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Self-defense group forms in Quintana Roo, México

Business owners accuse state government ‘cartel’ of corruption

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

Quintana Roo is the latest state to see a self-defense group form in response to the inability of authorities to control crime, corruption and impunity.
Yesterday, a group of 20 business owners headed by real estate entrepreneur Carlos Mimenza announced the formation of a group to combat rising levels of insecurity and corruption that they say are provoked by the current government.

After initially supporting Governor Carlos Joaquín González, they say they now feel betrayed by his actions.

González assumed office in September last year after Roberto Borge, who is currently detained in Panama, completed his term.

“The self-defense project is very serious. Violations of the law by the current government are very repetitive, we have evidence of the corruption and authorities are simply not acting,” Mimenza stated in an interview with the newspaper Reforma.

“And not only do they not act but they are attacking, intimidating, making death threats and even executing people to silence voices in Quintana Roo.”
Mimenza cites the example of former municipal police officer Héctor Casique Fernández, who died earlier this month while under state protection. Casique was imprisoned for three years during Borge’s administration and forced under torture to confess to being involved in organized crime.

Mimenza alleges that state authorities were responsible for his death.

The group released a video yesterday featuring Mimenza and five other men — all dressed in black and who remain silent throughout — warning that the self-defense group would be keeping an eye on the actions of state officials.

“The makeup of this group includes 200 people [who are] ready to act in the case of an attack against us or our close circles,” Mimenza warned while his partners either nodded their heads in agreement or simply continued to stare at the camera.

“This is not a call to take up arms, at least not at this time. This is a call to form, to organize and to oversee 24 hours a day every single movement of the government of Carlos Joaquín González.”

He also warned that members of the group had even infiltrated government and were monitoring their actions from within.

Mimenza — who has a history of speaking out against politicians he believes are involved in illicit activities such as money laundering and embezzlement — encouraged other people to get involved with the newly formed vigilante group.

“We make an extensive invitation to everyone, to every citizen, to join this project to defend ourselves from the continuous attacks executed by the cartel of Carlos Joaquín González and his armed branch of the judicial police.”

The founder of a self-defense movement in Michoacán, José Manuel Mireles, was cited as an inspiration to the group and also appeared in the video to offer his support.

Mireles also recognized the contribution of “mini-Deputy” Ángel Jacinto Noh Tun, a 12-year-old boy who made a fiery speech against corrupt politicians at a children’s parliament in the state earlier this year.

However, Mimenza made it clear that the founder of the Michoacán force was not directly involved in the Quintana Roo movement.

At the conclusion of the video, an increasingly aggressive Mimenza urges people watching to share it before ending with an ominous warning.
“Quintana Roo is ready to act and willing to do what is necessary.”

The state government later issued a press release in response.

“In relation to the irresponsible and slanderous declarations of one person, disseminated on social networks, the government of Quintana Roo notes that real change is made within the law and by respecting it. With the fight against impunity, things will be equal for everyone so that people live better.”

It also asserted that investigations were under way in relation to allegations against the former government.

“Based on accusations, investigations against former public officials were undertaken and as a result Roberto Borge was detained. His accomplices are under investigation.”

Source: Reforma (sp).

In six months, market for medical marijuana

Regulations being drawn up to allow import and sale of cannabis-based products

A domestic market for medical marijuana will begin operating in Mexico by the end of the year, a federal agency predicts.

The Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (Cofepris) announced yesterday that that market is scheduled to open in six months, allowing businesses to import and sell cannabis-based products.

With the reforms to the General Health Law and the elimination of cannabis prohibition, patients that require such products are now free to import them, said Cofepris chief Julio Sánchez y Tépoz.

“At the moment there are 243 individual [import] applications by patients,” he explained.

One of those is nine-year-old Graciela Elizalde Benavides, from Monterrey, Nuevo León, who suffers from a type of epilepsy that provokes up to 400 seizures a day, leaving the child weak and sleepy. Despite her age, she doesn’t speak nor does she have the ability to move spontaneously and actively.

After trying several treatments, Graciela’s parents found a last option in cannabidiol, or CBD, an oil extracted from cannabis. Research showed that treatment using the oil could prove successful in alleviating the girl’s violent epileptic episodes.

During the intervening six months the federal Health Secretariat will prepare regulations for the therapeutical use of cannabis.

Growing marijuana plants is to be considered in those regulations, said Sánchez, but only for those interested in scientific research and not for commercializing cannabis byproducts.

Mexico approved marijuana use for medical and scientific purposes in April, which has prompted a United States-based firm to open an office in the country. HempMeds, which produces cannabis-based products, officially inaugurated its office in Monterrey, Nuevo León, today.

The market for medical marijuana in Mexico has been estimated to be worth as much as US $5 billion, Forbes reported today.

Source: El Universal (sp), Forbes (sp)

Mexican population grew more than a million in one year

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The Mexican population has grown one percent in one year, equivalent to 1,200,000 inhabitants, and reached 122,300,000 people by late 2016, it was reported today.

The data correspond to the last national household survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), according to which women predominate in Mexico.

According to reports from the statistical agency, the country’s population has rosen from 121,100,000 people in 2015 to 122,300,000 in 2016.
Of these figures, about 51.4 percent are women and 48.6 percent are men. Of that total, nearly 23.2 percent live in rural areas and 76.8 percent lives in urban localities.

INEGI estimates that Mexico has about 32.9 million households, 1,100,000 more than in 2015, and they are made up, on average, by 3.7 members.
The average age of the head of households is 48.7 years and in almost one of three households (27.3 percent) the head is a woman.

SICA summit preparatory technical meeting begins

Directors of foreign policy from the member nations of the Central American Integration System (SICA) began today in this capital the preparatory technical meeting for the 49th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the regional mechanism.

According to the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, experts will prepare the final statement to be approved by the presidents at the end of the summit, which begins today and will conclude on Thursday this week.

Tomorrow will be the turn of foreign ministers and presidents will have theirs on Thursday.

Host President Luis Guillermo Solis and the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and the Dominican Republic have confirmed their attendance, while those of Nicaragua and Belize will be represented at the meeting by their foreign ministers.

During the summit, Costa Rica will hand over SICA’s presidency pro tempore to Panama, which will take over in the second half of the current year.

The regional mechanism has the main objective of achieving the integration of Central America, to turn it into a Region of Peace, Freedom, Democracy and Development, and is the institutional framework for the Central American Regional Integration, created by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

Airlines in Mexico Fined for Illegal Charges to Passengers

The Federal Attorney’’s Office of Consumer (PROFECO) has imposed fines on Volaris, Interjet, Aeroméxico, VivaAerobus and JetBlue Airways for improper charges to passengers, it was known today.

A statement from PROFECO explains that the sanctions were the result of charging the first suitcase of passengers documented on flights from Mexico City to the United States and Canada.

The Office of the Attorney General said that it has open proceedings against United Airlines and American Airlines for the same infraction, which will be resolved in the coming days.

It also pointed out that the measure applied by airlines contravenes provisions of the Federal Consumer Protection Law, the Civil Aviation Act, and its regulations.

Likewise, it was determined that the sanctioned companies have engaged in misleading advertising, discriminatory acts, abusive clauses in their adhesion contracts and other practices that violate the rights of passengers.

The fine totaled 22.4 million pesos (about one million 200 thousand dollars).

Boxing Fights Schedule

The Gentlemen’s Sport

JUNE 24, 2017
Gdansk, Poland (PolSat PPV)
Tomasz Adamek vs. Solomon Haumono
Mateusz Masternak vs. Ismayl Sillah
Krzysztof Glowacki vs. Brian Howard
Maciej Sulecki vs. Rocky Jerkic
Ewa Brodnicka vs. Marisol Reyes
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico (Televisa)
Miguel Roman vs. Nery Saguilan
Eduardo Hernandez vs. Jessie Rosales
Karim Arce vs. TBA
Freedom Hall, Louisville, KY, USA (CBSSN)
Derric Rossy vs. Carlos Negron
Enrique Collazo vs. Steven Martinez
Peter Dobson vs. Jeremy Nichols
Toka Kahn Clary vs. TBA
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (beIN)
Carlos Diaz Ramirez vs. Sergio Puente
Moises Fuentes vs. TBA
JUNE 27, 2017
Sands, Bethlehem, PA, USA (PBC on FS1)
Miguel Cruz vs. Alex Martin
Jamal James vs. Samuel Figueroa
JUNE 29, 2017
Coliseum, Amiens, Somme, France (SFR)
Omar Lamiri vs. Moncho Miras
Christopher Sebire vs. Ahmed El Hamwi

Pasados del Presidio – afternoon fun for kids

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

A commemoration of the pre-American cultures at the Presidio: Ohlone, Spanish, and Mexican.

The is an upcoming Latino community-focused cultural-historical celebration: the Presidio Pasados; as well as the new website portal in Spanish of the Presidio that will give valuable in-language information and downloadable Summer Fun/Kids Guide and New Presidio Visitor Center Guides in Spanish.

Tortilla Making, Candle Making and Adobe Making, Juana’s Kitchen with corn grinding and looking at the herbs and plants that were used during the Spanish and Mexican Era, Anza Trail Color Guard reenactors, Flora and Fauna of the Past, Juanito the Donkey, Live Archaeology Dig, Los Californianos will be dressed in 18th & 19th Century uniforms, Ceramics by Ruben.

Performances by Rumsen Ohlone, Ballet Folklorico, Story Telling, and a reenactor portraying Father Junipero Serra.

The event will take place at the Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Ave. on the Main Post Office of the Presidio. On Friday, June 23, 2017; 12 noon – 3 p.m.

Parking at the Main Post is by paid meter. MUNI busses serve the Presidio as well as the free PresidioGo Shuttle. See http://www.presidio.gov/transportation.

About the Presidio Trust: The Presidio Trust is an innovative federal agency created to save the Presidio and employ a partnership approach to transform it into a new kind of national park.

Founded by Spain in 1776 as El Presidio de San Francisco, the Presidio served as a legendary U.S. Army post from 1846 to 1994. Spanning 1,500 acres in a spectacular setting at the Golden Gate, the Presidio now operates without federal appropriations, is home to a community of residents and commercial tenants, and offers unique recreation, hospitality, and educational opportunities to people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and the world. To learn more please visit www.presidio.gov.

Salsa at El Malecón in Berkeley Block Party

What a nice way to spend a hot Sunday listening and dancing salsa. Everyone is invited to this grand summer day in Emeryville to watch and dance with one of most popular salsa groups in the Bay Area, Julio Bravo and his orchestra. Multiple areas of sound, food trucks, vendors and artists. Guest DJ’s Alvaro Bravo (Dusty Rhino) and Juan García (Beatbox Events) and others. This event is over 21 +

On Saturday, June 24, from 12 noon to 9 p.m., at 119 Utah Street between 15th and Alameda, at the Great Northern’s Block, SF.

Cities of Light

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment.

For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture, medicine, engineering, navigation, textiles, and even hydraulic technology.

Tiburon Film Society will present “Cities of Light” at the Tiburon Library located at 1501 Tiburon Boulevard in Tiburon, on Thursday, July 13, 2017 @ 6:30 p.m.

Filmmaker Terry Gilliam finishes “The man who killed Don Quijote”

by the El Reportero’s news services

British filmmaker Terry Gilliam is now relieved after finishing his film on Don Quixote, which was extended for 17 long years.

Gilliam, 76, shared his joy in his profiles of Facebook and Twitter social networks, in which he confirmed completing the shoot of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, inspired by the monumental work of Miguel de Cervantes.

The director apologized for the long silence about the project and, with his particular sense of humor, said that he had been busy packing the truck and was now heading home: ‘Quixote vive!’ Wrote Gilliam on Facebook and one of the flanks of the vehicle.

After 11 weeks in locations in Spain and Portugal, the renowned director managed to film the sequences that tell the story of a deluded old man who is convinced he is Don Quixote, and who mistakes Toby, an advertising executive, for his trusty squire, Sancho Panza.

The plot runs jumping back and forth in time, placing the protagonists in the 21st century and in the 17th distant century, to the point of blurring the limits of Toby on illusion and reality.

Gilliam started filming in 2000, with Jean Rochefort and Johnny Deep in the lead roles, which was canceled in less than a week after several adversities.

In the final version, the director managed to place Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver, in the roles of the alleged Hidalgo and Sancho, respectively; as well as Stellan Skarsgard, Olga Kurylenko, Joana Ribeiro, Ã’scar Jaenada, Jordi Mollá, Sergi López and Rossy de Palma.

With the support of the Spanish Tornasol Films, Gilliam counted again with the participation of Tony Grisoni in the four-hand script and left the direction of photography to Nicola Pecorini.

Havana to host Latin America International Folklore Lab

From July 3 to 15, the Cuban capital will receive the International Laboratory of Folklor FolkCuba 2017, an initiative organized to promote the dances and the national customs, reported the organizers Friday.

In a press release, the National Folkloric Group of Cuba (CFN) added that the event has been celebrated for more than three decades with the intention of instructing those who show interest in the popular culture and the influence of the African and Spanish traditions, expressed in dances, drum plays and chants.

The members of this institution will be the ones giving the classes, which will include also sessions of mambo,Cuban son, cha-cha-cha, pilon, mozambique and conga and the basic elements of the complex of rumba (yambú, columbia and guaguancó).

The program also comprises the dances and chants of the Yoruba religion, of the Palo Monte, the Bantú and the Makuta.

The ones interested, will be able to learn more music of this country, acquire knowledge on the execution of the tumbas, the Cuban clave, the bass drum, the box and the Bata drums, among other percussion instruments, emphasizes the note.

Montreal to host North America’s biggest street arts festival in July

Montreal will the center of a big party.

Part of Montreal’s 375th anniversary party, the festival will run between July 7 and 30 at venues around Montreal, including Place Jacques-Cartier.
Organizers are billing it as the ‘largest street-arts event ever in North America.’

Fifty-0ne street-arts troupes will perform 800 free outdoor shows around Montreal during the festival, known as À nous la rue! in French, and We’re acting out! in English.

Of the 51 troupes, 18 are from Quebec, with the rest hailing from Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Holland, Poland, Spain and the United States.

Using artificial intelligence to program humans to behave better

by Dennis R. Mortensen
CEO and founder at x.ai

Much attention has, rightfully, been given to how the AI industry might transmit existing negative biases into the myriad of artificially intelligent systems that are now being built. As has been pointed out in numerous articles and studies, we’re often entirely unaware of the biases that our data inherits, hence the risk of equally unconsciously porting these into any AI we develop.

Here’s how this can work: According to a recent study, names like “Brett” and “Allison” were found by a machine to be more similar to positive words, including words like “love” and “laughter.” Conversely, names like “Alonzo” and “Shaniqua” were more closely related to negative words, such as “cancer” and “failure.” These results were based on a particular type of analysis (embedded analysis) which showed that, to the computer, bias inhered in the data, or more visibly, in words. That’s right, over time, all of our biased human interactions and presumptions attach bias to individual words themselves.

But if we agree that some biases perpetuate existing, unacceptable behaviors (racism, sexism, ageism), then we also have to agree that there are desired behaviors we should design for. This suggests a more hopeful dimension to this story: we can proactively program our AI systems to reward behaviors like kindness, empathy, thoroughness, and fairness. We can make AI a force for good.

Bias typically arrives along with real world data; as long as our society exhibits negative biases, we’ll see these reflected in the data we collect. The most potent (and probably most unrealistic) way to change this state of affairs is to eliminate bias from the dataset. In other words, we all need to become better people overnight or in some very short period of time.

Fortunately, there’s another option. We can build AI that reinforces positive attributes a reality, today, through programmatic product design choices, which puts the burden on a few good (wo)men. I don’t say this naively, and I won’t pretend it’s easy. But it is possible.

AI systems used in recruiting or college admissions could be programmed to ignore gender and racial cues that tend to penalize women and minorities here in the U.S. In this case, the bias is NOT in the data, but in the human (aka customer), who is reviewing those college applications; his actions will reinforce his presuppositions and bias the data that comes out of that process.

Programming to combat this particular form of unconscious bias is by no means some hazy vision of the future. Today, the company Text.io uses AI to increase diversity in hiring by giving real-time feedback on job descriptions and offering suggestions for language that will expand the pool of qualified candidates.

Or take self-driving cars. Autonomous vehicles might reward good behavior; they could be programmed to roll right up to a jaywalkers and sound an alarm so as to discourage random street crossings in the future (though New Yorkers would certainly rebel 😉 Or self-driving cars could prevent people from opening the passenger door on traffic side, so they learn to get out properly and safely; they could stop if passengers throw trash out the window or reward people for leaving the cars as clean as they found them. You get the point.

AI could also reward forgiveness. We know from studies that people have a greater tolerance for mistakes when they’re made by humans. They tend to forgive humans for lapses of judgment (even ones with financial consequences) but “punish” (e.g. stop using) software when it makes the exact same mistake. And we know from internal data that humans more readily attribute mistakes to machines even when a human is at fault. We could easily offer rewards, in the form of discounts or perks, to people who display curiosity and compassion rather than anger when they believe an AI autonomous agent has made a mistake.

Here at x.ai we’re wholly focused on getting our autonomous AI agents (Amy and Andrew Ingram) to schedule meetings efficiently and effectively. As we further develop the product, we’re likely to factor good behaviors into Amy and Andrew’s design. For instance, if someone routinely cancels or reschedules meetings at the last minute, Amy might insist that meetings with that person are scheduled at the host’s (our customer’s) office to protect their time and prevent wasted travel. By rewarding people for being on time and not cancelling meetings last minute, our AI assistants could nudge us to behave better.

We might also enable settings for teams that enforce work life balance. You could imagine Amy abiding a default 50-hour work week, since studies show productivity drops once you pass that 50-hour threshold. She could give managers warnings when team members are routinely scheduling outside of that parameter to help them help their team allocate their time better.

AI is emotionless but it’s not inherently neutral, fair or unbiased. The data we use to train these systems can perpetuate existing unacceptable behaviors. However, I do believe we can accelerate good behavior and eliminate many socially unacceptable biases through AI product design choices.

(Dennis R. Mortensen is CEO and founder at x.ai)

My best friend was my father

por Marvin Ramírez

On June 12, 2004, just days before Father’s Day that year, my dad passed away. I received the call at around 11 p.m. from one of my sisters: “Mi papá just died.” He was 87 years old, but I had wanted him to live to 100.

When I received the news, everything suddenly turned hollow inside me. We had been expecting this for a long time. There was no cure for his illness: cancer in one of his kidneys.

He had been in agony for more than a year since the cancer started eating him up, little by little. He was just skin on bones by this time.

The last time I had gone to visit him at the house of one of my brothers in San Leandro – where he suffered through his final days – I couldn’t hold back my tears. He was being fed liquid food through a tube in his stomach. I wanted to disconnect him, badly. But just for insinuating it, my siblings screamed at me.

Throughout my whole life, my father’s words of wisdom had kept me on a positive path, especially when making important decisions at the crossroads of my life. His words saved me on many occasions, when conducting myself as a journalist, interacting with other boys of my age or by preventing me from acquiring vices, like smoking.

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I asked him why he didn’t smoke, as I never saw him with a cigarette in his mouth even though in those days it was very common for people to smoke. He responded in a wise way.

“Son,” he said, “when I was about 14 or 15, I used to wait at exactly 11 p.m., sitting on the sidewalk in front of my house, for a man who would give me the butt of his cigarette. I smoked that butt and then went to bed. I couldn’t go to sleep without smoking,” he said.

I still have memories of that man going home from work every night. In the middle of the night the dark streets of old Managua were lighted with low-intensity light bulbs used by the municipality in the 1930s. Most homes, I imagine, used candles to light up their homes. By 11 p.m., there were usually no other people around and the city was asleep.

I thought of the humiliation my father must have gone through, waiting every night on a dark, lonely street, for a few puffs on a butt of someone else’s cigarette before he could even go to bed. An addiction caused him to this.

Oh, Dad, because of that story, I never smoked. Thank you, Papacito.

For some reason, I usually listened to my father, unlike many people who disregard their old man’s words of wisdom. I tell you, even though he spoke little and never gave advice that wasn’t asked for, his words had power for me. When I approached him for advice, and he answered, his words resonated in my ears and stayed in my brain for years to come. And today, as an adult, I still hear his voice telling me which way I should go.

In the neighborhood where I lived in old Managua there was a kid in our neighborhood whose father owned an auto battery shop and factory. He drove his parents’ car and bragged all the time around us other kids. As I recall, he was around 18 or 20. I admired the guy, despite his arrogant personality. I was impressed to see him working in his family shop and dressing so well.

One day I asked him if I could get a job there – after school, of course. I was about 10 or 11 years old and I loved the idea of making some money.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the body size for that work.

“No, Marvin,” he said, “those batteries are too heavy for you, you could get a hernia.” After that, I was disappointed, but continued the friendship.

One day, I found out that he had tried to court a pretty girl in the neighborhood who flirted with everybody but would not go with any guy, and she had rejected him.
He approached me one day and proposed that I should be his hit man.

“Marvin,” he said to me, “I’ll pay you good money if you beat up this girl…”

This took me by surprise. I was confused, what kind of opportunity was this? Making some money…. but by hitting a woman? “How can I do that?” I said to myself.
The next day, I saw my dad and I asked him what he thought about the proposition from my friend.

“Son,” he said, “Are you a gangster? Who could even think of doing something like that? Only criminals, low-class and bad people could ever do that. You are not a gangster.”

Those words are still in my memory, as fresh as if I had heard them just yesterday. I learned from my father the huge and important lessons of compassion, empathy and love. Thank you, father, for making of me a man of principles.

José Santos Ramírez Calero, born in Managua, Nicaragua on December 24, 1916, was my role model. His journalism career spanned more than 50 years. My admiration and appreciation for him is why I became a journalist, just as he was, and his father before him.

On this Father’s Day, I want to say to my Dad that even though his body might have turned into ashes at the cemetery, his spirit, love and words made me so much of the person I am today.

I want to say, to those of you who are fortunate enough to still have your father with you – listen to him, respect him and love him. He might be the greatest and most sincere friend that you will ever have. -Vale, Marvin Ramírez.

Top foods to avoid with high blood pressure

by Alex Jordon

In America, almost one in three adults are living with high blood pressure, that’s why the topic of dietary recommendations for high blood pressure is becoming more and more popular these days. What causes high blood pressure? Normally not consuming enough vegetables and fruits can result in a high sodium intake and low potassium intake, which can contribute to developing high blood pressure. So with high blood pressure, you are recommended to have a diet low in sodium and fat, avoid these foods:

• Pickles

Pickles are super low in calories and fat, and are also high in vitamin K, which helps your blood clot after the injury, that’s great. But they are loaded with sodium, one medium pickle provides more than 570mg of sodium, that’s more than 1/3 of the daily recommended needs. So if you’re with high blood pressure, limit your pickle intake.

• Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is with several health benefits, including providing vitamin C and K, iron and a good amount of fiber, and it also boosts your immune system, but you should limit the amount you eat, or choose low-sodium brands, as a half cup of it has more than 460 mg of sodium, 19% of your recommended daily intake.

• Bacon

Bacon is not only delicious, it’s also like other pork products, contains B-vitamins (vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B12), vitamin D as well as the minerals zinc, iron and magnesium, which are all essential for a positive health body. But why most people feel afraid to eat it? As it’s super high in sodium, three slices contain around 270 mg of sodium and 4.5 grams of fat, so it’s wise to try turkey bacon for lower sodium intake instead of the salty & fatty pork bacon.

• Whole milk

When you’re trying to build muscle, whole milk is your best choice, it provides more fat than you need, a one cup serving of whole milk contains 8 grams of fat. While if you are living with high blood pressure, try using 2% milk, or even better-skim milk, as the saturated fats whole milk contains are bad for you and may lead to heart disease.

• Donuts

People like donuts, for its sweet taste, but they are not good for your health. A single donut can provide more than 300 calories and 12 grams of fat, as they’re fried, means you’re getting lots of saturated and trans fat, which can increase your risk of heart disease.

• Ramen noodles

Ramen noodles are popular among college students all over the world, as they’re inexpensive and so convenient. However, it’s not a healthy choice as they’re lack of nutrients and with lots of unhealthy components. One package of ramen provides 14 grams of fat, including 6 grams of saturated fat, and 1731 grams of sodium, more than 70% of the recommended daily needs! In fact, the flavor packet contains most of the sodium, so to reduce sodium intake, it’s better to not add the flavor packet.

• Alcohol

Drinking too much alcohol may raise your blood pressure to unhealthy levels, and alcohol can damage the walls of blood vessels. For people with high blood pressure, avoid alcohol totally or drink in moderation. Moderate drinking is generally considered to be:

– One drink for men age more than 65 per day
– Two drinks for men younger than age 65 per day
– One drink for women of any age per day

A drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.

If you have high blood pressure, limit eating these above foods and focusing on low-sodium foods can help. Some good choices are: potassium-rich bananas, salt-free seasonings, potassium-packed white potatoes, fresh fish, nutrient-packed lima beans, iron-rich spinach, omega-3 fatty acids-rich flaxseed.

Who holds DEA accountable when there are deaths

In 2011, a DEA operation touched off a massacre in a Mexican town, yet the agency never investigated what went wrong

by Ginger Thompson
ProPublica

In early 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration obtained a rare and highly valuable piece of intelligence about the leaders of the Mexico-based Zetas cartel, one of the most powerful, and impenetrable, drug organizations in the world.

An agent in Dallas had persuaded the cartel’s leading cocaine distributor in East Texas to hand over trackable cellphone identification numbers for the group’s most wanted kingpins, in particular Miguel and Omar Treviño, a murderous pair of brothers whose viciousness had earned them top spots among the DEA’s most-wanted.

It was an intelligence coup, the kind of information that comes along once in a very lucky career. With those numbers, authorities could track the brothers’ movements and ultimately capture them. But the DEA made a decision with fatal consequences. Against the wishes of the lead agent on the case — whose informant specifically warned of the potential for bloodshed — the DEA told a Mexican federal police unit with a long history of leaking to traffickers that it had the information.

Within days, the Zetas were, in turn, told that the DEA was onto their leaders. The Treviño brothers guessed immediately which of the cells in their organization had betrayed them and began hunting for the snitches. When the suspected traitors couldn’t be found, the traffickers went after anyone connected to them.

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of people were killed and kidnapped in and around Allende, a quiet ranching town in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, about 40 minutes from the U.S. border. Zetas gunmen grabbed a 15-year-old high school football player, who was hanging out with friends whose parents ran a health club where one of the suspected snitches lifted weights. They took an 81-year-old woman, as well as her 6-month-old great-grandson. One family lost nearly 20 members.

Black clouds spewed from a local ranch where the cartel turned one building into a makeshift crematorium to burn the bodies of those they had killed.

For years, Mexican authorities did next to nothing to investigate the massacre. Meanwhile people in Allende, understandably distrustful of the authorities sworn to protect them, kept their mouths shut.

Tragically, that outcome has become all too familiar in Mexico, where impunity is a national scourge. Homegrown corruption, greed and fear have bred an epidemic of virtually unchallenged violence. What makes this case different is that the DEA lit the fuse that triggered the slaughter, then stood mutely by — as if it had played no role. DEA officials knew almost immediately that innocent lives had been lost as a result of sharing the intelligence with Mexico. The agency’s response then — and in the years since — nothing.

It didn’t demand answers from its Mexican counterparts, or suspend cooperation with the Mexican police until it could determine how the information was leaked. It didn’t conduct an internal investigation into the decision to share the intelligence or reassess its own rules for giving sensitive information to Mexico. It didn’t report the violence to superiors at the Justice Department or to overseers on Capitol Hill.

And, perhaps underscoring the perception that the lives destroyed were in some way acceptable collateral damage in the war on drugs, it didn’t offer to provide any assistance to those victimized by the leak or resources to help identify and arrest the perpetrators.

Dozens of people in Allende agreed to speak for this story on the record, many of them talking publicly for the first time and at great personal risk. Even the former Zetas-turned-informants spoke at length about their roles and their devastating consequences. The assistant U.S. attorney on the case described himself as “devastated.” And eventually, the DEA agent who led the investigation discussed, at times emotionally, his part in the tragedy.

But when presented with this array of voices and evidence, DEA officials refused to explain what, if anything, the agency had done to respond to the massacre. Spokesman Russ Baer would only say that the agency placed blame squarely on the Treviño brothers: “They were killing people before that happened, and they killed people after the numbers were passed,” Adding that, “This is not a story where the DEA has blood on its hands.”

That’s technically true, and sadly seems by design. Because of the way Mexico’s drug war is fought, the United States plays a leading role — providing training, equipment and intelligence to security forces with reputations for collaborating with traffickers — without sharing responsibility for the fallout.

Some Mexican counternarcotics units or programs — including the one implicated in the Allende massacre — wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the United States. American taxpayers have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Mexico’s counternarcotics programs over the years. But other than vague lists of kingpins who have been arrested and the occasional made-for-TV photo op of seized drugs, there is almost no public accounting of what those efforts have accomplished, much less of the ways they’ve failed, or of any toll they’ve taken.

This carefully choreographed arrangement is convenient for Mexico, as well. It allows that country’s government to assert that its police and armed forces do not take orders from the gringos. Meanwhile, the United States can claim credit when it helps Mexico capture a kingpin, but profess innocence when things go wrong.

Sergio Aguayo is a prominent Mexican human rights investigator at the Colegio de Mexico, which last year launched an independent probe into the Allende massacre. He told me: “The United States and its role remains an enigma. But the one thing that seems clear is that the government has its policies against organized crime, and pursues them without taking into account the impacts on Mexican society.” Aguayo said that may not be the intent, “but the affects are clear and inhumane.”

Certainly, the United States does not intend for massacres to happen. The DEA’s goal upon obtaining intelligence on the Zetas, part of an operation called Too Legit to Quit, was a good one: to bring an end to the cartel’s reign of terror.

But the so-called Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) operates with a fundamental flaw that neither Mexico nor the United States has had the political will to fix: The unit’s Mexican supervisors are exempt from scrutiny.

(The article was cut to fit space.)

(Ginger Thompson is a senior reporter for ProPublica. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Thompson was previously a national and foreign correspondent for the New York Times).

The petrodollar is in trouble – U.S. trade deficit since 1971, is approximately $10.5 trillion

As Saudi Arabia continues to liquidate more of its foreign exchange reserves, it means serious trouble for the petrodollar system

by Steve St. Angelo
Russia Insider

The U.S. PetroDollar system is in serious trouble as the Middle East’s largest oil producer continues to suffer as the low oil price devastates its financial bottom line. Saudi Arabia, the key player in the PetroDollar system, continues to liquidate its foreign exchange reserves as the current price of oil is not covering the cost to produce oil as well as finance its national budget.

The PetroDollar system was started in the early 1970s, after Nixon dropped the Gold-Dollar peg, by exchanging Saudi Oil for U.S. dollars. The agreement was for the Saudi’s only to take U.S. Dollars for their oil and reinvest the surpluses in U.S. Treasuries. Thus, this allowed the U.S. Empire to continue for another 46 years, as it ran up its energy credit card. 

And run up its Energy Credit Card it most certainly did. According to the most recent statistics, the total cumulative U.S. Trade Deficit since 1971, is approximately $10.5 trillion. Now, considering the amount of U.S. net oil imports since 1971, I calculated that a little less than half of that $10.5 trillion cumulative trade deficit was for oil. So, that is one heck of a large energy credit card balance.

Regardless… the PetroDollar system works when an oil exporting country has a “surplus” to reinvest into U.S. Treasuries. And this is exactly what Saudi Arabia has done up until 2014, when it was forced to liquidate its foreign exchange reserves (mostly U.S. Treasuries) when the price of oil fell below $100.

So, as the price of oil continued to decline from the mid 2014 to the latter part of 2016, Saudi Arabia sold off 27 percent of its foreign exchange reserves. However, as the oil price recovered at the end of 2016 and into 2017, this wasn’t enough to curtail the continued selling of Saudi’s foreign exchange reserves. The Kingdom liquidated another $36 billion of its foreign exchange reserves in 2017:

According to the Zerohedge article, Economists Puzzled By Unexpected Plunge In Saudi Foreign Exchange Reserves:

The stabilization of oil prices in the $50-60/bbl range was meant to have one particular, material impact on Saudi finances: it was expected to stem the accelerating bleeding of Saudi Arabian reserves. However, according to the latest data from Saudi Arabia’s central bank, aka the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, that has not happened and net foreign assets inexplicably tumbled below $500 billion in April for the first time since 2011 even after accounting for the $9 billion raised from the Kingdom’s first international sale of Islamic bonds.

….. Whatever the reason, one thing is becoming clear: if Saudi Arabia is unable to stem the reserve bleeding with oil in the critical $50-60 zone, any further declines in oil would have dire consequences on Saudi government finances. In fact, according to a presentation by Sushant Gupta of Wood Mackenzie, despite the extension of the OPEC oil production cut, the market will be unable to absorb growth in shale production and returning volumes from OPEC producers after cuts until the second half of 2018. Specifically, the oil consultancy warns that due to seasonal weakness in Q1 for global oil demand, the market will soften just as cuts are set to expire in March 2018.

The Saudi’s have two serious problems:

As the Saudi’s cut their oil production due to the OPEC agreement, the U.S. shale energy companies ramp up production because they are able to produce oil by shifting any losses to Brain-Dead investors looking for a higher yield. This destroys the ability for OPEC to drain global oil inventories, so the oil price continues to trend lower. Which means the Saudi’s may have to liquidate even more foreign exchange reserves in the future on lower oil prices. Rinse and Repeat.

The Saudis are planning a 5 percent IPO – Initial Public Offering in 2018 of their estimated $2 trillion of their oil reserves and are hoping to get $200 billion.
However, energy analysts Wood Mackenzie estimates that the value of the reserves are more like $400 billion, not $2 trillion. This is due to all the costs, royalties and 85 percent income tax to support the Saudi Government and the 15,000 members of the Royal Saudi Family. Thus, Wood Mackenzie doesn’t believe there will be much in the way of dividends left over.

That being said, it’s highly doubtful the Saudi’s have the 266 billion barrels of oil reserves stated in the new 2016 BP Statistical Review. The Saudi’s produce about 4.5 billion barrels of total oil liquids per year. Thus, their reserves should last them nearly 60 years.

Now… why on earth would Saudi Arabia sell a percentage of its oil reserves if it has 60 more years of oil production in the future? Something just doesn’t pass the smell test. Is it worried about lower oil prices, or maybe it may not have all the reserves that it states?

Either way… it is quite interesting that Saudi Arabia continued to liquidate its foreign exchange reserves in April even though the price of oil was above $53 for the majority of the month. I believe the Kingdom of Saud is in big trouble. That is why they are trying to sell an IPO to raise much-needed funds.

As Saudi Arabia continues to liquidate more of its foreign exchange reserves, it means serious trouble for the PetroDollar system. Again… without “surplus” funds, the Saudi’s can’t purchase U.S. Treasuries. Actually, for the past three years, Saudi Arabia has been selling a lot of its U.S. Treasuries (foreign exchange reserves) to supplement the shortfall in oil revenues.

If the oil price continues to trend lower, and I believe it will, Saudi Arabia and the PetroDollar system will be in more trouble. The collapse of the PetroDollar system would mean the end of the U.S. Dollar supremacy and with it, the end of gold market intervention.

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