Why Are Things As They Are?

The core issue of our time is the promise of perpetual war and booming inequality met by the potential of mass, class-conscious, resistance.

June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers Assassinated
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OifJ8rrnjvE

1963: Thích Qu ng Đ c Immolates Himself Against the US Wars on Vietnam

June 13 1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbjC9SMKClE

Wait! Never Mind! It’s Joey D’s Birthday! (6-11-40)

Little Red Schoolhouse:

CSU Bosses Demand Another Fee Hike–Students Betrayed by Rep: “The proposal would hike fees by 5% for undergraduate students and those in graduate business programs and 10% for doctoral education students. For full-time undergraduates, that translates to a $204 increase, bringing the total university fee to $4,230 for the 2010-2011 academic year. With campus fees included, the cost for an undergraduate to attend CSU would rise to $5,097. The plan also would eliminate the cap on nonresident tuition, with out-of-state students paying $16,257 for 30 semester units rather than the current $11,160…The CSU Board of Trustees will take up the proposal at a special meeting June 18. Last fall, undergraduate fees rose 32% after the board passed two separate hikes……Though students would prefer no fee hikes, a 5% raise is the best-case scenario, said Steve Dixon, president of the Cal State Student Assn.”

Detroit Mayor Moves to Take Over Schools: “ Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is ready to take over city schools when Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb’s contract expires in March.
But the mayor is not going to make any such move without voter approval. A group of community activists and parents are preparing petitions to get the matter on the November ballot.
From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100605/SCHOOLS/6050382/1026/schools/Bing-says-he-s-ready-to-lead-DPS-when-Bobb-s-contract-expires#ixzz0q1T7BHxN

So Long Neighborhood School–Detroit Closes 32: “DPS, still the largest district in the state, has been hard-hit by continuous enrollment declines throughout the decade. District officials predict enrollment will drop from about 87,000 this year to 79,000 next year and continue to drop to below 57,000 by fall 2014.” From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100607/SCHOOLS/6070396/18-DPS-schools-off-closure-list–but-32-others-will-be-shuttered#ixzz0qCSKSzAC

Denby High’s Mini-Thug Principal: “First-time principal Kenyetta Wilbourn, who is 4 foot 11, patrols the halls with a bat called “the Equalizer.” Her tactic came to light April 19 in a Detroit Free Press report. As a result, Denby High School students may venture out into the world with the perception that as a child it is not appropriate to use violence, but as an adult it is appropriate to utilize a bat to terrorize other individuals. Wilbourn’s behavior is inappropriate because it violates the school code of conduct, promotes violence, is a form of child abuse and, most of all, is illegal.” www.freep.com/article/20100602/OPINION05/100601046/A-principal–a-baseball-bat-%E2%80%A6-and-questions

George Washington (yes) vs Bob Bobb: “Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb said in court today he believed he had the power to forgo feedback to the school board on their academic plan and instead write his own.” From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100611/SCHOOLS/6110416/Bobb-testifies-he-thought-he-had-the-power-to-bypass-DPS-board#ixzz0qZstoac7

Supremes Love NCLB: “The Supreme Court has turned away a challenge by school districts — led by the Pontiac Public School District — and teacher unions to the federal No Child Left Behind law. The court said without comment Monday that it will not step into a lawsuit that questioned whether public schools have to comply with requirements of the law if the federal government doesn’t pay for them. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and a federal appeals court split 8-8, leaving the judge’s ruling in place.” From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100607/SCHOOLS/6070389/1026/schools/High-court-turns-down-Pontiac-No-Child-Left-Behind-case#ixzz0qCStrz00

How the Young of the Other Half Go to College: “When Allison Frisch goes shopping this summer for furnishings to decorate her freshman dorm room at Stephens College, she will be looking for a comforter for herself — and a matching doggie bed for her roommate.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/education/06pets.html?hpw

RaTT Attacked from the Right (Fish-ing–Pluralism is Crap): (Students should be brought “to see themselves as members of a heterogeneous nation . . . and a still more heterogeneous world, and to understand something of this history of the diverse groups that inhabit it.”

We Say Fightback

Chinese Workers’ Strike Wins:


Honda Workers in China Win Strike–Lesson For Americans: “The strike was a show of unusual labor power in China, where the government has discouraged independent labor unions and strikes out of fear that they could lead to copycat actions and threaten social stability and foreign investment in the country. The state-controlled labor union said it had played no role in the action. The Honda workers in Foshan said they had independently organized the strike.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/business/global/05honda.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Round Two–the Next Honda Strike in China is On: “Honda Motor Co. suffered its second strike in China in less than a month as workers at a plant partly owned by affiliate Yutaka Giken Co. walked out demanding higher pay, forcing the parts maker to close the factory.”
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awFs1dBsOn7g&pos=5

Mexican Cops Attack Miners Strike: “Grupo Mexico retook control of Mexico’s biggest copper mine after hundreds of federal police dislodged protesting workers on strike for nearly three years, the government and the company said on Monday.  Hundreds of police backed by helicopters arrived Sunday evening, surprising miners guarding the entrance. A company source said the Cananea mine, which once produced 40 percent of Mexico’s copper but has been closed since July 2007, could be running again as soon as the end of this year.”
beforeitsnews.com/story/74/195/Mexican_police_crack_union_skulls_at_Cananea_Mine._More_coppy_supply_by_end_of_year..html

Workers Shut Down Much of Spain: “Reports suggested that some regions were far more affected than others, particularly Catalonia, where the transport network was disrupted and protesters briefly cut off the city’s main thoroughfare by burning tires. The public sector strike came on top of a separate protest by truck drivers angered by the cost of diesel fuel, which has notably hit traffic at the border with France…Tuesday’s strike, however, is widely expected to be the prelude to more severe labor unrest later this month, after the government unveils on June 16 plans to overhaul Spain’s labor laws. The country’s two main unions, which have been at loggerheads with employers over how to improve the labor market, have warned of a general strike should the government present a “hurtful” reform plan.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/world/europe/09iht-spain.html?hp

India Cops Hit Hyundai Strike: “Indian police yesterday dispersed dozens of workers occupying a Hyundai Motor plant in Chennai as a strike brought the operations of India’s second-largest carmaker to a halt for a second day. The industrial action was the fourth strike in two years at the South Korean carmaker’s operations in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.”
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e57b58f8-735d-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.html

Puerto Rico Education Strike Still on, but Threatened: A showdown is looming in the student strike that has paralyzed all 11 campuses of the University of Puerto Rico for more than six weeks. Late Tuesday, protest leaders rejected a 4 p.m. deadline from university President José Ramón de la Torre to cease their campus occupations and end the strike, which has kept 65,000 students out of classes since April 21. De la Torre and Puerto Rico‘s Gov. Luis Fortuño warned the rebellious students they will seek court orders to have them arrested and removed. Read more:   www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_ugly_showdown_seems_probable_in_puerto_rico.html#ixzz0qbbyka77

Perpetual War Front:

Afghanistan Before the Wars (Terrific Video Series):


Afghanistan: Still Losing: “While U.S. officials insist they are making progress in reversing the momentum built up by the Taliban insurgency over the last several years, the latest news from Afghanistan suggests the opposite may be closer to the truth. Even senior military officials are conceding privately that their much-touted new counterinsurgency strategy of “clear, hold and build” in contested areas of the Pashtun southern and eastern parts of the country are not working out as planned despite the “surge” of some 20,000 additional U.S. troops over the past six months.Casualties among the nearly 130,000 U.S. and other NATO troops now deployed in Afghanistan are also mounting quickly.” www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51792

Holy Crap! Afghan Mercs Are Unreliable Allies! Trickery! Duplicity! No Fair!: “officials suspect that at least some of these security companies — many of which have ties to top Afghan officials — are using American money to bribe the Taliban. The officials suspect that the security companies may also engage in fake fighting to increase the sense of risk on the roads, and that they may sometimes stage attacks against competitors. The suspicions raise fundamental questions about the conduct of operations here, since the convoys, and the supplies they deliver, are the lifeblood of the war effort. “We’re funding both sides of the war,” a NATO official in Kabul said…some of the private security companies are owned by relatives of President Hamid Karzai and other senior Afghan officials. www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/world/asia/07convoys.html?hp

General Sanchez (Abu Ghraib/School of Americas/”God bless…”): Torture Game is Still On:
www.grittv.org/2010/06/09/lt-general-ricardo-sanchez-facing-torture/

Who Lost Honduras? When They Talk Peace, Watch for War: “ At the annual meeting of the Organization of American States, the one item not on the agenda seemed to be the one item on everyone’s mind: Honduras. As representatives of 32 nations gathered in Lima for the 40th general assembly of the OAS, the subject kept coming back to the Central American nation that was kicked out of the organization last year in the wake of a coup. Nicaragua’s last-minute attempt to shoehorn the issue onto the schedule Monday was voted down by members who said it should be dealt with during closed-door meetings. Read more: www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/08/1668677/honduras-ouster-dominates-oas.html#ixzz0qUVdJ7Kn

Solidarity Forever:

Trumka and Sweeney–AFL-CIA Goons

Walt Gardner Opens His Raincoat at Last: “The release of new academic standards on June 2 marks the beginning of a new era in public education in this country. Critics contend that the detailed blueprint means the end of local control of schools, but it is a price worth paying…
the standards were written by experts in their respective fields who met last year under the aegis of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. As a result, the standards reflect what most teachers in the same fields agree upon. ”
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2010/06/its_time_to_adopt_national_standards.html

Detroit News Loves UAW Sellout Bob King but Members do Not: “”He’s part of the leadership that has led us down this bottomless pit of concessions, concessions and concessions,” said Wendy Thompson, a longtime UAW activist who is helping stage a rally Sunday outside Cobo Center to criticize the givebacks. “He cares more about what the company wants than what the workers need.” From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100611/AUTO01/6110362#ixzz0qWUzxHCJ

How the AFL-CIO Bosses Conspired to Illegally Extend Their Terms of Office: “The amendment to increase the Sweeney-Trumka tenure from two years to four was rushed through with a tricky parliamentary maneuver, which was incomprehensible to many delegates. There was not a single speaker to debate the issue or even to ask questions. It was passed in a half-filled convention hall by voice vote, which Sweeney and Trumka knew was in violation of the Constitution…  Many of the delegates didn’t understand what they were voting for, because the final version did not contain a word about a four-year term. Not even one of the 675 delegates rose to speak on the motion or ask a question, nor did a single delegate cast a vote against the amendment.”
laboreducator.org/lt100608.htm

Looting AFSCME: “The international union representing 1.6 million nurses, prison guards and other government workers has sidelined leaders of a California local for failing to account for more than $500,000 in credit card expenses and other deficiencies.”
www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/08/expenses-get-union-leaders-in-trouble/

Rat Turns in WikiLeaker: “The former renegade, who in 2004 pleaded guilty to hacking into the internal computer system of The New York Times, did something he had not expected when Specialist Manning first contacted him: He turned him in.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/world/08leaks.html?hp

EFCA Extortionists Beat Again–By Lincoln: “Embattled Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas won nomination to a third term Tuesday night, overcoming her labor-backed challenger as well as an anti-establishment tide…The result marked a stunning defeat for organized labor, which had poured more than $5 million into an effort to dump Lincoln in retaliation for her departure from party orthodoxy on numerous issues.”
hosted2.ap.org/ARLID/a5050f4ad4f44dafab85bb41a15281cf/Article_2010-06-08-US-Primary-Rdp/id-c565fa932a0c48ae861e757362fc5bb8

AFL-CIO Throws $10 Million in Dumper: “  But it’s more than just the money. It’s a rejection of the ideas the unions are peddling. The unions wanted this election. Bill Halter, Lincoln’s Democratic primary opponent, is for card check. Lincoln is not. Card check is the unions’ signature issue.   This election is just weeks after big labor suffered another major loss. In Pennsylvania, big labor wanted Arlen Specter, offering money and institutional support. That didn’t matter to the voters, who elected not to send Specter back to Washington.”
scaredmonkeys.com/2010/06/09/blanche-lincoln-wins-democrat-primary-runoff-against-bill-halter-big-loser-labor-unions/

Oops There Goes the Economy

Brit/US Special Relationship Breaks Down with Oil and $: ““When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP and the BP share price and the vital importance of BP then I do think it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on international airwaves,” he told BBC Radio Thursday.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/business/11bp.html?hp

BBC on AIG Bailout: “The Congressional Oversight Panel said the bail-out was “poisonous” and the market now expected other big financial firms facing collapse to be rescued. The panel criticised Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for his role in the 2008 bail-out, which he oversaw as head of the New York Federal Reserve.The report questioned whether taxpayers would ever recover their money. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10283157.stm

Bernie Madoff: Capital’s Main Man: “Fuck my victims,” he said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. “I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”
nymag.com/news/crimelaw/66468/?imw=Y&f=most-viewed-24h5

Gallup Underemployment Index at 18.9% (and that’s an improvement?):
www.gallup.com/poll/127631/Gallup-Underemployment-Falls-April.aspx

David Bacon Photo Project–Out of Work, Sleeping in Fields:
www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/9425/

Test Yourself: What’s the Scariest? Gallup Poll: www.gallup.com/poll/139385/federal-debt-terrorism-considered-top-threats.aspx

Emerging Fascism:

Obamagogue: “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force…”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s

Detroit Does Mind Dying: “By some estimates, this year’s Census will show a population drop of 150,000 people from the 951,000 people who lived within city limits in 2000. That would be roughly double the population loss in the 1990s, when black, middle-class flight began replacing white flight as the prevailing dynamic.” online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704292004575230532248715858.html?mod=djemITP_h#

Hedges on Liberals and the Christian Fascists: “The rise of this Christian fascism, a rise we ignore at our peril, is being fueled by an ineffectual and bankrupt liberal class that has proved to be unable to roll back surging unemployment, protect us from speculators on Wall Street, or save our dispossessed working class from foreclosures, bankruptcies and misery. The liberal class has proved useless in combating the largest environmental disaster in our history, ending costly and futile imperial wars or stopping the corporate plundering of the nation. And the gutlessness of the liberal class has left it, and the values it represents, reviled and hated.”
www.truthout.org/the-christian-fascists-are-growing-stronger60208

Planes, Trains, Autos, Tunnels, Drugs, Gangs, and Death at the Border: “On May 16, the North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled two F-16 jet fighters to intercept an ultralight aircraft crossing into Arizona and followed it for about 30 minutes before it flew back into Mexico.” Read more: www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/04/95370/mexican-marijuana-smugglers-turn.html

Fascist Alan Bersin’s Border Cops Kill Two in Ten Days:..the second death of a countryman at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in two weeks, an incident near downtown El Paso that is threatening to escalate tensions over migrant issues. U.S. authorities said Tuesday a Border Patrol agent was defending himself and colleagues when he fatally shot the 15-year-old..Less than two weeks ago, Mexican migrant Anastasio Hernandez, 32, died after a Customs and Border Protection officer shocked him with a stun gun at the San Ysidro border crossing that separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The San Diego medical examiner’s office ruled that death a homicide. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_border_patrol_shooting

That’s All Folks:

Spy vs Spy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVxKwUbftg

Afghan Puppet “Intel” Boss Quits (with pal): “United States considered Atmar and Saleh two of the most effective ministers in Karzai’s Cabinet. Both had been among the ministers whose reappointment the U.S. supported after Karzai’s reelection last year, the official said. Their removal renewed concern among some U.S. officials that Karzai is a volatile leader capable of rash decisions at odds with Washington’s desires…”
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-ousters-20100607,0,365761.story

NYC Can Hide its Spy Ops on Anti-Warriors: “A panel of federal judges ruled Wednesday that New York City can keep secret about 1,800 pages of records detailing the Police Department’s surveillance and tactical strategy in advance of protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention.” www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/nyregion/10rnc.html

The Heavens Weep:

BP and Obmagogue Lied About Oil Disaster: “ Government scientists said Thursday that as many as 40,000 barrels of oil have been flowing daily from the blown-out BP well, doubling earlier estimates and greatly expanding the scope of what is already the largest spill in U.S. history. The new figures could mean 42 million to 84 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on the night of April 20 — with the lowest estimate nearly four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The flow estimates were released by Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and do not count any increases that may have occurred since the cutting of the well’s riser pipe, a step that was expected to boost the flow. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100611,0,841698.story

No! Wait! Make that One Hundred Thousand Barrels a Day! : “BP’s runaway Deepwater Horizon well may be spewing what the company once-called its worst case scenario — 100,000 barrels a day, a member of the government panel tasked with determining the size of the spill told McClatchy..” Read more: www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/07/95467/bp-well-may-be-spewing.html#ixzz0qaOXueT0

BP/Obamagogue Oil War on the Gulf Live Cam: globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

Video: AP Reporter Dives the BP Spill: www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/article/ap-journalist-rich-matthews-dives-into-gulf-oil-spill/19509438

BP/Obamagogue Continue Violent News Blackout on the Oil War in the Gulf of Mexico:
“Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10access.html?hp

BP Buys term–“Oil Spill”: “BP Plc has bought terms such as “oil spill” from search engine providers including Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG – news) to help direct Internet users to its website as it attempts to control the worst oil spill in U.S. history.”
uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bp-buys-search-term-oil-spill-from-google-reuters_molt-c8ff670e72dc.html;_ylt=Al_QfhKyykBmyN4XkTc1oqnBXGwF;_ylu=X3oDMTE2djI4c2liBHBvcwMxMgRzZWMDdG9wc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDYnBidXlzc2VhcmNo?x=0

Obamagogue/BP Lies and the Gulf Oil War: “Like the attacks by Al Qaeda, the disaster in the Gulf was preceded by ample warnings – yet the administration had ignored them. Instead of cracking down on MMS, as he had vowed to do even before taking office, Obama left in place many of the top officials who oversaw the agency’s culture of corruption. He permitted it to rubber-stamp dangerous drilling operations by BP – a firm with the worst safety record of any oil company – with virtually no environmental safeguards, using industry-friendly regulations drafted during the Bush years. He calibrated his response to the Gulf spill based on flawed and misleading estimates from BP – and then deployed his top aides to lowball the flow rate at a laughable 5,000 barrels a day, long after the best science made clear this catastrophe would eclipse the Exxon Valdez.”
www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965

They Were Told the Air Was Fine at the WTC: “The workers sued the city and its contractors six years ago over respiratory illnesses and other injuries they say they suffered at the World Trade Center site in the 9/11 rescue and cleanup effort, arguing that they were not given protective equipment or adequate supervision.” www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/nyregion/11zero.html?hp

In the Beginning Was the End of the BP Rig:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA6Fx7ZEST0&feature=channel

Hey Look! Magic!

God Hates BP
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSDUWoGbPBQ

Your Chance to Be a Sap–Join the Friends of Kwame: “At the National Prayer Rally at Little Rock Baptist Church in Detroit, the Rev. Horace Sheffield asked the audience a question. “Do you believe Jesus can set Kwame Malik Kilpatrick free?” he asked.The audience of about 350 people this evening broke into applause. Kilpatrick, the former Detroit mayor, was sentenced last month to 18 months to five years in prison for violating his probation for lying and hiding assets.
www.freep.com/article/20100608/NEWS01/100608074/1322/Kilpatrick-supporters-gather-at-prayer-rally

The Friends of the Racists’ Favorite Mayor Gather Here:
www.friendsofkwame.com/

God’s Rotteweiller: Just Say Noooooooooo! “Pope Benedict XVI has strongly defended the Catholic Church’s rule of celibacy for priests, speaking to 10,000 priests in St Peter’s Square in Rome….the Pope made no reference to the paedophile priests scandal that has rocked the Church in recent months.” news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10290426.stm

Best Thing in the History of the World:

The Weekly Infuriator:

Atta Boy, FBI! “The FBI thought it was closing in on Joran Van der Sloot in the notorious Natalee Holloway missing-teenager case, and he was videotaped and paid $25,000 in a sting operation. But when the agency delayed his arrest to help build a criminal case, he took the money and headed for Peru, where authorities say he now has confessed to killing a different young woman.” news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100609/ap_on_go_ot/van_der_sloot

Worst thing in the History of the World:

Where’s Poppa?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5UNk7Fi_CE

The Only Solution to the Myriad Problems of Our Time: This Week–Slums.


Classics:

So Long, Crispian:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHJ_GGtFWfo&feature=related

A Reminder From James Baldwin: “It is a terrible paradox but those who believed they could control Black people divested themselves of the power to control and define themselves.”
www.cwsworkshop.org/pdfs/CARC/Family_Herstories/2_On_Being_White.PDF

Be Nice and Wear Your Seat Belt:

embracethis.co.uk//

Thanks to AG, Adam and Gina, Bill, Greg, Tommy, Bob, Sandy, Sherry, Marc and the whole staff (you too Gary), Peter, Doug and Connie, Don and Betty, Doug, The Susans, Stephen, Gil, Joe Cook, Hinken, Geri, Seepho, Mary M and the kids, Candace, Kim B, Ken and Barb, Hank, Armando, Sally, Arturo, and Marisol.

Good luck to us, every one.
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