Why Are Things As They Are?

Please send nominations for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee to: adamrenner70@yahoo.com

Headline Publications:

Kim Scipes:

The AFL-CIO’s Secret War Against Developing Countries–Solidarity or Sabotage (20% discount!): richgibson.com/ScipesFlyer.pdf

Don Perl:  Book Chapter–“Heeding Humble Voices” (free and worth your time) richgibson.com/HeedingHumbleVoices.pdf

Little Red Schoolhouse:

Richard Brosio at the Rouge Forum Conference: 2010.
“Marxist Thought: Still Primus Inter Pares For Understanding And Opposing The Capitalist System.” rougeforum.org/2010/primusinterpares.pdf

Dems Push Through Bribe to Teachers (and cops) to Continue the RaTT: House Democrats today pushed through a $26 billion jobs bill to protect 300,000 teachers and other nonfederal government workers from election-year layoffs. (Don’t ask about the food stamp cuts…) www.freep.com/article/20100810/NEWS15/100810033/1320/House-OKs-bill-to-help-teachers-public-workers

Ok. About the Food Stamps: Though many in the education community are celebrating last week’s Senate vote for the so-called Edujobs bill, I can’t find any joy in it. In fact, I am shaken and ashamed because, to pay for it, the Senate snatched $11.9 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. www.huffingtonpost.com/kati-haycock/cutting-food-stamps-to-sa_b_674770.html

Alpert on What the Rich Do When They Lose a School Board Vote–Try to Abolish the Board: “These guys are trying to water down the school board because they didn’t like the way the election turned out,” said John de Beck, a longtime board member. “Himelstein is like the hired gun for the rich. He has no qualifications and he has no training in how to run a school.”
www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/article_1b0cf208-a5c5-11df-9107-001cc4c03286.html?login_success=true&mode=comments

A Note from the Local Valedictorian: School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-take
www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-Valedictorian-Speaks-Out-Against-Schooling-in-Graduation-Speech

Perpetual War Front:

We’re Pulling the Troops Out of Iraq! Not! Psyche!
The reality in Iraq may defy that deadline, because many American and Iraqi officials deem the American presence to be in each nation’s interest. “For a very long period of time we’re going to be on the ground, even if it’s solely in support of its U.S. weapons systems,” said Ryan C. Crocker, who was the American ambassador in Baghdad until 2009 and helped to negotiate the agreement that tethers the two countries and mandates that all American troops leave Iraq by the end of 2011… five months after national elections, there is still no Iraqi government to begin talking about what any post-2011 arrangement might entail. But many Iraqi officials deem it quietly necessary on a number of fronts: Iraq is buying more and more sophisticated American weapons, like tanks and warplanes, and will need Americans here for training and maintenance. At the same time, training is intensifying for the Iraq Army to learn not only how to battle internal insurgents, but also how to protect its national borders — a project that will take many years.
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=1&hp

Double Psyche! We’ll Stay in Afghanistan Too! After 9 Years, We Really Get it Now! American military officials are building a case to minimize the planned withdrawal of some troops from Afghanistan starting next summer, in an effort to counter growing pressure on President Obama from inside his own party to begin winding the war down quickly.
“Their argument,” said one senior administration official, who would not speak for attribution about the internal policy discussions, “is that while we’ve been in Afghanistan for 9 years, only in the past 12 months or so have we started doing this right, and we need to give it some time and think about what our long-term presence in Afghanistan should look like.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/world/asia/12policy.html?_r=1&hp

Oops! There Goes the Afghan Army! An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban forces battering an Afghan battalion in a remote northeast area for the last week.
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/asia/13afghan.html?_r=1&hp

Gangster Karzai Can’t Run Election: Worsening insurgent violence in many parts of the country is raising concern about Afghanistan’s ability to hold a fair parliamentary election in little more than a month, a crucial test of President Hamid Karzai’s ability to deliver security and a legitimate government. www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/world/asia/12karzai.html?hp

NYTimes Waffles Some More on the US Wars (Can’t We All Just Get Along?): Americans need regular, straight talk from President Obama about what is happening in Afghanistan, for good and ill, and the plan going forward. More ambiguity will only add to the anxiety and confusion.
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/opinion/13fri1.html?pagewanted=3&hpw

What War? Go Shopping! Use Your Credit! (No Credit?!! Ulp.)
“The army is at war, but the country is not,” said David M. Kennedy, the Stanford University historian. “We have managed to create and field an armed force that can engage in very, very lethal warfare without the society in whose name it fights breaking a sweat.” The result, he said, is “a moral hazard for the political lea the United States has been at war for 47 of its 230 years, or 20 percent of its history. Put another way, Americans have been at war one year out of every five.
“You know, it’s a surprise to me that it’s that high,” said Mr. Daggett, who has focused on the cost, not length, of wars. “You think of war as not being the usual state.”dership to resort to force in the knowledge that civil society will not be deeply disturbed.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/weekinreview/25bumiller.html

War Means Work: The Militarist Jobs Program: America’s biggest — and only major — jobs program is the U.S. military.
Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I’m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)
If we didn’t have this giant military jobs program, the U.S. unemployment rate would be over 11.5 percent today instead of 9.5 percent. robertreich.org/post/938938180/americas-biggest-jobs-program-the-u-s-military

Pakistan. What Flood? I’m in Europe! With Pakistanis bracing for more rain and floods, President Asif Ali Zardari struggled Friday to confront a barrage of criticism over his recent visit to Europe while rivers gorged by monsoon rains ravaged scores of towns — a trip that critics have derided as “insensitive” and a “joyride.” www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/world/asia/14pstan.html?_r=1&hp

India/Pakistan/Kashmir–Wild Cards: For decades, India maintained hundreds of thousands of security forces in Kashmir to fight an insurgency sponsored by Pakistan, which claims this border region, too. The insurgency has been largely vanquished. But those Indian forces are still here, and today they face a threat potentially more dangerous to the world’s largest democracy: an intifada-like popular revolt against the Indian military presence that includes not just stone-throwing young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents. www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/asia/13kashmir.html?_r=1&hp

Hezbollah/Iran/USA Rumors via Stratfor: why the recurring rumors of impending Hezbollah terrorist attacks? For several years now, every time there has been talk of a possible attack on Iran there has been a corresponding threat by Iran that it will use its proxy groups in response to such an attack. Iran has also been busy pushing intelligence reports to anybody who will listen (including STRATFOR) that it will activate its militant proxy groups if attacked and, to back up that threat, will periodically send IRGC-QF, MOIS or Hezbollah operatives out to conduct not-so-subtle surveillance of potential targets. (They clearly want to be seen undertaking such activity.)
In many ways, the Hezbollah threat is being played up in order to provide the type of deterrent that mutually assured destruction did during the Cold War. The threats of unleashing Hezbollah terrorist attacks and closing the Strait of Hormuz are the most potent deterrents Iran has to being attacked. Since Iran does not yet possess a nuclear arsenal, these threats are the closest thing it has to a “real nuclear option.” As such, they are threats that Iran will make good on only as a last resort. www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100811_hezbollah_radical_rational?utm_source=SWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100812&utm_content=readmore&elq=597f5aab52874f95a1ea52a79478db53

Japan’s Boss Apologizes for Decades of S. Korean Oppression, but Doesn’t Pay Up: Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologized to South Korean residents for his nation’s transgressions all those generations ago. “For the enormous damage and suffering caused by this colonization, I would like to express once again our deep regret and sincere apology,” Kan said in a statement endorsed by his cabinet. Still residents like Kim Hyung-il wanted gestures over mere words. The prime minister’s statement, many noted, did not mention Koreans forced into manual labor and sexual slavery. “The Japanese government needs to show action, not just some words on a piece of paper,” said Kim, a 73-year old retiree who was a young boy during the occupation.
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-korea-japan-apology-20100811,0,1176224.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

There Goes the Economy Front:
www.addmovi.com/video/30666/broken_dollar/

The Sky is Falling: a trio of reports released on Wednesday cast a new shadows over the global economy. First came news from China suggesting that nation’s fast-growing economy was cooling. Then the Bank of England reduced its already-diminished forecast for the British economy. Finally, new trade figures from Washington showed that American exports were faltering, a sign that hard-pressed domestic manufacturers could not rely on overseas markets to ease their pain at home.
Together, the reports unnerved financial markets that were still edge from the Fed’s downbeat news on Tuesday. The stock market tumbled anew in 265-point decline that drove the Dow Jones industrial average back into the red for the year. The broad market fell 2.8 percent.
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/business/12markets.html?_r=1&hp

Congressional Oversight Panel Documents Corporate State: The report concludes that the Federal Reserve Board’s intimate relations with the leading powers of Wall Street—the same banks that benefited most from the government’s massive bailout—influenced its strategic decisions on AIG. The panel accuses the Fed and the Treasury Department of brushing aside alternative approaches that would have saved tens of billions in public funds by making these same banks “share the pain.”
Bailing out AIG effectively meant rescuing Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch (as well as a dozens of European banks) from huge losses. Those financial institutions played the derivatives game with AIG, the esoteric practice of placing financial bets on future events. AIG lost its bets, which led to its collapse. But other gamblers—the counterparties in AIG’s derivative deals—were made whole on their bets, paid off 100 cents on the dollar. Taxpayers got stuck with the bill….Obama came to office intent on restoring public trust in government. His indulgence of the mega-banks led to the opposite result.
More to the point, the AIG story raises real doubts and suspicions about how the government will respond next time. Or whether the new financial reform legislation actually corrects government’s deference to the pinnacles of private financial power. Massive federal intervention was certainly necessary, the Warren panel agrees, including quick action to forestall AIG’s bankruptcy. But government declined to demand anything in return….One weakness is embedded in the institutional culture of the Fed—its chummy relations with the most powerful institutions and the moral confusion between public purpose and private returns. In some ways, these traits date back to the Federal Reserve’s origins in 1913, when this hybrid government agency was created, melding public and private interests.
www.thenation.com/article/153929/aig-bailout-scandal?rel=emailNation

Income Falls in Most Areas-Except Government/Military Towns: Personal incomes fell across the U.S. last year except in areas with a high concentration of federal government and military jobs, the Commerce Department said Monday. They declined most in places with a lot of housing and finance jobs. Among the 52 metro areas with populations of more than one million, in only three did both net earnings and the broader measure of personal income both rise.
All three had strong ties to the federal government: the Washington, D.C., area and two areas with a large military presence, San Antonio and Virginia Beach, Va. In all three, the biggest gains were among workers in the federal government and the military; private sector compensation fell.
The same picture was reflected nationally, as private employers froze and in many cases reduced workers’ pay and hours. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703428604575419683851811758.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The End of Debt Morality–Mom and Pop Won’t Pay Their Bills (like the Banksters): During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling to pay it back. The result is one of the paradoxes of the recession: the more money you borrowed, the less likely you will have to pay up.

“When houses were doubling in value, mom and pop making $80,000 a year were taking out $300,000 home equity loans for new cars and boats,” said Christopher A. Combs, a real estate lawyer here, where the problem is especially pronounced. “Their chances are pretty good of walking away and not having the bank collect.”

Lenders wrote off as uncollectible $11.1 billion in home equity loans and $19.9 billion in home equity lines of credit in 2009, more than they wrote off on primary mortgages, government data shows. So far this year, the trend is the same, with combined write-offs of $7.88 billion in the first quarter.

Even when a lender forces a borrower to settle through legal action, it can rarely extract more than 10 cents on the dollar. “People got 90 cents for free,” Mr. Combs said. “It rewards immorality, to some extent.” www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/business/12debt.html?_r=1&hp

DR Doom Speaks on the Economy or It’s End: (Marx: “The limit to capital is capital itself”)
www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/08/tea_economist

Even the New Yorker Says: Soak the Rich, the Very Rich: This is one case where simpler isn’t better. In a society that’s becoming more stratified, a sensible tax system should draw more distinctions, not fewer. The U.S. is now a place where the rich and the ultra-rich really inhabit different worlds. (A couple of years ago, Barron’s declared, “Yes, it takes more than $10 million to be seen as rich these days.”) They should probably inhabit different tax brackets, too.
www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/08/16/100816ta_talk_surowiecki

Emerging Fascism Front:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIF6hOy5LNg
Obamagogue Signs $600 Million Nationalism Bill :
The new $600 million will fund some 1,500 new border patrol agents, customs inspectors and other law enforcement officials along the border, as well as two more unmanned aerial “drones” to monitor border activities. Congress’ speedy approval of the measure marked a rare display of bipartisanship. www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67B3G720100813?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29

Spy vs Spy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyTtrLmZV0&feature=related
Kim Scipes’ new book: The AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing
Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? Discount offer here: richgibson.com/ScipesFlyer.pdf

What’s The Real Story About Google Anyway? Former CIA clandestine case officer Robert David Steele made some very hot comments on his appearance on the Alex Jones radio show. Steele cites his contacts within the agency with the information that Google and the CIA are involved with one another.
Steele said, “I think that Google has made a very important strategic mistake in dealing with the secret elements of the U.S. government – that is a huge mistake and I’m hoping they’ll work their way out of it and basically cut that relationship off.”
www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4774

Solidarity Forever Front:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTPhzUuA9A

Weingarten Loves the Obamagogue Teacher/Copper Bailout:
“In a Big Victory for Students, Congress Passes Jobs Bill
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives interrupted their summer recess for a special one-day session on Aug. 10 to pass a $26 billion funding package that will save thousands of educators’ jobs and help states maintain vital public services. The 247-161 vote in the House, along with last week’s vote in the Senate, is “the ultimate indication of who’s for kids and who isn’t,” says AFT president Randi Weingarten.” mi.aft.org/dft231/

We Say Fightback Front:

The Rouge Forum Flyer for October 7th: A Day of Strikes and Action:
www.rougeforum.org/October7.pdf

The Heavens Weep:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Bcw-FQRZA
The Gulf of Mexico faces a renewed and enlarged threat to marine life: a low-oxygen “dead zone” about the size of Massachusetts, caused by chemical runoff into the Mississippi River that flows into the sea. www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-12/crude-marred-gulf-of-mexico-s-dead-zone-grows-as-spill-impact-is-studied.html

Magical Mystery Tour Front:

Secret Celibate Sex: The history of sexual violations of Roman Catholic clergy and church response has been well preserved in church documents from the Council of Ancyra in 315 to the 2001 document, De delictis gravioribus, authored by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI

ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/secret-sex-celibate-system

Worst Thing in History of World Front:

Worst Places to Live in the USA–Who Missed Hammond, Indiana???
www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/08/05/10-worst-places-to-live/

Wrestlerette Squares Off With Liar in CT Farce: McMahon has faced questions about past steroid use by the wrestlers employed by WWE and the propriety of its staged violence and skits. Blumenthal suffered a political embarrassment in May when, following a New York Times report, he said he had unintentionally misspoken in claiming during some past public occasions that he served in the Vietnam War..www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/world-wrestling-former-ceo-mcmahon-wins-republican-connecticut-senate-nod.html

In Detroit, Do Both Police Chiefs, Get A Special Parking Spot: She is known around Detroit Police headquarters as the “Teflon Lieutenant.” She reportedly had romantic relationships with the current and former police chiefs and was given a special parking space usually reserved for a high-ranking official, among other perks.
She was put in charge of the department’s efforts to comply with the federal consent decree, a position some claim she used to get back at former supervisors who had disciplined her in the past. One officer who filed a lawsuit against her last week called her “tyrannical.”
www.detnews.com/article/20100812/METRO01/8120416/Cop-shop-texts-stir-up-another-juicy-Detroit-scandal

Best Things in History of World:

Citizen Helps Self–Shoots Robber: Croff, 31, is accused of shooting 53-year-old Herbert Silas in the chest after chasing the man from his side yard on the night of Dec. 28. Croff arrived home that evening to find Silas and another, younger man on his property on the city’s East Side. One of the intruders, he said, was carrying a knife. Armed with two registered guns, Croff opened fire.
“I told him he was going to die, and I shot him,” Croff told investigators on the tape. An autopsy showed Silas died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. In the interview recording, Croff spoke at length about his frustration with trying to live right — working hard to make ends meet in a home he could not afford. Croff is on trial in Wayne County Circuit Court for second-degree murder, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison.
www.detnews.com/article/20100810/METRO/8100412/Man-charged-in-fatal-shooting-told-burglar–he-was-going-to-die-

Spector’s Rouge Forum Speech: