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

FROM THE EDITOR:

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

Advice for anyone still in school

by Montalk.net
from Montalk Website

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

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

by J. D. Heyes

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

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The U.S. immigration battle intensifies

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

by David Bacon
Equal Times

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

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

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

by Michael Snyder
Análisis

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

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

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

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Daniel Ortega buys new car for $278,000

by Market Watch

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

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

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‘Lolo’ Chavarría passed away and his departure leaves many in sadness

by Marvin Ramírez

 

With great sadness in the family left this world Nelson ‘ lolo ‘ Chavarría in the City of Washington, Maryland on June 6, 2015. He was 58 years old.

Born in Masaya, Nicaragua on January 1, 1957, Lolo, as he was affectionately known in memory of his father Dolores Sánchez, he was one of 10 sibblings his mother Mélida Chavarría had.

After having been a intervened by an open-heart operation, Lolo was again operated due to a blood escape in the wound, causing to him four followed heart attacks, of which the last one took his life.

Lolo, who was not married and neither fathered any children, tackled towards the U.S. in March, 1989, in company of his niece Shady Lários when she was a child, to meet other brothers and sisters who were already living in this country, and to reach the American dream – since Nicaragua was then still suffering the ravages of a civil war and a revolution that left the people without many opportunities.

In spite of having been born in Masaya, Lolo grew up in Managua, and since the day he came to the U.S. he lived through all the time in Washington.

The death of his uncle was a hard blow for his niece.

“He was one of my closest uncles,” said Lários, who is now a married woman and mother of three sons in Miami, Florida. “He was a super humble human being with a big heart.”

If once she accompanied him in life towards the U.S., as a duty of the heart Lários traveled to Nicaragua along with her mom, Martha Chavarría – Lolo’s sister – and her family, to return the ashes of her uncle to Nicaragua, from where she departed with him one day to look for a better life.

Lolo is survived by his brothers and sisters: Martha (en U.S.), Carlos (en U.S.), Emilia (en Nicaragua), Mario (en Nicaragua) Ucrania Vivas, Christiana Constantiny (en U.S.), Rodney Vaughan (en Nicaragua).

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Because the children get to rock too!

Compiled by  El Reportero’s staff

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

The 2015 frozen line up: ready to dazzle and entertain
You are invited to the 2015 frozen opening night mixer.
This year’s lineup is set to chill out July 16th to the 18th! Films include jaw dropping documentaries, dramatic short and comedic film collections, an epic animation collection, plus international features, and intense surf/skateboarding films.
Come mix mingle and celebrate the arts at the 2015 Frozen Film Festival opening night party and meet other film lovers, filmmakers, singer/songwriters, media/bloggers and supporters! We want to meet you!
At Dalva (SF) on Thursday, July 16 at 7 p.m. 3121-16th St., SF. At the Roxie Theater, July 17 & 18, 3117 16th St, San Francisco San Francisco.

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

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

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Second War World Film Festival in Perú

by the El Reportero’s news services

A festival of films about the Second World War started today in Peru, sponsored by the Embassy of the Russian Federation and the Cinematheque of the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú.
The exhibition, called Mosfilm, is about war cinema and includes six productions. It is marked in the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War against Nazi-fascism, victoriously finished by the Red Army in May 1945.
The festival is presented at the Cultural Center of the Catholic University and includes the classic ‘The Cranes are flying’, of Mikhail Kalatozov, as well as ‘ Ivan’s childhood’ of Andrei Tarkovski.

Indian linguistic variants could dissapear in Mexico
In Mexico, 64 out of the 364 linguistic variants that form a part of its culture are in danger of extinction, according to the Director of the National Institute of Indian Languages, Javier López.
The specialist declared that almost 17 million Mexicans have indian origins, but only 7 million talk their mother tongue. Also, López added that some of those languages in danger of extinction are only talked by some families, or even four or eight people.
Mexico has 364 linguistic variants, classified into 68 tongues, and belonging to 11 linguistic families.
In this way, we found ourselves among the three Latin American countries and the 15 countries around the globe with more diversity of languages, the specialist concluded.

James Bond visits Mexico City Day of the Dead Festival
The latest chapter in the blockbuster 007 franchise, SPECTRE, recently visited Mexico City to film the incredible opening sequence during the Day of the Dead festival. And now, the latest SPECTRE vlog shares the amazing costumes, makeup, and floats for this amazing sequence.

www.youtube.com/watch?t=15&v=0lUusnn7puQ
“I wanted the audience to be dropped right into the middle of a very, very specific, very heady, rich environment. It’s the Day of the Dead, everywhere you look there’s colour and detail and life. We’ve built floats and maquettes, the costumes are extraordinary and the craftsmanship is amazing,” says Director Sam Mendes.

Esai Morales Shines as POTUS in the New HBO Series The Brink
Isai Morales made his return to the small screen in a big way as the President of the United States in the new HBO series, The Brink. Morales captivated viewers with his stellar portrayal of President Julian Navarro in the geopolitical dark comedy which premiered Monday night on the premium cable network. The show opened with 1.6 million viewers (2.1 million including a replay and viewing on GO/Now.)
Esai Morales’ acting career spans well over 3 decades. The American actor of Puerto Rican descent, has been cast in such diverse roles ranging from troubled youth Paco Moreno, opposite Sean Penn, in the 80’s classic Bad Boys to FBI Section Chief Mateo Cruz in the CBS hit series Criminal Minds. The range of characters he has portrayed transcend many stereotypical roles that film and television audiences are accustomed to seeing.

This however, is the first time Morales portrays one of the most significant roles of his acting career, the President of the United States of America

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El Salvador’ plan to defeat gangs must start with youth

by New America Media
Op-ed, Róger Lindo

Last year, 70,000 children and adolescents from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras fled to the U.S. to escape from the maras.

Media in the Central American country of El Salvador reported recently that dozens of families in the rural community of El Llano abandoned their homes after gang members (locally known as maras) threatened that they were going to “wipe out the community” in retribution for sheltering members of a rival gang.
Two days later, residents of Mejicanos, a working class town north of San Salvador, told police officers and journalists that they had received death threats from gang members. A dozen families decided to leave their dwellings.
These and other cases suggest the existence within El Salvador of a growing number of people who have been displaced by violence, not unlike a situation of war. It’s a sad reality in a country, which, 23 years ago, ended a 10-year conflict that left an estimate of 75 thousand people dead. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the anniversary ceremonies celebrating the end of that bloodshed, remarked that insecurity is one of the challenges that still remain in El Salvador.
Last year, 70,000 children and adolescents from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras fled to the southern border of the United States. According to numerous testimonies, a large portion of them undertook this journey to escape from the maras.
The gangs which have overrun El Salvador originated in Los Angeles, and were exported to this country thanks to an aggressive policy of deportations. Due to chronic poverty, and lack of economic opportunities, gang members found it easy to recruit youngsters in shantytowns and working class communities. The neglect of poor areas by past administrations and the private sector, along with a series of failed policies, allowed gangs to gain control of large swathes of territory.
At this stage, gangs have become so entrenched in poor communities that they include mothers, sons, grandfathers and grandsons. Entire families participate in crimes like extortion and kidnappings.
Due to lack of resources and training, the protection that Salvadoran police can provide its own citizens is limited. In the case of El Llano, all that the National Civil Police (PNC) could do was accompany the displaced back to their homes so they could pick up some of the belongings they had left behind. It is more likely that wherever these people end up, they will not be safe there either.
As times goes by, the maras have become bolder. A couple of weeks ago, well-armed gang members mounted roadblocks along one of the major highways, and assaulted motorists in broad daylight.
So far this year, gangs have killed seven police officers, and many others have been ambushed. Being a police officer has become one of the most dangerous jobs in El Salvador. This was pointed out in an op-ed piece written by U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte, that ran this week.
The left leaning administration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén does not offer immediate or cheap solutions either. The government roadmap is summarized in a 5-year plan unveiled last week. The document was drafted by the National Council for Public Security and Violence, a panel composed of officials from several ministries, the business sector, churches, the diplomatic corps, NGOs, and civil society. The plan–-tagged at $2.3 billion–contains a mixture of components: from increasing law enforcement capability and the expansion of the jail system, to rehabilitation of criminals.
It will not be an easy task. Gangs were allowed to grow and expand throughout the country for almost two decades, and the main goal has to be to neutralize their ability to recruit young people. This is where the main impact of the program should be, and a course of action must be defined so that the force of the plan is felt right away. The government could focus, for example, in transforming schools into safe havens, where children and youngsters could be free from the influence of gangs, and educated in a culture of learning and peace.

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How the public education system is rigged to turn individuals into automatons – Part 3

FROM THE EDITOR:

DEAR READERS: In the course of a research I found this excellent article that deals with a hidden truth behind the current educational system. Written in 2004, the content of this piece may enlighten many who still believe our current schools curriculum is far away from what, we as people, need to learn and acquire knowledge, and to make us independent and develop our highest potential to make a better world. You be the judge. This is PART 3 OF A SERIES

by Montalk.net
from Montalk Website

The system itself

Teachers are not to blame either. They are like soldiers in the trenches fighting a war to educate the public, taking orders from their superiors who have no idea what the current conditions are on the front lines.
Teachers are overstressed, underpaid, and restricted in their ability to respond to what they perceive in the classroom. Due to political correctness, threat of legal action by parents, and contrite school boards scared of disapproval by a vocal minority with big political clout, teachers are confined to a tight curriculum they are forced to follow.
They are forced to teach some things, and not allowed to teach others, such guidelines set by a panel of nodding puppets with no clue as to what the truth is, let alone initiative to spread it should they know the truth. These puppets are those who design the school curriculum, who despite once being teachers themselves, are for the majority removed from the classroom feedback mechanism.
It’s the little things that contribute to an oppressive atmosphere in schools. Not withstanding the social atmosphere, teachers on a strained school budget worry about saving paper, staples, or tape. When my high school received thousands of dollars of funding from the community, it used that money to expand its inventory of computers that weren’t even needed just to keep up with the politically correct trend for schools to be technologically current. That money should have been used for the little things, such as office supplies.
Disruptive students are put in the same class with well behaving ones, creating academic socialism whereby equality is maintained by dragging up the idiots at the expense of the smart ones. Separating students on the wrong criteria leads to incongruities and a breakdown of the system and its components. Putting them into grades by age, when they should be instead separated by level of knowledge and skill, results in academic entropy whereby the smart become dumb and the dumb learn how to waste other’s time.
Teachers spend more of this time teaching children how to shut up and sit still than to pay attention and think. Because they are very limited in their methods of discipline, teachers and students suffer as the idiotic and delinquent minority ruins it all for the rest.
Friction within the system from misplacement of resources induces hatred among its components, as each is suffering and blaming one another instead of blaming the system itself. In fact, the system is set up such that the components feed off one another in a long term downward spiral.
Teachers have contempt for the students, and often make an effort to take out aggression upon them, seeing them as the enemy and cause of their own stress. Students see authority as something to be defied, unless they are already broken by it. Teachers make up illogical rules to test how well students obey, such as making them walk a certain way through the library, or not enter or leave certain exits at certain times, and other minor things which irritate students and allow faculty to feel good when they exert their powers. This tension between student and teacher shatters trust between them, and any teaching and learning between them enters the domain of negative reinforcement. Instead of them loving and respecting one another, they hate each other but do what they are supposed to, to avoid consequences if they do otherwise.
When you see a student, what you’re really seeing is someone low on ambition and initiative, but starving for recognition and self-esteem. This is a symptom of a system that is anti-life, anti-individualism, and anti-spirit. Compressing a wonderful human into a precise block to fit perfectly into cubicle induces the survival mode of life. Knowledge, having been made into the source of his distress, is put at the bottom of his list of priorities, as he has to do whatever is possible to regain his self esteem, recognition, and peace of mind. However, he must do so within the confines of the system.
Dysfunction results. Instead of individualism meaning thinking for oneself and seeking one’s own truth and sense of morality, individualism becomes wearing freaky clothing, having funny hair, and garnering attention via infantile vulgarity no matter if it is for fame or infamy. These superficial methods are all that are still legal within the system. The true human spirit, however, is suppressed.
Those who are broken follow the teacher’s illogical rules and learn to trust authority over their own potentials. In this, they become a cog in the wheel. Breaking orders is taboo to them, something they get very nervous about when it happens, and they certainly don’t do it willingly. They become neurotics and unstable perfectionists who stand high on shaky foundations.
Once their individuality is broken, they become robots very good at their tasks. Many go on to college, absorb what’s fed to them well, and become academicians with a groovy little niche and nice income in their fields of research. But however wonderful that sounds, they are robots and nothing more. Or to make another analogy, they are cows.
They don’t know that being the best cow still doesn’t make you a cowboy.

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