#r and the local community is where revolution begins?

[rotzaprachim]

1930′s au. Placed into deep cover as a married couple by rival revolutionary cells, agitators Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso use their central Texas farmhouse as a waystation for the rebellion, running messages, sheltering fugitives, and employing their particular pasts to secure funding. Yet trouble brews that may shake the duo from their carefully constructed veneer of normalcy, not least Cassian’s increasing interest in stepping out from the shadows to recruit local work manager Kino Loy into the rebellion itself. 

heavily inspired by damnation (2016) and fx’s the americans

[fatehbaz]

In the face of a world increasingly dominated by transitional US capital and military might, anarchists posed an alternative, egalitarian, and internationalist vision for the Americas. While Shaffer’s subjects came from and voyaged to far-flung sites in the Americas and Europe, his book focuses mainly on Cuba, Tampa, Panama, and Puerto Rico. A vibrant and expansive anarchist press connected these “nodes.”

“Between 1892 and 1929, Caribbean anarchists published over sixty newspapers and magazines” that were either entirely anarchist or that contained a strong anarchist influence (p. 31). Anarchists also published novels, plays, poetry, and short stories, producing a counterculture and “anarchist revolutionary imagination” condemning exploitation and offering internationalist, egalitarian morals (p. 275).

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As Kirwin R. Shaffer explains in his 2020 book, Anarchists of the Caribbean, anarchists had come “to see the Mexican Revolution as a step to worldwide revolution” (p. 130). Their rally cry around Mexico was just one of several internationally mobilizing causes for Caribbean anarchists in the early twentieth century. In another example, some ten thousand workers walked off the job on the US-run Panama Canal in 1916.

The Peruvian-born anarchist Víctor Recoba had founded the Maritime Workers Union, which led the strike, and its meetings were “truly transnational affairs” (p. 190). White, mestizo, and Black workers from across Europe, Latin America, and the West Indies attended, delivered speeches in Spanish and English, and read bilingual manifestos. Even the repression was an international affair. After US and Panamanian authorities collaborated to force most back to work, the Panamanian government attempted to deport the strike’s leaders -- who heralded from Costa Rica, St. Vincent, Greece, Peru, and other “underdetermined origins” -- aboard a Peruvian ship, but Peru declined to accept them and the men were scattered (p. 194). [...]

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Shaffer begins with Cuba’s final independence war, when anarchists on both sides of the Florida Straits -- and as far as Argentina, Spain, and New York -- were cautiously optimistic [...]. The anarchist-dominated Sociedad de Torcedores de Tampa’s members hailed from the US, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands, the Dominican Republic, England, and Germany (p. 76).

In many ways, Shaffer picks up where Benedict Anderson left off with his book Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination (2007), republished as The Age of Globalization. Where Anderson focuses on anarchist struggles against Spanish colonialism, with an emphasis on the Philippines, Shaffer moves the picture to resistance against rising US imperialism in the Americas. [...] This was especially true of anarchists in Tampa, who lived under the thumb of the Anglo business community and local authorities.

This discussion of early anarchist anti-imperialism is a significant contribution to the literature on radicalism in Latin America during the era Barry Carr has called “the red years of the Caribbean and Central America.” [...] But, as Shaffer details, anarchists were “the original leftists in the region,” who “established some of the first transnational anti-imperialist solidarity networks in the Caribbean years before any orders to do so arrived from Moscow” (pp. 13, 21).

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In early 1911, California-based anarchists from the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) invaded the Mexican state of Baja California and held territory there for over six months. Anarchists from across the globe heralded this opportunity [...]. The Havana-based paper ¡Tierra!, which was the heart and soul of Caribbean anarchism in the early 1910s, urged readers to send money to the PLM and support legal defense for the Flores Magón brothers, PLM leaders who sat in US prisons for violating neutrality laws. ¡Tierra!’s readers came through, and “from 1911 to 1914, efforts to raise money for Mexico usually outpaced any single Cuba-based issue” among the paper’s readers (p. 132). The money came from fifteen Cuban towns and cities, but also from the Canal Zone in Panama, Puerto Rico, and as far as Hartford, Connecticut. Around this time, in Tampa, Florida, a New York City-based anarchist named Pedro Esteve was selling copies of the PLM’s newspaper, Regeneración,and working with the group Pro-Revolución Mexicana. Caribbean anarchists did not just support the cause financially and ideologically; some took up arms in the revolution [...].

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Many of Shaffer’s Spanish-speaking Caribbean subjects did join the famous International Worker of the World (IWW, or Wobblies) and in fact played a key role in spreading IWW unionization along the East Coast. [...] Rather than focus on the amply covered US-based IWW, however, Shaffer highlights anarchist institutions indigenous to the Caribbean, especially ¡Tierra!. In operation for over a decade in the early 1900s, the Havana paper showed readers across the region that “their struggles were not isolated,” funneled money to various causes, and served to introduce prominent anarchists as they traveled (p. 122). [...] Plans for an Inter-American Continental Congress of Anarchists, to be held in Panama in November 1925, however, were foiled in the violent aftermath of a rent strike that began in the Canal Zone but spread to the republic. On October 10 that year, the police opened fire on a gathering of strikers. The next morning, Panama began deportations of the international leadership and called in US military support. [...]

In other words, Shaffer tells a story that comes full circle. US transnational military, political, and economic expansion set in motion the pathways that would facilitate anarchist travel and network building across the region. And, in turn, the repressive powers would collaborate internationally to move against the radicals. Shaffer reminds us that Charles Magoon was busy keeping anarchists out of the Canal Zone as US governor in 1905 before he was busy trying to keep them out of Cuba as governor during the 1906 US occupation. And interstate collaboration squashed plans for the anarchist congress of 1925. But the movement itself was not crushed. Anarchism held on longer in Cuba and Panama than it did in Puerto Rico and Tampa, where US authorities “used the full weight of the federal government” to uproot the movement (p. 185). [...]

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In short, Shaffer’s book is a most welcome contribution to the study of the early twentieth-century Latin American Left. His scrupulous research (he consulted archives spanning five countries!) reveals the deep transnational connections that sustained anarchism in the region while never losing sight of the particular local and national contexts in which his subjects operated. [...] Shaffer takes just as seriously the (often quite fun) literary imaginings of anarchist writers and reveals a counterculture that “had a different internationalist romance and dream for the region” (p. 289).

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Text by: Frances Sullivan. Review of Shaffer, Kirwin R., Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. January 2022. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

[richincolor]

New Releases

We're only one month into 2021, and already there are so many exciting books out... and today is no exception. Here's what's releasing tomorrow (Tuesday!):

Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her cousin-sister-friend Imani’s birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love with Tye Brown, the MC. He’s perfect, except . . . Tye is an activist and is spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. As Nala falls deeper into keeping up her lies and into love, she’ll learn all the ways love is hard, and how self-love is revolutionary.

In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful and get the attention of the hot guys, the popular girl clique is not shallow but has strong convictions and substance, and the ultimate love story is not only about romance but about how to show radical love to the people in your life, including to yourself. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. Smart, kind, and pretty, she dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang’s traditional values, especially when it comes to dating.

The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston’s popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition to prove to her mom that she’s more than her rebellious tendencies once and for all. But when Liza arrives on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there’s a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date.

The bachelorette situation Liza has found herself in is made even worse when she happens to be grudgingly attracted to one of the contestants; the stoic, impenetrable, annoyingly hot James Wong. As she battles against her feelings for James, and for her mother’s approval, Liza begins to realize there’s no tried and true recipe for love. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.

But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.

A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant.

He’s ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected…in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael. And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. And they’ve tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.

Andre splits his time bouncing between the past and future. Between Michael and Blake. Michael is everything Andre wishes he could be, and Blake, still reeling from the death of his brother, Andre’s donor, keeps him at arm’s length despite their obvious attraction to each other.

Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs—and more importantly who he wants to be—before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

The Obsession (The Obsession #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto Nobody knows Delilah like Logan does. Nobody. He makes sure of it by learning everything he can through her social media and watching her through a hidden camera he has trained on her house. Some might call him a stalker. Logan prefers to be called “romantic.”

But after Logan sees Delilah killing her abusive stepfather, he realizes there’s still more about her to discover. His sweet, perfect Delilah isn’t so perfect after all. Delilah knows she should feel guilty, but all she feels is free. She’s so over the men in her life controlling her. Except Logan saw what she did, and he won’t let her forget it. Delilah is done being the victim. And she refuses to be a character in Logan’s twisted fantasy. If Logan won’t let her go… she’ll make him. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Muted by Tamil Charles For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.

So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean “Mercury” Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights — plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.

Until they’re not. Denver begins to realize that she’s trapped in Merc’s world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.

Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl’s dreams can be used against her — and what it takes to fight back. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her white suburban town, which feels both dangerous and familiar. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself.

Until she doesn’t. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry.

This book is a story of mothers and daughters, of friends and enemies, of journeys and homecomings, and of realizing that sometimes the person you’re meant to be has been staring at you in the mirror all along. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

[comradeowl]

Commmunist Reading List

I’ve already made a post regarding Youtubers focusing on socialism and communism. I figured I’d also post a list of books regarding where we should begin. Now, you can try and find a local copy at a used bookstore or you can go to Marxists.org which has a trove of essays and books. Here we go.

The Principles of Communism by Frederick Engels. It’s short and sweet, a very good introduction that you can finish in thirty minutes to an hour.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. Another good one you can get through in a day or two. 

State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin. This is THE book to understanding state power. Lenin’s critique is powerful and his humor shines through as much as his scathing analysis of opportunists and revisionists who vulgarize Marxism.

The Foundations of Leninism by Joseph Stalin. It’s dry and very matter-of-fact. However, Stalin’s arguments for organizing and building a revolutionary party are worth reading. Mind you, we are in the 21st century and we can adapt his lessons for the times.

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Frederick Engels. It’s a condensed pamphlet of Engel’s Anti-Duhring. It brings up concepts that are the key tools of Marxists: early-socialist thought, historical materialism & dialectical philosophy. It deserves several re-readings, but is worth the time.

Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin. This short book describes the function of financial capital in generating profits from imperialist colonial projects. Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth is a must-read in regard to the damages of colonialism on the oppressed subjects.

The German Ideology by Marx and Engels. This book provides the framework in which the duo explored a framework for understanding history and society. 

What is to Be Done by Vladimir Lenin. This is where Lenin argues that only a unified socialist movement can carry out the revolution. In particular, his arguments on the short-falls of trade-unionism which earns paltry bargains from above that can be taken away every other election year.

Das Kapital is the later reading. I’d recommend finding Youtubers to explain this, because I still haven’t gotten to it myself. I’m past the Manifesto, Principles of Commmunism and S & R. There’s still so much to learn! It’s quite fun.

I’ll also post other authors later on. Writers, activists and such who were influenced by Marxism. Sadly, these people have fallen out of the public knowledge. Their work is still high-quality in this day and age. Getting out word of their work is the least that can be done.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.23

229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu. 1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships. 1280 – The Spanish Reconquista: In the Battle of Moclín the Emirate of Granada ambush a superior pursuing force, killing most of them in a military disaster for the Kingdom of Castile. 1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge. 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins. 1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the "Treaty of Closer Amity With France" (also known as the Pommeraye treaty), pledging mutual aid against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. 1565 – Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Great Siege of Malta. 1594 – The Action of Faial, Azores. The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board. 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again. 1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. 1713 – The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey. 1758 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: British, Hanoverian, and Prussian forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeats Prussia. 1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township). 1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kyiv. 1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company. 1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war. 1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office. 1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army. 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer". 1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park. 1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. 1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta. 1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire. 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia. 1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam. 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane. 1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States. 1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city. 1940 – Henry Larsen begins the first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later. 1942 – World War II: Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales. 1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act. 1951 – The ocean liner SS United States is christened and launched. 1956 – The French National Assembly takes the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa. 1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career. 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world. 1961 – The Antarctic Treaty System, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and limits military activity on the continent, its islands and ice shelves, comes into force. 1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference. 1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. 1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry. 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about illegally using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins. 1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale. 1985 – A terrorist bomb planted by Canadian Sikh militants known commonly as Khalistanis explodes at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. An hour later, the same group detonates a second bomb aboard Air India Flight 182, bringing the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard. 1991 – Sonic the Hedgehog is released in North America on the Sega Genesis platform, beginning the popular video game franchise. 1994 – NASA's Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the International Space Station, officially opens at Kennedy Space Center. 2001 – The 8.4 Mw  southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, and 2,687 injured. 2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials. 2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope. 2013 – Militants storm a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, killing ten climbers and a local guide. 2014 – The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction. 2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%. 2017 – A series of terrorist attacks take place in Pakistan, resulting in 96 deaths and wounding 200 others. 2018 – Twelve boys and an assistant coach from a soccer team in Thailand are trapped in a flooding cave, leading to an 18-day rescue operation.

[science-criticaltheory]

Can Progressives Turn Iowa Blue? by Michael Sainato

Largely inspired by Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential Campaign and his formidable showing in Iowa against Hillary Clinton, high profile progressive organizations are beginning to put resources and endorsements behind progressive candidates in Iowa in hopes that they can turn the state blue by offering voters an alternative to both establishment Democrats and Republicans.

Historically a swing state, Iowa has trended away from Democrats over the past decade, with Republicans holding the state’s governorship, majorities in the State House and Senate, both U.S. Senate seats, and three out of four of the state’s congressional seats. Trump won the state in the 2016 Presidential election with the help of a decrease in voter turnout after the state voted for Obama in 2012 and 2008.

The Democratic Party in Iowa, like across the country, is still reeling from the shock of Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. Progressives feel that the Democratic Party establishment has let them down repeatedly, and turned off voters from supporting candidates up and down the ballot.

Now progressive candidates are starting to receive substantial backing from national organizations for their political campaigns in Iowa. On December 8, 2017 National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the United States, formally endorsed Cathy Glasson, a Democrat candidate for Iowa’s Governor race in 2018.

“It's very clear that we need something dramatically different in politics here in Iowa,” said Glasson in an interview with the Real News Network. A nurse herself, Glasson is President of SEIU Local 199 who was inspired to run for office in part due to the anti-union efforts and minimum wage reductions Iowa Republicans have made while in power. She’s running on a $15 minimum wage, Medicare for All, and a moratorium on the growth of factory farms until Iowa’s waterways are cleaned up.

“Moving to the center is a losing strategy in 2018,” Glasson said. “We're doing movement politics where we're engaging Iowans that have lost faith in politics to get them reinvigorated, energized and willing to wait in line at the polls again.”

National Nurses United also endorsed Pete D’Alessandro’s campaign for congress in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District against Rep. David Young (R-IO). D’Alessandro was Bernie Sanders’ first campaign staffer in Iowa during Sanders’ 2016 Presidential bid. The district swung from supporting Obama in 2008 and 2012 to Trump in 2016.

In 2016, Tim Kacena, one of the first candidates to receive an endorsement from Bernie Sanders’ organization Our Revolution, wonhis election for State Representative in Iowa’s 14th Assembly District. Our Revolution recently endorsed former Bernie Sanders staffer Pete D’Alessandro for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, as the organization’s first 2018 congressional endorsed candidate.

On October 17, 2017 Justice Democrats, an organization founded by former Bernie Sanders staffers, formally endorsed their first Iowa candidate, Courtney Rowe, who is running for congress in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.

“Iowans want a Representative they can contact and who will respond. Someone they feel is a real member of their community, who shows up and is accessible,” Rowe said in an interview with the Real News Network, arguing that rural areas are often ignored by politicians, especially the grassroots activists in these areas. “Sometimes we write off an area too early. Votes count the same wherever you get them within your district. The Democrat or progressive in a rural area, is just as important as one in the city.”

[stopkingobama]

TREASON: This CIA vet details how foreign enemies are pouring millions into US liberal groups

Some environmental activists who pressure politicians to halt production of natural gas are acting as “agents of influence” on behalf of the Kremlin and Russian energy interests, according to a retired CIA officer’s analysis of the money trail.

As they lead the charge against two natural gas pipelines, activists allied with a statewide group called Virginia Organizing advance Russia’s geopolitical ambitions at the expense of U.S. energy independence, 29-year CIA veteran Kenneth L. Stiles told The Daily Signal.

Two of these local environmental groups “are, without a doubt, agents of influence to Moscow through [a] networking system of shell companies and foundations,” Stiles said.

Russia’s incentive in what some see as actual collusion with well-funded, liberal environmental groups in the United States isn’t difficult to understand, Stiles argues, since American natural gas development affects the profitability of Gazprom, a large Russian oil and gas company.

With the public comment period open for one of the Virginia pipeline projects, Mountain Valley, local activists’ relationship with Virginia Organizing Inc. and the covert support the larger group receives from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government deserve greater scrutiny, Stiles said.

“People must understand that this is not just a local issue,” he said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Geopolitically, this is Putin’s Moscow attempting to thwart America’s efforts to gain energy independence and dominance and to help our allies get from underneath Putin’s energy boot.”

Stiles singles out Preserve Montgomery County and Friends of Nelson County, two groups affiliated with Charlottesville-based Virginia Organizing, through which all donations to either flow.

Virginia Organizing describes itself as a “nonpartisan, statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives.”

Preserve Montgomery County, based in Blacksburg, Virginia, was formed “to unite citizens” in opposition to “the intrusion” of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, according to the organization’s website, and to “work in cooperation with other regional groups to fight the pipelines and their assault on the environment.”

Under the heading “No Fracked Gas Pipelines,” a section of the website addresses environmental concerns about the process of hydraulic fracturing, widely known as fracking, to reach oil and natural gas.

Preserve Montgomery County calls on local residents to become “intervenors” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to block the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Nellysford-based Friends of Nelson County, meanwhile, targets theAtlantic Coast Pipeline.

Stiles, 58, who joined Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 2011 after leaving the CIA, said he sees an unsavory connection between anti-pipeline campaigns in his home state and top Russian officials.

He said the Kremlin has a vested interest in undermining a “natural gas revolution” in America that also could free Europe from its reliance on Russian energy.

Russian Money Behind Green Groups

As The Daily Signal previously reported, congressional investigators with the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology uncovered evidence that Russia is conducting what they call a “propaganda war against fossil fuels” by covertly funding U.S. environmental groups.

This covert funding, the investigators argue, is part of an elaborate scheme to turn American public opinion and public policy against fracking techniques that make it possible to extract natural gas.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the House committee’s chairman, and Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, chairman of its energy subcommittee, sent a letter June 29 to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking him to “conduct a full and complete investigation” into the money trail connecting Putin’s government with U.S. environmental activists accused of spreading “disinformation” about fracking and natural gas.

Russia and its partners in Bermuda, identified in the letter, could be in violation of federal statutes “pertaining to agents of foreign governments or those lobbying on behalf of domestic and foreign interests,” Smith and Weber wrote to Mnuchin.

The Russians “executed a political agenda with little or no paper trail,” the letter explains, by using a Bermuda-based shell company, Klein Ltd., “to funnel tens of millions of dollars” to a San Francisco-based nonprofit called the Sea Change Foundation that focuses on climate change.

The Sea Change Foundation then moves the money in the form of grants to other nonprofit environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.

The letter from the House committee cites a July 2014 report from the Republican staff of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that unpacks the Sea Change Foundation’s donations to other groups.

Republicans regained control of the Senate three months later, and with Donald Trump’s election as president, House Republicans now see a way to get traction on the issue.

“I have asked Secretary Mnuchin to track a pattern of international money flowing into the U.S., and the Treasury Department is well positioned to gather facts and review findings through the lens of U.S. laws,” Smith said in an email to The Daily Signal. “We cannot allow foreign interests to deliberately manipulate our energy industry, and the American people deserve to know the truth about the foreign money.”

The Treasury Department did not respond to The Daily Signal’s questions about the status of its reply to the House committee’s letter, and whether it would begin an investigation.

The Money Trail

One challenge for the Treasury Department in tracking the money trail is that Klein Ltd., the shell company in Bermuda that gives to the Sea Change Foundation, isn’t required to disclose the identity of its own donors or their countries of origin, Stiles said.

The Russian connection with Klein, and from there to Virginia, comes in the form of Bermuda-based law firm Wakefield Quin, which was instrumental in Klein’s formation in March 2011. The law firm shares the same address with Klein and 20 other companies, congressional investigators determined.

Klein contributed a total of $23 million to Sea Change by 2011, according to IRS Form 990 records cited in the House committee’s letter, almost half the contributions it received in that period. Sea Change in turn would give hundreds of thousands of dollars to Virginia Organizing.

Wakefield Quin’s top lawyers and administrators have held what the lawmakers’ letter to the treasury secretary describes as “directorship positions” with an investment group owned by Leonid Reiman, “a Russian minister of telecommunications and a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

Virginia Organizing, founded in 1995, figures prominently in the 2014 Senate committee staff report, which says it isn’t a genuine grassroots group because it is funded by foundations from outside the state, such as Sea Change, that donate millions to progressive causes.

The Sea Change Foundation gave $300,000 to Virginia Organizing in both 2010 and 2011, according to the report. The organization’s total budget today is about $1.3 million.

Sea Change gave a total of $2 million to Virginia Organizing from 2008 to 2012, in particular to “educate the public about climate and clean energy,” according to records provided to The Daily Signal by the Capital Research Center, a Washington-based think tank that tracks causes on the left.

Since Preserve Montgomery County and the Friends of Nelson County are identified as partners of Virginia Organizing, Stiles warns, both anti-pipeline groups either knowingly or unknowingly operate as “agents of influence” on behalf of the Russians—and Putin in particular.

‘Not Just a Local Issue’

Environmental activists in Virginia and other parts of the United States argue that hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or natural gas is inherently dangerous and leads to water contamination, although scientific studies show otherwise.

The fracking technique is applied to shale formations. Engineers inject water mixed with sand and chemicals into a well at high pressure, producing a fluid that fractures the rock and releases previously trapped oil or natural gas.

The U.S. energy industry has used fracking for several decades. What’s new is the combination with precision directional drilling, allowing workers to drill horizontally.

If approved, the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline would originate in the northwestern part of West Virginia and run about 303 miles underground into southern Virginia. The Atlantic Coast project, which isn’t as far along in the approval process, would originate in West Virginia and run 600 miles underground across Virginia into North Carolina.

“Regardless of where funding [for pipeline opponents] is coming from, it goes without saying that these energy projects will increase economic development and open up opportunities for Americans,” Katie Tubb, a policy analyst for energy and environmental issues at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

“Fracking is routinely accomplished safely,” Tubb said. “The U.S. is rich in energy—making the most of it is good for the U.S. and her allies, as it limits a country like Russia from using energy supply as political leverage.”

Stiles said Russia also stands behind similar anti-fracking and anti-pipeline campaigns across America, a point also made in the House committee’s letter to the treasury secretary.

“People must understand that this is not just a local issue,” Stiles told The Daily Signal, adding:

Geopolitically, this is Putin’s Moscow attempting to thwart America’s efforts to gain energy independence and dominance and to help our allies to get from underneath Putin’s energy boot.

This covert support for anti-franking and anti-pipeline groups is a form of espionage. These groups are agents of Moscow. If we export natural gas and coal to our allies, Russia can no longer blackmail the Western democracies. These ‘grassroots’ organizations are doing Putin’s bidding—they are colluding with Moscow, the Russian oligarchs, and Putin against America’s interests and our freedom.

Obscuring the Money Trail

By design, there is little public information about the Sea Change Foundation because the organization “tries to hide its sources of money, as well as its contributions,” Stiles said.

The effort at concealment cuts both ways, he said, because environmental and other left-leaning groups that receive funding from Sea Change also “attempt to hide any connection to Sea Change.”

For example, the Energy Foundation, a public charity based in San Francisco that is the “largest recipient of grants” from Sea Change, doesn’t list it as a partner, according to the Senate staff report cited by Smith and Weber.

Information about Sea Change is limited to IRS Form 990s and what Stiles describes as the group’s “sparsely worded website.” The fact that Sea Change doesn’t accept unsolicited proposals for funding suggests it strives to avoid scrutiny, the former CIA analyst said.

The apparent subterfuge does not end there.

Virginia Organizing’s website identifies both Preserve Montgomery County and Friends of Nelson County as partners, and the anti-pipeline groups reciprocate on their websites.

Stiles notes that would-be donors can’t contribute directly to the anti-pipeline groups. Instead, their websites direct visitors to send checks to Virginia Organizing, here and here.

“I find it interesting that Preserve Montgomery County—which is supposed to be a local grassroots organization—can set up a Blacksburg P.O. box, but not open a checking account at the bank here to support this local effort,” Stiles said.

“The bank is across from the post office, so I don’t understand why [Preserve Montgomery County’s] money is moved through an out-of-town entity,” he said, referring to Virginia Organizing. “Maybe it’s a legal thing? Or is some of the money supporting Virginia Organizing and not solely [Preserve Montgomery’s] operations?”

Limited Responses

In response to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on these and other questions, Virginia Organizing’s chairman, Del McWhorter, said by email, “We have no comment on any of these allegations or your reporting.”

McWhorter added:

We received money from Sea Change almost a decade ago to support our efforts to inform people about climate science. The foundation no longer supports us, and our record as a grassroots organization needs neither quotes nor embellishment.

The Daily Signal also invited leadership of the Sea Change Foundation to comment on funding linking it with the Russian government, as noted in the congressional documents, but did not receive a response by publication deadline.

The Sea Change Foundation did, however, respond to the House committee’s letter to Mnuchin in comments to reporter Matthew Sheffield for a story published by Salon.

In an email to Sheffield, Sea Change acknowledged receiving $23 million in grants from Klein Ltd. in the 2010 -2011 period. However, Sea Change said those millions represented “general support” and were not specifically required to be used as part of an anti-fracking campaign.

Friends of Nelson County, which opposes the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment.

In response to The Daily Signal’s inquiries to Preserve Montgomery County, which opposes the Mountain Valley Pipeline, someone identifying himself or herself as the group’s treasurer said in an email that the group doesn’t receive direct support from the Sea Change Foundation.

“Your information is not correct,” the person, who declined to identify himself or herself, wrote. “To my knowledge, PMCVA [Preserve Montgomery County] has not received any grant funding from Sea Change Foundation.”

Asked how Preserve Montgomery County could say it isn’t connected with or supported by Sea Change while a partner with Virginia Organizing, which received money from the San Francisco foundation, the person wrote:

Yes, we are partnered with Virginia Organizing. But all of the funds in our account with Virginia Organizing have come from local individual donations and local fundraising. We have received no funds from other organizations affiliated with Virginia Organizing. I am not the official spokesperson for the group, but will pass your questions on to others.

The Daily Signal received no further comment from Preserve Montgomery County as of publication deadline.

A Covert Economic Campaign

Stiles now teaches about espionage and national security issues as part of Virginia Tech’s geography department (his expertise includes geographic information systems analysis and remote sensing). He told The Daily Signal that he defines espionage as “an operation that is planned and executed as to conceal the identity of, or permit plausible denial by, the sponsor.”

Espionage is “intended to create a political effect upon an adversary,” the CIA veteran added. “Covert operations aim to secretly fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation.”

There is “no question,” he said, that Russia’s efforts to undermine natural gas development in the U.S. is “a form of espionage” made possible with “agents of influence.”

Two anti-pipelines groups in Virginia, whether they realize it or not, “are working against American energy independence … and for Putin’s effort to maintain Russia’s energy leverage,” CIA veteran Ken Stiles says.

Three types of “agents of influence” typically work under the direction of a foreign government’s case officer, who tells them what intelligence to gather or steal, Stiles said.

The first type, a “controlled agent,” knowingly works for a foreign entity but rather than steal secrets tries to influence his country’s public policy. Harry Dexter White, an economist and top Treasury Department official in the 1940s, is an example: White, who also knowingly passed secrets to the Soviet  Union, tried to convince U.S. policymakers to provide interest-free loans to the Soviets to help them rebuild after World War II.

The second type, a “trusted contact,” knows he or she is helping a foreign source, but isn’t necessarily gaining from it personally. The person shares the goals of the foreign entity and is willing to help achieve them.

And the third type, a “manipulated source,” has no idea he is working for a foreign country.

“Preserve Montgomery County and Friends of Nelson County are, without a doubt, agents of influence to Moscow through this networking system of shell companies and foundations,” Stiles said, adding:

Do they know that? Probably not, so they are probably a manipulated source. But make no mistake. Both groups are working against American energy independence [or] dominance and for Putin’s effort to maintain Russia’s energy leverage.

Threat to Energy Independence

What about Virginia Organizing, which processes donations to the two local groups in the state?

“I don’t know where they fit in, because they are knowingly getting money from Sea Change,” Stiles said. “They’ve got to know something about this donor.”

The Senate staff report low-balled the amount of money Virginia Organizing has received from the shadowy Sea Change Foundation, based on the $2 million in donations documented by the Capital Research Center.

“When a big chunk of a supposedly local group’s funding comes from out of state—or from overseas—it is really, really hard for a group to call itself a grassroots organization and be taken seriously,” Matthew Vadum, senior vice president of the center, told The Daily Signal in an email. “The more fitting descriptor is ‘astroturf,’ and left-wing groups dependent on it are more like mercenary armies of social justice warriors.”

Other left-leaning contributors to Virginia Organizing, Vadum noted, include Tides Foundation and Tides Center ($1.26 million), the Kendeda Foundation ($4.66 million), the Marisla Foundation ($3.58 million), and the Kresge Foundation ($1.32 million).

Stiles said the evidence shows anti-pipeline and anti-natural gas activists are colluding with Russia, even if unknowingly, to “thwart American energy independence” and “prevent America’s allies from becoming independent from Russian energy.”

“We need to raise awareness about the local fallout and the geopolitical ramifications,” the retired CIA officer said.

In a 2015 report on free trade in energy resources, Heritage Foundation researchers wrote:

Providing more energy choices to both producers and consumers will generate jobs, expand the economy, and provide important geopolitical benefits to the rest of the world by increasing global energy supplies and reducing the ability of any one nation or organization to use its control of energy resources for strategic purposes.

U.S. natural gas development not only threatens profits at Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas giant, but Moscow’s influence in places like Poland, Ukraine, and the Middle East, Stiles stresses:

“If the current American energy revolution in natural gas and oil continues, the U.S. will surpass all countries in energy production,” he said, adding:

Through exports to our allies in Europe and elsewhere in world, those countries will no longer be reliant on Moscow or the Middle East. This will prevent Moscow from being able to force its will on Europe by using oil and natural gas as a blackmail tool, should Warsaw or Kyiv undertake some political action which Putin dislikes.

With the downturn in energy prices, due to America’s increased production, Russia’s income from oil and gas has declined. This adversely affects Moscow’s ability to pay for its military expansion into the Middle East and its combat role in Syria, as well as its support to Iran and other anti-U.S. nations. Thus, just as Reagan forced the collapse of the Soviet Union with the arms race of the 1980s, we can topple Putin’s expansion dreams by collapsing the energy market.

Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.  Report by Kevin Mooney. Originally published at The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: Kevin Mooney has done work for the Capital Research Center, an organization whose work is cited in this article.

[rulystuff]

https://servicemeltdown.com/globalization-an-anti-democratic-nightmare-in-the-making/

New Post has been published on https://servicemeltdown.com/globalization-an-anti-democratic-nightmare-in-the-making/

Globalization: An Anti-Democratic Nightmare in the Making

Editor’s note: The current demagoguery in the hands of globalists takes the ugly form that a citizen who believes in national borders and national priorities cannot be a good citizen – that he is a fascist some claim. We need to be reminded that the American revolution was a nationalist uprising which few would call fascist. The current sophistry in the hands of globalists belies that a citizen who is devoted to his homeland and who places the interests of his nation-state as the top priority can exist, at the same time, with a world view that is tolerant and respectful of those beyond his borders. Furthermore, to be respectful of global interests is not to suggest that those that can afford it should be forced to open their pocketbooks to fix all of the world’s ills. That suggestion is impudent and a sleight-of-hand by globalists whose own personal agendas for control stand to be upended by the rights and privileges of sovereign states. Simply stated, globalism is imperialism in sheep’s clothing. What other conclusion is there to be had when an international organization made up of unelected bureaucrats imposes its will on the citizens of member nations? That supranational organizations are anti-democratic is a statement of fact and not of ideology.

Globalists purposely conflate political globalization with its clear and direct threat to the sovereignty of nations with economic globalization which, in the main, works best when allowed to function in accordance with free-market forces. The reason for the masquerade is clear: globalists reckon that political globalization has an increased chance of coming to pass if global trade is so inextricably woven that only the supranational organization can referee its smooth sailing.

Supporters of globalization argue that the world is facing a historical inevitability: a stage that all nations must experience as they are swept away by the inexorable forces of modernity. This so-called inevitability theory is a slick rhetorical attempt to stifle debate before it has begun in earnest not in elite circles, where it is fashionable to abide the theology of globalization, but in town halls, factory floors, and chambers of congress.

Trade globalization or economic globalization has a historical cyclicality that dispels its presumed inevitability. Beginning in the middle to the late nineteenth century there have been significant oscillations in world trade using total exports as a percentage of world GDP as a barometer. To underscore this cyclicality, one has only to look at the level of trade that was conducted as the nineteenth century drew to a close to realize that such a level of trade was not seen again until the late nineteen sixties.

Globalization gets a lot of oxygen from proponents of free trade because a concept which implies freedom must obviously represent goodness for all of humankind. America’s historical experience with economic globalization, however, is decidedly different as the nation has racked up an accumulated trade deficit of approximately $10 trillion during the last four decades. Tragically, millions of workers have lost their jobs during that time, in effect, financing the trade deficit while one administration after another in Washington turned the other cheek to our trading partners who excelled at cheating through currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, import tariffs, dumping of commodities at less than cost, and prohibited commercial activities.

The current clamor which has accompanied President Trump’s imposition of import tariffs on certain goods and commodities as presaging a “trade war” is disingenuous if a thinly veiled political bias against the President. To the best of my knowledge, there was no such uproar as the nation was being pummeled by one-way trade deals by friends and foes alike for decades. In effect, we have long been in a trade war albeit with one hand tied behind our backs. The trade imbalance with China is especially appalling. Of the $10 trillion trade deficit the United States has racked up, better than 50% or $5.2 trillion comes courtesy of China. And, for those who argue that import tariffs are, in effect, a tax on U.S. citizens they need to sharpen their pencils. The millions of jobs lost, the depression of wages, the thousands of factory closures, the contraction of R&D, and the export of capital due to the nation’s trade imbalance has saddled citizens with a tax that makes the effect of import tariffs miniscule by comparison.

Cheerleaders for “free trade” need to be reminded that Japan would not be where it is today, sporting its global manufacturing prowess, if it had not booted American automobile manufacturers out of the country in 1939 – ostensibly for reasons of national security – so that the government could protect and finance its fledging auto industry.

According to economist Ha-Joon Chang in his book, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and The Secret History of Capitalism, “…had the Japanese government followed the free-trade economists back in the 1960’s, there would have been no Lexus automobile.” Toyota Corporation as well, added Mr. Chang, might have been wiped out had it followed the free traders’ advice. Automobile import prohibitions remained in place in Japan until October, 1965. Clearly, Japan was more interested in protecting its automobile industry than in practicing “free trade.”

Another bad Samaritan is China. It is estimated that China purloins roughly $50 billion of intellectual property from the United States through counterfeiting, outright theft, and by pressuring American companies desirous of selling their products in China to share their technology with state-sponsored Chinese companies. In a feeble attempt to justify their piracy, the China Ministry of Commerce alleges that China is still a “developing” country. Adding to China’s protectionism is a list of hundreds of products which are banned from importation including stethoscopes, refrigerators, digital cameras, video games, and television sets. And, it isn’t just products that are proscribed. On the internet front, China has built yet another Great Wall to keep companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube from operating in the country. This Wall doesn’t just aid and abet China’s censors but it limits foreign competition so that homegrown companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent can thrive in monopolistic markets. Again, so much for free trade.

WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE TO WHOM?

The globalization conceit held by world leaders in and out of government should sound an alarm to those who believe in the sanctity of democratic processes. Put simply, globalization and democracy are hardly fraternal twins. Globalists believe that globalization’s ugly side, lower wages, lost jobs, shuttered factories or devastated communities is the result of there not being enough global governance to channel all of the good that derives from globalization. And besides, globalists say, any discomfort is strictly temporary. As Mr. Pascal Lamy, former Director of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in a recent address, “The future lies with more globalization, not less…”

The hubris of a technocrat like Mr. Lamy is lamentable but it must be rebuffed. The French – who do not want to be “out-globalized” by the Germans – are talking about bringing Europe closer “together” by harmonizing fiscal policies, setting a minimum wage in every country, and by establishing a European Union (EU) zone budget run by a finance czar.

Globalization undermines local and national boundaries thus ceding political sway to the unelected officials of supranational organizations such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations, and the EU. And, make no mistake about the fact that globalists know perfectly well that to achieve their coveted “Global Neighborhood” they need to first achieve a global economy.

It is clear that no political actor is further removed from serving citizen voters – the legions of coal miners, fishermen, tobacco growers, and grape pickers – than the self-dealing bureaucrat whose loyalty, first and foremost, is to a soulless supranational organization. Yet it is the citizen voter who by the sweat of his brow finances the mammoth spending budgets of supranational institutions. The European Parliament is notable for its excesses as it operates out of three separate locations: Brussels, Luxembourg, and Strasbourg, France. Each month over 750 MEP’s – Members of the European Parliament – travel between Brussels and Strasbourg while schlepping their banker’s boxes full of documents at a cost to taxpayers of over $100 million a year. Incidentally, for all of the sermonizing by the French government against nationalist/populist movements across the continent and the United States, what are the chances that the French would agree to shut down the Strasbourg parliament location in the interest of fiscal prudence and global harmony? As a further slap to the face of the citizen voters of Europe much of the lawmaking by Parliament is done clandestinely: to speed up the process the parliamentarians protest!

According to recent statistics, the European Union budget is roughly a gargantuan $173 billion – of that total, the EU states, 6%, or $10 billion is spent for administrative purposes; The World Bank’s spending budget comes in at $4 billion; the IMF’s, a miserly $1 billion. The scale of these numbers is understandable when one considers that the headcount at the European Union is roughly 50,000, at the World Bank 10,000, and at the IMF nearly 3,000.

Many of these bureaucrats are hardly selfless civil servants as corruption runs rampant across many of these institutions. The Oil-for-Food Program of the United Nations, the inception of which was overseen by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, lost nearly $2 billion to corruption. In the end, not even the Secretary General nor his family members could escape culpability from the scandal. At the World Bank, somehow $2 billion in cash was misplaced – a computer glitch the Bank alleges. But that is peanuts compared to the $100 billion that Northwestern University Professor Jeffrey Winters’ research shows was squandered by the Bank – directly or indirectly – over time due to corruption. And, according to Professor Winters only about seventy cents of every dollar of loan funds makes its way to the destitute and poor who need the aid the most.

Exorbitant costs, bloated bureaucracies, corruption, secret balloting, and no accountability to a sovereign nation: welcome to globalization. And it isn’t just the bureaucrats with their hands in the till as ambassadors, heads of state, diplomats, and others are deeply enmeshed in supranational negotiations and decision making.

President Trump’s opposition to the funding shenanigans of supranational organizations – Mr. Trump has taken special aim at the U.N. and NATO – and by extension his animus toward unfair trade deals such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Paris Climate Accord, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has globalists in a catatonic state because they have lost the historical obsequiousness of the world’s leading provider.

GLOBALIZATION AT WORK: THE GREEK EXPERIENCE

The EU represents the most aggressive attempt to integrate sovereign states into a supranational body. The original visionaries of the European Union, World War II German militarists, academics, and industrialists, were determined to prolong the Reich albeit in an economic incarnation. In this, they were supremely successful as they found a way to win the peace albeit having lost the war. New wealth and markets were indeed found for German products but at the expense of the livelihoods of millions of European citizens in less developed areas of the continent.

Greece stands out as a tragic example of a nation that has gotten sideways with the totalitarian practices of the European Union. As a member state of the Eurozone – one of nineteen European countries trading in the Euro currency – Greece has been humiliated for running afoul of the European Union’s dictates. In the aftermath of the financial meltdown of 2008 non-market solutions were brought to bear to deal with the crisis. The Troika of supranational organizations – the European Central Bank, the IMF, and the World Bank – forced severe, if not punitive, structural reforms on Greece which have proved counterproductive and which almost guarantee that the nation will never be able to repay its debt of approximately $400 billion. In ironic contrast, as I point out in my later essay, Germany Has Welched on its Moral Obligations Before, the Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dimitris Mardas, has calculated that Greece is owed about $305 billion in World War II reparations by the Germans.

The Troika’s measures have clearly compromised the nation’s sovereignty. What is worse, the Troika’s restrictive measures have straight-jacketed the nation’s ability to grow its GDP making it forevermore subservient to the whims of bureaucrats of the European Union. The Troika compelled Greece to implement suffocating capital controls which hampered local investment; adopt austerity programs that have hit every pensioner and worker; and institute budget cutbacks in infrastructure, technology, education, and job training. Austerity has hit higher education and healthcare especially hard. Greece’s university system – free to all who qualify – is severely underfunded and understaffed forcing many departments to close. Healthcare spending has been cut by one-third since the onset of the financial meltdown with millions of citizens devoid of healthcare benefits. As a protest placard brandished before the ministry of health by hospital technicians in Athens poignantly stated “the ministry has moved to Brussels.”

I have witnessed the upshot of many of these “reforms.” Many citizens now eat only sparingly and survive the winter months without heat. Others live with extended families under one roof as a way to share the financial burden. Hospital patients are oftentimes forced to sleep in hallways, many times in beds that have not been disinfected, and to rely on friends and family to supply clean linen and blankets – some hospital rooms can go weeks without hospital staff changing a patient’s bed linen. Hospital rooms have no bedside telephones – never mind television monitors to deliver to patients a source of diversion and entertainment – and no air conditioning. Windows left open to provide a modicum of ventilation let in swarms of insects instead. Of course, families able to afford the expense still rely on the Greek tradition of fakelaki – the little envelope stuffed with bribe money meant to expedite proper care for their loved ones. But money cannot help the infirm and injured be succored as oftentimes ambulances are not available or they arrive too late.

It is no surprise that the population of Greece has declined by close to 5% since the onset of the financial meltdown and will continue to shrink in size. Most worrisome, is that the bulk of those who have chosen to emigrate are young professionals leaving the nation devoid of brainpower. Many who do remain do so because they are trapped by family or other circumstance: a civil engineering graduate who tends bar, a teacher who waits tables, an archaeologist who works at a bakery, among many, many others. In the end, Greece is likely to become not much more than a nation of pensioners and tourists.

SOVEREIGN NATIONS IN THE HANDS OF GLOBALISTS

The Greek experience transpired, in large measure, against the backdrop of a succession of socialist government regimes which lived beyond their means by, among other things, making pension and benefits promises to its citizens which were financially unsustainable if ballot box proof. It’s instructive to remember that Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, a third generation Papandreou who became Prime Minister, like his father and grandfather before him, asserted not many years ago that “…we are observing the birth of global governance, and that …”we must be committed to carrying this out.”

Papandreou’s socialist conceit was further underscored after Marxist-Socialist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came to power. The self-avowed globalist who got elected on an anti-austerity platform, soon thereafter submitted before the Troika’s confiscatory demands and has now become a paragon for austerity. We will have more to say about the Troika’s assault on Greece in a subsequent essay.

If the Eurozone has been an unmitigated disaster for a poor nation like Greece how has the most muscular economy in Europe fared? It seems, not as advertised. The German economy has grown at an anemic average of .8% for the last decade. And, when looked at from the point of view of GDP growth per capita of working age, the non-Eurozone countries of Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Norway have outperformed their Eurozone counterparts by a factor of close to seven times.

Still, Germany, for all practical purposes, is the European Union. This state of affairs was presaged by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, in her 1992 speech at The Hague, the Netherlands, when she said that “Germany’s preponderance within the [European] Community is such that no major decision can really be taken against German wishes. In these circumstances, the Community augments German power rather than containing it.” All you have to do is ask Poland, Germany’s neighbor to the east. Germany virtually controls all media expressions in Poland including Internet portals, radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Now comes the EU’s meddling and disenfranchising threat if Poland follows through on the sovereign nation’s judicial reform. If that weren’t enough Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), has called for a “constitutional” convention to draft plans for a “United States of Europe” by the year 2025. Countries that fail to ratify the agreement, Mr. Schulz avers, would be forced to leave the Union.

GLOBALIZATION’S END GAME

In 1995, the Commission on Global Governance penned a lengthy report entitled Our Global Neighborhood. The work had the full support of the aforementioned Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali and was financed in part by groups such as the Carnegie Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Read the full Commission report to gain an appreciation for the disdain these globalists have for the sovereign nation-state. But to whet the appetite of the present reader the report calls for, among other things, a global tax system, a standing U.N. Army, an Economic Security Council, and an expanded role for the Secretary General.

Commission member and former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Maurice Strong, made clear his stance on globalism when he stated that “It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation-states…” This is the same Mr. Strong that left his U.N. post after investigators found he had received a near one-million-dollar check from a South Korean business man who was convicted in a U.S. Federal court for conspiring to bribe U.N. officials in the Oil-for-Food Program.

As the world moves through ever-quickening stages of globalization, with potentially conflicting value systems among individuals and nations, the stage is set for more and more complex dilemmas to emerge. The indigenization being experienced across cultures around the world, especially in Muslim countries, is a clear retort to the unwelcome entreaties of a more interconnected and globalized world. As Professor Samuel P. Huntington states in his provocative book, The Clash of Civilizations, “Little or no evidence exists to support the assumption that the emergence of pervasive global communications is producing a convergence in attitudes and beliefs.” The opposite might be closer to the truth: a more globalized world might become a more conflicted wo

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Centennial Update, 2/15/17

Unsubscribe Forward icon Forward Centennial Update A Late Centennial Update, 15 February 2017 All, I'm afraid taxes have been getting the better of me these past two weeks. But, here I am at last with a boatload of news and such. So, on with the show. Sincerely, Andrea *~*~*~*~*~*~* Andrea Suhaka 303-770-0058 @standy *~*~*~*~*~*~* Feb. 17: Go Centennial Pilot Program Approaches Its End If you're in the Dry Creek Call 'n' Ride area, this will be your last chance. Go Centennial is a streamlined, innovative and tech-savvy approach for people to get to and from the Dry Creek Light Rail Station in Centennial. This 6-month pilot program combined a multi-modal trip-planning mobile app and a fully-subsidized ridesharing service, providing a solution to the first and last mile challenge of getting to or from transit. This pilot program tested an entirely new platform for seamless door-to-door transit planning that streamlined information across multiple transportation modes. Go Denver, the app used to book Go Centennial trips, is the first multi-modal app of its kind to feature in-app booking with Lyft. The Centennial Innovation Team (i-Team), funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, developed the Go Centennial pilot concept and led development of the implementation plan by securing private-public partnerships with Xerox, Lyft, Via Mobility and the Denver South Transportation Management Association. Go Centennial was also the first public-private partnership in the nation to fully subsidize Lyft Line rides for transit commuters, and offer multiple ways to book and pay. Through this first-of-its-kind pilot, Centennial has been seen as one of the most innovative cities in the country. In 4 1/2 months, more than 900 rides have been provided to more than 100 Centennial residents, employees and visitors. Upon completion, the City will be developing a final report for the program which is anticipated to be available in April. “This pilot program allowed Centennial to be a model of innovation. Overall I consider the program a success and hope others continue to seek solutions to the first and last mile challenge and helping people get from point A to B easily, when using transit,” says Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon. Andrea: I certainly took advantage of it for 11 trips to and from the light rail. ******************************************** Feb. 23: The Road Ahead 2017, Mobility-on-Demand Transportation Solutions, a Denver TMA (Transportation Management Assoc.) and regional partner of Denver South, will be hosting its 13th annual seminar, the Road Ahead, on Feb 23 at the University of Denver. This year's event will explore how on-demand mobility is poised to revolutionize the transportation landscape. The Keynote Panel includes Emily Castor, Director of Transportation Policy, Lyft; Matthew George, CEO, BRIDJ, and Driverless Car Revolution author, Rutt Bridges. In addition, the event will feature a local panel of experts including Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman; RTD General Manager, Dave Genova; Denver's Director of Transportation & Mobility, Crissy Fanganello; and Cherry Creek Shopping Center General Manager, Nick LeMasters. Register today to secure your spot. About the Event What: The Road Ahead 2017:Mobility on-demand. An annual seminar featuring keynote panel presentations, and a panel of local experts, to explore how the proliferation of mobile technology has awakened interest in deman-responsive transportation alternative. Who: Over 300 attendees including: local & regional officials; state & federal government representatives; and public & private sector participants, including developers & business leaders. When: Thurs., Feb. 23, 8-11:15am (Buffet breakfast at 7:30am) Where: Univ. of Denver, Driscoll Ballroom, 2000 E Asbury Ave, Denver, 80210 ******************************************** I'm not sure how many of you know... Feb. 24: Opening of the R Light Rail Line The is the light rail that will run from Lincoln Ave. to Peoria and I-70. I think it will be taking over the the name of the H line. R is for Aurora. (huh?) I'm not sure on which date they will discontinue to the bus to DIA. You're expected to take the R Line to the pick up the A Line and continue to the airport. ******************************************** March 3: Arc of Arapahoe & Douglas Annual Meeting, 5:45-9pm, Lone Tree Golf Club & Hotel, 9808 Sunningdale Blvd., Lone Tree, 80124. RSVP required for dinner to Pam or 303-220-9228. Click here for event details. ******************************************** March 7: Application deadline for Centennial Youth Achievement Awards If you know a Centennial high school student who makes a positive contribution or has made a significant impact to the community, the Centennial Youth Commission would like to acknowledge them. This year, 6 high school students will be recognized for demonstrating exceptional leadership with a $500 award contributed by SAFEbuilt Colorado and the Centennial Youth Commission. To enter the Youth Achievement Award program, the following requirements must be met: 1. The applicant’s legal residence is located in the City of Centennial at the time of application and at the time of presentation of award. 2. The applicant must be a high school student. 3. The applicant has made a significant impact on or contribution to the City of Centennial and/or its residents. 4. The applicant’s qualifying project or qualifying actions identified in the application were conducted within 24 months prior to the date that the application is received. 5. The City of Centennial must receive all required application materials including adult recommendations by 5 pm on Tues., March 7, 2017. To complete the application, the applicant should: 1. Completely answer each page of the application and submit to the Centennial Youth Commission by March 7, 2017. 2. Write an essay of no more than 500 words describing, in detail, the positive impact that was made to the community. 3. Provide a letter of recommendation from an adult (non-relative) who can speak to the student’s character and community involvement. The recommendation letter must be included with the application prior to the March 7 deadline. 2017 Youth Achievement Award Application (PDF) ******************************************** March 9, Storm Spotters Training, Cherry Creek Schools Instructional Support Facility, 5416 S Riviera Wy, doors open at 6pm. Free ArapCo Amateur Radio Emergency Service presents Scott Entrekin, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Denver/Boulder Whether you want to be a certified Spotter or just have an interest Colorado weather, please, join us. For more information email. Andrea: I've attended this training twice and enjoyed every minute of it! ******************************************** March 11 or 12: Urban Farming Course, ArapCo CSU-Extension, 6934 S. Lima St., #B, Centennial 80112; cost $125 includes lunch & Program materials Arapahoe County (ArapCo) CSU-Extension offering urban farming course Urban farming continues to increase in popularity in and around Arapahoe County with more residents growing crops and produce in their backyards. Many dream of starting an urban farm business, which requires an understanding of trends, resources and risks. Arapahoe County CSU-Extension and Guidestone Colorado, in partnership with the Colorado Building Farmers Program are offering a vision course for aspiring urban farmers. The two day course will include information on current trends, resources, case studies of successful urban farms and provide the framework for participants to begin strategic business planning. Attendees will learn tips and strategies to start or grow an urban farm. Current urban agriculture research in Colorado will be shared, along with true stories from experienced farmers. Sunday also will include a tour of Colorado Aquaponics Dahlia Greenhouse. For more information and to RSVP, contact Danielle Ardrey or call 303-738-7977. Learn more about Arapahoe County CSU-Extension. ******************************************** March 18: Children's Advisory Network Event, Hosted by the Douglas County Parenting Coalition, Douglas County Fairgrounds, Castle Rock, 11am-2pm Popcorn! Prizes! Games! Entertainment! Most importantly, kids will receive free vision, hearing, motor, & speech testing. While kids are playing games, eating carnival food, winning prizes, and having fun grownups will actually be checking out vision, hearing, speech and more. Families will have access to hundreds of dollars worth of free diagnostic services. ******************************************** March 22: Speak Up for Kids Day, 8am-4pm, Scottish Rite Cathedral, 1370 Grant St., Denver. Presented by Colorado Children’s Campaign, Clayton Early Learning and Children’s Hospital Colorado, Speak Up for Kids brings together child advocates from across Colorado to learn about effective advocacy and policy issues facing the Colorado legislature and to put their skills into action by speaking up with legislators at the Colorado State Capitol. Since its inception in 2012, Speak Up for Kids has trained nearly 500 people who care about Colorado kids to make their voices heard on important policy issues that affect kids and families. ******************************************** March 23: District 2 meeting at Koelbel Library, in The Forum, 6:30-8:30pm (I think). I'm not completely sure of the program but everyone is invited. ******************************************** Consumer Advisory Warning, Online Daters - Your Sweetheart Could be a Fake When it comes to matters of the heart, the ability to spot deception in a potential mate is critical, especially when searching for a love interest online. Launched in 1995, internet dating sites have become an acceptable means of bringing together like-minded partners, and participation is rapidly growing among older adults. While it’s true that ‘virtual’ encounters have resulted in many successful match-ups, charlatans are known to troll online dating sites in the interest of luring unsuspecting victims into handing over cash. The following are popular “come-ons” and other red herrings to be on the look-out for to help ‘flush out” an imposter: ♦ A “suitor” who professes to be a soul-mate after only a very brief courtship, and enchants the victim with affirmations of love, yet makes excuses as to why he/she can’t meet. To disguise their identity, charlatans often insist on conversing online, instead of through video chat or phone; ♦ Writing and grammar of the “suitor” is well below the standards of his/her self-proclaimed occupation and education level; ♦ After several months of courting, “suitor” may share an emotional hardship story, then unexpectedly ask victim for a large sum of cash. Or, victim may be asked to open an on-line bank account in his/her name so that money for their long-awaited “union” can be safely deposited. In truth, the money may be ‘hot” or stolen, and could implicate the victim in a money-laundering scheme. ♦ Having successfully gained the victim’s love and trust, charlatan may sweet-talk victim into sharing sexually explicit photos, then turn around and extort the victim for money by threatening to post the photos online. If these very nasty ploys sound like scripts, they most likely are, and are shared by crooks linked to various criminal networks operating outside of the United States. Prevention: ♦ Use only paid, membership-based dating sites. Fraudsters aren’t inclined to “pay to play”, and unfortunately they don’t need to, since many online dating sites provide the service for free. ♦ Check the safety policies on the site. Are background checks conducted on all users? ♦ Stick to active users within your local area. If the relationship heats up, you have a greater chance of meeting face to face. Also, consider doing your own research by entering the name through a search engine to see what pops up. ♦ If you suspect you’ve been taken in a scam through on an online dating site, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For more information on the psychology behind dating site scams, visit the Colorado Attorney General. This advisory comes from the 18th Judicial District. Protection Line-720-874-8547 ******************************************** April 5: Online Virtual Career Fair for Transportation Professionals 9am-3pm MST. Please go here for more information. ******************************************** Via Twitter, @NextAvenue: Tax Advice for Disorganized Taxpayers ******************************************** Arapahoe Reconstruction Report - February 2017 Arapahoe/I-25 Project The I-25 and Arapahoe Road Interchange Reconstruction project team made substantial progress in 2016. Some of these major accomplishments include: completed two out of three phases of I-25 bridge construction, removed the old I-25 bridge crossing Arapahoe Road, completed multiple utility relocations, conducted retaining wall work and improved access to businesses in the northeast quadrant by opening the new South Alton Way. While the project team has made significant progress to date, a substantial amount of construction remains, especially on Arapahoe Road. The rate of progress over the next couple of months is dependent on weather and the unpredictable amount of snowfall in early spring. Remaining key elements of construction: • Various activities related to the final phase of the I-25 bridge • Noise wall construction along Arapahoe Rd and Yosemite St • Retaining wall work on the south side of Arapahoe Rd • Various utility relocations • Constructing the new eastbound (EB) Arapahoe Rd lanes and shifting traffic to the new alignment • Various I-25 ramp closures for new pavement construction • Bridge aesthetics including monument and terrace wall installation • Shifting SB I-25 traffic onto the new bridge • Building permanent I-25 median barrier • Final top coating of asphalt on I-25 • Final landscaping • Permanent lighting and traffic signals Project completion date anticipated summer 2018. We encourage you to watch for regular construction update emails for the most up-to-date information. If you haven't already, please sign up by emailing. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~* I-25 Final Bridge Pier Cap and Girder Set Complete The weekend of Jan. 20, the I-25 & Arapahoe Reconstruction project team set the final bridge pier cap (seen above) and girders for the I-25 bridge crossing Arapahoe Rd. Pier caps are usually poured onsite before the girders are set. For this project, however, the pier caps were actually transferred from a pre-cast facility and then placed. During 3 phases of bridge construction, a total of 74 girders (structural beams that support the bridge deck) were set. ******************************************** Just in case we have some Apple Watch wearers out there Via Twitter, @chartier: One of my recent favorite Apple Watch uses: toggling client work timers with Hours. More here. ******************************************** Via Twitter, @aplaceformom: What to Do With Your Parent's Pet ******************************************** Uber hires NASA aircraft engineer to help develop flying cars at Uber Elevate Uber is making moves to expand the scope of its flying car experiment - the company just hired NASA engineer Mark Moore, who worked at the federal agency as an advanced aircraft engineer and basically kickstarted the current interest in vertical take-off and landing craft for short-haul urban flight with a 2010 paper on the feasibility of the helicopter-like vehicles. Moore will act as Director of Engineering at UberElevate, which is what the ride-hailing company calls its exploration of airborne on-demand drives. Hiring Moore on came after the NASA veteran consulted on Uber's recent white paper on VTOL craft, according to Bloomberg. The engineer was impressed by Uber's work on the subject, and saw a chance to make the vision he'd originally articulated years ago into something real, in a reasonable time scale. Moore said that key to his decision to join Uber was that the company seemed to have a practical business case for making a flying commuter transit service real - and nothing would ever get done without market motivation behind the vision. Uber has articulated its vision for "on-demand aviation" as networks of small vehicles that can take off and land vertically, are powered by electric sources, and have ranges of between 50 and 100 miles on a single charge. The ultimate goal is to have these operate autonomously, summoned via an app on a passenger's phone, but in the near-term Moore tells Bloomberg that we'll probably see a bunch of competing designs hit the field that operate well but with human pilots for now. VTOL are a pursuit of other companies, too, including two startup funded by Google's Larry Page, and commercial aviation giant Airbus, which is exploring similar territory to Uber with its own Vahana project. The appeal of the service is not only the ability to ease congestion and bypass ground traffic, but also to eventually achieve cost efficiencies that could make VTOL taxis more profitable over the long-term. Uber's Elevate is far from offering us actual on-demand airborne taxis service, but Uber is serious about pursuing the tech, and will look to host a summit of those interested in the field to help coordinate efforts to achieve practical VTOL transit sometime early this year. Uber Head of Product for Advanced Programs Nikhil Goel provided the following comment to TechCrunch regarding Moore's hiring: "Uber continues to see its role as a catalyst to the growing developing VTOL ecosystem. We're excited to have Mark join us to work with companies and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our white paper." Posted on 2/6/17 to TechCrunch by Darrell Etherington ******************************************** Gone in a Moment On those dark, chilly mornings that greet you during winter, there’s nothing nicer than stepping into a warm vehicle. Unless, of course, if that vehicle’s gone missing. Colorado’s Unattended Vehicle Law (C.R.S. 42-4-1206, page 45) strives to keep owners' vehicles from the hands of opportunistic thieves by making it illegal to leave a vehicle running with the keys in it. You may know it as the "Puffer Law." Those who have a car with a remote ignition switch are allowed to warm their car, provided the driver keeps the keyless start fob far enough away from the car that it cannot be moved. While the state law classifies a puffer car as a Class B traffic misdemeanor for the person who left the vehicle “to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition and effectively setting the brake thereon” (CDOT), local law enforcement varies in how it carries out the law. Your best bet is to get familiar with your local city ordinances and state laws--and to not leave your car running unattended. In late January, three puffer cars in Lakewood were stolen in one morning. In early December, three were stolen overnight in Aurora. Four were also stolen in a three-day period in Denver. ******************************************** Centennial Establishes FiberWorks and Fiber Commission The implementation of the City of Centennial's Fiber Master Plan is underway. As the City constructs its fiber backbone and continues to develop partnership opportunities, City Council has created a Fiber Commission to oversee Centennial FiberWorks, a program to implement the City’s fiber backbone. This backbone will connect and complete the City’s underground infrastructure, connecting to key City sites and other community anchor institutions. This backbone will enable both existing and new broadband providers to tie into the new infrastructure with the goal of providing better and more competitive choices and services for consumers. Centennial FiberWorks and the Fiber Commission will continue efficient and cost-effective planning, construction, operation and management of the City's fiber optic infrastructure. FiberWorks is formed as an operational department of the City and serves as a publicly-owned business operation. The continuing construction, use, maintenance, and extension of the City’s fiber optic infrastructure falls under the purview of FiberWorks. The Commission provides policy direction, management and day-to-day oversight of FiberWorks. Users of FiberWorks will be both public and private entities with expectations for quick turnarounds on key issues involving engineering, planning, and potential partnerships. As contemplated, FiberWorks will be a function that differs from typical City operations in that it requires high levels of expertise and knowledge of the current and evolving telecommunications landscape. This five-person Fiber Commission includes three City Council Members; Mayor Pro Tem and Fiber Commission Chair C.J. Whelan, District 4 Council Member and Fiber Commission Vice-Chair Stephanie Piko and District 3 Council Member Ken Lucas. Two Centennial residents will be appointed by the Commission in the next eight months. Council Members are selected by fellow Council Members to serve on the Commission. “Since 2014, the three of us have served on the City’s Fiber Subcommittee to provide policy direction on next steps for constructing the City’s fiber backbone. The creation of this Fiber Commission allows continuity of knowledge already in place. It is the best outcome to balance the desires of City Council oversight while maintaining the technical knowledge of this group,” says Fiber Commission Chair Charles “C.J.” Whelan, Vice-Chair Stephanie Piko and Council Member Ken Lucas, in a joint statement. “We look forward to being a part of improving technological efficiency and sustainability throughout the City, enhancing opportunities for current and future businesses.“ ******************************************** Scam Alert! Recently, ACSO (ArapCo Sheriff's Office) has received reports of a phone scam that has been making the rounds again. In each instance, the suspect identifies himself as Sgt. Brown with ACSO and tells the victim there is a warrant for his or her arrest, usually because of missing jury duty or court. He may even give bogus citation or case numbers. He then demands the victim stay on the phone and not tell anyone about the warrants, and asks for payment via pre-paid gift cards. After the payment is given by phone, he requests that they meet him at ACSO's headquarters. A similar scam was circulating in Dec. A suspect would call, saying they were in an accident with the victim's loved one and they would hold them until they received money. For more information on this scam. If you have received one of these calls or think you may have been the victim of a scam, please call us at (303) 795-4711. ******************************************** There's still some winter left in the season Via Twitter, @ArapahoeSO: Winter Driving Tips: Plan, Protect & Prevent. Details in our newsletter. ******************************************** Job seekers see higher earnings after using Arapahoe/Douglas Works! People using the Workforce Center in their job search earned an average $15,800 more per year than those who did not.… Read on ******************************************** Road Usage Charge Pilot Program Welcome to ‘What’s up with RUCPP’ – a monthly newsletter series to keep you in the loop about the Colorado Road Usage Charge Pilot Program, or Colorado RUCPP for short. How did we get here? Whether on your daily commute or quick trip to the grocery store, safe and reliable roads are an essential part of our lives. Coloradans fund maintenance and improvements of our roads through a per-gallon gas tax at the pump. Next time you fill up at the pump, consider this: $1 in 2016 is worth approx. 56.5% less than it was in 1991 – the last time Colorado raised the gas tax rate. What else do you remember about 1991? The outdated gas tax and the rise of fuel efficient vehicles leave us with an estimated shortfall of $25B over the next 25 years! That's why we're exploring options like a road usage charge to fund future road maintenance and improvements. Where did we start? With a study! CDOT launched the Colorado RUCPP in Dec 2016 with, 103 drivers, from nearly 30 different counties—representing drivers from all parts of the state. Each participant chose one of 3 mileage reporting options: • Odometer reading • Non-GPS enabled • GPS enabled What happens next? Their participation will help CDOT evaluate exactly how a road usage charge program would work for passenger vehicles in Colorado. When the program ends in April 2017, we will summarize our findings and recommendations in a report we'll share with you later this summer. How can you get involved? Stay tuned for more information about Colorado's road funding and the Colorado RUCPP throughout the course of the 4-month pilot! Want more information about the Colorado RUCPP? Check out RUCPP for details. Follow us on Facebook for more updates on road funding. ******************************************** Colorado Department of Transportation C-470 Express Lanes Update What: Centennial Trail Relocation When: Starting end of February 2017 Where: Centennial Trail, various locations between Lucent & Quebec Details: Segments of the Centennial Trail will be relocating adjacent to the original trail due to C-470 Express Lanes project construction. The trail will remain open with detour signage and flaggers to direct when necessary. We appreciate your caution and patience during this time. Safety Reminder: CDOT would like to remind C-470 motorists of Colorado’s Move-It Law, a joint effort between CDOT & law enforcement agencies to encourage motorists to follow a state law requiring drivers involved in minor accidents on Interstates to move their vehicle immediately out of traffic to a safe location. The insurance industry also encourages compliance with the Move It law, reassuring drivers there will still be a full investigation of the crash to determine fault. “Many people are apprehensive about moving their vehicle after an accident, worried they’re jeopardizing their insurance coverage,” says Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. “However, when it comes to safety, the industry fully supports taking actions that reduces potential hazards to drivers, first and foremost.” Construction activities are weather dependent and schedule is subject to change. For current road and weather conditions call 5-1-1 or visit cotrip. Find a smarter commute. Visit here. ******************************************** Changes to Parking Regulations for Commercial Vehicles City Council recently approved making changes to parking regulations for commercial vehicles. The changes are a result of multiple complaints about commercial vehicles parking on private residential property and on public streets overnight, including an instance where a commercial business was operating entirely within the public right-of-way with no other physical presence within Centennial. New regulations include: • Restricting commercial vehicle parking on public streets from 9pm until 4am in non-residential neighborhoods but providing an exception up to a 24 hours if the vehicle is temporarily disabled. Overnight parking of a commercial vehicle on a residential street remains prohibited between 7pm and 7am • Prohibiting the loading or unloading of car carrier trailers on public streets in Centennial with the exception of local or collector roadways within an area bounded by Dayton St on the west, Revere Pky on the east, Costilla Ave & Briarwood Ave on the south, and Peakview Ave & Racine Cir on the north. This is intended to limit the loading and unloading of car carrier trailers to a small geographic area in close proximity to the existing auto dealerships within the City. • Continuing the City's parking prohibition of certain commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods, generally those vehicles that weigh over 10,000 lbs. and tow trucks, except when parked in a fully enclosed structure, or a garage. Please note: In most cases, work vehicles that are driven home from a place of employment to a residence are not subject to the new regulations. It is not Council's intent to regulate those types of vehicles, nor was it their intent to go after home-based businesses who use their personal vehicle for business purposes, such as a Mary Kay distributor. ******************************************** Arapahoe County 4-H still accepting new members for program year There is still time to join Arapahoe County 4-H and participate in the 2017 Arapahoe County Fair. Youth ages 5 to 18 are invited to enroll by April 1 to enter a project like cooking, photography, cats or dogs into the County Fair July 27-30. The program offers more than 60 general, home economics and animal project areas for youth ages 5 to 18. A project involves learning a new skill over several weeks or months through hands-on learning. Some of the County’s most popular projects are shooting sports, cake decorating, clothing construction, rabbits and dogs. Llamas and alpacas are a new animal project this year. Small animals including poultry can be raised in most cities and give 4-H youth who live in urban settings the opportunity to learn about raising animals. Cats are another new animal project and the cat project caps off with a Cat Show at the County Fairgrounds July 22. 4-H also offers numerous STEM projects, such as robotics and rocketry. Children under the age of 8 participate in the Cloverbud project, where they learn about a variety of topics and have fun in a noncompetitive setting. Arapahoe County 4-H members are invited to show their completed projects at the Arapahoe County Fair each July and top exhibitors have the opportunity to show at the Colorado State Fair. The County also hosts optional contests throughout the year, such as cake decorating, speech demonstrations, creative cooks and a talent show. 4-H youth also participate in community service projects, fundraisers, conferences and camps that help to grow their leadership skills. Currently, there are more than 300 members in Arapahoe County’s 4-H program. Youth are welcome to join one of the 14 local clubs from Littleton to Deer Trail, or start a new club with a group of friends and an adult volunteer. Clubs fill up fast and may not be accepting members close to the April deadline.
For more information or to receive a list of current 4-H clubs, please call the 4-H Office at Arapahoe County CSU-Extension at 303-730-1920 or visit here. The annual fee for new members is $50, which includes any number of projects with curriculum. The fee for Cloverbuds is $40 and the volunteer fee is $5. Enrollment is open until April 1, 2017. ******************************************** OK, I'm stopping. There's more news that I've left out! I'm sorry I can't figure out how to make the links. Andrea (standy@ecentral.com 6864 S Ulster Cir Centennial CO 80112

[specialchan]

Recent increase of support for regime change within western first-world "leftists". via /r/communism

Recent increase of support for regime change within western first-world "leftists".

This is a thread to vent but also to see what you guys think on the matter.

In the past couple of weeks I've noticed an apparent increase in support and parroting of regime-change talking points in places like Twitter from "leftists", particularly first world western "leftists" and "breadtubers".

Also as the days go by and things escalate, particularly against China and now Belarus, the parroting gets more aggressive and so do their attacks on anyone who disagrees with them or doubts the validity and the sources of the claims, with the "tankie" word getting thrown around a lot, as expected.

This has made me start reconsidering my view that anarchists, particularly western first world anarchistsare actually comrades with whom we only have a disagreement on how to get to the end goal of a classless, moneyless society. Talking mostly about anarchists here, not an-coms and libsocs, by the way.

They seem more hellbent on this idealistic "anti-authoritarian" and "anti-state" fanatic dogmatism, even if is not pragmatic or even materially possible to do away with the state if you intent for your movement/revolution to survive long enough to materially improve the living and working conditions of people to the point where a shift to socialism might be possible.

If any movement/group/whathaveyou doesn't do whatever they expect of them right away, said org/mov/country starts to become "problematic" at the very least and begins to become targets of their "Principled Critiques". Also, the further away these movements are from the western cores of capitalism(usually, their own countries), the more "principled" this critiques become and the faster it happens they will throw them under the bus.

After a while, they'll start to show no qualms in parroting State Department propaganda even if its apparent there is a push for regime-change or war starting to brew.

It has become more obvious in the past few weeks as the anti-China campaing increases as the west starts to push for war with China. So-called leftists unironically using articles from "reliable" outlets that have the State Department, Adrian Zenz or other assorted spooks as "sources" without even making the barely minimum to check if any of it is true or not.

If anyone fact-checks them, pointing about how the sources used are unreliable, to say the least, and how the media involved do have a track record of helping push the narrative that has destroyed multiple countries, they get quite agressive or start to concern troll.

Show them that they are backing imperialism?. They go no u: "China is actually imperialist too", "settler colonial state", "genocide", "authoritarianism", "tankie", "red fascists" and even going as far as saying "the Chinese are far worse than the US"; all of it used to justify to support whatever the US is doing.

They usually claim to care about the exploitation of Africa and how China is really guilty of this but when you check their posting history, there are no mentions of things like AFRICOM or barely any mentions of Africa at all until a few weeks or months ago. Same for the genocide of muslims but barely any mention of the US and Media push for Iraq, the lies about WMD, the fake sob story of Nayirah that gave the final push for the first Gulf War.

Heck, there is barely no mention of Libya and how many western "principled leftists" enabled it and if there is a mention of it, it usually goes "well, the NATO intervention was well intentioned and if things went to shit afterwards is mostly the fault of the locals for not doing things properly afterwards with the oportunity" without a hint of irony.

Same goes with Bolivia. I even saw the user of a supposedly Indigenous Anarchist Organization going "well, they didn't do away with the state apparatus so it made things easier for the reaction to gain control again, sucks to be them. Also, Evo authoritarian and betrayed the indigenous movements". People unironically going "We have done far more here in my american/european neck of the woods to fight capitalism in the world than any Fidel/Mao/Lenin/younameit filthy tankie, so it is ok if they get droned".

And the saddest thing is that it's not just random twitter anarchist @makhnokropotkin32423543 but also familiar names like BadEmpanada, Nathan J Robinson among others as well as podcasters one expected to be far more critical of the information they get given their reach, helping push this mess along.

Mind you, I am aware that one shouldn't make generalizations, particularly generalizations based on limited experiences within such a narrow and shitty site like Twitter but it is hard not to notice an apparent trend within some leftists that makes you question if they are really comrades or just white-supremacists in denial larping as leftists.

Submitted August 10, 2020 at 02:56PM by yippee-kay-yay via reddit https://ift.tt/3fMLab9

[actutrends]

Brazil is emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub

Brazil’s government has big plans for AI, despite having come late to the party. In Oxford Insights’ AI Readiness Index 2019, Brazil was ranked 40 out of 192 countries, a sign that the South American powerhouse is moving up in the AI world. The report looks at how ready countries are to take advantage of the AI technologies PwC forecasts will add $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

The 2019 report also cautions that the “Global South could be left behind by the so-called fourth industrial revolution.” But even as some of the planet’s richest nations, including Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the U.S, have become recognized AI innovation hubs, according to studies by Deloitte and others, South America — led by Brazil — is rapidly emerging as a leader in AI-enabled businesses.

Brazil’s future economy is banking on a big contribution from AI technologies, and the country is leading the rest of Latin America, based on a proprietary AI Global Vibrancy Tool used to compile the recent 2019 AI Index report from Stanford University. The study found that during the last four years Brazil has shifted into high gear as one of the top five countries in the world with the fastest growth in AI hiring.

Accenture forecast that by 2035 AI will boost annual growth rates across South America by about one full percentage point of GDP. For Brazil, already the largest Latin American economy, that prediction would “boost the 2035 GVA of the Brazilian economy by $432 billion, which represents an increase of 0.9 percentage points in comparison with the baseline scenario.” Other Latin American countries stand to gain AI-driven boosts in annual GVA in that same time frame — notably $78 billion in Colombia, $63 billion in Chile, and $59 billion in Argentina.

“Artificial intelligence offers South America a long-awaited opportunity to leapfrog toward greater levels of innovation, productivity, and socio-economic progress,” wrote Armen Ovanessoff, principal director of Accenture Research, in the report.

Where opportunity lies

One area that’s particularly ripe for AI innovation is the financial services sector that was hit hard, and then heavily regulated, after major bank crashes in the 1980s and 1990s. Brazilian financial tech companies creating workarounds to the many bureaucratic hurdles and old ways of doing things are now booming in Brazil, according to CB Insights, LAVCA, and other organizations tracking hot investment sectors there. Other fast-growth sectors that AI is redefining in Brazil include ecommerce, on-demand delivery, logistics, and digital media and entertainment.

Fortunately, the Brazilian population is tech savvy and already uses a lot of online services, which means AI technologies have a greater chance of impacting industries on a scale that matters. Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2019 report ranks Brazil’s population as the fifth largest group of internet consumers in the world. A global consumer insights survey by PwC in 2018 found that 59% of Brazilians plan to purchase an AI device, the highest score amongst the top 10 countries in the poll.

After the U.S., Brazil has the largest number of social media users on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, per Kwintessential. Mobile devices outnumber people, and a majority of Brazil’s more than 211 million citizens are avid online shoppers and consumers of internet entertainment, according to PagBrasil. Of the 149 million internet users in Brazil, 139 million are mobile, and Brazilians downloaded more than 7.3 billion apps in 2018, ranking it top four in the world, according to Forbes.

Two important applications for AI are tackling the traffic congestion issues created by Brazil’s massive cities and reaching people across a land mass of 3.28 million square miles. AI has an opportunity to make  local and cross-country delivery of products quicker and more efficient, which would mean reduced pollution, lower costs, and less traffic.

New R&D labs

Brazil and other large Latin American countries are catching up with their counterparts when it comes to funding AI innovation. The Brazilian government recently announced the creation of an AI R&D network of eight labs.

During the launch announcement in November, Marcos Pontes, Brazil’s minister of science, technology, innovation, and communications, said the eight R&D labs will boost “the ability to reason, plan, and think about Brazil’s future and our ability to create tools to solve problems and improve the quality of life.”

One of the new labs will involve the Brazilian Army and will focus on edge AI technology in areas like cybersecurity. The other seven R&D centers will work on breakthroughs tied to the country’s national IoT plan, which is focused on its four main verticals: agribusiness, health care, manufacturing, and smart cities.

Brazil understands that to keep up in the international AI race, it needs to nurture and retain strong domestic talent. Beyond the lure of bigger paychecks, the best of the best are drawn to opportunities where they can solve the most important challenges of our time.

To keep talent in the country, IBM is set to launch an AI lab in São Paulo in 2020. It will be the first Latin American-based institute from IBM’s AI Horizons Network, created by the company in 2016 for collaboration between universities, students, and IBM researchers. It will be run in conjunction with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and focus on solving real problems in Brazil, such as the best use of natural resources and innovation in agribusiness and health care.

Addressing the AI skills gap

According to an IBM study released in September, “the skills gap is not a myth, but can be addressed with real solutions.” The researchers — who polled 5,670 global executives in 48 countries — found that as many as 120 million workers in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled to succeed in an age of AI and intelligent automation.

A Gartner study released at the beginning of 2019 found that 37% of organizations have implemented AI in some form but struggle with acute talent shortages. Despite a current AI skills gap, Gartner found that the number of enterprises employing AI grew 270% over a four-year period.

Google’s Peter Norvig, a legendary AI expert, spoke about the skills gap and competition for top AI talent at the recent BayBrazil conference in Silicon Valley. He said he meets with many startups that complain they can’t hire the top AI experts from MIT or Stanford because the big tech companies get to them first.

When he hears this concern, Norvig offers sage advice via an analogy. “If a new restaurant owner told me, ‘What the business needs most now is a PhD in stove design from MIT,’ that’s really a faulty way of thinking. In reality, what that restaurant owner really needs is a chef who knows how to cook tasty food who will tell the owner what stove to buy. You don’t need to design a new stove from scratch.”

The issue now is training more people to understand not only how to use AI tools but also how to implement them at every level of business. With both the Brazilian government and the private sector boosting investment in AI research, that skills gap will begin to close.

Going forward, AI will play an essential role in how people, not machines, make decisions. For Latin America — led by Brazil — the technology promises to create a significant competitive advantage in the commercial sector, faster GDP growth, broader societal benefits, and more socio-economic progress for all.

Bruno Henriques is the VP of Growth and AI at iFood, Latin America’s largest food tech company.

The post Brazil is emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub appeared first on Actu Trends.

[eyeontw]

Microsoft continues to recruit top talent to build a world-class AI R&D community in Taiwan

On the eve of its 30th anniversary, Microsoft Taiwan is pleased to announce that the AI R&D Center in Taiwan, which was established in 2018, is expanding and relocating, a year and a half after its grand opening.

Microsoft is investing more resources into Taiwan’s AI industry.  In the era of AI, where software and hardware integration are inseparable, Microsoft will continue to work with software and hardware partners to build an AI ecosystem of the next generate and create the next momentum for Taiwan’s technology industry through development of pioneering technology.

Wen-Sheng Tseng, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said at the opening ceremony that “Microsoft spared no effort to work with Taiwan’s industry, government and academic circles in technology cooperation.” He added that “We are looking forward to seeing that after the expansion and relocation of the Microsoft AI R&D Center, it can drive the next upgrade of Taiwanese AI talents and technology, enhance Taiwan’s competitiveness and realize Taiwan’s vision of becoming Asia-Pacific AI talent pool.”

On the eve of its 30th anniversary, Microsoft Taiwan will continue to collaborate with partners to create Taiwan’s technological miracle.

Michael Chang, Director of Microsoft AI R&D Center, further pointed out that the keen perception, teamwork ability, creativity and cross-disciplinary integrated logical thinking of the young talents in Taiwan are impressive, “Since its establishment, the Microsoft AI R&D Center in Taiwan has recruited more than 100 talent, and we are thrilled to expand to a two-story office in a short period of time. The relocation will enable outstanding young talents to work on a world-class team and access top international resources, advanced research and development technologies without leaving Taiwan. The Microsoft AI R&D Center focuses on AI technology research and industrial application development. In the future, it will continue to work with Taiwan’s major strategic industry partners to gain an in-depth understanding of AI application needs and assist Taiwan’s industries to upgrade easily and transform with AI.”

Microsoft AI R&D Center’s 3 areas of focus

 As the starting point for Microsoft’s long-term AI program in Taiwan, the Microsoft AI R&D Center will focus on the following three areas of R&D.

Computer vision

Microsoft has set up a computer vision technology research team in Taiwan to work with Microsoft’s research and engineering teams around the world. Computer vision technology can be applied to vertical industry applications such as quality management, detection of smart manufacturing, automated production line management, and textile industry dye management. In smart cities scenarios, computer vision can process urban traffic management and public security maintenance work. In smart agriculture, computer vision can greatly improve crop growth management, cultivation and identification. Computer vision can further promote the development of smart factories, smart cities and smart agriculture in Taiwan

User intention recognition:

User intention is a very important part of AI. This technology subtype creates applications that meet the user’s needs by understanding users and building on their preferences to form intention models. At the beginning, the Microsoft AI R&D Center used Bing advertising as the first area for the application. In the future, the center will expand cooperation with various industries and develop various AI application solutions.

Applications of AI to vertical industries:

Implementing the application of AI in vertical industries is an important goal of the AI R&D center in the medium to long term. In this branch of research, Microsoft will conduct a comprehensive study on industries such as “Smart Manufacturing” and “Smart Healthcare” as mentioned in the 5+2 Industrial Innovation Plan proposed by Taiwan’s Executive Yuan.

Vincent Shih, Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft and General Manager of Corporate, Legal & External Affairs for Microsoft Taiwan, says: “On the special occasion of Microsoft Taiwan’s 30th anniversary, we would like to express our gratitude to our industry, government and academic partners for their long-term support and assistance. In the next 30 years, we will continue to respond to the government’s “5+2 Industry Innovation Plan”, fully launch AI for industry, expand cooperation with all industries, join hands with Taiwan’s industrial partners to enter the era of Industry 4.0 and empower various industries to carry out digital transformation. Together we will help Taiwan to seize the opportunities and advantages in the next wave of the intelligence revolution.”

At the opening ceremony, the AI R&D Center demonstrated a series of Microsoft’s latest AI technology applications, which can be widely applied in medical, entertainment, retail, security management and other fields. The Microsoft R&D team has developed a number of top technologies for computer vision and deep learning, letting the computer strengthen its role in people’s lives and helping people get closer to the world while living life with more wisdom. Microsoft demonstrated the following technologies:

Security management such as access control systems

Windows Hello and 3D anti-spoofing technology strengthen the level of security protection. Windows Hello is a world-leading face verification system for unlocking devices developed by Microsoft. It adopts deep learning technology, allowing users to log into the system easily, quickly and securely without entering complicated passwords. 3D anti-spoofing technology is where Microsoft combines the latest deep learning neural network, a 3D depth sensor camera and its Azure cloud computing platform to create a powerful anti-spoofing system. This technology can enhance the security of biometric authentication systems such as access control, which further prevents malicious attacks from hackers.

Text recognition and digitization of paper documents:

Microsoft offers its state-of-the-art optical character recognition and receipt understanding technologies to enable the digital transformation of business operations. The system can identify the text content in receipts, business cards, invoices and other forms. Although the text may be distorted, faded, or blemished, they can still be accurately identified and processed according to the semantics of the text. In the future, various industries can apply this core technology to digitize paper documents or to enable scenarios such as digital government, smart factories and smart cities. Receipt understanding is a natural language processing technology developed by the Microsoft AI R&D Center in Taiwan. Assisted by optical character recognition, this technology enables computers to understand the complex structures and values in receipts and automatically summarize various receipt attributes. This advanced service that combines computer vision and natural language processing can help improve the efficiency of accounting and expense management.

 An injection of localized design and sustainable materials will create the ideal office environment for AI research and development.

The Microsoft AI R&D Center office is located in the prime location of the Xinyi District of Taipei with convenient transportation. Construction of the office space used selected materials and focus on environmental protection, green energy and integration into the local culture. It combines Taiwan’s unique humanity with Microsoft’s corporate culture. The space utilizes the unique features of Yingge pottery, symbolizing a profound history. River-simulation carpeting replicates the sophisticated, underlying beauty of Taiwan. The office is designed to meet the diverse needs of R&D personnel. For example, whiteboards can be seen everywhere in the office so that the R&D team can start brainstorming meetings and deftly discuss and document creative content at any time, inspiring more creative possibilities. A hotel-style lounge provides space for relaxation. The center also comes with nursery room, restrooms friendly to all genders, an accessible restroom and accessible meeting room. There’s a friendly working environment as well for women or for people with limited mobility.

  On the eve of its 30th anniversary, Microsoft Taiwan is pleased to announce that the AI R&D Center in Taiwan, which was established in 2018, is expanding and relocating, a year and a half after its grand opening. Microsoft continues to recruit top talent to build a world-class AI R&D community in Taiwan On the eve of its 30th anniversary, Microsoft Taiwan is pleased to announce that the AI R&D Center in Taiwan, which was established in 2018, is expanding and relocating, a year and a half after its grand opening.

[biofunmy]

At ‘Black Woodstock,’ an All-Star Lineup Delivered Joy and Renewal to 300,000

Woodstock was big and messy, thrilling and stirring — and summed up finally by Jimi Hendrix, whose festival-closing set included his towering, take-a-knee reading of the national anthem. It was an admixture of disaffection and patriotism, bold as love and black as hell. But Hendrix was one of the few black musicians at an event that has become a cultural touchstone for white America.

A hundred miles to the south of that sprawling rural rock ’n’ roll assembly, black folks were building their own musical commons. The Harlem Cultural Festival of that year, which would come to be known as “Black Woodstock,” had, on its surface, little in common with the upstate hootenanny. Held in Harlem at Mount Morris (what is now Marcus Garvey) Park, it was a self-consciously urban affair, a concert series rather than a one-off, and already in its third year. Co-sponsored by the New York City Parks Department and Maxwell House, the General Foods subsidiary, that year’s festival consisted of six free Sunday afternoon concerts held between June 29 and August 24. The total attendance was some 300,000 people strong.

With the Caribbean singer Tony Lawrence at its helm, the festival was a sustained, communal activity and cultural interaction where enterprising street vendors got what The New York Times referred to as their “legitimate hustle” on. A vibrant cross-section of city folk — brothers in dashikis (like Jesse Jackson, who spoke at one of the concerts), young sisters in smart shifts and older ones in church hats, men in fedoras and well-pressed, button-up shirts — all listened with a combination of focus and ease.

“The scale and the diversity of the audience” was a thing to behold, says Neal Ludevig, the curator and co-producer of this year’s 50th anniversary “Black Woodstock” event.

Iterations of the Harlem Cultural Festival were held in 1967 and 1968, but the 1969 events were the apex. Atop the rocks and down in the grassy field, they were showing up to watch a roll call of black popular music luminaries move through tight sets covering beloved repertoires. This was Harlem’s sonic playground, and it featured the likes of the gospel crossover sensation Edwin Hawkins, the blues icon B.B. King, the avant-garde jazz activists Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, the groovy black pop ambassadors The 5th Dimension, the Motown up-and-comers Gladys Knight and the Pips and the youthful Stevie Wonder. The comic vets Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham supplied the standup relief. And the crowds responded — looking on reverentially, dancing with one another around the edges of the park.

Photos from The Times’s archive capture the reverberations of an event that was a casual thing of beauty, where black folks moved en masse through the streets and into the park, improvisationally responding to one another, forming circles of joy and conviviality and reveling in outdoor leisure.

One shot from the 1967 festival stands out for its crispness and arresting power. It features a girl — donning high summertime attire, a sleeveless top and shorts, hair braided to the back — hugging the railing to the stage, leaning in — looking. She’s watching something before her. Someone is holding her attention, maybe dazzling her imagination.

Excerpts from the TV producer Hal Tulchin’s 40 hours of footage of the 1969 festival (which remain largely unseen) show a reverential crowd, keeping time with Nina Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul,” as she opened her four-song set on Aug. 17 with a new single, “Revolution.” It was a country-meets-Tin Pan Alley protest jam informing white folks that “The only way that we can stand in fact/Is when you get your foot off our back” — bluntly capturing the sentiment of the moment. (Simone closed out her performance by reading the fiery poem “Are You Ready, Black People?” The Last Poets’ David Nelson’s spoken-word call-to-action, asking of the crowd, “Are you ready to smash white things, to burn buildings?”)

Tensions had been running high in the city from spring into summer as the first anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination passed and 21 Black Panthers were indicted on charges of planning a bombing campaign across Manhattan to mark the occasion. The police even refused to provide security for the event, and the Panthers stepped in to fill the void.

The people showed up to a concert experience that thrived amid grief and persistent rage. Backed by a reform-minded Mayor John Lindsay, who’d built avenues of trust in Harlem by walking its streets on more than one occasion, the festival stood as a symbol of hope and everyday placemaking. Lindsay’s belief that “We can lick the problems of the ghetto, if we care,” morphed into the concert poster’s slogan, “Do you care?” Lindsay was introduced as “the blue-eyed soul brother, ” and the gospel great Mahalia Jackson — who would join the newly solo vocal powerhouse Mavis Staples for a duet — spoke confidently of his impending victory.

Those who turned out in Harlem bucked the malicious stereotype of “the black mob.” They gathered peacefully with no incident — conjuring an energy akin to that of their Bethel, N.Y., hippie brethren — open and ready to ride the wave of a local black sound utopia. They were the living embodiment of Sly and the Family Stone’s “everyday people.” From 1972’s Wattstax in Los Angeles to 1973’s Soul at the Center events at Lincoln Center, from Diana Ross’s heroic 1983 rain-soaked performance in Central Park to Dave Chappelle’s 2004 rousing neo-soul-fights-neoliberal-gentrification Block Party, the idea of the large-scale African-American pop concert as community revival, sustenance, triumph and renewal is a recurring phenomenon.

The Harlem Cultural Festival was arguably one of the first of its kind to promote black pop as transformative urban event, as a site to be inhabited as well as a sound to be experienced, and the key to new neighborhood connections and collaborations. Observes Ludevig, there remains the “irreplaceable notion that you cannot replace the live experience … there’s something about being in a space and experiencing it firsthand …” that is utterly singular and potentially restorative in the life of a community. For black folks, the added power and energy of coming together in a place where one could not only see, hear and feel blackness onstage but also participate in a marketplace of neighborhood business owners was its own form of sustainability.

Such a legacy lives on most notably in today’s venerable and beloved Afropunk festival. Now a global phenomenon in its 15th year, Afropunk’s Brooklyn extravaganza began as “a social experiment,” according to Matthew Morgan, one of the founders. To Morgan, the center of community “is a marketplace, a business, and a way for people to trade,” which is why his concerts, like the Harlem event half a century ago, place so much emphasis on not just music but black business and “socio-economic empowerment.”

It’s a spirit as old school as peace and love. But here it’s infused with Afrofuturist language and sensibilities of the now, a belief in the insurgent possibility of “the black hacker” who “disrupts the network,” “codes the culture” and “erodes the grid erected as a cage,” as Morgan puts it, all in the pursuit of vibrant new-world building.

Surely some of the seeds for such a movement were planted back in ’69, particularly when Simone chose as her final song a felt and pointed rendition of another new number, one she’d written in honor of her dear friend, the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who had died some four years earlier. A love letter to the next generation and a book of instruction, “To Be Young Gifted and Black” was the kind of anthem meant to reach that little girl in the crowd who was hanging on her every word. “Open your heart to what I mean,” sang Simone. “We must begin to tell our young/There’s a world waiting for you/Yours is the quest that’s just begun.” Out on the field, as she emphatically reminded the masses that “your soul’s intact,” the universe was wide open.

Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of African-American Studies at Yale University. She is the author of “Liner Notes for the Revolution: Black Feminist Sound Cultures,” forthcoming in 2020 from Harvard University Press.

Sahred From Source link Arts

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[nancydhooper]

Crip-a-Cola: From Gang to Brand?

Can a gang become a brand? This is a question asked in the new Netflix show, Trigger Warning,  produced by and starring Michael Render, AKA Killer Mike, one half of the Grammy-winning rap group Run the Jewels.

Killer Mike of Run the Jewels performing at Pitchfork Chicago on July 19, 2015 (Photo Credit: Me)

In Episode three, “White Gang Privilege,” Mike explores America’s love of the Outlaw, real and imaginary, and typically white: Al Capone, Tony Soprano, Tony Montana, Michael Corleone, Johnny Cash, Gordon Gecko, and Hells Angels, to name a few.  The episode begins with Mike asking: How is it possible for Hells Angels, a known biker gang, to sell t-shirts on Amazon? And what’s stopping black gangs from doing the same thing?

As Mike drives to trap house in Atlanta to find out, he comments that “even though black gangs … are as well known as the Hells Angels, they haven’t been able to cash in and trademark their brands in the same way.”  So he meets with Crips gang members Yayo, Murdo, AC, and Newny to discuss legitimate business ideas, like zipper and button manufacturing, and, eventually, the gang lands on a new brand of soda: Crip-a-Cola.

Crip-a-Cola Packaging as shown on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Spoiler alert: The episode proceeds to follow the gang through all of the typical startup business challenges: getting a loan (or at least trying), creating a minimum viable product (needs more sugar), working with a graphic designer (his first time working with a gang), consulting a beverage industry expert (impressed by the polished product), focus-group testing (everyone is afraid or skeptical at first, especially Mario!), advertising (a music video like commercial), and making that first sale (at a local farmer’s market), all while handling a new market rival (Blood Pop soda produced by the Crips’ rival gang, the Bloods).

Considering everything that went into the episode, and the seriousness of the effort, I was left scratching my head over the obvious, and perhaps true-to-life, startup oversight:  where’s the trademark lawyer?  I spotted at least four issues where a good trademark lawyer could have really helped.

Trademark Notice

Do you see the little circle-R next to the word Crip-a-Cola on the product packaging?  That means “registered trademark” and indicates that Crip-a-Cola is federally registered in the United States.  The only problem is that it’s not registered.  In fact, there isn’t even an application pending!  We’ve blogged before about misuse of the trademark registration symbol here (fraud?) and here (false advertising?).  A good trademark lawyer would have corrected that to a “TM” and filed an intent-to-use application before going live on Netflix (or even to that first farmer’s market).

Clearance

Another possible problem a trademark lawyer could have helped with: Clearance.  Can the Crips actually use “Crip-a-Cola?” despite at a minimum, perhaps calling to mind Coca-Cola?  While “calling to mind” is not infringement, does Crip-a-Cola step to closely to Coca-Cola, since Coca-Cola is a famous brand, and able to wield the full power of anti-dilution law?  What has Coca-Cola done with similar attempts?  A good trademark lawyer would investigate and find out:  of course, Coca-Cola will protect its corner, just take a look at the mark CropaCola, which popped up in 2014, and which Coca-Cola quickly opposed, on likelihood of confusion and dilution grounds, asserting the following:

[Coca-Cola] is the world’s largest beverage company, serving more than 1.6 billion consumers each day, in more than 200 countries around the world.  [The] COCA-COLA brand is the cornerstone of its portfolio, which presently includes fifteen billion dollar brands.  COCA-COLA and DIET COKE are the top two soft drink brands in the world. . . .[T]he ‘CROPA’ term in [CROPACOLA] is confusingly similar in sight and sound to the ‘COCA’ term in [COCA-COLA], containing the same number of syllables and a similar phonetic impression, which is compounded by the addition of the ‘COLA’ suffix, in and identical manner as the use of [Coca-Cola’s] COLA suffix.”

Seems plausible that Crip-a-Cola could expect the same treatment from the largest beverage company on Earth.  This is where having a trademark lawyer in your gang would really help.  For one, to identify issues like these (never mind taste infringement) and identify strategies for going forward, but more importantly, to look for defensible legal positions and creative solutions, for example, perhaps seizing on this line in Coke’s opposition: “Furthermore, the ‘CROPA’ term has no independent meaning, further failing to distinguish it from [Coca-Cola].”  (emphasis added).  Here, Crip-a-Cola may have an advantage: unlike “Cropa”, the term “CRIP,” does have several independent, distinct meanings (perhaps the most helpful is the possible backronym: “Common Revolution In Progress.”) and is likely famous, or infamous, in its own right.

Ownership

What else could a good trademark attorney help with?  How about determining ownership?  Absent a legal entity to own the CRIP-A-COLA mark and the related business, Yayo, Murdo, AC, Newny, and Killer Mike would own Crip-a-Cola jointly as individuals in a general partnership, the worst form of legal entity, due to the shared, personal, and unlimited legal liability each partner shoulders. Better to form an LLC at least, not only to more cleanly own the trademark, but to also remove personal liability, formalize ownership, management, and tax decisions, and adopt buy-sell provisions.

Furthermore, what about competing claims of ownership? Is there an official Crips entity that could claim false association?  Maybe – one trademark application filed July 5, 2018 for the mark CRIPS for “association services” and “Organizing chapters of a Community Revolution In Progress club and promoting the interests of the members thereof” suggests that an entity called Crips, LLC, may have been formed to claim leadership of the Crips.  This would be something any good trademark attorney would investigate, and develop a strategy for dealing with.

Legal Notices

Finally, the last issue in the episode I spotted, where good trademark lawyer would lend a hand, arises from the fine print claim made at the end of the Crip-a-Cola commercial (NSFW):

The fine print states that “unauthorized use of the Crip-a-Cola font is prohibited by law.”  The problem? Fonts, or typefaces, are only indirectly protected by law, and not in gross.  Sure, if your font is displayed as a result of computer software code operating on a device, then copyright protects the computer code necessary to display the font. This is the main reason why certain fonts are licensed. But if the font is “copied” or used without authorization through other means, there is no recourse under copyright law.  Instead, one would have to turn to trademark protection, which, absent a federal registration of the mark in stylized form would be limited geographically by common law rights, perhaps as narrowly as Atlanta or the State of Georgia.  And except for the famous fonts of famous brands (for example the Coca-Cola script), such rights would be further limited by the goods in connection with which the font is used, to prohibit use on only identical or related goods (for example, complimentary goods, or goods within the likely “zone of expansion”), in this case, rival beverage or food products. So the claim that the “unauthorized use of the Crip-a-Cola font is prohibited by law,” while not entirely untrue, is mostly inaccurate.

Outlaws are known for having their criminal defense attorneys on speed dial.  Maybe it’s time to add the number for a good trademark attorney.

Better Call Saul? Only if he practices trademark law!

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.23

229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu. 1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships. 1280 – The Spanish Reconquista: In the Battle of Moclín the Emirate of Granada ambush a superior pursuing force, killing most of them in a military disaster for the Kingdom of Castile. 1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge. 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins. 1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the "Treaty of Closer Amity With France" (also known as the Pommeraye treaty), pledging mutual aid against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. 1565 – Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Great Siege of Malta. 1594 – The Action of Faial, Azores. The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board. 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again. 1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. 1713 – The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey. 1758 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: British, Hanoverian, and Prussian forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeats Prussia. 1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township). 1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev. 1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company. 1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war. 1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office. 1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army. 1868 – Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer." 1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park. 1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. 1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta. 1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire. 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia. 1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam. 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane. 1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States. 1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city. 1940 – Henry Larsen begins the first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later. 1942 – World War II: Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales. 1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act. 1951 – The ocean liner, SS United States, is christened and launched. 1956 – The French National Assembly takes the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa. 1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career. 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world. 1961 – Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force 18 months after the opening date for signature was set for December 1, 1959. 1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference. 1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. 1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry. 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins. 1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale. 1985 – A terrorist bomb explodes at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. An hour later, the same group detonates a second bomb aboard Air India Flight 182, bringing the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard. 1991 – Sonic the Hedgehog is released to American audiences, then to PAL and Japanese audiences a month later, kickstarting the successful Sonic franchise. 1996 – The Nintendo 64 home video game console is released in Japan, ultimately selling 32.93 million units worldwide. 2001 – The 8.4 Mw  southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, and 2,687 injured. 2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials. 2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope. 2013 – Militants stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan killing ten climbers, and a local guide. 2014 – The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction. 2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%. 2017 – A series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 deaths and wounded 200 others.

[jimgsimon]

Crip-a-Cola: From Gang to Brand?

Can a gang become a brand? This is a question asked in the new Netflix show, Trigger Warning,  produced by and starring Michael Render, AKA Killer Mike, one half of the Grammy-winning rap group Run the Jewels.

Killer Mike of Run the Jewels performing at Pitchfork Chicago on July 19, 2015 (Photo Credit: Me)

In Episode three, “White Gang Privilege,” Mike explores America’s love of the Outlaw, real and imaginary, and typically white: Al Capone, Tony Soprano, Tony Montana, Michael Corleone, Johnny Cash, Gordon Gecko, and Hells Angels, to name a few.  The episode begins with Mike asking: How is it possible for Hells Angels, a known biker gang, to sell t-shirts on Amazon? And what’s stopping black gangs from doing the same thing?

As Mike drives to trap house in Atlanta to find out, he comments that “even though black gangs … are as well known as the Hells Angels, they haven’t been able to cash in and trademark their brands in the same way.”  So he meets with Crips gang members Yayo, Murdo, AC, and Newny to discuss legitimate business ideas, like zipper and button manufacturing, and, eventually, the gang lands on a new brand of soda: Crip-a-Cola.

Crip-a-Cola Packaging as shown on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Spoiler alert: The episode proceeds to follow the gang through all of the typical startup business challenges: getting a loan (or at least trying), creating a minimum viable product (needs more sugar), working with a graphic designer (his first time working with a gang), consulting a beverage industry expert (impressed by the polished product), focus-group testing (everyone is afraid or skeptical at first, especially Mario!), advertising (a music video like commercial), and making that first sale (at a local farmer’s market), all while handling a new market rival (Blood Pop soda produced by the Crips’ rival gang, the Bloods).

Considering everything that went into the episode, and the seriousness of the effort, I was left scratching my head over the obvious, and perhaps true-to-life, startup oversight:  where’s the trademark lawyer?  I spotted at least four issues where a good trademark lawyer could have really helped.

Trademark Notice

Do you see the little circle-R next to the word Crip-a-Cola on the product packaging?  That means “registered trademark” and indicates that Crip-a-Cola is federally registered in the United States.  The only problem is that it’s not registered.  In fact, there isn’t even an application pending!  We’ve blogged before about misuse of the trademark registration symbol here (fraud?) and here (false advertising?).  A good trademark lawyer would have corrected that to a “TM” and filed an intent-to-use application before going live on Netflix (or even to that first farmer’s market).

Clearance

Another possible problem a trademark lawyer could have helped with: Clearance.  Can the Crips actually use “Crip-a-Cola?” despite at a minimum, perhaps calling to mind Coca-Cola?  While “calling to mind” is not infringement, does Crip-a-Cola step to closely to Coca-Cola, since Coca-Cola is a famous brand, and able to wield the full power of anti-dilution law?  What has Coca-Cola done with similar attempts?  A good trademark lawyer would investigate and find out:  of course, Coca-Cola will protect its corner, just take a look at the mark CropaCola, which popped up in 2014, and which Coca-Cola quickly opposed, on likelihood of confusion and dilution grounds, asserting the following:

[Coca-Cola] is the world’s largest beverage company, serving more than 1.6 billion consumers each day, in more than 200 countries around the world.  [The] COCA-COLA brand is the cornerstone of its portfolio, which presently includes fifteen billion dollar brands.  COCA-COLA and DIET COKE are the top two soft drink brands in the world. . . .[T]he ‘CROPA’ term in [CROPACOLA] is confusingly similar in sight and sound to the ‘COCA’ term in [COCA-COLA], containing the same number of syllables and a similar phonetic impression, which is compounded by the addition of the ‘COLA’ suffix, in and identical manner as the use of [Coca-Cola’s] COLA suffix.”

Seems plausible that Crip-a-Cola could expect the same treatment from the largest beverage company on Earth.  This is where having a trademark lawyer in your gang would really help.  For one, to identify issues like these (never mind taste infringement) and identify strategies for going forward, but more importantly, to look for defensible legal positions and creative solutions, for example, perhaps seizing on this line in Coke’s opposition: “Furthermore, the ‘CROPA’ term has no independent meaning, further failing to distinguish it from [Coca-Cola].”  (emphasis added).  Here, Crip-a-Cola may have an advantage: unlike “Cropa”, the term “CRIP,” does have several independent, distinct meanings (perhaps the most helpful is the possible backronym: “Common Revolution In Progress.”) and is likely famous, or infamous, in its own right.

Ownership

What else could a good trademark attorney help with?  How about determining ownership?  Absent a legal entity to own the CRIP-A-COLA mark and the related business, Yayo, Murdo, AC, Newny, and Killer Mike would own Crip-a-Cola jointly as individuals in a general partnership, the worst form of legal entity, due to the shared, personal, and unlimited legal liability each partner shoulders. Better to form an LLC at least, not only to more cleanly own the trademark, but to also remove personal liability, formalize ownership, management, and tax decisions, and adopt buy-sell provisions.

Furthermore, what about competing claims of ownership? Is there an official Crips entity that could claim false association?  Maybe – one trademark application filed July 5, 2018 for the mark CRIPS for “association services” and “Organizing chapters of a Community Revolution In Progress club and promoting the interests of the members thereof” suggests that an entity called Crips, LLC, may have been formed to claim leadership of the Crips.  This would be something any good trademark attorney would investigate, and develop a strategy for dealing with.

Legal Notices

Finally, the last issue in the episode I spotted, where good trademark lawyer would lend a hand, arises from the fine print claim made at the end of the Crip-a-Cola commercial (NSFW):

The fine print states that “unauthorized use of the Crip-a-Cola font is prohibited by law.”  The problem? Fonts, or typefaces, are only indirectly protected by law, and not in gross.  Sure, if your font is displayed as a result of computer software code operating on a device, then copyright protects the computer code necessary to display the font. This is the main reason why certain fonts are licensed. But if the font is “copied” or used without authorization through other means, there is no recourse under copyright law.  Instead, one would have to turn to trademark protection, which, absent a federal registration of the mark in stylized form would be limited geographically by common law rights, perhaps as narrowly as Atlanta or the State of Georgia.  And except for the famous fonts of famous brands (for example the Coca-Cola script), such rights would be further limited by the goods in connection with which the font is used, to prohibit use on only identical or related goods (for example, complimentary goods, or goods within the likely “zone of expansion”), in this case, rival beverage or food products. So the claim that the “unauthorized use of the Crip-a-Cola font is prohibited by law,” while not entirely untrue, is mostly inaccurate.

Outlaws are known for having their criminal defense attorneys on speed dial.  Maybe it’s time to add the number for a good trademark attorney.

Better Call Saul? Only if he practices trademark law!

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