Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

“Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program”  Vivian Price is an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the co-producer, along with Gilbert Gonzalez and Adrian Salinas, of a new documentary film called, “Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program.”
The film examines the Bracero Program, a guest-worker system run by the U.S. government between 1942 and 1964 that brought Mexican workers across the border to labor on large factory farms around the country. At its peak, the program recruited some 500,000 Mexican workers a year. The film explores the trials faced by the migrants who participated in the Bracero Program, and the interview with Price considers the legacy of the system, including calling into question the wisdom of a new, expanded guest-worker program.  http://www.remappingdebate.org/audio/“harvest-loneliness-bracero-program”

Reminder–The 1968 Florida State Wide Teachers’ Strike led by these men, sabotaged by the Dade County AFT local and gangster Pat Tornillo

organizations.ju.edu/fch/1994makowski.htm 

Congratulations on the publication of

Don’t ‘red’ on their parade: Communist Party sues to use sound truck in Brooklyn May Day march  The Communist Party organizers of Brooklyn’s annual May Day Parade filed a lawsuit against the city and the NYPD Monday to obtain a permit for a sound truck for the length of the march.
Mary Lonergan and Jessica Foard, both members of the Revolutionary Communist Progessive Labor Party, contend the city’s administrative code prohibiting the use of an amplified sound device on a moving vehicle is unconstitutional and has not been uniformly enforced for other major parades.
The parade, which celebrates a holiday for international workers, is scheduled for April 26, and the organizers’ application to the 70th Precinct for the sound truck is still pending.
But their applications over the past two years were rejected by the precinct’s community affairs detective who threatened to shut down the parade if a sound truck was used, according to the suit.  http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/communist-party-sues-truck-day-march-article-1.1735269

The power of capitalism is rooted in the unconsciousness of those involved in it. 

The Little Red Schoolhouse

$1 trillion student loan debt widens US wealth gap  Graduates who can immediately begin building equity in housing or stocks and bonds get more time to see their investments grow, while indebted graduates spend years paying principal and interest on loans. The standard student loan repayment schedule is 10 years but can be much longer.
The median 2009 net worth for a household without outstanding student debt was $117,700, nearly three times the $42,800 worth in a household with outstanding student debt, according to a report co-written by Elliott last November.
About 40 percent of households led by someone 35 or younger have student loan debt, a 2012 Pew Research Center analysis of government data found.  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1-trillion-student-loan-debt-widens-us-wealth-gap

Diane Ravitch’s Fave Superintendent, Cindy Marten, Loves the Common Corpse  The Common Core State Standards require us to make shifts in not only what we teach, but more importantly how we teach our students. Recently, I visited with a class of fourth-graders who were engaged in vigorous debate. Students were defending their own point of view and offering their individual perspectives on the topic. The teacher masterfully set up the learning conditions that allowed for talk, collaboration, diverse perspectives and reasoned arguments. This is exactly what we want to see in our classrooms as we make the instructional shifts our students deserve. The Common Core State Standards represent a necessary and urgent shift in what we must expect our students to know and be able to do in order to be contributing, participating members of our changing society.  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Mar/22/common-core-focus-on-authentic-learning/

Boys/Girls’ Clubs delight in the Common Corpse Like the Obama administration, the Boys & Girls Club wholeheartedly embraces the Common Core standards. The organization provides mentoring and homework help, so if the staff doesn’t know the standards, then they don’t know what’s happening in the classroom. About a year ago, BGCA began incorporating the standards into their program design, Clark said. But the Boys & Girls Clubs won’t be joining the political fray. “We won’t get into the middle of that debate,” Clark said. “The way we’re coming at it, is we’re building it into our programs … because that is what’s happening in schools.”  http://www.politico.com/morningeducation/0314/morningeducation13426.html

Big bucks in Some NYC Charters Moskowitz, who operates 22 city charter schools with millions of dollars in assets and earns a $475,000 salary, also said that she’s exploring legal options for taking the city to court over de Blasio’s decision, which leaves 194 kids without seats next year.  http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/charter-school-rumble-eva-moskowitz-mayor-de-blasio-article-1.1713651

Poll: Most (hysterical American) Voters Would Support a Common Core Candidate A majority of American voters would support a candidate for public office who wants to use the Common Core State Standards, according to a recent survey.
A survey of 3,600 registered voters – 1,000 nationwide, and additional samples of 500 or 600 in five additional states – on behalf of the Collaborative for Student Success found that 60 percent would support a Common Core proponent for public office. The survey also showed that after hearing a description of the standards, 64 percent of people said they were in favor of the academic benchmarks.  http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/03/25/would-you-vote-for-a-common-core-supporter-many-would-poll-says

New York State’s Schools Are Nation’s Most Segregated, Report Contends  New York State is home to the nation’s most segregated public schools, with the share of black students who attend “intensely segregated” schools—those where fewer than 10 percent of students are white—increasing steadily since the late 1980s, according to a new study from the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at the University of California Los Angeles.  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2014/03/new_york_schools_are_most_segr.html

NY Education chief John King urges calm as state tests approach New York Education Commissioner John King sent a letter to school superintendents across the state Monday urging them to set a calm tone as state standardized tests begin next week.
The commissioner said the third- through eighth-grade math and English language arts tests present “an important opportunity for you to help your students, parents, teachers and principals understand the value of high standards and the role that assessments play in helping our students to meet them.”
The ELA test will be given April 1-3 and the math will be administered April 30-May 2. The tests were aligned to the new Common Core standards for the first time last year, and only 31 percent of students passed them — a huge drop from the previous year.  http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/03/new_york_education_commissioner_john_king_letter_on_state_tests.html

California report: Don’t spend new education money on campus police  A policy brief released Thursday urges California school districts to reject beefing up campus police forces and security when they start receiving substantial funding aimed at improving education for needy kids.
“The New ‘Separate and Unequal,’ ” brief was prepared by two community groups in Los Angeles and Oakland whose members are concerned that too much police involvement at some schools is negatively affecting primarily Latino and black students.
The new education money was raised by a tax increase California voters approved in November 2012. Proposition 30, as the measure was dubbed, is already credited with stabilizing an education system — once nationally admired — that’s been damaged over the years by cuts in funding. Now the state is enacting what’s called the “Local Control Funding Formula,” which will steer extra money to districts with high concentrations of low-income kids, English language learners and foster children.
School boards can design their own spending plans for those funds. The new brief calls this infusion of money a “rare opportunity” to invest in academic and support services and remove barriers to black and Latino kids’ success. But it also argues that “over-policing of their schools is undeniably one of [those barriers.]”

One of the groups, the Los Angeles-based Labor-Community Strategy Center, has been instrumental in persuading the L.A. Unified School District to roll back ticketing of students by campus police that was sending thousands of middle-school kids into courts every year for minor infractions.
The brief reports that the Los Angeles Unified School District’s budget for this year calls for spending more than $91 million on policing and security, including nearly $50 million for campus police officers and more than $32 million for civilian campus aides hired to patrol halls. The report, which includes footnotes to L.A. Unified’s budget, also notes that the district budgeted more in unrestricted funds for security than for after-school programs. The security expenditure, the report also says, is more than the expenditures for counselors, “and far more than double what it budgeted for health services and teacher assistants.”
The other organization that produced the brief is the Black Organizing Project in Oakland, a parents group concerned that poor police relations with black youth are harming children’s future. New data shows that black youth are arrested and then not charged in that city in vastly disproportionate numbers, as the Center has reported.
The brief notes that during the last academic year, California schools, statewide, had one counselor for every 808 students, one of the worst such ratios in the country. www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/20/14453/california-report-dont-spend-new-education-money-campus-police

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Nick Turse picking up where Chalmers Johnson left off–The Empire in Africa  The numbers tell the story: 10 exercises, 55 operations, 481 security cooperation activities.  For years, the U.S. military has publicly insisted that its efforts in Africa are small scale. Its public affairs personnel and commanders have repeatedly claimed no more than a “light footprint” on that continent, including a remarkably modest presence when it comes to military personnel. They have, however, balked at specifying just what that light footprint actually consists of. During an interview, for instance, a U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesman once expressed worry that tabulating the command’s deployments would offer a “skewed image” of U.S. efforts there.
It turns out that the numbers do just the opposite.
Last year, according AFRICOM commander General David Rodriguez, the U.S. military carried out a total of 546 “activities” on the continent — a catch-all term for everything the military does in Africa. In other words, it averages about one and a half missions a day. This represents a 217% increase in operations, programs, and exercises since the command was established in 2008. ………. A 2013 investigation by TomDispatch analyzing official documents and open source information revealed that the U.S. military was involved with at least 49 of the 54 nations on the African continent during 2012 and 2013 in activities that ranged from special ops raids to the training of proxy forces. A map produced late last year by U.S. Army Africa bolsters the findings, indicating its troops had conducted or planned to conduct “activities” in all African “countries” during the 2013 fiscal year except for Western Sahara (a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa), Guinea Bissau, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe. Egypt is considered outside of AFRICOM’s area of operations, but did see U.S. military activity in 2013, as did Somalia, which now also hosts a small team of U.S. advisors. Other documents indicate Army troops actually deployed to São Tomé and Príncipe, a country that regularly conducts activities with the U.S. Navy.
AFRICOM is adamant that the U.S. military has only one base on the continent: Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Official documents examined by TomDispatch, however, make reference to bases by other names: forward operating sites, or FOSes (long-term locations); cooperative security locations, or CSLs (through which small numbers of U.S. troops periodically rotate); and contingency locations, or CLs (which are used only during ongoing missions).
AFRICOM has repeatedly denied requests by TomDispatch for further information on the numbers or locations of FOSes, CSLs, and CLs     www.tomdispatch.com/post/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america's_non-stop_ops_in_africa/#more

A reminder in Chalmers Johnson’s Memory–737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it’s time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.   Once upon a time, you could trace the spread of imperialism by counting up colonies. America’s version of the colony is the military base; and by following the changing politics of global basing, one can learn much about our ever more all-encompassing imperial “footprint” and the militarism that grows with it.
It is not easy, however, to assess the size or exact value of our empire of bases. Official records available to the public on these subjects are misleading, although instructive. According to the Defense Department’s annual inventories from 2002 to 2005 of real property it owns around the world, the Base Structure Report , there has been an immense churning in the numbers of installations.
The total of America’s military bases in other people’s countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush’s strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.  http://www.alternet.org/story/47998/737_u.s._military_bases_%3D_global_empire (below, Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis author)

Liberal Prof (and old Russia hand) Stephen Cohen on the West’s invasions  But have the U.S. and Europe really done nothing to provoke Putin’s reactions? During these years, who, for example, expanded the West’s cold-war military organization, NATO, to Russia’s borders, and still covets Ukraine and Georgia as members; bombed or invaded three of Russia’s international partners (Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya) and now threatens a fourth (Iran); and is currently ringing Russia with missile-defense installations? And then there is the editorial’s venerable Cold War double standard: “Europe’s use of trade leverage … is constructive and reasonable”; but when Putin uses similar carrots—financial loans, discounted energy supplies, access to markets—to persuade Ukraine to join instead his fledgling Eurasian Customs Union, those are “attempts to bludgeon.”  Evidently, the Times is unwilling see what the Kremlin sees: the US-led West ‘s two-decade march toward Russia—political, military, economic—with Ukraine as the biggest prize of all, as its American and European proponents readily acknowledge. Moreover, independent editorial analysis would ask whether signing with Europe is really in Ukraine’s best interests. Ukraine is not “economically robust” but near default. Will crisis-ridden Europe bail it out with tens of billions of dollars? Will Ukrainian goods flourish on Western markets? Will Europe open its arms to migrant Ukrainian workers?
Not a word about any of this or about the real issue: the West’s ongoing campaign to move the new cold-war divide further East, to the heart of Slavic civilization. Nothing could be more de-stabilizing or more detrimental to the real security of Europe or America. www.thenation.com/article/177421/letter-new-york-times

Choosing Sides as We Careen Toward—-Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and China have strengthened geopolitical ties to create a united front after President Vladimir V. Putin reclaimed Crimea as a part of Russia and after the Crimean local government called for a referendum to secede the peninsula from Ukraine.
The Russian-American standoff over Ukraine has made these three nations more united in attempting to create a new power pole, counterbalancing and resisting the West— particularly the United States— in the region and beyond.  http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/ukraine-crisis-strengthens-the-china-iran-russia-axis/

The NYTimes, et al, Coverup for the National Endowment for Democracy (CIA)  In recent days the New York Times published two op-ed pieces on Ukraine and Russia by officials affiliated with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) without mentioning their NED affiliations.
On March 23, the Times printed a lengthy op-ed piece by Michael A. McFaul titled, “Confronting Putin’s Russia.” The Times identified McFaul in full as follows: “Michael A. McFaul, a Hoover fellow at Stanford, served for five years in the Obama administration, as a special assistant to the president at the National Security Council and as ambassador to the Russian Federation.” The Times did not mention that McFaul is a Research Council Member of an academic wing of the National Endowment for Democracy. As the United States ambassador to Russia from January 2012 to February 2014, McFaul was the highest ranking member of the State Department in Russia. He thus presumably would have had knowledge of the details of the NED’s $8 million budget for Russiain each year of his two-year tenure there, given that the NED “receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress through the Department of State.”
Two days later, on March 25, the Times published an op-ed piece by Zalmay Khalilzad titled, “Stand Up To Russia Now.” The Times identified Khalilzad in full as follows: “Zalmay Khalilzad was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2009.” The Times did not mention that Khalilzad is on the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy.

“The National Endowment for Democracy: Spreading Freedom around the World” 
In his op-ed piece for the Times, McFaul wrote: “In addition to more autocracy, Mr. Putin needed an enemy – the United States – to strengthen his legitimacy. His propagandists rolled out clips on American imperialism, immoral practices and alleged plans to overthrow the Putin government. As the ambassador in Moscow, I was often featured in the leading role in these works of fiction.” McFaul likewise referred to Russian “autocracy” on three other occasions in his op-ed piece. Fair enough. However, probably because I am an American, I have been considerably less concerned in recent years with the autocracy in Russia than with the plutocracy here. Basically, I’ll start worrying about Russian autocracy when President Obama and our corporate-controlled Congress roll back our own national security state, for which U.S. citizens are billed $1 trillion a year while our cities, public schools, and infrastructure starve.
Nor is McFaul’s denial of U.S. involvement in Russia’s internal affairs convincing, although I wish it were. A more persuasive denial on his part would have featured a line-item elucidation of the NED’s $8 million a year in Russia. For example, why did the NED allocate $719,535 in 2013 for a project called “Transparency in Russia,” the mission of which is “to raise awareness of corruption” in Russia? And why did the NED allocate $550,000 for “Increasing Political Competition in Russia”? Why are things like “transparency” and “corruption” and “political competition” in Russia the business of the United States government?  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/27-6

The Afghan Electoral Farce: Kablooey!  Taliban Attack Election Panel Headquarters Before Afghan Voting  –Taliban fighters unleashed a barrage of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of Afghanistan’s election commission on Saturday, a week before Afghans are to vote for a new president in an election that the Taliban has vowed to disrupt. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Afghan officials and witnesses said the attack began shortly before 1 p.m. when at least three militants entered a building overlooking the headquarters of the Independent Election Commission, a grassy compound of low-slung buildings on the eastern edge of Kabul.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/world/asia/taliban-attack-election-panel-headquarters-before-afghan-voting.html?hp

Pakistan Cuts More Deals with their faves, the Taliban the fate of the month-long ceasefire as well as nascent peace process hinges on the release of ‘non-combatant’ Taliban prisoners allegedly in the custody of security agencies.
Chief Taliban intermediary Maulana Samiul Haq, who also attended the unprecedented meeting, described it as ‘positive’ which ‘helped reduce the trust-deficit’ between the government and the TTP.
“It’s a huge milestone [in the peace process]. For the first time, government representatives and the Taliban sat across the table to talk peace,” he told a news conference in Peshawar after returning from North Waziristan. He was flanked by his colleagues Prof Ibrahim and Maulana Yousaf Shah.  http://tribune.com.pk/story/687862/peace-process-govt-negotiators-taliban-shura-meet-face-to-face/

Philippines–false “peace” with IslamoFascists The biggest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines signed an historic pact on Thursday to end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts, promising to give up their arms for an autonomous homeland.  The biggest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines signed an historic pact on Thursday to end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts, promising to give up their arms for an autonomous homeland.
Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with President Benigno Aquino’s government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila.
“The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle,” MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term that refers to a Muslim homeland.
“With this agreement the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro and the commitment of the government of the Philippines to recognise those aspirations are now sealed.”
The pact makes the MILF and the government partners in a plan to create a southern autonomous region for the Philippines’ Muslim minority with locally elected leaders by mid-2016.  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/philippines-muslim-rebels/1051060.html

Barbarism Rising: The Reason We didn’t see Bin Laden’s Body When all was said and done, Osama bin Laden had more than a hundred bullets in him, by the most conservative estimate.  (toos in – In 2013, The Associated Press reported that SEALs attached to SEAL Team 6 were investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after $30,000 in cash strangely vanished from Capt. Richard Phillips’ lifeboat. Phillips had been taken hostage from the Maersk Alabama ship. SEAL snipers shot and killed his pirate captors using night-vision goggles, laser target designators and multiple rounds. They took control of the lifeboat — and presumably the money.
But the money was never recovered, and its disappearance remains a mystery. Phillips described the incident in his book this way: “Two stacks of hundreds, one of fifties, then twenties, fives and tens … I never saw the money again. Later, when they gave me a sack to lean against, I felt the stacks of money inside, but I never spotted the cash out in the open again.” )  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/mar/23/bin-laden-murphy/

Obamagogue Defends Invasion of Iraq  President Obama is on the receiving end of scorn for remarks made during a high-profile speech in Brussels on Wednesday in which he defended the U.S. invasion of Iraq in an attempt to chastise Russia for recent developments in Crimea and Ukraine.
Speaking to the international community about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and fending off repeated accusations that the U.S. has lost its moral authority given the invasion of Iraq and other breaches of international law in recent years, Obama said:
Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq war was a subject of vigorous debate, not just around the world but in the United States, as well. I participated in that debate, and I opposed our military intervention there.
But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that can make decisions about its own future.
But instead of tamping down accusations of hypocrisy, Obama inflamed it.
Responding to the speech on FireDogLake, DSWright shot back: “Worked within the international system? So if Russia had gone to the UN to get a resolution, failed, then annexed Crimea it would have been OK?”
Reaction on Twitter was swift—and among those with a seemingly better memory of the devastation caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq than the president—fierce:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/26-7   www.detroitnews.com/article/20140327/BIZ/303270025/Right-work-hits-teacher-unions-1st

US Takes a Break From Condemning Tyranny to Celebrate Obama’s Visit to Saudi Arabia  And then there’s the closest US ally of them all, which also just happens to be one of the world’s most brutally repressive regimes: the House of Saud. During Vietor’s tenure, the administration revealed “plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest US arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.” Five months ago, the Pentagon announced “plans to sell Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates $10.8 billion in advanced weaponry, including air-launched cruise missiles and precision munitions,” a package that “includes the first US sales to Middle East allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and UAE F-16 fighters.” The Obama White House has repeatedly affirmed its “strong partnership” with the Saudi tyranny.
Today, Obama arrives in Riyadh to assure the Saudi monarchs that the US is as committed as ever to its close partnership in the wake of Saudi anxiety. He’ll meet with King Abdullah, “the president’s third official meeting with the king in six years.” The purpose of this trip: “trying to smooth relations with Saudi Arabia without making the longtime US ally seem like an afterthought.” Indeed, “top presidential advisors say the visit is an ‘investment’ in one of the most important US relationships in the Middle East.”  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/28/us-takes-break-condemning-tyranny-celebrate-obamas-visit-saudi-arabia/

Drunk Men With Uzis and Badges Run Amok Three Secret Service Agents on Obama Detail Sent Home After One Was Found ‘Passed Out’ Drunk in Hotel Hallway   The Secret Service sent three agents home from the Netherlands just before President Barack Obama’s arrival after one agent was found “drunk and passed out” in an Amsterdam hotel, The Washington Post reports.
The three agents were benched for “disciplinary reasons,” said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan, declining to elaborate. Donovan said the incident was prior to Obama’s arrival Monday in the country and did not compromise the president’s security in any way.
Still, the incident represents a fresh blemish for an elite agency struggling to rehabilitate its reputation following a high-profile prostitution scandal and other allegations of misconduct. An inspector general’s report in December concluded there was no evidence of widespread misconduct, in line with the service’s longstanding assertion that it has no tolerance for inappropriate behavior.
The agents sent home from Amsterdam were placed on administrative leave, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the disciplinary action. The newspaper said all three were on the Counter Assault Team, which defends the president if he comes under attack, and that one agent was a “team leader.”
One agent was discovered highly intoxicated by staff at a hotel, who reported it to the U.S. Embassy, said a person familiar with the situation, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the alleged behavior on the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed complicit because they didn’t intervene despite being in a position to assist the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person said.  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/25/three-secret-service-agents-on-obama-detail-sent-home-after-one-was-found-passed-out-drunk-in-hotel-hallway/

Those Pesky High Stakes Tests: Air Force cheating investigation leads to dismissals  The Air Force announced Thursday it is relieving nine nuclear missile commanders in connection with a widespread test cheating scandal that implicated dozens of missile crewmen under their charge.
The commanders, most of them colonels and lieutenant colonels, were not involved in the cheating, but were relieved for failing to provide proper supervision and leadership, the Air Force said. An additional commander submitted his resignation and will retire.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the investigation found a range of problems in the nuclear missile community, including the micromanagement of subordinates and some morale problems.
The scandal has raised troubling questions about the Air Force’s nuclear missile force. The missile crews were at the heart of the nation’s defense during the Cold War years.
Since then their mission has slipped into the shadows, as the threat of nuclear war has receded. Yet every day missile crewmen continue to descend into underground command centers at remote bases.
The price of making a mistake, however, hasn’t changed and crews must undergo regular testing and inspections.  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/27/air-force-nuclear-cheating/6970643/

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

More Obama-gogue-care lies, no one is surprised  At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius if she was going to delay the open enrollment period for Obamacare beyond the already-extended deadline of March 31. She answered very plainly, “No sir.” Rep. Brady didn’t ask Sec. Sebelius because he didn’t know the answer. The HHS has already delayed various deadlines multiple times. The question was asked to see if Sec. Sebelius would finally tell the truth. She did not. No one was surprised.
The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein points out that to benefit from the administration’s latest Obamacare delay, people will need to check a box on HealthCare.gov indicating that they tried to sign up for Obamacare before March 31, and that classification will “rely on an honor system; the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth.” As Speaker Boehner asked in his press conference, “What the hell is this, a joke?” It might not be meant as a joke, but for the Obama White House, it’s clearly just another night at The Improv.
And this latest delay is less about making sure people sign up and more about trying to buy time for Democrats.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/03/27/the-insiders-more-obamacare-lies-no-one-is-surprised/?hpid=z4

Ukrainian Coup Govt Moves to Strangle the citizens with “austerity”  The Ukrainian parliament has adopted an anti-crisis bill proposed by the IMF to secure an international financial aid package. Ordinary Ukrainians will have to tighten their belts to help the coup-installed government keep the collapsing economy afloat.
It took two readings of the bill for 246 MPs out of 321 registered to approve the austerity measures outlined in the legislation dubbed “On prevention of financial catastrophe and creation of prerequisites for economic growth.”
Ahead of the vote, Ukrainian self-imposed Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told the Parliament that it had “no other choice but to accept the IMF offer,” as country fiscal gap in 2014 is projected to reach $26 billion. Ukraine’s Finance Ministry says it needs $35 billion over the next two years to avoid default.
“The country is on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy,” Yatsenyuk said. “This package of laws is very unpopular, very difficult, very tough. Reforms that should have been done in the past 20 years.”  ……….The state-owned energy company Naftogaz already said that it will increase household gas prices by 50 percent starting May 1, while utility companies will see a 40 percent rise as of July. According to estimates, this year Ukraine’s economy will contract by 3 percent while inflation will rise to 14 percent. The government is not planning to raise minimum wages in response to inflation.  http://rt.com/news/ukraine-austerity-law-imf-753/

above, one of hundreds of Detroit neighborhoods in ruins.

I.M.F. Prepares $18 Billion in Loans for Ukraine (not a penny for Detroit)  After three weeks of urgent negotiations with the interim government of Ukraine and in an atmosphere of great power competition, the International Monetary Fund announced on Thursday an agreement to provide up to $18 billion in loans over two years to prevent the country’s default.
The agreement, announced in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, will hinge on the country taking steps to let the value of its currency float downward, to cut corruption and red tape, and, crucially, to reduce huge state subsidies for the consumption of natural gas. The energy subsidies alone represent roughly 8 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product, and Russia has said that it intends to raise on April 1 the price of natural gas to Ukraine, which is largely dependent on Russian supplies and which already owes the Russian energy company Gazprom well over $1 billion.  ….Mr. Yatsenyuk wrote: “The government will not allow the bankruptcy of Ukraine. The package is very unpopular, complex, hard reforms that have long needed to be done, submitted to Parliament.”  ….On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state energy company, Naftogaz, said it would increase domestic heating gas prices by 50 percent on May 1…www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/europe/ukraine-bailout.html

Taibbi (again) on too big to jail The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays, almost like the government was hoping people were too busy hanging stockings by the fireplace to notice. Flooring politicians, lawyers and investigators all over the world, the U.S. Justice Department granted a total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever. Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks’ profit – but they didn’t extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses.
People may have outrage fatigue about Wall Street, and more stories about billionaire greedheads getting away with more stealing often cease to amaze. But the HSBC case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associated with Wall Street. In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway.
read more: www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214#ixzz2xIwPrZBi
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Who Lost Cuba?  Cuba’s National Assembly on Saturday unanimously approved a new foreign investment law that the communist-run country hopes will attract badly needed capital, improve growth and create jobs.
Accompanying regulations, which may differ from previous rules, will not be published for 90 days.
Following are some differences between the current and the new law, and a summary of what remains unchanged.  http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/03/29/us/29reuters-cuba-investment-factbox.html?hp

Bill would make fast food of Michigan roadkill
A bill approved 27-10 Wednesday by the state Senate and en route to the House would let passersby pick up a vehicle-killed deer or bear by simply notifying a nearby law enforcement office or the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. A phone call or email would do the trick.
From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20140328/METRO/303280038#ixzz2xI8dp7yE

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance  1. Student-Loan Debt.   2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance  3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy. 4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.”  (more at www.filmsforaction.org/news/8_reasons_young_americans_dont_fight_back_how_the_us_crushed_youth_resistance/)

Solidarity for Never

School Worker union  Bosses PACK BAGS FOR NEW ZEALAND: AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel are headed to New Zealand this week for the fourth annual International Summit on the Profession of Teaching. [Education Secretary Arne Duncan shipped out earlier this week.] Teachers unions across the globe play an integral role during the summit, said John Bangs, a senior consultant for Education International. “The top countries in the world are the ones that have strong teachers unions,” he tells Morning Education. Union leaders are critical for informing the discussion, he said. This year the summit theme is “Excellence, Equity and Inclusiveness — High Quality Teaching for All.”  http://www.politico.com/morningeducation/0314/morningeducation13426.html

California Teacher Association “Legislator of the Year” Busted  “Yee named CCA Legislator of the Year…State Sen. Leland Yee received CCA’s “Legislator of the Year” award for his continuing commitment to faculty and community colleges.
“Leland Yee’s commitment to education has been shown in many pieces of legislation he has sponsored for students and faculty,” said CCA President Ron Norton Reel.
Citing two recent major bills carried by the senator, Reel observed, “Without him, our community colleges would be much weaker.” www.cta.org/en/Professional-Development/Publications/2012/12/December-Advocate/Yee-named-CCA-Legislator-of-the-Year.aspx

California’s Democratic-controlled state Senate on Friday voted to suspend three of its members, including Leland Yee, who was arrested this week on federal charges of corruption and arms trafficking.  The 28-1 decision, marking the first time in the state Senate’s history that it has voted to suspend members, also targets Sen. Ron Calderon of Montebello (Los Angeles County), who was charged with bribery and corruption in an FBI sting last month, and Sen. Roderick Wright of Inglewood (Los Angeles County), convicted this year of eight counts of perjury and voter fraud. All three suspended senators will continue to receive their salaries, but they can’t return to the Senate until a vote is made to reinstate them.  http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Senate-suspends-Calif-state-Sen-Leland-Yee-2-5357627.php

Right to work hits teacher unions 1st   Unions are not what people think they are, and the fact is the law has had a terrific impact, contrary to the toady academics cited above. Union tops in the US deny the reason people formed unions in the first place: contradictory interests of workers and bosses. Instead, every major union declares a unity of interest of bosses and workers. Then the union bosses sell labor peace, the pacified work of their members, in exchange for dues income which lets the union hacks live well. Example: the president of the NEA made $465,000 last year, and can live in his expense account. From the other end of the spectrum, every teacher in Detroit was fired last fall. What did the DFT do? Nothing, but sue for the right to collect dues. More www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/23/counterfeit-unionism-in-the-empire/

The UAW as near-Billionaire Property Holder Wants a Dues Increase The UAW said its assets fell below $1 billion for the first time since at least 2000, dropping to $990 million from $1 billion in 2012 as total receipts fell to $214 million last year, down from $261 million in 2012.
The UAW spent $214 million in 2013, down from $260 million in 2012.
The union has cut spending dramatically. It spent $306 million in every year from 2000 through 2009….The union again wrote down the value of its Black Lake Golf Course in northern Michigan — to $5.6 million, down $1.9 million. Union administration costs fell from $14.1 million in 2012 to $11.6 million in 2013.
Because it is a non-election year, the UAW’s spending on lobbying and political activities fell from $30 million in 2012 to $9.7 million in 2013.From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20140329/AUTO01/303290041#ixzz2xOP5a91w

Capital’s Unions Are Rife With Capital’s Corruption–Guilderland teacher charged with stealing $100K  Farnsworth Middle School math teacher Brenda McClaine (below) has been charged with grand larceny for allegedly stealing $100,000 over the course of one year from the Guilderland Teachers Association, police said.
McClaine, 39, of Altamont, served as treasurer of the teachers association, which is affiliated with New York State United Teachers, or NYSUT. McClaine was arrested Thursday by Guilderland police and charged with second-degree larceny, a class C felony, police said. She was arraigned in Town Court and released on $15,000 bail, police said. District officials placed McClaine on paid administrative leave, as required by law, while her case is pending.
Police allege that McClaine stole $100,382.50 from the 450-member teachers association between August 2012 and October 2013. Police declined to comment further on the investigation or whether the stolen money was recovered.  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Guilderland-teacher-charged-with-stealing-100K-5357220.php

Pennsylvania Teachers Union Boss Sentenced Barrett wept as prison term handed down by federal judge   Former union official Lisa Barrett wept as her sentence she was sentenced Friday, shoulders heaving deeply as she learned a judge’s mercy still meant she will spend a year of her life in prison.
“I had planned to give you more time,” U.S. District Court Judge James Munley told Barrett, 48, of Shavertown, the former president of the Wyoming Area Teachers Union who pleaded guilty in October to embezzling nearly $60,000 using union debit and credit cards to support a lifestyle of shopping, travelling and dining.   www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/1148375/Former-teacher-union-official-sentenced-for-embezzlement

Former AFGE Hack  Sentenced to 30 Months in Federal Prison for Wire Fraud  – Danny L. Hubbard, 49, of Panama City, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in federal prison for committing wire fraud by stealing approximately $91,600 from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1380.
AFGE Local 1380 is a labor union that represents federal employees who work at the Naval Support Activity in Panama City, Florida. Hubbard became the acting president of AFGE Local 1380 in or around November 2006 and served as the president through 2008. While president, Hubbard wrote checks to himself or to cash, a local convenience store, and Boomtown Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Additionally, he conducted other numerous financial transactions and withdrew $6,650 from the union’s savings account. The funds disbursed as a result of Hubbard’s actions were not used for AFGE Local 1380’s official business or for the union. He did not obtain approval from AFGE Local 1380’s executive board or membership before disbursing the funds to himself, cash, or other third-party entities. He was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $91,600 as a result of his scheme to defraud.
Hubbard was also sentenced to serve a 3-year term of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $2,400 special monetary assessments.
This conviction results from an investigation by agents of the U.S. Department of Labor and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn Risinger.   www.justice.gov/usao/fln/press/2013/nov/hubbard.html

Spy versus Spy

Spies and the Spectacle of “The Plane! The Plane!” hat extraordinary cooperation has been instrumental in narrowing the search to a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean this week. But the effort has also underscored the limits of trust among powers like China, Malaysia, the United States, India and Thailand, all of which bring their own, often competing, strategic interests to bear.
The instruments of the search — advanced radar and satellite arrays, banks of intelligence analysts, surveillance planes and ships — are also the tools of spycraft. And as they have come together, the imperative among participating countries to cloak their technological capacities and weaknesses has proved irresistible, at times hindering the search, military analysts say.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/world/asia/geopolitical-rivalries-jet.html?hp&_r=0

The Magical Mystery Tour

Infallible Pope with Funny Outfit plus torture symbol enjoys a laugh with drone flying demagogue about how their mutual hustles are working so well.

Social Fascist Demagogue Meets Woman Hating Child Rapist protector and Medieval Mystic–press goes wild Mr Obama, who has praised the Pope’s compassion, told him it was a “great honour” to meet him.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26761181

 

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

 

Detroit homeowner fatally shoots 2 suspected home invaders
 A homeowner on Tuesday  fatally shot two men he said were trying to break into his west-side house — the latest in a string of apparent self-defense shootings this year.
Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody said the homeowner heard commotion near his side window at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at his house on the 14800 block of Dexter and decided to go out the back door and swing around to see what was happening in his driveway.
When the resident spotted the two alleged perpetrators, men in their 20s, a fight ensued. The homeowner reached for his handgun and opened fire. “He struck both men, killing them instantly,” Woody said….Detroit Police Chief James Craig said at a press conference last week that in his 37-year career, he’s never seen as many homeowners defending themselves by shooting intruders. Craig told The News in January he felt the crime rate could be lowered if more “good Americans” were armed, because he said criminals would think twice about attacking them.
“It does appear more and more Detroiters are becoming empowered,” Craig said. “More and more Detroiters are getting sick of the violence. I know of no other place where I’ve seen this number of justifiable homicides.”
Craig referenced recent incidents where women shot home invaders. “It’s interesting that these incidents go across gender lines,” he said.
Among the recent shootings:…
From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20140325/METRO01/303250066#ixzz2x1AMbS1D

Customer with gun stops man stabbing security officer at Home Depot, Roseville police say  A customer with a handgun stopped a shoplifting suspect from slashing a security officer with a contaminated needle and syringe outside a Home Depot store in Roseville, police said.
Joshua J. Silva, 26, was arrested a short time after the incident Monday night at the Home Depot at 13 Mile and Little Mack.  http://www.freep.com/article/20140325/NEWS04/303250094/Syringe-Roseville-Home-Depot-gun

So Long

Old Money Rachel Lambert Mellon — she could never shake her childhood nickname “Bunny” — was shy, rarely photographed publicly and never willingly the center of attention. She preferred the aristocratic discretion of old money, and there was always money: Her grandfather invented Listerine; her father ran Gillette. Her first husband was a wealthy businessman and horse breeder; her second, Paul Mellon, was one of the richest men in the world. They lived the quiet life of the very, very rich in Virginia’s horse country: collecting art, horse racing and flying between Oak Spring Farms, their 4,000-acre estate in Upperville, and their other properties around the world.   www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/at-bunny-mellons-funeral-music-from-bette-midler-and-a-john-edwards-appearance/2014/03/28/c9a79d2e-b6b3-11e3-a7c6-70cf2db17781_story.html (below Bunny on Right)