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In the 36th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution

FROM THE EDITOR:

Dear reader:

July 19 is a big day for the land of my birth: Nicaragua. It is the anniversary of the hope of a new day of freedom and progress, after the ousting of the dynastic dictatorship of 45 years. This dictatorship had governed the destiny of the country as a private farm and the people were preparing to leave behind the poverty, and the suffering of war and were heading towards reconciliation between Nicaraguans.
But nowadays, another family has taken over the power, and the previous dictatorial abuse repeats itself again, and on a greater scale.
That’s why today, in this edition, I cede the editorial space to a proclamation of a political organization that shows the way and calls for the awakening of a people who sleep while their country is vandalized, its people repressed and their freedom stolen. More painful than this, her sovereignty is being sold abroad. This political organization is the Renovator Sandinista Movement. – Marvin Ramírez

Beautiful Nicaragua inspires our efforts

We commemorate the 36th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution that represented new hope for the Nicaraguan people, having ousted the Somocista dictatorship that had dominated the country for 45 years. Through the will of thousands of young people, girls and boys, and the participation of most of the people, national unity and international solidarity, made that heroic exploit possible at that moment.
Nicaraguans suffered through lack of freedoms and democracy; no election was clean; justice was nonexistent; poverty was overwhelming to the majority and repression was the response to any protest, or any social, economic or political demand.
During the ensuing decades, in every generation of Nicaraguans, there arose patriots who wanted to oust that dictatorship. Many people suffered jail, torture, and exile. Many fell down in combat or were murdered. They sacrificed for us to be able to enjoy a different Nicaragua!
Now, again, an ambitious family tries to turn Nicaragua into their own property and enrich themselves while the majority of the people is still kept in poverty and abandonment. Government institutions do not serve the people, only the family in power and its interests. There have been many electoral frauds, corruption is promoted and protected and there is impunity for those who live under the umbrella of power.
The National Police that are mandated to protect us, do not do it and instead have turned into a political police state, which abuses its power and violates human rights, including the right to life of Nicaraguans. Injustice and discrimination prevail in Nicaragua.
In every corner of the country, every Nicaraguan knows that we cannot continue to live this way. A country in which children are murdered by the police with impunity, is not well. A country in which thousands of peasants are threatened by the government to be deprived of their property, is not well. We have to make changes. We will have safety in this endeavor only when the people are united, everyone participates in civic actions, and we have the right to protest and mobilize.
Now is the time to take action, to work, to fight with optimism and hope to make a sovereign Nicaragua a reality, with opportunities, progress, solidarity and democracy for all.
As Nicaraguans we deserve opportunities for employment, education and quality health care, and good social security. We deserve good living conditions, with the expectation that we can make improvements for our families and communities, We deserve to be, and can be, a progressive country, in which producers, businesspeople and cooperatives are stimulated and can be sure of working and investing, without fear of their assets being confiscated, unjustly expropriated or taken by public institutions. We can achieve a progress that improves life for everyone.
Those who fought and fell down to oust the Somocista dictatorship dreamed of a Nicaragua without poverty, without malnutrition, without illiteracy and with equality between men and women. They dreamed of a Nicaragua of solidarity, where the State would provide scholarships, support, credits and housing to those in need, without discrimination, without alienation, without favoritism, without personal connections.
Nicaraguans, women and men, need democracy to be free to express ourselves, to take part of the public decisions, to decide what we want for our lives, our community and our country. We can achieve a country with honest officials who attend to the problems of the people, with equal justice, with police officers and military who are respectful of life and human rights; with institutions that work in accordance with the law and serve all without discrimination.
Those who fought and fell down throughout the decades, did it to have a sovereign country, which was not dominated by the interests of one company, country or foreign force, not to be sold to the highest bidder, as has been done by the betrayer, Orteguismo.
At this commemoration, the dream of a beautiful Nicaragua moves us and cheers us up, as it cheered other generations of Nicaraguans in the past.
We know that we can achieve it, but for it to become a reality, it is necessary to be open to the possibilities of changing the current situation through the civic and political decisions of the people, through the vote of the people, so that other generations of Nicaraguans never again have to resort to taking up arms. For this to happen, we must demand changes in the electoral system that would guarantee every Nicaraguan that his vote will be counted, that his vote will decide the future of the country, and that there will be clean and honest elections. We give homage to the heroes and martyrs, who, for more than 40 years contributed to the overthrow of another family dictatorship that, as is the current one, was keeping Nicaragua oppressed. We give respect and gratitude to those who fell down for democracy and freedom, in the fight for national sovereignty. We give respect and gratitude to those who knew how to raise their voices and their arms for a better Nicaragua.
We remember today these lives, all of those who were not touched by corruption and servility; who were not dominated by fear and apathy; who were incorruptible, generous, honest, optimistic, hopeful, loyal and would not compromise our people and our homeland.
Faithful to this legacy and this example, we renovators will be still determined to work to clear the way for the construction of a beautiful Nicaragua with opportunities, progress, solidarity, democracy and sovereignty for all.

National board of directors of the MRS

Managua, July, 2015

Why the Chinese don’t get join pain?

by Jesse Cannone –
Post Rehab Specialist

Doctor accidentally discovers why cartilage deteriorates (and how to stop it… using secret hidden in a proven cancer & heart treatment).

Recommends 4 cups a day of popular Asian drink to reduce risk of arthritis

This story didn’t get much press.
But, over 10 years ago a doctor had a hunch that a proven therapy for cancer and heart disease could work wonders for people with arthritis too.
He went about testing his hypothesis…
And on April 2005 he presented his findings to the National Academy of Sciences. When he tested his theory on mice (which is standard procedure) NONE developed severe arthritis! In fact, over 55 percent of the mice got NO arthritis whatsoever!
He tested his theory again not once, but twice. And came up with the same results.
An independent follow up study discovered why his hunch saves joints. It turns out this…
Stops cell suicide!
You see, cells called human articular chondrocytes rebuild worn away cartilage inside your joints. But – for reasons that are not yet completely clear – sometimes these cells self destruct.
This name for this process is apoptosis.
When this happens, your body cannot fix normal, everyday, wear and tear to your joints… and as a result… you develop arthritis.
However, when given this treatment, human articular chondrocytes did NOT commit apoptosis… and therefore… continued to rebuild cartilage… and joints healed (instead of slowly breaking down).
What protects the joints
And it’s all thanks to a type of compound called polyphenols.
These occur naturally in plants and are powerful antioxidants… even more powerful than Vitamin C.
In addition to stopping cell suicide, they protect your body from oxidative stress caused by inflammation (which is another reason why the doctor believed it would help arthritis sufferers as it did for the people suffering from cancer and heart disease… inflammation lies at the core of all three… and inflammation inside joints is one of the top 5 reasons arthritis occurs in the first place).
The specific type of polyphenol the cancer doctor found effective in combating arthritis is something called Epigallocatechin Gallate.
It’s also known as ECGC and is the main antioxidant found in green tea.
4 Cups a Day Reduces Arthritis Aches
Early experiments proved just how effective EGCG is against arthritis.
In the paper, “Prevention of Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Mice by a Polyphenolic Fraction of Green Tea” Dr. Hasan Mukhtar shared the results of green tea extract given to mice. Out of the 18 mice given green tea extract, 10 never developed any arthritic symptoms and the remaining eight had a much milder form of arthritis than normal.
The dose was equivalent to drinking 4 cups of green tea a day.
The results are so intriguing, human trials are currently underway. Nobody has shown any form of toxicity associated with tea.
For this reason, Dr. Mukhtar (and lead author of the paper, Dr. Tariq M. Haqqi) recommend anyone concerned about arthritis drink 4 cups of green tea a day.
However, it’s important to note green tea only stops the deterioration of joints. It DOES NOT heal you if you are already arthritic.

Living in plain sight, without papers

by Viji Sundaram

RICHMOND, Calif. – “I once lived in fear, but then I realized I didn’t do anything wrong and I should stop being afraid,” says 36-year-old Tomasa Espinoza.
It’s hard to tell whether Espinoza inspired her husband, Jesus Pérez, or if it was the other way around. But ever since they came to the United States over a decade ago, the two have never hesitated to make their voices heard for causes they believe in.
Neither of them thinks that being undocumented should force them to live in the shadows.
“We didn’t do anything wrong coming here,” Pérez said. “We just want a better life.”
If there’s an immigrants rights rally in Sacramento, you can be sure Espinoza will be there with her team of West Contra Costa County fellow activists. She has taken part in the recent campaign to demand health care for all Californians, regardless of their immigration status. She was also there participating in the “I was not born in California, but California was born in me” rallies.
Far from worrying about having his wife outing herself, Pérez says he is proud of what she does.
“I admire what she does,” he says. “She believes immigrants have rights too, and I support that idea.”
“We are big dreamers and there’s nothing wrong in that,” Espinoza adds, her husband interpreting for her.
Pérez says that he has been driving since he bought a car from the money he’d saved up doing construction jobs, months after coming to the United States. He knew he couldn’t get a driver’s license because he was undocumented, but he also knew that his freelancing gigs required him to be mobile.
“If I let fear overcome me, I wouldn’t be able to feed my family,” says Pérez, who recently got a license under California’s AB 60 law. Under it, any California resident will be able to apply for a driver’s license. The law was passed last year.
Espinoza also required transportation to take her from one office-cleaning job to another, so she got behind the wheel without a license as soon as she learned to drive. The desire to send her three children to a reputed charter school in Richmond and take them to other activities trumped her fear of getting pulled over by a cop. She is now in the process of getting herself a driver’s license under AB 60.
She quit working about seven years ago because she wasn’t making enough to pay for day care for her children. That freed her up to more fully engage herself politically.
But the couple acknowledges that not having documentation limits them in many ways, especially in protecting their own civil rights.
For instance, they would have liked to find out why their former landlord in Richmond evicted them last year without giving them adequate notice. The lawyers they consulted simply told them they couldn’t do much because of their undocumented status. It was this personal experience that now gets Espinoza to Richmond City Council meetings when tenants’ rights are on the agenda.
Both Espinoza and Pérez have Emergency Medi-Cal cards, a benefit undocumented immigrants are eligible for. But it entitles them to only seek treatment for an emergency medical condition and pregnancy-related services.
Espinoza is worried because she was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
“I have three children and I need to stay healthy,” she says. “I am hoping that Senator Lara’s Health for All bill passes.”
They are also hoping that a federal Texas court will allow President Obama’s recent executive action on DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) to move forward. The program gives a three-year temporary reprieve from deportation to parents of U.S. citizens or green card holders, parents like Espinoza and Pérez. All three of their children — nine, seven and four years old — were born in the United States.
One of the first things Pérez wants to do after getting DAPA is to open his own construction firm. He is a licensed electrician, plumber and painter. If he does, Espinoza says she would like to work alongside her husband, after acquiring a few skills.
“Why not,” she says, looking at her open palms. “I am strong and I can learn.”

Trans Pacific Parnership: Corporate escape from accountability

by Paul Craig Roberts
Analysis

Information has been leaked about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is being negotiated in secret by US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Six hundred corporate “advisors” are in on the know, but not Congress or the media. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate trade subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the TPP, has not been permitted to see the text or to know the content.
The TPP has been called a “one-percenter” power tool. The agreement essentially abolishes the accountability of foreign corporations to governments of countries with which they trade. Indeed, the agreement makes governments accountable to corporations for costs imposed by regulations, including health, safety and environmental regulations. The agreement gives corporations the right to make governments pay them for the cost of complying with the regulations of government. One wonders how long environmental, labor, and financial regulation can survive when the costs of compliance are imposed on the taxpayers of countries and not on the economic activity that results in spillover effects such as pollution.
Many will interpret the TPP as another big step toward the establishment of global government in the New World Order. However, what the TPP actually does is to remove corporations or the spillover effects of their activities from the reach of government. As the TPP does not transfer to corporations the power to govern countries, it is difficult to see how it leads to global government. The real result is global privilege of the corporate class as a class immune to government regulation.
One of the provisions allows corporations to avoid the courts and laws of countries by creating a private tribunal that corporations can use to sue governments for the costs of complying with regulation. Essentially, the laws of countries that apply to corporations are supplanted by decisions of a private tribunal of corporate lawyers.
The TPP is open to all countries. Currently, it is being negotiated between the US, Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Chile, and Peru. Australia, according to reports, has refused to submit to the private tribunal system.
What are we to make of the TPP? It is perhaps too early to have all the answers. However, I can offer some ways of thinking about it.
I doubt that the TPP is a New World Order takeover. If anything, the TPP reduces the scope of global government by exempting corporations from government control. Also, global government, unless it is government by the American Empire, is inconsistent with the neoconservatives insistence on US hegemony over the world. Powerful US ideological, private, and government interest groups have no intention of losing the power that they have acquired by being rolled into some New World Order unless the New World Order is a euphemism for American Empire.
In the criticisms of the TPP, much emphasis is placed on the costs that corporations of foreign members of the agreement can impose on the US. However, US corporations gain the same privileges over those countries, as the agreement gives every country’s corporations immunity to the other countries’ laws.
It could be the case that US corporations believe that their penetration of the other countries will greatly exceed the activities in the US of Brunei, New Zealand, Peru, et al. However, once Japan, Canada, China and others join TPP, the prospect of American firms getting more out of the agreement than foreign firms disappears, unless from the US perspective the definition of foreign firm includes US corporations that offshore the production of the goods and services that they market in the US. If this is the case, then US offshoring firms would be exempt not only from the laws and courts of foreign countries, but also exempt from the laws and courts of the US.
This point is possibly mute as the agreement requires all governments that are parties to the TPP to harmonize their laws so that the new corporate privileges are equally reflected in every country. To avoid discriminatory law against a country’s own corporations that do not engage in foreign trade, harmonization could mean that domestic corporations would be granted the same privileges as foreign investors. If not, domestic firms might acquire the privileges by setting up a foreign subsidiary consisting of an office.
As the TPP is clearly an agreement being pushed by US corporations, the implication is that US corporations see it as being to their relative advantage. However, it is unclear what this advantage is.
Alternatively, TPP is a strategy for securing exemption from regulation under the guise of being a trade agreement.
Another explanation, judging from the unusual collection of the initial parties to the agreement, is that the agreement is part of Washington’s strategy of encircling China with military bases, as the US has done to Russia. One would have thought that an agreement of such path-breaking nature would have begun with Japan, S. Korea, and Philippines. However, these countries are already part of China’s encirclement. Brunei, Singapore, New Zealand, and especially Vietnam would be valuable additions. Are the special privileges that Washington is offering these countries part of the bribe to become de facto outposts of American Empire?
Yet another explanation is that Ron Kirk is caught up in the deregulatory mindset that began with the repeal of Glass-Steagall and financial deregulation. If financial markets know best and are self-regulating, requiring no government interference, then so also are other markets and businesses.
The TPP is likely serving many agendas. As we learn more, the motives behind the TPP will become clearer. From my perspective as an economist and former member of government, the problem with Ron Kirk’s TPP is that the agreement is constructed to serve private, not public interests. Kirk is a public official charged with serving and protecting the public interest. Yet, he has conspired in secret with private interests to produce a document that exempts private corporations from public accountability.
There is a paradox here. While financial corporations and now all corporations are being made independent of government, US citizens have lost the protection of law and are now subject to being detained indefinitely or murdered without due process of law. Corporations gain an unimaginable freedom while citizens lose all freedom and the rights that define their freedom. Similarly, foreign countries, which as members of TPP can be exempt from US law, are subject to “pre-emptive” US violation of their air space and borders by drones and troops sent in to assassinate some suspected terrorist, but which also kill citizens of those countries who are merely going about their normal business.
Perhaps one way to understand TPP is that the US government is now extending its own right to be lawless to corporations. Just as the US government today is only answerable to itself, the TPP makes corporations answerable only to themselves.
Public Citizen’s analysis of TPP can be found here: http://www.citizen.org/documents/Leaked-TPP-Investment-Analysis.pdf and the leaked document here: http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/tppinvestment.pdf
This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts’ new website Institute For Political Economy in July 2, 2012. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.

Around 10,000 Mexican policemen to look for ‘Chapo’ Guzmán

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Some 10 000 federal police officers in Mexico were assigned to search for Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the Sinaloa cartel, including trained dogs to support the operation, it emerged today.
Interpol is also Looking for “El Chapo” Guzmán.
This will facilitate the checking of passenger and cargo vehicles, as to find clues that enable the capture of the man considered the most wanted drug trafficker in the world.
The Interior Ministry reported last night about the operating aimed at recapturing ‘El Chapo’, who escaped from the high security prison of Altiplano, in the state of Mexico last Saturday night.
The federal police will look in hospitals, hotels and funeral homes, while simultaneously distributed 100,000 flyers “with recent photographs of the fugitive”, he said.There are also warnings for the control of private flights and a rigorous passenger review.
The Secretariat also referred to the existence of 101 revision filters located in the main federal highways in 22 states of central and southern zones of the country.
As it was explained, one of the groups with greater specialization of the Federal Police is the Gendarmerie, which has about five thousand members. From these 180 members of special groups in this division, who perform search actions and location, were chosen.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was included in the list of the most wanted criminals by Interpol, to which 199 countries are linked. Guzman escaped from his cell through a tunnel 1.5 kilometers long leading to a house under construction.

 

Nicaragua police under fire after massacre of family
Anti-narcotics police in Nicaragua mistakenly massacred a family then allegedly tried to cover it up, sparking a backlash against a force that has previously been held up as an example in the region.
Preliminary reports state the police were lying in wait for a drug shipment when they were approached by a car carrying eight members of a local family. Mistaking the car for the suspected drug traffickers, the police opened fire, killing three people, including two children aged 11 and 12, reported La Prensa.
Witnesses on the scene told media how, after the shooting, police sealed off the area and prevented anyone from reaching the vehicle despite the cries for help that could be heard from within. The witnesses claimed police then confiscated cellular phones of people who had been filming the scene, then planted several suspicious objects in the car, according to La Prensa.

 

Income of Mexican households drops
In the first two years of President Enrique Peña Nieto the income in Mexican homes fell 3.2 percent in real terms, compared to 2012, revealed a survey released here today.
The National Household Income and Expenditure Survey indicated that the current average household income stood at 39.719 pesos quarterly (just over 2,700 US dollars), which represents a decline of 3.5 percent at constant prices, compared to 2012.
The survey conducted by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics reveals that households spend a higher percentage of their income in food, beverages and snuff, with 34.1 percent; transport and communication, with 18.8 percent; education and recreation, with 14 percent.
Expenditure on housing and fuel was the only category that showed an increase of 2.9 percent between 2012 and 2014. All non-cash components of the current expenditure also fell in the period, excluding the estimated rental for housing.

Mex I am: Live it Believe it Festival

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

The Consulate General of Mexico cordially invites you to the second edition of Mex I Am: Live It To Believe It, a multidisciplinary art and cultural Festival that will run July 19-26, 2015, at different venues across the San Francisco Bay Area.
The multidisciplinary Festival will feature some of the finest performers and food and wine artisans from Mexican genres and traditions at different venues across the San Francisco Bay. In addition to presentations by influential Mexican artists in their fields of expertise from around the world, including opera, art exhibitions, Latin jazz, ballet, as well as scientists, humanists and society game-changers, and more.
Mex I Am is proudly presented by The Mexican Foreign Ministry, the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta), and Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism (SECTUR), in collaboration with the SFJAZZ Center.
The presentations include:
Natalia Lafourcade – Songs of Agustín Lara
Thursday, July 23, 7:30 p.m.
SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium
A three-time Latin Grammy winner and the most celebrated singer to emerge from the Mexican pop scene in recent years, Natalia Lafourcade presents the West Coast premiere of material from her new album, Hasta La Raíz, on July 23.
 La Santa Cecilia
Friday, July 24, 7:30 p.m.
SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium
2014 Grammy winner La Santa Cecilia is on a meteoric rise as one of the most visible and celebrated Latin bands to emerge from the L.A. music scene in recent years, bringing universal songs of love, loss and heartbreak to audiences worldwide and to SFJAZZ on July 24.
Tania Libertad – A Tribute to Chavela Vargas
Saturday, July 25, 7:00 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium
Tania Libertad presents her loving tribute to influential vocalist Chavela Vargas whose songs of defiance and triumph broke down borders throughout the Americas for two shows on July 25.
 Flaco Jiménez and Max Baca
Sunday, July 26, 7:30 p.m.
SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium
The foremost living ambassador of Tex-Mex music, accordionist Flaco Jiménez has transcended the limits of the conjunto style, collaborating with artists including the Rolling Stones and Carlos Santana. He is joined by 12-string guitarist Max Baca, celebrating their new album, Legends & Legacies.
The Festival runs from July 23-26, For more information visit sfjazz.org.

The 2015 frozen line up: ready to dazzle and entertain
You are invited to the 2015 frozen opening night mixer.
This year’s lineup is set to chill out July 16th to the 18th! Films include jaw dropping documentaries, dramatic short and comedic film collections, an epic animation collection, plus international features, and intense surf/skateboarding films.
Come mix mingle and celebrate the arts at the 2015 Frozen Film Festival opening night party and meet other film lovers, filmmakers, singer/songwriters, media/bloggers and supporters! We want to meet you!
At Dalva (SF) on Thursday, July 16 at 7 p.m. 3121-16th St., SF. At the Roxie Theater, July 17 & 18, 3117 16th St, San Francisco San Francisco.
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid
Come and join the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. Hear Teri Gerritz
of California Retired Teacher’s Association(CalRTA) on the
expansion of Social Security and Jodi Reid of California Alliance
of Retired Americans(CARA). There will be music, fun and surprises.

Wednesday, July 22 at 1:30 p.m., at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, Corner of MLK, Berkeley. All Welcome. Wheelchair Accessible.

Olga Tañon fulfills her dream of returning to Cuba

by the El Reportero’s news services

Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañon fulfilled her dream of returning to Cuba after the great concert Peace without Borders performed six years ago, which triggered the admiration of the Puerto Rican singer for Cuba.
On her Facebook and Twitter accounts, Tañon said she feels excited and happy to return to Havana, the ways of which is so close to her homeland Puerto Rico.
Since she arrived yesterday, Tañon has posted on the Internet several pictures of her arrival at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, her meetings with friends and her visits to some places in Havana, as Casa del Cafe and Hotel Nacional de Cuba, where she was greeted by many admirers.
Olga, as she is known by her closest friends, is back and Cubans are eagerly awaiting to hear her sing at least some of her most catchy songs, which have made her one of the most popular female singers of the Latin American music in the recent decades.
Born on April 13, 1967 in the Puerto Rican city of Santurce, Tañon has been awarded two Grammy Awards and two Latin Grammy, with more than twenty albums she is currently considered one of the most versatile Puerto Rican artists due to the variety of music styles through which she expresses her talent.

Classic Italian film La Dolce Vita to be remade
La Dolce Vita, one of the most iconic films of Italian cinema, will have a new version. This is possible, because Federico Fellini’’s family sold the copyright, reported today the specialized media.
According to a press release, AMBI Pictures, along with Italian producer Daniele Di Lorenzo, will assume the remake of the classic movie, but still is unknown, who will direct it and who will take on the leading roles.
Francesca Fellini, niece of Federico Fellini, explained that the family was approached countless times and asked to consider remakes and re-imaginings to prequels and sequels, but they knew it would take very special producers and compelling circumstances to motivate the family to allow rights to be optioned.
AMBI Pictures “have a beautiful vision of a modern film, and considering their Italian heritage and deep appreciation and understanding of my uncle’s works, there couldn’t be a better alignment for this project”, she added.
More than 50 years after its premiere, La Dolce Vita still is one of the most outstanding films of the Italian cinema. This film won the Palme D’or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and was directed by Fellini.
The leading roles were played by Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée and Yvonne Furneaux.

Stolen Auguste Rodin sculpture found after 24 years
Art Recovery International confirmed today, that a stolen sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin was recovered at the auction house Christie’’s in New York. The sculpture disappeared 24 years ago.
The bronze statue, titled Young Girl With Serpent, is believed to be worth around $100,000. The statue was stolen from a house in the US city of Beverly Hills in 1991.
Roding is considered one of the fathers of modern sculpture by the Impressionist style of his works. The French artist also created extraordinary artworks like The Kiss, The Thinker and The Gates of Hell.

Mandatory vaccination: California is ordering genetic alteration

Vaccination = generation-to-generation genetic changes
Therefore, California is mandating genetic changes

by Jon Rappoport

Governor Jerry Brown just signed SB277 into law in California. No more religious or philosophical exemption from vaccination.
Now only a medical doctor’s note stating a person should not be vaccinated will provide an exemption—and you can be sure doctors who sign a number of these notes will be tracked, scrutinized, harassed, and attacked by the State.
SB277 requires all children who attend public and private schools to receive the full schedule of vaccines.
Home-schooled children can opt out of vaccination. Pay attention, parents.
I’ve written many articles about vaccines, about their dangers, their undeserved reputation for having eliminated contagious diseases in the West, and the absurdity of so-called herd immunity.
Here, first, I want to underline the obvious: freedom is under egregious attack. It has been replaced in the public mind by “safety and protection.”
This is a conscious formula for so much of what now passes for “culture” in America and other countries:
New, broader and more vague definitions of terrorist threats; pressure to conform to politically correct speech; the need to spy on everybody all the time; these are the signs of the times.
“We will protect you on every level. Just give up freedom.”
From the caves of 100,000 years ago, all the way forward to the Modern State, that assertion has been used to exert more and more control over the people.
At higher levels of political power, beyond direct medical issues, mandatory vaccination is being used as yet another hammer, in order to elicit compliance from citizens.
“We say do X; therefore, you must do X.”
In this case, X involves the injection of toxic substances like aluminum, formaldehyde, Polysorbate 80 and numerous other harmful chemicals into the body.
A Mother Jones article (6/12/2012), “Can Exposure to Toxins Change your DNA,” reports on the damaging effects of environmental chemicals. The connection to toxins in vaccines, though not mentioned, is an obvious parallel. Here are quotes from the MJ piece:
“The presumed mechanism of this unfortunate inheritance [generation-to-generation damage from toxic chemicals] is not a mutation in the DNA itself but rather changes in the biochemical on-off switches that determine whether or not specific genes get activated—a field of study known as epigenetics…
“Most recently, researchers from Washington State University, led by biology professor Michael Skinner, reported last month that short-term exposure of pregnant rats to several kinds of chemicals caused ovarian disease not just in their daughters but also in two subsequent generations of females. Symptoms that paralleled those found in human polycystic ovarian disease and primary ovarian insufficiency, both of which can reduce fertility, were identified in the descendants of rats exposed to a fungicide, pesticides, dioxin, jet fuel, and a mixture of plastics, but not among descendants of controls [given a placebo].”
We are talking about lasting genetic changes, from parents to children, down the line.
There is every reason to believe that injecting chemical toxins (in vaccines) would have a still greater permanent effect than, say, breathing pesticides.
But don’t worry. The State is here to protect you and your children. Just obey, and all will be well.

 

And now, a look at the future of vaccines. See the New York Times, 3/15/15, Protection Without a Vaccine:
“By delivering synthetic genes into the muscles of the [experimental] monkeys, the scientists are essentially re-engineering the animals to resist disease.”
“’The sky’s the limit,’ said Michael Farzan, an immunologist at Scripps and lead author of the new study.”
“The first human trial based on this strategy — called immunoprophylaxis by gene transfer, or I.G.T. — is underway, and several new ones are planned.”
“I.G.T. is altogether different from traditional vaccination. It is instead a form of gene therapy. Scientists isolate the genes that produce powerful antibodies against certain diseases and then synthesize artificial versions. The genes are placed into viruses and injected into human tissue, usually muscle.”
Here is the punchline: “The viruses invade human cells with their DNA payloads, and the synthetic gene is incorporated into the recipient’s own DNA. If all goes well, the new genes instruct the cells to begin manufacturing powerful antibodies.”
Read that again: “the synthetic gene is incorporated into the recipient’s own DNA.” Alteration of the human genetic makeup. Not just a “visit.” “Permanent residence.”
The Times article taps Dr. David Baltimore for an opinion:
“Still, Dr. Baltimore says that he envisions that some people might be leery of a vaccination strategy that means altering their own DNA, even if it prevents a potentially fatal disease.”
Yes, some people might be leery. If they have two or three working brain cells.
This is where vaccination has been going since its inception, and this is where it’s going in the future: the restructuring of human DNA, under conditions sufficiently random to rule out any reliable predictions of the outcome.
And the State of California has just stamped its seal of approval to genetic alteration, by making vaccination mandatory.
Thank you, Governor Brown.
You’ll be remembered for your decision.
Make no mistake about it: the entire human race has been, is, and will be (unless resistance builds to a very high roar) the subject of a vast, multi-century genetic experiment.
(Jon Rappoport is the author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit From The Matrix, and Power Outside The Matrix).

Greece is the latest battleground in the financial elite’s war on democracy

FROM THE EDITOR:

Dear readers, this article written by George Monbiot is synthesized well on the polemic of the debt and everything that has been on the cradle of democracy: Greece. I hope you will enjoy it.

From laissez-faire economics in 18th-century India to neoliberalism in today’s Europe the subordination of human welfare to power is a brutal tradition

by George Monbiot

Greece may be financially bankrupt, but the troika is politically bankrupt. Those who persecute this nation wield illegitimate, undemocratic powers, powers of the kind now afflicting us all. Consider the International Monetary Fund. The distribution of power here was perfectly stitched up: IMF decisions require an 85 percent majority, and the US holds 17 percent of the votes.
The IMF is controlled by the rich, and governs the poor on their behalf. It’s now doing to Greece what it has done to one poor nation after another, from Argentina to Zambia. Its structural adjustment programs have forced scores of elected governments to dismantle public spending, destroying health, education and all the means by which the wretched of the earth might improve their lives.
The same program is imposed regardless of circumstance: every country the IMF colonizes must place the control of inflation ahead of other economic objectives; immediately remove barriers to trade and the flow of capital; liberalize its banking system; reduce government spending on everything bar debt repayments; and privatize assets that can be sold to foreign investors.
Using the threat of its self-fulfilling prophecy (it warns the financial markets that countries that don’t submit to its demands are doomed), it has forced governments to abandon progressive policies. Almost single-handedly, it engineered the 1997 Asian financial crisis: by forcing governments to remove capital controls, it opened currencies to attack by financial speculators. Only countries such as Malaysia and China, which refused to cave in, escaped.
Consider the European Central Bank. Like most other central banks, it enjoys “political independence”. This does not mean that it is free from politics, only that it is free from democracy. It is ruled instead by the financial sector, whose interests it is constitutionally obliged to champion through its inflation target of around 2 percent. Ever mindful of where power lies, it has exceeded this mandate, inflicting deflation and epic unemployment on poorer members of the eurozone.
The Maastricht treaty, establishing the European Union and the euro, was built on a lethal delusion: a belief that the ECB could provide the only common economic governance that monetary union required. It arose from an extreme version of market fundamentalism: if inflation were kept low, its authors imagined, the magic of the markets would resolve all other social and economic problems, making politics redundant. Those sober, suited, serious people, who now pronounce themselves the only adults in the room, turn out to be demented utopian fantasists, votaries of a fanatical economic cult.
All this is but a recent chapter in the long tradition of subordinating human welfare to financial power. The brutal austerity imposed on Greece is mild compared with earlier versions. Take the 19th century Irish and Indian famines, both exacerbated (in the second case caused) by the doctrine of laissez-faire, which we now know as market fundamentalism or neoliberalism.
In Ireland’s case, one eighth of the population was killed – one could almost say murdered– in the late 1840s, partly by the British refusal to distribute food, to prohibit the export of grain or provide effective poor relief. Such policies offended the holy doctrine of laissez-faire economics that nothing should stay the market’s invisible hand.
When drought struck India in 1877 and 1878, the British imperial government insisted on exporting record amounts of grain, precipitating a famine that killed millions. The Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877 prohibited “at the pain of imprisonment private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market fixing of grain prices”. The only relief permitted was forced work in labour camps, in which less food was provided than to the inmates of Buchenwald. Monthly mortality in these camps in 1877 was equivalent to an annual rate of 94 percent.
As Karl Polanyi argued in The Great Transformation, the gold standard – the self-regulating system at the heart of laissez-faire economics – prevented governments in the 19th and early 20th centuries from raising public spending or stimulating employment. It obliged them to keep the majority poor while the rich enjoyed a gilded age. Few means of containing public discontent were available, other than sucking wealth from the colonies and promoting aggressive nationalism. This was one of the factors that contributed to the first world war. The resumption of the gold standard by many nations after the war exacerbated the Great Depression, preventing central banks from increasing the money supply and funding deficits. You might have hoped that European governments would remember the results.
Today equivalents to the gold standard – inflexible commitments to austerity – abound. In December 2011 the European Council agreed a new fiscal compact, imposing on all members of the eurozone a rule that “government budgets shall be balanced or in surplus”. This rule, which had to be transcribed into national law, would “contain an automatic correction mechanism that shall be triggered in the event of deviation.” This helps to explain the seigneurial horror with which the troika’s unelected technocrats have greeted the resurgence of democracy in Greece. Hadn’t they ensured that choice was illegal? Such diktats mean the only possible democratic outcome in Europe is now the collapse of the euro: like it or not, all else is slow-burning tyranny.
It is hard for those of us on the left to admit, but Margaret Thatcher saved the UK from this despotism. European monetary union, she predicted, would ensure that the poorer countries must not be bailed out, “which would devastate their inefficient economies.”
But only, it seems, for her party to supplant it with a homegrown tyranny. George Osborne’s proposed legal commitment to a budgetary surplus exceeds that of the eurozone rule. Labour’s promised budget responsibility lock, though milder, had a similar intent. In all cases governments deny themselves the possibility of change. In other words, they pledge to thwart democracy. So it has been for the past two centuries, with the exception of the 30-year Keynesian respite.
The crushing of political choice is not a side-effect of this utopian belief system but a necessary component. Neoliberalism is inherently incompatible with democracy, as people will always rebel against the austerity and fiscal tyranny it prescribes. Something has to give, and it must be the people. This is the true road to serfdom: disinventing democracy on behalf of the elite.
• Twitter: @georgemonbiot. A fully referenced version of this article can be found at Monbiot.com

FDA says: modified fats to be banned from human foods within 3 years

by Jonathan Benson
Natural News

The federal government is finally acknowledging that industrially processed trans fats are damaging to human health and don’t belong in the food supply. Trans fats, which are completely synthetic and highly toxic, are a major contributor to the heart disease epidemic that’s now the number one killer in America.
After dragging its feet on the issue for years to accommodate the processed food industry, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finally and reluctantly issued a ruling that trans fats are no longer on its “generally recognized as safe” list. Also known as GRAS, this coveted classification is the holy grail of the processed food industry, as it allows manufacturers to use additives indiscriminately without having to first consult the FDA for approval.
This monumental decision by the FDA won’t come into effect for another three years, though, which is highly unfortunate from a public health perspective. Millions of Americans will continue to gobble down trans fat-laden processed foods for no other reason than to give food corporations extra time to come up with another more than likely toxic replacement.
Hydrogenation process to create trans fats involves use of metal-based catalysts
Trans fats, as you may already know, typically hide in processed foods under ingredient names preceded by the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated.” So-called vegetable oils like soybean (which isn’t even a vegetable, by the way), cottonseed (this definitely isn’t a vegetable) and canola are heated at high temperatures under immense pressure using metal catalysts such as nickel and cobalt to create solid-at-room-temperature “fats” that don’t exist in nature.
The oil of soybeans, cottonseed and canola, of course, are naturally liquid at room temperature, which makes them difficult to incorporate into foods that are meant to stay solid rather than melt. But the hydrogenation process transforms these oils so they stay semi- or fully solid at room temperature, mimicking the state of naturally saturated fats such as coconut and palm.
It’s a disgusting process, to be quite frank, and one that could easily be avoided if food manufacturers just used butter, coconut oil, palm oil, lard or a number of other fats that naturally remain solid at room temperature. But taxpayer-subsidized junk oils like soy and canola are far cheaper, it turns out, hence the chemical industry jumped all over the trans fat trend once hydrogenation was discovered.
Just because a product says it contains “zero grams of trans fat per serving” doesn’t mean it’s truly trans fat-free
At least the FDA has stepped up to the plate and done something, though, even if it’s too little, too late. By June 2018, processed food manufacturers selling products in the U.S. will have to completely phase out the use of trans fats, which a recent study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology declared to be “an important cause of cardiovascular disease and the resulting clinical end points such as strokes and heart attacks.”
Some of the biggest processed food offenders, including Betty Crocker and Bisquick, both brands owned by General Mills, claim they’ve already been “working diligently” to remove trans fats from their products, and that many of their products now have “zero grams of trans fat per serving.” But it’s important to remember that labels bearing this claim aren’t necessarily trans fat-free, as food manufacturers have learned how to simply jockey around their serving sizes in order to keep trans fat content below the labeling threshold, which the FDA has established as 0.5 grams.
“Suppose a product contains 0.4 grams [of trans fat] per serving and you eat four servings (which is not uncommon). You have just consumed 1.6 grams of trans fat, despite the fact that the package claims that the product contains zero grams of trans fat per serving,” explains the advocacy page BanTransFats.com.

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