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Chef Diego Isunza Kahlo shows you Mexico through its gastronomy

Chef Diego Isunza

by Magdy Zara

Napa restaurant Compline in partnership with Frida Kahlo’s great-great-nephew, Chef Diego Isunza Kahlo, will be hosting an interactive dinner series called “24 Hours in Mexico City.”

For three consecutive nights, Chef Kahlo will present an 8-course menu called: his love letter to Mexico City, remember that Isunza Kahlo was born in the gastronomic capital of Mexico City.

Kahlo is known for being one of Mexico’s most creative culinary talents, and he brings this gastronomic mecca, his hometown, through an 8-course tasting. Guests will take a tour of the vibrant neighborhoods of Mexico City, tasting unique dishes from each.

This innovative interactive dinner will take place from Thursday, Feb. 8 to Saturday, Feb. 10, after 5 p.m., at Napa’s Compline Restaurant, which is located at 1300 1st St, Ste 312, Napa.

Tickets cost $125/person. A $25 deposit is required to reserve.

Mardi Gras Party starting the San Francisco Carnival

This year the San Francisco Carnival reaches its 46th anniversary, and the organizers for this edition have decided as a theme to honor indigenous roots.

The SF Carnival is made up of several events, and this can be an opportunity to get to know your neighbors and you can also enjoy live samba drumming, dance performances and lively music, from soca to cumbia and rumba.

You can wear costumes, masks and beads and join us to celebrate Fat Tuesday in true San Francisco Carnival style.

The appointment is next Tuesday, Feb. 13, between 5 and 10 p.m., in the Mission District, San Francisco, including: Bissap Baobab SF; Arcana; Kimbara Rhythm and Flavor; Cha Cha Cha; and at the BART plaza on 24th Street with music, dancing and carnival festivities. Entrance is free.

Alejandro Meola presents his new record production “Vivo”

Alejandro Meola is an Argentine-American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New York since 2013 and will soon be presenting his new album “VIVO” in the San Francisco Bay.

Alejandro Meola

Following the guitar and voice format of “Electro Folk”, the singer-songwriter celebrates more than a decade of career by reinterpreting his old songs.

Meola was born in Miami and grew up in the city of Buenos Aires. With roots in Rock/Blues, the singer-songwriter has recorded a prolific and eclectic repertoire that led him to play in different cities in the United States and Europe and will soon be performing in California, Texas and for the first time in Mexico.

The concert will be on Friday, Feb. 16, at Longboard Live, located at 180 Eureka Sq, Pacifica. Starting at 8 p.m., tickets are $20.

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BREAKING: Argentina’s Javier Milei denounces ‘bloody abortion agenda’ at 2024 Davos summit

Jorge Milei, president of Argentina speaking at the World Economic Forum 2024, in Davos, Italy. --Jorge Milei, presidente de Argentina hablando en el Foro Económico Mundial 2024, en Davos, Italia.

Argentina’s president Javier Milei told the World Economic Forum’s Davos summit that socialists are promoting population control and ‘the bloody abortion agenda’ since, they believe, human beings ‘damage the planet’

by Andreas Wailzer

Wed Jan 17, 2024 – DAVOS, Switzerland (LifeSiteNews) — Argentine President Javier Milei has called out population control and the “bloody abortion agenda” during his speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

During his special address, Milei said that “another conflict presented by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage the planet which should be protected at all cost even going as far as advocating for population control mechanism or the bloody abortion agenda.”

“Unfortunately, these harmful ideas have taken a stronghold in our society. Neo-Marxists have managed to co-opt the common sense of the Western world, and this they have achieved by appropriating the media, culture, universities, and also international organizations. The latter case is the most serious one probably because these are institutions that have an enormous influence on the political and economic decisions of the countries that make up the multilateral organizations.”

“Fortunately, there are more and more of us who are daring to make our voices heard because we are seeing that if we don’t truly and decisively fight against these ideas, the only possible fate for us is to have increasing levels of state regulations, socialism, poverty, and less freedom and therefore having worse standards of living,” the Argentine President stated.

In his speech, the libertarian President offered a general critique of socialism and “collectivist ideas” and promoted capitalism as the only viable system that leads to prosperity.

“Today I’m here to tell you that the Western World is in danger, and it is in danger because those who are supposed to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that…leads to socialism and thereby to poverty,” he stated at the beginning of his talk.

“Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well-meaning individuals willing to help others, and others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, the main leaders of the Western World have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism.”

Milei described how socialists turned away from class struggle and instead applied Marxist ideas to other areas of life.

“Given the dismal failure of collectivist models and the undeniable advances in the Free World, socialists were forced to change their agenda,” he said. “They left behind class struggle based on the economic system and replaced this with other supposed conflicts which are just as harmful to life as a community and to economic growth.”

“The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and women,” he stated. “Libertarianism already provides for equality of the sexes. The cornerstone of a creed said that all humans are created equal, that we all have the same unalienable right granted by the creator, including life, freedom, and ownership [property].”

“All of this radical feminist agenda has led to greater state intervention, to hinder the economic process, giving a job to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society; examples are Ministry of Women or international organizations devoted to promoting this agenda.”

Milei furthermore said that “today states don’t need to control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals. With tools such as printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct the so-called market failure, they can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals.”

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Noboa affirms that Ecuador will receive an “aid package” from the US to combat organized crime

El presidente de Ecuador, Daniel Noboa

The president assured that the commander of the US Southern Command will visit the South American country with a delegation to contact the Armed Forces and the Police

by the El Reportero wire service via RT

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, assured this Tuesday that the US authorities are willing to collaborate in their “war” against crime, which was declared last week by the Ecuadorian Government.

As stated by the president in an interview with CNN, the commander of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, will visit the South American country in the coming days along with a delegation to contact the local Armed Forces and Police, although it has not been confirmed. still the date.

“We still do not have a clear idea of the aid package that there will be, we have to discuss it because there are needs to maintain this war and needs for economic stability,” acknowledged the head of state, who has sent a series of documents to the National Assembly. economic emergency laws to solve the confrontation with organized crime.

“I would gladly accept US cooperation. We need equipment, we need weapons, we need intelligence and I think this is a global problem. It is not just in Ecuador, this is a problem that goes beyond borders,” said Noboa. before the journalist Christiane Amanpour.

According to the president, “around 35, 40 percent of the drugs that leave Ecuador go to the United States and another similar percentage to Europe.” In this regard, he pointed out that the issue should be treated as a matter of “international” interest and “cooperation” sought.

Maduro’s warning

For his part, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, warned his Ecuadorian counterpart on Monday about the dangerous actions of the US Southern Command, if it allows the US military to take control of the Ecuadorian security forces.

In his annual message from the Venezuelan National Assembly, Maduro denounced that Washington intends to “reestablish a military base,” an action that would mean “a violation of the sovereignty of South America” and that, furthermore, would not be a “solution.”

“President Noboa, if you want to have a security system and a penitentiary system, look for us, do not look for the Southern Command, what the Southern Command is going to do is interventionism, colonialism,” said the Venezuelan president.

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How will 2024 elections affect diaspora?

With 2024 being the biggest election year in history, the role of diaspora is more crucial than ever

by Selen Ozturk

Jan 16, 2024 – With 2024 being the biggest election year in history — as over 70 countries with over four billion people send citizens to the polls — the role of diaspora is more crucial than ever.

At a Friday, January 12 Ethnic Media Services briefing, speakers discussed how AI and social media spread disinformation among diaspora groups, and shared how diaspora communities will engage with elections in their home lands of Mexico, India and Taiwan.

Diaspora and voting

“The right to vote is one of the main demands of diaspora populations” and their home countries have responded, said Kathleen Newland, Senior Fellow and Co-Founder of the Migration Policy Institute.

In 1980, only 21 countries enfranchised citizens abroad, whereas by 2020, 141 countries did — nearly three quarters of the countries in the world.

Diaspora voting varies dramatically. In some countries, like India and Taiwan, voters are required to physically return. In others, like the U.S., overseas voting is “hands-off” without outreach to diaspora, so that “people have to find out for themselves how to register,” explained Newland.

The electoral influence of diaspora depends not only upon the percentage of a country’s population living abroad and whether they can vote, but also upon whether these overseas voters actually exercise their right to vote, Newland added.

Misinformation through social media, AI

Misinformation from abroad could be as impactful for some elections as votes from abroad, said Dr. Rohit Chopra, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Santa Clara University.

Dr. Rohit Chopra, Professor of Communication, College of Arts & Sciences, Santa Clara University, discusses the global discourse that has arisen as a result of technology, and its influence on elections around the world.

In the context of elections, misinformation not only inserts a fake claim into public discourse, but also “muddies the difference between what is fake and what is true … with themes, say, like the ‘deep state’ or COVID conspiracies,” he explained, “or of strong pro-Modi sentiment combined with criticism of dissenters in the case of the Indian diaspora … It’s like the Wikipedia problem, where 80 percent may be very accurate, but we don’t know what 20 percent of it is false.”

As AI is increasingly weaponized to spread fake news, the companies and policies behind it are overwhelmingly U.S.-based — and so impact diaspora countries “like a trigger effect,” Chopra said, contributing to the rise of fake news globally.

This rise has coincided with a global increase in authoritarianism and a crisis of legitimacy for the media. Thus, even initiatives to criminalize fake news will involve serious concerns about the concentration of power.

“The political power of the diaspora is not limited to their voting power … we have to rethink the relationship between the state, technology, and the public globally,” Chopra added.

India

The Indian election is the largest by far this year, with about 900 million individuals registered to elect 543 members of Parliament across over 50 state parties through a million election booths between April and May, said Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University.

Nevertheless, this parliamentary election is very much a presidential one, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the Hindu nationalist BJP party with a 76 percent approval rating in recent polls.

Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University, explains why the Indian diaspora is unlikely to have a significant impact on India’s upcoming election.

This popularity owes much to the fact that India has grown from the 10th to the fifth-largest — and fastest growing — world economy, with low levels of inflation and unemployment, and a drastically more efficient social benefits system since Modi’s rise nine years ago.

Given that during this time, Modi has developed a tech corridor in India and promoted intensive collaboration with tech overseas, an issue at the forefront of U.S. Indian diaspora interests is tech development, Panagariya explained.

Because Modi’s opposition — led by Mallikarjun Kharge of the center-left INC — is more fragmented than 2019, “it’s as though you’re voting for Modi or voting against Modi now,” Panagariya said, and “there’s a consensus” that he’ll win.

Mexico

Much is at stake in 2024, when Mexican voters will elect a new six-year president, all 500 Chamber of Deputies members and all 128 Senate members.

“We decide whether we want a continuation of the policies that we have had” under President Obrador, who won as an opposition party by a large margin and “transformed political life in Mexico by aiming to eradicate corruption … or we decide if we want to go back to the past,” said Dr. Diana Alarcón González, former chief advisor and international affairs coordinator for Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico City.

Dr. Diana Alarcón González, specialist on Mexico and former chief advisor and international affairs coordinator for Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico City, discusses Mexico’s historic upcoming election and the importance of the diaspora vote in 2024.

Currently, Claudia Sheinbaum — frontrunner of Obrador’s progressive populist  MORENA party — is leading polls with 60 percent support.

Although the Mexican diaspora, unlike the Indian one, can vote abroad, only 70,000 are registered to vote in June — a very small number, given that 30 to 40 million first, second and third-generation Mexicans (all of whom can register) live abroad, said González.

For comparison, 98 million are registered to vote in Mexico, and 11 million first-generation Mexicans live in the U.S.

Thus, said González, although the Mexican diaspora is large enough to influence electoral results, “our greatest challenge is to increase their participation.”

Taiwan

With a historic third consecutive party win of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te on Saturday, Jan. 13, voters rebuffed mainland China by aligning themselves with the DPP-associated view of Taiwan as de facto independent.

This win will not only affect Taiwan’s relations with China but also with the U.S., especially given that “an official declaration of independence means Beijing’s military intervention and America’s involvement,” said Rong Xiaoqing, veteran reporter at Sing Tao Daily.

Rong Xiaoqing, veteran reporter, Sing Tao Daily (New York), gives an overview of Taiwan’s newly elected Democratic Progressive Party and what it means for Taiwan’s independence movement and relations with China.

Nevertheless, throughout his campaign, Lai stressed “that he is not pushing for independence, only allowing the people the option to choose it or not,” Xiaoqing continued

Despite the decisiveness of this victory, voting was hard for the diasporic people of Taiwan; only 4,000 of its 700,000 U.S.-resident citizens were registered in 2024. As remote voting isn’t allowed, and the DPP has opposed attempts to legalize it, “you not only have to go back to Taiwan to vote, but you have to go to the city or village where you were registered,” he explained.

This difficulty favors the DPP given that many Taiwanese families went overseas before the party was formed in 1986, and many now are businessmen and international students — and thus have ties with the older, Chinese nationalist KMT party.

“I hear many complaints from Taiwanese immigrants who can’t take a flight because they’re poor or elderly that their voting rights are impeded,” said Xiaoqing. Now that the DPP has won, “it’s difficult to predict how Beijing will react” — and how this diaspora will be affected.

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Notice of Election San Mateo County

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the following measures will be put to a vote of the qualified voters of San Mateo County on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 in the Presidential Primary Election.

SCHOOL DISTRICT BILL INITIATIVES

JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

PARCEL TAX BILL INITIATIVE

MEASURE C (2/3 APPROVAL REQUIRED)

To maintain/improve quality elementary and middle school education, with local funding that the State cannot take; protect the core subjects of reading, writing, mathematics, science/technology; attract/retain high-quality teachers; and support students to read at grade level, should the Jefferson Elementary School District measure be adopted replacing the expiring measure with an annual $88/parcel tax, raising $1,640,000 annually, for 9 years, with independent supervision, an exemption for senior homeowners, and no money for administrators?

Yeah ________

No _________

PACIFICA SCHOOL DISTRICT

BOND LAW INITIATIVE

BILL G (55% APPROVAL REQUIRED)

To modernize outdated elementary schools with updated classrooms and science laboratories; build local affordable rental housing for the teacher and staff workforce; replace portable buildings, deteriorated heating/air conditioning systems; and ensure access for students with disabilities; Shall the Pacifica School District bill be adopted authorizing $70,000,000 in bonds at legal rates charging an estimated $30 for every $100,000 of estimated value generating an average of $4,400,000 annually while the bonds are outstanding, with annual audits, oversight independent, and have all funds remain with Pacifica?

Bonds—Yes ________

Bonds—No _________

SAN CARLOS SCHOOL DISTRICT

BOND LAW INITIATIVE

BILL H (55% APPROVAL REQUIRED)

To improve elementary and middle schools by repairing outdated classrooms, leaky roofs, heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems; modernizing science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics classrooms; and improving fire protection and safety and accessibility systems for students; Shall the San Carlos School District bill authorizing $176,000,000 in bonds at legal rates be adopted, charging approximately $30 per $100,000 of estimated value ($7,400,000 annually) while the bonds are outstanding, with citizen oversight/audits , none of the funds for administrator salaries, and that all funds be spent locally?

Bonds—Yes ________

Bonds—No _________

WOODSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

BOND LAW INITIATIVE

BILL E (55% APPROVAL REQUIRED)

To repair Woodside Elementary School by fixing and replacing leaking roofs; changing outdated HVAC systems; repairing/stabilizing stream erosion; modernizing classrooms to comply with current standards; replacing/modernizing kindergarten classrooms; and acquiring, constructing and/or repairing classrooms, facilities, sites/equipment, shall the Woodside Elementary School District measure be adopted to authorize $36,000,000 in bonds at legal rates, charging approximately $30 per $100,000 of assessed valuation while Are the bonds in circulation (on average $2,400,000 annually), with citizen oversight, annual audits, local control, and that none of the funds go to administrators?

Bonds—Yes ________

Bonds—No _________

SPECIAL DISTRICTS BILL INITIATIVES

COUNTY SERVICE AREA #1

SPECIAL TAX LAW INITIATIVE

MEASURE B (2/3 APPROVAL REQUIRED)

Special Tax for Expanded Police Services and Structural Fire Protection Services. Shall the measure established in San Mateo County Resolution No. 080010 be adopted to continue the collection of an excise tax for four years at a maximum rate of $65 per parcel, raising up to approximately $90,000 per year, for expanded services? police and structural fire protection services in County Service Area No. 1?

Yeah ________

No _________

ALSO, NOTICE IS GIVEN that Vote by Mail (VBM) ballots, Vote Center ballots, and already marked provisional ballots from the Election to be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, will be counted at the location. which is indicated below:

County of San Mateo

Registration & Elections Division

40 Tower Road

San Mateo, CA 94402

ALSO, IT IS NOTIFIED that for said election the voting places will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. of the same day.

Dated:

/F/

Mark Church

Chief Election Official

and County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder

1/19/24

CNS-3773246#

El Reportero

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Enzo: Simplicity and a good message through music. Inspiring melodies and words are my mission

Enzo Anchietta

by Magdy Zara

Hailing from Costa Rica with Italian and Spanish roots, Enzo Anchietta began his musical journey at the tender age of five, displaying an extraordinary talent for music and composition.

His keen ear and versatility have led him to compose over 200 original songs and produce two albums, with his third, “101 North,” currently in the works. Enzo’s live performances have captivated audiences in Northern California, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Central America, ranging from intimate settings to large venues with thousands of spectators.

He will be in concert from Saturday, Jan. 20 to 27, at 101 North Santana Row, San Jose, California.

Start the year dancing at your first Mamajuana party

Esotérica Tropical.

You can’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful experience with Esotérica Tropical, who offers full spectrum healing with Caribbean music, electronic harp and Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms.

Esotérica Tropical was born in Puerto Rico, and is a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and knows that music is a powerful force for full spectrum healing.

Immersed in the Afro-Puerto Rican tradition based on percussion known asbomba, she presents her new musical project that combines Caribbean and Latin American electronic landscapes withbomba and harp, creating lush and propulsive settings for songs that are prayers for both our ancestors and our future selves.

The presentation will be this Saturday, January 20, 2024, starting at 7:30 p.m. at 698 Folsom Street, San Francisco, tickets start at $25.

Start the year dancing at your first Mamajuana party

At this Mamajuana party you will have the opportunity to receive bachata lessons, and you will also be able to dance merengue, bolero and salsa with the best music from DJ Soto and DJ Rodchata.

This will be an incomparable night of intense social dancing, with music that will transport you directly to the tropics. The concept for this Dominican dance party is inspired by mamajuana, a traditional spicy alcoholic drink from the Dominican Republic, made with an infusion of a delicious blend of rum, red wine, honey, tree bark and herbs. As such, our party will feature a unique blend of bachata, bolero, merengue and salsa.

You will be able to live this experience as if you were truly in the DR, this January 20, 2024, at the Allegro Ballroom, located at 12012 San Pablo Avenue Richmond. Tickets are $15. The hours are from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Miguel Zenón Quartet in concert in San Francisco

Miguel Zenón is one of the most innovative and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation. He has been nominated several times for a Grammy and is a Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow. He represents a select group of musicians who has masterfully balanced and combined two often contradictory poles such as innovation. and tradition.

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released fifteen recordings as a leader, including his latest album Música De Las Américas and the Grammy-nominated El Arte Del Bolero. He will perform in concert with his quartet next Tuesday, January 23 at Yoshis, located at 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, doors will be open from 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $29 – $69.

La Moderna Tradición Orchestra exhibits the best of Cuban music

The La Moderna Tradición Orchestra has captivated the public with the best of traditional and modern Cuban music, so we invite you to its first performance of the year, in which there will be everything from sensual danzones and vibrant cha-cha-chas to contemporary rhythms with timba. The Orchestra’s exceptional musicians inspire music lovers and dancers alike.

The appointment is this Friday, January 26 at 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, starting at 8 p.m.

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From Norway, the Cuban singer-songwriter and violinist Yeisy Rojas releases her first album titled “A Mis Ancestros”

Her first single “Mamá Inés” Was Reviewed And Recommended By Prominent Publications Such As Billboard And Rolling Stone Miami, Fl. January 17, 2024

by the El Reportero news services

The talented Cuban singer-songwriter and violinist, Yeisy Rojas, is pleased to present her first album, “A Mis Ancestros“, a dedication and tribute to all the African influence that came to Cuba. This project is the result of several years of hard work and dedication since Yeisy moved to Norway in 2016 to study jazz and popular music at Kristiansand University.

Nostalgia for Cuban rhythms in a foreign country inspired Yeisy to research the music and the history of the influence of African slaves on Cuban music. From there, she wrote her master’s thesis and the album “A Mis Ancestros” was born, which has the collaboration of musicians with renowned careers such as Gaston Joya and Rodney Barreto, who have had the privilege of joining the legendary Chucho Valdés’s band.

The first single from the album, titled “Mamá Inés“, has received notable mentions in Billboard in the ‘On The Radar’ section and was selected by Rolling Stone as one of the 15 artists to add to their playlist.

Its lyrics are based on the poem “Yesterday they told me black” by also Cuban Nicolás Guillén, in which he addresses the urgency of eradicating racism within the Afro community itself. She also captures it in her video, where she highlights the discrimination of many of her fellow students in Cuba by people of the same race as hers.

Sam Nazarian announces partnership with global music icon Marc Anthony

Sam Nazarian is a Persian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder, president and CEO of SBE Entertainment Group.

Sam Nazarianand Marc Anthony

His private group is an international hospitality and lifestyle leader, creators of some of the most famous hotels, restaurants and clubs in the world.

Nazarian announced an exclusive partnership with iconic singer, songwriter, actor and entrepreneur Marc Anthony and his company Magnus as new investment partners in SBE.

“It is an honor to join forces with my lifelong friend and international superstar Marc Anthony. “I have tremendous admiration for the career he has built and, more than this, for his entrepreneurial instincts,” Nazarian said.

“Not only has Marc been responsible for 105 #1 hits and over fifteen billion YouTube views, but he has also garnered the loyalty of a multi-generational Latinx and global community through his platforms and content.

Marc Anthony said: “Without a doubt, today is one of the most significant moments of all the endeavors I have undertaken in my life. Having the honor of joining forces with my great friend Sam and SBE is something we’ve talked about over the years, and the time has finally come.

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2024 Children’s Report Card shows CA behind in many areas

Two boy kid lay down on floor and reading tale book in preschool library,Kindergarten school education concept.

by Suzanne Potter

California News Service

California’s children are doing well – the vast majority have health insurance and access to transitional kindergarten – but the state is far behind in many other metrics.

The nonprofit Children Now analyzed the data, and gave the Golden State a C-minus or below in 15 out of 33 categories. Kelly Hardy is senior managing director at Children Now.

“There’s a lot of low grades that we’re seeing in the report card,” said Hardy, “and they highlight where the state has allowed racial and economic disparities to stagnate and in many cases to grow.”

The report gave California a D-minus because too few of its supports for people experiencing homelessness are tailored for unaccompanied youths.

The state also earned a D-minus in prevention of substance abuse – as efforts to curb abuse are seen as too reactive, primarily helping kids once they’ve become addicted rather than intervening early on.

California ranks 49th for its large class sizes, but Kelly noted that the state earns a B plus for its plan to give all four-year-olds access to free transitional kindergarten in public schools by the 2025-26 school year.

“This is one of the places where California is leading,” said Hardy. “And it’s really important that in places where the state is making investments, we see that those investments and that attention to the issue has resulted in success.”

The state faces a projected budget deficit this coming year – and advocates are hoping that children’s programs are spared any cuts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to announce his budget priorities for the 2024-25 fiscal year by Wednesday.

CA farm animal cruelty law takes full effect

Pork sold in California will now have to comply with Proposition 12.

Sows lined up in crates.
An undercover investigation conducted in the spring of 2012 by The Humane Society of the United States revealed egregious cruelty and filthy conditions at a Wyoming pig breeding facility owned by a pork supplier for Tyson Foods and Jimmy Dean.
The undercover footage was taken at Wyoming Premium Farms, a pig factory farm in Wheatland, Wy., and shows workers kicking piglets like footballs, swinging sick piglets in circles by their legs, striking mother pigs with fists and hard objects and repeatedly and forcefully kicking them as they resisted leaving their piglets.
The investigator also found pigs with untreated abscesses and rectal and uterine prolapses; mummified piglet corpses; and baby piglets who had fallen through floor slats to either hang to death or drown in manure pits. The graphic video also documents prolonged suffering of pigs used for breeding who are confined in gestation crates, cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, rendering them virtually immobilized for almost their entire lives.
During the investigation, The HSUS investigator was told that Tyson Foods and Jimmy Dean buy pigs from Wyoming Premium Farms including “cull” sows – those too old or injured to breed again. The animals are shipped by truck for more than 25 hours to be slaughtered and processed at the Indiana Packers Corporation, a slaughter plant co-owned by Mitsubishi and Itoham Corporation. Itoham Corporation also owns Wyoming Premium Farms.

The law bans some types of extreme confinement of farm animals, specifically gestation crates — which are metal cages, often so small sows cannot turn around. Some provisions of the 2018 law have already gone into effect, concerning egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal.

Amber Canavan, manager of campaigns at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, applauds the law but said other forms of animal cruelty are still allowed.

“Pork producers are still able to confine the pigs to squalid, cramped and stressful conditions, forcefully impregnate them, steal their babies away, and slaughter them in terrifying and agonizing ways, including gas chambers, and captive bolt pistols,” Canavan asserted. “So, PETA’s stance is that no one needs to eat meat to live a long and happy life.”

The pork industry appealed Prop 12 to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld states’ right to regulate the meat industry. Opponents said the law has raised egg prices and caused shortages over the past six years. Several large pork producers, including Hormel, have said they will produce Prop 12-compliant meat.

Kate Brindle, program manager of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States, noted the fight has now moved to Congress, where lawmakers are currently considering the EATS Act, which would invalidate many states’ agriculture and food safety laws.

“The goal of this act is to undermine Prop 12,” Brindle pointed out. “A report published by Harvard Law School talked about over 1,000 state and local laws that could be negated if the EATS Act becomes law.”

In the Supreme Court case, public health groups stated extreme confinement of animals can suppress an animal’s immune system, making them more susceptible to disease, which can spread to humans.

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THIS is How Global Government is Run (and What’s Coming Next…)

Marvin Ramírez, editor

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Its author, James Corbett, is an investigative journalist who lives in Japan since 2004. What he writes is his opinion and does not necessarily El Reportero‘s – Vale, Marvin Ramírez.

THIS is How Global Government is Run (and What’s Coming Next…)

by James Corbett

Newsflash: contrary to the worries of conspiracy realists, global government is NOT a far-off, distant threat waiting for us in some potential dystopian future.

No, it’s not a future threat. The truth is that global government is already set up and functioning. Here. Now.

In fact, it’s not even happening in secret. It’s happening in the most visible way possible: a party.

Oops! Did I say “party”? I meant “Conference of the Parties,” of course, aka the mechanism by which individual nation-states have been willingly ceding their sovereignty to the globalist technocrats for decades now.

Never heard of “Conference of the Parties,” you protest? Of course you have. I talk about the COP of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP pretty much every year. In fact, I’ve been covering it since at least COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. Lest we forget, 2009 was the year EU President (and Bilderberg lackey) Herman von Rompuy declared to be “the first year of global government,” specifically citing the COP in Copenhagen as “another step towards the global management of our planet.”

Another step, indeed.

Fast forward to 2023. The globalists are fueling up their private jets and chauffered limosines for another wine-and-dine fest—this time COP 28 in Dubai. Yes, it’s just a matter of weeks until we get to bear witness to the annual ritual of these would-be global rulers jetting in to lecture us peons about how we’re not doing enough to save the planet.

But do you know what a COP really is? And did you know that the UNFCCC’s COP is not the only COP being run by the de facto global government? And did you know that the real point of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) so-called “pandemic treaty” is to establish yet another COP chamber in this increasingly bloated shadow government?

Get in, buckle up and hold on. You’re in for one of the most important lessons of your life.

On one level, the entire concept of a “Conference of the Parties”—or, in globalese, a “COP”—is as simple and straightforward as it is innocuous.

Just ask our <sarc>friends</sarc> over at Climate.gov, who provide this definition for COP in relation to the annual UNFCCC summit:

COP is an international climate meeting held each year by the United Nations. COP is short for “Conference of the Parties,” meaning those countries who joined—are “party to,” in legal terms—the international treaty called the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Parties to the treaty have committed to take voluntary actions to prevent “dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system.”

Note how the friendly folks over at Climate.gov (brought to you by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration!) are keen to stress that, under the terms of the UNFCCC, the “parties” are legally committed to take voluntary actions to prevent the sky dragons from torching the planet.

Relax, guys, it’s all voluntary*!

*You’re just legally obligated to do it.

In fact, you’ll note that this strange obligatory/voluntary tension pervades Climate.gov’s COP write-up and any number of similar COP explainers.

The parties agree to specific goals for limiting human emissions of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and halogen-containing gases like CFCs) to a specific amount by a given year in the future. Countries participating in the treaty develop their own voluntary pledges—known as Nationally Determined Contributions—to meet the agreed-on targets. Countries are free to develop a mixture of policies that is most economical or advantageous for them. They must report on their successes or failures to meet their voluntary targets at the annual COP meetings.

Hmmm. They “agree to specific goals” but “develop their own voluntary pledges” to meet those targets and they “must” report on their progress toward those “voluntary” targets.

Confused yet? Good. Then the globalists will be happy to hear they’re doing their job right.

You see, these technocratic schemers realize that no one is going to bother digging up (let alone actually reading) the Framework Convention on Climate Change itself.

They realize that average people have enough on their plate just working their 9-to-5 and making ends meet, so they’re not apt to discover the tyrannical rules their government has legally committed them to under Article 4 of the climate change convention.

And they realize that no one is going to bother to follow the threads and figure out the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change isn’t the only supranational, sovereignty-busting, globalist treaty signing entire nations on to the UN Agenda. There’s also the Chemical Weapons Convention and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Stockholm Convention and a bewildering array of such similar international agreements.

And even if the average Joe and Jane did familiarize themselves with all of these various conventions and all of the things that these agreements obligate their nation to do, they wouldn’t take the trouble to read the Rules of Procedure dictating how these “Conferences of the Parties” are actually run.

Thus, they’ll never read Rule 30 of the UNFCCC COP:

Meetings of the Conference of the Parties shall be held in public, unless the Conference of the Parties decides otherwise.

Or Rule 32:

No one may speak at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties without having previously obtained the permission of the President.

Or Rule 42:

Decisions on matters of substance shall be taken by consensus, except that decisions on financial matters shall be taken by a two-thirds majority vote.

And if, by some minor miracle, they did bone up on the Rules of Procedure for the UNFCCC COP, they’d then find out that they haven’t even scratched the surface.

Why?

Because, there’s not only a COP for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, there are also individual COPs for the UNFCCC sub-groups, like the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

And there’s a COP for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

And a COP for the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

And a COP for the Chemical Weapons Convention.

And a COP for the Stockholm Convention and a COP for the Rotterdam Convention and a COP for the Basel Convention and COPs for the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol.

So you see, global government is already here. It is operating through a network of conventions and agreements, obligating governments to act in certain ways and committing them to reaching various targets in a wide variety of fields.

And guess what? As bad as all of this is, it’s about to get even worse.

THE WHO: NEW COP ON THE BLOCK

Remember that WHO document popularly referred to as the “pandemic treaty” that I’ve been ringing the alarm bell about over and over and over and over for the past two years?

Well, it’s not called the “pandemic treaty” anymore. It has now transitioned from its previous formal title of a “WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” to the somewhat less unwieldy “WHO Pandemic Agreement.” The latest draft of that agreement was released three weeks ago. Have you read it yet?

 

If you did read that document, you would have noticed all manner of horrible things hidden deep in that forest of legalese—like, for example, the worryingly woolly language used to describe the “infodemic” problem and the accompanying internet censorship solution that both Tedros and UNESCO are now openly lusting after.

You will also no doubt have noticed something relevant to today’s subject buried on page 24:

 Article of the Parties. Conference of the parties

Oh, of course.

Yes, this is a move straight out of the globalist playbook: distract everyone with the word “treaty” to make them think that this is a document that will require special ratification by their national parliament or congress, and then spring an “agreement” on them that will, in most cases, do a complete end run around the political process. And then, as the coup de grâce, insert an article establishing an entirely new bureaucracy, one that will serve as a de facto arm of global government—one that can then redraft and rewrite the global health rules at will at any time in the future.

It’s malevolent. It’s dictatorial. It’s a travesty. But you have to admit it’s brilliant.

Assuming this agreement (or something very much like it) gets the rubber stamp at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva next May, most people won’t understand what just happened any more than they understood what happened when the UNFCCC established its COP or any of these other globalist institutions first established their respective COPs.

So, for those who can’t be bothered to read the WHO Pandemic Agreement (or even just Article 21 of that agreement), here are the lowlights:

  1. A Conference of the Parties is hereby established. The Conference of the Parties shall be comprised of delegates representing the Parties to the WHO Pandemic Agreement. Only delegates representing Parties will participate in any of the decision-making of the Conference of the Parties. The Conference of the Parties shall establish the criteria for the participation of observers at its proceedings.

[. . .]

  1. The first session of the Conference of the Parties shall be convened by the World Health Organization not later than one year after the entry into force of the WHO Pandemic Agreement.
  2. Following the first session of the Conference of the Parties: (a) subsequent regular sessions of the Conference of the Parties shall be held annually.

[. . .]

  1. The Conference of the Parties shall adopt by consensus its Rules of Procedure at its first session.
  2. The Conference of the Parties shall by consensus adopt financial rules for itself as well as governing the funding of any subsidiary bodies of the Conference of the Parties that are or may be established, as well as financial provisions governing the functioning of the Secretariat. It shall also adopt a biennial budget.
  3. The Conference of the Parties shall keep under regular review the implementation of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and take the decisions necessary to promote its effective implementation, and may adopt amendments, annexes and protocols to the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

[. . .]

  1. The Conference of the Parties shall establish subsidiary bodies to carry out the work of the Conference of the Parties, as it deems necessary, on terms and modalities to be defined by the Conference of the Parties. Such subsidiary bodies may include, without limitation, an Implementation and Compliance Committee, a panel of experts to provide scientific advice and a WHO PABS System Expert Advisory Group.

There you go. The global government is about to assume jurisdiction over your health. It is in the process of setting up its governing body for drafting up the rules that will control your government’s response to the next declared scamdemic. And hardly anyone in the public even knows this is happening.

Any questions?

I thought not.

Of course, some might object: “Don’t worry! It says right there in black and white that the rules of procedure and the funding for this body have to be adopted by consensus! You can’t even get three of these technocrats to agree on what to eat for lunch, so nothing will ever get decided!”

But if you do raise that objection then it’s clear you’ve never seen what this type of “consensus agreement” looks like in the WHO process. (SPOILER: it involves a confused old man vaguely asking if the committee is ready to approve the draft, looking around the room of half-asleep bureaucrats for ten seconds, declaring that the draft has been approved and then having to repeat his declaration so that the assembled functionaries and gophers know it’s their cue to applaud.)

This is how your coming global governmental body will be brought into existence. This is how it will establish its Rules of Procedure (which can be composed of whatever phoney baloney rules they want). This is how it will establish its funding mechanism: in a transparent sham of a parody of the “democracy” that these rulers pretend to hold dear.

THIS IS HOW SOVEREIGNTY ENDS

Shut up, conspiracy theorist!” say the professors and the politicians and the obedient establishment toadies in the lapdog press when confronted with the argument laid out in this editorial. “This COP business isn’t global government and it isn’t nefarious. After all, your governments have voluntarily committed themselves to these agreements and thus to be bound by whatever decisions the COPs make!”

Hard to argue with that, isn’t it?

Unless, of course, we understand that our governments’ arbitrary enactment of rules and restrictions without our consent is precisely the problem.

First, our (s)elected representatives sign us up to overarching, unaccountable, international bodies like the UN and the WHO. Then they appointed nameless/faceless bureaucrats to act as our unelected representatives at those bodies that sign us up to conventions and agreements that most of us don’t even know exist. These conventions and agreements then “obligate” our national governments to take certain actions or to refrain from certain other actions. Finally, those same governments pass legislation that makes these pledges and targets and restrictions the law of our land.

But all this is “voluntary,” you see? It’s all above board. There’s no global government—only global conventions that parties have agreed to abide by.

And to rub even more salt in the wound, those same fact checkers who would deny that this web of conventions and agreements in fact constitutes a de facto global government will also tell us that these agreements don’t go far enough in removing any pretense of national sovereignty from the international system.

Just ask Mostafa El-Harazi and Noor Irshaidat. They are the two Carey School of Law juris doctor students who penned an op-ed for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy last year, in which they lamented: “What is notably missing [from the UNFCCC], however, is an ‘enforcement mechanism;’ a provision to explicitly deter state parties to the UNFCCC from noncompliance through fines or jurisdiction to an international court like the International Court of Justice.”

Or ask the boffins over at ScienceDirect, who, in their overview of the UNFCCC, bemoan its toothlessness: “[T]he UNFCCC contains few specific requirements and, notably, no enforceable requirement for signatories to reduce the emission of GHGs.”

Or ask boffins like Robert Keohane and David Victor, whose 2016 Nature article on “Cooperation and discord in global climate policy” asserts, “Effective mitigation of climate change will require deep international cooperation, which is much more difficult to organize than the shallow coordination observed so far.”

But, as I say, not one person in a thousand even knows about the Framework Convention on Climate Change or the Basel Convention or the proposed WHO COP, and not one person in a million knows what any of these bodies “voluntarily” obligate the member parties to do.

Would you prefer to watch the sportsball game or read a hundred-page document of complicated legal jargon? Would you rather go out for a night on the town with your friends or commit to studying the organizational chart of some obscure arm of the UN bureacuracy?

Exactly. As I’ve had cause to note before, The End of the World Will Bore You to Tears.

So, if we perish from lack of knowledge, then how do we thrive?

By learning more about these instruments of control, that’s how.

Specifically, we can counteract the globalist agenda by learning more about the treaties and agreements and conventions that are increasingly governing our lives. Then we can parlay our knowledge into a movement. We’ll know we’re making progress when the drive to exit the WHO (and exit the UN while we’re at it) become the only political issues that people are interested in talking about. And we’ll know we’ve really been successful when those same people start talking about individual sovereignty and our natural right to withdraw from every governmental system of control.

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The Ukraine War is a US jobs program: supporting the flourishing US middle class

And yes, there is a grander vision, for those who want to make the future

by Jon RappoportAdd New Post

Senate Minority Leader Mitch “Glitch” McConnell spoke at the defense industry-funded CEPA Forum in Washington D.C. on Wednesday and made a very revealing comment about the state of the war in Ukraine.

“As a result of the weapons transfers that we’ve made to Ukraine, we are reindustrializing our base here in the United States,” McConnell added. “And we’re employing a significant number of Americans, in this country, building our industrial base again.”

The conversation gets even more bizarre and yet clarifying, with the host asking, “how does supporting Ukraine actually support U.S. jobs in the military industrial complex.”

Yes, she really said military industrial complex, a term coined by President Eisenhower to warn about the perverse incentive structures in the defense industry.

McConnell answers:

“As we ship weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainians, we rebuild those in many instances with more modern, cutting edge equipment.”

—Where to begin? Understand, this is a US Senator, the Senate Minority Leader, making these comments.

Representative government? Are you kidding?

Killing lots and lots of people in a foreign war is good for the US economy. It’s a big plus. That’s not news, but a Senator saying it with praise is definitely news.

Building our industrial base again? McConnell is saying the base is broken and NEEDS rebuilding. And war is how.

Well, well.

It’s a party, folks. Killing is our business.

And guess what? Presidential candidates who are wringing their hands over the collapse of the American middle class should realize: all these jobs in the killing business (defense industry) create middle class workers. Lots and lots of them. So don’t assume shrinking the defense budget will solve “the middle class problem.” The problem is much deeper.

But don’t worry, be happy. When the Ukraine War ends (maybe just in time for the election in 2024, a “triumph” for the Democrats), we can pave over the War with new positive economic reports and projections. “Forecasters paint bright outlook.”

Then everyone can go back to “peacetime production.” This is how FDR bailed the US out of the (engineered) Great Depression. Wartime factories humming, followed by the post-war “peacetime economic engine.” In other words, a fairy tale about The New Deal saving America.

When WAR is an absolute necessity for making the US economy work, there’s trouble. Big trouble. Systemic trouble.

Realizing this, you have to ask what kind of economy we really have. All the talk of centuries about America being “the most powerful nation on Earth,” “the greatest flowering of prosperity the world has ever seen”—based on the free market—who’s been telling that story?

The free market IS the greatest economic invention in all of history. It would be terrific to get back to it.

What we’ve had is the government-bankrolled American Empire economy.

And that economy has done much to (listen up, Robert Kennedy) create the American middle class. Which would be ripped apart if we suddenly axed the US defense budget.

Not only that. What’s the fastest growing sector of economy right now? The sector that may soon reach prime number 1 status?

The medical/healthcare industry.

How many middle class jobs do you think THAT sector is creating, as we speak?

Yet this sector is responsible for, recently, the COVID kill shots. As I’ve written about for more than decade, the US medical system KILLS, at minimum, 2.25 MILLION Americans per decade. (Dr. Barbara Starfield, JAMA, July 26, 2000, “Is US Health Really the Best in the World?”).

Is THAT the free market at work? No. It’s the US Corporate State at work. The “public-private” partnership of government and medical companies. Backed up by a blizzard of laws and regulations attempting to create a monopoly.

Disable that sector, drive a stake through its heart, and you smash the middle class people who work in it.

So let’s stop the shit-for-brains easy chatter about solving the ongoing tragedy of the middle class.

The trouble we have is much bigger and deeper.

There are answers and there are solutions. I’ve been writing about some of them for a long time. But the bottom line is: they take courage. They take businessmen who stand for FREEDOM and INNOVATION, and also have a sense of unshakable MORALITY. Where are these men?

Masturbating over transhumanism in Silicon Valley?

How about going to war IN THE GOOD SENSE, against the sloth and rot and Empire the US has become?

And I’m not talking about the next great cell phone that stands in for actual human friends, or some set of goggles that lead you to believe you’re on the brink of the greatest sex you’ve ever had.

There are giant industries waiting to happen. Desalination, which would provide all the water the drought-suffering Southwest needs. Water turbines, for rivers and ocean coastlines, which would provide extraordinary amounts of electricity to communities across America.

Ingenious men could create companies that sell basic food, clothing, and shelter at prices millions of economically borderline people can afford. At a profit.

The basic MINDSET for this kind of economic revolution would need visionaries who are also intensely practical. And decidedly anti-woke.

With enough free market power, the number of jobs created could surpass what we have now, in the predatory war and medical sectors.

It can be done.

But a new spirit has to be awakened.

With an energy that overcomes DOOM.

Perhaps someone reading this can SEE that future; and can start making it.

Because overcoming long odds is just the sort of challenge he is looking for.

I’m sick and tired of hearing about a great and positive revolution government is going to lead. It’ll never happen.

The idealists who believe it will are deranged.

The answer is in the free market. That’s where the revolution has to happen.

That’s where more than a hundred years of intense socialist propaganda has been focusing its flood of destructive messages.

It’s called mind control.

 

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