Tuesday, June 20, 2017

does the usa really wanna fuck with the north korean million man army--oh, you will nuke them!





we love africa! marvin x speaks on the black arts movement business district


This event is to honor and uplift our Black and African community. We will be showcasing the richness and diversity of the Black and African culture through food, dance, music, and fashion. We will be collaborating with Black and African businesses to help give them a platform in the community while encouraging people to purchase products and services from them. This event as a whole will unify and bring together communities who may feel that they are alone or marginalized in this era of gentrification. We will encourage standing together, standing tall, and working together to make our community flourish.




Bio of Marvin X

Marvin X was born May 29, 1944, Fowler CA, nine miles south of Fresno in the central valley of California. In Fresno his parents published the Fresno Voice, a black newspaper.

Marvin attended Oakland’s Merritt College where he encountered fellow students how became Black Panther Party co-founders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. They taught him black nationalism.  Marvin’s first play Flowers for the Trashman was produced by the Drama department at San Francisco State University, 1965.  Marvin X dropped out to established his own Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966, along with playwright Ed Bullins. Months later Marvin would co-found Black House with Eldridge Cleaver, 1967.

Marvin introduced  Eldridge Cleaver to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.  Eldridge immediately joined the Black Panther Party.  Huey Newton said, “Marvin X was my teacher, many of our comrades came from his Black Arts Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver,  Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier.”

One of the movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) Marvin X has published 30 books, including essays, poetry, and his autobiography Somethin’ Proper. Important books include Fly to Allah, poems, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, and How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the 12 step Recovery model.

Marvin received his MA in English/Creative writing from San Francisco State University, 1975. He has taught at San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, UC Berkeley and San Diego, Mills College, Merritt and Laney Colleges in Oakland, University of Nevada, Reno.  He lectures coast to coast at such colleges and universities as University of Arkansas, University of Houston, Morehouse and Spelman, Atlanta, University of Virginia, Howard University, Univ. of Penn, Temple Univ., Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, UMASS, Boston.

His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."

For speaking, readings and performance, contact Marvin X @ jmarvinx@yahoo.com,
510-200-4164. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com


Monday, June 19, 2017

Cuba Responds to US Moonwalk

June 19, 2017
 
CUBA’S FORMAL RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2017 SPEECH IN MIAMI, FLORIDA ON UNITED STATES POLICY CHANGES TOWARDS CUBA 
Below is the full statement released Friday by the Cuban government.
On June 16, 2017, US President Donald Trump delivered a speech full of hostile anti-Cuban rhetoric reminiscent of the times of open confrontation with our country in a Miami theater. He announced his government’s Cuba policy, which rolls back the progress achieved over the last two years since December 17, 2014, when Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama announced the decision to re-establish diplomatic relations and engage in a process towards the normalization of bilateral relations.
In what constitutes a setback in the relations between both countries, President Trump, gave a speech and signed a policy directive titled “National Security Presidential Memorandum”, which provides the elimination of private educational “people-to-people” exchanges and greater control over all travelers to Cuba, as well as the prohibition of business, trade and financial transactions between US companies and certain Cuban companies linked to the Armed Revolutionary Forces and the intelligence and security services, under the alleged objective of depriving us from income. The US president justified this policy with alleged concerns over the human rights situation in Cuba and the need to rigorously enforce the US blockade laws, conditioning its lifting, as well as any improvements in US-Cuba bilateral relations to our country’s making changes inherent to its constitutional order.
Trump also abrogated Presidential Policy Directive “Normalization of Relations between the United States and Cuba”, issued by President Obama on October 14, 2016.  Although said Directive did not conceal the interventionist character of the US policy nor the fact that its main purpose was to advance US interests in order to bring about changes in the economic, political and social systems of our country, it did recognize Cuba’s independence, sovereignty and self-determination and the Cuban government as a legitimate and equal interlocutor, as well as the benefits that a civilized coexistence would have for both countries and peoples despite the great differences that exist between both governments.  The Directive also conceded that the blockade is an obsolete policy and that it should be lifted.
Once again, the US Government resorts to coercive methods of the past when it adopts measures aimed at stepping up the blockade, effective since February 1962, which not only causes harm and deprivations to the Cuban people and is the main obstacle to our economic development, but also affects the sovereignty and interests of other countries, which arouses international rejection.
The measures announced impose additional obstacles to the already very limited opportunities that the US business sector had in order to trade with and invest in Cuba.
Likewise, those measures restrict even more the right of US citizens to visit our country, which was already limited due to the obligation of using discriminatory licenses, at a moment when the US Congress, echoing the feelings of broad sectors of that society, calls not only for an end to the travel ban, but also for the elimination of the restrictions on the trade with Cuba.
The measures announced by President Trump run counter to the majority support of the US public opinion, including the Cuban emigration in that country, to the total lifting of the blockade and the establishment of normal relations between Cuba and the United States.
Instead, the US President, who has been once again ill-advised, is taking decisions that favor the political interests of an irrational minority of Cuban origin in the state of Florida which, out of petty motivations, does not give up its intent to punish Cuba and its people for exercising the legitimate and sovereign right of being free and having taken the reins of their own destiny.
Later on, we shall make a deeper analysis of the scope and implications of the announcement.
The Government of Cuba condemns the new measures to tighten the blockade, which are doomed to failure, as has been repeatedly evidenced in the past, for they will not succeed in their purpose to weaken the Revolution or bend the Cuban people, whose resistance against aggressions of all sorts and origins has been put to the test throughout almost six decades.
The Government of Cuba rejects political manipulation and double standards in human rights. The Cuban people enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms and can proudly show some achievements that are still a chimera for many countries of the world, including the United States, such as the right to health, education and social security; equal pay for equal work, children’s rights as well as the rights to food, peace and development. Cuba, with its modest resources, has also contributed to the improvement of the human rights situation in many countries of the world, despite the limitations inherent to its condition as a blockaded country.
The United States are not in the position to teach us lessons. We have serious concerns about the respect for and guarantees of human rights in that country, where there are numerous cases of murders, brutality and abuses by the police, particularly against the African-American population; the right to life is violated as a result of the deaths caused by fire arms; child labor is exploited and there are serious manifestations of racial discrimination; there is a threat to impose more restrictions on medical services, which will leave 23 million persons without health insurance; there is unequal pay between men and women; migrants and refugees, particularly those who come from Islamic countries, are marginalized; there is an attempt to put up walls that discriminate against and denigrate neighbor countries; and international commitments to preserve the environment and address climate change are abandoned.
Also a source of concern are the human rights violations by the United States in other countries, such as the arbitrary detention of tens of prisoners in the territory illegally occupied by the US Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba, where even torture has been applied;  extrajudicial executions and the death of civilians caused by drones; as well as the wars unleashed against countries like Iraq, under false pretenses like the possession of weapons of mass destruction, with disastrous consequences for the peace, security and stability in the Middle East.
It should be recalled that Cuba is a State Party to 44 international human rights instruments, while the US is only a State Party to 18.  Therefore, we have much to show, say and defend.
Upon confirming the decision to re-establish diplomatic relations, Cuba and the United States ratified their intention to develop respectful and cooperative relations between both peoples and governments, based on the principles and purposes enshrined in the UN Charter.  In its Declaration issued on July 1, 2015, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba reaffirmed that “these relations must be founded on absolute respect for our independence and sovereignty; the inalienable right of every State to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system, without interference in any form; and sovereign equality and reciprocity, which constitute inalienable principles of International Law”, as was established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), at its second summit held in Havana.  Cuba has not renounced these principles, nor will it ever do so.
The Government of Cuba reiterates its will to continue a respectful and cooperative dialogue on topics of mutual interest, as well as the negotiation of outstanding issues with the US Government.  During the last two years it has been evidenced that both countries, as was repeatedly expressed by the President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, can cooperate and coexist in a civilized manner, respecting the differences and promoting everything that benefits both nations and peoples, but it should not be expected that, in order to achieve that, Cuba would make concessions inherent to its sovereignty and independence, or accept preconditions of any sort.
Any strategy aimed at changing the political, economic and social system in Cuba, either through pressures and impositions or by using more subtle methods, shall be doomed to failure.
The changes that need to be made in Cuba, as those that have been made since 1959 and the ones that we are introducing now as part of the process to update our economic and social system, will continue to be sovereignly determined by the Cuban people.
Just as we have been doing since the triumph of the Revolution on January 1st, 1959, we will take on every risk and shall continue to advance steadfastly and confidently in the construction of a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.
Havana, June 16, 2017.
 
 

News Updates from CLG

 News Updates from CLG
18 June 2017
 
Previous edition: Top Republican among wounded as anti-Trump gunman fires on U.S. lawmakers
 
Breaking: London vehicle hits pedestrians, police say 'number of casualties' --Metropolitan Police say one person has been arrested --London Ambulance has sent "a number of resources" to the scene | 18 June 2017 | A vehicle has hit pedestrians in London's Finsbury Park, causing "a number of casualties," according to authorities. The city's Metropolitan Police said officers were called just after midnight Sunday to an incident on Seven Sisters Road. "There has been one person arrested," who authorities believe was the driver, police said. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said it is "too early to say" if the collision is a terror incident.
 
Finsbury Park Mosque: 'Several hurt' as van hits pedestrians | 19 June 2017 | Several people have been injured after a van struck a crowd of pedestrians near a north London mosque in what police have called a "major incident". One person was arrested following the collision near Finsbury Park Mosque in Seven Sisters Road. Officers were called at 00.20 BST and remain at the scene, the Metropolitan Police said. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said a van "intentionally" ran over worshippers.
 
Syrian army plane attacks ISIS; US-led coalition shoots it down | 18 June 2017 | The US-led coalition has downed a government warplane in southern Syria, the Syrian army and coalition have announced in separate statements. The Syrian military added that the plane's pilot is now missing. According to the Syrian statement, the plane was carrying out operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) [which is why the US shot it down] in the countryside around Raqqa when it was targeted, leading to a crash and the loss of the pilot, who is currently missing. "This attack comes at a time when the Syrian Arab army and its allies are advancing in the fight against ISIS terrorists who are being defeated in the Syrian desert in more ways than one," the statement read.
 
Russian airstrikes kill 2 ISIS commanders, thwart major attack on Deir ez-Zor - military | 17 June 2017 | Russian military intelligence has exposed an Islamic State plan to mount a major attack on the city of Deir ez-Zor in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said. It added that preemptive strikes to prevent the attack resulted in some 180 terrorists killed, including two commanders. The concentration of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL [but still I-CIA-SIS]) forces near the besieged Syrian city was noticed by Russian surveillance drones in early June, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
 
Seven U.S. soldiers wounded in insider attack at Afghan base - official | 17 June 2017 | At least one Afghan was killed and seven American soldiers were wounded in an "insider attack" at a base in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, a U.S. military official said. A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Kabul said earlier comments by an Afghan official that Americans had been killed were incorrect...In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said an Afghan commando loyal to the militant group had opened fire on foreign "invaders", killing four and wounding four others.
 
4,000 more US troops to be sent to Afghanistan - report | 16 June 2017 | Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is reportedly set to announce an increase of about 4,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Most of the US boots on the ground will train or advise Afghan forces, but some will battle both a resurgent Taliban and Islamic State. The Associated Press reported Thursday evening that the Pentagon will deploy nearly 4,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, based on information from an unnamed administration official. The Trump administration official told AP that an official announcement may come next week.
 
Missing sailors found dead in damaged US destroyer following collision near Japan - Navy | 18 June 2017 | Several sailors who went missing in Saturday's collision between the American destroyer USS Fitzgerald and a merchant ship off the coast of Japan have been found dead in the wreckage of the damaged part of the destroyer, the US 7th Fleet has confirmed. In total, seven US sailors were declared missing in the incident and three more were injured, including the commander of the ship, Bryce Benson. The bodies are being transferred to the US Naval Hospital Yokosuka for identification.
 
Seven sailors missing, three injured after U.S. Navy destroyer collides with container ship off Japan | 17 June 2017 | Seven sailors are missing and three injured after a U.S. Navy destroyer collided early on Saturday morning with a Philippine-flagged container ship south of Tokyo Bay in Japan, the U.S. Navy said. The Japanese Coast Guard said the destroyer was experiencing some flooding but was not in danger of sinking, while the merchant vessel was able to sail under its own power. The U.S. Navy said in a statement the USS Fitzgerald, an Aegis guided missile destroyer, collided with a merchant vessel at about 2:30 a.m. local time (1730 GMT), some 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, a rare incident on a busy waterway.
 
Top North Korean Nuclear Negotiator Secretly Met With U.S. Diplomats --Talks were aimed at freeing U.S. prisoners, establishing diplomatic channel | 18 June 2017 | For more than a year, American diplomats have held secret talks in Pyongyang and European cities with North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, hoping to free U.S. prisoners and even establish a diplomatic channel to constrain North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. The official dispatched by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- Madame Choi Sun Hee -- is well known to U.S. officials, fluent in English and is believed to have direct access to Mr. Kim. That raised expectations that the government eventually might engage with the Trump administration about the future of Pyongyang's weapons efforts. So did the agreed release this month of 22-year-old American prisoner Otto Warmbier, until it emerged he was in a coma.
 
North Korea Claims Otto Warmbier Sought Regime Change | 18 June 2017 | A North Korean official said that Otto Warmbier, the U.S. student released by North Korea last week in a coma after a 17-month detention, was "not an ordinary citizen of America" and was punished because he had sought to overthrow North Korea's government. The public comments suggest that North Korea is unlikely to back down from claims that Mr. Warmbier, 22 years old, was an agent of entities in the U.S. seeking to undermine the North Korean state, nor from the position that Mr. Warmbier had committed crimes that merited the harsh sentence that he received in January last year. Mr. Warmbier was sentenced by North Korea to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel on behalf of a Methodist church in Virginia and a secret society at the University of Virginia, with the knowledge of the Central Intelligence Agency.
 
'CIA’s Cherry Bomb': WikiLeaks #Vault7 reveals wireless network targets | 15 June 2017 | The latest WikiLeaks Vault7 release reveals details of the CIA's alleged Cherry Blossom project, a scheme that uses wireless devices to access users' internet activity. The Cherry Blossom program also provides a means to perform software exploits on particular 'targets', meaning the hacker can take advantage of vulnerabilities on the target's device, according to a WikiLeaks press release...No physical access is required to implant the customized Cherry Blossom firmware on a wireless device as some devices allow their firmware to be upgraded over a wireless link.
 
Suspected jihadists attack spa in Mali's capital, 2 dead | 18 June 2017 | Suspected jihadists attacked a hotel res-rt Sunday in Mali's capital, taking hostages at a spot popular with foreigners on the weekends. About 30 people managed to escape though at least two people were killed as the assault continued into the evening, authorities said. Gunfire first rang out at the Campement Kangaba on the outskirts of Bamako in the late afternoon, according to a security official with the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA. "I heard gunfire coming from the camp and I saw people running out of the site," said Modibo Diarra, who lives nearby. I learned that it was a terrorist attack."
 
Official: More Hanford nuclear accidents likely after back-to-back emergency evacuations --The Hanford site has produced up to 70 percent of the plutonium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal since it was established in World War II. | 15 June 2017 | Future accidental radiation releases at the largest U.S. site of waste from nuclear weapons production are likely following back-to-back emergency evacuations of workers in May and June because aging infrastructure is breaking down, the top Energy Department official at the site told The Associated Press. Adding to the likelihood of more nuclear mishaps accidents at the sprawling Hanford Nuclear Reservation is inadequate government funding to quickly clean up the millions of gallons of toxic nuclear waste at the site, said Doug Shoop, who runs the department's operations office at Hanford.
 
Group says Georgia nuclear plant costs rise to $29 billion | 15 June 2017 | A clean energy group that has opposed a nuclear project in Georgia estimates the plant's cost has soared to 29 billion in the wake of the b-nkr-ptcy of the half-finished plant's contractor, Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Toshiba Corp. Sara Barczak of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) said the new estimate adds 9 billion to its projected cost of the Vogtle project, which has been beset by delays and billions of d-llars of cost overruns. SACE based its latest estimate on a report last week by two utility consultants to the Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, including Southern Co's Georgia Power.
 
At least 58 feared dead in London tower fire, PM May admits failings | 17 June 2017 | At least 58 people are feared to have died in the fire that engulfed a London tower block this week, police said on Saturday, as Prime Minister Theresa May admitted that the response from the authorities had not been good enough. With anger mounting over the government's handling of the blaze, May met residents from the Grenfell Tower and vowed to personally oversee the recovery as protesters gathered to demonstrate in the streets around her residence for a second day...If the number [of deaths] is confirmed, it would make the Grenfell Tower blaze the deadliest in London since World War Two.
 
Representative Scalise's condition upgraded to 'serious' after shooting | 17 June 2017 | U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, showed further improvement days after being shot by a man who opened fire on lawmakers at a baseball practice earlier in the week, his lead surgeon said in a statement on Saturday. Scalise's condition was upgraded to "serious," from "critical" after undergoing another surgery on Saturday, according to a statement from Dr. Jack Sava, the director of trauma at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Scalise, 51, sustained injuries to internal organs, broken bones and severe bleeding after being shot in his left hip early on Wednesday at a baseball field in a suburb of Washington.
 
'Assassination list of Republicans' is found in the pocket of Trump-hating gunman who opened fire on GOP congressman at baseball practice | 17 June 2017 | The gunman who opened fire on a group of congressmen and their staffers on Wednesday morning at a baseball practice session in Alexandria, Virginia, had 'an assassination list of Republicans' in his pocket. James T Hodgkinson gunned down five people, including GOP House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, as they practiced for a baseball game meant for charity at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park. On Thursday, the FBI recovered the list of names, which suggests the shooting was a premeditated political assassination, according to Fox News.
Georgia Republican congressional candidate is sent white powder with a note saying 'resist the fascist takeover' through the mail --Envelopes with white powder were delivered to Karen Handel and four of her neighbors in Roswell, Georgia, on Thursday --Notes in the envelopes called the GOP congressional candidate a 'dirty fascist c***' | 16 June 2017 | A suspicious note with white powder was delivered to the home of Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel. Georgia police confirm they are now investigating a total of five calls after Handel and her neighbors received envelopes containing a powdery substance and a note labeling her a 'dirty fascist' on Thursday. According to Roswell Police spokesperson Lisa Holland, police received a call around 1:30pm that someone had received an envelope in a mailbox that contained an unidentified powdery substance in the suburban neighborhood of Roswell. The note read:
Your neighbor Karen Handel is a dirty fascist c*** but I'm sure you already knew that. Take a whiff of the powder and join her in the hospital you Bourgeoisie [sic] motherf******.
RESIST THE FASCIST TAKEOVER!!!!!
STRING UP THE COLLABORATORS!
 
South Carolina terminal reportedly evacuated as FBI investigates report of dirty bomb | 15 June 2017 | The FBI late Wednesday is investigating a report of a dirty bomb on a ship at the Wando Terminal, which is located at the Port of Charleston. The terminal has been evacuated, along with a section of the Cooper River, reports said. Capt. Greg Stump, the commander for the Coast Guard sector in Charleston, said a number of law enforcement agencies are on the scene.
 
One of the LAPD cruisers allegedly stolen by cadets was driven more than 1,000 miles, sources say | 16 June 2017 | The Los Angeles police cadets suspected of stealing three cruisers and leading officers on wild car chases this week had made themselves unauthorized police uniforms and had driven at least one of the stolen patrol cars more than 1,000 miles, according to police sources. Investigators are trying to determine what the teens were doing with the vehicles as well as where they went. Police said one of the cars went missing in late May. Detectives want to figure out whether the vehicle was stolen once or repeatedly taken and returned without detection, which would raise even greater concerns about how the LAPD tracks its cars.
 
LAPD cadets stole police cars and may have impersonated officers, chief says | 15 June 2017 | The Los Angeles Police Department has long hailed its cadet program as a successful partnership between police and the city's young residents...But on Wednesday night, three of those cadets crossed paths with city police officers in a way that LAPD officials surely hoped would never happen -- when they became suspects. Racing through the streets of South L.A. in a pair of stolen police cruisers, three teenage cadets led LAPD officers on car chases that ended in separate crashes, Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday afternoon. The chases sparked an investigation that revealed some of the cadets may have also stolen a bulletproof vest, two stun guns and two police radios, the chief said.
 
Connecticut NBC station won't air Megyn Kelly interview | 16 June 2017 | The only NBC television station in Connecticut will not air "Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly" this weekend, to protest her interview with Alex Jones, who infuriated victims of the [alleged] 2012 Sandy Hook massacre by claiming it never happened. In a memo to the staff at New Britain's WVIT, obtained by The Post, station general manager Susan Tully said the "wounds of that day," when a madman with a rifle murdered 20 first graders and 6 adults "have yet to heal." The network will instead air a special which will include parents of the Sandy Hook victims and Connecticut Governor [globalist fraud] Dannel Malloy.
 
Outrageous censorship demand that must be fought: Sandy Hook families threaten legal action against NBC News over Alex Jones interview | 16 June 2017 | Several of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School [alleged] shooting have threatened legal action against NBC if it airs Megyn Kelly's interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has called the 2012 massacre [drill-gone-live] a hoax. In a letter to NBC News executives obtained by the Los Angeles Times, a law firm representing the families says the network is inflicting harm on them by presenting the views of Jones, a right-wing Internet radio host and founder of the website Infowars, even though the network knows claims they are false.
 
Starbucks Customer Says She Was Mocked for Wearing a Donald Trump Shirt | 17 June 2017 | A North Carolina woman said that she was mocked by employees at a local Starbucks for wearing a T-shirt with an image of President Donald Trump. Kayla Hart said that she walked into one of the chain's Charlotte stores donning the shirt and was laughed at by a cashier who took her order, according to local affiliate Fox 46. Her order was then labeled with the phrase "Build a Wall," a reference to Trump's campaign promise, she said. "They shouted out build a wall and shoved a drink at me and then all the baristas in the back started cracking up laughing," she told the station.
 
Trump cancels Obama's policy to let millions of illegals stay because their 'dreamer' children are U.S. citizens --Trump abruptly canceled policy on Thursday night - ending litigation over it after Supreme Court let Texas federal court block on it stay in place | 16 June 2017 | The Trump administration announced that it is cancelling an Obama-era policy to allow millions of illegal-immigrant parents of children born in the United States to stay in the country. The 2014 policy, known as DAPA, for Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, aimed to help the families of so-called 'dreamer' children stay together free from the threat of deportation. It was never implemented after 26 states successfully sued in a Texas federal district court to block it...the Department of Homeland Security announced it was rescinding the policy with the support of the Justice Department.
 
Trump Reverses Pieces of Obama-Era Engagement With Cuba | 16 June 2017 | President Trump announced on Friday that he was reversing crucial pieces of what he called a "terrible and misguided deal" with Cuba and will reinstate travel and commercial restrictions eased by the Obama administration in an attempt to obtain additional concessions from the Cuban government. During a speech in Little Havana, the epicenter of a Cuban exile community that enthusiastically supported him in last year's election, Mr. Trump said he was keeping a campaign promise to roll back the policy of engagement begun by President Barack Obama in 2014...After the speech, he signed a six-page directive that ordered new travel and commercial restrictions while leaving in place some key Obama-era measures that eased sanctions.
 
Protests over Minnesota police shooting result in 18 arrests on freeway | 17 June 2017 | A protest on a Minnesota freeway over the acquittal of a police officer in the slaying of black motorist Philando Castile resulted in the arrest of 18 demonstrators early on Saturday, state police said. The arrests came hours after St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was found not guilty on Friday of second-degree manslaughter in 32-year-old Castile's July 2016 shooting death in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights. Protesters held a peaceful demonstration on Friday at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul and then about 1,500 converged on Interstate 94 in the city, blocking the freeway, a Minnesota State Patrol spokeswoman said in an email statement.
 
Minn. officer acquitted of manslaughter for shooting Philando Castile during traffic stop | 16 June 2017 | The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop was acquitted on all charges by a jury Friday, a decision that came nearly a year after the encounter was partially streamed online before a rapt nation in the midst of a painful reckoning over shootings by law enforcement. Officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled over Castile in Falcon Heights, a suburb near Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the officer later said he thought Castile matched the description of a suspect in a recent robbery. The stop quickly escalated. The jurors in the case had been deliberating since Monday, and the verdict was announced on Friday afternoon after about 27 total hours of deliberation, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
 
Southwest braces itself for record-shattering, week-long heat wave with temperatures of up to 123 degrees across the region | 17 June 2017 | When bracing for 120 degrees, it's all about the water. Drinking it, splashing in it to stay cool, and drinking it some more...That's what officials were urging and residents were planning Friday as a potentially record-shattering heat wave started enveloping the Southwest United States, threatening to bring temperatures of more than 120 degrees to parts of Arizona and California next week. Officials warned of excessive heat across southern portions of Arizona and Nevada, and throughout the 450-mile length of California's Central Valley.
 
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Saturday, June 17, 2017

Marvin X Notes on San Francisco's Juneteenth 2017




When I arrived to autograph books and distribute the Movement Newspaper, Voice of the Black Arts Movement International and Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District, the organizers informed me this year's festival was limited to three blocks and their perception is that it will shrink more in coming years in tandem with the ever shrinking North American African population that used to inhabit the Fillmore with soul people and their businesses, clubs, restaurants, bars, barber and beauty shops, yes, Harlem of the West, along with West Oakland's 7th Street. The show is over now, except for the annual Juneteeth Festival, a pitiful reminder of San Francisco's Black cultural heritage.
The new colonial occupiers, aka gentrifiers, depart their condos and apartments to come face to face with a sea of North American Africans enjoying themselves, eating, drinking, buying, selling in the best African tradition. The curious whites want to know what kind of festival is this? When we inform them it is the Juneteenth Festival, they reply with, "Oh, Oh, Juneteenth, that's right!" Now we know they don't know a goddamn thing about Juneteenth but their pervasive addiction to white supremacy will not allow them to admit they are ignorant of Juneteenth or any other subject in the universe.

But more importantly was the question I asked the North American Africans when I gave out The Movement Newspaper, including our Janteenth issue, "Did you know Oakland had Janteenth?" Of course they did not know the Oakland City Council passed legislation on January 19, 2016, establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor from the lower bottom to Lake Merritt. Clearly there are city and business persons who want to delay informing North American Africans they have  an arts, culture and business district in the downtown area, especially since we are in a race with developers to occupy the same space.

The Fillmore lost to developers years ago during the redevelopment or "negro removal" era. Oakland's BAMBD district seems headed toward a similar fate, although West Oakland suffered "negro removal" then and now with the white occupation of West Oakland residential space as well as the business district  Silicon Valley firms lead the way of displacement.  The only salvation for the BAMBD will be going beyond community benefit packages to partnerships with developers so we will at least be owners and/or partial owners of  business and residential buildings in the BAMBD.

But without radical education that prepares North American Africans  for high paying jobs that will qualify us to buy homes and rent apartments at market rate, we are doomed. Radical education must not only involve STEM but apprentice programs in the trades. This radical education should be offered to all those inmates of  America's prisons and jails to decrease the need to commit economic crimes.

We have repeatedly called upon the Oakland City Council to pass the necessary policy changes to permit people in our district to vend on the street regularly as happens in Berkeley, San Francisco and elsewhere in Oakland, such as the Fruitvale with its plethora of street vendors. This will be a model for entrepreneurship, especially for our young men and women who think they must sell drugs and/or pimp and prostitute to survive. Long ago we asked, "Why is the dope man the number one employer of our youth?"

Despite the shrinking space of San Francisco's Juneteenth, organizer Arnold Townsend was happy today's festival went well, in fact, he said it's gone well the last three years without youth violence.
He said our youth just need to learn how to socialize with adults and learn how to be on good behavior in the presence of their elders.

--marvin x
6/17/17

be sure to visit the berkeley flea market when you attend berkeley juneteenth
the flea market needs your support
in the era of gentrification
the flea market is at the north end of the juneteenth festival
ashby bart station
 
 marvin x and fans at berkeley flea market
 

trump orders apprenticeship programs---will the no people say no no no no?



President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order during an event on Apprenticeship and Workforce of Tomorrow initiatives, Thursday, June 15, 2017, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. He is joined by, from second from left, ... (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday to expand apprenticeship programs in an effort to close the skills gap weighing on businesses and workers in the nation’s labor market.
“We’re empowering these companies, these unions … to go out and create new apprenticeships for millions of our citizens … [to] place students into great jobs without crippling debt ... instead apprentices earn while they learn,” Trump said Thursday.
The order, developed with the help of the Department of Labor, will give businesses, trade unions and other third parties more flexibility to develop “high-quality” technical education programs that could be eligible for expedited review by the Department of Labor, according to an administration official. It will also provide more funding and create a task force of business leaders to help promote the programs across new sectors, as well as assess the effectiveness of the job-training programs currently in place.
White House officials have pointed to 6 million job openings across the United States—the highest level since 1980, it says—and the 8.4 percent U-6 unemployment rate as illustrative of the skills gap in action. Americans want to work, but executives are having trouble finding workers with the appropriate skills to fill open positions, they say. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta and Trump’s special adviser, daughter Ivanka Trump, have said this week that apprenticeship programs are a way to equip workers will the necessary training so these jobs don’t remain unfilled.

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The president has sold training programs as an affordable and secure alternative to a traditional four year degree. The administration said Thursday that 90 percent of apprentices find employment upon completing their training programs and the average starting salary is $60,000. Technical program grads also see a “$300,000 lifetime increase in earnings” and don’t owe student loans, according to the administration.
Secretary Acosta said earlier this week business leaders have been eager to work with the administration on workforce development and indicated apprentices are in demand across the labor market. Amazon (AMZN), which currently offers a “career-choice” training program, expects its level of participants to double by the year 2020, according to Dave Clarke, the company’s SVP of Worldwide Operations.
Ivanka Trump met with business leaders Wednesday in a roundtable discussion on workforce development and one of the CEOs in attendance, Judith Marks of Siemens, told FOX Business the meetings with administration officials have been “very positive” and helpful for both sides. She also said it was important to implement these programs at the local—not federal—level because that allows businesses to work with community colleges to develop the appropriate curriculums.
Next week Congress will vote on the Perkins Act, which would increase appropriations for career-technical education programs to $1.23 billion by 2022 and return oversight authority from federal officials to local ones. The bill has enjoyed the support of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

Marvin X at the San Francisco's Juneteeth 2016 in Fillmore














marvin x helped unify berkeley juneteenth and the berkeley flea market for the first time in 30 years!