Wednesday, October 14, 2026
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Democracy and Vote

by Richard Anthony

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself! There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide!” – Samuel Adams.

Democracy is not a scriptural principle for God’s people. Democracy is a deceitful word. Every man believes he has a right in the outcome of the destiny of society. This is a myth. If God directs men to move in a way that’s led by God, then no vote can change the Will of God. The “voter registration” is secular man’s faulty reasoning that he, in and of himself, can save all, if you just give him enough power, more money, more…more…more…and still more. As soon as you put your “X” on that ballot and vote for some politician, you become part of the world, you voted to be ordered around. The politician needs your consent to crack a whip over your head and make you feel like the animal that you have partaken of. You are now part of the zoo of humanity.

When you elect people to tell you how to live and how things should be done, then you give up that authority that the Lord has given you and you put it in the hands of the heathen. You’re choosing to have evil men rule over you rather than Almighty God who created you. When elections come up, people usually choose between “the lesser of two evils.”

They always decide between “the lesser of two evils.” Think about that. We have to remember that there is no such thing as the lesser of two evils. Evil is evil (James 2:10). Therefore, when somebody votes between the lesser of two evils, they are still voting for evil. Period.

Law is not based on a popular vote. It never has been and never can be. Bondmen of Christ cannot vote because that would be violence or force. We are not into using force, you cannot force the Kingdom of God, you cannot force people to love, you cannot force your love on others, you cannot force people to be free, because that requires violence to enforce it. And “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

In the Old Testament, the people “voted” to kill Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:10). Right after they voted, God said, “…How long will this people provoke me? …I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them,” (Numbers 14:11-12), but Moses asked for mercy and God pardoned their evil ways. In the New Testament, during the trial of Christ Jesus, Pontius Pilate let the people “vote” between Barabbas and Jesus as to who they wanted set free (Matthew 27:17). The Pharisees whispered lies in the people’s ears so they would vote the way they wanted them to vote. And that’s the same thing that’s going on today with voting; it’s all manipulated by those who have the power to sway people. This “voting privilege” crucified our Lord!

Another example is in 1 Samuel 8. God’s people were ruled directly by God at this time, but the people “voted” to be ruled by a human king instead of God, just like the heathen nations (1 Samuel 8:4-5,20). Right after they “voted”, “the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Israel was now a democracy, and their voting privilege kicked God out of their country.

There is a tendency on the part of many to assume that if the vast majority of Christians hold a certain belief, then it must be right. Not necessarily so. Truth is not determined by majority vote, but by the Word itself. God’s people should not look to “democratic principles” for Truth, but to God.

Democracy: “That form of government where the people rule. But the multitude cannot actually rule: An unorganic democracy…naturally becomes a one-man government. The basis of the democracy is equality…but equality itself is no guarantee for liberty, nor does equality constitute liberty. Absolute democracy existed in antiquity and the middle ages: they have never endured for any length of time. And absolute democracy is anything rather than a convertible term for liberty.” Bouvier’s Law Dictionary , 1914.

The following definition is taken from a 156 page book officially compiled and issued by the U.S. War Department on November 30, 1928, setting forth the truthful definition of Democracy. This definition was published by the authority of the United States Government. This precise and scholarly definition of Democracy is carefully considered as a proper guide for U.S. soldiers and U.S. citizens by the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. This definition takes precedence over any “definition” that may be found in the present commercial dictionaries which have suffered periodical modification to please the powers in office.

Democracy: “A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of direct expression. Results in mobacracy. Attitude toward property is communistic, negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequence. Results in demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy. Democracy is the direct rule of the people and has been repeatedly tried without success.” Citizenship, Training Manual No. 2000-25, War Department, Washington, November 30, 1928, prepared under direction of the Chief of Staff, [A.G. 014.33 (4-28-28).], By order of the Secretary of War: Official: Lutzwahl, Major General, The Adjutant General, C.P. Summerall, Major General, Chief of Staff.

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Ron Paul’s farewell to the United States: Embrace liberty or face self-destruction – Part 2

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. Ramírez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Dear readers: I am introducing to you, a memorable speech, which I consider the speech of the century. It is by a man who I believe has the biggest conviction on liberty than any one I have ever known. This man is Congressman Ron Paul, who is leaving Congress after 36 years. Mike Adams, editor of Natural News, took the time to transcribe it. Because the text came out too long, El Reportero will publish it in parts for several weeks. I hope you will enjoy it, and see for yourself, how this man’s vision brings out the raw corruption of our political system, with the hope that we all can help stop on time, the destruction of our Republic. PART 2

Ron Paul’s farewell message to America: Embrace liberty or face self-destruction

by Mike Adams

Ron Paul’s recent farewell speech is arguable the single most important speech in American history. Dr. Paul lays out the fatal problems facing America while pulling no punches. This speech is a must-read piece by anyone who seeks to understand the real reasons why America remains in a downward spiral of social and economic failure under the endless growth of Big Government and runaway debt.

Here’s the full text:

The Age of Redistribution

This neglect ushered in an age of redistribution of wealth by government kowtowing to any and all special interests, except for those who just wanted to left alone. That is why today money in politics far surpasses money currently going into research and development and productive entrepreneurial efforts.

The material benefits became more important than the understanding and promoting the principles of liberty and a free market. It is good that material abundance is a result of liberty but if materialism is all that we care about, problems are guaranteed.

The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail. We have ended up with a system that doesn’t produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends.

If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time. Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue.

We Need an Intellectual Awakening

Without an intellectual awakening, the turning point will be driven by economic law. A dollar crisis will bring the current out-of-control system to its knees.

If it’s not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties. Prosperity for a large middle class though will become an abstract dream.

This continuous move is no different than what we have seen in how our financial crisis of 2008 was handled. Congress first directed, with bipartisan support, bailouts for the wealthy. Then it was the Federal Reserve with its endless quantitative easing. If at first it doesn’t succeed try again; QE1, QE2, and QE3 and with no results we try QE indefinitely — that is until it too fails. There’s a cost to all of this and let me assure you delaying the payment is no longer an option. The rules of the market will extract its pound of flesh and it won’t be pretty.

The current crisis elicits a lot of pessimism. And the pessimism adds to less confidence in the future. The two feed on themselves, making our situation worse.

If the underlying cause of the crisis is not understood we cannot solve our problems. The issues of warfare, welfare, deficits, inflationism, corporatism, bailouts and authoritarianism cannot be ignored. By only expanding these policies we cannot expect good results.

Everyone claims support for freedom. But too often it’s for one’s own freedom and not for others. Too many believe that there must be limits on freedom. They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force, certain liberties.

Some decide what and whose freedoms are to be limited. These are the politicians whose goal in life is power. Their success depends on gaining support from special interests.

No More ‘isms’

The great news is the answer is not to be found in more “isms.” The answers are to be found in more liberty which cost so much less. Under these circumstances spending goes down, wealth production goes up, and the quality of life improves.

Just this recognition — especially if we move in this direction — increases optimism which in itself is beneficial. The follow through with sound policies are required which must be understood and supported by the people.

But there is good evidence that the generation coming of age at the present time is supportive of moving in the direction of more liberty and self-reliance. The more this change in direction and the solutions become known, the quicker will be the return of optimism.

Our job, for those of us who believe that a different system than the one that we have had for the last 100 years, has driven us to this unsustainable crisis, is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers. We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause.

It worked, but we allowed our leaders to concentrate on the material abundance that freedom generates, while ignoring freedom itself. Now we have neither, but the door is open, out of necessity, for an answer. The answer available is based on the Constitution, individual liberty and prohibiting the use of government force to provide privileges and benefits to all special interests.

After over 100 years we face a society quite different from the one that was intended by the Founders. In many ways their efforts to protect future generations with the Constitution from this danger has failed. Skeptics, at the time the Constitution was written in 1787, warned us of today’s possible outcome. The insidious nature of the erosion of our liberties and the reassurance our great abundance gave us, allowed the process to evolve into the dangerous period in which we now live.

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They are going to make it nearly impossible to pass on a farm or a business to your children

by Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse

If you have a farm or a small business, would you like to pass it on to your children when you die? Well, unless Congress does something, it is going to become much, much harder to do that starting next year. Right now, there is a 5 million dollar estate tax exemption and anything above that is taxed at 35 percent. But on January 1st, the exemption will go down to 1 million dollars and the tax rate will go up to 55 percent. A lot of liberals are very excited about this, because they believe that the government will be soaking wealthy people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. But the truth is that a lot of farms, ranches and small businesses will be absolutely devastated by this change in the tax law. There are many farmers and ranchers out there today that do not make much money but are sitting on tracts of land that are worth millions of dollars. According to the American Farm Bureau, approximately 97 percent of all farms and ranches in the United States would be subject to the estate tax if the exemption was reduced to just a million dollars. That means that the children of these farmers and ranchers would be faced with a very cruel choice when it is time to inherit these farms and ranches. Either they come up with enough money to pay the government about half of what the farm or ranch is worth, or they sell the farm or ranch that may have been in their family for generations. Needless to say, most farm and ranch families do not have that kind of cash lying around. Most of them are just barely making it from year to year. So this change in the tax law is going to greatly accelerate the death of the family farm in America. This is also going to devastate many family-owned small businesses. Many small businesses don’t make much money, but they have buildings or land or assets worth millions of dollars. Children that may have wanted to continue the family legacy will be forced to sell because of the massive tax bill that they get from Uncle Sam. This is an insidious cruelty, and it shows just how broken our system has become.

The desire to leave the wealth that you have worked so hard to accumulate all your life to your children is something that is common to virtually all human societies. We want to know that future generations will be taken care of.

It is simply immoral for the federal government to swoop in and tax farms, ranches and small businesses that were intended to be passed down from parents to their children at a 55 percent tax rate.

A lot of the people that are going to be affected by this change are not “wealthy” at all. A recent Fox News reportexamined what this change in the law is going to mean for rancher Kevin Kester and his family…

Rancher Kevin Kester works dawn to dusk, drives a 12-year-old pick-up truck and earns less than a typical bureaucrat in Washington D.C., yet the federal government considers him rich enough to pay the estate tax — also known as the “death tax.”

Kester told Fox News that he has no doubt that his ranch will have to be sold when he dies just to pay the tax bill…

“There is no way financially my kids can pay what the IRS is going to demand from them nine months after death and keep this ranch intact for their generation and future generations,” said Kester, of the Bear Valley Ranch in Central California.

Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million.

Reading that should make you angry. Every single year, thousands upon thousands of farms, ranches and small businesses are going to be lost to the federal tax monster.

It is almost as if the federal government does not want income-producing assets to remain in the hands of the “little guy”.

What in the world are we supposed to do?

It isn’t as if all of those farmers and ranchers can go off to the big cities and find good jobs. As I wrote about yesterday, our politicians are standing aside as millions of our good jobs are shipped out of the country.

The cold, hard truth is that our system does not work for average Americans any longer. Those that roll out of bed every morning, work hard and never complain always seem to get the short end of the stick.

The people that are the backbone of America are the ones that the government is always the hardest on.

Unfortunately, we have gotten to a point where the government is searching for more “revenue” from anywhere it can because it desperately needs more money. U.S. government finances are a complete and total mess and we are drowning in the biggest ocean of debt the world has ever seen.

We are more than 16 trillion dollars in debt and there are more than 100 million Americans that are enrolled in at least one welfare program.

Someday has to pay for all this.

Middle class Americans are already hit with dozens of different taxes each year, and you can be certain that our politicians will continue to invent ways to extract even more “revenue” out of us.

And of course our politicians will never stop their wild spending. Despite all of the negotiations that have taken place over the past couple of years, our spending problems just continue to grow. For example, the federal budget deficit for the month of October was $120 billion, which was more than 20 percent larger than the federal budget deficit for October 2011 was.

So what is the solution?

Well, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner now says that he wants to eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. He says that we should just have no limit and that the federal government should just be able to go into debt as much as it wants.

In the end, all of this debt is going to absolutely crush us. We have literally destroyed the future of America, and yet most of the country still seems clueless about all of this. The blind are leading the blind, and we are headed straight for complete and utter disaster.

One day, when people look back on this period in American history, what do you think people are going to say about us?

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Ron Paul’s farewell to the United States: Embrace liberty or face self-destruction – Part 1

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. Ramírez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Dear readers: I am introducing to you, a memorable speech, which I consider the speech of the century. It is by a man who I believe has the biggest conviction on liberty than any one I have ever known. This man is Congressman Ron Paul, who is leaving Congress after 36 years. Mike Adams, editor of Natural News, took the time to transcribe it. Because the text came out too long, El Reportero will publish it in parts for several weeks. I hope you will enjoy it, and see for yourself, how this man’s vision brings out the raw corruption of our political system, with the hope that we all can help stop on time, the destruction of our Republic.

PART 1

Ron Paul’s farewell message to America: Embrace liberty or face self-destruction

by Mike Adams

Ron Paul’s recent farewell speech is arguable the single most important speech in American history. Dr. Paul lays out the fatal problems facing America while pulling no punches. This speech is a must-read piece by anyone who seeks to understand the real reasons why America remains in a downward spiral of social and economic failure under the endless growth of Big Government and runaway debt.

Here’s the full text:

This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty.

It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security. To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire.

The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.

How Much Did I Accomplish?

In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways — thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history.

All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer. A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn’t give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn’t give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues. As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe.

The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending.

The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there’s no “loot left to divvy up.”

Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January.

I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell. Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled.

Authoritarianism vs. Liberty

If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty. There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government.

During my time in Congress the appetite for liberty has been quite weak; the understanding of its significance negligible. Yet the good news is that compared to 1976 when I first came to Congress, the desire for more freedom and less government in 2012 is much greater and growing, especially in grassroots America. Tens of thousands of teenagers and college age students are, with great enthusiasm, welcoming the message of liberty.

I have a few thoughts as to why the people of a country like ours, once the freest and most prosperous, allowed the conditions to deteriorate to the degree that they have.

Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth. In our early history we were very much aware of this. But in the early part of the 20th century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax. The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be “progressive” ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable.

They failed to recognized that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British.

Some complain that my arguments makes no sense, since great wealth and the standard of living improved for many Americans over the last 100 years, even with these new policies.

But the damage to the market economy, and the currency, has been insidious and steady. It took a long time to consume our wealth, destroy the currency and undermine productivity and get our financial obligations to a point of no return. Confidence sometimes lasts longer than deserved. Most of our wealth today depends on debt.

The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected. As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary.

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Fight back against Big Food: How to boycott all the brands that helped kill Prop. 37

by Jonathan Benson
Natural News

Though there are still quite a few absentee, mail-in and provisional ballots left to be counted, it appears as though California’s Proposition 37, the genetically-engineered (GE) foods labeling initiative, has indeed failed to pass by a very narrow margin. But that does not mean the labeling fight is over, nor does it mean proponents of honesty in food labeling cannot get even with the opposition by actively boycotting the corporations responsible for helping kill the initiative.

If even half of the nearly six million Californians that voted in favor of Prop. 37 decided to stop purchasing the following “natural” and organic food brands, all of which are owned by companies that spent millions to defeat Prop. 37, the financial damage incurred by these corporate traitors would be significant enough to send the message that the people want to know, and have a right to know, whether or not the foods they eat contain genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is calling on honest food advocates everywhere, not just in California, to boycott the following brands for betraying their customers by opposing GMO labeling. OCA Director Ronnie Cummins is urging the public not only to stop purchasing the following brands, but also to call their corporate hotlines and demand that they reverse their position and begin supporting GMO labeling initiatives nationwide, including upcoming GMO labeling ballot initiatives in Vermont, Washington state, Connecticut, and elsewhere.

1) Naked Juice, Tostitos Organic, Tropicana Organic. Each of these popular brands is owned by PepsiCo, which donated $2.5 million to the No on 37 campaign.

2) Boca Burger, Back to Nature. These two brands are owned by Kraft Foods, which donated $2 million to defeat Prop. 37.

3) “O” Organics. This organic brand is owned by the grocery store chain Safeway, which is a member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). GMA spent $2 million to defeat GMO labeling in California.

4 )Honest Tea, Odwalla. Both of these popular “natural” brands are owned by the Coca-Cola Company, which donated $1.7 million to the No on 37 campaign.

5) Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar. All of these brands are owned by General Mills, which donated $1.2 million to defeat Prop. 37.

6) Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife, Alexia. Each of these brands is owned by Con-Agra, which spent $1.2 million to defeat Prop. 37.

7) Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger. These popular “healthy” brands are all owned by Kellogg’s, which spent $791,000 to kill Prop. 37.

8) R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic. These two brands are owned by Smucker’s, which spent $555,000 to defeat Prop. 37.

9) Ben & Jerry’s. This ice cream favorite is now owned by Unilever, which spent $467,000 to defeat Prop. 37.

10) Horizon, Silk, White Wave. These three brands can be found in health food stores all across the country, but their parent company, Dean Foods, donated $254,000 to the No on 37 campaign.

When these companies start to feel the consequences of a nationwide boycott in the form of decreased profits, it just might cause them to think twice about deliberately blocking future efforts to bring truth and honesty to food labeling.

You can also make your voice heard more loudly by directly contacting each of these companies and expressing your thoughts using the following petition portal. It explains that, in order to regain your business, these antilabeling conspirators must agree to publicly speak out in favor of all future GMO labeling efforts, as well as contribute more money to each of these campaigns individually than they spent fighting Prop. 37: http://www.capwiz.com.

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Colombia should accept the verdict of the Hague, expert says

by the El Reportero’s wire services

New maritime territory of NIcaragua and ColombiaNew maritime territory of NIcaragua and Colombia.

BOGOTÁ (Prensa Latina) – Colombia should accept the verdict of the Court in The Hague on the maritime boundary dispute with Nicaragua and obey the principles of international law enshrined in the Constitution of the country, said lawyer Bernard Vela.

Vela, who is the director of the International Observatory Analysis of the Colombian Externado University, said that the ruling of the UN highest court is immediately applicable and the new map of the western Caribbean is the one the international court decided in its ruling. Otherwise, he says, is speculation.

In an interview with the newspaper El Espectador, he said that Colombia ‘has painstakingly built a tradition of respect for the international legal order, which has given recognition and prestige to its foreign policy, and must preserve it.

In his view, refusing the decision could be taken as an attack and, consequently, against the key provision of the San Francisco Charter, constitutive of the United Nations, which expressly prohibits the use of force.

From Latin News: Latin Americans revel in role reversal at Spanish summit

It would have seemed inconceivable during the debt crisis that ravaged Latin America in the 1980s that there would come a day just a generation later when the region would be in a position to return the favor of lecturing the Old World about how to conduct its finances. But that is precisely what happened last weekend at the XXII Ibero-American summit, held in Spain’s southwestern port city of Cádiz.

Cuba’s missing data: what does it mean?

It has become increasingly difficult to assess the performance of the Cuban economy in recent years, because of the non-appearance of some important economic data.

At the end of October, the Anuario Estadístico de Cuba, which is usually published by July by the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas e Información (ONEI, the national statistics office), was missing three chapters: chapter 5, which covers national income accounts; chapter 6, public finances; and chapter 8, the external sector.

Mexico: 99 percent of crimes go unpunished

The Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reported today that 99 percent of crimes go unpunished in this country, which shows a very low police efficiency against high rates of violence.

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Mexican exhibition explores the link between Mayan culture and time

by Hispanically Speaking News

Maya and time

A new Mayan exhibit at the Mexican capital’s National Museum of Anthropology shows the influence of time on the rituals and daily life of that pre-Columbian civilization.

“We’re used to seeing time from our own perspective, in a linear way, with a beginning and an end, but for Mesoamerican cultures, on the contrary, time is a cyclic reality,” Alfonso de Maria y Campos, director of the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, told Efe during Friday’s inauguration.

Nearly 100 objects of ceramic, metal, shell and stone on loan from the Yucutan Regional Museum, or “Canton Palace,” illustrate the advanced understanding of astronomy, mathematics and writing achieved by that civilization, at its height between the years 300 A.D. and 1,000 A.D.

The exhibit, organized by INAH, explains some of the calendar systems they used, including the Tzolk’in of 260 days, the Haab’o civil calendar of 365 days, and the so-called “long-count” (Tziikhaab) that covers a span of 5,125 years.

The latter system, whose current stage began on Aug. 11 of the year 3114 B.C. and will end on Dec. 21, 2012 with the beginning of a new era, gave rise to the idea that the Mayas prophesied the end of the world, a notion repeatedly denied by indigenous and scientific authorities.

“This is an academic exhibition that shows that the end of the world will not be on Dec. 21, but that it is a very important date on the Mayas’ long-count calendar,” the academic said.

LatAm Artists Anguiano, Siqueiros, Tamayo Sell Paintings at Mexican Auction

Paintings by Raul Anguiano, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo sold here for a combined $1.2 million in scoring the three top bids at Casa Morton’s auction of Latin American art.

Anguiano’s “Allegory of Mexico: the natural products” was knocked down for the highest price of 5 million pesos ($416,000) at the Thursday night auction in the Mexican capital.

The painting shows the tree of life and some indigenous figures – a Maya weaver, potters and miners – with the god Quetzalcoatl emerging among them to symbolize the coming Spanish conquest of America and the economic and cultural exchanges between the two worlds.

Second place went to an untitled piece by Siqueiros for 4.8 million pesos ($400,000), in which the artist displays the strength of his perspective with industrial painting techniques and his characteristically colorful palette.

Antonio Banderas To Kick Off Acapulco Film Festival

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will have the honor of inaugurating on Nov. 24 the 8th Acapulco International Film Festival, where he will travel with his wife, actress Melanie Griffith, organization officials said.

“Banderas has been involved in films and dubbings that have been very successful in Mexico,” the awards festival director Victor Sotomayor told Efe, adding that last year they wanted to invite him for the computer-animation film “Puss in Boots,” for which the actor dubbed the voice of the leading character, but he was too busy at the time to attend.

Though nothing is certain as yet, Sotomayor said they are “very near confirmation” that the Mexican Salma Hayek, who coincidentally worked in the same animated movie with Banderas, will ring down the festival curtain on Nov. 30.

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Tribute to the Masters featuring The John Santos Sextex

by the El Reportero’s staff

An scene Paying the Price at the SFImff.

Please join us for a musical journey through jazz and Caribbean rhythms with some of the Bay Area’s most creative instrumentalists and arrangers led by five-time Grammy-nominated, US Artists Fontanals Fellow, John Santos.

John is one of very few musicians who has played at La Peña every year since they opened in 1975. His appearances there have formed an important part of Bay Area musical history. He was recently (October 9th, 2012) honored with the Latino Heritage Arts Award, from the City and County of San Francisco. It came with Certificates of Honor and Recognition from the Mayor, the State Assembly, the State Senate, and the US House of Representatives.

An evening of original interpretations and arrangements of classic compositions by American masters from the States and from Latin America at the intimate and historic La Peña Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. With Melecio Magdaluyo – saxes Dr. John Calloway – flute, piano, percussion, Marco Díaz – piano, trumpet, Saul Sierra – bass David Flores – drumset John Santos – percussion

For more info call (510) 849-2568. On Friday, Dec. 1, 2012, 8 p.m., two sets. Please arrive early for seating.

Festival De Cine Inmigrante de san francisco becara a estudiante universitario

El más antiguo festival dedicado al tema de la inmigración, el San Francisco Immigrant Film Festival, SFImFF, ofrecerá el jueves 6 y viernes 7 de diciembre, un verdadero maratón de películas por primera vez en el Ocean Campus del Colegio Universitario de San Francisco, co presentado por la organización Students Advocating for Equity, SAFE.

Aún cuando la invitación a las proyecciones es gratuita, se esperan recolectar contribuciones voluntarias que servirán para ofrecer una beca a un estudiante inmigrante del City College de la ciudad.

El club universitario que hace posible que el 3r San Francisco Immigrant Film Festival ocupe los salones del campo universitario de Ocean, se define como “un grupo de estudiantes indocumentados y aliados enfocados en crear conciencia, recursos, y apoyo para nuestra comunidad”.

Las películas provenientes de diferentes partes del mundo se mostrarán el jueves 6 de diciembre en el edificio Multi-Use, Salón 255 desde las 12 del mediodía hasta las 4 pm y el viernes 7 en el edificio Colan Hall, Salón E101 de 3 pm a 7 pm.

Las obras seleccionadas para este evento especial son: “Ngutu” de Felipe del Olmo y Daniel Valledor, Spain; Taught to Hate, 27’, James García Sotomayor, USA/Ecuador; and Three Sad Tigers, 11’, David Muñoz, Spain/United Kingdom.

This is a volunteer-run festival founded three years ago by Romulo Hernandez. It is exclusively focused on issues surrounding immigration. Throughout the year, SFImFF offer free screenings of films/videos at different venues related to immigrant communities to promote a greater understanding of the human condition. If you would like to get involved please check out the website http://www.sfimmigrantfilmfestival.com/ or e-mail at sfimfilmfestival@gmail.com.

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U.N. moves to impose internacional treaties on states legalizing marihuana

Protest in favor of discriminalization of marihuana.

by Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com

The United Nations has declared Colorado and Washington in violation of international treaties following ballot initiatives that have legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, has voiced “grave concern about the outcome of recent referenda in the United States of America that would allow the non-medical use of cannabis by adults in the states of Colorado and Washington, and in some cities in the states of Michigan and Vermont,” according to an INCB press release. The INCB is a quasi-judicial “control organ” for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions.
Mr. Yans said the referenda in Colorado and Washington state “are in violation of the international drug control treaties, and pose a great threat to public health and the well-being of society far beyond those states.” Yans cited the standard nanny-state reasons for dictating what consenting adult Americans put in their bodies, including mental disorders, and cited the welfare of children as a primary concern of the internationalist organization.
“Legalization of cannabis within these states would send wrong and confusing signals to youth and society in general, giving the false impression that drug abuse might be considered normal and even, most disturbingly, safe. Such a development could result in the expansion of drug abuse, especially among young people, and we must remember that all young people have a right to be protected from drug abuse and drug dependency,” the globalist bureaucrat said.

Yans called for the U.S. federal government to “resolve the contradiction between the federal and state levels in the implementation of that country’s obligations under the drug control conventions” and demanded it “take the necessary measures to ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties within the entire territory of the United States, in order to protect the health and well-being of its citizens.”

In other words, the United Nations insists the federal government perpetuate the destructive and expensive War on Drugs that has fostered a massive prison-industrial complex and ruined countless lives over the last few decades.

As a consequence of the War on Drugs, the prison population in the United States has quadrupled since 1980, primarily as a direct result of mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. Around half of all inmates in federal prisons are there for drug offenses and more than 45 percent of all drug possession arrests in the U.S. last year were for marijuana, according to the FBI’s annual crime report. The United Nations supports this insanity with its call for the United States to obey international drug treaties.

Marijuana legalization is a classic states’ rights and federalist issue. “States should be allowed to make a lot of these decisions,” Rand Paul said earlier this week when asked about marijuana legalization. “I want things to be decided more at a local basis, with more compassion. I think it would make us as Republicans different.”

“I think, for example, we should tell young people, ‘I’m not in favor of you smoking pot, but if you get caught smoking pot, I don’t want to put you in jail for 20 years,’” Paul said.

Fortunately, the tide is slowly turning and many states are finally realizing the War on Drugs is not only grossly unfair, but an immense waste of law enforcement resources and tax payer money.

The United Nations is attempting to insert itself in decisions made by the states and by doing so is acting to perpetuate the War on Drugs. Americans should not only ignore the United Nations and the INCB Secretariat, but the federal government as well when it comes to decisions made by citizens on the local level.

Can legalizing marijuana save California, our Republic?

by Eric Blair
Activist Post
First posted Sept. 1, 2010

America, and especially California, are in dire economic straits. Their day of fiscal reckoning is coming and it’s not going to be pretty. Consequently, it is has been suggested that something dramatic will have to happen for Congress to pass any form of relief because the American public was bitterly against the TARP and the Stimulus bill. I’m not advocating another massive bailout for the states, but it seems that if something meaningful is not done soon to restore economic viability to the United States, it will shatter into a million pieces.

Perhaps a shattering of current systems is what is needed to rebuild local economies with truly free markets.

We certainly can’t count on the anti-capitalism mega-monopolies, who have merged with Federal and state governments, to fix this mess and provide for our local well-being. The economy must grow one town, one city, and one state at a time in a free and organic way. Incidentally, our Republic was designed to allow this local freedom to govern and grow the economy as they see fit.

California has already proven that well-regulated medical marijuana markets can work. It has created jobs, business opportunities, and has helped thousands of ailing citizens who wish to have a healthier alternative to pharmaceuticals.

But many pot smokers, dealers, and growers are still considered to be criminals. Russ Belville of NORML described the current situation as follows: Most marijuana smokers, believe it or not, are healthy and aren’t comfortable spending money for a doctor to give them permission to use cannabis. Currently we face a ticket, fine, and misdemeanor drug conviction record for possession an ounce or less of cannabis. That record prevents us from getting student aid and can cost us our jobs, child custody, and housing, or if we’re on probation, our freedom. (Even if California succeeds at downgrading possession to an infraction from a misdemeanor, a $100 ticket is a lot of money to some people!) We face a felony charge if we grow even one plant at home.

Despite the Federal government’s call to halt DEA raids of medical marijuana under Barry “Bong Hit” Obama, they’ve continued to sporadically raid legal medical marijuana grow-ops and dispensaries. Prop 19 was a major battle for states’ rights as well as for individual liberty. Decriminalization of weed would be a huge blow to the Federal government — unless of course they finally realize marijuana’s time has come. It will be very interesting to see how the Feds will manage such a defeat in terms of controlling the flow of legal marijuana out of the state, and their overall approach to enforcing marijuana policy nationwide.

It seems clear that legalizing marijuana will help California’s decimated economy by creating much needed tax revenues, easing the pressure on the expensive law enforcement system, as well as likely creating a massive tourism industry. It has also been argued by the former Governor of Arizona, Gary Johnson, that legalization of marijuana will also work to reduce the violent drug wars along the Mexican border that spills deeper into the United States everyday.

 

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Boxing

The Sport of Gentlemen

Friday, November 30 – Coral Gables, Florida –

WBA light welterweight title: Joan Guzman (33-0-1, 20 KOs) vs. Khabib Allakhverdiev (17-0, 8 KOs).

Saturday, December 1 – New York, New York (SHOWTIME) –

junior middleweights: Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KOs) vs. Miguel Angel Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs).

Saturday, December 8 – Herning, Denmark –

WBA super middleweight title: Brian Magee (36-4-1, 25 KOs) vs. Mikkel Kessler (45-2, 34 KOs).

Thursday, December 13 – Kingston, Jamaica –

WBA featherweight title: Nicholas Walters (21-0, 17 KOs) vs. Daulis Prescott (26-1, 19 KOs).

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