Ex-Rep. Etheridge to lead state federal farm office | abc11.com

Ex-Rep. Etheridge to lead state federal farm office | abc11.com
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Former congressman and state schools superintendent Bob Etheridge is the new executive director of the North Carolina office of the federal agency that oversees some agricultural programs and keeps farmers abreast of other federal initiatives.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Etheridge's new job at North Carolina's Farm Service Agency office, which he began Monday. The Harnett County Democrat served as superintendent for eight years, then as the 2nd District congressman for 14 years through 2010, when he lost to Republican Renee Ellmers. He also ran unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for governor in 2012, finishing second to Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.
Etheridge's career also has included time as a tobacco farmer and two recent positions working in then-Gov. Beverly Perdue's administration - one involving federal stimulus money and the other advising Perdue on the state's response to Hurricane Irene.
Etheridge, 72, succeeds Aaron Martin as state director. There was an interim director for about a year before Etheridge received the presidential appointment.
The Farm Service Agency carries out federal conservation programs and resolves appeals over federal issues with local farmers. Etheridge has been involved in elected politics since the 1970s, first as a county commissioner and a state legislator in the 1980s.

Rand Paul's Festivus Rant Begins on Twitter | ABC News - Yahoo

Rand Paul's Festivus Rant Begins on Twitter | ABC News - Yahoo
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Sen. Rand Paul's Twitter feed is on fire today.
On this day of Festivus, Paul is airing grievances on all things ranging from his colleague Sen. Cory Booker to the Senate cafeteria to his pesky staff who refuse to let him wear his turtleneck sweaters.
What is Festivus, you ask?
Its a holiday made up on the popular TV show "Seinfeld" by George Constanza's father, Frank, who hated the commercial and religious aspects of Christmas so much that he made up his own holiday: Festivus.
It begins with an airing of grievances. It can also include feats of strength, and of course you must also have the Festivus pole. It's a Festivus for the rest of us.
In the words of Frank Costanza (played memorably by Jerry Stiller), "I got a lot of problems with you people. Now you're gonna hear about it!"
Paul even aired a little dirty family laundry with a dig at his dad, former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, for auctioning off a vintage 1979 Chevy instead of giving it to him.
My Dad auctioned off this car instead of giving it to me. http://t.co/WcJKiJbAcf pic.twitter.com/sArpHLKmhW
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013

Read more of Paul's airing of grievances from earlier today:
Let us begin:
Airing of Grievances begins …
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Rand Paul is not a fan of "bipartisanship."
In Washington, "bipartisan deal" is a synonym for "increasing our debt"
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Oh, and by the way, there's isn't enough defense of the Constitution going on in Washington these days.
One party seems to like some of the Bill of Rights. The other party, some more. Few willing to stand up for the whole thing.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
He's got beef with the Senate, starting with the cafeteria:
The Senate cafeteria never has burgoo.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Let's move on to the Senate. If you want more bipartisan cooperation, talk more not less.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Allow more debate and amendments. Don't change the rules to run it with an iron fist.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Rand Paul's friends don't retweet him enough:
One more Festivus grievance about bipartisanship. @CoryBooker doesn't RT me enough.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
But somewhere out there, Cory Booker is listening:
U, me & "feats of strength": Senate floor, name the time MT @SenRandPaul A Festivus grievance re bipartisanship. Booker doesn't RT me enough
- Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 23, 2013
He's not a fan of the budget deal, or the Federal Reserve.
The recent "bipartisan deal" will add 7 trillion more debt. And was hailed as an example of Washington "getting something done."
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Fed policies make you poorer, and hurt the poor and middle class the most. Ridiculous monetary policies increase the costs of goods.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
So you can thank the Fed for your grocery and gas bills getting out or control.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
In case anyone was wondering, no feats of strength today:
In response to some of your tweets, there will be no feats of strength, and I have no plans to end Festivus by wrestling with Sen. Reid.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
But let the man wear his turtlenecks!
Grievance with my otherwise wonderful staff: Leave the turtleneck alone. I like it and so do viewers.
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
Too many people wearing ties on TV as it is
- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013
And a Festivus miracle may have occurred: Booker and Paul may take on the "war on drugs" in 2014. Bipartisanship!
@CoryBooker how about mandatory minimum sentencing reform instead?
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013

@CoryBooker I am the Senate author of Hemp bill!
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013

I know. U told me last week. Here is to a 2014 where we take on the failed war on drugs RT @SenRandPaul: I'm the Senate author of Hemp bill!
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 23, 2013

Stay tuned, more to come…
I still have a lot more problems with you people (Washington). I will be back later with more.

Zimmerman’s New Career Is As Redneck Van Gogh | WOLB Talk 1010

Zimmerman’s New Career Is As Redneck Van Gogh | WOLB Talk 1010

 
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
From the looks of it, George Zimmerman is trying to position himself as the redneck Van Gogh. The cash-strapped, luckiest vigilante in the world has reportedly turned to selling his paintings in an effort to generate some much-needed revenue. And revenue George Z is generating.


, Zimmerman’s newest art piece has secured 108 bids so far with the highest totaling more than $100,000. That’s just about as disgusting as the time Zimmerman sold his autograph to his “fans.” In the eBay listing, Zimmerman writes:

First hand painted artwork by me, George Zimmerman. Everyone has been asking what I have been doing with myself. I found a creative, [sic] way to express myself, my emotions and the symbols that represent my experiences. My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors :-) I hope you enjoy owning this piece as much as I enjoyed creating it. Your friend, George Zimmerman

Well, I personally would have wanted that “therapeutic outlet” to be a Florida state prison. “:-)”

As you can see from the painting, it’s just a big gob of blue paint used to portray the American flag captioned with “GOD ONE NATION WITH LIBERTY and JUSTICE FOR ALL.” So it’s basically an erotic painting for the White nationalists who get off on guys who shoot down and kill unarmed Black teens.

I normally don’t knock the hustle, but since it’s George Zimmerman, I’m gonna knock like hell: Hey, George, if you want to raise some money, I have some job suggestions. Be a shark dentist. Or a garbage disposal massager (while it’s turned on). A crash dummy. An oven mit and/or dartboard. A trap door tester. A haunted house butler. Or hell, maybe some of these racists who worship you so much can pay you just to crawl in to a hole in which you rot away.
That’d be awesome.  

In the Q&A section of his eBay painting listing, some fool advises Zimmerman to run for political office:

Q: george, pleasee dont leave florida . you are our hero. please run for a political office! we need you. God bless you. A: Thank you, your words of kindness and support will influence my decision on where to plant my roots. Your friend, GZ

You know, Florida, there’s a reason why people consider you to be the back entrance to hell. Speaking of hell and where people can go, one of Zimmerman’s attorneys is facing a Florida bar complaint.
The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Orlando attorney Mark O’Mara, who took on George Zimmerman as a client in one of the nation’s most high-profile murder trials and won his acquittal, is now the subject of an ethics complaint for how he handled the case.
Few details are available, including who filed the complaint and what allegations O’Mara is facing, but the Florida Bar on Monday confirmed that its staff is investigating a complaint and has made no determination as to whether O’Mara should face possible discipline.

What a shame that if anyone gets punished in this horrific matter, it won’t be George Zimmerman.

Change of venue denied in Laurence Lovette murder trial | abc11.com

Change of venue denied in Laurence Lovette murder trial | abc11.com
 JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A change of venue request was denied Wednesday for the man charged in the killing of a Duke graduate student.

Laurence Lovette, 23, is accused of killing Abhijit Mahato in Jan. 2008 just two months before he was arrested for killing UNC Student Body President Eve Carson in a robbery. He's already been convicted for Carson's murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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Story: Lovette sentenced to life in prison for Carson murder

Lovette will stand trial in Durham County for Mahato's murder. A judge Wednesday denied a change of venue and a request to bring jurors in from Wilmington or Elizabeth City.
The judge, however, is allowing a request by the defense to individually interview potential jurors but only after they are given a short questionnaire about their knowledge of Lovette.
Over the last five years, Lovette's attorney said his client's name has been in the headlines more than 1,000 times. That is why she said keeping the trial in Durham County would result in an unfair trial. She said news coverage about the trial has been overwhelmingly negative and it would be difficult to find unbiased jurors.
Lovette rejected a plea deal saying he wanted to have his day in court.
The judge set a trial date for July. The defense says the trial could last three weeks.
The defense and prosecution have until June 9 to submit a questionnaire that will be given to jurors.

Researchers: One in every 200 U.S. women experienced a ‘virgin pregnancy’ | The Raw Story

Researchers: One in every 200 U.S. women experienced a ‘virgin pregnancy’ | The Raw Story
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
One in every 200 young American women says she became pregnant while still a virgin.
That is the eye-popping figure reported on Tuesday by US researchers who trawled through a long-term study into reproductive health among young Americans.
Out of 7,870 women who took part in the confidential research, 45 — 0.5 percent — said they had conceived yet had not had vaginal intercourse.
None said they had used in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to become pregnant, according to the paper, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Out of the 45, “there were some miscarriages and other pregnancy losses,” said the authors.
The study was based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which ran from 1995 to 2009, spanning life between adolescence and adulthood. It is deemed reliable and representative of US social and ethnic backgrounds.
The young women reported their history of vaginal intercourse and pregnancy and their knowledge of birth control methods.
Over 14 years, they responded to regular questionnaires, logging their answers on a laptop rather than in eye-contact interviews, although a helper was also present in the room in case the volunteer needed aid.
Their age and commitment to a religion were also recorded, their parents were asked to say how much they had talked about sex or birth control and their school’s director was asked to say what part sex education had in the curriculum.
Nearly a third — 31 percent — of the “virgin pregnancy” group said they had made a chastity pledge, a vow often promoted by conservative Christian church groups which argue sex should only take place in the context of marriage.
In “non-virgins” who had become pregnant, 15 percent had made the chastity pledge. Among those who said they were still a virgin, the proportion of chastity pledgers was 21 percent.
“Virgin mothers” were also more than two years younger, being 19.3 years on average when they gave birth, compared to “non-virgin” mothers whose average age at parenthood was 21.7 years.
Lead author Amy Herring, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the volunteers “weren’t asked a question ‘have you had a virgin pregnancy?’, it was put together from a series of questions about pregnancy history and vaginal intercourse history.”
The findings raise intriguing questions about sexual education and awareness but also about the difficulties of getting accurate data about sex lives, she said in a phone interview with AFP.
“Even though we thought that the questions were quite clear, there’s still the possibility that some women misunderstood or misinterpreted them, such as simply giving the wrong year, or for whatever reason that they did not want to admit that they had had intercourse,” Herring said.
“Even though we used technology to try to enhance the candour of respondents, we still see responses that are unrealistic,” she said.
“In fact we went back a few weeks ago to see if this was a phenomenon that was confined only to the women, and we actually found a few virgin fathers as well — which is a little harder to get your head around.”

CBS newsmen recall deadly "Trojan horse" used by apartheid regime - CBS News

CBS newsmen recall deadly "Trojan horse" used by apartheid regime - CBS News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:

The apartheid regime Nelson Mandela fought to overturn often resorted to violent extremes to protect its power.
A CBS News report nearly three decades ago exposed one brutal government tactic, leading to the prompt expulsion of correspondent Allen Pizzey and two other CBS News employees.
The report provoked outrage around the world. Pizzey looks back now on the "Trojan horse."

---

The white South African regime often accused the foreign media of instigating the violence that was filmed when I was reporting from the country in 1985.
But on Oct. 15 of that year, two CBS News camera crews would capture a police operation that no one except the perpetrators could possibly have known about in advance.
When cameraman Chris Everson and soundman Nick della Casa arrived in Thornton Road in a mixed-race suburb outside Cape Town, there was no more violence than usual. But it would escalate into an event that many said did more damage to the South African regime's international image than all the other coverage combined.
"There was a bunch of kids standing on the street corner, probably about 30 strong. Clearly there had been some incidents already. There were signs that vehicles had been stoned.  There was glass on the streets. And not wanting to be part of the scene, we set ourselves well back from it," Everson said.
Just up the road but out of sight, CBS cameraman Wim de Vos and sound recordist Anton van der Merwe -- no strangers to police harassment -- arrived at the scene.
"It wasn't violent at that point when I arrived but I could see the rocks in their hands,” de Vos said. “I wasn't that far away from them and I thought, 'Uh-oh, there comes trouble.' "
Everson had the same gut feeling.
"It was a flatbed vehicle with boxes on the back. And I filmed the truck as it went down the road away from me, toward the group of kids on the corner," he said.
Then the truck turned around and came back.
"As it approached the kids, three or four stones hit the windscreen," Everson said.
"And as they did so, there were several policemen in the back of the truck hiding in boxes. And they popped up,” de Vos said.
One stunned youngster froze and watched the horror unfold.
 Back in 1985, we had had no idea that the police had labeled their operation "Ghost Vehicle."  When I wrote the story that day, I called it a deadly Trojan horse. 
Three kids were killed -- the youngest was 11 years old -- and 12 were injured, among them two children who were hit in their own homes.
"The strange thing was, you know, at that time we didn't even realize  the importance of what we had just photographed," Everson said. 
And neither did the police.  When they finally forced the camera crews to leave the area, they failed to confiscate the videotapes -- and the damage was done.
"Of course it was one of those very ugly, very ugly events that did us a lot of harm," said Roleof “Pik” Botha, who was South Africa’s foreign minister at the time. 
“It was extremely harmful for us in foreign affairs because that increased the negative reaction overseas  and effected an expanding economic sanctions against South Africa," he said.
Worldwide condemnation of South Africa was almost immediate and so was the white government's reaction.
Within days of the shooting, the state of emergency was expanded and journalists were prohibited from filming any incident of police violence under the threat of 10 years of imprisonment.
"What was new about this event was that there was a camera there,” Everson said. ”These events, these killings, this police brutality -- this happened all the time in South Africa."
Thornton Road today is a far cry from what it was like 28 ago, except for a steel memorial -- a grim reminder of the day three young South Africans were gunned down from that deadly Trojan horse.

Standing Ovation For Mugabe At Mandela Memorial, Jacob Zuma Booed

Standing Ovation For Mugabe At Mandela Memorial, Jacob Zuma Booed
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe received a standing ovation at the funeral of former South African President Nelson Mandela while the country’s president Jacob Zuma was booed.
There were raptures after his presence was acknowledged at the FNB Stadium in Soweto by the country ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mugabe waved back to the thousands of mourners at the giant stadium which accommodates a capacity 90 000 crowd.
Mugabe was seated next to his wife Grace and children when other African heads of state clapped and stood in appreciation of his presence.
Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigeria President, and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are two other heads of state that drew ovations, nonetheless lesser than Mugabe.
Several international media houses were ahead of the event portraying Mugabe as unpopular in South Africa.
International media compared Mugabe and Mandela, a development which was roundly condemned by Zimbabwe, and other African countries.
In Zimbabwe, the country’s Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Jonathan Moyo, dismissed the comparisons as “frivolous attempts by the Western media”.
“It is kind of disappointing that Nelson Mandela’s passing on has attracted gratuitous comparisons between him and other African leaders including our own President Mugabe whose iconic standing as a liberator and empowerer is now an indelible imprint of history.

Jacob Zuma was booed by the crowds

“While the subtext of the gratuitous comparisons has been that other African leaders such as President Mugabe should emulate Mandela, the more important and rather self-evident fact that cannot therefore be masked by the shrill comparisons is that God created only one Nelson Mandela with no clones in the same way he created only one Winston Churchill; one John F Kennedy, one Mao, one Lenin and one Mahatma Gandhi with no clones.”
“The notion being peddled in some propaganda quarters that some African leaders should style themselves as Mandela clones has no precedence in the history of civilised nations,” Moyo was quoted as saying.
Moyo was quoted as saying Britain has not had another Churchill and America has not had another Kennedy, arguing that Africa would not have another Mandela insisting that the gratuitous comparisons of Mandela and other African leaders were ultimately “a waste of time.”
Mandela died last Thursday at the age of 95. He will be buried on Sunday.

Lynching As A Misdemeanor • Africanglobe.net

Lynching As A Misdemeanor • Africanglobe.net
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
“White society is incapable of acknowledging – or even perceiving, on the cognitive level – the violence that it daily perpetrates against Blacks.”
A 17-year-old Black student is set upon by four White males that inhabit the same suite of rooms on a college campus. Over a period of almost two months, his tormentors force him into a closet and twice fasten a “U” shaped bicycle lock around his neck, once chaining him for at least ten minutes and bruising his lip in the attack.
The whole time, the perpetrators prominently display a Confederate flag, a board scrawled with the word “n*gger,” and a photo of Adolph Hitler, the mass exterminator of “lesser species” of humanity, while verbally assaulting the victim with racial slurs, calling him “three-fifths” and “fraction” to dramatize their view that he is nothing but a slave to Whites. The victim would sometimes barricade himself in his room to escape the assaults.
The initial police report describes the assaults as “hazing.” CNN insists on calling the prolonged attacks a form of “bullying.” Journalists refer to “three-fifths” and “fraction” as the victim’s “nicknames.” Ultimately, the four Whites are charged only with a misdemeanor hate crime and simple battery, for which they face a maximum of one year in county jail and possible fines.
Oblivious Society
The criminal offenses committed against the unnamed victim at San Jose State University should, under California and federal law, constitute felonious battery, terroristic threats (which, under California Penal Code section 422, can be charged whether or not the person making the threat has the ability to carry out the threat or even intended to carry out the threat), and, if the police were serious about deterring such atrocities, kidnapping.
If vigorously prosecuted in the penal dystopia that California has become, the four White boys would emerge from prison as middle-aged men, covered in Aryan Nation tattoos. But that’s not going to happen, because these are the children of a White society that is incapable of acknowledging – or even perceiving, on the cognitive level – the violence that it daily perpetrates against Blacks.
A Needed Intervention
African-American enrollment was reduced by one back in 2008, when Gregory Johnson’s body was discovered in the basement of the Sigma Chi fraternity house. The police ruled it a suicide by hanging, despite the wound in the back of his head. “He died like a dog,” said Johnson’s tearful mother, Denise, holding pictures of her son as students consoled her at the demonstration.
University President Mohammad Qayoumi, who had initially failed to even suspend the White supremacist assailants, presented words of contrition for his cognitive dysfunction. “By failing to recognize the meaning of a Confederate flag, intervene earlier to stop the abuse, or impose sanctions as soon as the gravity of the behavior became clear, we failed him. I failed him.”
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Qayoumi has assimilated the values of his adopted country. White supremacy oozes from the digital pores of Atlanta-based CNN, which peppered its coverage of the San Jose assault with links from an article on “bullying” that featured a photo of young White actresses from the 2004 movie Mean Girls: Are we too quick to cry “bully?” When friends become bullies and Bullying among boys easily dismissed?
For CNN, racist assaults and threats of lynching are nothing more than White rites of adolescent passage – like “hazing,” the term used by Raw Story, the Los Angeles Times (“NAACP seeks harsher charges in San Jose racial hazing case”) and the San Jose police, themselves, to describe the crime.
The prosecutor in the San Jose case defended his decision to charge the four White students with misdemeanor crimes. “While we understand the outrage of those calling for even stiffer charges in this case, the charges are not a reflection of the degree of their racism,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “The charges are a reflection of their criminal conduct.”
Anybody who lives in the ghetto knows that police and prosecutors routinely pile on layers of escalating charges, all stemming from one discreet crime (and often charge defendants with every unsolved crime in the neighborhood). In the San Jose case, nearly two months of daily crimes that can easily and reasonably be charged as felonies were stripped down to the barest misdemeanors.
The DA claims he is not allowed to prosecute people simply for being racist – which is true. But racism was the obvious motive for the White supremacist students’ physical assaults, terrorist threats, and kidnapping of the Black victim from August 20 through October 13 of this year. It is central to the crime. When the larger society dismisses or diminishes racism as an element of the crimes committed against Black people, it exposes us to an infinity of assaults.
That’s why we have the right and duty of collective self-defense.

Dollar Survival Behind US-China Tensions • Africanglobe.net

Dollar Survival Behind US-China Tensions • Africanglobe.net
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The escalation of military tensions between Washington and Beijing in the East China Sea is superficially over China’s unilateral declaration of an air defense zone. But the real reason for Washington’s ire is the recent Chinese announcement that it is planning to reduce its holdings of the US dollar.
That move to offload some of its 3.5 trillion in US dollar reserves combined with China’s increasing global trade in oil based on national currencies presents a mortal threat to the American petrodollar and the entire American economy.
This threat to US viability – already teetering on bankruptcy, record debt and social meltdown – would explain why Washington has responded with such belligerence to China setting up an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) last week extending some 400 miles from its coast into the East China Sea.
Beijing said the zone was aimed at halting intrusive military maneuvers by US spy planes over its territory. The US has been conducting military flights over Chinese territory for decades without giving Beijing the slightest notification.
Back in April 2001, a Chinese fighter pilot was killed when his aircraft collided with a US spy plane. The American crew survived, but the incident sparked a diplomatic furor, with Beijing saying that it illustrated Washington’s unlawful and systematic violation of Chinese sovereignty.
Within days of China’s announcement of its new ADIZ last week, the US sent two B52 bombers into the air space without giving the notification of flight paths required by Beijing.
American allies Japan and South Korea also sent military aircraft in defiance of China. Washington dismissed the Chinese declared zone and asserted that the area was international air space.
A second intrusion of China’s claimed air territory involved US surveillance planes and up to 10 Japanese American-made F-15 fighter jets. On that occasion, Beijing has responded more forcefully by scrambling SU-30 and J-10 warplanes, which tailed the offending foreign aircraft.
Many analysts see the latest tensions as part of the ongoing dispute between China and Japan over the islands known, respectively, as the Diaoyu and Senkaku, located in the East China Sea. Both countries claim ownership. The islands are uninhabited but the surrounding sea is a rich fishing ground and the seabed is believed to contain huge reserves of oil and gas.
By claiming the skies over the islands, China appears to be adding to its territorial rights to the contested islands.
In a provocative warning to Beijing, American defense secretary Chuck Hagel this week reiterated that the decades-old US-Japan military pact covers any infringement by China of Japan’s claim on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
It is hard to justify Washington and Tokyo’s stance on the issue. The islands are much nearer to China’s mainland (250 miles) compared with Japan’s (600 miles). China claims that the islands were part of its territory for centuries until Japan annexed them in 1895 during its imperialist expansion, which eventually led to an all-out invasion and war of aggression on China.

Also, as Beijing points out, the US and its postwar Japanese ally both have declared their own air defense zones. It is indeed inconceivable that Chinese spy planes and bombers could encroach unannounced on the US West Coast without the Pentagon ordering fierce retaliation.

U.S. spy planes have been repeatedly violating Chinese airspace

Furthermore, maps show that the American-backed air defense zone extending from Japan’s southern territory is way beyond any reasonable halfway limit between China and Japan. This American-backed arbitrary imposition on Chinese territorial sovereignty is thus seen as an arrogant convention, set up and maintained by Washington for decades.
The US and its controlled news media are absurdly presenting Beijing’s newly declared air defense zone as China “flexing its muscles and stoking tensions.” And Washington is claiming that it is nobly defending its Japanese and South Korea allies from Chinese expansionism.
However, it is the background move by China to ditch the US dollar that is most likely the real cause for Washington’s militarism towards Beijing. The apparent row over the air and sea territory, which China has sound rights to, is but the pretext for the US to mobilize its military and in effect threaten China with aggression.
In recent years, China has been incrementally moving away from US financial hegemony. This hegemony is predicated on the US dollar being the world reserve currency and, by convention, the standard means of payment for international trade and in particular trade in oil. That arrangement is obsolete given the bankrupt state of the US economy. But it allows the US to continue bingeing on credit.
China – the second biggest economy in the world and a top importer of oil – has or is seeking oil trading arrangements with its major suppliers, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, which will involve the exchange of national currencies. That development presents a grave threat to the petrodollar and its global reserve status.
The latest move by Beijing on November 20 giving notice that it intends to shift its risky foreign exchange holdings of US Treasury notes for a mixture of other currencies is a harbinger that the American economy’s days are numbered, as Paul Craig Roberts noted last week.
This is of course China’s lawful right to do so, as are its territorial claims. But, in the imperialist, megalomaniac mindset of Washington, the “threat” to the US economy and indebted way of life is perceived as a tacit act of war. That is why Washington is reacting so furiously and desperately to China’s newly declared air corridor. It is a pretext for the US to clench an iron fist.

Georgia Using Excessive Taxation To Steal Gullah-Geechee Land

Georgia Using Excessive Taxation To Steal Gullah-Geechee Land 
It’s a culture struggling to survive. Fewer than 50 people — all descendants of enslaved Africans — fear they may soon be taxed out of the property their families have owned since the days of slavery.
They are the Gullah-Geechee people of Sapelo Island off Georgia’s coast, near Savannah. This small, simple community is finding itself embroiled in a feud with local officials over a sudden, huge increase in property assessments that are raising property taxes as much as 600% for some.
Many say the increase could force them to sell their ancestral properties.
“That’s part of the American history. That’s part of what built this country,” said Charles Hall, 79, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who was born under a midwife’s care in the same home he lives in today.
“Sapelo being the only intact Gullah-Geechee community in the country that’s left, that is a part of history. It will be a shame not to preserve” it.
McIntosh County’s decision to reappraise homes on the island sparked the problem.
County Attorney Adam Poppell claim that the Gullah-Geechee culture is invaluable, but the properties had been historically undervalued due to errors in previous property appraisals.
“We have to follow the law, and assess at fair market value,” he told reporters.
To fix the problem, he said, “the state has to create a special exemption for cultural communities.”
Sapelo Island, about the size of Manhattan, is a short 20-minute boat ride from Georgia’s coast. But in some ways, it seems much farther.
The bumpy, unpaved dirt roads are a constant reminder that this is an island with few services. There are no police officers, fire rescue personnel, doctors or hospitals. There is no school or post office. People drive their garbage to a single garbage compactor. There are no grocery stores. The gas station is open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Ninety-seven percent of the island is owned by the state of Georgia. Residents live on a small section known as Hog Hammock.
A ferry makes three round trips each day, with the last departure from the mainland at 5:30 p.m.
Residents can’t miss that ferry if they want to work or go to school on the mainland. They complain this limits their employment opportunities and prohibits their children from participating in after-school activities.
Many have fled the island over the years because opportunity just doesn’t exist there.
Cornelia Bailey has been one of the loudest defenders of the island where she was born and raised.

The Gullah-Geechee are a culturally distinct group of African-Americans

She’s the ninth generation of her family to live on the island, whose slave roots are traced back to Angola. She said the taxes on her one acre property have gone from $600 a year to about $2,300.
“All these years of getting nothing, then all of a sudden, they want to lay this tax on your back and still not give you nothing,” she said.
“For the last three years, we’ve been paying $128 a year for garbage collection. I don’t even have my green garbage can. Where’s my can?”
She added, with a hint of anger in her voice, “You can call 911, but nobody gonna squeal up to your front door, so forget it.”
Homeowners are hiring lawyers now to have their displeasure heard in state and federal court.
Reed Colfax — a partner at Relman, Dane & Colfax, one of the leading housing discrimination litigation firms in the country — is heading full speed into court to have the tax bills struck down for at least half the residents of the island.
“The solution is that we freeze the tax assessments, we get the services to this island, so the people can live here,” he said. “Families can move back in, have children here, have jobs on the mainland, or even develop their own economy here on the island.”
Tax Assessors Board Chairman James Larkin suggests the Sapelo residents brought this issue on themselves, as some began to sell their property to developers and non-islanders who built bigger, upscale vacation homes, causing valuations to increase, and along with them their property taxes.
“If they hadn’t started selling their property, there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
But Reginald Hall isn’t buying that argument. He and his family own three properties on more than seven acres of property on the island.
The assessed “fair market value” of their property went from $176,075 in 2011 to $910,333 in 2012. That brought on increase of more than 500% in property taxes. He is refusing to pay the taxes and he refuses to sell his family land, which he says is worth over $3 million.
“Once you leave, you are separated from more family members … which is a real interruption in the generational teachings on this island of the culture,” he said.
“We leave, and we’re gone. Can’t come back, because if we try to come back after we sell, you can’t afford to buy,” he told reporters.
Cornelia Bailey said her land may be worth about $384,000, but in reality it is priceless.
“I told one guy it was priceless, and he said everything has a price, and I said, you don’t know me, this is priceless. You don’t have enough money to buy it, so forget it,” she said.
“We have a legacy that most people would die to have. We’re fighting to keep it even for the unborn.”