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The Bear River Massacre by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

One-hundred and forty-six years ago on this day in people’s history, the Bear River Massacre occurred. On January 29th, 1863, hundreds of volunteer militiamen from California attacked Northwestern Shoshone Indians camped along the convergence of Bear River and Beaver Creek. Prior to the violence, white Mormon farmers had encroached on Shoshone lands along the present day Utah – Idaho border impoverishing them of their resources. Westward settler expansionism was, then, the root of ensuing Shoshone attacks on farms and ranches as a means of survival. After a series of incidents, Colonel Patrick Edward Conner was called upon by Utah territorial authorities to take action. The bloodshed that followed ended in the deaths of at least 250 Shoshones of …

“The young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown.” — Margaret Mead

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Last October, the ACLU of Southern California released a report titled “Racial Profiling and the LAPD”. This report was conducted by Prof. Ian Ayers from Yale Law School and Yale School of Management. The results of this study raise grave concerns that African Americans and “Hispanics” are over stopped, over frisked and over arrested, compared to Whites. On January 13, the LAPD responded to this report at the police commission meeting, where Chief Bratton was present. Also present were numerous community members who unleashed their anger at the LAPD for its history of injustice and brutality. The community’s response is reflective of their experiences with the deeper phenomenon of institutional violence and dehumanization.

GUESTS: Karume Jones, Community Coalition of South L.A., Joyti Chand, associate coordinator of the Civil Rights …

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In an interview on Fox News Sunday, former President George W. Bush offered advice to his party on how to retool itself in the wake of last November’s elections. In order to remain competitive, Bush urged his fellow Republican Party members not to become definitively “anti-immigrant” in favor of being open-minded. The objectives the former President laid out contrast sharply with the rhetoric on many right-wing talk radio shows. Recently Freshman Republican Congressman Joseph Cao, himself a Vietnamese-American, hoped that his party would disassociate itself from repulsive comments made by Michael Savage of “The Savage Nation.” Referring to refugee immigrants, Savage said in 2007, “They come here and they bring their destitute ways to this country, and they never assimilate. And then their children become gang-bangers.” Congressman Cao, in …

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A key component to Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the Presidency last week, was the decisive electoral backing he received from young voters. According to a post-election analysis conducted by Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a record number of twenty-three million young people under the age of thirty voted in last November’s election. With an internet savvy campaign, Barack Obama was able to secure a lopsided advantage over his opponent John McCain and change the dynamics in several key states by taking 66% of the national youth vote. Cognizant of his important base, Obama addressed the “Be the Change: Youth Ball,” last week on inauguration day that featured performers like Kanye West. The new President told the audience, “The future will be in your hands …

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Magoon leaves Cuba by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

Exactly one-hundred years ago on this day in people’s history, the United States withdrew its forces from the Cuba. On January 28th, 1909, Charles Edward Magoon formerly ended his pseudo-constitutional governorship, imbued with absolute authority on the Caribbean island nation. The end of his military rule was simultaneously ushered in by the presidency of Platt Amendment proponent Jose Miguel Gomez. For his part, Magoon’s governorship of Cuba for over three years earned him unflattering descriptions by political writers on the island who accused him of corruption. For its part, the United States was never truly committed to the sovereign integrity of Cuba as it meddled in its affairs numerous times over the course of the last century. In fact, …

“For the ignorance of the public is the real capital of monopoly.” — Henry Demarest Lloyd

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With oil prices nowhere near their summertime highs, the Iraqi government has decided to further reduce its federal budget for 2009 including spending on reconstruction. Iraqi government officials recently told the associated press that spending will be cut by a third and rebuilding efforts in the war-torn occupied country will be slashed by forty percent. The disclosures, made ahead of this weekend’s provincial elections in Iraq, were made with the caveat that more drastic reductions may be in order should oil prices on the world market plummet further. The Iraqi government, which depends on more than ninety-percent of its revenues from oil, cited the downturn in a New Year’s Eve move to open almost ninety percent of its oil reserves to international oil corporations. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani claimed that biddings on eleven oil and gas fields were …

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Business and political elites will be gathering this week in Davos, Switzerland amid a global financial crisis for the annual World Economic Forum. As the U.S. economic recession continues to have a domino-effect around the world, this year’s meeting has set high goals for government leaders and financial experts to promptly respond to the situation at hand. Over 2,500 participants, including more than 40 heads of state, will attend the five-day meeting starting Wednesday. This year’s forum has been dubbed “Shaping the Post-Crisis World,” which reflects its stated objective to “catalyze a holistic and systematic approach to improve the state of the world in a manner that integrates all stakeholders of global society.” Critics of the annual gathering are anxious to see if frivolity and partying this year …

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It has almost been one week since Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the forty-fourth President of the United States. Since that time, he has signed a number of executive orders, including setting a one-year deadline for closing Guantanamo prison, in his first days in office. Ahead of seeking passage of his economic stimulus plan, President Obama also announced a pay freeze for white house staffers in his administration, stating “During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington.” In seeking to break with the previous Bush Administration, the new President has also taken the opportunity of his first week in office to freeze last-minute ‘midnight regulations,’ put in by the former Republican president to relax environmental rules. Obama is …