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An important distinction: Democracy versus Republic, which one is best for individual liberty?

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

Most people pretty often hear here and there accusations among political contenders of being anti-democratic, while demanding ‘more democracy.’ Most consider the United a States a Democracy regardless that only two traditional political parties – which many believe are partners – are allowed in the debates – while other less known parties are blocked from participating. The majority talk about Democracy as the safeguard of liberty, but, is it? How about a Republican form of government – we never hear public debates about it. Was the US created as a Democracy or a Republic? The following article – which doesn’t identify its author – brings light about the difference of the two. You, the reader have the last word. PART 3 AND LAST.

An important distinction: Democracy versus Republic, which one is best for individual liberty?

by anonymous author

A Republic

A Republic, on the other hand, has a very different purpose and an entirely different form, or system, of government. Its purpose is to control The Majority strictly, as well as all others among the people, primarily to protect The Individual’s God-given, unalienable rights and therefore for the protection of the rights of The Minority, of all minorities, and the liberties of people in general. The definition of a Republic is: a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution–adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) by them only by its amendment–with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Here the term “the people” means, of course, the electorate.

The people adopt the Constitution as their fundamental law by utilizing a Constitutional Convention–especially chosen by them for this express and sole purpose–to frame it for consideration and approval by them either directly or by their representatives in a Ratifying Convention, similarly chosen. Such a Constitutional Convention, for either framing or ratification, is one of America’s greatest contributions, if not her greatest contribution, to the mechanics of government–of self-government through constitutionally limited government, comparable in importance to America’s greatest contribution to the science of government: the formation and adoption by the sovereign people of a written Constitution as the basis for self-government. One of the earliest, if not the first, specific discussions of this new American development (a Constitutional Convention) in the historical records is an entry in June 1775 in John Adams’ “Autobiography” commenting on the framing by a convention and ratification by the people as follows:

“By conventions of representatives, freely, fairly, and proportionately chosen . . . the convention may send out their project of a constitution, to the people in their several towns, counties, or districts, and the people may make the acceptance of it their own act.”
Yet the first proposal in 1778 of a Constitution for Massachusetts was rejected for the reason, in part, as stated in the “Essex Result” (the result, or report, of the Convention of towns of Essex County), that it had been framed and proposed not by a specially chosen convention but by members of the legislature who were involved in general legislative duties, including those pertaining to the conduct of the war.

The first genuine and soundly founded Republic in all history was the one created by the first genuine Constitution, which was adopted by the people of Massachusetts in 1780 after being framed for their consideration by a specially chosen Constitutional Convention. (As previously noted, the so-called “Constitutions” adopted by some States in 1776 were mere Acts of Legislatures, not genuine Constitutions.) That Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts was the first successful one ever held in the world; although New Hampshire had earlier held one unsuccessfully – it took several years and several successive conventions to produce the New Hampshire Constitution of 1784. Next, in 1787-1788, the United States Constitution was framed by the Federal Convention for the people’s consideration and then ratified by the people of the several States through a Ratifying Convention in each State specially chosen by them for this sole purpose. Thereafter the other States gradually followed in general the Massachusetts pattern of Constitution-making in adoption of genuine Constitutions; but there was a delay of a number of years in this regard as to some of them, several decades as to a few.

This system of Constitution-making, for the purpose of establishing constitutionally limited government, is designed to put into practice the principle of the Declaration of Independence: that the people form their governments and grant to them only “just powers,” limited powers, in order primarily to secure (to make and keep secure) their God-given, unalienable rights. The American philosophy and system of government thus bar equally the “snob-rule” of a governing Elite and the “mob-rule” of an Omnipotent Majority. This is designed, above all else, to preclude the existence in America of any governmental power capable of being misused so as to violate The Individual’s rights–to endanger the people’s liberties.

With regard to the republican form of government (that of a republic), Madison made an observation in The Federalist (no. 55) which merits quoting here–as follows:

“As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government (that of a Republic) presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.” (Emphasis added.)

It is noteworthy here that the above discussion, though brief, is sufficient to indicate the reasons why the label “Republic” has been misapplied in other countries to other and different forms of government throughout history. It has been greatly misunderstood and widely misused–for example as long ago as the time of Plato, when he wrote his celebrated volume, The Republic; in which he did not discuss anything governmental even remotely resembling–having essential characteristics of–a genuine Republic. Frequent reference is to be found, in the writings of the period of the framing of the Constitution for instance, to “the ancient republics,” but in any such connection the term was used loosely–by way of contrast to a monarchy or to a Direct Democracy–often using the term in the sense merely of a system of Rule-by-Law featuring Representative government; as indicated, for example, by John Adams in his “Thoughts on Government” and by Madison in The Federalist numbers 10 and 39. But this is an incomplete definition because it can include a Representative Democracy, lacking a written Constitution limiting The Majority.

Using Splenda linked to Type 2 Dibetes, IBS and cancer

by Lynn Griffith

More and more Americans are dieting each year, resulting in a steady increase in revenue for the diet industry.  As of 2012, Americans spent 65 billion dollars attempting to lose weight.  One of the largest markets were diet soda, with Americans spending 21.15 billion dollars.

American’s spent 21.15 billion dollars on diet soda in 2012

Many people understand that high sugar intake is directly connected to weight gain and other health concerns.  Many people turn to diet soda and artificial sweeteners believing that these items will benefit their health and weight loss goals.  However, the research shows that artificial sweeteners will not help you lose weight and can increase your chance to developing diabetes, cancer, and irritable bowel disease.

Artificial sweetened beverages linked to increase risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes

A 2013 study showed that both sugar-sweetened beverages and artificial sweetened beverages were linked to an increase risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.  Another study examined the long-term relationship between 3,682 individuals and artificial sweetener. The study showed that those who drink artificially sweetened beverages had a 47 percent higher increase in BMI than those who did not.

Ground-breaking research found that artificial sweetener, Splenda, may cause diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome and increase your risk of cancer.  Many people in the diabetes community were told by Splenda that it would not affect their blood sugar or metabolism.  The ingredients that make up splenda is chlorine, dextrose, and maltodextrin (a GMO corn derivative). Splenda is made by replacing hydrogen atoms with chlorine atoms. As a result, it is possible to get chlorine poisoning and cellular toxicity related to continual use of this product.

Regular use of Splenda can result in chlorine poisoning and cellular toxicity leading to Type 2 Diabetes, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Cancer

A study published in the Diabetes Care journal found that daily consumption of diet soda is associated with 36 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome and 67 percent greater risk of type 2 diabetes. It was also found that artificial sweeteners or sucralose destroys the probiotics within the body and can result in digestive disorders such as IBS or leaky gut.

A study completed by Xin Qin Md, PhD from New Jersey Medical School found that utilizing Splenda causes IBS, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. Dr. Qin made this discovery while studying the rapid increase of IBS among residents of Alberta, Canada. It was discovered that over a 20 year time period, the rate of IBS increased by 643 percent!  It was found that sucralose is more determinate on gut bacteria than other artificial sweeteners. It was also discovered that the body is unable to digest sucralose, having it pass through the body unaltered leaving behind damages in the intestinal walls that can result in leaky gut.

Studies from Duke University confirmed this research finding that Splenda not only reduces the beneficial bacteria in the gut but also increases the bodies fecal pH. Not only does Splenda result in digestive distress it is also linked to increase risk of cancer due to its ingredient profile.

The Merk Manual and OSHA Hazardous Waste Handbook reports that chlorine is a carcinogenic meaning that regular consumption, inhalation or absorption through the skin can result in cancer.  If you are exposed to a small amount of chlorine occasionally, the body is able to eliminate the chlorine through the bowels, kidney’s and liver, but consuming it daily could increase your cancer risk.

Another study published in Toxicology and Environmental Health found that with Splenda is brought to high temperatures it generates chloropropanols, which is a toxin linked to cancer.  Cooking with Splenda will increase the risk of harm to the body.

If your seeking an alternative sweetener, consider natural forms of stevia. Stevia has shown in studies to reduce feelings of hunger and calorie intake. Researchers have also found that stevia reduces post-meal glucose levels and helps to normalize blood sugar and reduce your risk for diabetes.

Sources included:
(1)  http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/diet-and-weight-loss-statistics/
(2) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/artificial-sweeteners/
(3) https://draxe.com/splenda-linked-diabetes-ibs-cancer/

Nearly 3 million gallons of toxic one mine fall on Mexican River

by David Bacon

Editor’s note:
This is a continuation of last week When the river turned yellow

In the late 1980s, the administration of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari first declared the Cananea mine bankrupt, and then sold it to the Larrea family’s Grupo Mexico for $475 million in 1990. That’s the equivalent of the last three months of Grupo Mexico’s current profits.

Salinas also sold the neighboring Nacozari mine, almost as big as Cananea, to the Larreas in 1988. In 1997, Grupo Mexico partnered with Pennsylvania-based Union Pacific to buy Mexico’s main north-south railroad for $527 million, and ended all passenger service. Two years later, Grupo Mexico bought ASARCO itself, its former parent, for $1.18 billion, gaining ownership of mines and smelters in the United States.  

Today, the corporation’s board of directors has interlocking ties with many Mexican banks and media companies, and with U.S. corporations as well. Director Claudio X. González Laporte, for instance, is board chair of Kimberley Clark de Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of the U.S. paper giant. González Laporte is a past director of General Electric, Kellogg, Home Depot, and the Mexican media giant Televisa, and was special adviser to the Mexican president.

By the late 1990s, Grupo Mexico had a history of labor conflicts, as it reduced payroll to increase profits. In 1997, railroad workers mounted strikes over plans to reduce their workforce of 13,000 by more than half. They lost. In 1998, Cananea miners struck over company demands to trim its directly employed labor force by 1,000 jobs, while hiring non-union workers at lower wages through contractors. Threatened with military occupation of the mine, miners ended their strike, but more than 800 were not rehired.

The miners were fighting a rearguard battle to keep the wages and conditions they’d won over decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mexican miners had better protective laws than miners in the United States, controlling exposure to the silica dust produced by crushing ore. They made good wages and lived in homes built with government loans.

After the miners lost the 1998 strike, however, Grupo Mexico disconnected exhaust ventilation pipes on the roof of its main ore concentrator building. Dust in work areas reached knee-high levels. Grupo Mexico also closed the Hospital Ronquillo, which had provided health care to miners’ families. For 80 years, the mine had been responsible for providing water service to the town. After the strike, Grupo Mexico said the town had to fend for itself.  

When Grupo Mexico announced it was terminating 135 workers who maintained the tailings ponds, miner Rene Enriquez Leon warned that a spill could reach the headwaters of the Sonora River and the farming region downstream. “It would be an ecological disaster,” he predicted.  

In 2006, an explosion in Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Nueva Rosita, Coahuila, trapped 65 miners underground. After six days, the company and government authorities called off rescue attempts. The head of the union, Napoleon Gómez Urrutia, accused those responsible of “industrial homicide.” In response, the government charged him with fraud.

Gómez fled Mexico and was given sanctuary in Canada, where he’s lived with the assistance of the United Steelworkers (the union for U.S. copper miners). After years of appeals, Mexican courts threw out the charges against him. Nevertheless, Gomez continues to stay in Canada, since the government won’t guarantee his safety and freedom if he returns.

Antonio Navarette, who began working in Cananea in 1985, says that by the mid-2000s the lack of safety was producing “a psychosis of fear. Once you went in, you didn’t know if you’d come back out again.” The machinery wasn’t given preventative maintenance, he charges, including collectors for evacuating dust. Accidents grew more frequent; workers lost hands and fingers. The accelerating problems, he believes, “made it clear that the company was pushing us to go on strike. But we decided things couldn’t continue, because otherwise we were going to die there.”

For the first three years of the strike, Mexican labor law kept the company from legally operating the facility. Then the government declared the strike illegal, and in 2010, federal soldiers and police occupied the town and reopened the Cananea mine. Despite that, Seccion 65 continues to organize strike activity. The union also continued to monitor safety issues. In 2009, the miners’ strike committee warned Eduardo Bours, governor of Sonora, that “a spill that could have very serious consequences, since on April 14 the company withdrew its emergency personnel and with them the union workforce responsible for maintaining the tailings dam, which could put the population below the dam in danger.” The committee got no answer.

Five years later, the predicted spill finally occurred. At one in the morning, Navarette, a leader of the striking union, saw an appeal for help on Facebook from a doctor in Bacanuchi, the first town on the Bacanuchi River below the mine. “We went there right away,” he remembers. “The townspeople, even the children, were all crying. No one knew what could be done. Even Gila monster lizards and coyotes were fleeing from the danger.”

The strikers became the primary source of information for the affected towns, he says. “We always worried conditions in the mine could affect the communities. We began to help them organize, because we needed to join forces to get the company to listen.” That was the beginning of the Frente Rio Sonora-the Sonora River Front.

Today, the Front is headed by Marco Antonio Garcia, a farmer and former union miner from Baviacora. Garcia, whose deeply lined face shows the impact of a life working in the high desert, farms 75 acres-more than most local farmers, who cultivate just a few. When the farmers had to throw away their crops because of the contamination, he lost $33,000.  

It wasn’t just personal loss that pushed him into action. “If we don’t win, we’re lost,” he says, “and the most important thing people on the Rio Sonora will lose is their dignity.

“The Frente was organized at the urging of Seccion 65 in Cananea,” he continues. “They began visiting all the towns along the river. They had their problem with the scrapping of their union contract, and we had our problem with the river. At first, some people said the miners spent all their time fighting. But in reality, they’re involved in a big struggle. And so are we, if we want to have a future for the people of the Rio Sonora. The contamination of the river is going to last a lifetime.”

Protests first broke out in Ures, a month after the spill. “We started marching and blocking the highway,” recalls Lupita Poom, who now heads the Frente there. “These were all peaceful demonstrations, and hundreds of people took part. That’s when we began to meet the leaders from other towns on the river.” And as Navarette and other miners from Seccion 65 helped local groups get started, a bigger plan took shape. “We decided to do another planton [an organized encampment, like Occupy Wall Street], but this one directed at the mine,” Poom says.  

Martha Agupira says that when the miners came to Tahuichopa to invite people to the protest, “the municipal president told us that soldiers would come, and we’d be thrown in jail. But by then we had nothing, so why not go?”

Bye bye middle class: the rate of homeownership in the US has hit the lowest ever

The percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded

by Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse

During the second quarter of 2016, the non-seasonally adjusted homeownership rate fell to just 62.9 percent, which was exactly where it was at when the U.S. Census began publishing this measurement back in 1965.  This is not what a “recovery” looks like.  All throughout the Obama years, the percentage of Americans that own a home has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller.  The reason for this, of course, is that the middle class in America is dying.  Last year, we learned that middle class Americans now make up a minority of the population for the first time ever.  In order to have a high rate of homeownership, you need a thriving middle class, and you can’t have a thriving middle class without good paying middle class jobs.  This is why I write about the evisceration of the middle class so extensively, because the U.S. economy is systematically being hollowed out and most Americans don’t understand what is happening.

Traditionally, owning a home has been a sign that you have arrived as a member of the middle class, but under Barack Obama the percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen every single year.  In the past, we have talked about how it had fallen to the lowest level in decades, but now it has officially fallen to the lowest level ever.  The following comes from CNBC…

After rising just over a decade ago to its highest level ever, the nation’s homeownership rate fell to match its all-time low and could drop even further in the months to come.

In the second quarter of this year, the rate fell to 62.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted, which is the same as it was in 1965, when the U.S. Census started tracking the metric. During the epic housing boom in the mid-2000s, the rate soared as high as 69.2 percent. That was when politicians touted the so-called “ownership society.”

So why is this happening?

Well, according to Wolf Richter analysts are blaming many factors…

• Rising home prices in an economy of stagnant wages (for the lower 80 percent) have pushed entry-level homes out of reach for many people.

• Lower priced homes in many urban areas entail a huge and costly ($ and time) commute every day. And even then, these homes may be too much of stretch for big parts of the population in expensive urban areas.

• First time buyers are having trouble saving for a down payment since they spend their last available dime to meet soaring rents.
• Millennials have been blamed. They always get blamed for everything. They saw their parents deal with the American Dream as it turned into the American Nightmare, and they learned their lesson early in life.

• The super-low interest rate environment hasn’t made homes more affordable because home prices, in response to super-low interest rates, have soared, and in the end, mortgage payments are higher than they were before.

• Higher home prices entail other costs that are higher, including taxes, brokerage fees, and insurance.

Certainly all of those points are legitimate, but the truth is that what we are facing is much broader than all of that.  The middle class in the United States has been dying for decades, and in recent years the long-term trends that have been slowly eating away at the middle class like cancer have accelerated significantly.  Just consider these numbers…

-In America today, nobody has a job in one out of every five families.

-At this moment, 102 million working age Americans do not have a job.

-According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of American workers currently make less than $30,000 a year.

-In 1970, the middle class brought home approximately 62 percent of all income. Today, that number has plunged to just 43 percent.

-The Federal Reserve says that 47 percent of Americans could not pay an unexpected $400 emergency room bill without borrowing the money from somewhere or selling something.

-One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 in savings.

-If you currently have no debt and you also have ten dollars in your pocket, that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of all Americans.

-According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day.  If you can believe it, that number has doubled since 1996.

-Back in 2007, approximately one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. Today, that number is one out of every five.

-Things continue to get worse for the middle class as we head into the second half of 2016.  Gallup’s U.S. economic confidence index just hit the lowest level so far this year.

I could keep quoting numbers at you all day, but hopefully you are getting the picture.

The middle class in America just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and our politicians just keep on conducting business as usual.  They don’t seem to care that they are strangling the life out of what was once the largest and most thriving middle class in the history of the planet.

And things could soon get much worse for the middle class as this new global economic crisis accelerates.  In fact, highly respected economist Peter Schiff believes that a major downturn in the U.S. is imminent…

HERE IS THE REALITY: The world has caught on, and the gig is up. Under Obama’s stewardship, the U.S. national debt has gone from $10 Trillion, to what will be $20 Trillion by the time he leaves office, with nothing more than 100 MILLION Americans out of work, and 50 million in poverty and on food stamps. That’s what cheap money bought for us. It was all “borrowed” cheap money too, making it infinitely worse, and the world is tired of lending.

There are so many families out there that are really struggling right now, and more than two-thirds of all Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track.

I would like to tell you that happy days are here again and that the best times for America are just around the corner, but unlike the politicians at the Republican and Democratic national conventions, I am not going to lie to you.

Very rough times are coming, and things are going to get much harder for the middle class.

Plan accordingly, and get prepared while you still can.

More than 46,000 Central American children detained in Mexico

by the El Reportero’s wire services

From January to April, 46,887 Central American migrants have been arrested by Mexican authorities for crossing illegally the southern border, according to a report issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and published in this capital.

The number of those arrested in 2015 for entering illegally reached 190,000, with 170,000 coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

They estimated that up to 400,000 people cross the border annually, without identity documents.
The UNHCR also explained that 36,000 Central American children were arrested and 18,000 of them were not accompanied by any relative.

More than 4,000 Honduran minors deported in 2016

Mexican and US migratory authorities have deported more than 4,000 Honduran minors this year, who were trying to cross their borders unaccompanied, official sources warned today.

A report by the Consular and Migratory Observatory of the Honduran Foreign Secretary’s Office said that the number of children and adolescents deported since January had already reached 4,156 and at least 20,000 had tried to enter the United States illegally in the last two years.

The humanitarian organization Home Alliance recently reported that from January to May alone, Mexico deported 2,842 Honduran minors who were traveling unaccompanied.

According to human rights organizations, thousands of Hondurans depart for the United States every year, seeking jobs, while minors do it to be reunited with relatives and escape the violence in this Central American country.

The number of minors who leave Honduras and risk their lives to cross Guatemala and Mexico, is still considerable.

Violent weekend in Mexico leaves 100 dead

The bloody violence in Mexico this weekend has left more than 100 people dead, mostly due to fighting between criminal groups, it was reported today.

More than 50 people were killed on Friday and Saturday in 10 states, in clashes with state and federal security forces.

The state of Mexico, adjacent to the capital, experienced another violent event yesterday, in which three people, including a woman, were killed.

Guerrero, Michoacan, Zatatecas, Hidalgo, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and the state of Mexico have also been the scene of such events, according to the newspaper La Jornada.

Police chief murdered in Nicaragua

The National Police Chief in the Nicaraguan department of Boaco, Major commissioner of Buenaventura, Miranda, has been murdered in front of his house, according to reports today by the second-in-command of the institution, general commissioner, Francisco Diaz.

According to Diaz, who was quoted by El 19 Digital, preliminary information indicates that he was killed last night in front of his house, located in Santa Isabel town, Boaco city.

He also stated that technical teams of experts are at the crime scene to inspect, preserve and investigate the case.

Guatemala to host Forum of East Asia and Latin America

Guatemala will host from August 24th to 26th the 17th meeting of senior officials from the Forum of East Asia and Latin America (FEALAC), said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the press release issued by the Foreign Ministry, the meeting will be attended by delegates from Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Bolivia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

FEALAC is made up also by Australia, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

Cooperation in development, food security, energy, transport, small and medium enterprises, protection against disasters caused by weather and tourism are the subjects on which the 34 country members of the bloc share their experiences.

Retired Attorney Available for Legal Coaching

Retired Attorney (J.D., Ph.D., no active state license) Available for Private Coaching in research, rhetoric and argument: 25 years experience as a trial and appellate lawyer in both civil and criminal law.

“I am a legal coach available for those who represent themselves in the legal system.” “Do it Yourself” lawyers are on the rise due to the high price of legal services coupled with the low quality of licensed representation, together with the equalization provided
by the Internet.

Put my years of experience in the trenches to work for you. 504-777-5021.

Se habla español.

Legends of Afro-Cuban percussion

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Cuban multi-percussionist extraordinaire and living legend, Orestes Vilato, is indisputably one of history’s greatest innovators and pioneers of the Cuban drums known as Timbales. His particular combination of taste, sound, chops and experience puts him in a class by himself.

Cuban born percussionist and vocalist Jesus Díaz arrived in the United States from Habana in 1980. He quickly identified the Bay Area music scene as the grounds to establish his new home. His local and worldwide performances in collaboration with world renowned and acclaimed artists are recognized for their contributions to the richness of an ever expanding musical genre worldwide. A multi-instrumentalist, arranger and vocalist, Díaz has established himself as one of the most in-demand performers and studio musicians world-wide.

Carlos Caro was born in Havana, Cuba in 1967.  He began a new stage in his career in 1990 as the first bongocero for Opus 13, a band that eventually became Paulo y Su Elite. During his two and a half year involvement with the band, he recorded two albums.

Multi Grammy-nominated percussionist, bandleader, 2012 San Francisco Latino Heritage Arts Award winner, SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director (2013 & 2014) and US Artists Fontanals Fellow, John Santos, is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the world today, known for his innovative use of traditional forms and instruments in combination with contemporary music.
Orestes Vilató, Jesús Díaz, Carlos Caro & John Santos with The John Santos Sextet: Melecio Magdaluyo, sax; John Calloway, flute, Saul Sierra, bass, Marco Díaz, piano, David Flores, drums.

At Yoshi’s world renowned jazz spot, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland.

In Oakland’s historic Jack London Square, Friday, Aug. 12. Two shows: 8 and 10 p.m.  For more info visit: www.yoshis.com or call at (510) 238-9200.


Dance Brigade Auditions, be a part of history!

Dance Brigade is seeking female and male professional dancers with strong technique in ballet and modern (partnering experience +) for Dance Brigade’s 40th Anniversary Celebration at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on January 13 and 14, 2017. 
3316 24th Street and Mission. Paid rehearsals and performances. Rehearsals begin Sept. 19, 2016, Mondays 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.  At 3316 24th Street and Mission Streets, SF.

Please bring resume and photo. For more info call 415 826-4401 or email dancebrigade1984@gmail.com

Farmworkers Reality Tour

Participants will develop a better understanding of the working conditions of Mexican farmworkers in Northern California. At the Buena Vista Migrant Labor Camp, the workers will show their living quarters and will give testimonies of their working conditions and the challenges their children encounter in receiving education.

On July 31 we will have the opportunity to connect with farmworker families, hear their stories, and learn from Dr. Ann López, author of the Farmworker’s Journey. 

Meet at Human Agenda office: 1376 N. 4th St. San Jose, California. We will carpool to Watsonville. Attire: Jeans, T-shirts, comfortable closed tow shoes, etc. 

If you have any questions, you may contact Cesar Juarez at (408) 421-2895, or by email at crj586@gmail.com.
 
Please mail your $40 donation per person to 1376 N. 4th Street, Suite 101, San Jose, CA 95112. Make check payable to “Human Agenda.” Proceeds go to the farm worker families hosting the tour. Limited to the first 25 people who register and pay by July 27th (includes lunch). Children with parents welcome.

Colombian film gets more Awards Platinum

by the El Reportero’s news services

The Colombian film El abrazo de la serpiente (‘’The embrace of the snake’’) won seven Platinum Awards on Monday, including for the best Ibero-American fiction film, at the gala held at the Convention Center in this city.

The Argentinian-Venezuelan co-production, directed by Colombian Ciro Guerra, received awards in the categories of Director, Original Music, Film Editing, Photography, Sound and Art Direction.

In addition to this film, Ixcanul, from Guatemala; the Argentinian-Spanish co-production El clan, the Chilean The Club, and Truman, from Spain, were competing for the title of best film production during the third edition of the Platinum Awards.

The Argentinian Guillermo Francella was awarded for the best male performance for his role in El clan, while Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi was selected as the best female performer for her performance in Argentinian-Brazilian co-production ‘Paulina’.

In the category of best screenplay the winners were Pablo Larrain, Guillermo Calderon and Daniel Villalobos, for the screenplay of El Club, directed by Larrain.

The Platinum Award for best animation production went to the Spanish film Atrapa la bandera (‘Capture the Flag’), by Enrique Gato; while the Chilean El botón de nácar (‘The Nacre Button’), directed by Patricio Guzman, was named best documentary.

Ixcanul, by Jayro Bustamante, received the best Opera Prima Award, and the Brazilian film ¿Que horas ela volta? (‘At What time Does She Come Back?), by Anna Muylaert, won the Platinum Award for Film and Education in Values.

The Platinum Award of Honor of the Latin American Film Industry went to the Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin.

The Audience Awards were obtained by the film Ixcanul, Darin for his performance in Truman, and Penelope Cruz for her role in Ma Ma.
Eight hundred eighty-six audiovisual productions, premiered in 2015, competed in the third edition of the Platinum Awards, representing 23 countries. Twenty-six of the premiered films reached the finals.

The Fourth Edition of the Platinum Awards will take place next year in Madrid, Spain, announced Luis Cueto, coordinator of the Madrid Town Hall, during the awards gala.

Gente de Zona wants another summer with La Macarena and Los del Río

Cuban duo ‘’Gente de Zona’’ are filling social networks and specialized media websites with a new version of the song La Macarena together with the artists who made the song popular, Los del Rio.

Six days after the new version – called Mas Macarena – was premiered at the 13rd edition of the Premios Juventud Awards in the US city of Miami, Florida, the new single CD and video with the sounds of the song has been viewed 500,000 times on YouTube.

The new version, with much more electronic sounds, still preserves a great deal of the original sound and allows members of Los del Rio, Antonio Romero and Rafael Perdigones (Seville, Spain), who are celebrating 50 years together, to incorporate some lines in Flamenco, while Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcolm give the song elements of urban rap.

After the premiere, the artists went to Cuba, to film the video on the island, under the guidance of Venezuelan, Daniel Duran, who has worked with Gilberto Santa Rosa and Wisin.

The original version of La Macarena was recorded, published and broadcast in 1993 and included in a CD called A Mi Me Gusta.

It has been sung and danced to all over the world, becoming a world musical hit and reaching the top of the list of musical hits in the US specialized music magazine, Billboard. It is one of the most important single hits in the history of Hispanic music.

Media covert ops and the alternate universe

— George W Bush and Obama would never have emerged out of obscurity. Bush would be, at best, the part owner of a baseball team; and Obama, a man pounding the streets of Chicago trying to make a name for himself —

by Jon Rappoport

This article is based on my 30 years as a reporter, during which I’ve had many private conversations with mainstream journalists and editors. This isn’t speculation. This is how the game works.

Most media covert ops and cover-ups involve the omission of information. What is not published is important. What is published is cover, diversion, distraction, and limited hangout (the exposure of partial and relatively harmless truth).

The truth is, the US government helped create ISIS, and funds it and backs it and weaponizes it? That truth is never revealed. What we get is: the US is fighting against ISIS.

The truth is, the US medical system kills 225,000 people a year like clockwork? What we get is: modern medicine is a living miracle, and new stunning breakthroughs are right around the corner.

As I explained on my most recent Fade To Black radio segment with Jimmy Church, there is a potential contagion factor. If one boggling buried truth were revealed via major media, if it were exposed, and if reporters pounded on it week after week, the public would start to wake up and think: well, maybe there are other truths the media are covering up.

For example, fluoride. If the public became aware that the EPA’s own union of scientists has been attacking fluoride since 1999, labeling the chemical as a cause of cancer and lowered IQ, the next thought would be: are there other chemicals we don’t know anything about? What about pesticides? What about medical drugs? What about vaccines? How harmful are they?

And if major media did, in fact, start pounding on pesticides and exposing the truth about their harm, the contagion factor would escalate—and so forth and so on…

And if this contagion factor had caught on, say, 20 years ago in the press, we would now be living a different world.

An alternative universe, so to speak. Things would be vastly different. Heavy hitters would be in jail. Their trials would have been major spectacles. People would have a completely different view of government and corporate crimes.

The dangers to life and limb would have been laid out in full view. Reforms would have been enacted, under great pressure.
In other words, if the press had been doing its relentless job, on behalf of the people, life would not be the same.

Imagine that.

You need a bit of imagination to see it, to see what could be.

This isn’t fluff or speculation. This is the hard reality.

Let me give you another example. When the Globalist trade treaty, NAFTA, was signed into being in the mid-1990s, if a mainstream news editor told his reporters, “Look, we know this is madness. We know this is going to gut American jobs and hollow out a big piece of the US economy, and you sons of bitches are going to go out and document this, chapter and verse, for the next five years, in towns and cities, and we’re going to publish it, piece by piece, and put it all together and show the people what’s being done to them and their families and their future—“ If that had happened, other news outlets would have picked up on it, too, and Bush One and Clinton would now be pariahs of the first order. They’d be Al Capones. They’d be illustrations of political criminals held up for all to see and remember. And NAFTA would have been repealed, and the Globalist march to predatory corporate triumph would have been squelched like a bug.

And we would be living in an alternate universe. Jobs in the US would be plentiful. Bush Two and Obama would never have emerged out of obscurity. Bush would still be part owner of a Texas baseball team and Obama would still be pounding the streets of Chicago, trying to make a name for himself as a community organizer. Hillary Clinton would be trying to raise pittances for a barely surviving foundation, and she would have offloaded Bill years ago as a useless partner.

“You’re radioactive, baby. Close the door on your way out.”

Believe me, I know why the press doesn’t do its job. I know all the reasons. But the point is, reporters were originally tasked, in a Republic, with exposing the inevitable excesses and crimes of politicians and big businessmen.

And now…we have the exponential rise, online, of the independent reporter. The tilt of the news see-saw is changing. The whole enterprise is reverting to its original purpose.

It’s not too late. It’s never too late. The game is afoot. The outcome is never a done deal.

There are moments when, if you want to, you can see and feel and touch a different present and future. You can feel it hovering in the air, waiting to be born.

The news the public sees is not news. It never was. But the endless repetition of it makes it news in people’s minds. They can’t imagine it could be something else.

That’s the illusion.

The lies, the omissions, the cover stories, the anchors, the style of presentation, the studio sets, the collection of so-called experts—it all collaborates to produce an effect in the audience: this is what news is; anything else would not be news.
Reality is built, maintained, funded, and sold.

Actually, reality is as elastic as taffy. It is always on the verge of becoming something quite different. It takes great effort to hold it in one shape and keep it there.

From the time of the earliest television anchors, men like John Daly and Edward Murrow; and going back much further into radio news, and then back into print news, the key has been: pretended authority.

Major media cultivate employees who can deliver authority.

But that star is fading.

There are now many ways of conveying information. Independent reporters are just beginning to discover and plumb and imagine and invent how they can overcome the tower of fake authority. How they can deliver actual news.

Many styles of approach are coming into being—and I’m not just talking about technological innovations. I’m talking about personal approaches. I’m talking about what the news could and will be, when individuals—more of more of them—see they can launch and project their own energies along with deeper and deeper fact. Launch their own energies, their own voices, their own reactions to authoritarian lies, their own passions, their own, yes, art. Because news is art. It is art with fact. It is art with discovery. It is unlimited.
All this is in the process of happening, before our eyes.

The new day isn’t coming. It’s here.

The android freak show is closing down.

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

An important distinction: Democracy vs Republic, which one is best for individual liberty? Part 2

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

Most people pretty often hear here and there accusations among political contenders of being anti-democratic, while demanding ‘more democracy.’ Most consider the United a States a Democracy regardless that only two traditional political parties – which many believe are partners – are allowed in the debates – while other less known parties are blocked from participating. The majority talk about Democracy as the safeguard of liberty, but, is it? How about a Republican form of government – we never hear public debates about it. Was the US created as a Democracy or a Republic? The following article – which doesn’t identifies its author – brings light about the difference of the two. You, the reader have the last word.
THIS IS PART 2 OF A SERIES.

An important distinction: Democracy versus Republic, which one is best for individual liberty?

by anonymous author

This topic–the danger to the people’s liberties due to the turbulence of democracies and omnipotent, legislative majority–is discussed in The Federalist, for example in numbers 10 and 48 by Madison (in the latter noting Jefferson’s above-quoted comments).

The Framing Convention’s records prove that by decrying the “excesses of democracy” The Framers were, of course, not opposing a popular type of government for0 the United States; their whole aim and effort was to create a sound system of this type. To contend to the contrary is to falsify history. Such a falsification not only maligns the high purpose and good character of The Framers but belittles the spirit of the truly Free Man in America–the people at large of that period–who happily accepted and lived with gratification under the Constitution as their own fundamental law and under the Republic which it created, especially because they felt confident for the first time of the security of their liberties thereby protected against abuse by all possible violators, including The Majority momentarily in control of government. The truth is that The Framers, by their protests against the “excesses of democracy,” were merely making clear their sound reasons for preferring a Republic as the proper form of government. They well knew, in light of history, that nothing but a Republic can provide the best safeguards–in truth in the long run the only effective safeguards (if enforced in practice)–for the people’s liberties which are inescapably victimized by Democracy’s form and system of unlimited Government-over-Man featuring The Majority Omnipotent. They also knew that the American people would not consent to any form of government but that of a Republic. It is of special interest to note that Jefferson, who had been in Paris as the American Minister for several years, wrote Madison from there in March 1789 that:

“The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable dread at present, and will be for long years. That of the executive will come it’s turn, but it will be at a remote period.”

Somewhat earlier, Madison had written Jefferson about violation of the Bill of Rights by State legislatures, stating:

“Repeated violations of those parchment barriers have been committed by overbearing majorities in every State. In Virginia I have seen the bill of rights violated in every instance where it has been opposed to a popular current.”

It is correct to say that in any Democracy–either a Direct or a Representative type–as a form of government, there can be no legal system which protects The Individual or The Minority (any or all minorities) against unlimited tyranny by The Majority. The undependable sense of self-restraint of the persons making up The Majority at any particular time offers, of course, no protection whatever. Such a form of government is characterized by The Majority Omnipotent and Unlimited. This is true, for example, of the Representative Democracy of Great Britain; because unlimited government power is possessed by the House of Lords, under an Act of Parliament of 1949–indeed, it has power to abolish anything and everything governmental in Great Britain.

For a period of some centuries ago, some English judges did argue that their decisions could restrain Parliament; but this theory had to be abandoned because it was found to be untenable in the light of sound political theory and governmental realities in a Representative Democracy. Under this form of government, neither the courts not any other part of the government can effectively challenge, much less block, any action by The Majority in the legislative body, no matter how arbitrary, tyrannous, or totalitarian they might become in practice. The parliamentary system of Great Britain is a perfect example of Representative Democracy and of the potential tyranny inherent in its system of Unlimited Rule by Omnipotent Majority. This pertains only to the potential, to the theory, involved; governmental practices there are irrelevant to this discussion.

Madison’s observations in The Federalist number 10 are noteworthy at this point because they highlight a grave error made through the centuries regarding Democracy as a form of government. He commented as follows:

“Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed, that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.”

Democracy, as a form of government, is utterly repugnant to–is the very antithesis of–the traditional American system: that of a Republic, and its underlying philosophy, as expressed in essence in the Declaration of Independence with primary emphasis upon the people’s forming their government so as to permit them to possess only “just powers” (limited powers) in order to make and keep secure the God-given, unalienable rights of each and every Individual and therefore of all groups of Individuals. (WILL CONTINUE ON THE NEXT WEEK EDITION).

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