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Hispanics become largest ethnic group in California

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The Latino population has become the largest ethnic group in California with 15 million people, the United States Census Bureau has confirmed today.
According to census figures, California´s Latinos outnumber the 14.99 million non-Hispanic whites living in the state.
It is the first time this happens in California, where the Anglo population started to decline in the 1970s.
The surge of the Latino population in the state coincides with an increase off this minority population in the country, reaching the 55.4 million people, according to recent figures.
Other regions with a large number of Latinos are Texas (10.41 million), Florida (4.78 million), New York (3.67 million) and New Mexico, where Latinos represent more than 47 percent of the state´s population.
Figures suggest that the community will continue to grow in other US territories, even in those with less presence like Kentucky, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and New Hampshire.

OAS mission visits the Dominican Republic and Haiti
A mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) today began to assess the situation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, to tackle afterwards the same subject in Port au Prince.
The group is headed by the Secretary for Political Affairs of the OAS, Francisco Guerrero, who is accompanied by Gabriel Bidegain, advisor to the secretary general, Luis Almagro, and officials from the the Caribbean Community and the United Nations could join.
The objective is to know on the field the status of Haitians immigrants to facilitate a lasting solution to regularize their status and rights, said Almagro.
The mission is the result of two special sessions of the Permanent Council of the OAS that has addressed the existing crisis between Haiti and Dominican Republic, Almagro said.
First, the Dominican Foreign Minister, Andrés Navarro defended his government’s plan to bring order to the illegal immigration in the country.
He also referred to the Special Naturalization Act (169-14), which recognizes the status of Dominicans to those born from illegal immigrants and has benefited 8,755 people.
The Dominican plan, which ended on June 17 after 18 months of execution, was to provide an opportunity for illegal immigrants to legalize their status.
Because of it, 288,466 foreigners have begun to receive documents that legalize their stay in the country, but many Haitian immigrants were eligible for this plan. The Haitian ambassador in Dominican Republic, Daniel Supplice, acknowledged to the newspaper Le Nouvelliste: “We are responsible for what happens to our countrymen today.”
The Haitian government did not provide the required documents (passports, identity cards or birth certificates) so that these people could start their migration regularization.
As a result of this situation, during the last weeks over 20,000 Haitians voluntarily returned to their country with their belongings because they feared to be repatriated.
The Haitian government reacted by denouncing alleged mass deportations and argued that they are violating the rights of their countrymen and their children born on Dominican soil.
For the Dominican ambassador to the OAS, Pedro Verges, the Haitian government has generated a disinformation campaign with the sole purpose of hiding its abandonment towards their countrymen who emigrate.

Fallece distinguida dama nicaragüense en SF (May 31, 1931-May 20, 2015)

por Marvin Ramírez

 

Doña Carmen Zavala de Wheelock entregó su alma al Señor el 20 de mayo de 2015, dejando lágrimas entre familia y amigos que la amaron. Tenía 84 años de edad.

Recordada por sus deliciosos banquetes culinarios, falleció repentinamente en el hospital después que fue de emergenca por una dolencia cardíaca.

La señora Zavala llegó a San Francisco aproximadamente a los 11 años de edad, en 1942 y asistió a la escuela Mission Dolores, donde conoció a su futuro esposo, el caballero descendiente de ingleses, don Ernesto Wheelock. Luego en 1951 regresó a Nicaragua para ambos radicarse allá con su suegro don Wilfredo Wheelock, quien era propietario de haciendas de café en El Crusero. Después que la pareja tuvieron tres hijos estos se separaron. En 1978, un año antes del triunfo revolucionario en este país centroamericano, regresa a radicarse en SF.

Su nieta Danilú Murillo de 41 años de edad, hija del ya fallecido músico (bajista) nicaragüense, Danilo Murillo, y quien es invidente, tenía una relación bien cercana con su abuelita.

Cariñosamente la describe cómo una señora vanidosa, sociable, “le gustaba mucho cocinar, y decía la frase, ‘esta divino’ – con toda las personas que se encontraba en el edificio… les preguntaba si ya habían comido, para ofrecerles lo que ella había cocinado”. Cuando iban a hacer una fiesta sus familiars la buscaban para cocinar, pues era muy diestra en el arte culinario.

La señora Zavala fue la pionera de la familia en llegar a los EE.UU. A través de quien pudieron llegar otros – a los cuales asistió en sus necesidades para establecerse en su nuevo hogar, San Francisco. Laboró por varios años en la famosa panadería Kirkpatrick.

Sus restos fueron velados en la funeraria Duggan’s en la calle 17 en SF, y se le ofreció una misa de cuerpo presente en la Iglesia San Carlos, para luego ser llevados al Cementerio Holy Cross.

Le sobreviven dos hijos, Ernesto ‘Tito’ Wheelock, Carmen del Socorro ‘Coco’ Wheelock, su hermana Melba Angulo-Zavala, seis nietos: Danilú Murillo y Danilo Murillo (hijos de Coco Wheelock y de Danilo Murillo), Mauricio Delgado y Gustavo Marotha Jr. (hijos de Coco Wheelock), y Janet y Marjory Wheelock (hijas de Ernesto Wheelock, Jr.); y siete bisnietos.

El personal de El Reportero y en especial su editor, Marvin Ramírez, se une a la familia doliente en este tiempo de dolor. Doña Carmen era una ardiente lectora de El Reportero.

Because children rock too!

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Redwood City is proud to offer our kids music series for a third year! For three Sundays this summer, the ubiquitous Andy-Z will be the Master of Music and Play by bringing his high energy to Courthouse Square.
Sponsored by Redwood City’s Public Library and Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, this series will provide a safe and fun environment for kids to dance and enjoy live music from 11am to 1pm. Your family will be thrilled to enjoy free live music, along with an inflatable play-land at the Kidchella series this summer!
Kidchella 2015, Courthouse Square , on July 12, Aug. 9 and Sept. 13 from 11 am – 1 p.m.

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.

Campaign to preserve, improve, and expand Medicare-to-All
This summer marks the 50th year of Medicare and the 80th year of Social Security, arguably the nation’s two most successful social programs, keeping millions of older and disabled people out of poverty.
Yet both programs are at a crossroads: The corporate agenda in government is to restrict who is eligible, reduce their benefits, cut their funding, and turn them over to private companies. But workers, retirees, and their families need these programs as never before.
The speakers will describe how senior groups, labor unions, and community groups are mounting a Preserve, Improve, and Expand-Medicare-to-All campaign, including a giant event at Oakland’s Ogawa Plaza on Thursday, July 30 at 11 a.m.
They will also describe how these groups are also actively supporting bills in Congress to improve and stabilize Social Security.
At 555 Ellis Street (Between Leavenworth & Hyde).  Contact Michael Lyon, 415-215-7575, mlyon01@comcast.net or Kathie Piccagli, 415-235-1300, kpiccagli@gmail.com

Silicon Valley’s premier annual music event – San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2015
San Jose Jazz is thrilled to announce the return of Summer Fest 2015 for its 26th festival season.
A showcase for jazz and related genres, Summer Fest is also nationally recognized as one of the biggest Latin festivals in the country, and a standout summer destination for music lovers, concert-goers and families alike with its 12 stages of live music pulling in tens of thousands of visitors to downtown throughout the weekend.
From Friday, August 7 – Sunday, August 9, 2015 in and around Plaza de César Chavez Park in downtown San Jose.

Latin American music delights in Nicaragua

by the El Reportero’s news services

Representatives of various nations were able to enjoy songs and compositions of Latin American authors during a concert at the Rubén Darío National Theater, in the Nicaraguan capital.
The show was enjoyed by diplomats from countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba and El Salvador, along with residents of this Central American nation.
Melodies as Caña Dulce (Costa Rica); Carnavalito (Perú), or Gracias a la Vida, by Chilean Violeta Parra, flooded the Hall of the theater, with the help of the Rubén Darío National Youth Orchestra and the Bach Camerata.
Also present was the Schola Cantorum Rubén Darío and other guest artists.

Salsa club Elbo Room
The historic Elbo Room in San Francisco, one of the few salsa clubs still existing in SF, will be closing it’s doors to make way for condos on November 1st, 2015.
“I’ve played so many great gigs and seen some really amazing performances in this club over the years, said a member of Orquesta Saboriche in his Facebook account, adding that “this Sunday will most likely be my final official gig at the Elbo Room.
Don’t miss this Sunday, July 7, at Elbo Room in San Francisco with special guest DJ Santero & resident DJ.

José Alberto El Canario will sing in Havana for the first time
Dominican salsa singer José Alberto, known for his melodious voice as “El Canario”, will give a concert for the first time in Havana on Sunday, at Salon Rosado de La Tropical, the stage where major musical orchestras perform in Cuba.
The Cuban band El Niño y la Verdad, founded in 2013 by singer and composer Emilio Frias, will accompany the popular musician
Although he had already performed in Cuba, at the Heredia Theater in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba during the 16th Matamoroson International Festival, El Canario was indebted to Havana´s audience
Jose Alberto Justiniano Andujar was born on Dec. 22, 1958, in Santo Domingo, but he lived his childhood in Puerto Rico, where he was influenced by Latin music.
After moving to New York, he founded his own band in 1983 and established a style known now as romantic salsa.
His debut album “Noches Calientes” (Hot Nights) in 1984 was a great success and earned him international fame. Oscar D’León, Johnny Rodríguez, Mario Rivera y Nicky Marrero are some of the musicians with whom he has shared stages.

Celebrations in Jamaica for International Reggae Day
Jamaica celebrates on July 1, the International Reggae Day with various activities that will highlight the contribution and influence of that rhythm in the culture and music of the Caribbean country.
Throughout the day, radio stations and television will broadcast songs of that genre, as well as programs and interviews about its development inside and outside the country since its emergence in the 1960s.
The International Reggae Day 2015 will grant awards to relevant groups, artists and movements promoting this musical genre.
Besides Jamaica, there will be festivities in New York, Miami and Fort Lauderdale in the United States; Honolulu in Hawaii; London in England; and Mumbai in India.
Reggae is associated with Rastafarianism and reflects the lifestyle, the ideals of freedom and the fight of the followers of this philosophical-religious doctrine.

Bought-off California lawmakers approve SB 277 mandatory vaccination law

by Ethan A. Huff

Health freedom advocates are rallying to stop California Governor Jerry Brown from signing into law Senate Bill 277, which threatens to eliminate the freedom of parents to opt their children out of vaccines for personal or philosophical reasons. Reports indicate that SB 277 has passed through the California legislature, despite massive public outcry, and is now being sent to Gov. Brown’s office for final consideration.
But the bill’s passage is not necessarily a done deal, which means now is the time to turn up the heat and let your voices be heard on this crucial issue. Parents, health freedom advocates and others who oppose medical tyranny need to flood Gov. Brown’s office with letters and phone calls informing him that Californians won’t be bullied into surrendering their freedom of medical choice to the state.
Under SB 277, only certain medical conditions approved by a physician would constitute valid enough reason in the eyes of the state to skip childhood jabs. This egregious affront to medical freedom would forcibly relinquish parental authority over children and transfer it to the government, disallowing parents the freedom to make proper medical decisions for their own kids.
Gov. Brown personally believes vaccines are “important,” but that doesn’t qualify him to force them on all Californians
Responding to the bill’s passage through the state legislature, Gov. Brown’s office issued the following dubious statement, which suggests that he may, in fact, sign SB 277 into law:
“The governor believes that vaccinations are profoundly important and a major public health benefit, and any bill that reaches his desk will be closely considered,” stated the governor’s spokesman, Evan Westrup, to the media.
Well that’s nice, but Gov. Brown’s personal opinions on the matter are wholly irrelevant when it comes to the medical freedom of California parents for whom he works — remember, government employees and politicians work for us, not the other way around. As a community centered around upholding the freedom of individuals to make their own health decisions, we need to stand up and put a stop to this attempt at medical tyranny.
Call Gov. Brown and tell him to veto SB 277
A petition that’s already reached 69 percent of its 50,000-signature goal calls on Gov. Brown to veto SB 277, as well as related bills SB 792 and AB 1117, all of which threaten parental authority and freedom of medical choice when it comes to vaccination. You can sign that petition here:
www.PetitionBuzz.com.
We also encourage our readers to call Gov. Brown’s office directly to inform him that if he proceeds with signing SB 277 into law, he will be guilty of both caving to special interests and betraying his constituents. It’s important to remember that SB 277 didn’t just appear out of thin air — it was concocted as part of an agenda by the drug industry to force its dangerous products on the masses.
SB 277’s primary advocate, “Dr.” Richard “Dick” Pan, has repeatedly been exposed for accepting cash bribes from the vaccine industry, including Merck & Co., the creator of the deadly HPV vaccine Gardasil, which has injured and/or killed tens of thousands of young girls all around the world. Pan is no friend of medical freedom, in other words, and his heinous bill is clear evidence of that.
You can learn more about Senator Pan by visiting his TruthWiki page here: TruthWiki.org.

Please take the time to contact Gov. Brown and urge him to veto SB 277:

Mailing address:
Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone:
(916) 445-2841, Fax: (916) 558-3160. Or to send an email, visit: GovNews.ca.gov

How the public education system is rigged to turn individuals into automatons – Part 4 and last of a series

FROM THE EDITOR:

DEAR READERS: In the course of a research I found this excellent article that deals with a hidden truth behind the current educational system. Written in 2004, the content of this piece may enlighten many who still believe our current schools curriculum is far away from what, we as people, need to learn and acquire knowledge, and to make us independent and develop our highest potential to make a better world. You be the judge. This is PART 4 AND THE LAST ONE OF A SERIES

Advice for anyone still in school

by Montalk.net
from Montalk Website

The straight track
We hear stories of entrepreneurs who strike it rich after dropping out of college and pursuing their dreams. We hear stories of those who go from rags to riches, of those who defied convention and revolutionized the world.
But what do we hear in school? We hear that these people are the exception not the rule. That is certainly true, but what the system is implying is that you are the rule, not the exception, so don’t even try to deviate from the straight track.
The straight track is what students are being taught by the system, concerning the course of their lives. The straight track told to high school students goes as follows:
You need to do your assignment to get a good grade. When you get good grades, your transcript will be favored by employers and colleges. You might even get scholarships to go to a good college. If you’re good in college, you’ll get a degree and have good chances of getting a good job. And with a good job you’ll have a good wife, good kids, and a good life.
What they’re really saying is this:
Don’t worry about changing the world, just concentrate on getting good grades because that is the only measure of what you’re worth in the eyes of those you’ll serve. Go to college and find your quiet niche in the world, where you’ll be secure in your job because you’re so specialized, there’s no one else in the world who can take your place. You’ll be working to maintain the system as you’re seen fit. Focus all your energy into this specialized area and don’t worry about making an impact on the world because as long as you stay specialized and compartmentalized, we’ll clothe you, feed you, give you a good family, and bury you in a good plot of land.
Deviating from the track is abhorred by the system. If you show initiative and take risks, you become a statistical outlier, an anomaly in their statistical models, someone who poses a threat to the system because you are a seed with the potential to overturn the mirrors and reveal the truth behind this silent war.
Defy
In this lies the point of the article. You cannot be successful, recognized, or a true human being unless you defy the system. If you only do what you’re told, you’ll be no better than average.
The system has been designed by the biggest corporation of all, the state. Public schools either turn out worker drones who serve the state and its partnering greedy corporations, or else they turn out welfare recipients who are an excuse for the state to maintain its colossal parasitic size and an idiotic consumer base to buy these corporations useless toys and poisons.
So many students are under this illusion, the illusion being that they either follow the straight track, try to be the best cow in the herd to maintain financial and social security, or else defy the system and fail miserably, ending up as a bum on the street.
You are seen as a social failure if you defy the system. If you measure your success by what the system deems is successful, then you fear deviating from the straight track because that is a sign of failure.
However, you must therefore redesign your standards of success. Would dropping out of a state college make you a failure? In the eyes of other cows, maybe, but pursuing a better education elsewhere be it independently or real world experience would more than make up for it.
How many famous people do you know who did everything they were told and nothing more, who never took risks for fear of defying the status quo? Not very many.
Conclusion
The lesson is that not only must you take risks and utilize your innate initiative, you must also get over your fear of defying the system and do so to get ahead of the herd. You are the exception, not the rule, because you have the power to be.
Now, the robots in the system are definitely needed. We still need employees, soldiers, and scientists who are specialized in what they do, but presently there is an overabundance among these. Therefore, the emergence of individualists, generalists, and entrepreneurs is encouraged.
And the only way for them to increase in numbers is for people like you to break out of the mold and fulfill your destiny as a human, not a machine.

Avocados can naturally treat rare form of blood cancer, science shows

by J. D. Heyes

A new study indicates that avocados, which are often hailed for various health benefits including packing plenty of vitamins and being good for skin, could also play a role in helping fight a rare form of leukemia.
As reported by the UK’s Independent, Professor Paul Spagnuolo of Canada’s University of Waterloo has found a lipid – which is a group of naturally-occurring molecules – within the avocado fruit that fights against acute myeloid leukemia, or AML.
As further noted by the Independent:
AML is a rare form of blood cancer which is most common in people over the age of 65. According to Cancer Research, around 8,600 people are diagnosed with leukemia each year, 2,600 of which are diagnosed with AML. Around 90 per cent of people diagnosed with AML over the age of 65 die within the first five years.
Spagnuolo also has developed a drug that was derived from the lipid using a compound known as Avocatin B, which he found targets the leukemia stem cells that “drive the disease.” In performing this function, the Avocatin B attacks the root cause of the cancer. His findings were published in a recent issue of the oncology journal Cancer Research.
Targeted treatment that is less toxic
“The stem cell is really the cell that drives the disease,” said Spagnuolo at Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. “The stem cell is largely responsible for the disease developing and it’s the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse. We’ve performed many rounds of testing to determine how this new drug works at a molecular level and confirmed that it targets stem cells selectively, leaving healthy cells unharmed.”
The Avocatin B compound “eliminates” the source of AML, Spagnuolo said, and it is also less toxic to the body because of its targeted effects.
Spagnuolo and the university’s school of pharmacy have formed a partnership with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine in order to file a patent for Avocatin B and examine other partnerships that would see the drug taken to clinical trials, a process that usually takes years.
“It’s an exciting time for our lab. With the help of CCRM we are now pursuing commercial partnership that would take Avocatin B into clinical trials,” said Spagnuolo, as reported by the university, in a press release. “Not only does Avocatin B eliminate the source of AML, but its targeted, selective effects make it less toxic to the body, too.”
Lots of health benefits associated with “alligator pears”
Spagnuolo is one of just a few researchers around the world looking into treatments for disease via food-derived compounds, which are known as nutraceuticals.
As noted by the university:
There are multiple potential applications for Avocatin B beyond oncology, and the drug is just one of several promising compounds that Spagnuolo and his team have isolated from a library of nutraceuticals. Most labs would use food or plant extracts, but Spagnuolo prefers the precision of using nutraceuticals with defined structures.
“Extracts are less refined. The contents of an extract can vary from plant to plant and year to year, depending on lots of factors — on the soil, the location, the amount of sunlight, the rain,” said Spagnuolo.
“Evaluating a nutraceutical as a potential clinical drug requires in-depth evaluation at the molecular level,” he continued. “This approach provides a clearer understanding of how the nutraceutical works, and it means we can reproduce the effects more accurately and consistently. This is critical to safely translating our lab work into a reliable drug that could be used in oncology clinics.”
There are numerous health benefits from this wholesome, high-fiber fruit, which is known as an anti-aging superfood.

The U.S. immigration battle intensifies

OAKLAND, CA - 13JUNE10 - Immigrants, workers, union members and community activists demonstrated in front of the Federal Building in Oakland against the firing of undocumented workers because of their immigration status. Thousands of workers around the country have been fired as a result of the audits of I-9 forms by the federal government, and the use of the E-Verify database. The Federal Building demonstration was the third day of a three day hunger strike to protest the firings. Copyright David Bacon

by David Bacon
Equal Times

OAKLAND, CA — In an escalating dispute with President Barack Obama, Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in mid-January, which would cut any funding from the Department of Homeland Security for suspending the deportation of undocumented people. In December the President ordered the department, beginning this spring, to defer the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have children born in the U.S., who are thus U.S. citizens.
A previous Obama order suspended the deportation of young people without documents, brought to the U.S. as children. The Republican bill would rescind both orders.
A new, Republican-dominated Congress took office in January. Congress would have to fund the department by Feb. 27 or it could shut down. President Obama has threatened to veto this bill, and while there were enough Republican votes in the Senate to pass it, there were not enough to override a veto.
The U.S. labor movement has supported deferral programs, and has opposed the mass deportations that now total over 2 million people during the Obama administration – around 400,000 per year. In speaking about his own ancestors, who arrived last century after crossing the Atlantic from Europe, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, “I think about what those boats would look like now. They’d be turned in the other direction, deporting those hopeful workers and separating our families. Because America doesn’t welcome her children now-our broken patchwork of policies turns them away.”
After the Republican majority was elected, Trumka warned its defunding proposal “would further exploitation and force our community members to continue to live and work in fear.” Guillermo Perez, President of the Pittsburgh Labor Council on Latin American Advancement, told Julia Kann, a writer for the magazine Labornotes, that labor’s job was to ensure implementation of Obama’s deferral order. This executive action “will help us in organizing workplaces where there are substantial numbers of undocumented people.” Joe Hansen, president of United Food and Commercial Workers, agreed. “Executive action is not all we need or deserve,” he said. “But it is a step in the right direction.
Obama’s latest executive action, however, caused a lot of controversy among unions and immigrant rights activists, not because of disagreement over the deferral itself, but because of the conditions attached to it. One condition, for instance, will allow high tech employers to bring to the U.S. increased numbers of workers recruited under contract labor programs, and pay them wages substantially below those of U.S. residents. Over 900,000 workers already arrive in the U.S. in these programs every year, which have been criticized because the recruited workers have few labor rights.
Many organizations also criticized the administration’s order because it increases immigration enforcement. U.S. law forbids people to work without legal immigration status, but about 12 million people currently live and work without it. Under Obama’s order, about 4-5 million, at most, may get permission to work. But at the same time the Department of Homeland Security will increase enforcement against those millions of others who will not get it.
Hundreds of workers, for instance, were fired in the middle of an organizing drive at a California supermarket chain, Mi Pueblo. Gerardo Dominguez, organizing director of Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, called the terminations “an economic disaster for the San Francisco Bay Area.
In addition, the President announced that even greater resources will be spent on the U.S./Mexico border, where hundreds of people die each year trying to cross in the desert. “More enforcement here will mean even more people will die trying to cross, and greater violations of civil and human rights in our border communities,” according to Isabel Garcia, director of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, an immigrant rights organization in Tucson, Arizona, with a long history of cooperation with unions.
President Obama also announced he will expand the number of privately run prisons for immigrants, and the number of people held in them. One such center, the South Texas Family Residential Center, has already been built in Texas to hold over 2400 children and family members from Central America.
According to many labor and immigrant rights groups, however, migrants from Central America, Mexico and elsewhere have been driven into migration by free trade agreements and other economic policies pursued by the U.S. government. Yet the Obama administration is currently asking Congress to give it a “fast track” process for approving the Trans Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement involving 12 countries around the Pacific Rim.
The Obama executive order will not change U.S. law — only the Congress can pass laws. It can only change the way existing law is enforced. The possibility exists, therefore, that an incoming administration elected in 2016 could reverse the order, deporting those who have come forward to claim a deferred status.  Note: This article was cut for lack of space. For a complete article, visit: http://www.equaltimes.org/the-us-immigration-battle?lang=en#.VZcSjaZvPhW

Who is behind the oil war, and how low will the price crude go in 2015?

Who is to blame for the staggering collapse of the price of oil?

by Michael Snyder
Análisis

Who is to blame for the staggering collapse of the price of oil? Is it the Saudis? Is it the United States? Are Saudi Arabia and the U.S. government working together to hurt Russia? And if this oil war continues, how far will the price of oil end up falling in 2015?
As you will see below, some analysts believe that it could ultimately go below $20 a barrel. If we see anything even close to that, the U.S. economy could lose millions of good paying jobs, billions of dollars of energy bonds could default and we could see trillions of dollars of derivatives related to the energy industry implode. The global financial system is already extremely vulnerable, and purposely causing the price of oil to crash is one of the most deflationary things that you could possibly do. Whoever is behind this oil war is playing with fire, and by the end of this coming year the entire planet could be dealing with the consequences.
Ever since the price of oil started falling, people have been pointing fingers at the Saudis. And without a doubt, the Saudis have manipulated the price of oil before in order to achieve geopolitical goals. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Andrew Topf… http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Did-The-Saudis-And-The-US-Collude-In-Dropping-Oil-Prices.html
We don’t have to look too far back in history to see Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and producer, using the oil price to achieve its foreign policy objectives. In 1973, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat convinced Saudi King Faisal to cut production and raise prices, then to go as far as embargoing oil exports, all with the goal of punishing the United States for supporting Israel against the Arab states. It worked. The “oil price shock” quadrupled prices.
It happened again in 1986, when Saudi Arabia-led OPEC allowed prices to drop precipitously, and then in 1990, when the Saudis sent prices plummeting as a way of taking out Russia, which was seen as a threat to their oil supremacy. In 1998, they succeeded. When the oil price was halved from $25 to $12, Russia defaulted on its debt.
The Saudis and other OPEC members have, of course, used the oil price for the obverse effect, that is, suppressing production to keep prices artificially high and member states swimming in “petrodollars”. In 2008, oil peaked at $147 a barrel.
If the Saudis wanted to stabilize the price of oil, they could do that immediately by announcing a production cutback.
The fact that they have chosen not to do this says volumes.
In addition to wanting to harm U.S. shale producers, some believe that the Saudis are determined to crush Iran. This next excerpt comes from a recent Daily Mail article… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2884454/How-oil-s-world-s-potent-weapon-Forget-nuclear-arms-U-S-Saudis-oil-price-crash-topple-regimes-Russia-Iran-sabotage-Scot-Nationalists.html
Above all, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies see Iran — a bitter religious and political opponent — as their main regional adversary.
They know that Iran, dominated by the Shia Muslim sect, supports a resentful underclass of more than a million under-privileged and angry Shia people living in the gulf peninsula — a potential uprising waiting to happen against the Saudi regime.
The Saudis, who are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, also loathe the way Iran supports President Assad’s regime in Syria — with which the Iranians have a religious affiliation. They also know that Iran, its economy plagued by corruption and crippled by Western sanctions, desperately needs the oil price to rise. And they have no intention of helping out.
The fact is that the Saudis remain in a strong position because oil is cheap to produce there, and the country has such vast reserves. It can withstand a year — or three — of low oil prices.
In fact, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro openly promoted this theory during a recent speech on Venezuelan national television…
“Did you know there’s an oil war? And the war has an objective: to destroy Russia,” he said in a speech to state businessmen carried live on state TV.
“It’s a strategically planned war … also aimed at Venezuela, to try and destroy our revolution and cause an economic collapse,” he added, accusing the United States of trying to flood the market with shale oil.
Without a doubt, Obama wants to “punish” Russia for what has been going on in Ukraine. Going after oil is one of the best ways to do that. There are yet others that see this oil war as being even more complicated.
Marin Katusa believes that this is actually a three-way war between OPEC, Russia and the United States…
“It’s a three-way oil war between OPEC, Russia and North American shale,” says Marin Katusa, author of “The Colder War,” and chief energy investment strategist at Casey Research.
Katusa doesn’t see production slowing in 2015: “We know that OPEC will not be cutting back production. They’re going to increase it. Russia has increased production to all-time highs.” With Russia and OPEC refusing to give up market share how will the shale industry compete?
Others are even more pessimistic. For instance, Jeremy Warner of the Sydney Morning Herald, who correctly predicted that the price of oil would fall below $80 this year, is now forecasting that the price of oil could fall all the way down to $20 next year…
Revisiting the past year’s predictions is, for most columnists a frequently humbling experience. The howlers tend to far outweigh the successes. Yet, for a change, I can genuinely claim to have got my main call for markets – that oil would sink to $US80 a barrel or less – spot on, and for the right reasons, too.
Just in case you think I’m making it up, this is what I said 12 months ago.

But even Warner’s chilling prediction is not the most bearish.
A technical analyst named Abigail Doolittle recently told CNBC that under a worst case scenario the price of oil could fall as low as $14 a barrel…

It is inevitable that at some point we will see energy stocks and energy bonds come back into line with the price of crude oil.
And it isn’t just energy stocks and bonds that we need to be concerned about. There is only one other time in all of history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 50 dollars in less than a year. That was in 2008 – just before the great financial crisis that erupted in the fall of that year. For much, much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Crashed Like This?…”
As we enter 2015, keep an eye on energy stocks, energy bonds and listen for any mention of problems with derivatives. The next great financial crisis is right around the corner, but most people will never see it coming until they are blindsided by it.

Daniel Ortega buys new car for $278,000

by Market Watch

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, arrived in a new Mercedes Benz SUV at the 79th anniversary of the birthday of commander Carlos Fonseca Amador last June 23, informed the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidential.
According to the newspaper, Ortega has replaced the previous Mercedes Benz by the model G63 V8 AMG, a more recent model of the German make of vehicles, which price base on the international market amounts to $178,000 plus $100,000 for the shielding service that also provides the car factory, not including the tax, said a seller at the concessionaire in Nicaragua.

Puerto Rico poses bigger threat to U.S. investors than Greece
As U.S. investors have been panicking over a potential Greek collapse, Puerto Rico’s governor Sunday announced that the small U.S. territory cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debt.
Less than 24 hours later, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla proposed a plan to seek a restructuring of the island’s debt, suggesting that the island is virtually insolvent.
A long-awaited report compiled by former International Monetary Fund staffers brought the Puerto Rican debt crisis back into the spotlight.
The report concluded that the U.S. commonwealth has lost the ability to fund itself through public debt markets, while pointing to what the authors described as “a decade of stagnation, outmigration and debt.”
Although the Puerto Rican debt crisis is no secret to residents of the island, the governor’s statement essentially was the first official opening for a renegotiation of the debt, said economist Carlos Soto-Santoni, president of Nexos Económicos, a Puerto Rico-based consulting firm, and deputy adviser for former Governor Rafael Hernández Colón’s administration.
But the problem is that, as per the U.S. constitution, Puerto Rico cannot file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, like Detroit did, and neither can its public corporations and local agencies, Soto-Santoni added.
So the governor is basically seeking a negotiated agreement – just like Greese – with bondholders for a postponement of payments on the debt for a number of years.
But U.S. investors would actually have much more to lose in a potential Puerto Rican default than in a Greek default. The reason is that Puerto Rico’s bonds are trading in the U.S. municipal bond market, while the vast majority of Greek debt is in the hands of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and eurozone countries.
“[According] to most recent estimates about 60 percent of [Puerto Rico’s] bonds are owned by traditional municipal bond investors and the rest is in the hands of hedge funds and other crossover investors,” stated Daniel Hanson, an analyst at Height Securities, LLC.
Out of about $350 billion in Greek debt outstanding, only around $14 billion is owed to U.S. banks.

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