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The end of the era of justice, ¿what’s next? – And, turn to Israel’s destruction of Palestine

Note from the Editor: The following article is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the El Reportero newspaper.

by Paul Craig Roberts

In the year 2023 Justice Is Nowhere to be Found in the Western World.

Examples are numerous. I have written about the injustices inflicted on Julian Assange, Trump supporters, and those forced to submit to Covid “vaccination.” This time I will illustrate the point with the “fraud case” against Trump for allegedly overstating the value of his real estate holdings and with the entire world standing aside, the genocide of Palestinians under the rubric of Israel’s “self-defense.”

The “fraud case” against Trump consists of an unsupported allegation against Trump by George Soros’ disciple NY attorney general Letitia James who is on record as a Trump-hater.

It is not a trial. There is no jury. The staged proceeding is only for the judge to determine how big a fine Trump has to pay for allegedly–no proof is supplied, only Letitia’s accusation–overstating the value of his holdings.

The judge, Engoron, in my opinion, is indulging his publicly-avowed hatred of Trump. It is the judge who should be indicted and placed on trial. He is guilty of ignoring an appellate court’s ruling that set a statute of limitations on the case. He granted a summary judgment against Trump of $250,000,000 before the process of determining Trump’s fine began.

Engoron and his staff are hardcore Democrats. They have made political contributions to the Democrat Party that are against the rules of conduct for judges and their law clerks.

Additionally, the biased judge has ruled against Trump’s ability to speak his mind and has prevented Trump’s attorneys from pointing out the ridiculous nature of the charges.

The charge that Trump overstated the value of his real estate holdings is only the unsupported opinion of the biased Trump-hater Letitia James who claims that New York State was damaged by Trump’s alleged overstatement of the value of his holdings.

The judge, who has no qualification as a real estate appraiser, says Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is only worth $18 million. Forbes magazine gives it a minimum value of $350,000,000.

Neither New York nor anyone suffered from the alleged and unsupported claim that Trump overstated the value of his holdings.

As US Representative Elise Stefanik stated in her ethics compliant filed against judge Engoron in New York, “no evidence was presented on trial to suggest fraud, and in fact material evidence suggested the opposite.”

“The defendant paid back the sophisticated Wall Street banks, on time, in full, with interest, as agreed. No insurance company paid a penny. And these banks and insurance companies, allegedly defrauded, continue to do business with the defendant.”

“Indeed, two banks had done their own analyses of President Trump’s net worth, as revealed in testimonies, and for some development projects the bank had courted President Trump’s business, not the other way around.”

Trump Organization had valued Mar-a-Lago between $426 million and $612 million in these statements, while Ms. James and the judge valued it at $18 million to $27.6 million, prompting ridicule from prominent real estate brokers who regarded the Trump-hating judge’s claim as “ludicrous.”

The judge, who declared Trump to be “a bad man” dismissed from the record exculpatory evidence for Trump in the form of a sworn affidavit from Lawrence Moens, the top Palm Beach luxury broker, who said if he had the opportunity to market Mar-a-Lago, it would be sold to someone with “net worths in the multiple billions,” the likes of Elon Musk, kings, emperors, and heads of state. Engoron called the statement an “unsubstantiated dream,” but admitted testimony from someone on the attorney general’s side who helped come up with the $250 million disgorgement figure, suggesting banks lost out on more than $100 million in interest because the financial statements were inflated. THIS IS ONLY THE JUDGE’S AND LETITIA’S CLAIM, NOT THE BANKS’ CLAIM. THERE ARE NO INJURED PARTIES.

TO BE CLEAR THE “FRAUD CASE” AGAINST TRUMP HAS NO COMPLAINANT EXCEPT LETITIA

HOW DID SUCH A FAKE CASE GET INTO THE JUSTICE SYSTEM?

THE ANSWER IS THAT THE US “JUSTICE” SUSTEM IS NOTHING BUT A WEAPON AGAINST OPPONENTS OF THE DEEP STATE. TRUMP IS BEING PERSECUTED FOR ONE REASON ONLY–TO MAKE IT CLEAR TO ALL FUTURE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES THAT IF YOU ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF THE RULING ESTABLISHMENT YOU WILL BE DESTROYED.

Now turn to Israel’s destruction of Palestine.

After a month of slaughter, Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and the rest of the world have taken no action to stop it.

No government has lifted a finger against Israel’s declared intention of destroying the remnants of Palestine still lingering after 75 years of Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestine from the inhabitants.

The Great Moral Western governments ban citizens from protesting Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. US corporations and law firms collect the names of protesting students and blacklist them from employment. What person of integrity would work for such companies?

We have now lived through more than one month of Israeli bombing relentlessly killing 10,000 Palestinian women and children, and the entire world together cannot stop the atrocity. When the UN tries, Washington vetoes the UN. Israel’s declared policy is to drive every resident of Gaza into the Sinai Desert into “tent cities,” from which Israel expects Europe and the US to absorb them as immigrants, thus erasing Palestine from history.

Going by news reports of massive US military forces accumulating around Israel and announcements that Washington has Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria in its targets, it seems that the US is employed as Israel’s agent in behalf of Greater Israel–“from the Nile to the Euphrates.” The ethnic cleansing of Palestine is the beginning of the slaughter.

López Obrador to meet with Biden and Xi at APEC summit

by Mexico News Daily

Later this week, President López Obrador will find himself in a place he has seldom been since taking office almost five years ago: the world stage.

AMLO, as the septuagenarian president is best known, will travel to San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit, at which U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be among the leaders in attendance.

López Obrador has one-on-on meetings lined up with both Biden and Xi.

Speaking in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on Tuesday a day after celebrating his 70th birthday, AMLO told reporters that he will depart for San Francisco on Wednesday.

After initially announcing that he would attend the APEC meeting, López Obrador changed his mind, saying in September that he wouldn’t be going because of Mexico’s strained, “on hold” relations with Peru due to the ouster of former president Pedro Castillo in December 2022.

However, AMLO – who has described the current Peruvian government as “spurious” – subsequently announced that he would in fact attend the summit that brings together officials from 21 member economies, including the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, Canada, Australia, Chile, Peru, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).

The meeting with Biden

López Obrador is scheduled to meet with the U.S. president in San Francisco on Friday.

Speaking at AMLO’s Tuesday morning press conference in Culiacán, Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena said that the Mexico-U.S. border, the fight against synthetic drugs, migration and the U.S. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) policy will be among the issues the two leaders will discuss.

Their meeting will take place four weeks after López Obrador met with leaders and other officials from 10 Western Hemisphere countries at a regional migration summit in Palenque, Chiapas, at which the participants agreed on 14 points to “jointly confront the migration reality” they face.

AMLO subsequently said that he would raise the issues discussed in Palenque with Biden during his meeting in San Francisco. His central goal is to obtain more funding from the U.S. for development programs aimed at providing well-being for would-be migrants and thus deterring them from leaving their homes and venturing north.

“The president wants to speak with the president of the United States about how the United States can collaborate on these development projects,” Bárcena said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that Biden and López Obrador “will discuss ongoing efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship and address issues of shared concern.”

They “will also discuss how we can continue to work together as partners to manage migration at our shared border and mobilize a hemispheric-wide response to this challenge,” she added.

The talks will come six weeks after Mexican and U.S. officials discussed issues including the fentanyl problem, arms trafficking, migration and the United States’ plan to build a new section of border wall at high-level security talks in Mexico City.

The meeting with Xi

López Obrador will meet the Chinese president and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday.

Bárcena said Tuesday that the meeting between the two leaders is “extremely important” and noted that it will be the first time they have a face-to-face conversation.

The foreign minister, who will also travel to San Francisco, said that Chinese aid for Acapulco, which was devastated when Hurricane Otis made landfall on Oct. 25, trade and the supply chain for illicit fentanyl will be among the issues López Obrador and Xi will discuss.

AMLO wrote to Xi earlier this year to seek his support in the fight against fentanyl, as precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid are shipped to Mexico from China, according to Mexican and U.S. authorities.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson subsequently declared that “there is no such thing as illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico.”

Bárcena said that the fentanyl supply chain issue will be broached by López Obrador in his discussions with Xi, suggesting that his focus will be on “how to organize ourselves in order to have better control … of the exportation and importation in general of our products,” including precursor chemicals that are shipped from China to Mexico and subsequently used to make the synthetic opioid.

She acknowledged earlier in the press conference that fentanyl is manufactured legally in Mexico in some cases. Bárcena also said that precursors used to make fentanyl “mainly come from Asia.”

Following his meeting with Xi, AMLO is scheduled to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the foreign minister said said.

APEC and the Leaders’ Summit 

APEC began in 1989 with 12 members and increased through the 1990s to reach 21.

The 21 member economies account for nearly 40% of the global population and almost half the world’s trade, according to the Associated Press.

Mexico hosted the annual APEC meeting in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, in 2002, when Vicente Fox was president.

Citing White House aides, AP reported that the goal for the 2023 Leaders’ Summit is “to try to make APEC economies more resilient, particularly in the face of growing climate issues and following a global pandemic that killed millions of people and strained supply chains.”

A bilateral meeting between Biden and Xi on Wednesday is set to overshadow the Leaders’ Summit, although the traditional photo in which leaders dress in typical local attire will no doubt attract attention.

López Obrador has largely avoided international meetings and events during his presidency, with former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard representing him on numerous occasions until he resigned in June to seek the ruling Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro attended the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, in September, while AMLO stayed at home to attend to domestic matters.

López Obrador frequently asserts that “the best foreign policy is domestic policy,” and has only traveled abroad to other Western Hemisphere nations during his presidency.

With reports from Milenio, El Economista, El Universal and AP.

Guterres insists on ceasefire due to loss of life in hospitals

by the El Reportero wire services

The UN chief expressed his concern in a statement released by his spokesperson Sthéphane Dujarric while the Al-Shifa hospital is the focus of operations of the Israel Defense Forces.

Tel Aviv troops claim that Hamas established a command center beneath the health facility, an allegation denied by medical staff.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there were 135 attacks on health facilities in Gaza over the past month.

This is, according to WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, the highest figure recorded in such a short time.

“I hope this is the worst we’ve ever seen,” she lamented.

Harris warned of a “growing trend” of attacks on healthcare, which is also seen in other ongoing conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine.

“It seems that somehow the idea that a hospital should be a safe haven, a place where people come for treatment when they need it, has been forgotten,” she told reporters.

The spokesperson considered the facility’s workers heroic, who maintain their efforts while the center has been operating without electricity since November 11 and there is not enough food or drinking water.

About 700 patients and more than 400 health personnel were still there, in addition to about three thousand displaced people who sought refuge there.

According to Harris, 20 patient deaths were recorded in the last 48 hours.

Press reports on Tuesday indicated that the Israeli army offered to provide incubators to Al-Shifa hospital, where 36 premature babies require constant care.

In the last three days, at least six premature babies died because their incubators could not function due to lack of electricity.

California mental health agency on the hot seat as lawmakers review ‘groundbreaking’ law

A 2020 California law expanded the number of mental health conditions that insurers must cover. Now, lawmakers are reviewing whether the law is working as intended

by Jocelyn Wiener

Three years ago, California leaders passed legislation that promised the most dramatic expansion of mental health and addiction care coverage in decades.

As the state’s residents struggled with the stress and trauma of a raging pandemic and a record wildfire season, mental health advocates used words like “groundbreaking” to describe the new law. Finally, they said, California was poised to become a national leader on mental health.

Their optimism about that law, Senate Bill 855, has been fraying ever since. Advocates say health plans routinely fail to ensure that enough mental health providers accept their coverage, and often make patients wait too long before being seen.

Case in point: Last week, the Department of Managed Health Care unveiled news of a historic $200 million settlement with Kaiser Permanente for failing to provide patients with timely mental health appointments, among other issues.

Such issues will take center stage Wednesday at a special oversight hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health and Addiction.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, chair of the committee and  author of the California Mental Health Parity Act, says he shares many of the mental health advocates’ concerns.

“We know the plans have a long history of finding ways not to cover mental health treatment,” he told CalMatters. “The whole purpose of this law is to put an end to that.”

Prior to the passage of the 2020 law, the state only required health plans to cover medically necessary treatment of nine serious mental illnesses. For years, mental health advocates had tried and failed to expand that list. With Wiener’s law, they were finally triumphant.

Beginning in January 2021, the state has required plans to pay for treatment of a much more extensive array of mental health issues, along with substance use disorder and addiction. This state law is separate from a federal mental health parity law passed in 2008. The concept of “parity” refers to requiring insurers to treat mental and physical health conditions equally.

Health plans say they “have been diligently working in good faith” to comply with these laws while facing industry-wide challenges like workforce shortages. They say they are navigating guidelines that are ambiguous and uneven while waiting for the Department of Managed Health Care to finalize regulations.

“This creates a situation of moving goal posts for plans, providers, and our enrollees,” said Mary Ellen Grant, spokesperson for the California Association of Health Plans, in an email.

Mental health parity investigations

Mental health advocates have also long criticized the Department of Managed Health Care, which oversees health plans in the state that receive monthly fees to provide health care for their members. And they, too, are concerned that it’s taking so long for the official rules to be decided.

This summer, more than a dozen advocacy groups signed a letter of concern to the department, questioning its commitment to enforcing some aspects of the new state parity law. The organizations want the department to publish and publicize its investigations.

“It’s still a relatively secret process,” said Lauren Finke, a policy director at The Kennedy Forum, a national organization that cosponsored California’s parity legislation.

The Department of Managed Health Care declined to make anyone available to speak with CalMatters until later this fall. In an email, a representative said the department “is committed to ensuring enrollees have appropriate access to behavioral health care when they need it.”

In response to advocates’ critiques that the department isn’t adequately analyzing and publicizing how well plans are complying with state parity law, the department said in a statement that it is evaluating health plans’ compliance in other ways; including that analysis in the behavioral health investigations would slow them down too much, the statement said.

Meiram Bendat, a Santa Barbara attorney and psychotherapist who focuses on mental health parity, says that the three-year-old state law has improved patients’ ability to receive mental health care by creating a uniform definition of what is considered “medically necessary.”

But when it comes to ensuring that health plans maintain adequate provider networks, he said, the department is “failing miserably.” Too often, plans offer their members only outdated lists of providers who then prove to be unavailable, Bendat said. The Department of Managed Health Care hasn’t adequately held plans accountable for this and other problematic practices, he said.

“The historic network inadequacy around the state and the lack of meaningful fines, that’s a real failure on the part of the department,” he said.

Kaiser mental health settlement

Finke, of The Kennedy Forum, called the Kaiser settlement “long overdue” and “a very important first step in the Department holding plans more accountable for their performance (or lack thereof).” The settlement includes a $50 million fine and corrective action plan as well as a commitment by Kaiser to invest an additional $150 million over five years to improve behavioral health services.

But Finke and others also said the settlement itself provides evidence of the department’s failures to enforce a previous settlement agreement with Kaiser from 2017.

“Will DMHC do its job going forward? That’s the big question,” asked Fred Seavey, research director for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents 2,000 Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California who undertook a 10-week strike last year over heavy clinician workloads and long wait times for appointments. He said he wrote complaints to the Department of Managed Health Care earlier this year, saying that Kaiser in Southern California has been illegally restricting the scope of behavioral health services.

Kaiser said, in an emailed statement, that “any accusation that we intentionally limit or restrict needed care is untrue.”

Southern California Kaiser members receive a wide range of behavioral health clinical offerings, the statement said. Despite a statewide shortage of clinicians, Kaiser  is “doing all that we can” to expand its network of mental health providers.

 

Request for Proposals at Peralta Community College District

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) is seeking proposals from qualified firms to provide District-Wide Energy Efficiency Planning and Implementation Services (RFQ/P No. 23-24/05).  Proposals are to be delivered to the Purchasing Department electronically (via Vendor Registry), until 1:00 P.M. on November 28, 2023.

The District wishes to incorporate the principles of sustainability into its organizational values and core business goals. These principles express the agency’s commitment to “reduce, re-use, and recycle all internal resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” These climate, energy, water, and resource conservation and management principles are to be integrated into the District’s infrastructure and facilities activities to reduce resource consumption; decrease air pollutant emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions; reduce solid and liquid waste generation, and increase recycling and diversion from landfill.

A mandatory pre-proposal video conference meeting will be held on November 15, 2023 at 10:00A.M. via Zoom: Conference Meeting ID 886 8912 8235

https://peralta-edu.zoom.us/j/88689128235

Copies of the proposal documents may be obtained by clicking on the following link: https://vrapp.vendorregistry.com/Bids/Manager/DraftBid?BidId=29231ad2-e39a-4c92-9662-e163ca48e70c or, by contacting the Peralta Community College District, Purchasing Department, 501 5th Avenue, Oakland, California, 94606, Phone (510) 466-7225, Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 

Governing Codes:

GC 53068

EC 81641

El Reportero

Afro-Mexicans, a forgotten ethnic group

Vicente Guerrero es considerado el primer presidente afrodescendiente de México y Norteamérica. - Vicente Guerrero is considered the first Afro-descendant president of Mexico and North America.

Afro-Mexicans are a part of the population that was overshadowed by miscegenation and indigenism. We tell you about its importance

Shared/by Mexico Desconocido

The story of the arrival of slaves of African origin to Mexico is born under three premises:

  • The legal inability to enslave indigenous people.
  • The thesis of “divine will” that concluded in racial superiority.
  • The idea that “blacks” have better physical characteristics for heavy work.

Afro-Mexicans, a forgotten ethnic group

The process of insertion of Africans in Mexico always had a tendency towards invisibility. In the collective imagination of Mexico, the black man has been thought of as a kind of antihero. An example of this are two historical figures who function as archetypes of the vision of black people in Mexico.

The first is Estebanico, a slave of great physical proportions who traveled alongside the conquerors. The second is Francisco Eguía, a colonizer who introduced the smallpox virus into the indigenous population. In both cases the vision of the black man as a clumsy human, unconscious ally of the Conquest, is exalted.

Despite the caste system, cultural and biological miscegenation could not be stopped by the Spanish. However, the miscegenation of the black population not only dissolved their physical characteristics, it also blurred their cultural identity.

Unlike the indigenous, the black man did not manage to reinterpret his culture in a Western mold that would allow him to continue preserving it. On the contrary, Afro-Mexicans were diluted in the mestizo identity. Despite this, Afro-descendants maintained conditions of oppression and isolation similar to slavery.

Another situation that Afro-Mexicans have gone through is the tendency toward foreignization. Afro-descendants with more notable physical features tend not to be recognized as Mexicans, which has limited the formation of their identity, to be included in those that have greater acceptance.

Afro-Mexicans today

Although the black population was a minority during the Colony, in no case can it be considered irrelevant to the achievements of the current Mexican population.

Non-mestizo blacks were close to the Spanish in numbers, while the Afromestizo population quickly surpassed the European population. For this reason, the African influence is considered by many to be a third cultural root of Mexico.

Unfortunately, the recognition of the black population in Mexico is late. The intellectual production in which the Afro-Mexican population is mentioned is scarce or not recognized.

To the above, we can add that the reconstruction of postcolonial identity had indigenous studies as protagonists, and then gave way to the construction of a Mexican national identity during the 19th and 20th centuries.

According to INEGI, 1.16 percent of the national population identifies as Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant.

A large part of this population recognizes discriminatory attitudes against them, including the denial of their identity. The states with the largest number of Afro-Mexicans are Oaxaca, Veracruz and Guerrero, entities that preserve vestiges of African traditions.

 

Afro-Mexican Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, a tradition of great cultural wealth

Especially on the Costa Chica, the Afro-Mexican Day of the Dead is celebrated, a mix of pre-Hispanic, European and Afro-descendant customs.

Although in our country people of African descent represent only 2% of the population, they also celebrate the Afro-Mexican Day of the Dead, although with their own traditions, such as the Danza de los Diablos and the artesa fandango. We tell you more about the rituals that this community carries out to honor their deceased.

Afro-Mexican Day of the Dead on the Costa Chica

While it is true that throughout our territory there are different communities of Afro-Mexicans; These are concentrated mainly in the Costa Chica, between Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Likewise, its origin dates back to the viceregal period, when the slave trade between Spain and its colonies was common. For this reason, many Africans arrived in Mexico by boat, mainly through the ports of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Already in America, the traditions of the native peoples mixed with those of Europeans and people of African descent; and in the case of the Day of the Dead, the latter added to the ritual the cult of Ruja, an African divinity who was asked to end slavery through the Dance of the Devils.

 

Food insecurity in CA on rise as food benefits drop

by Suzanne Potter

Nov. 6, 2023 – Despite the roaring economy, food insecurity got worse in 2022 – nationally and in Los Angeles County.

New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows 12.8 percent of American households were food insecure last year, an increase of more than 2.5% from 2021.

And, a recent report from the University of Southern California found that more than a million households in LA County are food insecure.

Alba Velasquez, executive director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, said inflation is partly to blame – as the cost of living in California has gone up 19% since 2020.

“So there’s been an increase in housing, in your utility bill, in food,” said Velasquez, “without seeing an increase in livable wages.”

And inflation rose even as millions lost their jobs during COVID. So food pantries have seen an increase in demand.

The most recent state budget put $35 million into the Market Match program to help low-income families afford fresh produce at farmer’s markets.

In addition, families on Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) – also known as food stamps – saw a steep drop in their monthly benefits once the pandemic emergency ended.

Velasquez said that means rates of food insecurity will be even worse for 2023.

“During COVID, there was an increased allotment for EBT recipients that was between $36 and $95 per month,” said Velasquez. “It was an emergency, temporary allotment that ended this last March. And so now we’re in a deeper crisis.”

The issue will come up again in the next few months as legislators hammer out a new farm bill, which provides funding for food assistance. Some conservative lawmakers have called for significant cuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits.

 

CA colleges work to reduce high cost of textbook

College students pay upwards of $1,100 a year for books and supplies, so many schools are working to try to reduce the burden.

A study from U.S. Public Interest Research Group found the cost of course materials has increased at three times the rate of inflation since the 1970s, due mostly to lack of competition in the college publishing industry.

Cailyn Nagle, open education resources program manager for the Michelson 20 Million Minds Foundation, co-authored the report.

“We see 65 percent of students skip buying a textbook due to cost, and 21 percent of students skip buying access codes because they can’t afford it,” Nagle reported.

Many campus libraries lend out textbooks, and bookstores sell used books and facilitate rentals or digital downloads. Students look for deals online. And schools are also moving toward an Open Educational Resource model where courses use textbooks, journals and other materials available free online. In 2021, the State of California allocated more than $115 million to help schools promote the transition.

Leslie Lange Kennedy, assistant vice chancellor of academic technology services at California State University, said the school works to help students get the materials they need.

“We work really hard to help faculty become aware of zero-cost course materials,” Lange Kennedy explained. “And to help them with the time and effort that it takes to migrate their courses utilizing a free or low-cost material.”
Recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 607, which requires colleges and universities to disclose the costs of their courses ahead of time.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

Why is the US only now admitting Ukraine might need to strike a deal with Russia?

El presidente ucraniano, Volodomyr Zelensky (derecha), le da la mano al presidente estadounidense, Joe Biden, tras el anuncio de la declaración conjunta de las naciones del G7 para el apoyo a Ucrania el 12 de julio de 2023, en Vilnius, Lituania - Foto de Sean Gallup - Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky (R) shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden following the announcement of the G7 nations' joint declaration for the support of Ukraine on July 12, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania - Photo by Sean Gallup

It’s a terrible shame that Washington is controlled by bloody-minded ghouls who never cease advocating and inciting terrible wars that never achieve anything apart from enriching the Military-Industrial Complex

by John Leake

Just over a quarter of a century ago, George Kennan – the chief architect of the U.S. Cold War policy – published an opinion in the New York Times about the folly of expanding NATO up to Russia’s borders.

Based on elementary “balance of power” principles, he perceived that expanding a military alliance (with accompanying military installations) all the way to Russia would result in precisely the instability – and ultimately the war – that the proponents of the policy proclaimed they wished to prevent.

Everyone knows the U.S. government would never tolerate a Russian military alliance with accompanying military installations anywhere the western hemisphere, never mind right on the U.S. mainland’s border. Since the 19th century, the U.S. government hasn’t tolerated ANY military alliances with European powers anywhere near the territory of the United States.

In 1917, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman sent an encrypted telegram to the Mexican government in which he proposed a military alliance against the United States. The British navy intercepted and decrypted it, and when it was published in the American press, it immediately swayed public opinion in favor of joining the war against Germany.

In 1962, when Soviet missile installations were discovered in Cuba, a major crisis ensued between the Kennedy and Khrushchev governments and was only defused when the Kennedy administration agreed to remove U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey.

Thus, for many years I have wondered why anyone in their right mind would believe that Russia – a country invaded by France in 1812 and Germany in 1941, with catastrophic consequences for its people – would tolerate the U.S. government, intelligence agencies, and NATO setting up shop in Ukraine?

Since December of 2022, I’ve heard nothing but nonsense and humbug from U.S. government officials about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Instead of encouraging Ukraine to settle its differences with Russia through negotiations and compromise, the U.S. government has encouraged a terribly destructive war that has gotten hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainian men killed.

Anyone who has studied military history for a few hours could easily recognize that launching a counter-offensive into Russia’s defensive positions in eastern Ukraine would NOT work.

The strategy of pressing Ukrainian forces into Russian artillery batteries was scarcely better than the Union assault on Marye’s Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. During that perfectly futile Union offensive, a Confederate battery commander remarked that if given enough shot and powder, he could kill every man north of the Rappahannock if Union officers kept sending them.

U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say. The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal with Russia.

This was imminently predictable. Since the Ukrainian-Russian crisis entered its final stage (before war) almost two years ago, I have perceived that the Ukrainian government would eventually have to negotiate with the Russians, and should therefore do it before getting hundreds of thousands killed.

It’s a terrible shame that Washington is controlled by bloody-minded ghouls who never cease advocating and inciting terrible wars that never achieve anything apart from enriching the Military-Industrial Complex.

Scarcely two months had elapsed after the calamitous end of the 20-year Afghanistan debacle before the same gang of Neocon knuckleheads started clamoring for a showdown with Russia in Ukraine.

I doubt that any of Washington’s hawks care at all about ordinary Ukrainians. Hillary Clinton expressly stated that supporting war in Ukraine would result in Russia getting bogged down in that country, just as it had gotten bogged down in Afghanistan (aided by the U.S. arming mujahideen like Osama bin Laden).

Other congressmen and policy wonks have made similar statements about the benefits of waging a proxy war in Ukraine – that is, it’s a great way to kill Russians and hurt Russia without having to use American soldiers to do it, and it’s great for the U.S. armaments industry. Obviously they didn’t care at all about the Ukrainians.

The lesson is clear: U.S. foreign policy wonks are stupid and wanton. Most of them have never had a single shot fired at them and have no idea about the terrible reality of war.

Much the same can be said for American people who insisted that negotiating with Russia was anathema. Like cheering the newest football team in the league, they indulged in the brutally sentimental fantasy that it was better for other people to get killed instead of seeking a negotiated settlement. Their understanding of war is akin to a pornography consumer’s understanding of sex – that is, self-indulgent and completely detached from reality.

Reprinted with permission from Courageous Discourse.

 

 

Post-pandemic, homeowners of color face losing homes – facing foreclosure state-wide

While CA homeowners of color already face many threats to their home, more will risk foreclosure than ever when pandemic-era mortgage relief will run out

by Selen Ozturk

Nov 6, 2023 – California homeowners of color already face many threats to their family home. Now, more will risk foreclosure than ever as millions of dollars in pandemic-era mortgage relief is set to run out before they even know it’s there.

At a Thurs., Nov. 2 briefing co-hosted by Ethnic Media Services and Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA), housing attorneys and mortgage experts explained how homeowners can keep their family homes against these threats, while homeowners of color shared their personal experiences of struggling to preserve generational wealth.

https://youtu.be/Iu3VxkhKevg

Joe Jaramillo, a senior attorney at HERA, a statewide housing legal service and advocacy nonprofit, said the main threats facing vulnerable homeowners are “keeping the family home when a parent or grandparent passes away; financing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs which risk the borrower’s home if unpaid; and “zombie” second mortgages “that haunt borrowers with unexpected bills and threats of foreclosure.”

The passing of a homeowning relative presents a threat when there is no will or trust, so that loved ones have to go through an arduous, lengthy and expensive probate court to inherit it while property taxes, insurance and mortgages pile up with an unclear responsibility of who’s to pay. Jaramillo said Black and Latino households report consistently higher foreclosure risks from this problem.

He added that PACE, which finances clean energy home improvements like solar with no-money-down loans repaid by adding expensive sums to property taxes, has put thousands of California homeowners of color at risk of foreclosure statewide.

“It sounds good in theory,” said Jaramillo, “but many salespeople and contractors target low-income households and misrepresent costs or install nonfunctioning or nonconnected improvements like solar panels.”

A third factor, he continued, are zombie mortgages: “second loans often taken out at the same time as a larger first lien mortgage, split to allow borrowers to avoid large down payments and apply part of the second to the down.”

Before the 2008 housing crash, many predatory high-interest loans were marketed heavily to lower-income homeowners assured their home values would only rise; after the crash, second-mortgage zombie lenders stopped billing because the homes were worth less than these mortgages, and homeowners assumed the second ones were forgiven, amended with the first, or gone with bankruptcy. Now that home values are up again, however, debt collectors are back with years of interest and fees.

https://youtu.be/BEkAgw1S6C8

The California Mortgage Relief Program is the main way that homeowners have been able to surmount these threats, said Rebecca Franklin, president of the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA).

Since it was launched federally in December 2021, over 23,000 Californians have kept their homes due to the program, which offers grants up to $80,000 per home for a total of nearly $650 million dispersed so far.

However, given that the one-time billion dollar fund is projected to run out by 2025, and likely sooner, she urged homeowners to take advantage.

Unlike Great Recession relief programs, this one “is a grant you don’t have to pay back,” Franklin explained. “Often when homeowners hear about our program, they say ‘Getting $80,000 they don’t have to pay back, that’s too good to be true, this isn’t real.’ And it is real. Certain racial groups were hit harder financially due to the pandemic, and a goal of this program is to retain their generational wealth and protect these first-time homebuyers who sacrificed so much to get a home for their families.”

Even if homebuyers don’t meet the program’s criteria — “low to moderate income, it has to be your primary residence, you’re not able to own other homes in the state” — she said homeowners could contact CalHFA for housing counselors or legal services.

Predatory debts

Even when relief like the mortgage grant is available, many mortgage services don’t tell homeowners about them, leaving many vulnerable to unknown outstanding debt, said Johanna Torres, program coordinator of California Rural Legal Services (CRLA).

Her client, Saul de la Cruz, shared his experience of this debt in the form of a zombie mortgage.

Having bought his family home in Salinas directly before the Great Recession in 2007, de la Cruz got two mortgage loans. The second company stopped contacting him during the crash. He then modified the first mortgage, assumed the second — for $14,600 — was included, and nearly 15 years later received a request from the second lender to begin negotiating to avoid foreclosure. He borrowed the money from family and friends, and is now struggling to maintain both mortgages.

Although laws like the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act require most mortgage companies to provide regular statements to the buyer, added Jaramillo, “this is a common problem we see. These predatory lenders are not providing borrowers with the information that they should be entitled to to figure out if they really owe the amounts that are being claimed.”

https://youtu.be/6Ugz4n_Wu1I

As foreclosure rates return to pre-pandemic levels, grants like California Mortgage Relief are key to protecting families from losing their most valuable intergenerational asset — their family home, said Mary Day, an attorney at HERA.

Her client, Danny Bishop, shared his own story of saving his Richmond home from foreclosure caused by bureaucratic confusion and family health decline. As the previous homeowner, his mother, began suffering dementia in 2015, her sibling neglected the property and began getting cited an ultimate total above $90,000 for code violations and property tax evasions.

Day then worked with the City of Richmond, which said that $56,000 owed for code violations was a mistake, subsequently reduced to under $30,000.

“They would never tell me why they were charging so much,” said Bishop. “They said keep cleaning your backyard, good job, then one day they charged me tens of thousands.”

This bureaucratic unresponsiveness is par for the course when it comes to challenges facing homeowners who seek relief.

“The larger the entity, the more resistant they are to dealing with individual situations,” said Day. “Though there’s a tax code that gives them the discretion to give relief, they told us after six months they wouldn’t provide it. A city mistake and this tax penalty caused just this snowball effect where the family was struggling with foreclosure… and the bureaucracy was what made it difficult. California mortgage relief has been the family’s savior.”

Luna Mexicana se presenta en San José

por Magdy Zara

La esperada presentación de Luna Mexicana del Oakland Ballet, regresa para su habitual presentación de dos funciones.

Luna Mexicana es uno de los eventos más esperados del Día de los Muertos, por ser de los más elaborados e inclusivos del Área de la Bahía.

Luna Mexicana es una hermosa combinación de danza exuberante, música alegre, trajes coloridos, flores, velas, comida y sobre todo, es una hermosa celebración familiar.

Esta magistral obra cuenta la historia de una niña llamada Luna, que el Día de Muertos, se queda dormida frente al altar que instaló en honor a sus antepasados. Sus seres queridos la visitan mientras ella duerme y la llevan a un viaje al más allá.

Ésta presentación incluye una coreografía del director artístico del Oakland Ballet, Graham Lustig, así como actuaciones del conjunto de danza azteca Nahui Ehekatl and Co. y el Ballet Folklórico de México Danza.

El programa “Luna Mexicana” 2023 de Oakland Ballet Company contará con:

El regreso de Viva la Vida, un ballet inspirado en la vida y el espíritu de Frida Kahlo. Co-coreografiada por Martín Romero del Ballet Folklórico

Director Artístico de México Danza y Oakland Ballet, Graham Lustig.

Ballet Folklórico México Danza que presenta danza folclórica tradicional mexicana.

Mariachi Mexicanisimo presentando música de mariachi.

La primera presentación será este viernes 3 de noviembre 2 p.m., mientras que el día 10 de noviembre será a las 4 p.m., en el Teatro Paramount, Oakland 2025 Broadway.

“Todo lo que hemos perdido”: una ceremonia de recuperación

Todo lo que hemos perdido, es un evento organizado por Headlands Center for the Arts, que busca con una velada espacial “reencontrar” a los inmigrantes mexicanos del área de la Bahía con sus costumbres.

Este programa íntimo consta de actuaciones en vivo, comida y prácticas ceremoniales tradicionales mexicanas y occidentalizadas.

Headlands Center for the Arts invita cordialmente a “Todo lo que hemos perdido: una ceremonia de recuperación”; que contará con la especial participación de Arleene Correa Valencia, becaria del Área de la Bahía de Headlands.

Correa Valencia señala que “muchas familias inmigrantes se esfuerzan por integrarse a la nueva cultura en la que viven manteniendo al mismo tiempo su propia identidad y costumbres, invisibles y visibles al mismo tiempo”.

Luego agrega “a estas familias, en particular a las indocumentadas, se les puede negar momentos importantes de celebración, por miedo”.

Basándose en la experiencia personal de Correa Valencia, “Todo lo que hemos perdido” sirve como una recuperación simbólica de esos hitos de celebración, invitando al público a compartir y ser testigo de un momento de amor y alegría personal y colectivo.

La vestimenta para esta noche se recomienda sea formal, las bebidas estarán a cargo de Cantina Monarca, la comida de Día de Los Tacos, los encargados de la Música son el Mariachi Nueva Generación.

La cita es este domingo 5 de noviembre de 4 p m. a 9 p.m. En el  Headlands Center for the Arts 944 Fort Barry Sausalito, Las entradas tienen un costo de $40  y $50.

KQED presenta “Historias de californianos de raza mixta”

Entender la vida desde la complejidad multiracial puede ser un obstáculo para algunas personas y para otros puede ser una herramienta para su crecimiento, estos serán algunos de los temas que se tocarán en el evento organizado por KQED donde de manera interactiva se narrarán Historias de Californianos de raza mixta.

La identidad siempre es complicada, y para las personas multirraciales que abarcan muchas identidades, puede resultar aislante. También puede ser estimulante y enriquecedor pertenecer a múltiples comunidades y celebrar esa complejidad.

Los presentadores de la serie MIXED de KQED, lleve esa celebración de las amplias experiencias de los californianos mixtos al escenario para una fusión de narración en vivo y documental con W. Kamau Bell y Melissa Hudson Bell y otros.

La narración multimedia en vivo de Cheyenne Bearfoot, comida del concursante de Top Chef y propietario de Sobre Mesa Chef Nelson German, una actuación de Megan Lowe Dances y más.

El evento está pautado para el próximo jueves 9 de noviembre a partir de las 7 p.m., en la sede de KQED, ubicada en 2601 Mariposa Street San Francisco.  Las entradas tienen un costo a partir de los $5, para obtener mayor información:  https://www.kqed.org/

 

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