Why Are Things As They Are?

NobWe Say Fight Back!

Mexico’s Marxist Students Kidnapped and murdered by State Fascists  In their first week of school, the new students eat and drink nothing but beans and cold coffee, and spend sleepless days cleaning up the buildings and planting crops.

It is a “boot camp” to foster a sense of community and prove that they really want to be here at the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos. The small teachers’ college in southern Mexico has been at the center of a national crisis since 43 of its students disappeared in September after a violent confrontation with the local police force, which has been infiltrated by a drug gang.

The school’s students read books on Marxism, have weekly discussions on political documentaries championing leftist causes and try to adhere to the social justice ideals underpinning the school since its founding in 1926 after the Mexican Revolution, one of several such schools begun to keep alive its fires of social transformation.

“It was not only about the academic stuff but the political side of it, the risk of the activities they did and the sense of belonging,” said Ricardo Jacinto, a student there, explaining why he and his brother Israel, 19, as well as two uncles have attended the school.

Now, Ricardo and his family are awaiting word of Israel, one of the students missing since Sept. 26.

Israel was part of a large group of students who went to the industrial city of Iguala, about two hours away and 120 miles south of Mexico City, to collect money for school activities and to steal two buses to help transport them to demonstrations on Oct. 2 commemorating a 1968 student massacre in Mexico City.

The appropriation of the buses — routine and temporary, students here say — was a function of the threadbare life and revolutionary ferment running through the school, where portraits of Che Guevara and other socialist figures line the walls and students are taught to push the boundaries in their protests.

They have routinely blocked highways and these days have regularly taken over tollbooths on superhighways in southern Mexico, asking for donations while federal police officers sit nearby, apparently unwilling to risk a confrontation.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/world/americas/mexico-missing-students.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eMb03WR8z4

Tens of Thousands Demonstrate for Red Students It’s been 40 days since 43 college students vanished and on Wednesday there was anger in the streets here.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators brought parts of Mexico City to a standstill as protesters demanded more action from federal authorities to find the students who have been missing since late September.

The marchers included students from the rural college the 43 attended in southwestern Mexico — and also regular people from all walks of life who were frustrated with what they called government corruption and cooperation with murderous drug cartels.

Protesters chanted: “They took them away alive, and alive we want them back.”

Last year, federal authorities had said that more than 26,000 people had disappeared between 2006-2012  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/protests-over-mexicos-inaction-43-missing-students-n242126

Narco-fascist Mexican State Killed the Marxist kids–bodies found burned  Forty-three college students kidnapped by police under orders of a mayor in southern Mexico were probably killed by a drug gang that tried to destroy all evidence of the crime, according to investigators.

Criminal suspects rounded up in the probe said police in Iguala, Guerrero, handed them more than 40 people they had taken into custody, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillosaid in a news conference in the capital yesterday. The mayor and his wife are accused of asking drug gangs to help police prevent students from disrupting a public event held by the wife, Murillo said.

Fifteen of the captives died from asphyxiation and the suspects confessed to executing the rest, he said. Members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang told authorities that they burned the victims’ corpses in a landfill for at least 12 hours, along with their clothes and other belongings, throwing in diesel fuel, gasoline and tires to fan the flames,   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-07/mexico-says-evidence-signals-students-murdered-and-bodies-burned.html

More than 300 Mexican students torch cars, throw firebombs after authorities indicate 43 feared massacred  Furious protesters burned several vehicles and threw firebombs at a southern Mexican state’s headquarters after authorities indicated gang hitmen had slaughtered 43 missing students. More than 300 students, many wearing masks, descended on the Guerrero government headquarters in Chilpancingo on Saturday in protest.

The students threw rocks at its windows and burned around 10 vehicles, including trucks and a federal police vehicle. “We are asking the same thing as usual. We want to see our comrades alive,” a masked student said. The case has repulsed Mexico since gang-linked police attacked busloads of students in the Guerrero city of Iguala on September 26, in a night of violence that left six people dead and the 43 missing.www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-09/mexican-students-riot-over-missing-43-feared-massacred/5877642

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Nearly 20 Years on, the Rouge Forum Initiated the First petition against high-stakes standardized exams. Nobody has improved on it and all but the Rouge Forum ignore the school connections to class and empires’ wars  http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/petition/

After NEA’s Demands for his ouster, and after a sweet hug from the new NEA Prezzie, Arne Duncan Addresses Tennessee school workers–and never names the beast: Common Core  Duncan and Haslam spoke Tuesday at the LEAD conference. The event is the state’s largest education conference of the year, with more than 2,000 people registered to attend.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan repeated some of his recent praise Tuesday for Tennessee’s improved scores on national assessments and accepting an “honest” system for student proficiency standards. Gov. Bill Haslam echoed those comments and promised hundreds of educators that the state “won’t back up on the push for higher standards.”

In their formal speeches during an education conference though, neither mentioned the formal name of those standards: Common Core. Haslam said the politically charged issue of appropriate academic standards is only fueled by what he called the misconceptions associated with the name.

“Unfortunately, there are so many misconceptions around the term Common Core, when you bring it up, it means so many different things to different people,” Haslam said after his speech at the LEAD education conference in Nashville.

“Everybody gets the idea of higher standards, and so our initiative in Tennessee is ‘Let’s talk specifically about the standards.’ ”http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/10/28/arne-duncan-bill-haslam-talk-achievement-common-core/18079127/

fetishizing of education is a key obstacle to Left movements’ revolutionary goals. Seeing ‘revolution’ as an overturning of a dominant order, a revolutionary movement would need to radically transform all of the regimes composing that order—from the family and work to transportation and prisons. Such a movement is hindered if any one of these regimes is immunized from critique. That is precisely what has happened with the regime of education.  http://classwaru.org/2014/05/06/freedom-from-education/#more-414

better put, freedom from capitalist schooling…..

UC (run by Homeland Security Boss) seeking 5% tuition increases in each of next five years UC leaders are proposing tuition increases — as much as 5% in each of the next five years — to help cover rising costs and to expand the enrollment of California students.

For undergraduates who are California residents, tuition next year could rise to $12,804, not including room, board and books. By the 2019-20 school year, that could increase to $15,564.  http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-uc-tuition-20141105-story.html

New #UBC Grad Program in Critical Pedagogy & Education Activism NEW MASTERS PROGRAM IN THE INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION STUDIES CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND EDUCATION ACTIVISM  BEGINS JULY 2014
APPLY NOW  !nblo.gs/11dkIe

Part 2: Why the shift in the school lunch and free breakfast programs from Mrs Obamagogue? “JUST 30% OF AMERICANS AGED 17 TO 24 are eligible to become soldiers, according to the US Army. The remaining 70% of young people are either too obese or are disqualified because they have a criminal history or didn’t finish high school.” Stars and Stripes, reported in The Week 11-7-14

Listen To EMU Regent Jim Stapleton Tell The Dirty Rotten Truth About The Origin of the Education Achievement Authority  In this eight minute clip, Stapleton starts out describing how the first meeting to discuss forming the EAA went down. Stapleton and Wilbanks sat down with Rick Snyder, Richard Baird, a representative of the Eli Broad Foundation, Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, and attorney and charter school/school voucher snake oil salesman Richard McClellan. Richard Baird pitched the idea of a new state-wide school district to the two EMU administrators, then talked about how this was a political decision, and that of all the public institutions in the state, the governor believed EMU was the right fit for this project.

Stapleton also describes the decision to not share this with anyone else in the University administration, and when he went to Roy Roberts, the emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools, to talk to him two days after that meeting with the governor, Roberts had never heard anything about it.

There is much regret in Stapleton’s account and how it has impacted the College of Education at EMU. He tries to lay blame on everyone, until a faculty member at the meeting tells him there is no way he can blame them.

What it came down to was money. Wilbanks and Stapleton thought the state would funnel money into EMU, and the university would have another school district to place student teachers. None of those things happened. The EAA never became a state-wide district, it’s remained in Detroit and the children who are placed there are not getting the education they were promised.   http://www.upnorthprogressive.com/?p=628

When there is pride in “Party School” Justice Elusive in San Diego State Sexual Assault Case  It was after midnight on a Friday in September 2007 when Jennifer   ran out of the Sigma Pi fraternity house onto the street near the campus of San Diego State University. A 20-year-old junior at SDSU, she was crying and frantic. She was barefoot and didn’t have a purse.

She didn’t care. She was trying to get away. She thought her boyfriend was chasing her, something he “always did.” They’d been together for nine months; he lived in the house. He’d choked her in the past.

The night before, Jennifer says she’d experienced his most violent act yet. But she went back to the house anyway, a decision she would have to answer for in the months and years to come.

As Jennifer ran toward campus, two male students saw her and stopped. They called 911.

“I just kind of collapsed on my knees after I heard them calling 911 because I knew now that the police had been called, there’s no going back,” she said.  http://inewsource.org/2014/11/06/justice-elusive-in-san-diego-state-sexual-assault-case/

iPads are great for porn and video games –Not so much for learning–Some Sweetwater librarians, teachers, and parents continue to question whether the district’s iPad initiative is a boon or a costly boondoggle.

Similar to Los Angeles Unified School District, which recently canceled a contract to buy 700,000 iPads, the Sweetwater Union High School District’s iPad initiative has experienced several rough years. The Los Angeles iPad program became so fraught with problems it was suspended.

A recent incident involving the Sweetwater Education Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides grants for Sweetwater students, hints at potential problems. The foundation site was hacked near the beginning of August, shortly after students returned from summer break. For two weeks, anyone who searched on the internet for the foundation, perhaps looking for a scholarship, would pull pages of hardcore porn under the heading “Eighteen & Abused.”

The role of Sweetwater librarians has changed considerably. Where once they opened the doors of literacy and research for students, their days of late are increasingly consumed with iPad problems. In addition to other duties, they are now responsible for the distribution of iPads; for the accounting of lost, cracked, or broken devices; for checking out the tablets to students who are not allowed to take them home; and for securing parent authorization forms.

And the iPads bring other problems. Librarian Colleen Casey said porn on a student’s iPad was seared into her brain because of an event that took place last April.

“My library assistant brought a student’s iPad to me,” Casey said. “On his iPad were ten of the most graphic, hardcore, triple-X porn images I have ever seen. When I looked this student up, he already owed the district for a cracked iPad. He got suspended for a day or two for the incident and then he walked into the library and said, ‘Where’s my iPad?’”   http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2014/nov/05/feature-ipads-are-great-porn/?utm_source=San+Diego+Reader+Newsletters&utm_campaign=5f8fb7b650-News_Stories_2014110611_3_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8142a24857-5f8fb7b650-408312281#

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Happy Veterans Day to all the Bullet Sponges and Cannon Fodder Lined up at the VA  The VA scandal hasn’t magically disappeared, even as much of the political class has moved on to fixating on brighter shiny objects — like the crucial fake issue of birth control “access.” More details continue to emerge about the outrageous corruption, shoddy care, and retaliatory culture that has infected the VA system. One whistleblower who testified before Congress this week alleges that the agency’s systemic fabrication of data isn’t limited to misrepresenting wait times for healthcare; bogus data procedures are also being employed to make the VA disability claims backlog look less severe than it is. CBS News had the story:

“They were instructing us to change the dates of claims — on any claims, regardless of the circumstances — if they were older than a certain date,” Kristen Ruell told a House Committee. CBS’ correspondent also notes that when investigators from the VA’s inspector general did a spot check at a facility in Philadelphia last month, they “found a room full of claims-related mail from veterans, up to three years old, and still containing documents not scanned into the system.” Ms. Ruell isn’t the first person to level this accusation. We highlighted a McClatchy report last month in which a whistleblower made precisely the same claim about the claims backlog. Administration officials have seized on the falsified data to crow about major “improvements,” which were really just another mirage.

They’re cooking the books, fraudulently changing dates, and stacking piles of documents for years, then congratulating themselves over their gerry-rigged stats. In her testimony, Ruell also described the punishment she faced for sounding internal alarm bells: “I raised many issues…instead of solving problems, I was, and continue to be, retaliated against…the VA’s problems are the result of morally bankrupt managers who through time and degree have moved up into powerful positions, where they have the power and continue to ruin people’s lives.” Meanwhile a VA nurse from upstate New York who’s embroiled in bitter fight with the agency says she witnessed abusive and substandard care, reported it, and was instructed by managers to step down from her position:  http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/07/17/va-whistleblower-theyre-manipulating-disability-backlog-stats-too-n1862859

Hagel: New World Order Means Endless War  It seems lately that every war the United States gets itself into can’t just be another war, it has to be an open-ended clash of civilizations. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel set out that assessment fairly straightforwardly in his recent comments at the Washington Ideas Festival.

“We are living through one of these historic, defining times,” Hagel warned, “We are seeing a new world order – post World War II, post Soviet Union implosion.”

Hagel went on to make it quite clear what that meant, open-ended war with ISIS and open-ended war with various other enemies of the US military will require a “steady, long-term effort” to defeat.

Other officials have talked about the ISIS conflict being a 30-year war, and that seems extremely speculative, as officials haven’t laid out what victory will even look like, let alone how it’s going to happen.  http://news.antiwar.com/2014/10/31/hagel-new-world-order-means-endless-war/

Nobel Peace Obamagogue Doubles US invasion of Iraq–with No Grand Strategy in Sight -More Wackamole of Death  The Pentagon will send up to 1,500 additional troops to Iraq, more than doubling the size of the U.S. force assisting Iraqi and Kurdish troops battling Islamic State militants, the White House said Friday.

For the first time since U.S. troops returned to Iraq as advisors in August, American military personnel will be posted at Iraqi training bases and headquarters facilities in the country’s north, west and south, not just in the capital, Baghdad, and in Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital, officials said.

The escalation marks a deepening U.S. commitment to the fight against Islamic State by President Obama, who found his national security policies under fierce attack during the midterm election campaign, which ended Tuesday with a Republican sweep of Congress and scores of other offices around the country. http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-us-troops-iraq-20141107-story.html

US-backed forces in Syria suffer big setback  Al Qaida-backed militants Saturday stormed the base of the most prominent civilian commander in the U.S.-backed Syrian rebel force, forcing him and his fighters to flee into hiding in the Jebal al Zawiya mountains of northern Syria.

Jamal Maarouf, a contractor in private life, became internationally known for leading the successful offensive in January that forced the Islamic State from most of two northern provinces. His ouster from his own village was an enormous setback for him, the rebel forces and his international backers.

Even more ominous was that that the Islamic State, now far stronger and claiming to run a Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, reportedly had joined Jabhat al Nusra in the attack on the village of Deir Sinbul.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition monitoring group, said Islamic State fighters had arrived from the east of Syria to join the al Qaida affiliate in the fight against Maarouf’s Revolutionaries of Syria Front.

And Mahmoud al Ugal, a commander in Marouf’s force, told McClatchy that the militant fighters had deployed at least 20 heavy machine guns. He said the Nusra fighters used tanks, mortars and Chechen snipers in the battle for Deir Sinbul, Maarouf’s home town. Read more here: www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/11/01/245423/in-setback-islamic-state-nusra.html#storylink=cpy

 

Obamagogue begs Iran for Help with IS President Obama secretly wrote a letter last month to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei that sought to link cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to a nuclear deal, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“Mr. Obama stressed to Mr. Khamenei that any cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline,” the Journal reported, citing anonymous U.S. officials briefed on the letter.  http://www.freep.com/story/news/world/2014/11/06/obama-secret-letter-iran/18597317/

Ex-USSR leader Gorbachev: World on brink of new Cold War   At an event to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday, Mr Gorbachev said the West had “succumbed to triumphalism”. He expressed alarm about recent Middle Eastern and European conflicts. Tensions have been raised between the West and Russia over Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union.

More than 4,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, who seized control in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in April. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since September, but elections in rebel-held areas last weekend have prompted fears of a return to full-scale conflict  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29966852

Running Up to WW3: EUCOM chief: More troops, gear needed to deter Russia  The top U.S. general in Europe wants to increase U.S. rotational forces in Eastern Europe and stockpile more military equipment across the continent in response to continued aggressive moves by the Russian military.

Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove spoke to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday after a spate of tense confrontations involving Russian military aircraft flying in unusually large formations in the airspace of America’s European allies.

“What you saw this past week was a larger, more complex formation of [Russian] aircraft carrying out a little deeper, and I would say a little bit more provocative, flight path,” said Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and chief of the U.S. European Command.

More than two dozen Russian fighter jets and bombers recently have veered into the airspace of NATO nations from all directions, including the Black Sea to the southwest, the Baltic Sea to the northeast, over Great Britain to the northwest and also over NATO’s southwestern flank along Portugal’s Atlantic coast. In each case, NATO aircraft intercepted the Russian planes and the incident was resolved “professionally,” Breedlove said.  http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20141103/NEWS/311030051/EUCOM-chief-More-troops-gear-needed-deter-Russia

More Than 600 Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq, Pentagon Acknowledges  More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say.

The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than a decade kept from view.

This previously untold chapter of the occupation became public after an investigation by The New York Times revealed last month that although troops did not find an active weapons of mass destruction program, they did encounter degraded chemical weapons from the 1980s that had been hidden in caches or used in makeshift bombs.

The Times initially disclosed 17 cases of American service members who were injured by sarin or a sulfur mustard agent. And since the report was published last month, more service members have come forward, pushing the number who were exposed to chemical agents to more than 25. But an internal review of Pentagon records ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has now uncovered that hundreds of troops told the military they believe they were exposed, officials said.

The new and larger tally of potential cases suggests that there were more encounters with chemical weapons than the United States had acknowledged and that other people — including foreign soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi troops and civilians — may also have been at risk.

Having not acted for years on that data, the Pentagon says it will now expand outreach to veterans. One first step, officials said, includes a toll-free national telephone hotline for service members and veterans to report potential exposures and seek medical evaluation or care.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/world/middleeast/-more-than-600-reported-chemical-weapons-exposure-in-iraq-pentagon-acknowledges.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

surroounding China not going so well

US Navy cancels port calls amid Philippine anger over killing  The US Navy has cancelled visits to the Philippine port of Subic amid public anger over accusations that a US Marine killed a Filipino on the city’s outskirts, officials said Monday.

Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose said the visits of three US ships to Subic this month had been cancelled, while the head of the Subic freeport said nine such visits scheduled for this year had been called off.

“The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) was informed through normal diplomatic channels of the cancellation of the visits to Subic of three ships for operational reasons,” he said.

Jose told reporters he did not believe the cancellations were linked to anger stirred by the investigation of a US Marine for the killing of a Filipina in Olongapo City last month.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Robert Garcia said nine US ships due to dock at Subic this year had cancelled their visits.

He told AFP that two US Navy ships were still scheduled to make port calls in Subic for “emergency repairs” but their crews would not be allowed to disembark.  http://news.yahoo.com/us-navy-cancels-port-calls-amid-philippine-anger-100217421.html

US air force fires two more nuclear commanders amid leadership crisis  The US air force has fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered several recent setbacks including the removal of its top commander.

The most senior officer to be relieved of command was Colonel Carl Jones, second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at FE Warren air force base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the air force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed on Monday “for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities” and reassigned as a special assistant to the wing commander.

At the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, which also is responsible for 150 Minuteman 3 missiles, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy “Keith” Brown was relieved of command “because of a loss of confidence in Brown’s ability to lead his squadron”, the air force said.www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/04/us-air-force-fires-two-more-nuclear-commanders-amid-leadership-crisis

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

GM urges bankruptcy judge to toss out older-car suits–Government Motors Terrorists dodges the Citizenry again  General Motors Co. asked a federal bankruptcy judge to throw out more than $10 billion in lawsuits seeking compensation for lost value of cars. The suits claim GM committed fraud because it did not disclose ignition switch defects before its 2009 bankruptcy reorganization.

The Detroit automaker claims sweeping immunity from claims stemming from building millions of defective cars before its restructuring. It rejected claims that even if the reorganized GM sold cars with defective switches built before 2009, it had no duty to pay claims for economic losses of vehicle owners.

GM didn’t disclose ignition switch defects in 2.59 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other cars that weren’t recalled until February of this year. The switches can allow the key to accidentally turn off the engine and disable power steering, power brakes and air bags. The defect is linked to at least 30 deaths and 31 injuries.

The Justice Department, 48 state attorney generals and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether GM committed bankruptcy fraud, and whether it misled the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.   www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2014/11/06/gm-lawsuit/18582353/

The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare–Taibbi  Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.  Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as “massive criminal securities fraud” in the bank’s mortgage operations.

Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she’s kept her mouth shut since then. “My closest family and friends don’t know what I’ve been living with,” she says. “Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview.”

Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it’s not exactly news that the country’s biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That’s why the more important part of Fleischmann’s story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. “Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way,” Fleischmann says.

This past year she watched as Holder’s Justice Department struck a series of historic settlement deals with Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The root bargain in these deals was cash for secrecy. The banks paid big fines, without trials or even judges – only secret negotiations that typically ended with the public shown nothing but vague, quasi-official papers called “statements of facts,” which were conveniently devoid of anything like actual facts.Read more: www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3ISf8txGQ
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Who Lost Europe? The European Union cut its economic growth forecasts for the region, saying rising geopolitical risks in Ukraine and the Middle East and a broader global slowdown have eroded business and consumer confidence since the spring.

The downgraded outlook, released Tuesday, is bad news for the U.S. economy because Europe is a major market for American exports.

“It would be an added head wind,” said Gary Schlossberg, senior economist at Wells Capital Management. “You’d still see economic growth here, but it would be weaker than it would be.”

Europe’s troubles come amid slower economic growth elsewhere in the world, which helped drive up the U.S. trade deficit in September.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that U.S. exports dropped by about $3 billion, or 1.5%, to $195.6 billion, from August.

The decrease caused the nation’s trade deficit to rise by 7.6% to $43 billion, the largest gap since May.

Analysts expect that the widening trade deficit will lead federal statisticians to lower U.S. economic growth in the third quarter in an upcoming revision Nov. 25.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-europe-economy-forecast-20141105-story.html#navtype=outfit

Where did Highland Park Michigan go to? A sweeping survey of every parcel in Highland Park has revealed the extent of erosion in Highland Park’s neighborhoods.

The Motor City Mapping project, which already surveyed every parcel in Detroit, released its sobering findings today for Highland Park.

Among the discoveries:
More than a third of the houses and buildings are abandoned.
40% of the 6,344 properties are vacant lots.
71% of the abandoned structures are open to trespass.

Check out the interactive map created by Loveland Technologies, a Detroit-based company that is taking mapping to a new level. The map shows every parcel with findings from the survey.

Highland Park’s population dropped 77% since peaking at 53,000 in 1930 because of the dramatic decline in the local auto industry.  http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2014/11/03/sweeping-survey-of-all-highland-park-properties-reveals-sobering-reality-of-abandonment/

90-year-old man charged for feeding homeless cited again  He was the first charged with the new ordinance that makes it a crime punishable by up to 60 days in jail to feed the homeless in public. The story first aired Local 10 has gone viral.

“I am both enthused and humbled,” Abbot said. “The good news is that there is pressure being put on the city of Fort Lauderdale to do something about a law that is not only unfair, it’s repressive.”

Mayor Jack Seiler, who supports the ordinance, said he’s gotten massive feedback as well, though not always so positive. But he said the law is meant to help the homeless, not to keep them from eating.

“Mr. Abbott has decided that he doesn’t think these individuals should have to have any interaction with government, that they should be fed in the parks. We disagree,” Seiler said.

But Abbott said there aren’t adequate government services or food to deal with the homeless.

“What the city is doing by cutting out feeding is very simple — they are forcing homeless people to go dumpster-diving all over again,” Abbott said. “They will steal. That’s what the mayor is forcing the homeless to do.”

And while Abbott said he wants to compromise with the city, he expects to be charged again.  http://www.local10.com/news/90yearold-man-charged-for-feeding-homeless-back-at-it/29566212

Cost of One Suite at One NFL Game–San Francisco: Sixty Thousand Dollars  www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/priciest-suites-at-nfl-games-teams

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

Fall of Stalin’s Social Fascism brings post Afghanistan Kleptofascism

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAme6EcOAf4

Obamagogue and Republicans use the Executive Committee of the Rich to Re-colonize Detroit, strip pensions, pay off big banksters, and drive out the poor http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2014/11/07/detroit-bankruptcy-trial/18642961/

Ferguson no-fly zone to keep media out  The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.

On Aug. 12, the morning after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the first flight restriction, FAA air traffic managers struggled to redefine the flight ban to let commercial flights operate at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and police helicopters fly through the area — but ban others.

“They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out,” said one FAA manager about the St. Louis County Police in a series of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Associated Press. “But they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on.  http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/02/ferguson-fly-zone-keep-media/18384869/

At another point, a manager at the FAA’s Kansas City center said police “did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn’t want media in there.”

FAA procedures for defining a no-fly area did not have an option that would accommodate that.

Journalist Sam Smith’s Check list on the development of fascism: prorevnews.blogspot.com/2014/11/clues-your-country-may-be-becoming.html

Solidarity for Never

After blowing $50 to $75 million and  hundreds of thousands of volunteer (sucker) hours on backing capitalism and empire in the crushing defeats of the fake election, newly minted Hispanic Union Dues Eater ($465 thouusand a year + expense account) determines to do more of the same rather than organize a nationwide Mayday school strike. 

Predictable as sunup–Chicago  Teachers “Union” Boss, Karen Lewis endorses Dem Hack Garcia for mayor in new video A battle with brain cancer prevented Karen Lewis from trying to knock off Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but Friday she backed a man she thinks can finish the job: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Garcia, a Cook County Commissioner, announced this week that he would run for mayor in hopes of “inheriting” the momentum Lewis had created as she pondered a run against Emanuel in the Feb. 24 city election.
Rival says Emanuel has given up on schools, crime
by Bill Ruthhart

In a video posted online Friday, Lewis directed her backers to get behind Garcia. In the video, Lewis spoke softly as she touted Garcia as a “man of the people” and the right candidate to oust Emanuel.

“Chicago needs a mayor who has the moral courage to do what’s right for all of the city. That is why I’m throwing my full support behind Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia,” Lewis said. “Chuy is a committed and effective public servant and has been for the last 30 years. Chuy is a consensus builder and a man of the people.”l
“If he is elected as our mayor, I know he will work for all of our citizens, not just the corporate elites and special interests who seek to privatize our public assets,” Lewis said. “Chuy is the right leader for the right time to move our city forward. South Side, West Side, North Side, everybody, let’s support the bigger man.”

A portion of the video was played at a CTU banquet Friday night, during which Garcia, a former state senator and alderman, gave a speech pushing a pro-education, pro-union message and called for a living wage and elected school board.c Comments
@Jackel1 I don’t imagine your own test scores were all that high if you think this makes sense. Kids were already able to go to private schools if their parents wanted them to and had the means to make it happen. Meanwhile they still pay taxes, which is more than most of the Democratic…
Before her illness forced her to decide not to run, Lewis was considered the top contender to challenge Emanuel. A Tribune poll in August showed her leading Emanuel in a head-to-head contest, with the mayor’s approval rating sagging to 35 percent.

Unlike Lewis, Garcia has far less name recognition across the city and has not demonstrated the ability to galvanize support in opposition of Emanuel, as Lewis did during the 2012 teachers strike and last year’s protests over the mayor’s school closings. Lewis had a big built-in base to rely on with the teachers union, while Garcia hopes her endorsement will transfer some of that loyalty.

And then there’s money: Lewis had a commitment of $1 million from the American Federation of Teachers, and as a labor leader carried more sway in getting other unions to back her campaign.

In a statement this week, AFT President Randi Weingarten wouldn’t make the same commitment to Garcia, saying that “circumstances have changed” and the union would have to re-evaluate the race.

On Friday, Weingarten elaborated on that. “There’s a big difference between a sister running — who came to us, talked to us about running at our convention, and the entire executive council said, ‘We’re all in’ — and going through a regular process” before endorsing another candidate.

Emanuel’s campaign war chest is stocked with nearly $8.7 million. Garcia had $3,160 in his campaign fund to start the month and has raised $15,000 since.

A committee of the AFT contributed $30,000 to Lewis’ campaign fund at the end of September. Weingarten said the AFT will “have conversations about helping (Garcia) be competitive, and we look forward to those conversations.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/chi-karen-lewis-endorses-garcia-for-mayor-in-new-video-20141031-story.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFHaPfHQlxk

Detroit Federation of Teachers Insisted on 10$ per member to elect another quisling Dem. 12% gavc. http://dft231.mi.aft.org/files/nov2014electionissue.pdf

Noble SEALS Turn on Each Other:  Bin Laden ‘Shooter’ Story Is FUBAR, Special Ops Sources Say  On Tuesday, Fox News will air a highly-anticipated documentary about a former Navy SEAL named Robert O’Neill, who claims to be the man who fired the shot that killed Osama bin Laden. Several of O’Neill’s former brothers-in-arms are coming forward to say his story is way, way off.

In interviews with The Daily Beast, former special operations officials, as well as other sources who are familiar with the events of the 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, accused O’Neill of misstating key facts and wrongly taking sole credit for killing the world’s then-most wanted man.

At issue is who fired the shot—or shots—that hit bin Laden in the head, splitting open his skull and almost certainly ending his life. O’Neill insists that he was the shooter. But others—including a fellow SEAL who was standing within feet of O’Neill when the final encounter with bin Laden went down—say another, still-unidentified man likely fired the round that caused a lethal head wound.

In a SEAL version of Rashomon, the ostensibly silent warriors of the special operations community have been going after one another over what really happened that night in Abbottabad.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/07/bin-laden-shooter-story-is-fubar-special-ops-sources-say.html

Spy versus Spy

JRR Tolkien trained as a British spy http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/2009/09/16/jrr-tolkien-trained-as-british-spy/#sthash.tEuID6fc.dpbs

Top British Spy Warns of Terrorists’ Use of Social Media  One of Britain’s highest-ranking intelligence officials on Tuesday castigated the giant American companies that dominate the Internet for providing the “command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals” and challenged the companies to find a better balance between privacy and security.

The statements were made by Robert Hannigan, the newly appointed director of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency. They were among the most pointed in a campaign by intelligence services in Britain and the United States against pressure to rein in their digital surveillance following disclosures by the American former contractor Edward J. Snowden.

Mr. Hannigan’s statements were among the most critical of American technology firms by the head of a major intelligence agency; the accusation went beyond what United States officials have said about Apple, Google and others who are now moving toward sophisticated encryption of more and more data on phones and email systems.

But the companies, saying they are responding to demand from their users, show no signs of backing down. Recently the chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, said governments that want data should deal with the users of the technology, not the providers of the hardware and services. Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft Corporation, told a Harvard Law School symposium on Tuesday that, if anything, companies like his “will move to strengthen encryption,” and require governments to get court orders if they want data.

Mr. Hannigan, in an opinion article on Tuesday in The Financial Times, singled out the Islamic State, the radical group also known as ISIS and ISIL, as one “whose members have grown up on the Internet” and are “exploiting the power of the web to create a jihadi threat with near-global reach.”   www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/world/europe/GCHQ-director-tech-companies-militants.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Manual on How to Spot a Spy Circulates in an Increasingly Wary China   “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Or an American spy. Or a “hostile foreign force.” So says the “China Folk Counterespionage Manual,” a “how to spot a spy” guide circulating on the Internet.

The manual, whose origin is murky, first emerged several years ago and has recently enjoyed a renaissance in popularity on social media sites. It offers Chinese citizens tips on how to detect spies in their midst. It was even cited in Global Times, a state newspaper, in late August following the detention of Kevin and Julia Garratt, a Canadian couple who ran a cafe in Dandong, on the North Korean border, on suspicion of stealing military secrets. In an infographic, the newspaper described them as examples of possible foreign spies masquerading as “ordinary citizens.”

The manual might be something more suited for a James Bond movie if it weren’t for the government’s own new emphasis on rooting out “foreign spies,” demonstrated on Saturday when President Xi Jinping signed an updated national security law, named the Counterespionage Law.
“To be honest, I found it preposterous at first glance,” Yuan Yi, a politics professor at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, said of the manual. “Then the more I read it, I found it contained some truth. Because it offers stories. And because of the specificity of the storytelling. The detail. It’s my hunch — I can’t prove it — that it’s something created by the state.”

So, what are the telltale signs of a foreign spy?

The manual, which devotes much attention to university settings, advises Chinese to be suspicious of “socially active students” whose income suddenly increases, since money is the key tool of spycraft.

Also suspicious are “illogical science majors” who become overly emotional about politics, as is anyone who suggests that the word “people’s” should be removed from the titles of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army or the People’s Republic of China, or that Women’s Day, Labor Day or Children’s Day be struck from the list of state holidays. People who become excitable when a national crisis occurs and argue for extreme positions might be deliberately stirring trouble, it warns.

A popular tactic employed by spies online is to “provoke or lull people on military websites” — sites that are especially popular with amateur enthusiasts — “into revealing what they know,” it says.  http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/manual-on-how-to-spot-a-spy-circulates-in-an-increasingly-wary-china/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=2

 

The Magical Mystery Tour

Chicago Archdiocese releases files on 36 abusive priests  The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago released on Thursday internal files of 36 priests who church officials found had sexually abused children.

The files, which were released online, and other documents released in January show how the archdiocese dealt with abuse allegations during the past six decades, including the practice of moving priests accused of abuse to new parishes.

As part of a mediation agreement, the archdiocese in January released files on 30 former priests accused of abusing minors. Lawyers for victims had said at the time they wanted the archdiocese to release documents on more than 30 other priests.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/06/us-usa-archdiocese-chicago-idUSKBN0IQ1JO20141106

Man Sentenced to 37 Years in Christian Mingle Rape Case   A Del Mar man convicted of raping two women he met on the online dating sites ChristianMingle.com and Match.com was sentenced Friday to 37 years to life in prison.

In his final statement before he was punished, Navy Lieutenant Sean Banks quoted what he said was his favorite Bible verse.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good,” Banks said, noting he would drop his appeal if one of the victims passed a polygraph test.

Banks’ words apparently didn’t put him in good graces with the judge, who gave him the high end of the sentencing range and denied him probation. A restraining order also will bar Banks from the two victims for 10 years. Source: www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Man-Gets-37-Years-in-Christian-Mingle-Rape-case-Sean-Banks-281943361.html#ixzz3ISe4zYdS
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Amazing Randi : Although many modern skeptics continue to hold religious beliefs, and see no contradiction in embracing critical thinking and faith in God, Randi is not one of them. “I have always been an atheist,” he told me. “I think that religion is a very damaging philosophy — because it’s such a retreat from reality.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable-skepticism-of-the-amazing-randi.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

When I asked him why he believed other people needed religion, Randi was at his most caustic.

“They need it because they’re weak,” he said. “And they fall for authority. They choose to believe it because it’s easy.”

 

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Proof Capitalists will sell anything, the OBL action figure

In the years after the 9/11 attacks the Central Intelligence Agency searched for novel ways to combat the threat of international terrorism. Some were more novel than others, and none more so than the agency’s partnership with Don Levine, the retired head of research and development at the toy company Hasbro and the creator of G.I. Joe.

To win the hearts and minds of impressionable children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr. Levine was asked to take part in an “influence operation.” His mission: to develop an Osama bin Laden action figure that projected a negative image of the world’s most wanted terrorist. Mr. Levine, a Korean War veteran, obliged. A prototype of the doll, code-named Devil Eyes, is now being offered for sale by Nate D. Sanders, an auction house in Los Angeles. The bidding (online, or by fax, mail or telephone) starts at $2,500. The sale ends Nov. 20.  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/cant-afford-a-giacometti-sculpture-theres-always-the-c-i-a-s-bin-laden-action-figure/?emc=edit_tnt_20141106&nlid=2254121&tntemail0=y&_r=0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9HtoWea72A

So Long