PALM BEACH: Police Brutally Evict Stonybrook Tenant Organizers and Families
By Ben Robinson
On January 16, four families in Palm Beach County were violently evicted by police from Stonybrook Apartments after two years of resistance against their slumlord Frank Sinito, under the name Millennia Housing. All of the evicted families were members of the Palm Beach County Tenants Union, including the family of Crystal Lewis, the union’s president.
The Palm Beach Tenants Union has fought against inhumane conditions at Stonybrook including sewage backed up into tenants’ bathtubs, broken pipes, black mold, pests, and other serious issues. The Union is tenant-led and has utilized various tactics ranging from lawsuits to rent strikes and protests. Previous actions have included tenants barricading themselves in their apartments.
The families evicted last week had been withholding rent legally since July 2018, but in the Union’s words, they were evicted “in retaliation for the recent tenant protests and legal filings.” The raid itself was brutal, occurring early in the morning when the larger community was not present to support the families. Without notice, the police came with axes and sledgehammers, and drew their guns on one family. Lewis stated in a Facebook post that she felt like she “had committed a crime in my sleep, the way they knocked [the door] down in came in,” and that she hid her children in the closet to prevent them from being held at gunpoint.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#Florida #PalmBeachCounty #eviction #police
Reports Reveal FBI Pressured Apple to Keep Door Open to Customer Data
By Mike Talavera
New reports reveal that Apple canceled a project in development two years ago that would have made it more difficult for the company to access backups of user data after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) complained that the privacy measure would impede its own investigations.
According to the former FBI officials and one current and one former Apple employee who spoke with bourgeois media outlet Reuters, Apple had planned on providing end-to-end encryption for its iCloud backup service by tying the key needed to unlock the encryption to the customer’s passcode and unique information from the customer’s device. Despite hiring a team to begin on this initiative, the whistleblowers said it was dropped after the FBI objected. “They weren’t going to poke the bear anymore,” one whistleblower said.
Often advertising itself as a bastion of privacy technology, Apple historically has not lived up its marketing slogan, “Privacy is a fundamental human right.” Recently, Attorney General William Barr called on the company to access the devices of the Saudi Air Force officer who killed three at a Florida naval base last month. Apple provided the cloud backups (which would have been protected by their previous plan) to the government in this case.
End-to-end encryption is a form of security technology that prevents a third party from accessing data without a key tied to the original data creator. In theory, when it is enabled, Apple would not be able to access customer data, or hand it over to law enforcement, but even with such a service, ‘privacy’ is neither a right nor a guarantee when the state seeks access, whether through technological or other means.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#technology #apple #datasecurity
LOS ANGELES: Mayor Endorses Imperialist Presidential Candidate Joe Biden
By Audrey Hellenbrecht
In a press conference on January 9, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave his endorsement to former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2020 Presidential election. Calling Biden “a close personal friend who has been an incredible partner in delivering progress for LA,” Garcetti also announced he will serve as the National Campaign Co-Chairman for the Biden campaign. “We need Joe Biden to bring our nation and world together during these most divided and dangerous times,” Garcetti claimed. “I know that from day one, he will heal our nation, repair our relationships abroad and get things done — and will be a true partner in solving the national homelessness crisis.” The working class of Los Angeles understand Garcetti’s endorsement as nothing more than one ruling class politician supporting another. Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013 with a historically low voter turnout, with only 23% of eligible voters turning in ballots.
Garcetti claims he worked closely with Biden to pass the $15 minimum wage increase in LA. This accomplishment means little as the city continues to have one of the highest poverty rates in the country and the largest population of unsheltered homeless people. He has consistently deflected responsibility for many issues the city faces, most recently claiming the California wildfires were an “act of god,” while doing nothing to address the city’s dilapidated infrastructure that caused them.
Garcetti has always placed his political career over the needs of the city he is tasked with governing. Over a 12 month period, from 2016-2017, Garcetti spent 112 days touring the country to many swing states, sparking rumors that Garcetti himself would run for President. He consistently speaks on issues like ‘revitalizing’ the Los Angeles River or providing shelters for the homeless, but never fully delivers on any of his promises.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#LosAngeles #California #ElectionBoycott
US and China Sign ‘Phase One’ of Trade Deal
By Mike Talavera
Last Wednesday, US President Donald Trump and China’s Vice Premier Liu He signed an eight-part agreement that marks a detente in the ongoing trade war between the imperialist superpower US and rising imperialist China. The deal, which saw concessions from both sides, is widely seen as a temporary settlement that fails to resolve any of the fundamental grievances between the two largest economies in the world.
While Trump and Liu lauded the ‘harmony’ fostered by this agreement, the measures taken are mostly quantitative adjustments to trade relations and do not alter the cutthroat antagonism at the heart of imperialist competition. China pledged to buy $200 billion more in US goods by 2021 and to further open up its market to US investment, whereas the US dramatically reduced some of the existing tariffs imposed in 2018, although tariffs for 65% of imported goods will remain in place.
Surrounded by government officials and business executives, Trump used the signing event as a platform for his reelection campaign, echoing the nationalist ‘America First’ promises of his first presidential run. “With this signing, we mark more than just an agreement, we mark a sea change in international trade,” he told the press. “At long last Americans have a government that puts them first at the negotiating table.” Despite Trump’s optimism, even bourgeois economists are skeptical that this deal will divert the US and China from their inevitable collision course. The revisionist People’s Republic of China, like the revisionist Soviet Union before it, is able to compete with US imperialism because its current market economy is built on the foundation of the communist-led development of the country’s productive forces during its New Democratic Revolution. Since the great Chairman Mao Zedong’s death, the Communist Party of China has taken the capitalist road and has since begun exporting capital to Africa and Latin America in the hopes of reaping superprofits and undermining US imperialists’ presence.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#usimperialism #Trump #tradewar #china
AUSTIN: University of Texas Releases List of Sexual Misconduct Violations
Photos: Three UT professors found guilty of violating sexual misconduct policy since 2017: Johann Hofmann, Kevin Dalby, and Coleman Hutchison
By Serena Ayers
On January 9, the University of Texas at Austin (UT) released the names of 17 faculty and staff who had violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies since November 2017 despite previous claims that they would withhold them. UT is expected to host a forum with its President Gregory Fenves on the topic of sexual misconduct on January 27.
UT originally promised to release the names in December of 2019, but backpedaled after enraged students held a protest at the home of Thomas Hubbard, a professor known for being an open advocate for pedophilia. The report was conveniently released during winter break, a time when most students are off campus.
According to the list, of the three professors found guilty of violating the school’s sexual misconduct policy, Coleman Hutchison (Department of English), Johann Hofmann (Department of Integrative Biology), and Kevin Dalby (College of Pharmacy), all three are still currently employed by the University. The report also shared violations occurring across other levels UT’s staff, such as service workers employed on campus.
The findings included in the report are so vague that they effectively protect the professors named. In the case of all three professors the complaints center around “inappropriate comments of a sexual nature,” with Hutchison also found guilty of sexual harassment and Hofmann of “trying to start a consensual relationship” with a graduate student. Incendiary encourages any victims or witnesses to the aforementioned misconduct to reach out so that we may share your story.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#ut #utaustin #metoo #firetheabusers #sexualmisconduct #students #women
AUSTIN: Jumpolin Party Shop Announces Closure of Storefront, Issues Call to Resist Gentrification
By Mike Talavera
The Jumpolin Piñata Store, a staple of the East Austin community for over 10 years, announced the closure of its storefront this morning. The statement posted to social media was signed by the owners, the Lejarazu family, and unapologetically blamed gentrification for the store’s demise. Despite the sad news, the family concluded the statement with a message of optimism. “We are not defeated, because we have seen the work our community has put into combating and slowing down this mass displacement and support it to the fullest,” the statement reads. “Although we are closing our doors, we hope to see more resistance from our community and wish to continue to serve them in any ways we can.” Monica Lejarazu told Incendiary that the decision to close had been made about a month ago. “We have accepted that the community that once had such a demand for piñatas and [party] rentals is dwindling quickly from the east side,” she said, “and that the new wave of people just don’t value our work enough.” The demolition of Jumpolin’s original storefront in 2015 helped spark today’s thriving anti-gentrification movement in Austin, led by revolutionary organization Defend Our Hoodz-Defiende El Barrio (DOH) which formed in the aftermath of the blatant act of profit-driven displacement. On February 12 of that year, landlords F&F Real Estate Ventures bulldozed the building housing Jumpolin at the time, which was located at 1401 Cesar Chavez St., to clear the lot for a party as part of the corporate tech and music festival South by Southwest. F&F did this without warning while the owners drove their daughter to school, their merchandise and personal belongings still inside. Images of the store in ruin made national headlines.
Read the full story @ incendiarynews.com
#Austin #EastAustinBarrio #Jumpolin #gentrification
