> 3.3. LEVELS OF AUTHORITY.

> Subject to Paragraph 3.1., Defense Intelligence Components may provide personnel to assist a Federal department or agency, including a Federal law enforcement agency, or a State or local law enforcement agency when lives are in danger, in response to a request for such assistance, in accordance with the following approval authorities:

> a. Secretary of Defense Approval.

> (1) The Secretary of Defense may approve any type of requested permissible assistance described in Paragraph 3.2.

> (2) The decision to approve requests for these types of permissible assistance described in Paragraph 3.2. to law enforcement agencies and other civil authorities are reserved to the Secretary of Defense:

> (a) Provision of personnel to support response efforts for civil disturbances, which may also require Presidential authorization.

> (b) DoD response to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive incidents.

> (c) Assistance in responding with assets with potential for lethality, or any situation in which it is reasonably foreseeable that providing the requested assistance may involve the use of force that is likely to result in lethal force, including death or serious bodily injury. It also includes all support to civilian law enforcement officials in situations where a confrontation between civilian law enforcement and civilian individuals or groups is reasonably anticipated. Such use of force must be in accordance with DoDD 5210.56, potentially as further restricted based on the specifics of the requested support.

> (d) Provision or use of DoD unmanned systems in the United States except as delegated by the Secretary of Defense pursuant to the October 31, 2023 Secretary of Defense Memorandum.

Under this undemocratic system dominated by the two parties of Wall Street, alternative candidates like Claudia and Karina are unjustly excluded from the polls, debates, and most mainstream coverage. But thanks to the tireless work of thousands of volunteers, we’re breaking through the obstacles!

>At the time of Roberson’s trial, shaken baby syndrome — now referred to as abusive head trauma — was a common misdiagnosis. > >In 2013 the Texas Legislature passed what is now called the junk science law, or statute 11.073. The law allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used against them is no longer credible. > >However, according to a report by the Texas Defender Service, “of the 25 applications filed by people sentenced to death, 64% were dismissed or denied. Applications from death-sentenced people constituted 34% of all applications filed. The deadly consequences of this pattern are clear: People may be executed following convictions that rest on faulty science, because they are unable to obtain relief under 11.073.” (tinyurl.com/4jyw36s3) > >When an execution date was ordered this past summer, action went into high gear. A bi-partisan majority of the Texas House of Representatives urged the state to grant clemency. Famed writer and retired attorney John Grisham penned op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Almost all Texas media was reporting on the case as were national press from the New York Times to CNN to Time Magazine. > >A group of legislators spent several hours at the prison housing death row visiting Roberson and praying with him. Even the coach of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team urged Texans to contact the governor and ask for the execution to be stopped. > >No one knows what will happen after Roberson testifies before the House Committee. Another execution date could be immediately set by either the Anderson County District Attorney or Attorney General Paxton, although it would have to be at least 90 days away. This would then necessitate a new round of appeals and hopefully some court or judge or body would find a way to listen to the facts of the case and either drop the charges or order a new trial. > >When Roberson was asked what he wanted, he simply said he wanted to go home.

>The agreement was made with the intervention of Secretary of Labor Julie Su, an agent of the Biden administration and the corporations. The strike stems from the workers’ anger at being without a new contract for 16 years due to Boeing’s attacks and concessionary bargaining by the Machinists union leadership. In an era of galloping inflation, IAM members have experienced a lot of erosion in their living standards. > >The workers have been told by Boeing that the company will move their jobs elsewhere. Cutbacks, harassment, layoffs and outsourcing have been applied. But the Machinists understand that they’re essential, and Boeing can’t build planes without them. > >The union is demanding a pay increase of 40%. The workers have come close to winning this with a pay hike of over 35% in the most recent contract offer. Boeing’s first and second offers of 25% and 30% were rejected by the strikers. > >Workers are demanding a return to their defined benefit pension plan, which was stolen from them in 2014. The company has added new contributions to the IAM’s 401(k) plan in the latest offer but refuses to restore traditional, defined benefit pensions, which are better for the workers. For this reason, the IAM leadership is not recommending a “yes” vote. > >Many Machinists might hold out for pensions. At a recent rally of several thousand strikers, they chanted, “Pension, Pension!” After the rally, the workers marched from the Machinists Hall to Boeing’s Seattle plant. > >In retaliation for the strike, Boeing has imposed extreme attacks on its workers. The company has canceled all of the strikers’ medical plans for the duration of the strike. > >Boeing has a debt of $45 billion and in the first half of 2024 had a cash outflow of $8 billion. Before the strike began, the company started furloughing thousands of workers, i.e., making them work only three weeks out of four. Then on week five of the strike, Kelly Ortberg, the new company CEO, announced the layoff of 10% of Boeing’s workforce – 17,000 workers. These are mostly non-union workers or workers from outside of Seattle and Portland. The union Machinists would not be laid off. > >These attacks are anti-worker and contradict the company’s supposed need to increase production. This ploy is only an attempt to conserve cash. The IAM responded to this by condemning Boeing’s payment of $68 billion to Wall Street investors in dividends and stock buybacks in the last decade. > >Boeing is desperate. Although some strikers are hurting after 40 days, they are still strong on the picket line.

>Over a century of imperialist exploitation of Congo’s natural resources and labor has left the people in poverty and experiencing human rights violations, while billionaires have reaped huge profits. > >A group of international lawyers, on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), sent a letter in April to Apple’s CEO, charging that minerals used to make its products are mined illegally in the country under abusive conditions and then smuggled out by armed groups. > >The letter includes this charge: “The iPhones, Mac computers and accessories that Apple sells to its customers around the world rely on supply chains that are too opaque and that are tainted by the blood of the Congolese people.” (2024.04.25-AP-DRC-Blood-Minerals.pdf) > >Over the past three years, a war of aggression has been waged for economic gain by the March 23 Movement (M23), whose members have killed hundreds of civilians and forced more than 1 million people to abandon their homes. The term “genocost,” meaning genocide for economic gain, has been used to describe what is happening in Congo. Reinforcements from the Rwandan Defense Forces have aided M23, and Rwanda has managed to launder vast quantities of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold from the DRC. > >In a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City in 1964, Malcolm X made the connection between conditions in Congo and those that Black people face in the United States: “As long as we think that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you’ll never get Mississippi straightened out — not until you start realizing your connection with the Congo.” (friendsofthecongo.org)

>On the 25th anniversary this year, the often-overlooked impact of capital punishment on families was highlighted, and they were the only speakers at this year’s rally organized by a coalition of groups on Oct. 19. > >Before the rally a spirited march took everyone to a nearby overpass of a busy freeway where a banner drop was held. Traffic honked approval, and three large banners and dozens of signs were well-received. > >Speaking and chanting on bull horns as they went through the historic Third Ward African American neighborhood, words echoed off the homes and buildings with chants like “Death penalty? Shut it down!” and “Texas says death row! We say hell no!” > >The rally at Our Park, adjacent to the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, was led off by the mother of Erica Sheppard, who was sent to death row in 1993 at age 19, and said she was angry and tired. > >Madelyn Johnson has raised Sheppard’s three children and numerous grandchildren and said, “I am ready for Erica to come home.” Johnson talked about the expense, both financial and emotional, of visiting her daughter. > >She drives over three hours to visit her daughter, paying for overpriced food and drinks from the vending machines. She regularly puts in money in her daughter’s commissary account for essentials like toothpaste, deodorant and extra food, plus she buys minutes so Erica can regularly call home.

>Following the reading of these demands and the statement that preceded them, the community heard from three more speakers. The first speaker represented SUNY Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and she connected her experience as a student activist in the 1980s pushing for divestment from South African apartheid to the current struggle to push for divestment from Israel. > >The second speaker represented the No CAS Cuts movement (budget cuts to the College of Arts and Sciences) and connected the crackdown on the humanities — including the firing of staff and cancellation of classes — to the current crisis of end-stage capitalism. > >The final speaker represented the Buffalo branch of Workers World Party and spoke about his time as a member of YAWF (Youth Against War and Fascism) fighting against Vietnam war recruitment activities on campus. He closed his speech by pointing out a connection between the U.S. military and how college campuses are complicit in [neo]imperialism.

>Lea Kayali, a Palestinian Youth Movement organizer said: “I come to you all in a state of mourning, but not in a state of despair. Because to be Indigenous is to embody the word ‘sumud,’ a word in Arabic that means steadfastness. To be sumud is to insist with our bodies and our spirits that we will resist colonialism with every moment of our lives. […] It is the strength of this movement of five centuries of anticolonial struggle that is a promise of liberation. […] From Turtle Island to Palestine, we demand Land Back and nothing less!” > >To close the rally, demonstrators joined hands to participate in a traditional round dance to commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day and give expression to the ongoing resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples around the world. > >Jean-Luc Pierrite said, in his closing remarks on the strike line: “We are here for all our [Indigenous] relations. We are here for our workers. We are here! Make them pay! Land back!”

>The school’s founder, psychologist Matthew Israel, patented a remote-controlled device called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED). The FDA banned the use of the device, but JRC successfully overturned the ban in court. After Congress empowered the FDA to ban such shocks as behavioral therapy, the agency is working towards a new ban. > >FDA ban proposal > >The FDA wrote in its ban proposal, “These devices present a number of psychological risks including, depression, anxiety, worsening of underlying symptoms, development of post-traumatic stress disorder and physical risks such as pain, burns and tissue damage.” > >JRC students with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable, the FDA notes, because it may be difficult for them to communicate about pain or other harms they experience from the shocks. > >School staff members administer electric shocks through electrodes attached to a student’s arm, leg or torso to cause a change in their behavior. According to their website (judgerc.org), “A highly trained and experienced staff member skillfully opens a plastic box and presses a button causing two seconds of safe electrical current.” Students wear up to five of the electrodes, even while sleeping, > >JRC is the only program in the U.S. that uses electric shocks to control behavior. The center compares the shock to a bee sting, but survivors of JRC have testified that it causes severe, lingering muscle cramps. According to its website, JRC is “licensed to serve ages five through adult.” It has used the device on minors, but states that it now delays shocks until age 18. Each student’s shock program is approved by psychologists and by the Bristol County Probate Court. > >In 2010, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, referred to the use of electrical shock devices for this kind of therapy as torture and sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government to investigate. > >Israel claimed that there are no negative side effects from skin shock. Professor Nancy Weiss, co-author of a book on the Rotenberg Center, responded that people who have experienced the shock at JRC describe it as the worst pain they have ever felt, and years later still have debilitating PTSD. “Electric shocks are not a professionally accepted approach to behavior management. […] You’re not allowed to use electric shock on prisoners, or prisoners of war or convicted terrorists.” > >The JRC responds that using electric shock is “a treatment of last resort” for residents who harm themselves, but their court-approved programs allowed harmless behaviors to be shocked, including hand-flapping, standing up without permission, taking their eyes off of their work, nagging, disobeying orders or making noises.

(Emphasis original.)

>The school district says that it has a $100 million deficit. Parents reply that there has been little communication about how the district plans to do this. Seattle certainly has enough billionaires and corporate wealth that it’s absurd that there’s not enough money for schools. > >All Together for Seattle Schools, a community opposition organization, has pointed out that the state has $1.2 billion in excess tax revenues that could also solve Seattle Public Schools’ budget crisis. All Together has held two big protest rallies of parents, students and teachers outside John Stanford school district headquarters. > >Faced with the opposition, the district has now reduced its threat to close five schools instead of 20, but parents argue this could be the first of many closures and cuts that are still planned. > >One of the schools facing the threat is the Licton Springs K-8 school (kindergarten to 8th grade), which houses the program set up for Indigenous students, who have spoken out at school board meetings in opposition.

>One of the organizers, Jonas, speaking to the demonstrators and the media, explained that the administration had refused one of the meetings they had promised last spring. In another broken promise, it refused to release information about new investments. The administration held only one of the three meetings they promised. And it maintained university punishments of some of the students, including Jonas. > >The students demanded that the administration hold to the agreement it made with them last spring. This included providing details about all new investments so students could screen them. > >Now the students demand FIT set up a screen for further investments so they invest no new money in military corporations supplying arms to Israel; all charges against students dropped, no suspensions or arrests; a referendum on divestment from companies engaged with […] apartheid; and divestment from companies that used forced prison labor at “slave” wages. Students demand that FIT President Joyce Brown make a statement condemning the genocide […] in Gaza. > >Showing the development of students’ politics, chants were not only to “stop the genocide!” but “long live the Intifada!” and “liberation for Palestine!” > >If FIT students give a fair measure of the mood on campuses in general, student solidarity with Palestine is refusing to diminish and attitudes are sharpening while the U.S.-funded genocidal war expands in West Asia.

>Boeing is up to its neck in problems, facing three things: a powerful strike, a mounting pile of production and financial troubles and anger over Boeing’s rôle as a producer of weapons used against Palestine and the Arab World. There is a growing outcry against the company for its anti-labor attacks and its genocidal role in the war on the people of Palestine. People are protesting Boeing worldwide. > >District 751 Local I President Bruce McFarland said: “What do the Boeing Machinists want? It’s simple. We want what was taken from us 10 years ago when we were pressured into a contract that took away our pension, forced us into a stagnating wage package and raised our medical bills.” (Seattle Times, Oct. 11) > >The previous contract, when the union made concessions, has meant that entry level workers are barely making $21 an hour. McFarland described an avalanche of Boeing and state government maneuvers and threats which essentially forced a regressive contract down the workers’ throats. This included a wholesale moving of much of Boeing airplane production from Seattle to a non-union plant in South Carolina. > >This was a stinging defeat for the Machinists, but now they are back on their feet to fight again — like so many other workers. > >With negotiations at an impasse, Boeing has announced job cuts affecting 10% of its workforce. These cuts are company-wide and involve supervisory as well as hourly workers.

SACRAMENTO, the United States, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A series of high-risk food recalls swept across the United States this year, raising concerns about food safety and putting consumers on high alert.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued 13 high-risk food recalls this year due to hazardous contamination, which has led to multiple fatalities and hospitalizations across the nation.

One of the most significant recalls involved BrucePac, a producer of pre-cooked meat and poultry products.

According to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, BrucePac recalled approximately 5.3 million kilograms of ready-to-eat food items on Oct. 9 due to potential listeria contamination.

https://archive.ph/Pinz0

>It is well-known that the U.S. war machine is the biggest single polluter in the world. While [the People’s Republic of] China increasingly focuses on developing electric vehicles and other green technologies to reduce global warming, [neo]imperialists are intent on expanding wars and ecocide. > >In just over a week, two major hurricanes whose size, power and enormous rainfall is linked to climate warming — Hurricanes Helene and Milton — wreaked havoc on several states in the South. Rather than dedicate time, money and science to find ways to curb deadly and destructive storms stemming from climate change, Congress voted for billions of dollars more for weapons to Israel, while simultaneously cutting funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. > >Fracking has been blamed for leaking millions of tons of methane — a greenhouse gas considered more potent than carbon dioxide. According to a new major research study, exported gas emits far more greenhouse gas emissions than coal. The research by Cornell University environmental scientist Robert Howarth found that LNG is 33% worse than coal in terms of planet-heating emissions over a 20-year period. (Guardian, Oct. 4) > >The actual burning of natural gas only accounts for a third of total emissions. The process of drilling, moving, cooling and shipping gas from country to country uses twice as much energy. The review, published in the Energy Science and Engineering journal concludes that “ending the use of LNG should be a global priority.” > >Workers should demand that instead of passing laws to protect fossil gas fracking, legislatures across the U.S. should pass laws to protect the planet by outlawing fracking.

>Following the Al-Aqsa Flood that erupted in Gaza a year ago on October 7, 2023, Saleh wore a small Lebanese flag patch on the arm of his Jets’ sweatshirt shirt. This was part of the NFL’s Heritage Program in 2023 where players and coaches are encouraged to recognize their cultural backgrounds with patches and decals. He had worn the Lebanese flag patch on other occasions. > >But that all changed once […] airstrikes began pounding the densely populated areas of Beirut on Sept. 27, after which there was a major defensive military response from the liberation organization, Hezbollah — a justifiable action in their ongoing struggle. > >Joe Benigno, a former sports radio host at WFAN radio station, remarked in an interview on The Jake Asman Show on Oct. 8, that he believed that Saleh was fired due to the current situation in West Asia, particularly in Lebanon. Benigno told Asman, “There is no sugarcoating of what’s going on in the Middle East.” > >Those who have denounced Saleh over social media have equated the Lebanese flag with the […] anti-U.S. Hezbollah flag — which Saleh should also have the right to wear. > >The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demanded an explanation from Jets owner Woody Johnson — who had been accused of making racist and sexist remarks while he was a member of the Trump administration in 2020 — on the firing of Saleh. Notably, Johnson is staunchly pro-Zionist. > >The CAIR statement reads: “We commend Coach Robert Saleh for making history as the first American Muslim head coach in NFL history. Although no one should jump to conclusions about why the Jets fired Coach Saleh, the report that Jets security physically escorted Saleh out of the building does raise concerns about the possible motive for such unusual hostility—especially given that Saleh wore a Lebanese flag pin at a game just days ago and that owner Woody Johnson is a former Trump administration official who has been accused of making racially charged remarks. We encourage the Jets to thoroughly explain its unusually hostile reported treatment of Coach Saleh.” > >As of this writing, the Jets ownership has not responded to CAIR’s concerns.

>Some JVP activists chained themselves to the outside doors of the Exchange before police arrested more than 200 of the participants, including elders and descendants of Holocaust survivors. One of the main chants at the sit-in was “Gaza bombed, Wall Street booms. Fund health care, housing, FEMA, not genocide!”

Related: Support the students backing Palestine!

>The U.S. government suffered a humiliating defeat when the Uhuru 3 won an acquittal on the main charge against them, absurdly alleging that they were “Russian agents.” Now the federal prosecutors plan to use the framed-up “conspiracy” conviction to put the leader of the African Revolution behind bars. But the movement of the people can stop them! Now is the time to mobilize, write letters to the judge ahead of the sentencing hearing and make plans to be in Tampa, Florida to pack the court on November 25! > >Take Action: > >1. Write for Justice: Letters to the Judge in Support of the Uhuru 3. Our goal is to gather at least 500 letters for each of the Uhuru 3 by the October 15 deadline. Your letters are critical in helping the court understand the positive impact of their decades-long fight for justice and self-determination. These letters to each person should be sent to their specific attorneys and will be used to argue for a lenient sentence at their sentencing hearing. Go to HandsOffUhuru.org/Letters >2. Pack the Courthouse! Attend the Uhuru 3 sentencing in Tampa, Florida on Monday, November 25. Go to HandsOffUhuru.org for more info. >3. Donate to the Hands Off Uhuru Legal Defense Fund. Fund the ongoing fightback as we prepare to launch our appeal to overturn the bogus conspiracy conviction. Go to HandsOffUhuru.org/Donate.

>In a pair of 2010 cases, Citizens United v. FEC and SpeechNow.org v. FEC, the Supreme Court held that legal restrictions on independent political expenditures by corporations, unions, and nonprofits violate the First Amendment and that organizations may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on elections as long as they do not coordinate their spending with candidates, parties, and campaigns. > >Much of the independent money spent on elections is funneled into two sorts of organizations—super PACs, independent political action committees that can spend unlimited amounts on political messaging and campaign ads but must disclose their donors, and tax-exempt 501(c)4 “social welfare” organizations, which cannot spend the majority of their budgets on political activity but do not have to disclose their donors. > >Moreover, 501(c)4 organizations can, in turn, donate funds to super PACS, thereby rendering anonymous or “dark” expenditures by corporations and other deep-pocket donors intended to sway voters. Since 2010, the watchdog organization Open Secrets has tracked more than $2.8 billion in “dark money”—political expenditures from undisclosed sources—that has flooded into our elections. > >The same legal loopholes that allow all wealthy corporations and individuals to spend millions in “dark money” to shape the political process also permit U.S. corporations that are subsidiaries of foreign companies, or that have significant foreign ownership, to pour untraceable money into U.S. elections. According to one estimate, 40 percent of U.S. corporate equity is owned by foreign investors. > >A recent Open Secrets study of political expenditures by foreign-influenced corporations—corporations with more than 5 percent aggregate foreign ownership or individual foreign ownership of more than one percent—in state elections in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, and Washington found that such companies were responsible for $163 million in contributions from 2018 to 2022. Meanwhile, foreign-connected company PACs spent nearly $20 million on federal elections in 2022 alone. > >And just like domestic dark money funders, foreign-connected corporations often funnel their political spending through various “shell” and “front” organizations that make their spending exceedingly difficult to trace. For example, oil and gas giants BP and Shell are both wholly owned subsidiaries of foreign corporations. They are also both members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is a major font of dark money spending, shelling out millions each year on “electioneering communication” in support of candidates it favors. > >The Chamber refuses to disclose its members or how much they each contribute to the funding of the organization’s vast lobbying and political influence operations. As a result, there is no way of knowing how much of the dark money the group disperses originates with foreign-connected companies. > >The issue of dark money spending by foreign-influenced companies, like dark money spending in general, has been largely ignored by the corporate media. Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission fined Canadian billionaire steel magnate Barry Zekelman’s businesses nearly a million dollars for making $1.75 million in illegal campaign contributions to American First Action, a pro-Trump political action committee, in 2018. > >The fine was so unusual—and so large—that it received coverage in the New York Times and Newsweek. But, sadly, the FEC’s actions received more coverage in Zekelman’s home country of Canada than it did in the country whose election laws he violated.

https://archive.ph/qUmPm

>Several hundred Stellantis workers and supporters rallied on Oct. 9 at the UAW Local 869 union hall to build support for a “yes” vote to authorize a strike and defend union jobs. Speakers included Local 869 President Romaine McKinney III, UAW Region 1 Director LaShawn English and President Fain. Local 869 represents workers at Stellantis’s Warren Stamping Plant. > >Rally attendees applauded the fight-back message of all the speakers and signed cards pledging to vote in favor of striking Stellantis. UAW members sang along to “Solidarity Forever” as pro-labor musical artist Billy Bragg, in Metro Detroit for a concert, closed the rally.