and recover complete political stability with the institutions created by our people, by fighting against corruption and democratizing ownership, production and distribution. That is the only way we can win.

(Elías Jaua is a Venezuelan politician and former university professor who served as Vice President of Venezuela from January 2010 to October 2012. He had been Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 2013 until September 2014).

Myeloneuropathy symptoms from vitamin B12 deficiency

Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of low vitamin B12 levels

by Peter Pressman, MD

The term “myelopathy” refers to a disorder of the spinal cord. A myeloneuropathy is a disease process that affects both the spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Symptoms can include an unsteady gait, numbness, weakness, or bowel and bladder problems. The numbness in a myeloneuropathy is usually in a “stocking and glove” distribution beginning in the feet.

The causes of myelopathy are diverse and include autoimmune disorders, tumors, toxins and vitamin deficiencies.

A vitamin B12 deficiency is the most classic form of myeloneuropathy due to a nutritional deficiency.

What is Vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is usually found in animal proteins but is common enough in supplemented cereals and some yeast products that it’s uncommon to become deficient as a result of dietary restriction alone. Vitamin B12 is absorbed in a complex manner that relies on a substance called intrinsic factor. This intrinsic factor must be secreted from the stomach and react with the vitamin to allow for proper absorption in the small intestine.

Longstanding vegetarians or vegans who do not take care to supplement may develop a B12 deficiency. But more commonly, the problem results from poor absorption. Some people have an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies attack the cells that secrete intrinsic factor. As a result, B12 cannot be properly absorbed. Gastric bypass surgeries or inflammatory disorders like celiac disease can also lead to vitamin malabsorption.

Medications like metformin and heartburn medications may also lower B12 levels.

Myeloneuropathy from Vitamin B12 deficiency

The myelopathy caused by low vitamin B12 has been called subacute combined degeneration: “subacute” because symptoms develop slowly, “combined” because multiple neurological symptoms are impacted, and “degeneration” because cells can die as a result.

The major part of the spinal cord that is damaged is the posterior columns, which carries information about light touch, vibration, and position sense (proprioception) to the brain. As a result, people feel numbness and may feel tingling as well.

The autonomic nervous system can also be impaired since these fibers also run through the spinal cord. A mild peripheral neuropathy also contributes to these symptoms. In addition, the optic nerve may be compromised (leading to diminished vision) as well as the olfactory bulb (resulting in a decreased sense of smell.) Finally, people can develop dementia which is why this vitamin is routinely checked before diagnosing someone with a disease like Alzheimer’s.

Diagnosis of B12 deficiency

In addition to neurological changes, B12 deficiency can cause a decrease in red blood cells, known as an anemia, and the disorder may be detected when checking a complete blood count.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can be confirmed by a simple blood measurement of the vitamin level. Further studies used in the diagnosis of B12 deficiency include spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), somatosensory evoked potentials or visual-evoked potentials. The MRI will show a bright signal in the posterior part of the spinal column.
Evoked potentials show slowing in the visual and sensory pathways. Autonomic testing can confirm orthostatic hypotension due to a dysautonomia.

B12 deficiency can be treated by either oral or intramuscular injections of the vitamin. If possible, the cause of the B12 deficiency should be addressed.

Recovery from Vitamin B12 deficiency

Recovery from B12 deficiency takes time. Typically it requires lifelong supplementation with vitamin B12. Improvement may continue for up to 6 to 12 months of supplementation, though some people will suffer from lasting deficits. Working with a physical or occupational therapist may help people accommodate to any residual problems.

The true conditions of farm workers today

dnbsandiego25.jpg SAN DIEGO, CA - 1FEBRUARY05 - Indigenous Mixtec and Zapotec farm workers from Oaxaca, living in a camp on a hillside outside Delmar. Copyright David Bacon

From in the fields of the north/En los campos del norte

by David Bacon

At the end of the 1970s California farm workers were the highest-paid in the U.S., with the possible exception of Hawaii’s long-unionized sugar and pineapple workers. Today people are trapped in jobs that pay the minimum wage and often less, and mostly unable to find permanent year-around work.

In 1979 the United Farm Workers negotiated a contract with Sun World, a large citrus and grape grower. The contract’s bottom wage rate was $5.25 per hour. At the time, the minimum wage was $2.90. If the same ratio existed today, with a state minimum of $10.50, farm workers would be earning the equivalent of $19.00 per hour.

Today farm workers don’t make anywhere near $19.00 an hour. In 2008 demographer Rick Mines conducted a survey of 120,000 migrant farm workers in California from indigenous communities in Mexico – Mixtecos, Triquis, Purepechas and others — counting the 45,000 children living with them, a total of 165,000 people. “One third of the workers earned above the minimum wage, one third reported earning exactly the minimum and one third reported earning below the minimum,” he found.

In other words, growers were paying an illegal wage to tens of thousands of farm workers. The case log of California Rural Legal Assistance is an extensive history of battles to help workers reclaim illegal, and even unpaid, wages. Indigenous workers are the most recent immigrants in the state’s farm labor workforce, and the poorest, but the situation isn’t drastically different for others. The median income is $13,000 for an indigenous family, the median for most farm workers is about $19,000 – more, but still far from a liveable wage.

Low wages in the fields have brutal consequences. When the grape harvest starts in the eastern Coachella Valley, the parking lots of small markets in farm worker towns like Mecca are filled with workers sleeping in their cars. For Rafael Lopez, a farm worker from San Luis, Arizona, living in his van with his grandson, “the owners should provide a place to live since they depend on us to pick their crops. They should provide living quarters, at least something more comfortable than this.”

In northern San Diego County, many strawberry pickers sleep out of doors on hillsides and in ravines. Each year the county sheriff clears out some of their encampments, but by next season workers have found others. As Romulo Muñoz Vasquez, living on a San Diego hillside, explains: “There isn’t enough money to pay rent, food, transportation and still have money left to send to Mexico. I figured any spot under a tree would do.”

Compounding the problem of low wages is the lack of work during the winter months. Workers have to save what they can while they have a job, to tide them over. In the strawberry towns of the Salinas Valley, the normal 10 percent unemployment rate doubles after the harvest ends in November. While some can collect unemployment, the estimated 53 percent who have no legal immigration status are barred from receiving benefits.

Yet people have strong community ties because of shared culture and language. Farm workers in California speak twenty-three languages, come from thirteen different Mexican states, and have rich cultures of music, dance, and food that bind their communities together. Migrant indigenous farmworkers participate in immigrant rights marches, and organize unions.

Indigenous migrants have created communities all along the northern road from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada. Migration is a complex economic and social process in which whole communities participate. Migration creates communities, which today pose challenging questions about the nature of citizenship in a globalized world. The function of these photographs, therefore, is to help break the mold that keeps us from seeing this reality.

The right to travel to seek work is a matter of survival for millions of people, and a new generation of photographers today documents the migrant-rights movements in both Mexico and the United States (with its parallels to the civil rights movement of past generations). Like many others in this movement, I use the combination of photographs and oral histories to connect words and voices to images – together they help capture a complex social reality as well as people’s ideas for changing it.

Today racism is alive and well, and economic inequality is greater now than it has been for half a century. People are fighting for their survival. And it’s happening here, not just in safely distant countries half a world away. As a union organizer, I helped people fight for their rights as immigrants and workers. I’m still doing that as a journalist and photographer. I believe documentary photographers stand on the side of social justice – we should be involved in the world and unafraid to try to change it. (Due to lack of space this article was cut).
To read the complete article, please visit: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/the-true-conditions-of-farm-workers-today/

Canada engaged in widespread surveilance of its indigenous communities

Sarayaku women attend a ceremony where the Ecuadorian Government offered a public apology to the Sarayaku community in Sarayaku, Ecuador, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014. The apology from the Ecuadorian state came as part of a ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court which found that the government allowed for oil exploration in Sarayaku lands without their consent. (AP Photos/Dolores Ochoa)

Indigenous nations have emerged as vocal defenders of land and water, but state surveillance of these groups is disproportionate, and speaks of the broad criminalization of Indigenous peoples

by Lex Gill and Cara Zwibel

Researchers and journalists have begun to reveal the extent to which Indigenous activists and organisations in Canada are subject to surveillance by police, military, national security intelligence agencies and other government bodies. While security agencies have long looked beyond ‘traditional’ national security threats and set their sights on activists – even in the absence of evidence linking these individuals or organisations to any violent criminal activity – this reality is increasingly the subject of media and public scrutiny. As Jeffrey Monaghan and Kevin Walby have written, the language of “aboriginal and multi-issue extremists” in security discourse blurs the line between threats to national security, matters of ordinary law enforcement, and lawful, democratic advocacy.

In this piece, we summarize some of what is known about the surveillance practices employed to keep tabs on Indigenous leaders and activists, and describe their impact on Charter-protected and internationally recognised human rights and freedoms.

Indigenous nations and peoples have emerged, worldwide, as vocal defenders of land and water, organising to protect ancestral territories and ways of life. In Canada, while aboriginal and treaty rights are constitutionally recognised and affirmed, the interpretation of those rights is highly contested and a matter frequently before the country’s highest court. Indigenous activists and organisations in Canada have led popular resistance to the development of new oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric dams, mining operations, and other extractive industries that have significant environmental impact and which frequently encroach on Indigenous territories.

This resistance – with tactics ranging from peaceful protest and strategic litigation to the establishment of creative action camps and blockades – has frequently been met with a forceful police response. Through diligent research and investigative reporting, a pattern of extensive surveillance of these activities has also emerged – implicating law enforcement, intelligence agencies and numerous other government bodies.

The pattern of surveillance against Indigenous activists and organisations… can be characterised as disproportionate and alienating.

Both freedom of expression and assembly are guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which forms part of the Canadian constitution. The freedom from unreasonable search and seizure – which provides constitutional protection for privacy – is also guaranteed. The law recognises certain limits to these rights, provided they further a compelling government objective and are proportionate to that objective. However, the pattern of surveillance against Indigenous activists and organisations that has emerged in Canada is one that can clearly be characterised as disproportionate and alienating, with no evidence that it is necessary. Though these operations are inherently covert, Indigenous activists, researchers and human rights advocates have begun – largely through access-to-information requests – to piece together a clearer picture of the ways in which this surveillance takes place. Below, we discuss surveillance of individual leaders, surveillance of communities and movements, and how the agencies and departments that gather information use and share it.

Surveillance of Indigenous leaders

Government agencies have engaged in surveillance and information-gathering activities focused on Indigenous leaders and activists. Take for example the case of Dr. Cindy Blackstock, who is a Gitksan activist for child welfare, the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, and a Professor of Social Work at McGill University. Dr. Blackstock’s organisation (along with the Assembly of First Nations) had sought justice at Canada’s Human Rights Tribunal regarding the federal government’s failure to provide equal funding for services for First Nations children, youth and families living on First Nations reserves. Access to information requests revealed that between 2009 and 2011, Dr. Blackstock was subject to extensive monitoring by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) – the government department responsible for Indigenous issues — and the Department of Justice. Officials monitored her personal and professional activities on Facebook and attended between 75 and 100 of her public speaking engagements, taking detailed notes and widely distributing reports on her activities. In 2013, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner found that by engaging in this personal monitoring – which was unrelated to her professional activities or her organisation’s case against the government – the Department of Justice and INAC had violated Dr. Blackstock’s privacy rights.

Clayton Thomas-Muller’s case provides another example. Mr. Thomas-Muller is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and a former Idle No More organiser. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) National News obtained documents from criminology professor Dr. Jeffrey Monaghan demonstrating that in 2010 and 2011, information about Thomas-Muller (who was at the time a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)) had made its way into the RCMP’s Suspicious Incidents Report (SIR) despite acknowledgement that there was no specific criminal threat at issue: Thomas-Muller was simply planning a trip to the Wet’suwet’en action camp against the Northern Gateway pipeline. The report was referred for inclusion in the SIR on the basis that IEN was an ‘extremist’ group, although the basis for this characterisation, or how the group was designated as such, is not known.

Uncertainty and institutional crisis prevail in Honduras

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Uncertainty prevails in Honduras today, after the presidential candidate from the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship, Salvador Nasralla, repeated that he did not recognize the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE, in Spanish) as a valid arbiter.

Nasralla pointed out that the TSE is not an independent body and new illegal actions by that institution are being unveiled, so there is an institutional crisis in the country.

According to the opposition candidate, who assured that he won the November 26 election, the TSE is at the service of the president and candidate for reelection, Juan Orlando Hernandez. He accused them of orchestrating an electoral fraud against him.

In the light of the situation, Nasralla proposed that ‘an international court’ reviews all minutes without the presence of the TSE, which should provide all the materials to compare the data, he noted.

Venezuela bucks petrodollar, announces cryptocurrency backed by oil

Venezuela’s new digital currency will allow the South American nation to circumvent U.S. sanctions by taking advantage of the global demand for oil

by Adam Garrie

Months after Russia became the first country to announce the creation of a state-backed Cryptorouble, Venezuela has followed suit, announcing the creation of El Petro, a state-sanctioned cryptocurrency to be backed by Venezuela’s extensive reserves of crude oil.

Venezuela has already broken free of Dollar dependence months ago when Caracas announced it would be trading its oil using China’s Petroyuan. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also stated that he would like to begin trade with Russia in the Rouble.

With Venezuela heavily sanctioned by the United States, El Petro looks to be another tool which Venezuela can use to continue and conduct international commerce without relying on Dollar based financial institution.

 Crucially, while existing Cryptocurrencies tend to create their initial value through an arithmetic process called “mining”, leaving them heavily subject to market fluctuation, El Petro will be backed by a known commodity, oil, thus giving it a clear advantage for risk-averse investors.

While the world’s most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, has seen its value skyrocket against the Dollar, some remain unconvinced of its long-term prospects for stability. A currency, backed by oil would, by contrast, ostensibly fluctuate in accordance with the well established global price of Brent Crude.

Maduro announced the creation of El Petro in his weekly-televised address to the people, Sundays with Maduro. The Venezuelan President stated that the goal of El Petro is “to advance the country’s monetary sovereignty, to carry out financial transactions and to defeat the financial blockade against the country.”

He further said that El Petro,
…will allow us to innovate towards new forms of international finance for the economic and social development of the country.”

An official oil-backed cryptocurrency could work in tandem with Russia’s soon to be launched Cryptorouble, a digital currency which will ostensibly be backed by the vast resources of the Russian state.

With western governments ambivalent about how to treat existing cryptocurrencies, Russia and Venezuela have taken the lead to both normalize cryptos while backing them by well-known assets. (MintPressNews).

This day will be fun at Cafe Revolution in the Mission

by the El Reportero’s news services

Cuban bassist Marcus Lopez’s Cuartet Casique, will be presenting music from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and rumba flamenca. At Café Revolution, at 22nd and Bartlett streets, Dec. 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. Spread the word!

And the great Adrian Areas is back with his Jazz Ensemble

Adrian Aréas, the son of great Santana Band co-funder, Chepito Aréas, is back to the delight of his audience with his Adrian Areas Latin Jazz Ensemble. At the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, California. Friday, Dec. 15, at the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shuttuck Ave, Berkeley.

Free Salsa for the Holiday Season

We want to wish you a great Holiday Season, and invite you to come and dance and celebrate the end of 2017 and the beginning of a New Year filled with new possibilities and prosperity for all.

Friday December 15th, LaTiDo 5tet at Cascal Restaurant, 400 Castro St. Mountain View, California. Band: 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.
No Cover. All Ages. Info and reservations call 650-940-9500.

Major exhibition of artifacts from the Ancient City of Teotihuacan

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.

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.

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