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Filmmaker del Toro wins gold in Venice

The Shape of Water named best film at Venice International Film Festival

by the El Reportero’s news services

A Mexican filmmaker — one of this country’s Three Amigos of Cinema —won the Golden Lion award on Sept. 14, at the Venice International Film Festival.

Guillermo del Toro won the best-film award for The Shape of Water, a tale about the Cold War and set in the 1960s that was universally well received in Venice by film critics.

It is described as an anti-Hollywood love story in which a mute cleaning woman (Sally Hawkins) falls in love with a sea monster being held captive by the United States government.

Films by del Toro’s fellow Amigos, Alejandro Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón, have also won awards in Venice before going on to win at the Academy Awards, a path that del Toro may well follow, according to a report by Hollywood Reporter, which announced today that “the Three Amigos have conquered Venice.”

Del Toro, 52, is described as a prolific producer. The Guadalajara native’s work is characterized by connections to fairy tales and horror and a lifelong fascination with monsters, for which he has earned a long list of awards.

Among the films del Toro has directed are The Devil’s Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak.

Source: Hollywood Reporter (eng)
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SFMTA and San Francisco Beautiful announce winners for Muni Art 2018
Final five have until Nov. 6th to submit work themed “The Art of Poetry in San Francisco”

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and San Francisco Beautiful (SFB) today announced the five winners of the 2018 Muni Art Project. This year’s theme is “The Art of Poetry in San Francisco”.

The five winning artists will have their newly created work presented along with five poems selected by the Poetry Society of America, all by local poets, displayed on 100 Muni buses that will be transformed into rolling art galleries throughout San Francisco beginning in January 2018.

Ten artists were chosen to compete for the final five slots by a jury comprised of individuals of the arts community and decisions were based upon quality of concept, expression of theme, diversity and the likelihood of the artist to be able to deliver the completed work by the Nov. 6 deadline.

The10 finalists were then voted on by the public via a link from the San Francisco Beautiful web site to Neighborland.com that tabulated the winning votes and the five fortunate winners.

The 2018 Muni artists are: Donavon Brutus, Mara Hernández, Tsungwei Moo, Randi Pace, Janet Rumsey.

The theme this year, “The art of poetry in San Francisco” is a collaboration with The Poetry Society of America (sponsors of Poetry in Motion ®) who pre-selected five poems that each Muni artist will creatively interpret. The five poets and poems are:

Juan Felipe Herrera, Thich Nhat Hanh I Step With You; Diane di Prima, To a Student; Kay Ryan, Relief; Brynn Saito, Traffic; Charif Shanahan, Love Poem Three Autumns Later.”

EstrellaTV premieres new season of Noches Con Platanito

The Spanish language broadcasting network EstrellaTV, announced its premier on Sept. 5, of the newest season of its late night talk show Noches Con Platanito, which is the only Spanish-language late night talk show format hosted by Mexican comedian Sergio Verduzco.

The new season of Noches Con Platanito premiered Sept. 5, 2017 on EstrellaTV Monday through Friday, 9 p.m./8 p.m.

The Jesuits and Tupper Saussy

The Jesuits and Tupper Saussy

by Jon Rappoport

My late friend, Tupper Saussy, wrote a shocking book titled, Rulers of Evil. It was published in 2001. It’s about the Jesuits. It’s about their influence on the founding of the United States.

Tupper was a brilliant researcher, among his other talents. While making his case in the book, he lets the reader know when the points of reference are circumstantial. Tupper was a man who knew how to assess degrees of evidence.

One of most shocking facts about the highly controversial book was its publication by HarperCollins, a major house. That feat was somehow accomplished by agent Peter Fleming. Peter did what no other agent could have done. He pulled off a magic trick for the ages.

I’m sure, once the book was in print, the people at Harper looked at each other and said, “What did we just do? How did this happen? Peter Fleming must have hypnotized us!”

I offer a group of quotes from the book (transcribed at truthcontrol.com), without comment. The quotes are meant to attract your interest, so you’ll find a copy of Rulers of Evil and read it. These statements involve the Jesuits, the Knights Templar, the Vatican, the Freemasons:

“During the night of December 16, 1773, a gang of Indians climbed aboard certain ships in Boston harbor, ripped open three hundred forty-two of the East India Company’s tea chests and threw overboard their contents, valued at $90,000. Well, they looked like Indians, and witnesses thought they were Indians, but the big open secret was that they were Freemasons in disguise. Perhaps the most succinct statement on the subject appears in respected Masonic historian Arthur Edward Waite’s New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry: ‘The Boston Tea Party was entirely Masonic, carried out by members of the St. Johns Lodge during an adjourned meeting’.”

“The East India Company was a major subsidizer of the Jesuit mission to Beijing. The Jesuits, in turn, interceded with oriental monarchs to secure lucrative commercial favors for the company, including monopolies on tea, spices, saltpeter (for explosives), silks, and the world’s opium trade. Indeed … the company appears to owe its very existence to the Society of Jesus [the Jesuits].”

“Freemasonry was the natural, the reasonable, the only intelligent way for the Roman Catholic Church to control (a) the ongoing affront of Protestantism, (b) the increase in ‘divine right’ kings heading their own national churches independent of Vatican control, and (c) the incredible explosion of international mercantilism.

Like the aquatic creature whose mouth resembles a comfortable resting place to its prey, the [Masonic] Lodges were a sagacious recycling of the old Templar infrastructure into a dynamic spiritual and economic brotherhood that gave Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, agnostics, and anyone else an opportunity to build a better life outside Roman Catholicism, yet still under the Church’s superintending eye.”

“Of the 2,500,000 enumerated inhabitants in 1787 America, the Roman Catholic population consisted of no more than 16,000 in Maryland, 7,000 in Pennsylvania, 1,500 in New York, and 200 in Virginia. Once the Constitution was in place, a steady influx of European immigrants transformed Roman Catholicism from America’s smallest to largest religious denomination. By 1850 the higher powers at Rome could view the United States as a viable tributary, if not another papal state.”

“The highest master of a [Masonic] Lodge received commandments from an ‘Unknown Superior,’ a Superior whose will the master’s whole struggle up the degrees had trained him to obey without question. What the masters never realized was that this mysterious personage, as we shall examine in more detail later, was in fact none other than the Black Pope [the head of the Jesuits].”

“Then, as an addendum to its closing statements, the Council [of Trent, 1545-1563] recommended that the Jesuits ‘should be given price of place over members of other orders as preachers and professors.’ It was at Trent that the Roman Catholic Church began marching to the beat of the Black Papacy [the Jesuits].”

“Fascism may be an ugly word to many, but its stately emblem is apparently offensive to no one. The emblem of fascism, a pair of them, commands the wall above and behind the speaker’s rostrum in the Chamber of the [US] House of Representatives. They’re called fasces, and I can think of no reason for them to be there other than to declare the fascistic nature of American republican democracy.”

“A fasces is a Roman device. Actually, it originated with the ancient Etruscans, from whom the earliest Romans derived their religious jurisprudence nearly three thousand years ago. It’s an axe-head whose handle is a bundle of rods tightly strapped together by a red sinew. It symbolizes the ordering of priestly functions into a single infallible sovereign, an autocrat who could require life and limb of his subjects. If the fasces is entwined with laurel, like the pair on the House [of Representatives] wall, it signifies Caesarean military power. The Romans called this infallible sovereign Pontifex Maximus, ‘Supreme Bridgebuilder’.”

“No building can rightly be called a capitol unless it’s a temple of Jupiter, the great father-god of Rome who ruled heaven with his thunderbolts and nourished the earth with his fertilizing rains. If it was a capitolium, it belonged to Jupiter and his priests. Jupiter’s mascot was the eagle, which the founding fathers [of the United States] made their mascot as well.”

“Consider: the land known today as the District of Columbia bore the name ‘Rome’ in 1663 property records; and the branch of the Potomac River that bordered ‘Rome’ on the south was called ‘Tiber.’ This information was reported in the 1902 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on Daniel Carroll. The article, specifically declaring itself ‘of interest to Catholics’ in the 1902 edition, was deleted from the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967).”

7/11 and America’s “War on Terrorismo”

FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

I share with you this piece of text from a book, published by Michel Chossudovsky, which by its preface I can see that carries enough detailed and researched information of the facts that have led us to be, a free, democratic nation and the threshold of the world , to a nation with less freedom, less democracy, and no longer the threshold of freedom – and all in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
Due to its length, this article will be published in parts. This is PART 1 of a series.

by Michel Chossudovsky

The livelihood of millions of people throughout the World is at stake. It is my sincere hope that the truth will prevail and that the understanding provided in this detailed study will serve the cause of World peace. This objective, however, can only be reached by revealing the falsehoods behind America’s “War on Terrorism” and questioning the legitimacy of the main political and military actors responsible for extensive war crimes.” (Michel Chossudovsky, August 2005)

Below is the preface of  Michel Chossudovsky’s 2005 bestseller: America’s “War on Terrorism“. 

Little did the public realize that a large scale theater war is never planned and executed in a matter of weeks. The decision to launch a war and send troops to Afghanistan had been taken well in advance of 9/11. The “terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event” as it was later described by CentCom Commander General Tommy Franks, served to galvanize public opinion in support of a war agenda which was already in its final planning stage.

The tragic events of 9/11 provided the required justification to wage a war on “humanitarian grounds”, with the full support of World public opinion and the endorsement of the “international community”.

Several prominent “progressive” intellectuals made a case for “retaliation against terrorism”, on moral and ethical grounds. The “just cause” military doctrine (jus ad bellum) was accepted and upheld at face value as a legitimate response to 9/11,without examining the fact that Washington had not only supported the “Islamic terror network”, it was also instrumental in the installation of the Taliban government in 1996.

In the wake of 9/11, the antiwar movement was completely isolated. The trade unions and civil society organizations had swallowed the media lies and government propaganda. They had accepted a war of retribution against Afghanistan, an impoverished country of 30 million people.

I started writing on the evening of September 11, late into the night, going through piles of research notes, which I had previously collected on the history of Al Qaeda. My first text entitled “Who is Osama bin Laden?”, which was completed and first published on September the 12th. (See Chapter II.)

From the very outset, I questioned the official story, which described nineteen Al Qaeda sponsored hijackers involved in a highly sophisticated and organized operation. My first objective was to reveal the true nature of this illusive “enemy of America”, who was “threatening the Homeland”.

The myth of the “outside enemy” and the threat of “Islamic terrorists” was the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to xii America’s “War on Terrorism” mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America.

Without an “outside enemy”, there could be no “war on terrorism”. The entire national security agenda would collapse “like a deck of cards”. The war criminals in high office would have no leg to stand on.

It was consequently crucial for the development of a coherent antiwar and civil rights movement, to reveal the nature of Al Qaeda and its evolving relationship to successive US administrations.

Amply documented but rarely mentioned by the mainstream media, Al Qaeda was a creation of the CIA going back to the Soviet- Afghan war. This was a known fact, corroborated by numerous sources including official documents of the US Congress. The intelligence community had time and again acknowledged that they had indeed supported Osama bin Laden, but that in the wake of the Cold War: “he turned against us”.

After 9/11, the campaign of media disinformation served not only to drown the truth but also to kill much of the historical evidence on how this illusive “outside enemy” had been fabricated and transformed into “Enemy Number One”.

The Balkans Connection

My research on the Balkans conducted since the mid-1990s enabled me to document numerous ties and connections between Al Qaeda and the US Administration. The US military, the CIA and NATO had supported Al Qaeda in the Balkans. Washington’s objective was to trigger ethnic conflict and destabilize the Yugoslav federation, first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo.

In 1997, the Republican Party Committee (RPC) of the US Senate released a detailed report which accused President Clinton of collaborating with the “Islamic Militant Network” in Bosnia and working hand in glove with an organization linked to Osama bin Laden. (See Chapter III.) The report, however,was not widely publicized. Instead, the Republicans chose to discredit Clinton for his liaison with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The Clinton Administration had also been providing covert support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a paramilitary group supported by Al Qaeda, which was involved in numerous terrorist attacks. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, together with former members of Britain’s 22nd Special Air Services Regiment (SAS) were providing training to the KLA, despite its extensive links to organized crime and the drug trade.
Meanwhile, known and documented, several Al Qaeda operatives had integrated the ranks of the KLA. (See Chapter III).

In the months leading up to 9/11, I was actively involved in research on the terror attacks in Macedonia, waged by the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) of Macedonia, a paramilitary army integrated by KLA commanders. Al Qaeda Mujahideen had integrated the NLA. Meanwhile, senior US military officers from a private mercenary company on contract to the Pentagon were advising the terrorists.

Barely a couple of months prior to 9/11, US military advisers were seen mingling with Al Qaeda operatives within the same paramilitary army. In late June 2001, seventeen US “instructors” were identified among the withdrawing rebels. To avoid the diplomatic humiliation and media embarrassment of senior US military personnel captured together with “Islamic terrorists” by the Macedonian Armed Forces, the US and NATO pressured the Macedonian government to allow the NLA terrorists and their US military advisers to be evacuated.

The evidence, including statements by the Macedonian Prime Minister and press reports out of Macedonia, pointed unequivocally to continued US covert support to the “Islamic brigades” in the former Yugoslavia. This was not happening in the bygone era of the Cold War, but in June 2001, barely a couple of months prior to 9/11. These developments, which I was following on a daily basis, immediately cast doubt in my mind on the official 9/11 narrative which presented Al Qaeda as the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Chapter IV.) xiv America’s “War on Terrorism”. – Next week will continue with: “The Mysterious Pakistani General.”

Watch out for these toxic ingredients in your toothpaste

by Kristine Payne

Everyone wants to have a clean and healthy smile, and achieving one involves the practice of good oral hygiene. But accomplishing that can be difficult when a good number of commercial toothpastes are made with questionable ingredients. These ingredients can range from endocrine disruptors to carcinogens — all of them have no business being near your teeth and gums. Before you squeeze a dollop of toothpaste onto your toothbrush, look out for these ingredients.

1. Aspartame – A controversial artificial sweetener associated with a plethora of health problems, including but not limited to weakness and fatigue, abdominal cramps, weight gain and nausea.

2. Carrageenan – This particular ingredient is derived from red seaweed, or Irish moss, and is used to thicken and stabilize “natural” toothpastes. Repeated consumption of carrageenan has been linked to skin rashes and gastrointestinal problems.

3. Diethanolamine – A common ingredient in foaming products, diethanolamine (DEA) is at best a mild eye and skin irritant, and at worst a hormone disruptor that can potentially form carcinogenic nitrates. Exposing your skin to DEA has even been linked to heightened risk of kidney and liver cancer.

4. FD&C Blue #1 and #2 – The brilliant blue color of toothpaste can be attributed to these ingredients. Their benefits to toothpaste are purely cosmetic, however. Swallowing these dyes can irritate your respiratory and digestive systems. FD&C Blue #1 has been linked to learning and behavioral problems in children.

5. Fluoride – Once touted as a solution to building strong teeth, fluoride has since been exposed as a downright unsafe toothpaste ingredient with a shocking number of negative health effects. From disrupting your immune system, to decreasing adrenal and thyroid gland function, there’s almost nothing to be gained from fluoride. In addition, ingesting too much fluoride can result in fluoride toxicity, which includes such symptoms as vomiting, skin rashes and headaches.

6. Propylene glycol – This surfactant and wetting agent has a variety of uses outside of being a toothpaste ingredient, most famous of which is as a component of antifreeze. Not exactly a substance you want to put near your mouth, even if you don’t take into account its potential toxicity to the liver, kidneys and brain.

7. Sodium lauryl sulfate – This chemical is added as a detergent, a cleansing agent, and as a surfactant or foaming agent. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is supposed to get rid of plaque, when in reality it just worsens your oral health. Besides raising the chances of developing sensitive teeth, SLS has also been linked to increased frequency and longer outbreaks of canker sores, as well as irritating already-existing allergies.

8. Sorbitol – To prevent toothpaste from drying out and hardening, sorbitol is often added as a key ingredient. Unfortunately, sorbitol has a laxative effect and can lead to chronic diarrhea.
9. Triclosan – Similar to fluoride, triclosan was originally included in toothpaste for its alleged health benefits, in this case as an antibacterial agent. Just like fluoride, however, triclosan has come under scrutiny for its role in endocrine disruption, thyroid gland interference, and even environmental degradation. Triclosan has been classified as a pesticide by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is therefore a substance you should stay away from as much as possible.

Toothpaste brands that make liberal use of any of these ingredients should be avoided, for your health’s sake. To keep your mouth — and the rest of you — healthy and safe, choose Health Ranger Select Tooth Salt with Neem. This all-natural, chemical-free tooth salt is composed of health-promoting ingredients such as sea salt, spearmint oils and organic neem leaf. No artificial ingredients or fillers here — just another worthy addition to your oral hygiene regimen.

Relatives of undocumented children caught up in ICE dragnet

In a shift from how it operated during the Obama administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is cracking down on relatives who let undocumented kids stay with them after entering the U.S.

by Hannah Dreier

This summer, a Kansas City man named Edwin got a call from immigration officials. They had picked up his nephew at the southern border and wanted to release the teen into his care. So Edwin went online and bought a bed.

Later that week, he was contacted again, this time by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detective who knocked at his door. The agent gave Edwin a letter saying he needed to come to headquarters for an interview about three federal crimes: conspiracy, visa fraud and human smuggling.

Across the country, people like Edwin who have taken in young undocumented relatives are being swept up in what ICE calls a crackdown on guardians who pay human smugglers. More than 400 people were arrested over the course of two months this summer as part of the new approach. Others are still dodging ICE interviews, have agreed to go through deportation proceedings or have gone on the run. Some of those affected admit that they paid “coyotes” to reunite them with their young children.

But many are collateral damage: People who just happened to be in the house when ICE showed up, or relatives who agreed to take in teens after they traveled to the U.S. on their own.

“The message is getting out: Don’t sponsor someone if you’re here illegally, or you’re going to get in trouble,” said Claude Arnold, a former ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agent who supports the new policy. “The idea is to have a deterrent effect, so when a teenager says, ‘Uncle, I can pay my own way, but can I stay with you?’ the uncle is going to say, ‘No way.’”

Edwin, who asked that his last name be withheld because of possible pending criminal charges, has been living in the U.S. for more than 15 years and says he never paid anyone to help his nephew cross the border. He points out that he has done everything by the book since emigrating from El Salvador to Missouri in 2001. He immediately got a job at a dry cleaning company and obtained Temporary Protected Status, which allows him to live and work in the U.S. so long as he keeps a clean criminal record.
He doesn’t follow the news and didn’t know he was risking deportation by agreeing to take in his nephew. But he said it wouldn’t have mattered; he couldn’t have refused to welcome his sister’s son.

“My nephew is grown and he makes his own choices. Everyone pays their own way. But he’s my family and it’s my duty to take him in,” Edwin said.
Edwin’s nephew Wilbur lived in Kansas City with Temporary Protected Status himself as a child, but his parents decided to take him back to El Salvador when he was 6.
He said he made up his mind to return to the U.S. after graduating high school this spring because he felt threatened by gangs. Wilbur took a bus across Guatemala, traveled through Mexico by pickup truck, then crossed into Texas in the back of a tractor trailer a month before his 18th birthday. He was picked up almost immediately by U.S. officials.

About 90 percent of minors detained at the southern border are eventually turned over to a family member. It’s a system intended to spare the state from having to take care of children, and allow young people to live in normal homes while their visa and asylum claims work through the courts.

Under President Barack Obama, ICE was instructed not to go after people who came forward to claim relatives, even if they were in the U.S. illegally. Guardians were told they had no reason to fear revealing themselves to authorities. Under President Donald Trump, that policy has been reversed.

Trump administration officials say it’s less of a policy change than a commonsensical return to the enforcement of existing immigration laws. In a February memo, then-Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said that while all immigration laws should be enforced, it’s especially important to go after people “directly or indirectly” involved in smuggling, because the journey north can be so dangerous for children.

“Regardless of the desires for family reunification, or conditions in other countries, the smuggling or trafficking of alien children is intolerable,” he wrote.
Edwin said he felt bewildered when an immigration detective showed up at his door one morning in July, and was further confused by the letter instructing him to come to ICE headquarters the following week to talk about crimes related to smuggling.

Because Edwin has protected status, he was able to take the letter and go on with his day. For people in the country illegally, things have been playing out much differently.

A couple living in New Mexico fled the state after ICE agents turned up in August asking about a nephew they had recently taken in. They told their attorney that they hadn’t even known the high school junior was on his way up from Guatemala.

In Tennessee, two ICE agents came with pistols and flak jackets to arrest a mother who hid in her trailer home. The mother said she had no idea her 16-year-old daughter was coming from Honduras. The agents left once others in the trailer park started taking photos.

The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which has a contract from the U.S. government to help place unaccompanied minors with relatives, has seen cases in recent months of cousins and half-siblings swept up in the crackdown. In June, three members of a single Missouri family that had been working with the agency were put in deportation proceedings after ICE came around asking about smuggling.

In all, more than 400 people were arrested between late June and late August as part of what ICE describes as an enforcement surge to bolster the strategy of going after guardians. The great majority of those 400 were charged with immigration violations, not smuggling-related crimes.
A group of Democratic members of Congress asked ICE in July for specifics about the change in approach, including the protocol for deciding which sponsors would be targeted, but have yet to receive any answers.

For now, Edwin is ignoring his summons. He said that when he failed to appear at ICE headquarters, an agent responded by going to the dry cleaner where he works to review his employment verification papers. He is hoping the agent loses interest, but no longer feels like he knows what to expect.

“I’ve been here more than a decade and I’ve never had a single problem with the authorities. Now, it’s like the government is changing everything around,” he said. “Now, everything is dangerous.”

Aftershocks continue in Chiapas, Oaxaca

More than 1,100 have followed Thursday’s massive earthquake

Compiled by México News Daily

Continuing aftershocks in Oaxaca and Chiapas are making things difficult for census takers trying to evaluate the damages to buildings after last Thursday’s massive earthquake.

Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said today that a damage census would be complete by the end of the week regardless.

The concern is that buildings will sustain further damages as a result of the aftershocks, of which there have been more than 1,100 since Thursday.

A temblor measuring 5.6 at 4:09 p.m. yesterday caused a cell phone tower to topple from the roof of a three-story building and land in the street in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Epicenter of the quake was 126 kilometers from Tonalá.

In Juchitán on Saturday, a three-story building fell into the street, a day and a half after the 8.2-magnitude quake that has killed 96 people.

In Oaxaca yesterday, army personnel began to demolish buildings that were beyond repair in the municipalities of Ixtaltepec and Juchitán. Federal officials have confirmed that 12,000 homes have been damaged in the state, and that 971 of them had been completely destroyed.

The federal government has announced that funds will be provided to employ residents of affected areas in cleanup operations and rebuilding.

Other structures affected by the quake are schools and churches. State Governor Alejandro Murat said yesterday that damage has been reported in 402 schools; in 60 the damages are severe. Seventy-eight churches were affected, he said.

The total number of victims in Oaxaca is now estimated at more than 800,000.

As of yesterday, 8,000 people were still without electricity.

Efforts to locate victims in the rubble in Juchitán continue with a canine unit of the Navy Secretariat. A marine said yesterday they had recovered 12 victims who were still alive. Another 41 were dead.

In Chiapas, reports indicate damage has been far more extensive. As of late yesterday, the state’s Civil Protection office said 1.47 million people had been affected by the earthquake and nearly 18,000 families are staying with relatives or in temporary shelters.

Homes that sustained damages number 40,633; 6,000 of those were destroyed, chiefly in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Tonalá, Parral and Chiapilla.

Also affected are 1,000 schools, 48 health sector facilities, 29 public buildings, 52 churches, 106 business premises, numerous highways and 11 bridges.
Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp)

Earthquake devastates Oaxaca’s Mixe region

In one municipality, 300 homes damaged, dozens destroyedAt least 15 municipalities in the Mixe region of Oaxaca have been devastated by last Thursday’s earthquake.

The head of a local organization called Servicios del Pueblo Mixe (Services for the Mixe People) said the situation has been complicated by heavy rainfall in the region for more than seven days.

Adelfo Regino Montes said highways have been severely damaged, hundreds of homes have collapsed, crops have been lost and electrical service knocked out.
Of 300 homes damaged by the 8.2-magnitude earthquake in Santiago Zacatepec, dozens have been completely destroyed.

Residents are only now just recovering after a storm ripped the roofs off many homes, leaving them partially or completely destroyed, Montes said.

Donations for citizens of the Mixe region, located in the eastern highlands of the state, are being accepted at three locations in Oaxaca city: Calle Cosijoeza 113, corner of Libres; in the zócalo; and in front of the Monte Albán convention center.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Efforts under way to aid earthquake victims
Over 2 million people have been affected by Thursday’s quake

As donations are being gathered by various organizations and individuals to assist the victims of last Thursday’s earthquake in southern Mexico the government has announced it will withhold further aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

It was unclear how much aid Mexico sent but the Foreign Affairs Secretariat said today that it was suspending shipments due to domestic needs caused by the earthquake and Hurricane Katia, which struck Veracruz on Saturday.

Authorities estimate that at least 2.3 million people have been affected by the earthquake, which claimed 96 lives, according to the latest figures. The government of Chiapas says 40,000 homes have been damaged; in Oaxaca the number is 12,000.

The national office of the DIF family services agency says earthquake victims in Oaxaca and Chiapas need goods such as blankets and bedding, clothing and shoes, food products including tuna, beans, sardines, powdered milk, water, cereal, biscuits, instant coffee and health care items such as soap, sanitary towels, tooth brushes and toothpaste.

The Red Cross said yesterday it had shipped more than 40,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the two states most affected by the 8.2-magnitude quake.
The organization has sent 250 paramedics and 500 volunteers to deliver supplies, joining 1,500 volunteers already working in Oaxaca.

Mexico City has also joined donors by sending 32.5 tonnes of supplies donated by citizens at the donation center installed in the zócalo, a shipment sent with support from the Federal Police.

On the weekend, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) announced a US $200,000 donation to aid earthquake victims and the allocation of loan funds to Mexico of up to $100 million to rebuild infrastructure.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Coalition of 45 National Latino Organizations Launch Hispanic Heritage Month

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Sept.14, 2017, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition of the nation’s 45 preeminent Latino advocacy organizations, woould rally with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in front of the White House to commence the Hispanic Heritage Month of Action with the goal of defending Latino and immigrant communities across the country. At the center of these actions is protecting immigrant youth, their families and all immigrants after the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA.

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Goverment and opposition in Venezuela resume peaceful dialogue

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The Venezuelan government and opposition will start a new round of talks in the Dominican Republic today aimed at solving the political crisis in the South American nation, President Nicolás Maduro said.

The president announced yesterday that the socialist leader Jorge Rodriguez will lead the governmental delegation to the meetings, which resulted from an initiative of the Dominican Republic and former head of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

He also expressed his approval for the peaceful proposal and welcomed the willingness of the national right to join that route of dialogue in order to guarantee the tranquility of Venezuelans.

Previously, Maduro read a statement signed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, in which he expresses the full support of the international entity to the proposal of the Dominican Republic and former head of the Spanish government.

In the text, the UN held such initiatives ‘to demonstrate the commitment of Venezuelan politicians to address the challenges of the country through mediation.’
On the other hand, the Venezuelan president affirmed that the Bolivarian Revolution must assume the construction of a pluripolar and multicentric world with the objective of defending national sovereignty and rejecting imperial hegemony against the peoples of the world.

The head of state urged communal power, social organizations, and popular power, to fight to win that battle. ‘Without the people, it will be impossible to advance,’ he said.

Maduro also called on young people to join in the productive work for being the main protagonists of the future development of the South American nation.

Hurricane Irma damaged over 200 Cuban cultural center

The fury of Hurricane Irma caused damage to 211 cultural institutions in Cuba, said today the Ministry of Culture.

According to deputy minister of Culture Guillermo Solenzar, 14 provinces in the country reported damages in this field, the most serious were reported in Villa Clara, Camaguey, Matanzas, Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus and Havana.

Solenzar said that the priority at this stage is to recover as soon as possible educational centers so that they resume the school year no later than next Monday, except in two art schools, in Matanzas and Camaguey, because they need further resources and a longer recovery works.

He said that damages range from very slight to serious, caused by strong gusts of wind, rainfall, fallen trees and surging seawater.

Cuba’s Varadero resort to be restored by November

Varadero, the main Cuban resort, will be restored before November 15 for the beginning of the high season of Cuban tourism (November-April), according to local authorities.

A report broadcast by Radio Reloj radio station added that this resort, Cuba;s most important tourist complex, has already 29 hotels operating and expects by the aforementioned date to be set to welcome its guests from all over the world.

This report also explained that eight hotels of those located along Havana’s coastline are currently operating.

The northern coast of Cuba was strongly hammered by Hurricane Irma, including tourist facilities preferred by foreign visitors, such as the central cays of the country, Varadero and the capital itself.

On Wednesday, the Matanzas’s Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) delegate (where Varadero is located), Ivis Fernandez, said that there is much vitality in these tourist resort.

In addition, the Girón de Matanzas journal said that Varadero resort welcomed over 15,000 tourists, 3,000 of them were moved from Coco and Santa Maria cays, harshly hammered by Hurricane Irma.

Iberostar Spanish company sent today a statement to the press stressing that they are currently under recovery phase, while its hotels in Varadero are already operating.

San Francisco Latino Film Festival locations, guests and full lineup

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

The SF Latino Film Festival runs September 15-30

The SF Latino Film Festival is ready for its 9th annual September events, celebrating independent film from the Americas and Europe. Its goal is to showcase film by, about, or made with Latinos—to shine a light on inclusion.

The upcoming event series is scheduled Sept. 15-30 in SF, Marin, Berkeley, and Oakland. Lu Ramirez, the festival director has scouted over 50 films from the Americas, the full lineup can be seen here: http://sflff.gala-engine.com/2017/ with full descriptions, trailers, filmmaker bios and more. The SFLFF programming committee has selected a range of award winning narratives and documentaries along with a promising group of films from entries we received from campaigning online.

The festival opens Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco’s Mission District, 2550 Mission St.

The opening night party takes place afterwards across the street at the historic Grand Theater which is now occupied by local arts org, Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco.

Other Bay Area locations include Landmark Theaters Opera Plaza Cinema, Roxie Theater, Koret Auditorium at SF Public Library and others listed
here: http://sflff.gala-engine.com/2017/venues/. More is added to our gala pages daily as we get closer.

“The mission of the festival is to showcase works from all over the Americas as a way to bring international cinema to the spotlight,” says festival director Lu Ramírez.

Two local actresses create a new production company

Two enterprising women are pleased to invite you to the grand opening of their company, “THE HOUSE Entertainment”. The premier of the short films of ANADFE Productions, Vanessa (black cinema), and the Price of Life (color) will be presented, where both entrepreneur and actresses act.

In the Peruvian restaurant Furia Chalaca, at 310 Broadway, Oakland California, on Sept. 15, at 6 p.m. Free for the Red Carpet and Strip Cut with Luz Cabrera and Karla Carvajal.

Then comes the super reventón, enlivening with a night of Cumbia Sonidera, two master DJs console at 9 p.m. $10 cover. Bottle wine raffle and a tequila with your ticket entrance.

 Annual celebration of Mexican Independence and Latino Heritage Month

 Luther Burbank Center for the Arts (LBC) in Santa Rosa hosts the 8th Annual Fiesta de Independencia, in celebration of Mexican Independence Day and Latino Heritage Month. Presented by LBC’s Latino Advisory Council, the popular free festival is expected to draw more than 4,000 community members this year.
The family-friendly campus-wide festival showcases the vibrant tastes, sights, sounds of Mexico and other Latino cultures with authentic food, music, games, performances and many activities.

Performances by Banda Toro, Sonora Tropicana, Mariachi Barragan and Ballet Folklórico, Piñatas & family fun activities, Low rider car show, Cultural, Children’s Museum of Sonoma County, Bookmobile of Sonoma County.

Sunday, September 17, 2017, from 1-7 p.m., at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road in Santa Rosa.

Artists explore Italy

Beryl Landau and Anthony Holdsworth have been traveling and painting in Italy for thirty years.

This exhibition features watercolors and small oil paintings created onsite from Lake Como and Venice in the north to Palermo and Catania in the south.
It also includes larger works created in their studios after their return from these journeys.  

From Sept. 14 – Oct. 13, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 601 Van Ness Avenue, Opera Plaza. Opening Reception, Thurs., Sept.14, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Video Screening and Talk  on Thursday, Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m.

The artists will screen a 38 minute video about their last journey from Sicily to Emilia-Romagna. Afterwards they will talk with the audience.

Google launches Latino focused exhibit

by Dylan Gascon

As a minority community in the United States, it’s easy to get overshadowed by other ethnic groups, especially by those who are in the majority. Usually the only time the public hears about anything related to Latino culture and art is during Latino Heritage Month. Although there is a month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) where Latino culture and art are highlighted, it’s often been underrepresented in the media. That’s all changed now though with Google Arts & Culture new exhibition centered on Latino art and culture, so that it can be celebrated not only for a single month, but year-round.

On Thursday Sept. 7, Google added to its plethora of art collections in its Arts & Culture section with the release of Latino Cultures in the US. The digital collection is one of the largest ever curated online, and it includes over 4,300 archives, with artworks, videos and editorials portraying the Latino experience in the United States. Google Arts & Culture was created as a new way to experience art, culture and history from around the world in a much more riveting and interactive way.

With over 90 exhibits in both English and Spanish, the collection has teamed up with over 50 partner institutions, which include libraries, museums and archives from across the United States. Google is also teaming up with educators to design curriculum for students wishing to study and learn more about Latino art, history and culture. Using technology to their advantage, teachers can use a feature called Google Expeditions, which allows them to essentially make virtual field trips for their students.

Some of the collections on display highlight influential figures, such as Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the farm workers’ movement in the 60-70s, as well as others such as National Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente and many more.

Every exhibit is unique in what it presents, allowing its viewers to become fully immersed in whatever subjects they choose. Other highlighted exhibits include California’s Missions (California State Archives), Freedom Tower, Tower of Hope (Miami Dade College), La Experiencia Americana (U.S. National Archives), to name a few.

In addition to the artworks displayed, there are also virtual tours that people can take. These include Latino neighborhoods such as Old San Juan and Ybor City as well as important locations across the U.S., such as the Mexican Museum, the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Cesar E. Chavez Memorial. Google gives viewers an on-the-ground view of these sites, so it’s as if the viewer really was visiting these places in person.

Also included are many editorials which cover a variety of topics, ranging from cooking and cultural traditions, to influential Latinas in history to current political discussions, such as, the end of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the effects it has had on the Latino community. There’s a bit of everything in this collection of art and culture.

All you need is internet connection, a laptop or smart phone to get immersed and explore all the Latino culture, art and history have to offer, brought to you by Google, free of charge.

Silvio Rodríguez’s letter has a broad support

A hundred supportive comments has today Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez’s letter published on his blog Segunda Cita, in which he announces the possible absence of one of his musicians to his concert on Sunday in New York.

In the letter Rodríguez refers to the delay of the American Embassy in Havana to grant corresponding permissions to him and his group, invited to participate in the 31st Annual Summer Stage Festival.

Up to now there is just missing the piper Niurka González who ‘provides an exquisite sound to our group, thus, not to have her would be regrettable,’ Rodríguez pointed out.

Rodríguez’s concert is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. local hour, and during his performance he will have his new album Amoríos.

Socialism equals truimph for corporate criminals

by Jon Rappoport

In several recent articles (all here under tag: socialism), I’ve exposed the myth that socialism is a revolution of and for the people.

I’ve presented evidence that socialism is actually a movement owned, operated, and funded by ultra-wealthy elites.

Dupes, foot soldiers, blind idealists, indoctrinated students, and low-level thugs are recruited through cutouts to serve the agenda of Rockefeller Globalists, for example, who are determined to bring about worldwide socialism.

Socialism, in a nutshell, equals ultra-rich elites (represented by the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg, etc.) owning the free market, cutting out competition, and creating more powerful, overarching, central governments.

Hidden in the plan is the granting of greater dominion to mega-corporations. This is a key fact.

The US Constitution was a document that established extremely limited central government. Regardless of the motives of the authors and the state legislatures that ratified it, the ideas contained in the Constitution were, and are, extremely oppressive toward large centralized structures controlling the people.

But there was another factor present at the beginning of the American Republic.

At the dawn of the United States, corporations were chartered and thus allowed to operate by the individual states. If a corporation, in the eyes of a state legislature, violated a basic trust by harming the people, committing offenses against the citizenry, the legislature could summarily cancel their charter and literally exile them from the state.

This power followed, in part, from the fact that corporations were not and are not individuals. They do not have the rights and freedoms of individuals. Corporations were not granted the rights of citizens in the Constitution.

Richard Grossman, an activist and scholar of US corporate history, unearthed and made lucid these facts.

At the birth of the American Republic, therefore, there was a double limitation on power. Central government and corporations were both strapped and shackled.

Of course, just as the federal government has been allowed to expand like an unchecked fungus, so has corporate power.

Under socialism (aka Globalism), mega-corporate power is the prow of a ship that sails on and on and conquers the economies of the world.
Corporate crimes go unpunished.
Contrary to popular belief, the real agenda of socialism has nothing to do with prosecuting those crimes.

The idea, for example, that greater socialism in America would defeat Monsanto is ludicrous in the extreme.

Monsanto is one of the components of actual socialism—the real, not the fake, version.

Again, socialism is by, for, and of the ultra-wealthy elites. It is not a movement on behalf of the downtrodden.

As Gary Allen puts it in his 1971 classic, None Dare call It Conspiracy: “…pressure from above and pressure from below… The pressure from above comes from secret, ostensibly respectable Comrades in the government and [elite Globalist] Establishment, forming, with the radicalized mobs in the streets below, a giant pincer around middle-class society. The street rioters are pawns, shills, puppets, and dupes for an oligarchy of elitist conspirators working above to turn America’s limited government into an unlimited government with total control over our lives and property.”

“The American middle class is being squeezed to death by a vise. In the streets we have avowed revolutionary groups… Virtually all members of these groups sincerely believe that they are fighting the Establishment. In reality they are an indispensable ally of the Establishment in fastening Socialism on all of us. The naive radicals think that under Socialism the ‘people’ will run everything. Actually, it will be a clique of Insiders in total control, consolidating and controlling all wealth. That is why these schoolboy Lenins and teenage Trotskys are allowed to roam free and are practically never arrested or prosecuted. They are protected. If the Establishment wanted the revolutionaries stopped, how long do you think they would be tolerated?”

Gary Allen wrote that passage in 1971. Does it ring a familiar bell now?

As philosopher George Santayana famously wrote in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Equally famous is the prescription for all advertising: repeat the same message over and over, so it sinks into the mind and forms a false impression of truth.
Thus it has been with the basic message of socialism. “This is a form of government that finally serves the people. It is the people rising up to take the reins of power.”

Once that notion is rigidly fixed in consciousness, it is impossible to believe socialism is actually emanating from the elite of the elite.

Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to the basic con of fake news, which doesn’t only broadcast distorted current events spooling out through screens, day by day.

Basic themes of fake news also span decades and even centuries.

What will happen when enough young people, who want to tear down the structures of the monopolists, realize those same men are bankrolling them in the streets?

What will happen when these young people realize their teachers and mentors and handlers and professors have been feeding them the precise reverse of the truth?

As long as independent media continue to proliferate, that day is coming.

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