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The Border Collective presents their second Pop Up Exhibit

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

In honor of Women’s History Month, The Border Collective, a group of Mexican female artists and makers will share their beautiful work in San Francisco.

There will be fun sips, snacks, incredible art and a live performance by Latin Pop Duo IndiviDúo, a cross-continental collaboration between San Francisco-born songstress Tiffany Joy and Colombian songsmith Maqui Reyes.

The Border collective was created by two dedicated Latin-American artists as a way to exhibit art the way they know best: through diversity in people, art and community.

A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to a cause that they really care about, La Casa de Las Madres.

On Friday, March 8, 2019. It’s free! At the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco, CA, from 5:30-9 p.m.!

Conference examining the of work of Catholic institutions with immigrant communities

CMS and the Diocese of San Jose is hosting a three-day event exploring promising and successful programs and ministries with immigrants in parishes, elementary schools, universities, the workplace, immigrant service networks, charities, community organizing entities, hospitals, and other Catholic institutions.

The event will also examine how US immigration and refugee polices are affecting Catholic institutions and those they serve. It will feature the annual Fr. Lydio Tomasi, c.s. theological lecture on migration. Participants will also visit local migrant programs and ministries in San José on March 11, 2019, at various locations. See here the full agenda: https://cmsny.org/event/2019-ciii/
On March 12 – 13. Santa Clara University School of Law, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara.

SF art exhibition by Antony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau
Anthony Holdsworth features the start of a new series entitled “Day and Night in the Mission”. Using a LED lamp attached to his easel, he documents locations as they transition into night.

The Mission District opens a window on Latin America while simultaneously enriching the culture of San Francisco. He works on site to channel the unique energy of this community and also to bear witness to the changes that are being forced on it by gentrification.

The exhibition includes works El Farolito by Day and Night, by Anthony Holdsworth, oil/panel, and Rise and Shine, by Beryl Landau.

Beryl Landau calls her work “symbolic landscape”. The acrylic paintings in this show depict geographical locations but evoke inner feelings. Each image draws the viewer into a particular space and mood. Landau’s clear colors range from high contrasts to subtle gradations.

Images of changing San Francisco are prevalent in her recent work. The paintings often convey the juxtaposition of nature and the modern world.

Alley Cat Gallery, 3036 24th Street, San Francisco. Exhibition from March 2 to 31

California Hispanic Business Policy Summit
Join the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce in Sacramento, California for the California Hispanic Business Policy Summit. This annual summit is the premier legislative conference for California’s small businesses and the Hispanic community to learn and engage in the key issues impacting the growth of California’s economy. Meet the policymakers, community leaders, and subject matter experts who are working to provide solutions.

During the Summit, we will use our collective voice to advance legislative issues for the small business community. Participants will take part in issue briefings and engage with members of the legislature and Sacramento insiders, while gaining in – person perspectives in the legislative process. Registrants will have the opportunity to meet with their local elected officials in their state offices, as well as, legislative leaders at the Legislative Reception.

Program at 10:00 a.m. The Citizen Hotel, doors open at 11 a.m. Lunch is served at 12:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Annual Hispanic Small Business Luncheon, at the State Capitol, from 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Legislative Appointments at the State Capitol, participants attend advocacy meetings with Legislators. From 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. – Leland Stanford Mansion
Annual Hispanic Appointees’ Reception
Celebration of California’s Hispanic Appointees
On Wednesday, March 13, at The Citizen Hotel, 926 J St, Sacramento, CA

Greening Economic Summit
This year’s Economic Summit happens with an exciting, fully revamped program.
From our redesigned, interactive Equity Lab to an array of exciting racial justice panels to a fireside chat with an internationally renowned headliner to be announced shortly, you don’t want to miss your chance to attend the Bay Area’s largest racial equity conference. On April 26, 2019, The Greenlining Institute, 360 14th Street, 2nd Floor, Oakland,

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Indigenous woman wins Nayarit beauty pageant for the first time

The Wixárika college student will be queen of the Nayarit state fair

by the El Reportero’s news services

An indigenous woman has won the contest to be the queen of the Nayarit State Fair for the first time.
Yukaima González, 18, from a Wixárika community in the mountainous municipality of Guadalupe Ocotán, is a second-year in college student majoring in sports and physical culture.

In an interview with the newspaper El Universal, the young beauty pageant winner said she hoped her participation in the contest would inspire her community.

“In my community we are losing our [indigenous] language, and residents are ashamed of wearing their traditional clothing. I’m here so that they’ll feel proud of our roots and who we are.”

González impressed contest judges during a “traditional dress” round with her outfit, which sported intricate bead work and traditional Wixárika god’s eyes. She also made an impression with her proposed social project, which would provide support to Nayarit’s isolated mountain communities to open artisanal bakeries to support self-employment and community well-being.

She was one of 15 contestants from each of Nayarit’s districts, and one of two indigenous women who, for the first time ever, competed in this year’s contest. The second participant was Adriana Díaz López, a Cora indigenous woman from the municipality of Nayer.

In a message on Twitter, state congresswoman Julieta Mejía attributed the young women’s participation to Oaxaca actress Yalitza Aparicio’s lead role in Roma, stating that “Alfonso Cuarón transformed something and there’s no going back.”

Many others shared the congresswoman’s opinion on social media, and during her interview with El Universal, González expressed her admiration for the actress, saying she was proud to have the opportunity as well to represent her community and its culture.

Viña del Mar Festival Celebrates Highly its 60th Anniversary
The Viña del Mar International Song Festival, considered here ”the largest Latin event in the world”, opens Sunday with a show in tune with the celebration of its 60th anniversary.

Regueton duo Wisin and Yandel, which returns to the scene after a long separation; the Chilean humorist Felipe Abello and the Colombian Sebastian Yatra, which causes furor among young Chilean girls are scheduled for the opening in Quinta Vergara, main venue of the event.

But this is only the button of the show, because until March 1, the closing day, international stars like Marc Anthony, David Bisbal, Marco Antonio Solis, Backstreet Boys, Bad Buny, Becky G, Raphael and Carlos Rivera will pass through the enormous stage, along with some very popular Chilean figures.

Although this Sunday is the start of the big concerts that are the main attraction of the festival, the event really began on Friday with a gala in which, with the exception of Yatra, none of the figures who wil seek to pocket the ‘monster’ was there, as is referred to the not at all pleasing public that crowds every year the Quinta Vergara.

Significantly, the old-fashioned neither exponents of the Chilean elite nor the most relevant figures of the country’s art and intellectuality were not there either.

Mexico Guarantees Funds to Support Film Production
The Ministry of Culture of Mexico guaranteed several funds to support the film production of Foprocine, Fidecine and Eficine, said its head Alejandra Frausto Guerrero to deny rumors to the contrary.

Frausto Guerrero also indicated that despite speculation about the Ariel awards, in 2019 these awards will be delivered as is already a tradition for several decades and reported that has already held meetings with members of the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences that organizes the contest to recognize filmmakers, performers, technicians and makers of Mexican films.

She recognized that the Ariel awards are very important for the national film industry, so the 61st edition of these awards is not cancelled, and will have the full support of the Ministry of Culture.

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How Government-Guaranteed Student Loans Killed the American Dream for Millions

When government-guaranteed checks keep rolling in, there’s no incentive for colleges and universities to lower their prices. In fact, they do the opposite.

by Daniel Kowalski

In Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell wrote that prices are what tie together the vast network of economic activity among people who are too vastly scattered to know each other. Prices are the regulators of the free market. An object’s value in the free market is not how much it costs to produce, but rather how much a consumer is willing to pay for it.

Loans are a crucial component of the free market because they allow consumers to borrow large sums of money they normally would not have access to, which are later paid back in installments with interest. If the borrower fails to pay back the loan, the lender can repossess the physical item the loan purchased, such as a house or car.

Student loans are different. Education is abstract; if they’re not paid back, then there is little recourse for the lender. There is no physical object that can be seized. Student loans did not exist in their present form until the federal government passed the Higher Education Act of 1965, which had taxpayers guaranteeing loans made by private lenders to students. While the program might have had good intentions, it has had unforeseen harmful consequences.

The Problem with Government-Backed Student Loans
Millennials are the most educated generation in American history, but many college graduates have tens of thousands of dollars in debt to go along with their degrees. Young Americans had it drilled into their heads during high school (if not earlier) that their best shot—perhaps their only shot—at achieving success in life was to have a college diploma.

This fueled demand for the higher education business, where existing universities and colleges expanded their academic programs in the arts and humanities to suit students not interested in math and sciences, and it also led to many private universities popping up to meet the demands of students who either could not afford the tuition or could not meet the admission criteria of the existing colleges. In 1980, there were 3,231 higher education institutions in the United States. By 2016, that number increased by more than one-third to 4,360.

Secured financing of student loans resulted in a surge of students applying for college. This increase in demand was, in turn, met with an increase in price because university administrators would charge more if people were willing to pay it, just as any other business would (though to be fair, student loans do require more administration staff for processing). According to Forbes, the average price of tuition has increased eight times faster than wages since the 1980s. In 2018, the Federal Reserve estimated that there is currently $1.5 trillion in unpaid student debt. The Institute for College Access and Success estimates that in 2017, 65 percent of recent bachelor’s degree graduates have student loans, and the average is $28,650 per borrower.

The government’s backing of student loans has caused the price of higher education to artificially rise; the demand would not be so high if college were not a financially viable option for some. Young people have been led to believe that a diploma is the ticket to the American dream, but that’s not the case for many Americans.

Financially, it makes no sense to take out a $165,000 loan for a master’s degree that leads to a job where the average annual salary is $38,000—yet thousands of young people are making this choice. Only when they graduate do they understand the reality of their situation as they live paycheck-to-paycheck and find it next-to-impossible to save for a home, retirement, or even a rainy-day fund.
Nor can student loans be discharged by filing for bankruptcy. Prior to 1976, student loans were treated like any other kind of debt with regard to bankruptcy laws, but as defaults increased, the federal government changed the laws. So, student debt will hang above the borrower’s head until the debt is repaid.

How to Fix the Problem

There are two key steps to addressing the student loan crisis. First, there needs to be a major cultural shift away from the belief that college is a one-size-fits-all requirement for success. We are beginning to see this as many young Americans start to realize they can attend a trade school for a fraction of what it would cost for a four-year college and that they can get in-demand jobs with high salaries.

Second, parents and school systems should stress economic literacy so that young people better understand the concepts of resources, scarcity, and prices. We also need to teach our youth about personal finances, interest, and budgeting so they understand that borrowing a large amount of money that only generates a small level of income is not a sound investment.

Finally, the current system of student loan financing needs to be reformed. Schools should not be given a blank check, and the government-guaranteed loans should only cover a partial amount of tuition. Schools should also be responsible for directly lending a portion of student loans so that it’s in their financial interest to make sure graduates enter the job market with the skills and requirements needed to get a well-paying job. If a student fails to pay back their loan, then the college or university should also share in the taxpayer’s loss. Only when the demand for higher education decreases will we witness a decrease in its cost.

(Daniel Kowalski is an American businessman with interests in the USA and developing markets of Africa).

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6 years after citizens rose up in arms, it’s even worse now in Michoacán

Crime rates are way up as Los Viagras battle with the Jalisco New Generation cartel

by Mexico News Daily

Six years after citizens staged an uprising against Los Caballeros Templarios cartel and other criminal groups in the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán, violent crime in the region and state is even worse.

Figures for intentional homicides, firearms injuries, kidnappings, threats and drug dealing in Michoacán were all significantly higher last year than in 2013.

Confrontations between criminal gangs are frequent and the spiraling crime rates – there were 1,060 homicides last year compared to 475 in 2013 – have left many people running scared.

Among those terrorized are widows of self-defense force members who lost their lives in Tierra Caliente clashes with cartel members.

Some of the narcos have returned to the towns as members of different criminal gangs and with their husbands’ executioners at close quarters, the women – and other residents – are terrified.

“We’re worse off than before,” said Hipólito Mora, founder of the self-defense force in La Ruana, where citizens took up arms on Feb. 24, 2013, the first town in the region to to so.

“[There are] a lot of homicides, kidnappings, robberies and extortion. In almost all of Michoacán, there is a serious insecurity problem. Unfortunately, not everyone dares to speak out,” he said.

José Juan Ibarra Ramírez, secretary of the government of Buenavista, the municipality where La Ruana is located, agrees that the security situation has worsened.

“One cannot make decisions like before, we can’t say with certainty that we will go to [the neighboring municipality of] Apatzingán at 8 at night because we’re afraid, our whole community is frightened.
Confrontations in the surrounding areas haven’t stopped and there have been some police deaths … The night is dangerous…” he said.

An army colonel was also killed in Buenavista last month, the first high-ranking military fatality since the López Obrador-led federal government took office on Dec. 1.

According to Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles, a turf war between two of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations is responsible for much of the bloodshed in the Tierra Caliente region and other parts of the state.

“Los Viagras have their headquarters, let’s say their operational base, in the municipality of Buenavista … In Tepalcatepec [southwest of Buenavista], the Jalisco [New Generation] Cartel has a beachhead and they want to control the trafficking [of drugs], the route…”

Their goal, the governor said, is to break up the local cell of Los Viagras. “That’s the issue.”

An escalation in the violence in recent weeks has been blamed on a gang of sicarios, or hitmen, known as Los Blancos de Troya, who presumably work for the Jalisco cartel. They have been confronting groups linked to the Viagras after announcing their intentions in early February to conduct operations in Buenavista.

As in the days when Los Caballeros Templarios were in control, organized crime is once again having its say in who should govern.

In July last year, the mayor-elect of Buenavista, Morena party member Eliseo Delgado Sánchez, was shot and killed. A woman elected as municipal trustee who was proposed to take his place decided instead to flee Michoacán after receiving threats from a criminal group.

“I [want to] make my resignation public, I [want to] make it public that politics doesn’t interest me … I’m leaving the country, I will never again participate in political life ….” Elvia del Socorro Ortega said in a video posted to Facebook in September.

The next day, she posted another video from Tijuana, reiterating that she had given up political life for good.

Buenavista’s Ramírez said that more and more women are now being affected by the violence plaguing Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente.

“Two months ago, violence spread a bit more to women, there were some confrontations and some very young women died,” he said, explaining that some of them were likely married to or in relationships with gang members.

A total of 144 women were murdered in Michoacán last year and a further seven lost their lives to violence in January.

There were almost 1,300 missing people in the state as of last April, of whom almost 300 disappeared in the Tierra Caliente region.

Hipólito Mora said that five young men including his nephew were abducted in La Ruana last month.

“…They weren’t involved in anything, not with one cartel or the other. Their only sin is that they were drug addicts … but they weren’t halcones [hawks or lookouts for drug gangs]. They were nobodies but they were taken … he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Infobae (sp).

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Honduras will host Tuxtla Summit for the first time

by the El Reportero’s wire service

Honduras will host for the first time the Summit of Heads of State of the Tuxtla Dialogue and Concertation Mechanism, which will be attended by governors from the seven Central American countries, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Mexico.

The event, to be held April 3-5 in San Pedro Sula, will focus its debates on four panels: Energy; Trade Facilitation and Treaties; Infrastructure and Logistics; and Strengthening MSMEs and Microcredits in the Region.

According to Maria Antonia Rivera, government official in charge of the summit’s development, this 17th edition is of special importance, as it will be held in parallel to the First Mesoamerican Business Meeting, which will bring together some 300 entrepreneurs from the region.

This cooperation, which arose as a result of fulfilling the mandates of previous editions, exceeds five billion dollars between 2008 and 2018, of which Honduras has benefited with more than one thousand 261 million dollars, in the construction of infrastructure works such as the highway between Tegucigalpa and El Amatillo.

‘We are one month away from the development of this great event. I ask Hondurans to be first line hosts, and the media to disseminate this great project that will be divided into two: the First Mesoamerican Business Meeting, and the (meeting) of the 10 governors of the region,’ Rivera said.

SICA Foreign Ministers Debate Region’s Future in Guatemala
Guatemala is hosting this Thursday a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Central American Integration System (SICA), with a view to regional integration.

Opening the meeting, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel thanked her counterparts for attending this first high-level meeting as a preamble to the summit of Heads of State and Government in June.

We know that this dialogue will be very positive to strengthen the five pillars of Central American integration,’ said Jovel as he welcomed to Guatemala.

SICA’s Foreign Relations Officers will deal, according to the agenda, with regional integration, institutional strengthening of the organization and progress in the agreements adopted by the Central American Security Commission.

In addition, they will review migration, economic development and investment.
It is also expected that a memorandum of understanding will be approved for the establishment of the SICA Forum for Political Dialogue and Cooperation with the Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Morocco.
SICA was created on 12 December 1991 by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Subsequently, Belize joined as full members in 2000 and, from 2013, the Dominican Republic.
Guatemala took over the pro tempore presidency of the organization from Belize last December and for six months.

This cooperation entity is headquartered in El Salvador.

Guatemalans vote focus on three women, according to poll
Three women are leading Thursday the Guatemalans” intention of vote, just 11 days before the start of the electoral campaign and amid accusations against candidates from the 27 parties involved in the contest.
If we look at the results of the most recent CID-Gallup poll, presidential candidate Sandra Torres, of the National Unity of Hope, would have the support of 17.7 percent of the population over 18 years old registered.

A little more than a thousand interviewees indicated in second place, with 10.7 percent, ex-prosecutor Thelma Aldana, who next Sunday will be officially proclaimed by the Seed Movement.

She would be followed by Zury Rios (7.9 percent), Alejandro Giammatei (5.80 percent), Edwin Escobar (3.1 percent) from the Prosperidad Ciudadana Party, and Roberto Arzu (2.8 percent) from the Alianza Podemos-Partido de Avanzada Nacional.

Mario Estrada, from the Union of National Change (2.7 percent); and Julio Hector Estrada, from Creo, (1.5 percent) are in the last places.

The statistics also show that 18 candidates did not exceed one percent, so they were included in the ‘other’ category.

It is also striking that 6.5 percent would not vote for anyone and another 34.4 percent do not know or did not respond, almost 50 percent.

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Green New Deal Reveals the Naked Truth of Agenda 21

by Tom DeWeese

Sometimes if you fight hard enough and refuse to back down, no matter the odds, your truth is vindicated and prevails!

For twenty years I have been labeled a conspiracy theorist, scaremonger, extremist, dangerous, nut case. I’ve been denied access to stages, major news programs, and awarded tin foil hats. All because I have worked to expose Agenda 21 and its policy of sustainable development as a danger to our property rights, economic system, and culture of freedom.

From its inception in 1992 at the United Nation’s Earth Summit, 50,000 delegates, heads of state, diplomats and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) hailed Agenda 21 as the “comprehensive blueprint for the reorganization of human society.” The 350-page, 40 chapter, Agenda 21 document was quite detailed and explicit in its purpose and goals. They warned us that the reorganization would be dictated through all-encompassing policies affecting every aspect of our lives, using environmental protection simply as the excuse to pull at our emotions and get us to voluntarily surrender our liberties.

Section I details “Social and Economic Dimensions” of the plan, including redistribution of wealth to eradicate poverty, maintain health through vaccinations and modern medicine, and population control.
To introduce the plan, the Earth Summit Chairman, Maurice Strong boldly proclaimed, “Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class — involving meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing — are not sustainable.” Of course, according to the plan, if it’s not “sustainable” it must be stopped.

In support of the plan, David Brower of the Sierra Club (one of the NGO authors of the agenda) said, “Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license.” Leading environmental groups advocated that the Earth could only support a maximum of one billion people, leading famed Dr. Jacques Cousteau to declare, “In order to stabilize world populations, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day.”

Section II provides the “Conservation and Management of Resources for Development” by outlining how environmental protection was to be the main weapon, including global protection of the atmosphere, land, mountains, oceans, and fresh waters — all under the control of the United Nations.

To achieve such global control to save the planet, it is necessary to eliminate national sovereignty and independent nations. Eliminating national borders quickly led to the excuse for openly allowing the “natural migration” of peoples. The UN Commission on Global Governance clearly outlined the goal for global control stating, “The concept of national sovereignty has been immutable, indeed a sacred principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation.” That pretty much explains why the supporters of such a goal go a little off the rails when a presidential candidate makes his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

The main weapon for the Agenda was the threat of Environmental Armageddon, particularly manifested through the charge of man-made global warming, later to conveniently become “climate change.” It didn’t matter if true science refused to cooperate in this scheme as actual global temperatures really are not rising and there continues to be no evidence of any man-made affect on the climate. Truth hasn’t been important to the scare mongers. Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation said, “We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” To further drive home their complete lack of concern for truth, Paul Watson of Greenpeace declared, “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
So in their zealotry to enforce the grand agenda, social justice became the “moral force” over the rule of law as free enterprise, private property, rural communities and individual consumption habits became the targets, labeled as racist and a social injustice. Such established institutions and free market economics were seen as obstructions to the plan, as were traditional family units, religion, and those who were able to live independently in rural areas.

Finally, Agenda 21 was summed up in supporting documents this way: “Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced. It requires a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals, and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level.”
Of course, such harsh terms had to be hidden from the American people if the plan was to be successfully imposed. They called it a “suggestion” for “voluntary” action — just in case a nation or community wanted to do something positive for mankind! However, while using such innocent-sounding language, the Agenda 21 shock troops lost no time pushing it into government policy. In 1992, just after its introduction at the Earth Summit, Nancy Pelosi introduced a resolution of support for the plan into Congress. It’s interesting to note that she boldly called it a “comprehensive blueprint for the reorganization of human society.” In 1993, new President, Bill Clinton ordered the establishment of the President’s Council for Sustainable Development, with the express purpose of enforcing the Agenda 21 blueprint into nearly every agency of the federal government to assure it became the law of the land. Then the American Planning Association issued a newsletter in 1994, supporting Agenda 21’s ideas as a “comprehensive blueprint” for local planning. So much for a voluntary idea!

CONTINUE HERE FOR 3.15.19

However, as we, the opponents started to gain some ground in exposing its true purpose and citizens began to storm city halls protesting local implementation, suddenly the once proud proponents lost their collective memories about Agenda 21. Never heard of it! “There are no blue-helmeted troops at city hall,” said one proponent, meaning policies being used to impose it were not UN driven, but just “local, local, local”. “Oh, you mean that innocuous 20 year-old document that has no enforcement capability? This isn’t that!” These were the excuses that rained down on us from the planners, NGOs and government agents as they scrambled to hide their true intentions.

I was attacked on the front page of the New York Times Sunday paper under the headline, “Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) produced four separate reports on my efforts to stop it, calling our efforts an “Antigovernment Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory.” The Atlantic magazine ran a story entitled, “Is the UN Using Bike Paths to Achieve World Domination?” Attack articles appeared in the Washington Post, Esquire magazine, Wingnut Watch, Mother Jones, and Tree Hugger.com to name a few. All focused on labeling their opposition as tin-foil-hat-wearing nut jobs. Meanwhile, an alarmed American Planning Association (APA) created an “Agenda 21: Myths and Facts” page on its web site to supposedly counter our claims. APA then organized a “Boot Camp” to retrain its planners to deal with us, using a “Glossary for the Public,” teaching them new ways to talk about planning. Said the opening line of the Glossary, “Given the heightened scrutiny of planners by some members of the public, what is said — or not said — is especially important in building support for planning.” The Glossary went on to list words not to use like “Public Visioning,” “Stakeholders,” “Density,” and “Smart Growth,” because such words make the “Critics see red.”

Local elected officials, backed by NGO groups and planners, began to deride local activists — sometimes denying them access to speak at public meetings, telling them that Agenda 21 conspiracy theory has “been debunked.” Most recently an irate city councilman answered a citizen who claimed local planning was part of Agenda 21 by saying “this is what’s trending.” So, of course, if everyone is doing it is must be right!
Such has been our fight to stop this assault on our culture and Constitutional rights.

Over the years, since the introduction of Agenda 21 in 1992, the United Nations has created several companion updates to the original documents. This practice serves two purposes. One is to provide more detail on how the plan is to be implemented. The second is to excite its global activists with a new rallying cry. In 2000, the UN held the Millennium Summit, launching the Millennium Project featuring eight goals for global sustainability to be reached by 2015. Then, when those goals were not achieved, the UN held another summit in New York City in September of 2015, this time outlining 17 goals to be reached by 2030. This document became known as the 2030 Agenda, containing the exact same goals as were first outlined in Agenda 21 in 1992, and then again in 2000, only with each new incarnation offering more explicit direction for completion.

Enter the Green New Deal, representing the boldest tactic yet. The origins and the purpose of the Green New Deal couldn’t be more transparent. The forces behind Agenda 21 and its goal of reorganizing human society have become both impatient and scared. Impatient that 27 years after Agenda 21 was introduced, and after hundreds of meetings, planning sessions, massive propaganda, and billions of dollars spent, the plan still is not fully in place. Scared because people around the world are starting to learn its true purpose and opposition is beginning to grow.

So the forces behind the Agenda have boldly thrown off their cloaking devices and their innocent sounding arguments that they just want to protect the environment and make a better life for us all. Instead, they are now openly revealing that their goal is socialism and global control, just as I’ve been warning about for these past twenty years. Now they are determined to take congressional action to finally make it the law of the land.

Take a good look, those of you who have heard my warnings about Agenda 21 over the years. Do you see the plan I have warned about being fully in place in this Green New Deal?
• I warned that Agenda 21 would control every aspect of our lives, including how and were we live, the jobs we have, the mode of transportation available to us, and even what we eat. The Green New Deal is a tax on everything we do, make, wear, eat, drink, drive, import, export and even breathe.

• In opposing Smart Growth plans in your local community, I said the main goal was to eliminate cars, to be replaced with bikes, walking, and light rail trains. The Green New Deal calls for the elimination of the internal combustion engine. Stay alert. The next step will be to put a ban on the sale of new combustion engines by a specific date and then limiting the number of new vehicles to be sold. Bans on commercial truck shipping will follow. Then they will turn to airplanes, reducing their use. Always higher and higher taxes will be used to get the public to “voluntarily” reduce their use of such personal transportation choices. That’s how it works, slowly but steadily towards the goal.

• I warned that under Smart Growth programs now taking over every city in the nation that single-family homes are a target for elimination, to be replaced by high-rise stack and pack apartments in the name of reducing energy use. That will include curfews on carbon heating systems, mandating they be turned off during certain hours. Heating oil devices will become illegal. Gradually, energy use of any kind will be continually reduced. The Green New Deal calls for government control of every single home, office and factory to tear down or retrofit them to comply with massive environmental energy regulations.

• I warned that Agenda 21 Sustainable policy sought to drive those in rural areas off the farms and into the cities where they could be better controlled. Those in the cities will be ordered to convert their gardens into food producers. Most recently I warned that the beef industry is a direct target for elimination. It will start with mandatory decreases in meat consumption until it disappears from our daily diet. The consumption of dairy will follow. Since the revelation of the Green New Deal the national debate is now over cattle emissions of methane and the drive to eliminate them from the planet. Controlling what we eat is a major part of the Green New Deal.

• I warned that part of the plan for Agenda 2030 was “Zero Economic Growth.” The Green New Deal calls for a massive welfare plan where no one earns more than anyone else. Incentive to get ahead is dead. New inventions would disrupt their plan for a well-organized, controlled society. So, where will jobs come from after we have banned most manufacturing, shut down most stores, stopped single-family home construction, closed the airline industry, and severely regulated farms and the entire food industry? This is their answer to the hated free markets and individual choice.

The Green New Deal will destroy the very concept of our Constitutional Republic, eliminating private property, locally elected representative government, free markets and individual freedom. All decisions in our lives will be made for us by the government — just to protect the environment of course. They haven’t forgotten how well that scheme works to keep the masses under control.
Though the label “Green New Deal” has been passing around globalist circles for a while, it’s interesting that its leaders have now handed it to a naïve, inexperienced little girl from New York who suddenly found herself rise from bartending to a national media sensation, almost over night. That doesn’t just happen and there is no miracle here. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a created product. They probably needed her inexperienced enthusiasm to deliver the Green New Deal because no established politician would touch it. Now that it’s been introduced and she is set up to take the heat, the gates have swung open allowing forty-five members of Congress to co-sponsor it in the House of Representatives as established Senator Ed. Markey (D-MA) has sponsored it in the Senate. That doesn’t just happen either. Nothing has been left to chance.
Behind the sudden excitement and rush to support it are three radical groups each having direct ties to George Soros, including the Sunrise Movement — which markets itself as an “army of young people” seeking to make climate change a major priority. Justice Democrats — which finds and recruits progressive candidates, and New Consensus — organized to change how we think about issues. Leaders of these groups have connections with other Soros-backed movements including Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. According to the New Yorker magazine, the plan was written over a single weekend in December, 2018. Ocasio-Cortez was included in the effort, chosen to introduce it. This may be the single reason why she was able to appear out of nowhere to become the new darling of the radical left.

So there you have it — Agenda 21, the Millennium Project, Agenda 2030, the Green New Deal. Progress in the world of Progressives! They warned us from the beginning that their plan was the “comprehensive blueprint for the reorganization of human society.” And so it is to be the total destruction of our way of life.
To all of those elected officials, local, state and federal, who have smirked at we who have tried to sound the alarm, look around you now, hot shots! You have denied, ignored, and yet, helped put these very plans into place. Are you prepared to accept what you have done? Will you allow your own homes and offices to be torn down — or will you be exempt as part of the elite or just useful idiots? Will you have to give up your car and ride your bike to work? Or is that just for we peasants?

Over these years you have listened to the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, ICLEI, the American Planning Association, and many more, as they assured you their plans were just environmental protection, just good policy for future generations. They have been lying to you to fulfill their own agenda! Well, now the truth is right in front of you. There is no question of who and what is behind this. And no doubt as to what the final result will be.

Now, our elected leaders have to ask real questions. As the Green New Deal is implemented, and all energy except worthless, unworkable wind and solar are put into place, are you ready for the energy curfews that you will be forced to impose, perhaps each night as the sun fades, forcing factories, restaurants, hospitals, and stores to close at dusk? How about all those folks forced to live in the stack and pack high-rises when the elevators don’t operate? What if they have an emergency?

How much energy will it take to rebuild those buildings that must be destroyed or retrofitted to make them environmentally correct for your brave new world? Where will it come from after you have banned and destroyed all the workable sources of real energy? What are you counting on to provide you with food, shelter, and the ability to travel so you can continue to push this poison? Because — this is what’s trending — now! And how is it going to be financed when the entire economy crashes under its weight? Is it really the future you want for you, your family, and your constituents who elected you?

Every industry under attack by this lunacy should now join our efforts to stop it. Cattlemen, farmers, airlines, the auto industry, realtors, tourist industry, and many more, all will be put out of business — all should now take bold action to immediately kill this plan before it kills your industry. Stomp it so deeply into the ground that no politician will ever dare think about resurrecting it.
For years I’ve watched politicians smirk, roll their eyes, and sigh whenever the words Agenda 21 were uttered. As George Orwell said, “The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” Today I stand vindicated in my warnings of where Agenda 21 was truly headed, because it’s not longer me having to reveal the threat. They are telling you themselves. Here’s the naked truth — Socialism is for the stupid. The Green New Deal is pure Socialism. How far its perpetrators get in enforcing it depends entirely on how hard you are willing to fight for freedom. Kill socialism now or watch freedom die.

(Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence. He serves as Founder and President of the American Policy Center and editor of The DeWeese Report).

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Oscar®-Nominated ROMA Star Yalitza Aparicio to Appear as Keynote Speaker During International Labour Organization (ILO) Centenary Celebration

Appearance to Commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8

by the El Reportero’s wire services

GENEVA – March 6, 2019 – Today, it was announced that Yalitza Aparicio, the Oscar®-nominated star of three-time Academy Award®-winning film ROMA, will make a special appearance during the International Labour Organization (ILO) centenary celebration at its headquarters in Geneva. The event kicks off March 7 with a free screening of Oscar® winner Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA, followed by a panel discussion with Aparicio, Marcelina Bautista, Secretary-General of Mexico’s National Union of Workers and Domestic Workers, and Claire Hobden, ILO Technical Officer on Vulnerable Workers.

In addition to the screening, Aparicio will take part in the ILO’s International Women’s Day celebration held on March 8. Titled, “A Quantum Leap for Gender Equality: For a Better Future of Work for All,” the event will include Aparicio as the featured speaker offering insights into her personal experiences as an indigenous woman, as well as her work experiences as an educator and actress. Aparicio will be part of a high-level conversation, moderated by journalist Femi Oke, that also will include Guy Ryder, Director General of the ILO, and public and private sector leaders on gender and the world of work and entertainment.

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Oakland teachers fight for public education

Article and photo by David Bacon

Students and parents have come out en masse to join the marches and picket lines of the ongoing teachers strike in Oakland, California. All say that they are trying to save the city’s public school system.

“This is a strike to save our district,” said Heath Madom, who’s taught 10th grade English for three years at Oakland Technical High School, which is referred to as “Tech” by educators and pupils. “Our Tech community is committed to saving public education. Twenty-four schools are on the chopping block. We could become like New Orleans, with no public schools and all charters, if this keeps going.”

Like other teacher strikes around the country, the Oakland conflict is fueled both by a determination to protect the public school system itself and by the crisis in funding that has led to huge classes and deteriorating conditions in the schools themselves. According to Madom and the Oakland Education Association, only 5 percent of the district’s 37,000 students have passed through their schools’ doors over the last three days – evidence of vehement parent and community support.

Parents, students and teachers all condemn the rise in class sizes. “My class is a catch-all, because all students have to take it, so class size is a huge issue,” said Rho Seidelman, who’s taught ethnic studies at Tech for three years. “There’s no tracking, which is great, because we have students from all backgrounds and previous schools. But it’s hard to build community among the students when there are so many. The contract says 32 is the limit, and I routinely have at least 33. Research shows that the best learning environment is in a class of 18, where students can really learn and build community. When students are absent and my class size goes down to 28 or 26, I’m really happy.”

Madom says most classes at Tech have 35-40 students, and the school, built for 1,800, has a student body of 2,000. “We only have two part-time nurses for 2,000 students, and they don’t have the time or resources to deal with all their medical problems. We have a beautiful library, but haven’t had a librarian for years. Our counselors have a caseload of 500 students apiece. If they saw every student, they would only be able to spend a few minutes with each,” Madom said. The hiring of more nurses, librarians and counselors is part of the strike demands of the union, the Oakland Education Association, which is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA).

Teachers’ pay is also part of the strike demands. The union wants a 12 percent raise over 3 years, and the district is stuck at 7 percent with a bonus. “The only reason I can live in Oakland is because I live with a partner who has a good income,” Seidelman said. “What I make is not enough to live here. I’m still paying off my school loans, and rent takes up almost half my income. My job would clearly be improved if we won the demands of our strike, and I, and other teachers too, would be more likely to stay.”

“People here are struggling,” Madom added. “Some teachers are commuting long distances to get here. We had seven excellent teachers leave this year, including two English teachers with more than five years [of] experience.”

Prior to the strike, a state fact-finder’s report found that the teacher retention crisis in Oakland is worse than most other districts in the state, which the state attributes to substandard pay, the lowest among the Bay Area’s districts. The fact-finder also mandated reducing class sizes, especially for special education classes, and concluded that school privatization was hurting students.

Slating 24 schools for closure is part of the privatization regime, Madom argued, adding that the closures are hitting communities that have been historically underserved the hardest. “At the same time, the district has allowed charter schools to proliferate, which is a direct reason why enrollment has declined in public schools they now want to close,” Madom added. “Yet there’s no discussion of closing any of the charters.” Those charter schools already enroll 13,000 students in Oakland.

Seidelman said these priorities are part of a culture in Oakland that favors development to benefit the affluent. “If it was up to a popular vote, our community would support the strike’s demands overwhelmingly. But our community is not in control of the basic decisions in the city. The strike has exposed the political corruption in Oakland city politics. The terrible condition of our schools is a consequence of the policies imposed by business interests. The resources of the city go to gentrification, which benefits them, but not our communities. It’s true all over the country, which is why there are strikes now in so many places. It’s not just a problem of Oakland.”

But the national teachers’ strike wave is challenging those priorities. “It’s shifting the narrative on public education,” Madom said. “The charter industry has claimed that poor students don’t get the education they deserve because of poor teachers. Public school teachers haven’t been heard until now. We do need great teachers, but the problems of our schools aren’t due to individual teachers. The district for years hasn’t funded classrooms adequately, but the state also has grossly underfunded education. California has a massive amount of wealth. I can’t believe we’re living in one of the richest states in the country, and yet there’s no money for education. We’re tired of putting up with austerity. The strike wave is happening because teachers are standing up, and saying ‘enough is enough’.”

After talks broke down on February 24, sending the strike into its third day, Keith Brown, president of the Oakland Education Association, told reporters that the district had “returned to the table without a proposal that would begin to meet our core bargaining demands [which include an obligation to] fully fund our schools and provide a living wage to keep teachers in Oakland.”

Novelist Alice Walker was among many celebrities and political figures to rally behind the teachers. “You should be given, really, anything you ask for,” she said in a letter. “It is criminal that you are not. Especially when we see it is the war effort, more often than not, that is supported lavishly. An effort that often cuts short the very lives you have lovingly prepared to live with understanding and intelligence in this world. Know that you have sisters and brothers who stand with you, heart to heart.”

The majority of the following photographs were taken on the strike’s first day, February 21, when teachers, parents and students rallied in front of the Oakland City Hall, and then marched through downtown streets to the offices of the Oakland Unified School District.

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IN MEXICO: Refineries showing some signs of life as production numbers rise

Crude oil processing, fuel production showing increases

by Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s six petroleum refineries are showing new signs of life: fuel production and crude processing capacity are up and unscheduled stoppages have been reduced to zero.

State oil sector reports seen by the newspaper El Universal show that production of regular and premium gasoline in the third week of February was 86.7 percent higher than in the first week of January.

Diesel and aviation fuel production also increased, by 98.3 percent and 68.7 percent respectively in the same period.

The month-over-month figures are not quite as impressive but positive nonetheless.

Daily gasoline production this month has averaged 192,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to 128,000 bpd last month – a 50 percent increase – and 153,000 bpd in December. Diesel production was up 32 percent to 131,000 bpd in February compared to 99,000 bpd last month.

While the signs are promising, the National Refining System (SNR) is still a long way from getting back to production levels seen a decade ago when they reached their highest point in 29 years.

During the last two weeks of this month, automotive fuel production has averaged 213,000 bpd – just 42.3 percent of the average daily production of 504,100 bpd in January 2009.

With regard to crude oil processing, the six oil refineries achieved an average capacity of 484,000 bpd during January but this month, the figure has increased by 15.7 percent to 560,000 bpd.

Looking at figures for the first week of last month and the third week of February, the increase is even more impressive.

Crude processing has increased from 309,500 bpd to 664,00 bpd in the period, a 114 percent surge. However, the figure represents less than 40 percent of the refineries’ combined processing capacity if they were operating at an optimal level.

Another good result for the oil sector is that there hasn’t been a single work stoppage at refineries this month compared to 40 in January and 48 in December.

According to the oil sector reports, Mexico’s oil production and processing problems were, as of the end of the third quarter last year, primarily linked to “operational problems” at the refineries in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, and Minatitlán, Veracruz.

At the time both facilities were only operating at a minimal capacity.

To improve production and processing capacity across the SNR, an oil sector report said, it was “essential to continue general maintenance and preventative programs” at all refineries.
Petroleum production has been declining in Mexico for years.

Earlier this month, President López Obrador announced a 107-billion-peso (US $5.5-billion) rescue plan for Pemex aimed at reducing the state oil company’s financial burden and strengthening its capacity to invest in exploration and production.

He has pledged to reduce Mexico’s dependency on petroleum imports and part of his rescue plan for the sector includes the construction of a new refinery in Tabasco.

But while the president is optimistic, financial institutions rejected the government’s plan, describing it as insufficient and disappointing, while Fitch Ratings warned that it doesn’t insulate the state oil company against future cuts to its credit rating, which it currently rates at just one notch above junk.

Source: El Universal (sp).

In other news, in Nicaragua

Nicaragua talks on crisis begin, dozens of prisoners freed

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Representatives of President Daniel Ortega and the opposition sat down face-to-face in a restart of long-stalled talks on resolving Nicaragua’s political crisis Wednesday, shortly after authorities released dozens of people arrested in last year’s crackdown on anti-government protests.

The meeting at a business institute south of the capital, Managua, was held behind closed doors and journalists were not allowed access.

The first day had been expected to be used to set the agenda and format for talks, and at its end the sides released a statement saying they agreed to nine of the 12 points on a preliminary road map and would meet again Thursday. The statement read by Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag did not provide details about what the points were.

Ortega did not take part in the talks but was represented by his foreign minister, a magistrate, several lawmakers and a student leader. The opposition delegation included several prominent business leaders, a noted academic, a politician and a university student. Sommertag, the Vatican’s ambassador to Nicaragua, and Managua’s cardinal were present as observers.

Last year’s protests demanding Ortega leave office and allow early elections prompted a deadly crackdown by security forces and armed, pro-government civilian groups. At least 325 people were killed, 2,000 wounded, hundreds imprisoned and more than 50,000 fled into exile.

One of the opposition’s primary demands has been the release of the estimated 770-plus people considered political prisoners jailed for participating in demonstrations.

Hours before talks began Wednesday, several vans carrying people in inmates’ uniforms left the Modelo prison in the capital escorted by heavily armed police in trucks.

Source: Associated Press.

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Essential nutrients you need to live a longer, healthier life

by Edsel Cook

We all want to live as long and healthy as possible, but our diets are not providing enough of the right nutrients that slow down the aging process. Indeed, the unhealthy foods we eat are making us age faster. So, an American study helpfully identified 41 different “longevity vitamins” that can promote healthy aging.

These nutrients are made up of 14 vitamins and 16 essential minerals. All of them are known to nutritional researchers.

The former group are comprised of vitamins A, C, D, E, K, four B vitamins, and five other vitamins. The mineral group is made up of calcium, chloride, chromium, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, sulfur, and zinc.
The last 11 nutrients are healthy compounds that do not count as either vitamins or minerals. However, the nine amino acids and the pair of omega-3 fatty acids play big roles in important bodily functions.

University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) researcher Bruce Ames came up with the term “longevity vitamins” to describe these vital nutrients. He believes they are vital to both long life and good healthy. (Related: Taking vitamin C and quercetin together can suppress inflammation and decrease cellular damage.)

The body prioritizes short-term survival over long-term health

Many years ago, Ames proposed the “triage theory,” an idea where the body normally has a limited amount of nutrients available. The theory suggests that the body prioritizes processes that ensure the survival of the organism for the time being.

These biochemical processes include fight-or-flight reaction and reproduction. They ensure the organism survives long enough to reproduce and spread its genes to a new generation.

Conversely, the body skimps on supplying processes that are involved in maintaining its health over long periods of time. For example, DNA contains the blueprints for the body’s many parts and functions. But the healing process for this genetic data doesn’t get the levels of energy and raw materials it needs to work properly.

If DNA repair and similar processes for maintaining the organism’s long-term health are deprived of nutrients for long periods of time, the body’s ability to recover from illnesses and injuries will diminish. This makes the organism much more vulnerable to chronic diseases that could lead to its early demise.

Longevity vitamins are vital to supporting these long-term survival processes. Ames therefore recommends increasing the intake of these nutrients as much as possible, if you want to live long enough to see your grandchildren instead of just your children.

Natural foods are often better sources of “longevity vitamins” than supplement pills
Furthermore, Ames endorses obtaining longevity vitamins from food rather than taking vitamin supplements. He suggests eating various foods that contain plenty of these important vitamins, essential minerals, and nutrients.

Most of these recommended foodstuffs are derived from plants. Fruits, legumes, sea veggies, vegetables, and whole grains are considered to be naturally therapeutic when consumed as food.

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