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Peoples of the world: Nicaragua needs your help

The homeland of Rubén Darío is being massacred, nobody is defending her: neither the left nor the right. There is a lot of pain

As of April 18, after the people was asleep for approximately 11 years – since Daniel Ortega took office for the second time, without the right to demonstrate politically against his government in peaceful marches – a right established in the Political Constitution of the Republic – Nicaraguans said enough, we are NOT AFRAID!

And then, young university students in their universities began to demonstrate in peaceful marches in Managua, while they were joined by more groups of all social strata making civil protests in the streets, despite the violence unleashed by the police that was leaving dead behind.

In response to these events, the youths, who assumed the name of auto-convocados (self-appointed), began to protect themselves from the attacks of the riot police by erecting barricades in the neighborhoods and roads, which became the lethal weapon to pressure the government to abandon power. The movement of the autoconvocados now a national movement, ask for the resignation of the president and his dome of power.

This challenge, however, has been fatal for many young people and persons of all ages, including babies and children, who have fallen under the bullets of organized criminal groups armed by the same government and openly protected by the National Police.

After more than 300 deaths, thousands of wounded and dozens of disappeared by government forces, the so-called Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy group that holds talks with the government, demanded the presence of the IACHR of the OAS, the human rights of the UN and the EU.

These human rights groups, which have conducted many interviews and investigations, and checked the hundreds or thousands of videos showing the direct participation of the police in the massacres, have brought hope to the people who protest; however, even in the presence of these, the heavily armed paramilitaries of the Ortega government continue to assassinate and kidnap the peaceful demonstrators, who only have slings, stones and mortars to repel the attacks. The participation of the clergy of the Catholic Church has been fundamental in making possible the release of many of those captured – or kidnapped, since they have not committed any crime for protesting.

And this also happens despite the national dialogue – which is half stuck, but which allows the victims to air their complaints in a public forum – and with the hope that the ruling dictator negotiates his exit from power and disarms the paramilitaries. But he has resisted accepting his exit.

The Special Follow-up Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) is the technical working team of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), which has as one of its functions to accompany and assist the Verification and Security Commission (CVS) instituted in the framework of the Dialogue Table Agreement, in which the government, the Episcopal Conference, private enterprise through COSEP, peasants and students participate.

The MESENI team participated in the plenary meetings of the CVS and held meetings with the members appointed by the Civic Alliance and with the members appointed by the Government. They have met with citizens, and have made visits to the “El Chipote” Judicial Assistance Jail in Managua, where prisoners are tortured, and they have also interceded in the release of detained demonstrators.

Following up on the recommendations made by the IACHR in its report “Serious violations of human rights in the context of social protests in Nicaragua,” the MESENI held meetings with the highest authorities of the State to address their compliance.

The MESENI dialogue with the State on the measures adopted to guarantee the life, integrity and security of all the demonstrators, as well as to dismantle the vigilante groups and adopt measures to prevent the continued operation of armed third groups that attack or harass the civil population. However, the repression continues, and with more force now that the 39th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19 is approaching, when the people and the Front defeated the last dictator and member of the dynasty, Anastacio Somoza Debayle.

After Nicaragua was listed as the sixth safest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI 2014), from the Institute got Economics and Piece (IEP), it is now the most dangerous country, where in just about 90 days have been more deaths than in Venezuela, where there were about 161 deaths since August 2017.

The constitutional order has completely disappeared. The authorities – what had been suspected for a long time – whose function is to ensure the safety of the population, openly exposed that they are there to protect the dictator Daniel Ortega Saveedra and his interests, and not to protect the public.

And waiting for the OAS to come and save them could be just an illusion, since neither the human rights commissions nor the OAS have armies to confront or disarm the irregular forces.

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Seven herbs that lower blood pressure

by Sandeep Godiyal

Reducing blood pressure helps ensure that people do not suffer any of the devastating side effects that can occur when it gets too high.

Hypertension, as high blood pressure is often called, is responsible for an increased risk of kidney disease, heart attack, vision problems, heart failure, stroke and many other life threatening health conditions. Unfortunately, many people either do not take these threats seriously or they have found that the medications their doctor prescribed came with side effects that make them feel worse.

Medication is not the only solution

As part of a treatment plan for high blood pressure, the physician often emphasizes to the patient how important their lifestyle choices are to their health. Things such as exercising and eating a diet that focuses on eating more fruits and vegetables and less meats and dairy products can go a long way toward reducing high blood pressure. In addition to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, formulated at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLB), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), people who suffer from high blood pressure can add other measures at home that are designed to help lower their blood pressure.

7 Herbs that can help

The following seven herbs, many of them popular and already in use in kitchens around the world, can help reduce blood pressure and the need for medications.

• Garlic: A study at the Clinical Research Center of New Orleans found that allicin, a substance in garlic, helped nine research subjects with severe incidences of hypertension experience its reduction.

• Onions: A Journal of Nutrition study found that the antioxidant flavonol, quercetin, caused subjects to experience a reduction of both their diastolic and systolic pressures compared with subjects who only took a placebo.

• Cinnamon: This herb has many health properties, including lowering blood pressure and fighting diabetes. Research subjects who ingested a water soluble form of cinnamon had an increase in the antioxidants that lower blood sugar levels.

• Oregano: An animal subject study found that a compound found in oregano, carvacrol, reduced arterial pressure, diastolic and systolic pressures and the heart rate.

• Cardamom: After taking this herb for only three months, 20 people who were recently diagnosed with severe hypertension saw their blood pressure levels significantly reduced.

• Olives: Olive oil, a staple in the Mediterranean diet, has been shown to reduce blood pressure, making people who live in that area some of the world’s healthiest.

• Hawthorn: When 79 people with Type 2 diabetes took 1200mg of hawthorn extract for sixteen weeks, their mean diastolic pressure was reduced.

The above herbs are proof that just because a diet change is necessary for good health, it does not mean that the diet must be bland. Generous use of some of the most popular herbs can lead to better health. (Natural News).

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Mexico has been painted in a sea of maroon, the colors of Morena

The party that ruled Mexico uninterruptedly for 71 years is now a weakened third force

by Mexico News Daily

In a sea of maroon lies a single, small island of blue: Guanajuato, the only state in Mexico where Andrés Manuel López Obrador didn’t win the popular vote in Sunday’s presidential election.

The rest of the country was painted in the electoral colors of Morena, a party that was only formally registered four years ago but was the main vessel that swept its leader to a landslide victory with 53 percent of the national vote.

It will soon not only be the dominant force in federal politics but will also have a strong presence in many other parts of the country.

Morena and its political allies — the Labor Party (PT) and the conservative Social Encounter Party (PES) — didn’t just win the presidency but also a decisive majority in both houses of federal Congress, the governorships of four states and the capital, congressional majorities in 12 states and countless mayoral and other municipal positions.

From September, the Together We Will Make History coalition will hold 303 of 500 seats in the lower house of the federal Congress and 70 of 128 in the Senate.
That means for the first time in 24 years, the president of Mexico will have a legislative majority.

The Morena-led coalition’s main congressional opposition will come from the For Mexico in Front alliance — which is led by the National Action Party (PAN) and nominated Ricardo Anaya for the presidency — but its capacity to spoil the government’s agenda will be limited by having just 140 and 38 seats in the two respective houses.

Beyond the federal domain, Morena’s Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first popularly-elected female mayor of Mexico City, which is sometimes considered the second most important position in Mexican politics, while the party’s coalition candidates won the governor races in Morelos, Veracruz, Tabasco and Chiapas. Morena was also successful in mayoral elections in many of the country’s state capitals and large population centers.

In México state, the party won control of the capital Toluca as well as at least eight municipalities that form part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area including Ecatepec, Tlalnepantla, Naucalpan and Texcoco. It also won the mayoral races in 11 of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs.

Even México state’s Atlacomulco, the birthplace of President Enrique Peña Nieto and a political cradle of other noted Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) politicians, fell into Morena’s hands.

Culiacán, Morelia, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, Cancún and Chetumal are some of the other state capitals and major cities where Morena experienced electoral success.
In López Obrador’s home state of Tabasco, Morena won mayoral races in 15 of 17 municipalities including Centro, which takes in the state capital of Villahermosa.
Of the 12 states where Together We Will Make History won congressional majorities, three were former PRI strongholds: México state, Colima and Hidalgo.

Returning to the presidential race, second-place candidate Anaya — who won 22 percent of the overall vote — only managed to save Guanajuato from the maroon-colored Morena tidal wave that swept over Mexico.

Anaya won there by over 203,000 votes but in neighboring Querétaro, his home state, AMLO came out on top by more than 61,000 votes.

And so it played out in states across the country, in PAN and PRI heartlands alike: the Morena tide could not be stopped, proving that the appetite for change was real and widespread.

The level of discontent with the ruling PRI, which has been plagued by corruption scandals and rising violence, is especially well illustrated by state election results in Veracruz.

While the PRI’s presidential candidate José Antonio Meade won just 16 percent of the federal vote, the party’s candidate in the gulf coast state fared even worse, polling just 14 percent.

What’s more, out of 30 positions up for grabs in the state Congress, the PRI didn’t win a single one.

It should be remembered that in addition to the generalized and widespread unpopularity of the federal PRI government, voters in Veracruz have only just emerged from the rule of one of Mexico’s most corrupt state governments of recent times, led by the now-imprisoned Javier Duarte.

That factor, no doubt, also played into voters’ rejection of the PRI and their warm embrace of Morena.

Yet, in neighboring Tabasco the PRI candidate fared even worse, winning just 12 percent of the vote.

In Mexico City, its candidate for mayor, Mikel Arriola, won under 13 percent of the vote and in Morelos, where former soccer player and current Cuernavaca mayor Cuauhtémoc Blanco seized power, the PRI candidate could only scrape together about 6 percent.

That hartazgo, the feeling of being fed up with the status quo, translated into the PRI not only losing the presidency and two state governorships, but also being diminished to a weak, third power in the federal Congress with the coalition it heads winning just 63 seats in the lower house and 20 in the Senate.

There can be no doubting that a major shift has taken place in Mexican politics.

The party that ruled Mexico uninterruptedly for 71 years until the year 2000 and was synonymous with political power in much of the 20th century is now a weakened third force whose influence at the federal level has been well and truly usurped by Morena.

While there is no doubt that a range of factors contributed to the PRI’s fall from grace, perhaps one reason— with which the party’s name has also far too often been synonymous — outweighs all others: corruption.

Source: Excelsiór (sp), El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp).

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Obrador is on a mission to restore Mexico’s sovereignty

For decades, the specter of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has haunted Mexico’s ruling elites. His triumph on Sunday could change the country’s domestic, regional, and international outlook, says Dan Steinbock

by Dan Steinbock
Political analysis

International media touted the neoliberal reforms of President Enrique Peña Nieto for the past year or two. However, when the “reform” narrative proved hollow, Nieto’s approval rating plunged from almost 50 to barely 10 percent. So the establishment narrative changed: it shifted to a flawed portrayal of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a Mexican Hugo Chávez who endangers Mexico’s future.

Perhaps that’s why before his landslide election victory as president on Sunday The Economist called Obrador “Mexico’s answer to Donald Trump” whose “nationalist populism” offers “many reasons to worry about Mexico’s most likely next president.” Similarly, U.S.-based economic hit men and political risk groups, including Ian Bremmer’s Eurasia Group, framed Obrador’s popular front as a “significant market risk.”

With few variations, the same narrative was replicated in establishment media. The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and The Financial Times warned of a “firebrand leftist” whose biography is “replete with danger signals.”

What these ideologically-driven reports didn’t say is that Obrador is neither an overnight phenomenon nor Trump-induced collateral damage. In reality, Obrador’s movement is a belated triumph for Mexico’s popular will after decades of electoral fraud.

In the past six years, Nieto’s administration has sold Mexico’s public assets to foreign bidders and opened financial markets to speculation, while loyally accommodating Washington’s policies. At the same time, corruption, crime, narco-violence and rising murder rates have soared. While neoliberal elites portray the past decade as that of rising competitiveness, market realities prove otherwise. Mexico’s real GDP growth has fallen significantly behind its BRIC potential during the years of Felipe Calderon (2006-12) and Nieto (2012-18).

But change may be at the door. Obrador will be inaugurated in December. His coalition “Juntos Haremos Historia” (Together We’ll Make History) rests on popular will, not on the needs of the oligarchic economic and political elite, or what Obrador calls the “power mafia.”

He is pushing for the rejuvenation of the agricultural sector. In particular, he would like to develop the agricultural economy of southern Mexico, which has been hurt by cheap (and tacitly subsidized) U.S. food imports. In contrast to Nieto’s “energy reform” – which ended state-owned Pemex’s monopoly in the oil industry and brought foreign investors to Mexican energy markets – Obrador wants a popular referendum on the energy sector, knowing well that many Mexicans oppose or are highly skeptical of the sale of national assets to foreign speculators.

Book on Trump

After Trump’s inauguration, Obrador published a best-selling book called Oye, Trump, in which he takes a critical look at the American “Caligura on Twitter.” While he is politically too shrewd to challenge Trump head on, he is not an appeaser like Nieto. And unlike Nieto, Obrador also had no hurry to conclude the Trump talks about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Through the election campaign, he supported the delay of renegotiation of NAFTA until the elections, so he can have a say in the final outcome.

Obrador seeks increased spending for welfare, which he argues should be a central political objective in a large emerging economy. He is also a strong proponent of cutting the salaries of the political elite to avoid penalizing ordinary Mexicans. He is willing to walk the talk: he has cut his own public-service salary, several times.

Delfina Gómez, an Obrador ally running for Mexico’s senate, told The Guardian: “He finds it shameful that someone might be flaunting their wealth whilst others are dying of hunger.”

Instead of pushing elite educational objectives, Obrador seeks educational reforms through universal access to public colleges and proposes increases in financial aid to students and the elderly.

Having been mayor of Mexico City, he knows only too well how the ruling elite operates in the imperial metropolis. As a result, he is strongly in favor of the decentralization of the executive cabinet by moving secretaries from the capital to the states to be closer to the people that they should serve, and further from the lobbies they tend to collude with.

In contrast to ‘law and order’ candidates that in the past have colluded with the drug kingpins, he wants to restore genuine law and order and thus peace and stability, in order to focus on economic development. He might even seek to negotiate an amnesty for the key narco criminals.

Obrador’s platform reflects popular will. That’s why it has been marginalized by the oligarchic elites for decades – even with electoral fraud.

Decades of Electoral Fraud

Born in 1953, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often abbreviated as AMLO, is everything but a new force or overnight phenomenon in Mexican politics. Starting his career in 1976 in the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Tabasco, on the Gulf of Mexico, he soon became the party’s state leader. In this capacity, Obrador saw intimately how PRI’s longstanding political monopoly began to crumble as domestic elites and foreign interests paved the way to Carlos Salinas’s presidency (1988-94).

Following a highly controversial electoral process and reported electoral fraud, Salinas, who had been groomed at elite U.S. universities, subjected Mexico to neoliberal reforms, which led to years of an economic rollercoaster climaxing with NAFTA. A series of other presidents took office—from Ernesto Zedillo and Vincente Fox to Calderón and Nieto – all promising economic reforms, a war against drugs and a better future. Yet, each, despite different parties, shared a common denominator: neoliberal economic policies, which were predicated on the continued embrace of NAFTA, the expansion of cartels, and jumping on the bandwagon of U.S. policies.

Dr. Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognized strategist of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group. He has served at the India, China and America Institute (US), the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore).

Note: This article was cut to fit space. To read the complete piece, please visit us online at: elreporteroSF.com

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Inmigración en los Estados Unidos: ¿qué es ICE y por qué es controvertido?

Las separaciones familiares en la frontera están impulsando llamadas para abolir la agencia vista como villano

por los servicios de cable de El Reportero

A medida que la indignación por las separaciones familiares en la frontera sur de EE.UU. continúa hirviendo, los manifestantes e incluso una serie de políticos demócratas reclaman cada vez más la abolición de la Agencia de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE).

Esas llamadas alcanzaron un nuevo tono dramático el miércoles cuando una mujer escaló el pedestal de la Estatua de la Libertad, y al menos seis manifestantes fueron arrestados después de colgar una pancarta que pedía la abolición del ICE.

¿Qué es ICE?

ICE se creó en 2003 cuando la administración Bush reorganizó una serie de agencias federales en respuesta a los ataques terroristas del 11 de septiembre de 2001 y las colocó bajo el nuevo Departamento de Seguridad Nacional. ICE, que ahora emplea a más de 20,000 personas, es una de las tres agencias que absorbieron y asumieron las funciones del ahora difunto Servicio de Inmigración y Naturalización y el Servicio de Aduanas de los Estados Unidos.

ICE no es la agencia que realiza separaciones familiares en la frontera de EE.UU. ICE no es responsable de patrullar o asegurar las fronteras de los EE.UU. esa tarea recae en la Agencia de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP). Son los agentes de la CBP quienes han sido acusados de hacer cumplir la política de “tolerancia cero” de la administración, deteniendo a migrantes y solicitantes de asilo en la frontera e iniciando la separación de las familias indocumentadas.

En cambio, a ICE se le encargaron principalmente las llamadas Operaciones de Detención y Deportación: esencialmente la ubicación, la detención y la deportación de inmigrantes indocumentados que ya cruzaron la frontera con éxito y viven en los EE.UU. Bajo el presidente Barack Obama, la unidad priorizó la eliminación de los inmigrantes indocumentados que habían cometido crímenes graves, pero la administración Trump ha ampliado su mandato para atacar ilegalmente a cualquier persona en los EE.UU.

¿Por qué el ICE es controvertido?

En enero de 2017, el presidente firmó una orden ejecutiva para aumentar el personal de la agencia en 10,000 empleados. La orden también amplió enormemente los poderes de inmigración de ICE.

La agencia también alberga una unidad de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional (HSI) que se enfoca en los principales delitos relacionados con las fronteras, como el tráfico de drogas, armas y seres humanos, así como en un departamento de servicios legales mucho más pequeño.

Debido a esta estructura multiparte, incluso algunos agentes de ICE creen que debería ser abolida, aunque probablemente no de la manera que los activistas piden. En una carta al secretario de seguridad nacional, Kirstjen Nielsen, a principios de esta semana, 19 agentes de HSI expresaron su preocupación de que la dura represión de Donald Trump contra inmigrantes indocumentados ha dificultado que realicen investigaciones efectivas sobre importantes asuntos de seguridad nacional.

Los arrestos anuales por inmigración se han disparado desde enero de 2017, de 110,568 en 2016 a 143,470 el año pasado, aunque todavía se mantienen por debajo del nivel de las detenciones anuales bajo la administración de Barack Obama.

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Claudio Suárez sends a message to the Mexican National Team as he prepares for the return of the MX League in Fox Sports

Sent by Jennifer Morán Camacho

Mexico City, 2018 – Former player and former captain of the Mexican National Team, Claudio Suárez, better known as “El Emperador”, was present in an interview where he also told us about the proposal that Fox Deportes offered to be a commentator for the games of Liga MX, took the opportunity to send a symbolic message to the Mexican National Team.

After 3 years working for Fox Deportes, Claudio was offered to be part of the commentary team of all Liga MX matches. Very excited with this new experience he did not hesitate to express how happy and comfortable he is with his new team. “The truth is that I liked it and I have met very professional people, the most important thing for me is that I felt I have liked and have helped colleagues who have been in journalism for many years, and I am along with some colleagues who also work here (Martín Zuñiga and Mariano Trujillo) the truth that I have had a great time”.

He also took the opportunity to send a symbolic message to the Mexican National Team, whom he congratulated. “First of all, congratulate them for the great World Cup they gave … They were very focused and they did it quite well.”

Finally Claudio took the opportunity to invite all his followers not to miss the first game of the MX League, Los Xolos de Tijuana vs Chivas de Guadalajara this July 21 at Fox Deportes.

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Grocery Outlet Launches ‘Independence from Hunger®’ Campaign for Eighth Year

One of Every Five Latinos Faces Food Insecurity

Emeryville, Calif. – Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, the country’s fastest growing extreme discount store chain, launched its Independence from Hunger® Food Collection Campaign to combat food insecurity for the eighth consecutive year. From June 27 through July 31, 2018, the campaign will raise food and cash donations at the 300 Grocery Outlet stores, which will be distributed directly to local food agencies including San Francisco Food Bank in San Francisco Bay. Francisco. In addition, donations made online at GroceryOutlet.com/Donate will help Alameda County Community Food Bank.

During the summer months, many families lose access to school-sponsored food programs, creating a greater risk of food insecurity. In fact, the most recent USDA data report that more than 41.2 million people live in food-insecure households, including 12.9 million children [USDA, Household Food Security in the United States in 2016].

According to the organization for aid against hunger, Feeding America, one in five Latinos faces food insecurity and one in four Latino children live in food-insecure households.

“We are committed to reducing the number of families at risk of food insecurity throughout the United States and our priority each year is to increase our contributions,” said MacGregor Read, Co-CEO of Grocery Outlet Inc. “In 2017, we doubled and more donations of the previous year, raising more than one million for local food aid agencies. This year, we are excited to continue this success by challenging our 300 stores across the country to raise more donations than last year.”

Ways clients can help:

• Give $ 5, get $ 5. Give $ 5 or more in a single transaction at the store or online and you will receive a $ 5 off coupon on a future purchase of $ 25 or more.
• Select a ready-made bag containing a variety of groceries selected by the local food agency and then deliver it to the collection area located at the store entrance.
• Donate online by visiting GroceryOutlet.com/Donate. Donations made online support the San Francisco Bay Area community through the collaboration of Grocery Outlet with Alameda County Community Food Bank.

“At Grocery Outlet, we are dedicated to finding solutions to ensure everyone has access to high-quality, nutritious food,” said Eric Lindberg, Co-CEO of Grocery Outlet, Inc. “By joining forces with our community of customers, employees and partners, we are confident that we can achieve an even greater impact than ever. ”

Each local Grocery Outlet store is owned and operated independently by families who are committed to giving back to the local community. This new edition of the national campaign will build on the past efforts of Independence from Hunger at Grocery Outlet, which has raised more than $ 3.3 million to date across the country.

About Grocery Outlet
Based in Emeryville, California, Grocery Outlet offers branded products with great savings, with customers saving from 40 percent to 70 percent compared to the prices of traditional supermarkets. Grocery Outlet, the chain of stores of extreme discount prices and fastest growing in the US., has more than 300 stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Grocery Outlet offers a wide variety of products. From fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy, to a wide variety of natural and organic items. It also offers a wide selection of beer and wine, health and beauty items, as well as seasonal products.

As a family business founded in 1946 and run by its owners for three generations, the mission of Grocery Outlet has always been to provide its customers with a pleasant place to find “WOW” savings in recognized brands they trust. Grocery Outlet stores are run by independent owners in the local community.

For more information about Grocery Outlet, please visit www.GroceryOutlet.com.

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Brighten up your Tuesdays with live Latin music at Cha Cha Cha

Compiled by the El Reportero’s news services

Son Chévere plays classic Cuban music, featuring Jordan Wilson on tres, Maria Lorenzi on bass keytar, Ryan Mead & Javier Navarrette on percussion, Mara Fox on trombone and Juan Ceballos on flute. Eminently danceable.

Superb for Listening and Dancing while you enjoy tasty tapas and cocktails. at Cha Cha Cha, 212 Elsie Street, San Francisco, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. – Free Admission

Pete Escovedo Orchestra

Legendary Percussionist Pete Escovedo is an artist who broke down the barriers between Smooth Jazz, Salsa, Latin Jazz and contemporary music. His name has been synonymous in the music industry for more than 50 years.

Pete’s versatility as a Percussionist has been featured in performances and recordings by a wide range of Artists such as Carlos Santana, Tito Puente, Herbie Hancock, Mongo Santamaria, Bobby McFerrin, Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, Stephen Stills, Billy Cobham, Anita Baker, George Duke, Boz Scaggs, Andy Narell, Al Jarreau, Ray Obiedo, Dionne Warwick, Marlena Shaw, Barry White, Angela Bofill, Arturo Sandoval, Poncho Sánchez, Chick Corea, Dave Valentine, Najee, Gerald Albright, Prince, and the list goes on.

On July 14th, 7pm – July 15th, 9 p.m., at Yoshi’s, Jack London Square in Oakland. Cover $29 and up.

29th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest returns for its 29th festival season from Friday, Aug. 10 – Sunday, August 12 in and around Plaza de César Chavez Park in downtown San Jose.

A showcase for jazz, blues, funk, R&B, salsa, world and related genres, SJZ Summer Fest is nationally recognized as one of the biggest Latin festivals in the country and a magnet for international artists, who have marquee performance opportunities in Northern California. Above and beyond any other year, SJZ Summer Fest 2018 illuminates the depths of electrifying global jazz happening around the world by supporting new Summer Fest artists hailing from Cuba, Australia, Switzerland, Argentina, Spain, Ghana, Japan and Luxembourg.

A standout summer destination for music lovers and families alike, the three-day event includes 120+ performances on 12 stages, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to downtown throughout the weekend.

The 29th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2018 features an acclaimed lineup, and today San Jose Jazz announces its initial round of confirmed artists including Sobrato Organization Main Stage headliners: Kool & the Gang; Herb Alpert and Lani Hall; Lalah Hathaway; Booker T.’s Stax Revue: A Journey Through Soul, Blues and R&B; Goapele; Yissy & Bandancha; Nachito Herrera Trio; and Vincent Herring’s Story of Jazz: 100 Years.

Friday, August 10 – Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, Plaza de César Chavez Park, Downtown San Jose. Event Info: summerfest.sanjosejazz.org.

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Mexico election: Andrés Manuel López Obrador wins in historic landslide victory

Exit polls show baseball-loving nationalist who counts Jeremy Corbyn as a friend is now the new president elect

by Tom Phillips and David Agren in Mexico City

A baseball-loving left-wing nationalist who has vowed to crack down on corruption, rein in Mexico’s war on drugs and rule for the poor has been elected president of Latin America’s second-largest economy, exit polls suggested on Sunday night.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a silver-haired 64-year-old who is best known as Amlo and counts Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn among his friends, was set to be elected with 49 percent of the vote, according to a poll conducted by the El Financiero newspaper.

López Obrador’s closest rival, Ricardo Anaya from the National Action party (PAN), received 27 percent, the poll said, while José Antonio Meade, a career civil servant running for the Institutional Revolutionary party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of last century, came in third with 18 percent.

A second exit poll, by the Mexican polling group Consulta Mitofsky, gave López Obrador between 43 percent and 49 percent, Anaya between 23 percent and 27 percent and Meade between 22 percent and 26 percent.

Immediately after those polls were released Meade conceded defeat. “We have to recognise that according to [voting] trends … Andrés Manuel López Obrador … will have the responsibility of leading the executive power and for the good of Mexico I wish him the very best of luck.”

“I will take a few days to reflect and ponder my future but you can be sure I’ll keep working for a better Mexico,” Meade added.

Soon after, Anaya also accepted Amlo’s victory. “As I said to him a few minutes ago on the phone I recognise his triumph, express my congratulations and wish him the best of luck for the good of Mexico,” he said. “The citizens wanted a change and they opted in their majority for the alternative that he represents.”

Official results were due to be announced later on Sunday night with Amlo supporters expected to flood Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zócalo, to celebrate his anticipated victory.

Exit polls also suggested the party Amlo founded in 2014 – the Movement for National Regeneration or Morena – had won at least five of nine gubernatorial races, with the winners including Mexico City’s first elected female mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum. “We won! We’ll rescue the City of Hope,” she wrote on Twitter.

Earlier in the day, Amlo, who has for months towered over his opponents in the polls, flashed a victory sign to reporters as he arrived to vote at a Mexico City polling station.

“This is a historic day,” he said, calling the vote “a plebiscite in which people will choose between more of the same or genuine change”.

As an estimated 89 million voters descended on polling stations on Sunday it became clear that Mexicans – fed up with political sleaze, soaring violence and poverty – had overwhelmingly voted for change and to reject the only two parties to hold the presidency since the end of one-party rule in 2000.

“This country is in a deep hole and he’s the only one that can pull us out of it,” Manuel Molina, a 34-year-old advertising worker, said as he voted Amlo in Mexico City’s Tacubaya neighbourhood.

Civil servant Evelyn Correa said she was backing Amlo because she was tired of corrupt and shameless politicians: “He won’t resolve everything like he promises … But we’ve tried the [other parties]. Hopefully he’s different.”

Delfina Gómez, a close Amlo ally who is running for a seat in Mexico’s senate, told the Guardian she believed corruption-weary voters were backing Amlo and Morena because they wanted “a radical transformation in the way politics is done, and in politicians themselves”.

Gómez called Amlo a thrifty, upstanding man who would lead “a government of austerity and honesty”: “He finds it shameful that someone might be flaunting their wealth whilst others are dying of hunger.”

Amlo has repeatedly pledged to make eradicating corruption the main focus of his presidency, once he is sworn in on 1 December this year. “We will get rid of … this cancer, that is destroying this country,” he vowed at his final campaign rally.

Analysts also expect him to pursue a less aggressive and less militarized approach to Mexico’s 11-old ‘war on drugs’ which has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and is widely viewed as a calamity. During the campaign, Amlo has argued “you cannot fight violence with more violence, you cannot fight fire with fire” and proposed an amnesty designed to help low-level outlaws turn away from a life-of-crime.

Eric Olson, a Mexico and Latin America specialist from Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Centre, said he saw Mexico stepping back from regional affairs under its new leader. “Amlo is not an internationalist … we can expect him to play less of an active role in the region on Venezuela, on Nicaragua and other trouble spots.”

Olson also expected tense moments with US president Donald Trump whose family separation policy Amlo recently denounced as arrogant, racist and inhuman. “But it’s impossible for the US to walk away from Mexico or for Mexico to walk away from the US. They are joined at the hip and need to work together even if their presidents don’t like each other and don’t get along.”

Carlos Bravo, a politics expert from Mexico City’s Centre for Economic Research and Teaching, predicted President Amlo would make fighting poverty a flagship policy, just as former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva did after his historic 2002 election with projects such as Bolsa Família and Zero Hunger. Under Amlo he foresaw “massive investment in social policy” which Mexico’s new president could use to show he was attacking not just poverty and inequality but also the social roots of crime and violence.

However, Bravo said the “motley coalition” behind Amlo’s election triumph was so diverse – featuring former communists, ultra-conservatives and everything in-between – that trying to guess how he might rule was a fool’s errand. “Quite frankly, right now there is a lot of uncertainty regarding what the López Obrador government will do.”

“There will be a lot of infighting [between now and his inauguration] … and the result of that infighting will be crucial in deciding how the López Obrador government is going to look and what it’s priorities are going to be,” Bravo added.

Leading members of Latin America’s left voiced hope Amlo’s election might revive the region’s rapidly ebbing ‘pink tide’. “It will signal the return of progressive winds to Latin America!” Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of Brazil’s embattled Worker’s party, predicted.

Brazil’s impeached former president Dilma Rousseff said an Amlo win would “not just be a victory for Mexico but for all of Latin America”.

Argentina’s former president, Cristina Kirchner, tweeted: “Andrés Manuel López Obrador represents hope, not just for Mexico but for the entire region.” (The Guardian).

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Eating fish once a week cuts risk of sudden cardiac death by half

by RJ Jhonson

Heart disease remains among the world’s top killers, causing one in every four deaths in the U.S. alone. A paper suggests that to reduce your risk of succumbing to the disease, one of the best things you can do is eat fish.

The study examined the risk of sudden death caused by a heart attack among male U.S. doctors. The research defined “sudden death” as death or collapse that occurred within an hour after the onset of symptoms, a witnessed cardiac arrest, or both.

About 12 months into the study, 20,551 subjects (aged 40 to 84 years old in 1982) filled out a questionnaire that inquired into what fish they ate. They also had to inform the researchers how often they ate fish.

By the end of 1995, 133 deaths had occurred. After taking different related factors into account, the researchers determined that those who ate fish at least once a week had 52 percent lower risk of dying a sudden death compared to those who ate fish less than monthly.

The researchers did not find any significant benefit from eating a specific type of fish or from consuming more than one portion per week. They also clarified that eating fish did not reduce the frequency of heart attacks, but it improved the odds of surviving such an incident.

The study was part of the U.S. Physicians Health Study.

Fish helps stabilize your heart’s rhythm

Researchers in the aforementioned study attributed the results to the anti-arrhythmic properties of fish. Fatty fish like tuna and salmon are particularly high in omega-3 fatty acids which have been proven in several studies to help regulate cardiovascular function and suppress dangerous heart rhythms.

Arrhythmia refers to a condition where your heart beats irregularly. It could beat too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia), or it could skip a beat every now and then. The problem is caused by a number of factors, ranging from mildly harmful (stress and bad habits) to downright life-threatening (heart attack).

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are the secrets behind the anti-arrhythmic effects of eating fish. These omega-3 fatty acids help relax the heart muscles and reduce the risk of potentially deadly myocardial irritation.

Scientists first suspected the cardiovascular benefits of consuming fish and omega-3 after observing how coronary heart disease occurred infrequently among Greenland Eskimos despite their high-fat diet. This was also true among the Japanese. Research pointed to a diet that includes fish as the reason behind the low incidence of heart disease in the two groups.

Omega-3 has other benefits

Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial not just for boosting cardiovascular function, but also for improving general health.

• They help you see properly – This is especially the case for DHA, which is a structural component in the retina of the eye. Eating a diet rich in omega-3 is linked to a lower risk of macular degeneration which, along with cataracts, is one of the leading causes of blindness today.

• They help against inflammation – Omega-3 has been linked to reductions in inflammatory chemicals, such as eicosanoids and cytokines. Too much inflammation can lead to cancer, heart disease, and other serious conditions.

• They improve brain development and function – DHA is a vital component of the brain, so consuming omega-3 helps ensure proper brain development in infants. These fatty acids can also help in managing mental disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Finally, they have also been linked to a reduced risk of age-related mental decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

• They support bones and joints – Consuming omega-3 has been linked to reduced joint pain among people with arthritis. These fatty acids also improve the absorption of calcium, leading to increased bone density and lower risks of osteoporosis.

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