Free Republic

Why would a nation whose people have been taught to hate it oppose being conquered? God forbid there be a military conflict with China. Yet as tensions increase over Taiwan, spy balloons, and escalating rhetoric, the prospect of a skirmish or broader conflict with that massive nation is a daunting cloud over America. Traditionally, one would expect such a menace to unite Americans, yet today's far left despises the Constitution and the nation, and indeed tradition itself. More, the left ignores the human rights abuses of nations such as China in its derisive slanders against America. Bent on destroying the...

Protests have broken out in China after several regional banks prevented customers from making withdrawals in late April, stoking fears of a greater credit crisis without an intervention from financial authorities. At least three institutions based in Henan Province -- Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin County Bank and Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank -- have frozen a total of 10 billion yuan ($1.49 billion) in deposits, according to Chinese reports. One million customers are believed to be affected. All three are small, locally focused banks designed to serve rural populations. Though the People's Bank of China in...

Cuban officials say a building has collapsed in Old Havana, killing four people. A government statement published in the Communist Party daily Granma says the two-story building contained two family homes. The dead include a 3-year-old child, two 18-year-olds and a 60-year-old woman. Three other people sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.

Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban who at the age of 6 was found floating in waters of Florida’s coastline, after the boat he was sailing with his mother capsized, said in a recent interview he’d like more than anything to visit the United States.

The number of Cubans heading to the United States has soared since the island lifted travel restrictions last year, and instead of making the risky journey by raft across the Florida Straits, most are now passing through Mexico or flying straight to the U.S. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol figures show that more than 22,000 Cubans arrived at the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada in the fiscal year that ended last month. That was nearly double the number in 2012, the year before restrictions were lifted. The changes in Cuban law eliminate a costly exit visa and make it...

Faced with growing public anger about a poisonous environment, China’s government released a yearslong study that shows nearly one-fifth of the country’s farmland is contaminated with toxic metals, a stunning indictment of unfettered industrialization under the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule. The report, previously deemed so sensitive it was classified as a state secret, names the heavy metals cadmium, nickel and arsenic as the top contaminants. It adds to widespread doubts about the safety of China’s farm produce and confirms suspicions about the dire state of its soil following more than two decades of explosive industrial growth, the overuse of farm...

That's the title of a new book by Fred Jerome, a compilation of essays from these and other noteworthies: This anthology features essays by revolutionary thinkers, activists, and artists-including Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, civil rights activist Angela Davis, incarcerated journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, and economist Rick Wolff- addressing various aspects of a new society and, crucially, how to get from where we are now to where we want to be, living in a society that is truly fair and just. I suppose that's one way to describe their vision. I might ask the question, "fair and just for whom"?...

Workers who fall sick during their annual leave are entitled to take corresponding paid leave at a later date, the EU's top court has ruled. The European Court of Justice ruling is legally binding throughout the EU. Thursday's ruling was prompted by a Spanish trade union case against a group of department stores. "The right to paid annual leave cannot be interpreted restrictively," the court says. The UK does not have an opt-out in this area of EU labor law. The court in Luxembourg said the EU Working Time Directive grants workers a right to at least four weeks' paid...

TEA produced by some of China's top companies contained residue of banned pesticides, Greenpeace said in a report. The environmental organization tested nine brands of 18 types of tea sold in Beijing, Sichuan and Hainan, including green tea, oolong tea and jasmine tea. Prices ranged from 120 yuan (US$19) to 2,000 yuan per kilogram. Some brands tested, such as Wuyutai and Zhangyiyuan, are among the most popular in China. The tests showed that all the samples contained at least three types of pesticide residue from a total of 29 pesticides identified. One type of oolong tea, bearing the Richun brand,...

The latest labor stats offer better news for the Memphis area than for Memphis. The number of people employed -- 563,640 -- in the eight-county Memphis metropolitan area is a 3.2 percent increase over February 2011 when 545,880 were working. But among Memphis residents, the number employed fell by 7,890, or 3 percent, from 270,000 to 262,110. Those numbers show that while local employment is on the rebound since the most recent recession, the growth is not evenly distributed across the metro area. The disparity, a local economist said, may result from a continued migration of people and wealth from...

People are back in the streets because of Pacific Steel Casting Company. In the past, it has been the issue of pollution. The workers have struck over the issue of health and safety (the same issue, as seen from inside). And now, some 200 workers are protesting unjust job termination, owing to intervention by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), in violation of the spirit of Berkeley as a sanctuary city. This factory remains a problem. There will be a march to publicize this problem on Friday, Feb. 17. Here's a bit of the story (aka history). The factory is a...

Gunfire on the left. Gunfire on the right. And a gaggle of protesters dead ahead shouting: "Police are bastards" and "F- the police." While Occupy Oakland protesters rant on and on about the brutality of the Oakland Police Department, brutality has been occurring all around them. From Thursday to Monday, 15 people were shot in the city in unrelated incidents. And Oakland police weren't responsible for any of those shootings. Five of the people who were shot died. Perhaps Occupy Oakland should plan a march to protest all the violence in our city - including their own. Because in Oakland's...

Oakland -- Hundreds of City of Oakland employees will receive layoff notices next week, as the city embarks on severe cost-cutting measures to make up for the loss of redevelopment funds, city staff said Thursday. The pink slips will arrive next week, when City Administrator Deanna Santana releases the 2012-2012 budget.The redevelopment agency - which will be nearly eliminated due to state cutbacks - has 158 full-time positions and more than 200 workers. But because of seniority rules, some of those employees might be transferred to other departments.

The new congressional, legislative and Board of Equalization districts drawn by an independent commission made a long-evident political reality official: California, once a Republican bastion, is now solidly, even overwhelmingly, Democratic. Democrats will control the Legislature – with two-thirds majorities in reach – and the congressional delegation. And while it may not be impossible for a Republican to win statewide office, as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Poizner demonstrated, it's at best unlikely, even when lavishly self- financed, à la Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. California's most important political contests will either be over the state's biennial spate of ballot measures,...

If pension reform were running for mayor this year, it would be the only candidate in a crowded field that could gain more than 50 percent of the vote. That’s why all eyes will be focused on it next week when the Board of Supervisors receives a long-awaited version of a negotiated retirement plan for The City’s public employees. And when it’s served up Tuesday, the politics around pension reform will slide front and center, instead of merely serving as a backdrop for the November election. The charge for pension reform has been led by Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who joined...

New report reveals tragic state of post-fracture care in the region, predicts huge increase in osteoporotic fractures due to aging populationsPreliminary findings from an upcoming new report by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) show alarming projections and reveal the poor state of post-fracture care in the Russian Federation and many other countries in the region. The findings were announced today at a press conference in St. Petersburg at the IOF Summit of Eastern European and Central Asian Osteoporosis Patient Societies. Osteoporosis, a disease of the bone which leaves people at increased risk of fracture, is most common in the older...

The Oakland City Council voted Thursday to lay off 80 of the Police Department's 776 officers as it slashed at a $30.5 million budget deficit. The decision could be rescinded if the police union agrees to pension concessions. Council members would like the officers to contribute 9 percent of their salaries toward their CalPERS pension, the same as every other city union worker. Union leaders and city officials are set to negotiate Sunday and Monday, a move some interpreted as a sign the union was willing to change its position. "I'm confident that we can have an agreement by July...

Californians lost their jobs at a faster pace than most Americans. Not too surprisingly, their incomes shrank at a faster pace, too. Per capita personal incomes fell 3.5 percent in California last year, . . .

The plunge in tourism has resulted in soaring unemployment and home foreclosures, a shortened school year and an exodus from the state. Some residents blame the visiting President Obama. Hawaii was so short of cash last year that it furloughed teachers and suspended school for 17 Fridays during the academic year, giving students the fewest school days of any state in the union. Home foreclosures and bankruptcy filings are soaring. The unemployment rate has more than doubled over the last two years to 7.0%. Though that's well below the national average of 10.0%, it's a stunner for a place that...

National Public Radio is running a series of broadcasts this week called "California in Crisis." And NPR is not alone. Network and cable television news shows, public broadcasters, major out-of-state newspapers and countless magazines are taking turns recounting and analyzing California's economic and fiscal travails. The tone of many reports is found in the German word "schadenfreude." It means taking pleasure from the distress of others. The state's periodic social and economic upheavals have always generated that kind of media attention, something along the lines of "tarnish on the Golden State." But the current spate has an even edgier tone,...