Food news of the world. Drug cartels are getting into the culinary business.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.22.2019

It has become increasingly common for Mexico City’s taquerias to serve fake guacamole in their tacos. The guacamole no longer has any avocado. High demand, measly harvests, and US and Mexican drug cartels are to blame.

Even Mexican drug cartels seem to want a piece of the avocado business. Due to its weather and geography, the Mexican state of Michoacán has become a hub for the production of synthetic drugs and, simultaneously, a “paradise” for the cultivation of avocados.

While drug cartels routinely threaten and extort money from farmers, avocado shipments are also often being attacked. 

The situation has led some leading producers to form their own security services, the so-called autodefensas, which is a private paramilitary force. 

The US has acquired quite a liking for the Mexican dip guacamole. Especially on the day of the Super Bowl, Americans devour the avocado-based dip in immense quantities. According to the Avocado Producers and Exporting Packers Association of Mexico (APEAM), 120,000 tons of avocados were imported by the US for consumption during this year’s Super Bowl alone. That’s 20% more than in the previous year and four times the quantity of 2014.

The Americans’ craving for avocado is increasingly forcing taco stalls in Mexico to serve their meat-filled tortillas with fake guacamole. The fake variety still contains the base ingredients of tomatoes, chili oil, salt, garlic and cilantro, but the avocados are substituted by a type of Mexican squash. The dip retains its green color and has a similar consistency and taste to the original. Nevertheless, “it still hurts,” the online portal Chilango said.

Recipes akin to one published by food blogger Alejandra de Nava have been in circulation for years now. The uproar around fake guacamole, however, stems from the skyrocketing prices for avocados, making their use in guacamole almost a luxury.

https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-facing-a-guacamole-crisis/a-49703429

Art and politics have always been intermingled.  Now the prestigious Whitney in New York City is in the cross hairs of art world politics.

Excerpted from The Guardian 7.21.2019

The removals from the prestigious survey of American art come after 46 of 75 artists picked for the show signed a letter in March demanding the resignation of Warren Kanders, a vice-president of the Whitney board with ties to a company that distributes equipment including teargas that the letter said has been used on migrants at the Mexican border, Palestinians in Gaza, protesters in Egypt and Puerto Rico, and against Native Americans protesting a pipeline at Standing Rock.

Many still exhibited but the protest was joined by more than 100 artists including Barbara Kruger and Nan Goldin, as well as dozens of curators, critics and theorists.

The artist Marilyn Minter, long rumored to be a member of Guerrilla Girls, a feminist activist group that has protested gender and ethnic bias in culture since the 1980s, said: “Nan Goldin is my hero.”

“I fucking hate the art world,” she added.

In a letter to the Whitney curators, the six artists who removed their work on Friday and Saturday (another cancelled his involvement before the show opened) said they were angered and conflicted by Kanders’ connections to Safariland, a distribution company.

Eddie Arroyo, Agustina Woodgate, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Meriem Bennani, Nicole Eisenman, Nicholas Galanin and Christine Sun Kim said the Whitney board’s failure to meaningfully respond to the March letter had forced their hand.

“Growing pressure from artists and activists has made our participation untenable,” read their letter, which was obtained by ArtForum. “The museum’s inertia has turned the screw, and we refuse further complicity with Kanders and his technologies of violence.”

Also on Saturday, the London-based collective Forensic Architecturerequested that a 10-minute video called “Triple-Chaser”, made with Praxis Films, which is run by the film-maker Laura Poitras, be taken down. Forensic Architecture said one of its researchers found what they believe to be direct evidence linking the firm to violence classified by the United Nations in a recent report as a potential war crime.

Art institutions are increasingly exposed over the sources of their funding. In June, Yana Peel, the chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries in London, stepped down after she was linked in a Guardian report to the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO, which has been criticised by human rights organisations.

Protests organised by Goldin at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums in New York, and regarding the Tate in London and the Louvre in Paris, with the anti-opioid group Pain, have forced several institutions to refuse funding from the Sackler family, whose firm, Purdue Pharma, has been accused of a role in triggering the opioid-abuse crisis. In March, some Sackler philanthropic groups said they would suspend giving.

Michael Quinn, a lawyer who works with Goldin and Pain, told the Guardian artists were merely stepping into a vacuum “created by government and corporate leaders’ failure to address some very basic societal problems”.

“I see artists increasingly stepping in as the voice of change,” he said. “This is clear from in the political work being exhibited.”

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/21/whitney-biennial-artist-new-york-warren-kanders

I am posting this OpEd Piece from the WSJ “Review” Section.  Interesting, informative and educational. The “Squad” is the future of this country.

Ben Zimmer – Wall Street Journal 7.20.2019

A harsh sentence, given that the Government acknowledges there was no evidence the accused forwarded the documents to an individual or rival country.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.19.2019

A former US contractor who stockpiled secret National Security Agency data at his home has been jailed for nine years. The case is another embarrassment for the NSA after Edward Snowden leaked classified info in 2013.

A former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) who stored more than two decades’ worth of classified documents at his home has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

The complaint did not reference that group or allege a link to Martin, and a defense attorney said Martin never intended to betray his country. But the disclosures were the most significant leak since the disclosures made by NSA contractor-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden in 2013 .

US District Judge Richard Bennett acknowledged at sentencing there was no evidence that Harold Martin had intended to forward classified information, but said “people’s lives were potentially in danger.”

NSA General Counsel Glenn Gerstell told the Reuters news agency at the time that the NSA was still assessing damage from the data theft, but said: “I don’t think this is a Edward Snowden-type situation.” Snowden, who has been granted asylum in Russia, said he deliberately exposed the scope of US government surveillance to force changes. The leaks and subsequent arrest are another embarrassment for the US intelligence community.

Martin, whose nine-year jail sentence stems from a plea agreement, apologized saying “my methods were wrong, illegal and highly questionable.”

He admitted guilt to a single count of willful retention of national defense information — after initially denying a strings of charges.

The FBI  arrested a National Security Agency contractor on charges of stealing highly classified information  in 2016.

The Maryland home of 51-year-old Harold Thomas Martin IIIwas raided by FBI agents  after he allegedly admitted to having taken government secrets, authorities said.

“Martin at first denied, and later when confronted with specific documents, admitted he took documents and digital files from his work assignment to his residence and vehicle that he knew were classified,” the Department of Justice affidavit alleged. “Martin stated that he knew what he had done was wrong and that he should not have done it because he knew it was unauthorized.”

The documents did not detail the classified information that the agency says it seized, but the move does correspond to a cyberleak of purported malicious hacking tools used by the NSA to tamper with firewalls, the electronic defenses protecting computer networks, which was pulled off by a group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers.”

https://www.dw.com/en/second-snowden-arrested-over-nsa-secrets/a-35968808

A solid progressive who knows Wall Street and the banking industry. This is a candidate who can build bridges and forge coalitions.  There is no debate thats amongst all the candidates Senator Warren knows the business world, can hold her own and has solid plans to bring fairness to the marketplace.

Excerpted from Politico 7.18.2019

“I think she is going to get the nomination because she’s the smartest, she’s charismatic and she’s the most policy-oriented,” said one former top executive at a large Wall Street bank who, like several interviewed for this story, declined to be quoted on record saying anything nice about Warren. “Wall Street is very good at accommodating itself to reality and if the reality is the party is going to be super-progressive, they may not like Warren but she’s a better form of poison than Bernie.”

 — Elizabeth Warren has another plan — this time to take on Wall Street and reshape the role of finance in the American economy.

And Wall Street isn’t panicking as she climbs in the polls.

People close to Warren note that she has the most extensive record of actually making changes in the financial industry, including helping set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, pressuring Wells Fargo to dump former CEO Tim Sloan and pressing for regulatory changes at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere. And they say she has the deepest Rolodex to staff a potential administration with like-minded officials in senior roles.

Most of them don’t love Warren’s economic and regulatory policies. But they generally understand them and appreciate that the Democratic presidential candidate declared herself a “capitalist to my bones” and believer in free markets, albeit with strong cops on the beat.

Warren released a new plan Thursday to take on private equity firms’ special treatment, roll back Trump-era financial deregulation and reinstall a Depression-era ban on investment banks also serving retail clients. Most of her proposals have drawn heated discussion for years, so her latest plan is not likely to shock the finance world.

Many bankers view Warren — a former Republican who’s made her policies clear for years — as the safer presidential choice if the progressive wing wins out in the Democrats’ internal war. If it comes down to Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an avowed democratic socialist who continues to make personal feuds with bankers a centerpiece of his campaign, many of them would swallow hard and take Warren.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/elizabeth-warren-wall-street-economy-1599221

Every Picture Tells a Story. Ongoing Series – 7.18.2019

Yikes!!!!!

Dede Wilsey, Doyen of the Arts and former President of the Fine Arts Museums

 Kimberly Guilfoyle, Governor Newsom’s “Ex”, has certainly taken a political right turn.

And, Donald, Jr.

Poster Posted by SF Examiner reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on Twitter

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/trump-jr-fundraises-for-president-at-nob-hill-party-for-sf-republicans/

Photo – Lee Heidhues

Today I took a tour of the sobering Anne Frank Exhibit on the 6th floor of the Main Branch at the San Francisco Public Library.  The Exhibit is something worth taking the time to study closely. The Frank family hid in a home on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam from 1942-1944 when they were betrayed and taken off to Nazi extermination camps. 

The Exhibit is on display until August 15.

July 17, 2019

Photos – Lee Heidhues

https://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1038730001

Meanwhile, out there in the Wild West.  Frontier justice wants to run unchecked.  These Boys (and Girls, too) want their toys.

Excerpted from The Guardian 7.16.2019

Needles city council voted to ask state legislature to allow gun owners from other states to carry registered firearms in town.

The small California city has voted to declare itself a “second amendment sanctuary” city, in a rebuke to the state’s strict policies on gun control.

California does not recognize any concealed carry permits from other states, and it is illegal to bring ammunition that is purchased in another state into California.

The city council of Needles voted unanimously last week to ask the state legislature to allow gun owners from other states to carry registered firearms in the town.

City lawmakers argue that the move will make it easier for residents of nearby states – Needles is located near the Arizona and Nevada borders – to shop and use the town’s services. But with a name echoing the “sanctuary city” designation several progressive California cities have taken on to signal protections for undocumented immigrants, the declaration also takes a stand against lawmakers in the state capital, who Needles officials feel do not always represent their views.

“There are a lot of laws that are written in Sacramento that are focused on San Francisco and Los Angeles and the coastal areas. They don’t think about us out here,” said the Needles mayor, Jeff Williams.

“There are other issues that need to be talked about besides protecting illegal immigrants from being deported,” Williams continued. “We need our constitutional rights protected also.”

“It’s in the federal constitution, and California has for years been slowly chipping away at our second amendment rights. I think communities are tired of it.”

Williams argues that these policies are especially harmful to cities like Needles and Lake Tahoe that border states such as Arizona and Nevada.

“Coming into California they need to stop carrying or unload and disarm, so we’re missing out on some commerce in that direction,” Williams said of Arizona residents who are disenchanted by California’s strict gun laws.

At the July city council meeting, several Arizona residents argued California’s gun laws made visits to Needles cumbersome. One Arizona resident presented his options as being forced to choose between being safe or being labeled a criminal.

“Every weekend I have to make that choice. Do I do something to make myself safe or do I have to make the terrible decision of breaking silly California law and becoming a criminal,” he said.

Now that the Needles city council approved the “second amendment sanctuary” resolution, the city of Tehachapi, over 200 miles away is looking to pass similar legislation.

Williams is hoping that other towns like Eureka and Lake Tahoe will follow suit to create a coalition of “second amendment sanctuary” cities that can take their efforts to California legislators.

“I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere but at a certain point you have to make a stand,” Williams said of the potential to have a “carve-out” of looser gun laws for border towns.

The Killer may have been apprehended but that is small comfort to the grieving family, friends and associates of Dr. Eaton

Excerpted from People and Keep Talking Greece 7.15.2019

The body of scientist Suzanne Eaton, who had been missing in Greece for nearly a week, was found on July 8

A local man has confessed to the murder of Suzanne Eaton a week after the missing U.S. scientist’s body was found by authorities in Crete, Greece.

A 27-year-old suspect has been arrested by police for the murder of the US biologist. According to local media, the father of two has confessed the heinous crime that shocked the communities in Crete, Greece and around the globe.

The farmer is married and a father of two, he is from Maleme and lives in Kissamos area together with his family.

According to local flashnews, despite all his attempts to cover the crime by throwing the body of the 60-year-old scientist in an old German bunker, he made a grave mistake that led police to his detention.

Traces of the car he used to transfer the body were found outside the bunker where the body was found.

The traces the car tires left on the soil, other findings in the crime scene as evaluation of mobile phone signals on the day Eaton went missing helped police make the murderer’s profile and limit the circle of suspects.

The suspect’s grave mistake was that while he was inside the bunker disposing Eaton’s body his mobile was turned on, leaving behind digital footprint that was easy for police to detect during investigation.

The perpetrator’s identity was ultimately revealed, police arrested him early Monday afternoon.

In the hands of police is reportedly also a foreign laborer who was working for the 27-year-old farmer. The laborer allegedly helped the murderer to transfer and hide the body in the bunker.

Local police announced on Monday the suspect is currently being detained and that they expect to have more information in the coming day, according to the outlet.

The shocking news comes nearly one week after a spokesperson for the police in Crete said authorities had discovered Eaton’s body approximately 200 feet inside of a cave — a site that was formerly used as a World War II bunker.

Located underneath an air shaft that had been covered with a large wooden pallet, police said they believe Eaton’s body, which was discovered face-down, was dumped inside of the cave after she had been suffocated to death.

The scientist had also suffered minor stab wounds to her body, though officials said they did not appear to have caused her death.

“The only thing we can say is that the [death] resulted from a criminal act,” Greek state coroner Antonis Papadomanolakis told the Associated Press last week.

Eaton, who worked at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany, disappeared while out for a run on the afternoon of July 2, her family said on Search for Suzanne, a Facebook page they set up to find her.

She was attending a conference at the Orthodox Academy of Crete and was somewhat familiar with the area as she had attended conferences there previously.

The 59-year-old scientist was known to run for 30 minutes every day, and the family said that she had done so the previous day at the same time, though details of where she was going remain unknown. Her cell phone and other belongings were left in her hotel room.

https://people.com/crime/man-confesses-murdering-american-scientist-suzanne-eaton-crete-greece/

https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2019/07/15/suzanne-eaton-man-arrested-farmer/

Talk about Old School!!! What is this?? 1955? We can’t expect anything else but crude stupidity from this worthless moronic Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.  McCarthyism is alive and well in Trump’s America

Excerpted from CNN 7.15.2019