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The Drudge Report effect: a dumpster of social engineering and mind control

by Jon Rappoport

 

In reporting on the Buffalo shooting, Drudge prints a series of headlines at the upper left of the page:

* Buffalo shooter targeted Black neighborhood…

* Was inspired by racist theory underpinning global carnage…

* Scene like Armageddon…

* Terrified shoppers jumped in freezers…

* Gov. calls for social media crackdown; ‘Instruments of evil’…

* Copycats becoming deadlier… Grim chronology…

* UPDATE: One dead, multiple injured in CA church shooting; Taiwanese congregation…

The key phrases are “inspired by racist theory underpinning,” and “social media crackdown.”

The whole point is convincing people to believe in the INCITEMENT narrative, when it comes to free speech:

“You see, we have to limit what people can post and write and say, because OTHER PEOPLE will be inspired by words to commit evil and violent crimes.”

This is the preferred method of social engineering and mind control these days.

Of course, it’s selective. No “liberal” in his right mind would suggest that leaking the Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v Wade incited people to gather at Justices’ homes to try to try to intimidate the Court. Of course not.

But racist posts online incited a white man to commit mass murder of black people in Buffalo. Sure. Right.

Taking the incitement narrative further, we’re supposed to blame the content of online racist posts for the mass murder, instead of focusing on the single shooter himself and saying he is solely responsible for the murders he committed.

Because putting responsibility on his head takes away the effect of the social engineering con.

We have to clamp down hard on social media and censor until the cows come home—to prevent mass murders. That’s what we’re supposed to believe.

Of course, any language in any context can be blamed for inciting someone else.

You write a series of tweets—and a few months later, a print-out of the tweets is found in a locker along with 6000 pages of other material; and the locker was rented by a man who just killed six shoppers in a mall—so you’re guilty of inciting.

Drudge goes for the tabloid effect. He could have posted links to any number of statements about free speech and the Constitution recently posted by authors…but where is the lurid payoff in doing that?

Here’s the picture you’re supposed to see: out there in the country, there are hundreds of men just waiting for the verbal trigger that will set them off. Without those triggers (posts, tweets), they would NEVER cause harm. It’s the triggers that are the problem. The triggers must be eliminated. Censored.

That’s what you’re supposed to see and believe, instead of realizing that a few men out there are already inclined to commit mass murder, and come hell or high water, they’ll FIND a reason to go on a rampage. And no amount of censorship will stop them.

And guess what? This is exactly the situation that applies to rabid censors. No matter what, they will find a reason to impose censorship on the population. They’ll find a reason, and it will align with their political and social agendas.

That’s called reality.

Jon Rappoport, the author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

Detox your liver with garlic, a powerful superfood

by Joanne Washburn

 

November 3, 2021 – Foods and drinks that help detoxify the body are becoming increasingly popular because of how poor the average person’s diet is. Fast food and processed foods loaded with saturated fat, added sugar and synthetic ingredients can easily overwhelm your body’s filtering organs, particularly your liver.

If toxins from those foods overwhelm your liver, you’ll experience various health problems, such as fatigue, nausea and diarrhea. In severe cases, your liver may even fail suddenly. This is known as acute liver failure, and it can cause abdominal swelling, confusion and jaundice — the yellowing of the skin and eyeballs.

Luckily, certain foods can help cleanse your liver and ensure it works properly. One such food is garlic. Any cook worth their salt knows that garlic is the ultimate seasoning. Versatile, easy to use and utterly delicious, you’d be hard-pressed to find a dish that wouldn’t benefit from a clove or two of garlic.

Garlic is a super detoxifier

Garlic has been used as a natural detoxifier for thousands of years. It doesn’t directly flush out toxins from your body. Instead, it helps increase the natural production of glutathione, an antioxidant that’s essential for healthy liver function and detoxification. It works by eliminating toxins in your liver, as well as in your kidneys.

Glutathione also helps eliminate heavy metals and environmental toxins from your body. Additionally, glutathione can protect your liver from oxidative stress, which is caused by harmful free radicals. Increased production of free radicals in the liver has been implicated in many liver diseases.

As you age, your body’s ability to produce glutathione naturally decreases. On top of that, poor lifestyle choices, such as frequently eating processed foods, smoking and drinking too much alcoholic beverages, can reduce glutathione levels in the body. One way you can increase your glutathione levels is by adding garlic to your diet.

Garlic also contains a trace mineral called selenium. Like glutathione, it also works as an antioxidant that protects your liver from toxins. Selenium is also important for other important biological functions, including immune response and thyroid hormone production.

Garlic is best enjoyed raw so that you can fully enjoy its detoxifying benefit. You should also chop or crush your garlic cloves before eating or cooking them to release their beneficial compounds.

Other benefits of garlic

Garlic is a rich source of other nutrients that support overall health, such as manganese and vitamin C. Studies show that garlic helps elevate your body’s level of the compound hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is both an antioxidant and a blood vessel relaxant that can help reduce your risk of stroke and heart disease.

Another perk of garlic is that it may help prevent unnecessary blood clotting. Powerful compounds in garlic (and onions) can decrease the “stickiness” of platelets in the blood. This also has the effect of reducing your risk of atherosclerosis, or the hardening and narrowing of your arteries. Atherosclerosis increases your risk for blood clots that can cause heart attacks and stroke.

Studies have also shown that garlic can help fight viral infections like the common cold and the flu because of a powerful compound called allicin. Allicin, which is released when garlic is crushed or chopped, can also protect against high cholesterol and diabetes.

How to prepare and cook with garlic

Garlic, a member of the onion family, is one of the most indispensable ingredients in the kitchen. It’s a bit fiery and pungent, as well as crunchy when raw. As it cooks, it gets softer and its flavor becomes more mellow.

Garlic is available year-round, so there isn’t a distinct season when it’s at its best. When shopping for garlic, opt for bulbs that are firm and plump with tight cloves. Avoid bulbs that look dry and have skin that easily falls off since those are likely old. If you cut open a clove and notice a green stem inside, this indicates that your garlic is sprouting and already past its prime.

Garlic cloves need to be peeled before being sliced or chopped. There are two easy ways to do this. The first involves placing the clove on a chopping board, placing the flat side of your knife against it and quickly pushing down with your other hand. This will crush the garlic itself and loosen its skin so that it’s easy to peel off.

The second method involves putting cloves in a mason jar. Secure the lid, then shake the jar as hard as you can. After 20 or so seconds, the cloves should have pretty much peeled themselves for you.

When chopping garlic, you’ll want to do so quickly. Dawdling means the garlic could oxidize and become bitter. Keep the slices the same thickness so that they all cook evenly.

You can add garlic to dressings, salsas and sauces or roast whole bulbs to serve with roast meat dishes. You can also add garlic to stir-fries, casseroles and soups. Foods.news.

Respect for democracy a condition for attending Summit of the Americas: US official

‘Who are we to judge?’ asks AMLO of participation by Latin American dictatorships

 

Respect for democracy is an essential condition for attendance at the Summit of the Americas, a senior United States official said Thursday.

The U.S. government appears unlikely to invite the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the ninth edition of the regional forum, which will be held in Los Angeles between June 6 and 10.

President López Obrador declared earlier this week that he won’t attend the summit unless all countries of the region are invited.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said Thursday that “Western Hemisphere leaders have placed strengthening democracy at the center of their efforts to improve the lives of the people of our hemisphere since the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994.”

Speaking virtually to the Americas Society/Council of the Americas’ 52nd Annual Washington Conference on the Americas, Nichols said that each subsequent summit “has reaffirmed our shared dedication to democracy.”

He noted that regional leaders directed the creation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter at the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. The charter was adopted by the Organization of American States (OAS) later the same year.

“In Quebec City the region’s leaders upheld the strict respect for democracy as an essential condition for participation in all future summits,” Nichols said.

“Since then any … interruption of the summit democratic order has presented an obstacle to summit participation. Democracy is vital not only to governments and leaders but to our citizens around the world and in our hemisphere in particular,” he said.

Cuba, whose OAS membership was suspended between 1962 and 2009, was prohibited from attending the first six Summits of the Americas, but sent representatives to the two most recent events in Panama in 2015 and Peru in 2018.

Nichols previously said that the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan governments have demonstrated that they don’t respect democracy and would be unlikely to be invited to the upcoming summit. He has acknowledged that United States President Joe Biden will have the final say on whether they have a seat at the table or not.

In addition to López Obrador, the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia and Honduras have called for all countries of the region to be invited to the summit as have leaders of several Caribbean nations.

Meanwhile, the Mexican president on Wednesday responded to a tweet by prominent United States-based Mexican journalist Jorge Ramos, who said that he “has every right not to go to the Summit of the Americas if he doesn’t want to but what he’s asking is that thugs, torturers, censors and oppressors be invited to the party.”

López Obrador questioned the validity of Ramos’ assertion, which he made in reference to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

“Who are we to call some people thugs, torturers and oppressors and not others? Do we consider ourselves supreme judges now? Are we going to decide about others? With what right?” the president said.

“If we enter that terrain we’ll never get out of the debate. What we seek is unity, not confrontation,” López Obrador said.

He said that Mexico is seeking an agreement so that “we all participate” in the summit, “all of America.”

“If there are differences, let them be exhibited, there should be dialogue,” López Obrador said.

“… I’ve said that no one should exclude anyone. We’re going to seek unity – unity is in our interest. That’s what politics is for, that’s what diplomacy is for,” he said.

Ramos countered that his opinion of the “brutal dictatorships” in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela is supported by “numerous reports about violations of human rights by Amnesty International and other organizations.”

“… There are hundreds and hundreds of political prisoners in Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan jails. The Mexicans must take sides but our side must be that of democracy, justice, freedoms and respect of human rights,” he said in a video message.

“Mr. President we’re still in disagreement. I believe that the thugs mustn’t go to the party.”

Mexico News Daily

1,300 have joined campaign to seek jobs in wake of invitation to doctors from Cuba

There are no jobs:’ Doctors continue to insist there is no shortage of medics

 

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

 

A week after leading medical associations rejected the federal government’s plan to hire some 500 Cuban doctors, Mexican doctors continue to insist that there is a surplus rather than a shortage of doctors.

President López Obrador announced May 9 that more than 500 Cuban doctors would come to work in Mexico “because we do not have the doctors we need.”

The heads of 30 medical colleges, associations and federations subsequently issued a statement to express their “profound disapproval” of the government’s plan, saying that it was justified by a supposed rather than real shortage of doctors.

Unemployed doctors have now launched a social media campaign to highlight that they are ready and willing to work but unable to find a job. More than 1,300 doctors have already joined the #AquiEstamos (Here We Are) campaign, according to organizers.

Its most prominent leader is Ana Cecilia Jara Ettinger, a young doctor who has been trying to find a position in the public health system for two years.

“The president of Mexico just said that we don’t have specialist doctors in Mexico and because of that we need to hire Cuban doctors,” she said in a video posted to social media.

The genetics specialist bluntly rejected the claim. “There are no jobs. There is not a single position in which I can work,” Jara said.

“This is just in genetics, the specialty of the future in the United States and Europe but in Mexico there are no jobs,” she said.

Jara, who studied medicine at the National Autonomous University and undertook research in Israel and Italy, said her fellow graduates in specialities such as gynecology and pediatrics are also unable to find work.

“The president says the jobs are in rural areas. I have a lot of friends who want to return to their cities, to their home towns to practice. Where are the jobs?” she said.

“If you say there are no doctors in Mexico I can tell you there are a lot of doctors and a lot of specialists, we’re on waiting lists for years and years to get a job,” Jara said.

She called on other unemployed doctors to join the #AquiEstamos movement.

“You can fill out the form on our webpage so the president knows where we are, how many we are, what [area of medicine] we dedicate ourselves to and where jobs are urgently needed,” Jara said. “There is talent in Mexico, of course there is. We have a lot of doctors and we are looking for work.”

Jara, who has indicated that she is prepared to leave Mexico City if she can find a job, said in a subsequent video that more than 1,300 doctors had registered – “doctors who have been waiting for a position and are willing to go and work.”

She also said the #AquiEstamos campaign has generated a lot of hate against doctors and her in particular. In a Twitter post, the doctor – daughter of former Michoacán governor Salvador Jara – rejected claims that she has links to a political party.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Jorge Alcocer echoed remarks made by López Obrador, saying that there are jobs available for doctors in rural parts of the country.

However, Mexican doctors are unwilling to work in remote areas and for that reason the government decided to hire Cubans, he said.

Alcocer said doctors cite insecurity as the main reason why they don’t want to work in rural areas of the country but claimed that they’re not interested in living in remote areas. “They’re forgetting … the right patients have to be attended to wherever they are,” he said.

Jara told the newspaper Reforma that out-of-work doctors are in fact looking for work outside major centers, but it appears that few have had any luck.

“I’ve looked in Sonora [and] in Michoacán because I’m from there,” she said. “We’ve gone to … the states, we’re not all looking to work in Mexico City, which is very saturated,” said the doctor, who claims that someone has to die or retire for a position to open up.

“… Having years of training is not a guarantee [to find a job], … there is no place for us, but there is for Cubans,” Jara said.

With reports from Reforma and Expansión Política

California may chop late fees that add hundreds of dollars to traffic tickets

by Jeanne Kuang

 

May 9, 2022 – California is poised this year to make changes to what some call “hidden” court fees, hundreds of dollars often tacked onto traffic tickets and minor violations that can increase their cost nearly tenfold. But so far, state officials disagree on how far to go.

Known as a civil assessment, the fee is imposed on hundreds of thousands of Californians as a penalty for failing to pay a ticket by a deadline or failing to appear in court on a charge.

The vast majority of the fees are issued in traffic or infraction cases. A fine can be imposed each time a deadline is missed.

A $300 maximum fine can be added for violations as minor as jaywalking and on tickets that originally cost as little as $35, according to the Debt Free Justice California, a coalition of organizations, policy experts and legal advocates opposing “unfair ways the criminal legal system drains wealth from vulnerable communities.”

California has one of the highest late fees in the nation, the coalition says. The group says the fees trap low-income Californians in a cycle of ballooning debt with the courts.

Money collected from the extra charges bolsters court coffers, leading advocates to accuse the state of paying for its judicial system by charging those who can least afford it.

The fees generate nearly $100 million annually, and the courts retain more than half.

In Riverside County, the fees that the court system kept made up 14 percent of its budget, according to a report published by the coalition this year.

The report gave as an example a San Lorenzo resident who is a CalWorks recipient and mother who could not afford to pay for traffic violations. She was charged late fees on traffic citations five times since 2009, amounting to more than $1,500 of debt, about double the cost of the original tickets.

It made her ineligible for a driver’s license for 13 years, the report said.

“They were trying to take all of this money away from us,” she said, “but we didn’t have any in the first place.”

Civil assessment fees are disproportionately borne by people of color, who are overrepresented in traffic stops compared to their share of the population, the report said.

In January advocates sued San Mateo County Superior Court challenging its practice of automatically charging the $300 maximum fee in all traffic cases with a missed deadline.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in his January budget proposed halving the fees, to a maximum of $150, and spending $50 million to backfill court budgets.

The proposal by some lawmakers and the Debt Free Justice coalition to eliminate the fees entirely could cost about twice as much. Senate leaders endorsed that plan in their budget proposals last month, as they announced an unprecedented $68 billion projected budget surplus.

Too poor for tickets

The coalition said it hopes Newsom will back full elimination of fees when he unveils his revised budget proposal this week. H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Newsom’s Department of Finance, declined to comment.

The Judicial Council, which governs the court system, has supported making changes to civil assessments. In a 2017 report a commission of courts officials recommended limiting the use of civil assessments or letting fines be converted to community service.

“We’re grateful for the efforts of both the Governor’s administration and the Legislature to reform the system and provide necessary backfill funding for the judicial branch,” said Martin Hoshino, administrative director of the Judicial Council, in an email. “We support the Governor’s proposal and are committed to working with him and with legislative leaders in the coming weeks as they finalize the state budget.”

The proposals come after the state eliminated dozens of court fines and fees over the past two years that advocates said disproportionately affected low-income criminal defendants. The state repealed such charges as the cost of a public defender, drug testing, and probation and supervision services.

Newsom also signed a law last year that limits the state’s use of wage garnishments to claw back those debts and another that expanded a pilot program allowing Californians to ask the courts to reduce ticket fines they can’t afford to pay.

Last year a bill to eliminate civil assessments passed the state Senate but was gutted in the Assembly. The Debt Free Justice coalition said at the time it couldn’t get Newsom to agree to a deal to eliminate the fees.

His administration told lawmakers the fee should be reduced but remain to motivate defendants to come to court.

“We feel the 50 percent reduction strikes a balance of providing immediate fiscal relief for all Californians and also preserving the viability of the civil assessment being used as a tool to keep individuals accountable, to compel individuals to appear in court proceedings,” Mark Jimenez, principal program budget analyst at the Department of Finance, told a Senate budget subcommittee in February.

Jimenez said the penalties are an alternative to issuing warrants to demand court attendance.

But Senators were unconvinced that the fees were an effective motivator for those too poor to pay traffic tickets.

“If they don’t have the money … how is that any incentive to come in?” said Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat representing San Jose. “You either have it or you don’t.”

The coalition surveyed 200 Californians with recent traffic citations for its report; 73 percent said they did not know they would be issued a late fee for failing to appear or to pay, and 38 percent said extra fees would not have helped them make a timely payment.

Advocates suggested text messages would be more effective at getting defendants with demanding work schedules to court.

This article is part of the California Divide project, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.

Superfood duos: Boost the bioavailability of turmeric with black pepper

Share from/by Rose Lidell

 

May 3, 2022 – Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a spice famous for its many health benefits and culinary uses. It’s also a staple herb in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The use of turmeric as medicine dates back thousands of years. Research shows that turmeric root can offer benefits for cardiovascular, immune, neurological, metabolic and even cellular health.

Additionally, turmeric supports thyroid health and promotes longevity. Turmeric’s many health-promoting qualities are due to curcumin, the active compound that gives turmeric its beautiful golden hue.

According to studies, pairing turmeric with black pepper boosts its bioavailability.

Addressing the weakness of turmeric with black pepper

While turmeric is touted for its many benefits, it has one weakness: curcumin’s poor bioavailability. This means that your body can only use a very small amount of the curcumin you consume.

And since curcumin absorption is very low, your body can’t enjoy the full benefits of the superfood. Thankfully, you can enhance the bioavailability of curcumin by combining turmeric with black pepper.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is one of the most commonly used spices on the planet. It can often be found next to salt, another common spice.

Black pepper is also known as “black gold” and “the king of spices.” When stored properly, it has a long shelf life and can retain its taste and aroma for several years.

Like turmeric, black pepper has many health benefits. The spice is often used to treat minor complaints like headaches, nausea, poor digestion and sore throat.

Black pepper’s health benefits and pungent flavor come from piperine, a natural alkaloid compound. Studies show that taking turmeric with black pepper boosts curcumin’s bioavailability by as much as 2,000 percent. This is because piperine is an efficient bio-enhancer.

You don’t need a lot of black pepper to turmeric; a pinch is enough to boost your body’s absorption of curcumin.

Potent piperine

When you consume a nutrient, your digestive system only absorbs a certain portion of it. The proportion of a nutrient that your body can digest, absorb and use corresponds to its bioavailability.

For example, the bioavailability of protein is very high and most people can use over 90 percent of the protein they consume. Once protein moves through your digestive system, your body eliminates the rest as waste.

For a nutrient to be absorbed into your body, it must first pass through a membrane in your gut and enter your bloodstream.

Large molecules have a more difficult time passing through this barrier. But since piperine can relax the intestinal membrane, it makes it easier for large molecules like turmeric to pass through.

The effect of piperine on the liver also plays an important role. As part of your normal metabolism, the liver releases UDP-glucuronic acid. Through glucuronidation, the acid bonds with other substances to make them more water-soluble and easier to excrete.

However, with turmeric, glucuronidation occurs too quickly, meaning curcumin is eliminated from your system before your body can make full use of it.

Fortunately, research has found that piperine lowers blood levels of UDP-glucuronic acid, inhibiting glucuronidation. This helps slow your liver metabolism of curcumin enough for your body to absorb the nutrient more efficiently.

The health benefits of turmeric and black pepper

As mentioned above, both turmeric and black pepper have many health benefits, and combining the two allows you to enjoy the following:

Impressive antioxidant properties

Turmeric is full of beneficial compounds with antioxidant properties. For example, curcumin is a potent antioxidant that’s 10 times more powerful than resveratrol, a well-known antioxidant in red wine.

Piperine also has impressive antioxidant properties. Piperine from black pepper helps reduce oxidative stress caused by a high-fat diet.

When you consume pepper with turmeric regularly, you reap double the antioxidant protection, which is good for your overall health.

Protection from harmful organisms

Cell culture studies show that turmeric is effective against harmful organisms. However, more research is required to determine if this effect can be replicated in the human body.

As a bioenhancer, piperine can boost these abilities and also helps fight harmful organisms.

Great liver health

Turmeric helps increase cholesterol elimination by boosting bile production in the liver. Curcumin also protects liver cells from damage caused by toxins like household chemicals, tobacco smoke, peroxide and galactosamine.

Meanwhile, black pepper helps boost the activity of glutathione, an antioxidant that protects your liver cells.

Great digestive health

In Ayurvedic Medicine, turmeric is used to naturally support digestive health. Modern studies have also confirmed that the spice helps relieve spasms and flatulence.

Both turmeric and black pepper can also boost the activity of digestive enzymes, thus promoting healthy digestion.

Relief from discomfort

Turmeric and black pepper can help relieve temporary discomfort. Specifically, piperine desensitizes a pain receptor called TRPV1. On the other hand, turmeric helps reduce occasional joint discomfort.

When combined, they also help relieve stiffness and soreness, which is why turmeric and black pepper are popular among athletes. Food.news.

18 former Zetas sentenced in 2010 massacre of 72 migrants

The convicted abductors were first arrested in 2011

 

Eighteen people convicted of the abduction of 72 migrants who were killed by the Zetas drug cartel in Tamaulipas in 2010 have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced Tuesday that a federal judge had sentenced 15 men and three women involved in the crime committed in San Fernando, a municipality south of Matamoros in the northern border state.

In August 2010, the navy found the bodies of 58 men and 14 women – mainly Central American and South Americans – on a farm after engaging in a gunfight with members of the Zetas.

Authorities were alerted to the massacre by a survivor, a migrant from Ecuador. The undocumented migrants were offered work with the Zetas but were killed when they didn’t accept, according to the Ecuadorian, who escaped after pretending he was dead.

The FGR said that the 18 people involved in the abduction of the migrants prior to their murder were all arrested in 2011. They were found guilty on charges including kidnapping, organized crime, possession of firearms and drug trafficking.

However, none was convicted of the murder of the migrants. The guilty parties received prison sentences ranging from 13 years to 58 years.

Documents made public by the Attorney General’s office in 2014 revealed that local police collaborated with organized crime in the murder of the migrants.

The presumed mastermind of the massacre, Martiniano de Jesús Jaramillo Silva, was arrested in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in 2017. However, the regional leader of the Los Zetas Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) criminal cell in Tamaulipas spent only two days behind bars before he died of kidney failure in a Mexico City hospital.

An additional 193 bodies were found in 47 clandestine graves in San Fernando in 2011. The victims – both men and women – were also killed by the Zetas.

With reports from La Razón

 

Sinaloa journalist murdered

Luis Enrique Ramírez is the ninth journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2022

 

A journalist was found dead in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on Thursday, state authorities said.

The lifeless body of Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, director of the Sinaloa-focused news website Fuentes Fidedignas and a columnist for El Debate, was found on a dirt road on the south side of the state capital.

Sinaloa Attorney General Sara Bruna Quiñónez Estrada told a press conference that the body of the 59-year-old journalist was wrapped in black plastic.

The Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that an autopsy determined that Ramírez had suffered a brain injury due to blows to the head. “There were no signs of torture, except for the blows to his head that caused his death,” it said.

The FGE said that Ramírez left his home at approximately 3 a.m. Thursday and members of his family didn’t hear from him after that. Fuentes Fidedignas reported that he was abducted near his Culiacán home.

The FGE said that an investigation into his murder had been opened and that it would consider motives related to his work as a journalist.

Ramírez, an award-winning journalist who contributed to some of Mexico’s leading newspapers during a 40-year career, received threats in 2010 and went into hiding after three of his friends were murdered. He said in a 2015 interview that he and his slain friends were all privy to sensitive information about former Sinaloa governor Mario López Valdez and ex-government secretary Gerardo Vargas Landeros, who is now mayor of Ahome, a coastal municipality in the north of the state.

Ramírez said that the threats he received came from the state government. Quiñónez Estrada noted that he had spoken of being intimidated in media interviews but had not made any complaint to the FGE.

A complaint he filed with the federal Attorney General’s Office got nowhere, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha, who took office for the Morena party in November, lamented the death of Ramírez, who he described as a friend. He said in a Twitter message that he had spoken to the attorney general and advocated an “immediate, rigorous and exhaustive investigation” into the crime.

Ramírez is the ninth journalist killed in 2022 and the 34th to be murdered since President López Obrador took office in December 2018.

With reports from Reforma

Experts: CA must act now to protect youth from social media dangers

by Chance Dorland

 

As children grow up, parents and caregivers across California face the difficult decision of how to oversee social media use. But is that decision made harder by a lack of legal protections for children in the Golden State?

Marc Berkman is CEO of the California-based nonprofit Organization for Social Media Safety. He said he believes Sacramento needs to act now to better protect youth from social media cyber-bullying, substance abuse, and even human trafficking.

“Our main legislative focus right now is on Sammy’s Law,” said Berkman. “Require social media platforms to give parents the choice to use third-party safety software, to get alerts when dangerous content comes across their child’s social media accounts.”

Berkman said the Organization for Social Media Safety has also endorsed pending legislation for better transparency in social media platforms’ terms and conditions, as well as protections against companies implementing intentionally addictive features targeted to child users.

Berkman said he has personal experience in leading for change to better protect California’s youth, helping pass a first-in-the-nation law.

“My co-founder – Ed Peisner – his 14-year-old son was brutally attacked,” said Berkman. “An associate of the attacker filmed the attack and put it up on social media. And we developed Jordan’s Law after Jordan Peisner, to deter what we now call social media-motivated violence.”

Social media reform activist Frances Haugen became a household name after turning over data from her former employer, Facebook, to the U.S. government.

In an online discussion hosted by the American Federation of Teachers, Haugen reiterated her position that Facebook, and its parent company Meta – which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms – knows the damage it is inflicting on American children, and must be held accountable.

“No one inside of Facebook came in and said, ‘This is what we want to do,'” said Haugen. “But what they did do is, they turned a blind eye. If we hold children’s toys to a product liability standard where you need to demonstrate you did safety by design, why aren’t we asking the same thing of these virtual products for children? Especially as we move into the land of the ‘metaverse.'”

Haugen – a former Facebook product manager – explained rather than acting as a mirror to reflect what’s already taking place in society, Facebook instead both amplifies certain ideas over others, and induces users to act in certain ways.

 

Literacy Programs Work to Mitigate Learning Loss from Pandemic Disruption

Suzanne Potter

Literacy programs are making headway against the learning loss associated with pandemic school disruptions, which put many students four to five months behind in reading and math.

In California, 96 percent of students saw in-person classes canceled, modified or moved online over the prior school year. Close to 40 percent of the state’s enrollment drop was in kindergarten.

Dino Pliego, director for program implementation in California for Save the Children, said the organization’s programs serve 15,500 children at 26 rural schools in the Southland.

“Our elementary school-age education programs offered during and after school strive for reading and math proficiency by the end of third grade,” Pliego explained. “Which is that critical time that children go from learning to read, to reading to learn.”

The data also showed the school disruptions were harder on some students than others. Children from minority communities were set back an average of six months, and those who come from poverty were up to seven months behind.

Shane Garver, head of education, hunger, and resilience for Save the Children, said the good news is children in literacy programs have proved very resilient.

“On average, kids in these programs have gained an additional month in reading, above and beyond a full school year’s worth of growth,” Garver reported. “So while much of the country has fallen behind in their reading ability, kids in Save the Children’s programs have actually moved ahead, working to close that achievement gap that is persistent across minority and high-poverty communities in the rural parts of the United States.”

The classes will continue even while school is out, to counteract learning loss known as the “summer slide.”

Can California Republicans win statewide again?

by Sameea Kamal and Alexei Koseff

 

Not many were fooling themselves at the California Republican Party convention: The state GOP is in dire straits.

“In case you haven’t noticed out there, we’re 0 for 8 in over 20 years,” Shawn Steel, former party chairman, told delegates Sunday. “It’s time we won statewide offices.”

But just how the party can pull itself out of its rut is less clear.

It probably didn’t help to have the distraction of U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the subject of a bombshell report just days before the convention: He was caught on tape talking to fellow Republicans about urging then-President Donald Trump to resign after the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol.

Tea Party California Caucus leader Randall Jordan said the audio showed McCarthy’s true colors: “We’ve never been a friend of Kevin McCarthy’s. He basically stands for everything Donald Trump tried to weed out of our party.”

But others including state party Chairperson Jessica Millan Patterson, a McCarthy ally, rallied behind him. “When Republicans take the House, I have no doubt that he will be the next Speaker of the House,” she told reporters.

And when McCarthy took the stage Saturday night for the convention’s keynote speech, it was to a standing ovation from about 500 delegates gathered in an Anaheim hotel ballroom. He praised Trump, blasted Democrats and the media and called for party unity.

Still, the state GOP has much bigger things to worry about than the kerfuffle of the moment. To become more relevant, California Republicans must present the right identity to voters.

Jenny Rae Le Roux, who is running for governor, said the party needs to have the message, the messenger and the money — and offer hope, not just call out Gov. Gavin Newsom for failures.

Party officials and delegates also sought to preach a message of unity, in particular: “Don’t trash other Republicans.” But divisions surfaced during the voting for official party endorsements.

Le Roux, herself, went off script, all but accusing state Sen. Brian Dahle, another candidate for governor, of trying to buy the endorsement through a campaign donation to the party from a committee controlled by his wife, Assemblymember Megan Dahle.

In the end, Le Roux didn’t even make it past the first round of balloting for the party endorsement for governor. On the fourth ballot, Dahle eked out the nod over Anthony Trimino, who had the support of party activists and who set up a boxing ring at the convention, with posters advertising his fight against Newsom. (The party did not endorse in the unsuccessful recall campaign against Newsom last September, or before the primary in 2014 or 2018, either.)

It also took multiple ballots to settle the attorney general endorsement between party factions to take on Rob Bonta, the Democrat and Newsom appointee. In the second round, Nathan Hochman passed the 60 percent threshold against Eric Early, who said it’s California Republicans’ destiny “to fight the evil woke.”

Both Hochman and Early are trying to make it through to the November general election against Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, a former Republican who is running without a party affiliation but with the support of many law enforcement groups.

Also, the party endorsed Mark Meuser in his long-shot bid to defeat U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat whom Meuser called Newsom’s “appointed puppet.” Angela Jacobs Underwood was backed in the race for lieutenant governor. Lance Christensen was endorsed for superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan race that could be decided in June. And Lanhee Chen, who promised an “audit a day” if elected controller, won the party blessing uncontested.

The party did not endorse for insurance commissioner, for treasurer or for secretary of state, though Rachel Hamm, who is backed by Trump allies and disputes that he lost in 2020, finished ahead of Rob Bernosky, a last-minute candidate supported by the party establishment, though well short of the 60 percent support needed.

Other highlights from the weekend: 

California Republicans hope that voters won’t ignore sky-high gas prices, rising inflation,  or concerns about crime and homelessness — and will blame Democrats as the party in power for not doing better. That may be their best hope of finally breaking their long statewide losing streak.

A long road back

California Republicans have been on a steep downward slide for nearly two decades, since they triumphantly recalled Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

The last GOP candidates to win statewide came just a few years later — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in 2006 — and efforts to attract major candidates who can turn around the party’s fortunes have become increasingly dire. In the past two U.S. Senate races, in 2016 and 2018, Republicans finished outside the top two in the all-party June primary and did not even make it to the November general election, while gubernatorial hopefuls now routinely lose to Democrats by 20 percentage points or more.

After the push to recall Newsom fizzled last fall, all of the leading Republicans who ran to replace him — including talk radio host Larry Elder, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and 2018 gubernatorial candidate John Cox — passed on challenging him again this year, forcing the party to start from scratch. Those who are running have little name recognition or money.

The party is also nearing irrelevance in Sacramento, where it holds fewer than a quarter of the seats in the state Legislature. And even after a handful of pickups in 2020, Republicans make up only about a fifth of California’s congressional delegation.

The debate continues over the best path forward — moderate their positions and appeal to disaffected voters turned off by Democratic excesses, or double down to whip up enthusiasm among the conservative base — though neither has managed so far to staunch or turn around the California Republicans’ long-term losses.

The question now is whether the state party will be able to capitalize on what is expected to be a strong year for Republicans across the country amid sagging approval of Democratic President Joe Biden.

Conservatives sense opportunities to defeat Bonta, as voters grow increasingly wary of crime, and win the race for controller, in which Chen, who has raised more money than any other Republican statewide candidate, is making the case that he would be an independent fiscal watchdog for the state.

Yet even those are long shots in an era where partisan affiliation has become more important to voters than ever. While the GOP is no longer trailing no party preference in voter registration, as it briefly did a few years ago, fewer than 24 percent of California voters are signed up with the Republican Party, compared to nearly 47 percent who identify as Democrats.

Jim Brulte, a former Republican legislator and party chairperson, said focusing on the GOP’s weakness in the most high-profile races overlooks a solid foundation it has built elsewhere. The party has been in a strategic retreat for nearly a decade, directing its more limited resources into key congressional and legislative districts, he said.

He compared the political environment to 2014, the last time a Democrat was in the White House and “we didn’t have a super-strong top of the ticket” — little-known Neel Kashkari ran unsuccessfully for governor against incumbent Jerry Brown.

“It was a pretty good year for Republicans in California,” Brulte said.

In 2014, the GOP flipped three seats in the Assembly and another in the state Senate, temporarily breaking Democratic supermajorities, though it made no gains in Congress and lost all statewide offices.

“We have something at the top of the ticket to drive turnout and his name is Joe Biden,” Brulte said. “Voters want a change, and Republicans are that change.”

— Sameea covers the state Capitol and California politics and is also a production assistant for CalMatters. She joined CalMatters in June 2021 from the Los Angeles Times, where she was a News Desk editor.

Alexei covers Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Legislature and California government from Sacramento. He joined CalMatters in January 2022 after previously reporting on the Capitol for The Sacramento Bee.

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