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Bringing Democracy to Nicaragua (Part 2 of 2)
Posted on July 12, 2014 by edmundberger
More from the archives, part one here.
The End of Enterprise
In December of 1982, a group of 70 departed from the Nicaraguan town of Esteli to take part in the annual coffee harvest. Among the group was Felipe Barreda, 51, and his wife Mery, 49. Both were devout Catholics and religious teachers who had worked the Sandinistas in the uprising against Somoza just a few years earlier, and had subsequently assisted in the government's literacy programs. Departing just before Christmas meant that the town's holiday festivities would be missed, and Mery expressed her disappointment in a letter left to her close friends. "We have been awaiting this Christmas with real joy," she wrote. "The best Christmas gift the Lord could give me would be this Christmas to share with you. But then I suddenly had the chance to give you a very fine present, although it means I will not be with you at Midnight Mass. It is the chance to pick coffee for ten days. The little bit that I pick will be transformed into healthcare, clothing, house, roads, education, and food for our people… In every coffee bean I pick I will see each of your faces."i
The coffee picker's journey took them to a farm near on the Honduran border, which they reached on the 28th of December. Their labor would be cut short quickly as the tranquil morning air was pierced by a volley of gunfire. "Get down," one of the pickers began to shout. "The Contras are coming!" The rebel assault succeeded in splitting up the team – "bullets were raining on us from all sides," another picker, Alicia Huete, would recall. The Contra's assault lasted until five in the evening. When the pickers regrouped, it was discovered that four were missing, including the Barredas.
The Barredas were captured by the rebel fighters, and forced to march, blindfolded and shackled, through the forest. Noel Benavides, another prisoner, later told reporters that Felipe had been in immense pain from beatings he had sustained and had a hard time navigating the dense foliage of the Nicaraguan jungles. Several times when he fell, and he begged his captors to let him pray. "But they just beat him, kicked him, slapped him in the face, and cursed him." Their forced march took them to a Contra base camp across the Honduran border, where the four were split apart. Mery was left behind with a group of soldiers, informed that she would be raped "by the whole troop." The other three were stripped, beaten, and tied to trees, where they would remain for two days. Mery was eventuall returned to the group, "beaten and hemorrhaging. She collapsed upon arriving due to the extenuation, the fatigue, and the blows." Their suffering at the hands of the Contras lasted for nearly another week before Noel had the opportunity to escape. Reaching the Nicaraguan Embassy in the city of Tegucigalpa, he was able to contact Sandinistan authorities and return home.
Over a year later the Nicaraguan government captured a young Contra rebel who went by the alias of "El Muerto." Identified by Noel as one of his captors, the fighter described his crimes on national television, which included the utilization of "psychological warfare" on Mery and beating Felipe with the butt of pistol. Finally, El's Muerto's commanding officer, "El Suicida," instructed him to "kill the Barredas and I carried out the order, shooting them in the head with the help of Juan and Tapir [two other Contra rebels]."
Horrifying events such as these were not the exception when it came to the Contras. They were the norm, and they happened time and time again. In 1984 rebels slaughtered seventeen civilians (including a mother and her sixteenth month old child) at the state owned farm of La Sorpresa. In another incident, Contras attacked the town of Sumubila, setting aflame a hospital and senior citizen's artisanry center.ii In yet another, a brigade of 350 fighters assault four townships; in one of them the Contras executed six unarmed civilians and torched people's home. One survivor testified that as this violence was conducted, the Contras told the villagers that "they wanted to free the people from communism… they were very proud of the arms they received from Reagan."iii
Acting as an international watchdog, Americas Watch concluded that the "disregard for the rights of civilians has become the de facto policy of the Contras."iv The same conclusions were reached by another investigator, Kathleen Bertlesen, of the Washington Office on Latin America.v In a protest of the tactics being utilized by the Contras, she castigated the rebels as a "roving band of terrorists." Bertlesen's searing indictment summed up some of their worst atrocities and demanded critical answers:
What economic objective or military gain is there to be had in killing a five year old, or in raping a grandmother? What military objective can be found in slaughtering a young bride in front of her parents, or in burning a home of a coffee picker, or in slitting the throat of an old man? The only achievement is that of imposing a climate of total fear. And therein lies the contra's objective: to blanket the population in fear. The most disturbing thing in all of this is that these acts of brutality cannot be attributed to the errant behavior of a few renegade contras. It appears to be the conscious policy of the contra leadership and it permeates the whole force.vi
The U.S. government, looking to quell potential public outcry for their complicity in the death squad's rampage, went straight for the jugular. Robert Kagan dismissed findings of Americas Watch report as "totally unfounded."vii Another official admitted that yes, maybe the Contras had murdered civilians, but he was equally dismissive – "It seems what you would expect to have in a war."viii Ronald Reagan himself praised the actions of the rebels, informing the American people that the death squads had "the moral equal of our founding fathers."ix Yet as much of the American government was turning its back on the consequences of its actions down south, the Contras themselves were being a bit more cavalier. "I love killing," one fighter told a reporter. "I have been killing for the past seven years. There's nothing I like better. If I could, I'd kill several people a day."x
And so the rampage continued. In one raid on the village of El Nispero, Contras left two Sandinista soldiers, two elderly women, a mother, and two infants dead.xi Another attack saw forty-seven killed in the town of Pantasma.xii As the New York Times repeatedly hammered away, reporting on the murders, the kidnappings, the rapes, and other atrocities, Christian leading lights and Texas oilmen continued to funnel money to them through North's intricate web. Bolstered by NED money, La Prensa continued to openly support the Contras, as their co-director identified himself as "a member of the Nicaraguan Resistance."xiii
Everything collapsed in October of 1986. As a foreign C-123 cargo plane flew over Southern Nicaragua, it was fired upon and shot down. The plane's two pilots and radio operator were killed in the crash, but the forth passenger, Eugene Hasenfus, a former marine, had managed to narrowly escape death by parachuting to safety. Hasenfus's victory was short lived, however; he was promptly picked up by a Sandinista patrol in the area. On his body was found an item of interest – a small black book, containing a series of phone numbers.
Inside the wreckage of the plane authorities discovered a cache of shoulder-launched heat seeking missiles, but it was the call sign on the body of the fuselage, N4410F that contained the most interesting revelations. Utilizing this number, the plane was traced back to Southern Air Transport, a small airline company run out of Miami. This small flight firm was a subsidiary of Air America, a CIA-front company that had supplied the agency with planes used in specials operations ranging from the early covert war against Vietnam to the failure of Bay of Pigs.xiv Under interrogation, Hasenfus admitted that he was in the employ of the CIA, and that his plane, bound for a rendezvous with Contra rebels, had departed from an airstrip in El Salvador.xv With corroborating evidence found in the mysterious black book, it was later revealed that this airstrip was managed by a Felix Rodriguez CIA asset and Bay of Pigs veteran (who also, incidentally, had been assisted in capturing Che Guevara and was present when he was executed).xvi
Meanwhile, on the Iranian front, things were not progressing much better. An Islamic cleric, Mehdi Hashemi, dismayed at his country's willingness to indulge in arms deals with the "Great Satan," had leaked to a Jordanian newspaper confidential information pertaining to the conspiracy.xvii Though Hashemi, labeled a "deviant and [a] plotter" with "selfish ambitions," was summarily arrested and executed, his actions, coupled with the downing of Hasenfus's aircraft, had blown the lid on the entire operation. Piece by piece, the best laid plans were crumbling to dust. Federal investigators under the direction of Lawrence Walsh dove into North's complex, unraveling the myriad of twist and turns. The never-ending train of revelations ranged from the (cynically) expected – North shredded critical files as Justice Department officials sat in his office, waiting to read themxviii – to the extraordinary. In one instance, it was revealed that North's 'Project Democracy' included work on a domestic "contingency plan… that would suspend the American constitution" by "turning control of the government to FEMA, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and the declaration of martial law."xix
In the end, North, Poindexter, Macfarlane, and Abrams were convicted for their role in the conspiracy. Casey never made it to the trial, falling ill to brain cancer just hours before his testimony. All were ultimately pardoned within a few years by President Bush, but the fallout did indicate a large shift in power in the Washington establishment. Poindexter was succeeded as National Security Adviser by Frank Carlucci, who, as discussed in the previous chapter, had aligned himself with the liberal transnational elite by controversially promoting the interests of the Portuguese socialists. He also mended the ties between the NSC and George Schultz; as opposed to North's rivalry with the Secretary of State, Carlucci had "long enjoyed a very good personal relationship."xx The friendship had begun years earlier in the Nixon administration, when Carlucci had served in the Office of Management and Budget under Shultz.xxi
With this transformation, the NED moved forward and took lead as one of the primary operators of US policy in Nicaragua. Support for the Contra rebels was still strong in the Washington establishment, but the new approach operating along lines far more similar to the one being implemented simultaneously in Chile. But Nicaragua was a far cry from Chile – whereas democracy promotion in Chile followed the path of common discontent in both the nation's elite and its lower classes, the objective in Nicaragua was remained removing a government that continued to rule with the majority's consent. That said, by the later years of the 1980s the Sandinista's power base was not as strong as it had been in the years immediately following Somoza's removal; continued Contra terror and economic woes, resulting from both the civil war and the trade embargo, were creating fissures of doubt in the party's leadership. Ortega was already searching for financial assistance from the neoliberal moneymen in the World Bank and IMF, yet the White House was continuing to wield its diplomatic might in blocking any such aid from reaching a country with constitutionally mandated elections on the immediate horizon.xxii
It was against this backdrop that led NED officials to convene a meeting with the State Department and White House officials to help formulate the new approach. The results of this meeting, which occurred in 1988, acknowledged that while a Contra-centric policy was rapidly becoming impossible, the anti-Sandinista opposition "need[ed] political and financial support from multiple sources," and that they "should be encouraged to mobilize and channel popular discontent."xxiii The meeting resulted in an increase of funding for the NED, which went to Delphi International Services (still being overseen by North's comrade, Henry Quintero) to help bring together the country's fourteen opposition parties into the Nicaraguan Opposition Union (UNO).xxiv In a later analysis, investigative journalist Jacqueline Sharkey was told by coalition leaders that reluctant oppositional parties were pressured into joining the UNO by the Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CUS) – a so-called "apolitical body" funded by the NED.xxv Soon enough Carl Gershman was travelling to Nicaragua with a team of his NED colleagues, seeking to consultant with the coalition.
In the same year as the NED's White House summit, Freedom House organized a Working Group on Central American, consisting of Penn Kemble, the AIFLD's William Doherty, Mark Falcoff of the American Enterprise Institute, and longtime Democratic Party operator, Bernard W. Aronson.xxvi The group's recommendations followed the NED's tune, but still urged Washington to not neglect the Contras – the US needed to transfer funding to a more politically viable opposition while "simultaneously maintaining the 'cohesion' of the Contras."xxvii The mentality was reflective of the group's more hawkish members, Kemble and Doherty – both had been in PRODEMCA, while Kemble had been a cog in Enterprise. Meanwhile Doherty had been particularly close with Arturo Cruz, Jr., a leader in the United Nicaraguan Opposition umbrella group,xxviii and had also maneuvered the AIFLD to support and fund the pro-Contra Nicaraguan Council of Trade Union Unification.xxix
As in Chile, these organizations began to foster a beneficial political climate and reinvigorate Nicaragua's civil society. Knowing that support of the left would be essential for the success of the UNO, concessions were made and several communist parties were allowed into the coalition, and the FTUI went to work bringing together the country's moderate trade unions into a single bloc. What emerged was the Permanent Congress of Workers (CPT), which quickly aligned itself with the UNO. To strengthen these ties, the FTUI assisted in propping up the electoral campaigns in each of the country's administrative districts. They trained thousands of activists to operate these campaigns, hold polls and increase voter awareness. The base of operations for this network was at an NED-financed headquarters in Managua, staffed with CPT leaders.xxx This operation also provided an opportunity to try to build a multinational solidarity network between the 'emerging democracies' of Latin America – the NED brought Genaro Arriagada, one of their key players in Chile, to Nicaragua to consult with the UNO's electoral network.xxxi Logistical support was also flowing in from the NDI, which held a series with opposition leaders to "provide training in how to formulate oppositional strategy and tactical planning to the civic opposition… [the seminars] were designed around three core themes: party planning and organizational planning, constituency planning, and coalition building."xxxii
A well-oiled propaganda campaign, produced by NED funds, was also hoisted on both the Nicaraguan people and the American intelligentsia. In May/June 1988 issue of its journal, Freedom at Large, Freedom House published an article depicting the Sandinista government as a 'dictatorship' and described the decaying state of the Nicaraguan education system. The article's findings were the result of an NED-funded study done by the American Federation of Teachers, where the NED/SD-USA's Albert Shanker was holding post.xxxiii Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, Peter Finn, and NDI employee and USAID consultant, created television commercials for the UNO; with the tagline "now Nicaragua has the opportunity to choose democracy," one clip utilized imagery of the Berlin Wall falling and Lech Walsea leading Solidarity against the Soviets.xxxiv In another case, NED grants were passed through Freedom House and the AIFLD to the Costa Rican publishing house, staffed with "prominent personalities and intellectuals from Nicaragua's elite,"xxxv Libro Libre, which "funded and distributed transcripts and recordings of procontra conferences and seminars."xxxvi
Even the UNO's selection of a presidential candidate was, in many ways, tantamount to US propaganda. Bowing to pressure from Washington, the coalition selected Violeta Chamorro, who so long ago had been a member of the Junta of National Reconstruction with Ortega. Chamorro was neither particularly well-versed in politics nor economics; her selection was more of a symbolic act and her place in the perspective administration was little more than that of a figurehead. Imagery of motherhood and religion pervaded the UNO's campaign. Professor William Robinson has taken note of this maneuver of "Chamorro the Symbol," as opposed to "Chamorro the Politician:"
Washington planned flashy meetings between Chamorro and other world leaders, including Pope John Paul II, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and other European leaders, and President Bush. The purpose of these visits, in which photo-opportunities were stressed and statements kept to a minimum, was to have the image of Chamorro beside world leaders reverberate in the minds of the Nicaraguan electorate. What was important that Chamorro be seen as capable of securing the political and economic support of the developed capitalist world at a time of severe crisis in Nicaragua and diminishing options for its resolution.xxxvii
The emphasis on motherhood had also played another role – female empowerment and gender equality had long been one of the central tenets of the Sandinista governments, and the party was still drawing strong support from women. Hopefully a strong woman figure, powerful enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the top of the transnational elite, could turn the tides of the trend. Likewise, Delphi utilized NED funds to create the Nicaraguan Women's Movement (MMN) to link female leadership in the UNO with potential electorates. As one Delphi document explained, "As the program advances, women will play a significant role in the electoral process as never before seen in the history of Nicaragua."xxxviii
1989 saw a skyrocketing increase in the budget for Nicaraguan activities. The CIA was given over $10 million to provide logistical support for the UNO, nearly $3 million for the NED, and $1 million for organizations to travel to Nicaragua to observe in the run-up to the election cycle.xxxix One of these organizations had been the Carter Center, founded by the former president in 1981 to "advance peace and health worldwide."xl The impressive co-founder list, published in their annual reports, shows a diverse cross-section of the burgeoning transnational capitalist class, including many of Carter's colleagues in the Trilateral Commission (Warren Christopher, Sidney Harman, David Packard), members of the CFR (James Robinson III), the Committee on the Present Danger (David Packard), the Rockefeller Foundation (Mathilde Krim), the BCCI (Agha Hasan Abedi), and one of the founders of the WACLxli (Ryoichi Sasakawa).xlii
Problems were certainly arising – the Nicaraguan elite, a longtime band of warring brothers, continued to bicker amongst themselves and threaten the UNO's hegemony over the oppositional field. The NED's reports had duly observed that it was "essential that the opposition understands that failure to unify jeopardizes external assistance."xliii To ensure that an acceptable unification continued on track would require direct NED intervention with the UNO party, yet such the endowment was barred from such an act by its charter. To avoid these regulations the NED took a page from the CIA's book and organized a civic opposition group, the Institute for Electoral Promotion and Training (IPEC). US strategists hand-picked the members of IPEC's five-person board, selecting individuals who were all top leaders in the UNO – including Alfredo Cesar, Chamorro's primary campaign adviser.xliv The Institute faced temporary setbacks; in one instance, the Sandinistas froze its US funds, amounting to $1.5 million, in the Nicaraguan Central Bank, for failing to register as nonprofit organization.xlv The funds were only released to IPEC after negotiations, spearheaded by Jimmy Carter, assured Ortega and the government that the money wasn't going to support the UNO. Regardless of Carter's protestations, however, the money went to UNO aligned forces. Cesar later told representatives from the Latin American Studies Association that IPEC only trained election monitors who were "associated with the UNO and YATAMA, an Indian alliance backing the UNO on the Atlantic coast."xlvi A later audit also showed that IPEC was also paying the salaries of UNO employees and candidates, and was helping to cover the costs of television commercials, radio spots, and other promotional techniques.xlvii
If the IPEC was the primary vehicle of NED support for the UNO itself, then the endowment's primary operator in the extended civil society network was the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). IFES, boasting the tagline that "the art of building a democracy should be based on the science of designing free and fair elections,"xlviii drew its leadership primarily from pro-Contra advocates in the US; there was F. Clifton White, a close colleague of William Casey and a board member of the IRI; Richard Scammon, who had been a member of the Kissinger Commission, Richard Stone, Reagan's special envoy to Latin America, NED founder and director Charles Manatt, executive director of the Young Americans for Freedom (a youth organization affiliated with the John Birch Society) Randal Teague; and Henry Quintero.xlix
The main target of the IFES's NED money was Via Civica, "a nonpartisan grouping of notables" that promoted "ballots, not bullets."l The organization's stated agenda attempted to depict itself as nonpartisan, free from affiliation with any political party. But like IPEC and all other NED-funded adventures, it was aligned primarily with the UNO and interlocked with the party's management. All ten directors of the group "were prominent UNO activists;" three representing parties within the coalition, two from the CPT, and five from the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), a "big business umbrella group" that had received support from both the CIA and the NED.li The cozy relationship between the democracy promotion networks and these in-country organizations often presented opportunities for the US operators to make money on the side; shortly after the IFES began working with Via Civica, Quintero was hired as a consultant for the Managua-based construction company Construcciones y Proyectos, which had been owned by Jeronimo Sequiera, one of the interlocks between Via Civica and COSEP.lii
The NED had effectively created an incestuous and rigid hierarchy running through the Nicaraguan civil society, with the UNO sitting alone at the top. Both trade unionists and country's economic elite were conjoined under its umbrella, and the progressive female voice was being roped in through the MMN. However dynamic this system was, so close to the one being crafted in Chile at the same time, Washington believed that they still had use for their freedom fighters. They had the potential to give the UNO an entirely new level of power and influence.
The Democracy Manipulators
Iran-Contra had been dead for nearly two years when the foreign policy devisers in Washington decided that Contras had proved to be far too useful a tool to cast aside. Following along the lines of recommendations laid out in the Freedom House report, Congress released a $67 million dollar aid package to rebels. The money was meant to "keep the Contras alive, intact, and in existence throughout the electoral process," Secretary of State James Baker explained, understanding that they had potential to be "an insurance policy until after February elections are certified free and fair."liii An additional $4.5 million went to enlightening the Contras to the UNO's cause; they were taught to understand the strategic ramifications of a civic victory in the electoral arena over their opponents.liv
With the sudden influx of money the fighters, who had been lying rather dormant since the end of the multinational arms funnel, began a rapid mobilization back into Nicaraguan from the surrounding countries. Violence, terrorism, and intimidation once again began to dot the landscape as the Contras voluntarily turned themselves in the militant wing of the so-called peaceful coalition. Some fifty Sandinista activists were executed in the latter months of 1989, and over a hundred cases of harassment were reported. Yet the Contras attempted to maintain an altruistic rhetoric about their operations – "our infiltration into Nicaragua has nothing to do with combat," one Contra explained. "Our only goal is to maintain a presence in our fatherland and alert people about elections and who they can vote for."lv
In light of these events it becomes perfectly clear what Baker meant when he described the Contras a potential insurance policy – even after the NED's creation of a unified power bloc of once divided elites, it was still up in the air whether or not the UNO had the power to unseat the Sandinistas. But the war weighed on people's minds; it had ravaged their country for six long years and had visited horrors on innocent populations. With the sudden resurgence of Contras, the memories of roving death squads and burning towns came flooding back. It was common knowledge that the Contras had the mighty hand of the US riding behind them, and this rendered a stark choice: vote UNO, or watch terror overtake the country once again.
On April 25th, 1990, Violeta Chamorro was elected president, winning 55% of the votes over Ortega.lvi The AIFLD and the Carter Center were on hand, acting as election monitors. A poll conducted shortly after her victory revealed the extent of success in the US's manipulation of democratic sentiment by asking the yes-no question "If the Sandinistas had won, the war never would have ended." With 91.8% of those polled being pro-UNO voters, 75.6% said yes.lvii The NED was also on hand to commend Chamorro for the victory she had secured. They bestowed her with the Democracy Award during the same ceremony where they also granted one to Vaclav Havel; in her acceptance speech she extolled the UNO's ability to rouse the passions of the Nicaraguan populations into change. "Democracy was born in Nicaragua – it was done patriotically."lviii
The US lifted the trade embargo on the country, allowing the long-awaited (albeit unpopular with the majority of the population)lix neoliberal reforms to take place. Chamorro appointed Francisco Mayorga to the position of governor of the central bank, a post from which he could implement new economic policies. The choice was surely to please the Washington establishment, as Mayorga had served as the executive secretary of the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development, a US-led program that was funded by the Carnegie Corporation and Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.lx Serving alongside Mayorga on the Commission were a number of principles tied to democracy promotion circles; among them were John T. Joyce (of the NED, Freedom House, the AFL-CIO, the SD/USA and PRODEMCA), Enrique Dreyfus (the head of the NED-funded COSEP), Lawrence Eagleburger (at the time serving as the president of Kissinger Associates), Edelberto Torres-Rivas (the Secretary General of the NED-funded FLASCO), and Viron P. Vaky (a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).lxi
Among Mayorga's moves was the rapid liberalization of trade, removing tariffs and the creation of a new currency, the "cordoba oro," which was pegged to the US dollar.lxii The plan was ultimately a failure, as hyperinflation quickly took place and underemployment hit a record high of 44.6%. 17% of the GNP was swallowed while exports grew, albeit at a lower level than they had a year earlier under the Sandinistan government.lxiii Likewise, the deconstruction of public infrastructure had intense ramifications – food consumption fell by 30% in the two years after the reforms began, and diseases that had been eradicated during the Sandinista's rule (including cholera, malaria, and the measles) returned and reached "epidemic proportions."lxiv Infant mortality rates, which had leveled off at around 50 per 1000 births in the 1980s, rose to 83 per 1000 in the early 90s. lxvChamorro's government was forced to make concessions to their leftist opposition – in an agreement with the National Union of Agricultural Producers, the rapid shock therapy-esque reforms were rolled back into a process of gradual liberalization. Despite protestations from COSEP, privatization plans were slowed in exchange for a promise from the unions to not organize strikes at the critical juncture. Finally, just as Pinochet had been forced to do in Chile, the government fixed the cordoba oro's exchange rate.lxvi
Seeing the possibility of the great democratic victory collapsing, USAID began to pump money into the flailing economy – with a package of over $500 million to be spread over two years, it was the largest program the agency was conducting in the world.lxvii The cost was great, but the aid money finally gave the new Nicaraguan government the opportunity to fully integrate its economics into the international market and secure its place in the world order. By 1992 its position was fully cemented in place, with the country's foreign debt standing at $11 billion.lxviii Nicaragua paid $495 million in debt interest that year, a number that double the revenue brought in by exports in 1991.
The triumph in Nicaragua had been a significant one, similar to the one that was happening concurrently in Chile. Both countries had a long history of populism and left-wing politics; while the Sandinistas were met with opposition from elements in the elite and from foreign elements, the population at large had seen no contradiction between democracy and socialist governance. For them he real enemy of the democracy was the multinational economic system that forced dictators upon them and their neighboring countries. It is extremely unlikely that the election of Chamorro would have ever occurred with the many years of a war that left untold numbers dead and the economy in tatters. The events of Iran-Contra and the subsequent electoral cycle pose something unique in the machinations of the democracy-industrial complex – low-intensity democracy at literal gunpoint.
Once cemented in place, the reforms proved impossible to roll back. Chamorro's successor, Arnoldo Alemán, a former Somoza official, furthered Nicaragua's place in the global by increasing the number of foreign investments to an all-time high. In 2005 the country had signed into CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), a Bush, Jr. – era initiative that had been overseen by his trade representative Robert Zoellick, who had played a small but supporting role in Nicaragua's history by urging Bush Sr. to embrace free elections, as opposed to further covert Contra support.lxix Within a few years of helping devise CAFTA, Bush went on to appoint Zoellick as the head of the World Bank.
By the time Danny Ortega and his Sandinista comrades were elected back into power in 2007, they had shunned their previous commitment to Marxism, embracing instead the Washington Consensus with open arms. The CFR has touted Ortega's conversion, with a recent Foreign Affairs article noting that "IMF approval has reassured private investors that Ortega will not return to the bad old days of the 1980s… notwithstanding occasional rhetoric outbursts against 'imperialism,' Ortega has kept Nicaraguan policy well within the boundaries of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement."lxx The article also boasts that former leftist firebrand has lost his colorful opposition to sweatshops, opting instead to court blue jeans and t-shirt makers to bring their business to Nicaragua's free trade zones, where workers, in some cases, are routinely verbally and physically abused while working 90 plus hours a week in exchange for as little as $90 a month.lxxi
Oliver North may have lost his battle in the 1980s, and pushed the nationalist elite further onto the backburner, but in the long run his ultimate goal, as well as that of the US foreign policy apparatuses, has been accomplished. "Democracy" has been brought to Nicaragua.
i Reed Brody Contra Terror in Nicaragua: Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, September, 1984 – January, 1985 South End Press, pgs. 33-38
ii Ibid, pg. 43
iii Ibid, pg. 48
iv Elaine Sciolino "U.S. Group Finds No Improvement in Contra's Human Rights Record" New York Times February 10th, 1987 http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/10/world/us-group-finds-no-improvement-in-contras-human-rights-record.html
v The criticisms of the North network and subsequent fall-out from Iran-Contra illustrate quite clearly inter-elite divisions according to their aligned faction. As noted several times in this chapter, the entire scheme firmly existed within the realm of the 'nationalist' conservative network. Elite criticism of North's action was extremely commonplace – much of the this portion of the text is derived from reports done by Americas Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), both of whom have received Ford Foundation funding. Ironically, given the NED's support for the Contras and USAID's support for the moderate, anti-Sandinista opposition, WOLA's director, Diane La Voy, went on the become a policy adviser for USAID; while her successor, Joseph Eldridge, has been close to the circles that laid the groundwork for the NED. Later in its existence WOLA has established interlocks with the NED through its Solidarity Center, the AFL-CIO adjunct entity that consolidated the operations of the AIFLD and FTUI. (See Michael Barker "Imperialism and the Washington Office on Latin America" Swans Commentary May 17th, 2010) In a similar vein, the Christic Institute, a public law firm that charged Oliver North with being involved with a secretive assassination cabal that they dubbed the "Secret Team," was receiving funding from the New World Foundation. At the time of this funding Hillary Clinton was sitting on the board of directors.
vi Brody Contra Terror in Nicaragua pg. 7
vii Sciolino "U.S. Group Finds No Improvement"
viii Brody Contra Terror in Nicaragua, pg. 6
ix William E. Pemberton Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan M.E. Sharp, 1998 pg. 173
x Ibid., pg. 4
xi Thomas Bodenheimer, Robert Gould Rollback! Right-Wing Power in US Foreign Policy South End Press, 1989 pg. 90
xii Ibid. pg. 89-90
xiii Noam Chomsky Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies South End Press, 1987, pg. 327
xiv Sklar Washington's War on Nicaragua pg. 258
xv "Nicaragua Downs Plane and Survivor Implicates C.I.A." New York Times, October 12th, 1986, Gary Web Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion Seven Stories Press, 1998, pg. 319
xvi William Grant "CIA man recount's Che's death" BBC News October 8th, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7027619.stm
xvii Laurence Louėr Transnational Shia politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf Columbia University Press, 2008
xviii "Oliver North Admits Shredding Files" CNN, July 9th, 1987 http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0007/09/sun.05.html
xix Scott The Road to 9/11 pg. 23 The roots of this program, later referred to as the "Continuity of Government" (or COG) for short, laid in a "massive domestic intelligence-gathering" operation conducted in the Nixon administration, dubbed "Operation Garden Plot." (Ibid, pgs. 26-27) Other facets could be traced to the Emergency Operating Center in Dallas, Texas, an operation that was headed up by Jack Crichton, a Texas oilman (not to mention an associate of the father of Oliver North's benefactor, Nelson B. Hunt) and a member of the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit. (Peter Dale Scott "The Doomsday Project and Deep Events: JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and 9/11" Centre for Research on Globalization, November 22nd, 2011 http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27806) By the 1980s, when North became affiliated with the COG planning, both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney had become involved as well. (Scott, The Road to 9/11, pg. 23)
xx "Carlucci says he's not feuding with Schultz" The Associated Press April 27th, 1987
xxi Ibid
xxii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy pg. 238
xxiii Ibid, pg. 244
xxiv Ibid, pg. 233
xxv Beth Sims "Democratization, Political Aid, and Superpower Intervention: The U.S. Role in the 1990 Elections" The Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center, April 4th 1991
xxvi Sims Workers of the World Undermined pg. 49, Z Magazine, Volume 3, Institute for Social and Cultural Communications, January 1st, 1990, pg. 55, Nicaraguan Perspectives Volumes 17-20, Nicaraguan Information Center, East Bay Nicaraguan Solidarity Committee, pg. 16
xxvii Sims, Workers of the World Undermined, pg. 49
xxviii Bruce P. Cameron My Life in the Time of Contras University of New Mexico Press, 2007 pg. 97
xxix Sklar Washington's War on Nicaragua pg. 66
xxx Robinson Promoting Polyarchy pgs. 227-228
xxxi Ibid, pg. 224
xxxii Ibid, pg. 223
xxxiii Sims Workers of the World Undermined pg. 48
xxxiv Robinson Promoting Polyarchy, pg. 253
xxxv Ibid., pg. 232
xxxvi Sims Workers of the World Undermined pg. 232
xxxvii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy, pg. 225
xxxviii Ibid, pg. 229
xxxix Ibid, pg. 226
xl Carter Center annual report, 2005-2006 http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/Carter%20Center%20Annual%20Report%200506.pdf
xli Bodenheimer, Gould Rollback! pg. 69. Sasawaka, a self-proclaimed fascist, had ties to Japan's Yakuza criminal underworld and in 1963 he became an adviser to the Unification Church. (David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld University of California Press, 2003 pg. 65) Working with the Kuomintang (or KMT, forces under Chiang-Kai-Shek that smuggled opium under the watchful eye of the CIA) and the Church, Sasawake set up the Asian People's Anti-Communist League. In the 1950s, as the agency moved into place to stage their coup in Guatemala, the CIA's E. Howard Hunt set up an equivalent organization in Mexico City. When the two branches merged they became the World Anti-Communist League. (Scott American War Machine, pg. 52)
xlii Carter Center annual report, 2005-2006
xliii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy, pg. 224
xliv Ibid, pg. 226
xlv Richard Bourdeaux "Managua Frees U.S. Funds for Poll Monitors" Los Angeles Times, January 29th 1990
xlvi Beth Sims "Democratization, Political Aid, and Superpower Intervention"
xlvii Ibid.
xlviii International Foundation for Electoral Systems "Democracies Don't Grow on Trees" brochure, 1989
xlix "International Foundation for Electoral Systems" Right Web http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/International_Foundation_for_Electoral_Systems
l Robinson Promoting Polyarchy pg. 230
li Ibid, pgs. 230, 222
lii Robinson A Faustian Bargain pg. 76
liii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy pg. 235
liv Ibid, pg. 236
lv Ibid
lvi Alma Guillermoprieto The Heart that Bleeds: Latin American Now Random House, 1995, pg. 39
lvii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy pg. 238
lviii "1991 Democracy Award, National Endowment for Democracy http://web.archive.org/web/20070525163940/http://www.ned.org/events/demaward/demaward1991.html
lix Gary Prevost, Henry E. Vanden Politics of Latin America Oxford University Press, 2002, pg. 16
lx International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development The Report of the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development Duke University Press, 1989 pg. xiii
lxi Ibid, pg. x
lxii Alex E. Fernández Jilberto Liberalization in the Developing World: Institutional and Economic Changes in Latin America, Africa, and Asia Routledge, 1996 pg. 125
lxiii Ibid, pgs. 125-126
lxiv Robinson Promoting Polyarchy, pgs. 251-252
lxv Ibid, pg. 252
lxvi Fernandez, Jilberto Liberalization in the Developing World, pg. 127
lxvii Robinson Promoting Polyarchy, pg. 242
lxviii Ibid
lxix Robert Kagan A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990 The Free Press, 1996 pg. 635
lxx Richard Feinberg "Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua's Soft Authoritarianism: The Story of the Sandinista Survivor" Foreign Affairs November 2nd, 2011 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/letters-from/daniel-ortega-and-nicaraguas-soft-authoritarianism
lxxi Carrie Antlfinger "Nicaragua: US Retailers Contract With Sweatshops" Associated Press, August 22nd, 2000 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=604
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged AFL-CIO, Cold War, democracy promotion, election monitoring, free trade, free trade zone, globalization, Iran-Contra, National Endowment for Democracy, neoliberalism, Nicaragua, Oliver North, proxy wars, soft power, Washington Consensus. Bookmark the permalink.
6 Responses to Bringing Democracy to Nicaragua (Part 2 of 2)
dmf says:
http://www.againstthegrain.org/program/978/wed-71614-imperial-suburbs
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4901/4097
http://theacademicactivist.org/node/149
http://www.wnyc.org/story/americas-secret-war-afghanistan/
S.C. Hickman says:
Hey, buddy.. been a while, I see you're working hard. Looks like you could almost put a good book together now from what I've read so far in the past few posts. At least looking a lot slimmer and to the point.
Yea, I've returned mainly to my poetry and my novel writing now. About 20,000 words into a 80,000 word noir fiction set in the deep south. Good luck my friend!
Pingback: The Uses and Abuses of Global Civil Society | Deterritorial Investigations Unit


text:
Subsequent Events [Abstract]
15. Subsequent Events
Management evaluated events occurring subsequent to June 30, 2021 through August 5, 2022, the date these consolidated financial statements were available for issuance, and other than as noted below determined that no material recognizable subsequent events occurred.
Credit Facility
On August 2, 2022, the Company entered into an amendment to its Loan Agreement with its lender which provided the following, among other things:
● waived the Company's failure to meet the minimum quarterly FCCR requirement for the second quarter of 2022;
● removes the quarterly FCCR testing requirement for the third quarter of 2022;
● reinstates the quarterly FCCR testing requirement starting for the fourth quarter of 2022 and revises the methodology to be used in calculating the FCCR for the quarters ending December 31, 2022 and March 31, 2023 (with no change to the minimum 1.15:1 ratio requirement for each quarter);
● requires maintenance of a minimum of $3,000,000 in borrowing availability under the revolving credit until the minimum FCCR requirement for the quarter ended December 31, 2022 has been met and certified to the lender.
In connection with the amendment, we paid our lender a fee of $15,000.
Name: us-gaap_SubsequentEventsAbstract
The entire disclosure for significant events or transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date through the date the financial statements were issued or the date the financial statements were available to be issued. Examples include: the sale of a capital stock issue, purchase of a business, settlement of litigation, catastrophic loss, significant foreign exchange rate changes, loans to insiders or affiliates, and transactions not in the ordinary course of business.
-URI https://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6842918&loc=SL6314017-165662
Name: us-gaap_SubsequentEventsTextBlock

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Wed24April
Communion presents: Story Books
Alex Vargas, Garnets, Roxanne de Bastion & Daniel Pearson
Doors 7.30pm
£5 adv.
Our April showcase is out of this world, any of these 5 could headline Oporto!
Our headline 5-piece hail from Kent and have recently lit up SXSW in Texas ahead of their debut EP on Communion music out on the 29th April. It's been a good month or so leading up with a full tour supporting King Charles and lead single 'Simple Kids' recently shouted out as Zane Lowe's "most hyped" record on his Radio 1 show!
http://StoryBooksBand.com
http://facebook.com/StoryBooksBand
Danish singer, guitarist and songwriter formally of blues rockers Vagabond. Compared to Steve Winwood & Robert Palmer for his deep tone Alex has appeared at Glastonbury, T in the Park and V music festivals.
http://www.alexvargas.com
http://www.facebook.com/alexvargasofficial
Fruit, the debut single by London based Garnets has been compared to the likes of sigur ros & featured by This is Fake DIY. The band, based between Leeds and London create beautiful music to drift away to.
"Hypnotic, glacial sounds" - The Guardian
"ridiculously pretty" - fakeDIY
http://www.facebook.com/garnetshome
Berlin native Roxanne grew up listening to the Beatles, learning guitar and attempting to write and perform in her own way.
Packing a bag and guitar as soon as she finished school she flew to London with a one-way ticket. Now based in London, but touring constantly apart from a break last year to record her debut record with Gordan Raphael (The Strokes/Regina Spektor) in his Berlin studio. The result is the fantastic, self released 'Nomad Songs' out this month.
"One of the most perfect voices I have ever heard!" - BBC 6music
http://www.roxannedebastion.com
Daniel Pearson
Yorkshire based Americana peddler of much repute returns to Communion for a special solo show. Following the release of a second acclaimed record handling the devastating effects of the recession and social inequality in society. Pearson has built on the success of his debut with maturity and melody.
"Route 66 meets the M1…superb, majestic 8/10" – UNCUT Magazine
"Luscious and steeped in Americana goodness" – DROWNED IN SOUND
http://www.danielpearson.net
7.30pm - 11pm (DJs 'til 2am)
Oporto, Call Lane, Leeds
£5 adv. from Crash, Jumbo & online
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/215992
http://www.communionmusic.com/
http://www.facebook.com/CommunionLeeds


We're taking another look at the products of Bitfenix today, a company with very little market presence outside Europe. On tap for this week – the Formula Gold 750 watt model. This is a budget oriented model that promises to be as no frills as possible, yet with enough performance to do a good job.
Bitfenix has promised us today the formula for a successful power supply, apparently. We're looking at their Formula Gold unit at 750 watts, and hoping it lives up to the kind of performance the last time we saw a Bitfenix unit.
Already, I am seeing a sign that this is likely not their highest end unit. We have a five year warranty vs. the seven year job that came with the Whisper M unit. However, just because a warranty is shorter or a product is lacking features does not mean performance will be lacking in any significant way. We've come to a place now where even budget models still have pretty great performance compared to high end units of yesteryear. Of course, it goes without saying that gutless wonders are still gutless wonders, but at a time like this when it's easy to find something decent at reasonable prices it's becoming harder for those gutless wonders to fool people into buying them.
On the back of the box, we have further confirmation that it is a budget model. All cables are hardwired with lengths given here, so there is no modularity at all on this unit. Unless you count the line cord itself, of course.
Continuous power! Efficiency! Silent performance! All pretty basic marketing points that can be found on any retail box these days.
Bitfenix has not specified here how hot the unit can get and still make full power, but this information is in the manual: fifty degrees. This goes back to what I was just saying… it's possible to get a bargain unit that skimps on features so you can still afford decent performance. Corsair in particular has really seemed to get that, and now Bitfenix is looking to do that same thing.
Although, I will say that I do find it acceptable to put out forty degree bargain units. Most environments are never going to see fifty, or full power, much less both of those at the same time. This is why Corsair's original CX units did so well in the marketplace despite being rated at thirty degrees.
There's not much else going on with the box, so here's one last shot for you with various certification marks. There's also a warning that this unit is for PC/workstation use only. This means you should probably not try to shove it up your nose. I'm almost certain that would not be a wise idea.
Opening the box for the first time, we find ourselves a… really battered looking user guide. Not sure what happened there, but it's all here.
In this shot, the user guide poses with the unit itself, a power cord, some zip ties, and screws. Nothing fancy for a nothing fancy unit.
The user guide is pretty well as good as it gets – I don't think I'll be deducting points for it later.


Building Democratic Institutions bridges the gap between theoretical literature and the actual tools and practices needed to strengthen or rebuild democratic institutions and reform governance systems. Through original case studies and contemporary examples of good practices of governance, Cheema clarifies the links between governance, democracy, and human development and assesses the conditions that make democracy work.
A senior Advisor on Governance working with the United Nations and an Adjunct Professor of Politics at New York University, Cheema displays in this book the depth of his experience as both theoretician and practitioner. He examines institutional designs and practices concerning such core issues as strengthening parliaments, electoral management bodies, and judicial systems; combating corruption; and reinventing governance in crisis situations. Undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals will gain from his insight into the value of inclusive democracy and the innovations that promote responsiveness and accountability for an able, free, and just society.
Available from Kumarian Press, Inc.


text:
Anonymous Sources Provide No Evidence of Iran Cyber Attacks
October 31, 2012 by Sean Lawson
This is the headline that should have been affixed to the New York Times' most recent story about supposed Iranian cyber attacks against oil and natural gas companies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as banks in the United States. In fact, it is the most appropriate headline for practically all of the news reports on this topic published during the last two weeks. Thus far, the reporting has been based entirely on anonymous sources who have provided no evidence to support claims of Iranian cyber attacks.
In its most recent report on October 24, the New York Times cited a number of anonymous sources, including "intelligence officials," "independent computer researchers," "two people close to the investigation," "security researchers," and "security experts." The Times is up front about the fact that "intelligence officials" have "offered no specific evidence to support" their claim that Iran was behind the attacks. Ten days earlier, on October 14, the Times had reported, "Among American officials, suspicion has focused on the 'cybercorps' that Iran's military created in 2011…though there is no hard evidence that the attacks were sanctioned by the Iranian government." After already reporting that anonymous officials were suspicious but lacking evidence, ten days later the Times thought it necessary to remind us all that these officials were still suspicious, and still not providing evidence for their claims. The Times did not question these suspicions or claims, however.
The the New York Times has not been the only news outlet to report anonymous, evidence-free claims of Iranian cyber attacks. The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Reuters, CNN, CBS, Associated Press, and Washington Post have all gotten in on the act. All have relied upon anonymous "officials" and "experts"; few have offered anything in the way of evidence.
In some cases, it is not clear in the reporting whether allegations of Iranian cyber attacks are coming from current or former government officials. In the case of stories from Associated Press and the Washington Post, our knowledge of what the U.S. believes is based on accounts provided by "former U.S. government officials" (with an assist from the seemingly ubiquitous "cybersecurity experts").
Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) is the one American "official" who has been named consistently in news reports as claiming that Iran is behind the recent spate of cyber attacks. On September 26, the Los Angeles Times reported:
Senate Homeland Security committee chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Iran has targeted the American financial system in response to U.S. sanctions placed on the country because of its nuclear program.
The Quds Force, a secretive Iran military unit blamed for terrorist activity, probably executed the cyber-attacks, he said.
But that same article goes on to report that "a group called Izz al-Din al-Qassam Cyber FIghters has claimed responsibility for the [bank] outages." One might be tempted to believe that this group is somehow tied to Iran. In fact, as a later story in the Huffington Post notes, the group is not Iranian and its stated motivation for the bank attacks, which it called "Operation Alababil," was
revenge for the anti-Islam YouTube film Innocence of Muslims. […] They wrote: "Operation Alababil is revenge in response to the humiliation of the Organization of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) by some Western countries."
None of the stories cited above have noted the discrepancy between Senator Lieberman's account of the attackers and their motives and the reasons given by the group that has claimed responsibility for the incidents.
Other reporting has also begun to call into question officials' claims of Iranian involvement in attacks on Middle East oil companies. An October 25 report from Bloomberg News indicated that as intelligence officials admit "that the evidence implicating Iran in the Aramco attack is largely circumstantial," individuals involved with the investigation of the incident "aren't convinced that the incident was an Iranian response to the attacks on its suspected nuclear weapons program." Instead, they believe that the attack was largely the work of a lone insider.
Claims of Iranian cyber attacks could serve several purposes. Most obvious is that they are being used by Administration officials like Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to make the case for a possible executive order on cyber security, as well as to argue in favor of cyber security legislation.
But they also contribute to the general sense of fear and suspician surrounding Iran. They serve as one more seeming example of Iran's nefarious use of technology, first nuclear and now cyber. As former NSA General Council, Stewart Baker, told the Associated Press, "If anybody is going to release irresponsible unlimited attacks, you'd expect it to be Iran." Of course, though one might expect Iran to launch "irresponsible" cyber attacks, in fact, thus far the United States seems to have been the chief perpetrator with the Stuxnet attack against Iran. Nonetheless, recent reports of Iranian cyber attacks–substantiated or not–will no doubt provide one more talking point for those making the case for a military strike against Iran.
This would not be the first time that a would-be adversary suddenly emerged as a cyber threat at a time when the drums of war were growing louder. Following the attacks of 9/11, U.S. officials claimed that the greatest cyber threat to the United States came from terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. But then, in a rather sudden shift, as the Bush Administration began to press its case for war with Iraq, states suddenly became the top threat and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Iraq was identified as one of those states with a cyber warfare capability.[1] But just as Iraqi WMD never materialized, neither did its supposed cyber warfare capabilities.
In 2002, when pressed to provide evidence that Iraq was in fact supplying WMD to terrorists, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld answered simply by saying, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Similarly, James Lewis, a leading cyber security expert from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "How do they know it was Iran? You may look under your bed at night for spies and not see them, but that does not mean they are not there."
Of course, Secretary Rumsfled and Mr. Lewis are correct. Absence of evidence does not, by itself, prove the absence of a threat. But absence of evidence is even less likely to prove the existence of a threat. Given a choice, absence of evidence is more likely to be evidence of absence than it is evidence of presence.
None of this is to say that Iran is innocent. It is perfectly conceivable that Iran has launced cyber attacks targeted at U.S. interests at home and abroad. But in the context of rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program, and in the wake of the Iraq WMD fiasco, we should expect more from reporters, experts, and officials.
[This post also appears at Forbes.com and CTOVision.com]
For a detailed account of shifting official descriptions of cyber threats during the Bush Administration, see Bendrath R, Eriksson J, Giacomello G (2007) From 'Cyberterrorism' to 'Cyberwar', Back and Forth: How the United States Securitized Cyberspace. In Eriksson J, Giacomello G (eds) International Relations and Security in the Digital Age. London: Routledge.  ↩
Worst government-funded videogame
Brief: MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy


text:
Tream (* 18.10.1998; bürgerlich Timo Grabinger) ist ein deutscher Rapper und Partyschlagersänger.

Leben und Karriere
Timo Grabinger wurde 1998 oder 1999 geboren und stammt aus Büchelkühn in Bayern. Er ist der Sohn eines Hoteliers und hat eine Lehre zum Koch abgeschlossen, an der er jedoch keinen Spaß hatte, weswegen er seiner Leidenschaft als Musiker nachging. Mit der Musik begann Tream laut eigener Aussage, um Mädchen zu beeindrucken. Sein Künstlername bedeutet "Timos Traum" – das "T" steht für seinen bürgerlichen Vornamen Timo, "[D]ream" für das englische Wort für Traum. Tream sieht sich selbst als "Dorfkind" und trägt als Markenzeichen ein weiß-blau-kariertes Halstuch, mit dem er die Verbundenheit zu seiner Heimat Bayern zeigen will.

Am 11. Mai 2018 veröffentlichte er mit dem Lied Blödsinn seine Debütsingle, sein Debütalbum (S)hit folgte am 3. November 2018. Bis Anfang 2022 folgten weitere Singles und Alben, die jedoch alle kommerzielle Erfolge verpassten. Durch einen Remix des DJ-Duos HBz seiner Single Lebenslang gelang ihm der kommerzielle Durchbruch. Das Lied stieg Mitte April 2022 auf Rang 59 in die Ö3 Austria Top 40 ein und erreichte am 19. Juli 2022 mit Platz 26 seine beste Notierung. Anfang November 2022 erreichte der Song zudem Platz 75 der deutschen Singlecharts, bevor er im Dezember mit einer Goldenen Schallplatte für über 200.000 verkaufte Einheiten in Deutschland ausgezeichnet wurde.

Musikstil
Tream bezeichnet sich selbst als "Deutschlands erste[n] Schlagerrapper", da er in seinem Song Verliebt verloren früh damit begonnen hat, Partyschlager und Rap zu mischen. Seine früheren Veröffentlichungen weisen noch Elemente des Cloud Rap auf, während sich Lieder wie Lebenslang, Hinters Bierzelt, Goldmarie oder 3er BMW musikalisch zwischen Rap, Partyschlager, elektronischer Tanzmusik und Happy Hardstyle bewegen. Tream produziert den Großteil seiner Songs selbst und verwendet hierbei auch Samples aus Hits wie Around the World (La La La La La) oder Maniac. Inhaltlich handeln Treams Lieder hauptsächlich von exzessivem Alkoholkonsum und Frauen. Er selbst bezeichnet seinen Stil folgendermaßen: "Ich erzähle von meinem Leben und meiner Persönlichkeit. Das ist alles nicht ganz sauber und makellos, dafür aber verdammt ehrlich. Ich liebe es zudem, ironisch zu provozieren."

Diskografie

Studioalben
 2018: (S)hit
 2019: Trash
 2020: Verliebt verloren
 2021: Rocker
 2023: Büchelkühn

EPs
 2021: Me, Myself & I
 2021: Summer Treams

Singles

Auszeichnungen für Musikverkäufe

Weblinks

 Tream bei Instagram
 Diskografie bei Spotify

Einzelnachweise

Rapper
Schlagersänger
Hip-Hop-Produzent
Pseudonym
Deutscher
Geboren im 20. Jahrhundert
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Most of the users that come to your site, will not know what a "Internal Server Error" or "404" error is. They will not bother to check out the Apache manual either.
Custom error messages are not something to (just) show off with. In terms of (web-)usability, you are able to display a more friendlier or meaningful message to your users, and everyone will live happier ever after.
A lot of people still ask me how to add custom error pages to their website. Since some ISPs charge an arm and a leg to add them, here is how it is done – for free!
You log onto your shell and create a file called .htaccess in your document root. This can be achieved if you type "pico .htaccess", "ee .htaccess" or "joe .htaccess" on the shell prompt. Let's assume that you want to display a custom error page for "File not found"-errors (code: 404).
Save it. Viola! It's all done.
Can't get enough of them?


I usaully don't think about astrology very much bacause of the bad press that my star sign gets - I am supposed to be the fussy finickey Virgo. yet i'm the world's worst housekeeper, and love painting far above a tidy room, and telling other what do.
So one question on my star sign - why is the earth mother (the Virgo )in all of her harvesting autumn plenty considered to be a dreid up old stick?
Surely she should be considered the symbol of abundent creativity?
My chinese horoscope is a bull too ( the oxen). And I would'nt contemplate a career change.
We Virgos and Taurus are slow and steady,but we will produce great masterpices!!!
it's a bit comforting but my chinese horoscope is a mONKEY!
How do you find out what your chinese horoscope is?
the chinese animal depends on what year you were born in.
And Oh Dear! I find my animal is a rooster, that is fussy and dogmatic. I have no luck in Astrology!!!!!!
Think I'll just stick to the earth image of a harvest queen (virgo).
check out the monkey! it's a great fun and creative sign.
Yes I am a rat.
As someone who has studied astrology to know enough to talk about it, you must realize the sun sign which you know as the general horoscopes and signs isn't the only thing that factors in. In fact... this is hardly the case.
Your entire chart is to blame for who you are... all of the planets and all of the houses and the moon and rising signs. Including their relation to eachother. Etc. Which element are you anyway?
Picasso I know was a Scorpio. You can see the famous scorpio intensity in his eyes.
I'm both a cancer and a leo. Right in the middle. Cancer is the only sign I've ever read about being an artist at heart.
However, it really doesn't matter which sign or signs you're in. The planets don't decide where you've been in other lifetimes and what you've done. An artist is a byproduct of all of what they've been through.
If you wish to know what sign famous people had... I recommend a book by Linda Goodman called Sun Signs. It's very basic but enough.
Maybe that's why I paint better now than I did in 1970...LOL.
I have learned how to paint from the heart but there is always a little more than that going into my work, such as emotion, experience. Like you say thats a part of what I have been through.
P.S. There again my DH can't do the garden...so thats my job!
I really think the whole perspective of virgo is rather... BS... I read up on everything about them and they all say something in regards to "Bases everything on analytical thinking." Also it seems there are supposed to be "neat", another thing I am definitely not!
I am a Chinese Snake, and, depending on your point of view, Sagittarius or OPHIUCHUS - the Serpent Holder, which is the long lost 13th star sign. I'm serious!
Regarding which is the most artistic sign, well, I think you may as well ask "which are the most artistic initials" as it doesn't really matter.
Having said that, it's a good bit of fun though!
I am a Leo/Tiger...Feline all the way!
There must be SOME:rolleyes: but then again, my mum was quite artistic and she was a Gemini. My sister is also good and she's Cancer, my nephews show artistic talent and they're Aquarius and Libra, soooooooooooo, does it really matter?
I am from an entire family of artists.
I am Saggitarian (sp?), my mother a Cancer, sister is Pisces and father is Scorpio....go figure!
BTW, my hubby is Virgo and is fastidious about nothing except his work.


text:
Q: Files on mounted disk use double space I have two additional disks /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 which are mounted on "/home/user/xxx1" and "/home/user/xxx2".
But I am surprisingly find that although the files use the space on their disk, they also use the space on my os disk /dev/sda1. So it seems they are using double space.
du -h give the following information:
/dev/sda1        16G   13G  2.6G  83% /
/dev/sdc1        20G  3.7G   15G  20% /home/user/xxx2
/dev/sdb1        20G  5.0G   14G  27% /home/user/xxx1

but without xxx1 and xxx2, there are only a little files on the os disk.
It's really strange, is there anybody have any idea about this question?

A: Try using:
df -h

It will list file systems, not partitions, so you can see an exact usage of each HDD.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Is it Possible creating a Legend for non grouped data? I want to obtain a plot that has a legend. In this legend, it shows the names n, and m which are in the dfRand their associated color. However, I have noticed this works only with groups, which is the case for the iris data set. I could be wrong, which is why I am here.
Any help would be appreciated!
# package:
library(tidyverse)

#df:
dfR<-data.frame(h=rnorm(n=5,mean=4,sd=3),
            m=rnorm(n=5,mean=19,sd=10),
            Z=rnorm(n=5,mean=9,sd=6))

  #Plot:
    p<-ggplot(data=dfR, aes(x=h))+
  labs(title="Title",
       subtitle="Subtitle",
       caption="Run number")+
         geom_line(aes(y=m),color="red")+
         geom_line(aes(y=Z),color="purple")


The Selma Police Department has welcomed a new officer to the force.
Officer Monique Joyner was introduced to members of the Selma Town Council on Nov. 10th.
Joyner, 24, is a Selma resident. She recently graduated from Basic Law Enforcement Training in May 2015.
Police Chief R.A. Cooper said Joyner received positive accolades from her instructors. She is the second female officer on the force of 24 officers.
Chief Cooper said Joyner is also bi-lingual which will help police when responding to calls.


text:
Trump Wants Names of Congressional Republicans Who Say Biden Won the Election
Bronson Stocking
@BronsonStocking
Source: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Trump wants a list of names compiled by The Washington Post of congressional Republicans who say Joe Biden won the presidential election.
The Post reached out to all 249 GOP members of Congress to conduct a survey. The Post asked each Republican lawmaker which candidate they believe won the election, if they support the president's efforts to challenge the results, and whether or not they would accept Joe Biden as the legitimate winner should Biden win a majority in the electoral college.
Not sure if The Post conducted a similar survey of Democratic lawmakers in 2016, many of whom accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia to become president.
The Post reported that 26, since updated from 25, of the Republicans surveyed said that Joe Biden won the election.
Trump responded to the news on Twitter by expressing shock over the number of "RINOS" in Congress and asked The Post to send him the list of names.
25, wow! I am surprised there are so many. We have just begun to fight. Please send me a list of the 25 RINOS. I read the Fake News Washington Post as little as possible! https://t.co/cEBM0bYuQ9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2020
A short time earlier, the president tweeted that he would win the State of Georgia if Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) or Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger (R) would permit a signature verification of the ballots.
I will easily & quickly win Georgia if Governor @BrianKempGA or the Secretary of State permit a simple signature verification. Has not been done and will show large scale discrepancies. Why are these two "Republicans" saying no? If we win Georgia, everything else falls in place!
Gov. Kemp told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Thursday that he has called for a signature audit but claims the power to issue such an order resides with the secretary of state.
President Trump has been critical of Gov. Kemp's and Sec. of State Raffensperger's reluctance to aggressively pursue claims of voter fraud in Georgia. Trump told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo in his first television interview since the election that he is ashamed of himself for endorsing Gov. Kemp in his 2018 gubernatorial bid against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Raffensperger recently announced The New Georgia Project, a group founded by Stacey Abrams and formerly headed by Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Raphael Warnock, is currently under investigation for allegedly sending mail-in ballots to non-residents and other ineligible voters in the 2020 election.
"Voting in Georgia when you are not a resident of Georgia is a felony," Raffensperger said. "These third-party groups have a responsibility to not encourage illegal voting. If they do so, they will be held responsible."
President Trump is holding a campaign rally later in the day for Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R).


text:
module Sisimai::Lhost
  # Sisimai::Lhost::ApacheJames parses a bounce email which created by ApacheJames.
  # Methods in the module are called from only Sisimai::Message.
  module ApacheJames
    class << self
      # Imported from p5-Sisimail/lib/Sisimai/Lhost/ApacheJames.pm
      require 'sisimai/lhost'

      Indicators = Sisimai::Lhost.INDICATORS
      ReBackbone = %r|^Content-Type:[ ]message/rfc822|.freeze
      StartingOf = {
        # apache-james-2.3.2/src/java/org/apache/james/transport/mailets/
        #   AbstractNotify.java|124:  out.println("Error message below:");
        #   AbstractNotify.java|128:  out.println("Message details:");
        message: [''],
        error:   ['Error message below:'],
      }.freeze

      # Parse bounce messages from Apache James
      # @param  [Hash] mhead    Message headers of a bounce email
      # @param  [String] mbody  Message body of a bounce email
      # @return [Hash]          Bounce data list and message/rfc822 part
      # @return [Nil]           it failed to parse or the arguments are missing
      def make(mhead, mbody)
        match  = 0
        match += 1 if mhead['subject'] == '[BOUNCE]'
        match += 1 if mhead['message-id'].to_s.include?('.JavaMail.')
        match += 1 if mhead['received'].any? { |a| a.include?('JAMES SMTP Server') }
        return nil unless match > 0

        dscontents = [Sisimai::Lhost.DELIVERYSTATUS]
        emailsteak = Sisimai::RFC5322.fillet(mbody, ReBackbone)
        bodyslices = emailsteak[0].split("\n")
        readcursor = 0      # (Integer) Points the current cursor position
        recipients = 0      # (Integer) The number of 'Final-Recipient' header
        diagnostic = ''     # (String) Alternative diagnostic message
        subjecttxt = nil    # (String) Alternative Subject text
        gotmessage = nil    # (Boolean) Flag for error message
        v = nil

        while e = bodyslices.shift do
          # Read error messages and delivery status lines from the head of the email
          # to the previous line of the beginning of the original message.

          if readcursor == 0
            # Beginning of the bounce message or delivery status part
            readcursor |= Indicators[:deliverystatus] if e.start_with?(StartingOf[:message][0])
            next
          end
          next if (readcursor & Indicators[:deliverystatus]) == 0
          next if e.empty?

          # Message details:
          #   Subject: Nyaaan
          #   Sent date: Thu Apr 29 01:20:50 JST 2015
          #   MAIL FROM: shironeko@example.jp
          #   RCPT TO: kijitora@example.org
          #   From: Neko <shironeko@example.jp>
          #   To: kijitora@example.org
          #   Size (in bytes): 1024
          #   Number of lines: 64
          v = dscontents[-1]

          if cv = e.match(/\A[ ][ ]RCPT[ ]TO:[ ]([^ ]+[@][^ ]+)\z/)
            #   RCPT TO: kijitora@example.org
            if v['recipient']
              # There are multiple recipient addresses in the message body.
              dscontents << Sisimai::Lhost.DELIVERYSTATUS
              v = dscontents[-1]
            end
            v['recipient'] = cv[1]
            recipients += 1

          elsif cv = e.match(/\A[ ][ ]Sent[ ]date:[ ](.+)\z/)
            #   Sent date: Thu Apr 29 01:20:50 JST 2015
            v['date'] = cv[1]

          elsif cv = e.match(/\A[ ][ ]Subject:[ ](.+)\z/)
            #   Subject: Nyaaan
            subjecttxt = cv[1]
          else
            next if gotmessage
            if v['diagnosis']
              # Get an error message text
              if e.start_with?('Message details:')
                # Message details:
                #   Subject: nyaan
                #   ...
                gotmessage = true
              else
                # Append error message text like the followng:
                #   Error message below:
                #   550 - Requested action not taken: no such user here
                v['diagnosis'] << ' ' << e
              end
            else
              # Error message below:
              # 550 - Requested action not taken: no such user here
              v['diagnosis'] = e if e == StartingOf[:error][0]
              unless gotmessage
                v['diagnosis'] ||= ''
                v['diagnosis'] << ' ' + e
              end
            end
          end
        end
        return nil unless recipients > 0

        # Set the value of subjecttxt as a Subject if there is no original
        # message in the bounce mail.
        emailsteak[1] << ('Subject: ' << subjecttxt << "\n") unless emailsteak[1] =~ /^Subject: /

        dscontents.each { |e| e['diagnosis'] = Sisimai::String.sweep(e['diagnosis'] || diagnostic) }
        return { 'ds' => dscontents, 'rfc822' => emailsteak[1] }
      end
      def description; return 'Java Apache Mail Enterprise Server'; end
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
class RegisterController {
    constructor(Auth, $log, $state) {
        this.name = 'register';
        this.Auth = Auth;
        this.$log = $log;
        this.$state = $state;
    }

    register(isValid) {
        if (!isValid) {
            return;
        }
        this.registerLoading = true;
        this.Auth.signup(this.user).then(() => {
            this.$log.info("registeration Successful");
            this.registerLoading = false;
            this.$state.go('home');
        }).catch((error) => {
            this.registerLoading = false;
            this.$log.error(error);
        });
    }

}

RegisterController.$inject = ['Auth', '$log', '$state'];
export default RegisterController;


Workshop bude v anglickom jazyku, bez tlmočenia.
Paul's involvement in the world of internal communication began nearly twenty years ago when he joined MCA (now Brand Union).
In 2004, Paul founded Ibis Communication which has now re-branded as Dialogue. Throughout this time, Paul's goal has remained simple – to combine strategic guidance with practical support right across the internal communication spectrum.
Paul has worked with a broad range clients during that time. Most recently these have been in the pharmaceutical sector but also include Vodafone, Heineken, National Grid, Cisco, Coca Cola Enterprises, Estee Lauder, Standard Chartered Bank and the UN.
Paul's passion is helping a client to really understand any communication challenge they face and to work with them to solve it. He also loves all things measurement and in 2011 co-founded ICEmarq® an online internal communication measurement service.


text:
Q: md5sum of rubyzip output string and written file differs I'm using rubyzip-1.2.0 with ruby 2.2.1 to generate a zip file containing a single file (in this case, a python script).  The content file does not change, and the md5sum of the generated zip string remains the same, but once I write and then read the zip string to file, the length increases and the md5sum is different every time.  This happens whether I use File.open(zip_file, 'wb') {} or IO.binwrite(zip_file, zip_string).
Just to add to the excitement, on OS X, the zip string and written file sizes are different (and of course, the md5sums differ), but on Ubuntu 14.04, the size remains consistent and the md5sums differ.
If I generate the file multiple times without pause, the checksums are (generally) the same; if I put in the sleep, they differ, which makes me wonder if rubyzip is writing some timestamp of some sort to the file?
I'm probably just missing some nuance of ruby binary file handling.
require 'zip'
require 'digest'

def update_zip_file(source_file)
  zip_file = source_file.sub(/py$/, 'zip')
  new_zip = create_lambda_zip_file(source_file)
  puts "Zip string length: #{new_zip.length}"
  md5_string = Digest::MD5.new
  md5_string.update IO.binread(zip_file)
  puts "Zip string MD5: #{md5_string.hexdigest}"
  File.open(zip_file, 'wb') do |f|
    puts "Updating #{zip_file}"
    f.write new_zip
  end
  puts "New file size: #{File.size(zip_file)}"
  md5_file_new = Digest::MD5.new
  md5_file_new.update IO.binread(zip_file)
  puts "New file MD5: #{md5_file_new.hexdigest}"
end

def create_lambda_zip_file(source_file)
  zip_file = source_file.sub(/py$/, 'zip')
  zip = Zip::OutputStream.write_buffer do |zio|
    zio.put_next_entry(File.basename(source_file))
    zio << File.read(source_file)
  end
  zip.string
end

(1..3).each do
  update_zip_file('test.py')
  sleep 2
end

Output on OS X:
Zip string length: 973
Zip string MD5: 2578d03cecf9539b046fb6993a87c6fd
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1019
New file MD5: 03e0aa2d345cac9731d1482d2674fc1e
Zip string length: 973
Zip string MD5: 03e0aa2d345cac9731d1482d2674fc1e
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1019
New file MD5: bb6fca23d13f1e2dfa01f93ba1e2cd16
Zip string length: 973
Zip string MD5: bb6fca23d13f1e2dfa01f93ba1e2cd16
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1019
New file MD5: 3d27653fa1662375de9aa4b6d2a49358

Output on Ubuntu 14.04:
Zip string length: 1020
Zip string MD5: 4a6f5c33b420360fed44c83f079202ce
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1020
New file MD5: 0cd8a123fe7f73be0175b02f38615572
Zip string length: 1020
Zip string MD5: 0cd8a123fe7f73be0175b02f38615572
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1020
New file MD5: 0a010e0ae0d75e5cde0c4c4ae098d436
Zip string length: 1020
Zip string MD5: 0a010e0ae0d75e5cde0c4c4ae098d436
Updating test.zip
New file size: 1020
New file MD5: e91ca00a43ccf505039a9d70604e184c

Any explanation or workaround?  I want to make sure the zip file contents differ before rewriting the file.
Edited to fix file md5sum and update output.
EDIT
And in fact rubyzip does put the current timestamp in each entry (why?).  If I monkey patch it so I can manipulate the entry attributes, the zip string's md5sum will remain constant.
module Zip
  class OutputStream
    attr_accessor :entry_set
  end

  class Entry
    attr_accessor :time
  end
end

...

def create_lambda_zip_file(source_file)
  zip_file = source_file.sub(/py$/, 'zip')
  zip = Zip::OutputStream.write_buffer do |zio|
    zio.put_next_entry(File.basename(source_file))
    zio << File.read(source_file)
    zio.entry_set.each {|e| puts e.time = Zip::DOSTime.at(File.mtime(source_file).to_i)}
  end
  zip.string
end

A: 8caba7d65b81501f3b65eca199c28ace is the md5 sum of test.zip: you've md5'd the file name.
The difference in length is probably due to String#length returning the number of codepoints in the string whereas File.size is counting bytes. The String#bytesize method should return the same as the file check.
On my machine (OS X, ruby 2.3.1) the string returned from zip claimed to have the encoding utf-8 which explains why the length wasn't the same as the number of bytes. The string isn't actually valid UTF8 though - I'd consider this a bug. Either different versions or possibly locale related environment variables have resulted in your Linux machine not pretending the zip data is UTF8
Using force_encoding to change the encoding to ASCII-8BIT may help