We Say Fight Back!

www.facebook.com/LEOLecturersEmployeeOrganization/videos/1714349855324605

UPS Has 260,000 Union Workers and They’ve Just Authorized a Strike

United Parcel Service (ups, +0.18%) workers authorized their union to call what would be the first strike since 1997, giving negotiators more leverage in talks to replace a labor contract that expires at the end of July.

Of the workers from the package unit who voted, 93% favored the authorization and 91% of UPS freight employees agreed to the measure, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced on a webcast. The rate of voter participation wasn’t provided. A strike authorization is common during negotiations to put pressure on the company, said UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara. Even with that, the union can’t go on strike until after the current contract expires on July 31.  fortune.com/2018/06/06/ups-teamsters-strike-july-contract/

TWU to Anderson: “Stop these cuts!”

Amtrak’s just-instituted practice of providing sleeping car customers, beginning with the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited, with “contemporary and fresh dining choices” is “nothing more than a cold snack in a cardboard box being delivered to passengers in their rooms,” the Amtrak Service Workers Council (ASWC) of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) announced last week. “Riders are paying close to $1,000 a ticket, only to be fed yogurt and sandwiches?”  www.railwayage.com/news/twu-to-anderson-stop-these-cuts/

Coronado Teachers Organize for Students

With nearly two years and no progress in negotiations with district officials, teachers in Coronado are taking their organizing to the community to bring better teaching and learning conditions to their students.

The Association of Coronado Teachers (ACT) has ramped up organizational efforts at school board meetings, school sites and street rallies as Coronado Unified School District (CUSD) continues to compensate educators among the lowest in San Diego County.

For educators who cross the bay to teach on the peninsula, the Coronado Bridge continues to be a bridge to substandard pay. Parents and educators are committed to ending that. To happen, the district practice of holding 35% in reserves- over eleven times the state’s requirement for economic uncertainties- must be addressed.

As the support from the community and their students strengthens, so does teachers’ stance against this inequity. At the last CUSD board meeting, teachers, parents, students spoke on the behalf of educators and expressed their willingness to go above and beyond for the growth of Coronado students.  propubliced.com/2018/06/08/coronado-teachers-organize-for-students/

Irene!

Stand Up To Racism!

Violent racists draw 15,000 in London to support Tommy Robinson and scapegoat Muslims

Around 15,000 racist and far right activists gathered in Whitehall today to back jailed ex-English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

The event saw major clashes with the police and attempts to attack Stand Up To Racism and Unite Against Fascism activists who gathered to oppose the march.

Robinson’s supporters were seen sieg heiling (video here)

Robinsons support was international with the racist and fascist right mobilising in his defence.

Dutch Islamophobic politician Geert Wilders praised Robinson saying “Tommy Robinson is the greatest freedom fighter of Britain today, he says what no one dares to say. He has guts. He has courage…We are foreigners in our own land”.

A text message was received from leading US Alt right activist and former Trump chief of staff Steve Bannon said that “he will fight to get Tommy free”. Louis Aliot deputy leader of the fascist French National Rally (RN) also sent a message of support.  www.standuptoracism.org.uk/violent-racists-draw-15000-in-london-to-support-tommy-robinson-and-scapegoat-muslims/

The Little Red Schoolhouse

An Employee at Michigan State University Is Accused of Having Sex With a Bassett Hound

An employee at Michigan State University has been charged with bestiality and put on administrative leave after being accused of sexually penetrating a dog.

Health physicist Joseph Hattey, 51, is accused of using his penis and hand to enter a Bassett Hound, Fox News reports citing the attorney general’s office.

The animal, which was not owned by the school, is reportedly safe and in the custody of Ingham County Animal Control.

The episode happened sometime between Jan. 7, 2018 and March 8, 2018, but did not occur on campus.

The charge is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.  time.com/5301309/michigan-state-physicist-bestiality-dog/

MSU’s Strampel to stand trial on sex-related charges

After testimony from three victims and explicit photos admitted into evidence, an Ingham County judge on Tuesday bound Larry Nassar’s ex-boss over to Circuit Court to face trial.

 William Strampel, former dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, will be tried on charges that he used his position to harass, discriminate, proposition, intimidate and sexually assault female students.

“There has been misconduct in office,” said 54-B District Court Judge Richard D. Ball, who started off his ruling by binding over Strampel on a charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a high court misdemeanor. He also ordered Strampel to be tried for misconduct in office, a five-year felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Strampel also will be tried on two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty.

Afterward, he and his attorney, John Dakmak, declined to comment.  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/06/04/strampel-hearing-sex-related-charges-michigan-state/659827002/

Professors Decide Whether to Teach Summer Courses — for Cuts in Pay

When Amanda Klein, an associate professor in the English department at East Carolina University, decided to cancel her “Introduction to Film Studies” course, she was disappointed. It was her decision, but she didn’t feel she had much choice.

This summer, Klein said, she couldn’t afford to teach.

East Carolina has had an enrollment minimum for summer sessions for several years. If a course does not attract the required number of students, it is canceled. This year a new proportional-pay system on campus means that if a course does not reach the minimum enrollment, determined by administrators, it may still run but the salary for the professor teaching it will be reduced by a proportionate amount.

For Klein, that feels unfair: Her class came up five short of the 20-student requirement.

Her conflict goes beyond student enrollment, she said. She must now balance her feelings of responsibility to those 15 students who signed up, with the value of her own work.

Putting a price tag on academic labor isn’t simple, but as universities cut costs by curbing faculty members’ summer salaries, how to value their work is something faculty members across the country have to weigh before taking on summer teaching. And that task is getting increasingly difficult.  www.chronicle.com/article/Professors-Decide-Whether-to/243596?cid=wcontentlist_hp_latest

A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screens

Teachers, parents and policymakers certainly acknowledge the growing influence of technology and have responded in kind. We’ve seen more investment in classroom technologies, with students now equipped with school-issued iPads and access to e-textbooks.

In 2009, California passed a law requiring that all college textbooks be available in electronic form by 2020; in 2011, Florida lawmakers passed legislation requiring public schools to convert their textbooks to digital versions.

Given this trend, teachers, students, parents and policymakers might assume that students’ familiarity and preference for technology translates into better learning outcomes. But we’ve found that’s not necessarily true.

As researchers in learning and text comprehension, our recent work has focused on the differences between reading print and digital media. While new forms of classroom technology like digital textbooks are more accessible and portable, it would be wrong to assume that students will automatically be better served by digital reading simply because they prefer it.

Our work has revealed a significant discrepancy. Students said they preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their actual performance tended to suffer.

For example, from our review of research done since 1992, we found that students were able to better comprehend information in print for texts that were more than a page in length. This appears to be related to the disruptive effect that scrolling has on comprehension. We were also surprised to learn that few researchers tested different levels of comprehension or documented reading time in their studies of printed and digital texts.  www.businessinsider.com/students-learning-education-print-textbooks-screens-study-2017-10

A NYC Fight on Segregated Elite Schools

To the Editor:

In the winter of 1977, I sat down in the wooden chairs in the auditorium of the original Stuyvesant High School to take the entrance exam. I was a byproduct of an elite public school system in Birmingham, Mich. My two brothers, sister and I had just moved to New York City. I was incredibly nervous as I knew the results of this single exam could change my entire life.

Forty-one years later, I am still benefiting from my four years at Stuyvesant. Yet how could it be that in 2018, in a city with nearly 70 percent black and Hispanic students, only 10 percent of those accepted at the specialized high schools are black or Hispanic? This fact is unacceptable.

The chance to go to a specialized school should be open to a more eclectic group of students that better reflects the face of New York City. The entrance exam in its present form has failed to accomplish this feat and needs to be replaced.

I fully support Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan of diversifying all eight specialized schools that rely on the exam by instead choosing students based on their class rank and their state standardized test scores. This would help increase diversity. The plan would open the schools to a larger swath of students who may not have had the benefit of attending outstanding public or private elementary and junior high schools.

I disagree with those voicing their disapproval. It is past time to correct a blatant injustice in the process of who attends the elite public schools. As I experienced firsthand, the opportunity changes lives.

GREGORY JARRIN, WINSLOW, ARIZ.

The writer is a surgeon.

To the Editor:

Re “Plan to Diversify Elite High Schools Draws the Ire of Asian Groups” (news article, June 6):

Richard Carranza, the schools chancellor, says, “I just don’t buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admission to these schools.” Asians don’t “own” their admissions, nor do they claim to. No, Asian students achieve all those admissions with hard work and dedicated preparation for the test.

Some may not like the outcome of the test, but it is fair and it is objective. Other selection measures bring in subjectivity and personal bias to muddy the waters. The fact that there are some black and Latinos who score high and attend those schools shows that it can be done.

By the way, once admitted, students find a competitive atmosphere that will not suit every student. Getting in is just the beginning.

IVY HAMLIN, REGO PARK, QUEENS

The writer is the parent of students who attended specialized high schools.

More letters here: www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/opinion/specialized-high-schools-new-york.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-letters&action=click&contentCollection=letters&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

Decades Ago, New York Dug a Moat Around Its Specialized Schools

Seven Deadly Sins in Education: Greed

I stand corrected: the love of money is the root of all evil. And oh, how the testing companies and curriculum providers love them some money! By the way, if you haven’t noticed, they are one and the same.

Yep, when a school system is looking to adopt a new curriculum in a tested subject, they should look no further than the company that provides their state’s test. Does your state use PARCC? Then Pearson is the one for you.

Others are using a version of Smarter Balanced, for example, American Institutes of Research. Then the choice is McGraw-Hill.

Money! the fascination it holds on the human psyche. “Money is how we keep score,” said Betsy Devos.

How much money is involved? One estimate for New Jersey is $25.50 per child. In Washington state, it’s $30 per student. Other estimates run around $12 per test and students usually take two or more. Given an estimate of 50 million school-age children in the United States, the pot antes to $1.5 billion.

Wait a minute, you cry! Not all children take these tests. Depending upon the state, it’s grades 3 through 8, plus additional high school tests. True, but then there are AP exams, SAT, PSAT, ACT, exams that colleges are in increasing numbers deciding irrelevant to their admission process, but are marketed heavily to school systems. Millions for the College Board

Florida ditches low cost alternatives for pricey exams: Goodbye, PERT; Hello, PSAT.  grumpyoldteacher.com/2018/06/07/seven-deadly-sins-in-education-greed/?fb_action_ids=1792604384095443&fb_action_types=news.publishes

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Taliban operations span the entire country, Afghan Interior Ministry confirms

The Taliban is operating in all regions of Afghanistan and casualties among Afghan police have increased, according to the Ministry of Interior (MoI). The MoI statements confirm reporting by FDD’s Long War Journal and contradicts a recent press briefing by General John Nicholson, the outgoing commander of Resolute Support and US Forces- Afghanistan.

The Taliban has launched “military offensives on multiple fronts across the country” and security forces “are tackling insurgents as part of their preplanned operations in at least 14 provinces,” TOLONews reported based on statements made by the spokesman for the MoI.

“This year the activities of the enemy has increased compared to previous years. The number of our operations also indicates that this year the number of casualties unfortunately has also increased,” MoI spokesman Najib Danish said, according to TOLONews.

TOLONews claims that its sources within the Interior Ministry state that “currently on average 50 members of the security forces are being killed and wounded each day.”

Danish’s statement that the Taliban is operating in all areas of the country confirms a mid-May report by published by FDD’s Long War Journal. In that report, LWJ determined that the Taliban has targeted Afghan government forces in nearly all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, as the military focuses on the Taliban threat in Helmand and Kandahar. Additionally, LWJ reported, based on statements from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense, that the Taliban directly threaten seven provincial capitals.  www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/06/taliban-operations-span-the-entire-country-afghan-interior-ministry-confirms.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28FDD%27s+Long+War+Journal+Update

Charges at Marine unit include kidnapping, firearms, domestic abuse and more

The most senior Marine awaiting court-martial is Gunnery Sgt. Shawn C. Moulton, according to charge sheets released under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

A senior non-commissioned officer in Combat Logistics Battalion 7 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Moulton engaged in a forbidden relationship with a junior Marine for more than a year before it ended in September, prosecutors allege.

When he was ordered by his captain to stop the “unduly familiar relationship,” Moulton allegedly kept texting the Marine, according to the charge sheets.

“Personal relationships between staff non-commissioned officers and junior enlisted members that are unduly familiar and that do not respect differences in grade or rank are prohibited in the Marine Corps,” said 1st Lt. Adam Miller, the spokesman for 1st Marine Logistics Group, by email.

A motor transport operations chief from Florida with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Moulton’s decorations include two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, five Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, five Navy and Marine Corps Good Conduct Medals and the Combat Action Ribbon.

An 18-year veteran of the Corps, Moulton’s trial is slated to begin on Aug. 20.

Lance Cpl. Calixto Gonzalez Jr. pleaded guilty on May 31 after being charged with violating nine specifications of military law, including rape and burglary.

Assigned to Headquarters Regiment at Camp Pendleton’s 1st Marine Logistics Group, the Texan was charged with sexually assaulting two Marines on Sept. 8 and another on Nov. 10. At least one of the women was unconscious, according to his charge sheet.  www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-court-martial-20180609-story.html

One US special operations member killed, several wounded in attack in Somalia

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Detroit, Flint are the worst cities to live in, 24/7 Wall St. says

There’s no question Detroit has its shortcomings and struggles. And you expect to hear about them a lot when you come across lists such as this one.

24/7 Wall St. has unveiled its latest list of 50 Worst Cities to Live and, for the second consecutive year, the Motor City sits smack-dab at the top of the list.

The study cites a high poverty rate, declining population, a low median home value and a low percentage of bachelor’s degrees as key indicators.

“The poster child of American post-industrial urban decline, Detroit, Michigan, ranks as the worst city in the country to live in,” the study says. “Once home to 1.8 million residents at the peak of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1950s, the city is now home to fewer than 700,000 after decades of decline.

“A poor, economically depressed city, more than one in every three Detroit residents live below the poverty line. … Detroit is also dangerous. Along with Las Vegas, it is one of only two cities nationwide where there were over 2,000 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016.”

In the city of Detroit, the unemployment rate was 7.4% in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx7tF1Ov8Vs

But Detroit has company from another Michigan city at the top of the list: Flint, which comes in at No. 2, one spot higher than last year.

“Flint is second worst city to live in in both Michigan and the United States as a whole,” the study says. “Some 44.5% of Flint’s population lives below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in the country. Financial hardship in the city is precipitated in part by a lagging job market.

The city’s 9.8% unemployment rate is double the annual U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9%.

“The city may be an unattractive place for many employers and small business owners to operate in, both because of high crime rates and the relatively small college-educated population. Flint’s violent crime rate of 1,587 incidents per 100,000 people is more than triple the state violent crime rate. Also, only 10.5% of city residents have a bachelor’s degree, about a third of the 31.3% share of American adults.”  www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/06/05/worst-cities-live-detroit-michigan/672179002/

Spanos family could be worth almost $5 billion

Fallout from Supreme Court decision

By knocking down the federal ban on sports gambling, the Supreme Court basically left the decision to states. In California, a move would require a constitutional amendment, and one was submitted last year in anticipation of the high court’s decision. One assemblyman wants a vote on the topic in November, but others think the matter won’t be settled for a couple of years. Indian casinos may well get the business, but card rooms and live horse-racing tracks might want in on the action.

It’s difficult, then, to know the social effects since all the states (not including Utah) are likely to jump at the chance. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research firm, estimates that if the states go all-out (unfettered restriction) into sports gambling, annual revenues could hit $16 billion. If the betting is restricted, the total would be about $7.4 billion. The number of sports gamblers could hit 44 million under the gung-ho scenario. Therefore, tax collectors are drooling.  www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2018/jun/06/city-lights-spanos-family-worth-almost-5-billion/

A C

 A CHART THAT APPEARED IN THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW, MAY 1992

 The media tried to turn the Clinton story into Camelot II.
Just the truth would have made life easier for all of us.
And a much better tale as well.

Sam SmithCOPYRIGHT 1998 THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Updated January 2001 and periodically thereafter1960s   A federal investigation concludes that Hot Springs has the largest illegal gambling operations in the United States.

Clinton goes to Georgetown University where he finds a mentor in Professor Carroll Quigley. Quigley writes: “That the two political parties should represent opposed ideals and policies. . . is a foolish idea. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical . . .The policies that are vital and necessary for America are no longer subjects of significant disagreement, but are disputable only in detail, procedure, priority, or method. “

Bill Clinton, according to several agency sources interviewed by biographer Roger Morris, works as a CIA informer while briefly and erratically a Rhodes Scholar in England. Although without visible means of support, he travels around Europe and the Soviet Union, staying at the ritziest hotel in Moscow. During this period the US government is using well educated assets such as Clinton as part of Operation Chaos, a major attempt to break student resistance to the war and the draft. According to former White House FBI agent Gary Aldrich Clinton is told by Oxford officials that he is no longer welcome there.

Bill Clinton and his friend Jim McDougal get a job in the office of Senator J. William Fulbright. The Washington Post will later write, “McDougal was interested in making money while Clinton was obsessed with political stature.”

After becoming involved in politics, Wellesley graduate Hillary Rodham will order her senior thesis sealed from public view.    prorev.com/connex.htm

www.facebook.com/skynews/videos/1659591590722098/?t=21

 

Trump’s 2019 Budget Underestimated New Debt by $2.3 Trillion, CBO Says

 Remember President Trump’s 2019 budget — that big document released in February and then immediately dismissed or ignored? Well, a new analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the president’s proposal won’t rein in rising deficits like the White House claims.

• CBO estimates that, over the 10 years from 2019 to 2028, the Trump budget request would cut the deficit by $2.9 trillion compared to the current baseline. The White House estimated that the deficit reduction over that time would total $5.2 trillion.
• The White House had estimated that the deficit would be $450 billion in 2027 and $445 billion in 2028. CBO, by contrast, sees deficits of $965 billion and $1.1 trillion for those years under the Trump budget.
• In all, CBO says Trump’s budget would result in cumulative deficits of $9.5 trillion over the next decade compared to $7.2 trillion estimated by the White House.
• Under the president’s budget, federal debt held by the public would rise from about 78 percent of GDP this year to 86 percent in 2028. That’s lower than the 96 percent CBO projects in its current baseline, but higher than the 73 percent the White House had estimated.

The bottom line: The big differences between CBO’s numbers and those from the White House Office of Management and Budget are mostly the result of vastly different economic assumptions, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “OMB projects real GDP growth averaging 3 percent over the next decade while CBO’s projects an average of 1.8 percent. Largely as a result, CBO estimates $1.95 trillion less in revenue than OMB – which constitutes 85 percent of the total difference over 2019 to 2028.”  finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-2019-budget-underestimated-debt-222947063.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb

 

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason

ICE is sending 1,000 immigrant detainees to Victorville prison

Immigration officials are moving 1,000 detainees, including asylum seekers, to a medium-security federal prison building in Victorville, California.

In all, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has contracted with the Bureau of Prisons to house more than 1,600 detainees among five facilities in California, Washington, Texas, Oregon and Arizona.

A federal court in Mexico ordered the government on Monday to investigate the 2014 disappearances of 43 college students again, but this time under the supervision of a truth commission to be led by the nation’s top human rights body and parents of the victims.

The order came in response to legal motions filed by several defendants accused of taking part in the students’ violent abduction, which took place in September 2014 and quickly became an international scandal for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. The suspects accused the government of using torture to force confessions, an accusation that the United Nations also made in a recent report.

But rather than simply validate the allegations of torture, the three judges of the First Collegiate Tribunal of the 19th Circuit unanimously delivered a broad and sweeping indictment of the entire case, describing it as “neither prompt, effective, independent nor impartial.”

They accused the nation’s attorney general’s office of ignoring lines of evidence that contradicted its theory of the case, and they ordered the creation of a so-called truth commission to oversee the new investigation.  www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/americas/mexico-43-missing-students-investigation.html

In his role with the committee, Mr. Wolfe was responsible for safeguarding classified and other sensitive information shared with lawmakers. He stopped performing committee work in December and retired in May.

Court documents describe Mr. Wolfe’s communications with four reporters — including Ms. Watkins — using encrypted messaging applications. It appeared that the F.B.I. was investigating how Ms. Watkins learned that Russian spies in 2013 had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump foreign policy adviser. She published an article for BuzzFeed News on April 3, 2017, about the attempted recruitment of Mr. Page in which he confirmed the contacts.

F.B.I. agents initially approached Ms. Watkins about the relationship she had with Mr. Wolfe, saying they were investigating unauthorized leaks. The Justice Department told her in a letter sent in February that her records had been seized. The Times learned on Thursday of the letter, which came from the national security division of the United States attorney’s office in Washington.   www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/us/politics/times-reporter-phone-records-seized.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Snyder backs 80-hour-a-month work requirement for Medicaid users

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday endorsed an 80-hour-per-month work requirement for some Medicaid recipients, signaling his intent to sign a measure headed to his desk despite veto requests from opponents.

More than a half-million able-bodied adults on the Healthy Michigan expanded Medicaid plan would be required to work an average of 20 hours per week or risk losing coverage under the plan that won final approval in the state Senate.

GOP legislators have championed the plan as an economic stimulus that will help employers struggling to find workers to fill open jobs. Democrats decried it as an attempt to strip away health insurance from low-income residents.  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/06/07/michigan-senate-sends-medicaid-work-plan-snyder/680664002/

New Bipartisan Bill Could Give Any President the Power to Imprison U.S. Citizens in Military Detention Forever

One of the most outrageous acts of Barack Obama’s presidency was his failure to veto the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012.

The fiscal year 2012 NDAA included provisions that appeared to both codify and expand a power the executive branch had previously claimed to possess — namely, the power to hold individuals, including U.S. citizens, in military detention indefinitely — based on the Authorization to Use Military Force passed by Congress three days after 9/11.

The New York Times warned that the bill could “give future presidents the authority to throw American citizens into prison for life without charges or a trial.” Not surprisingly, Obama’s decision generated enormous outcry across the political spectrum, from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, on the right to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the left.

However, the NDAA did provide some weak restraints on the executive branch’s ability to use this power. In theory, the NDAA’s provisions only apply to someone involved with the 9/11 attacks or who “substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces.”

But now, incredibly enough, a bipartisan group of six lawmakers, led by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., is proposing a new AUMF that would greatly expand who the president can place in indefinite military detention, all in the name of restricting presidential power. If the Corker-Kaine bill becomes law as currently written, any president, including Donald Trump, could plausibly claim extraordinarily broad power to order the military to imprison any U.S. citizen, captured in America or not, and hold them without charges essentially forever.  theintercept.com/2018/05/01/ndaa-2018-aumf-detention/

Rod Blagojevich Op-Ed: I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics – WSJ–Not Lying

…Trump said he was “seriously thinking about” commuting the sentence of Blagojevich, who was once a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” while awaiting trial. He added that he was also considering a pardon for Martha Stewart, who was prosecuted by James Comey and convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to the government.

Trump told reporters Blagojevich had said something “stupid” but that it was similar to what other politicians have said. He called the 18-year sentence “really unfair.”

“Plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse,” Trump said. “And it doesn’t… he shouldn’t have been put in jail.”  www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/blagojevich-trump-commutation-pardon-sentence-484613521.html

Chilling and Surreal Propaganda Posters from the NSA Are Now Declassified and Put Online

“Omg wow this is rly cool and unique like I never knew the govermnet was wacthing me.”

So wrote an anonymous internet commenter on a Washington Post article about NSA mobile phone tracking, joking, or just emerging from a bunker somewhere off the grid. Everyone knows the government is watching or might be. Or at least we should since the infamous 2013 revelations about the massive scope of NSA domestic surveillance. Reports of domestic spying first appeared in 2005. In 2009, Alex Kingsbury at U.S. News and World Report described the Agency as “one of the most secretive fiefdoms inside the American government… probably familiar to most people only as the guys who may or may not be listening to your phone calls and reading your E-mails as they surveil terrorists.” (open culture online)

.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Jdso9RTH8

D-Day is example of America’s ‘strong relationship with German government’, Trump State Department spokeswoman says

‘You have six months to educate Heather Nauert on the history and significance of Pearl Harbor before she cites it as an example of strong US-Japan relations’ (video within) www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-d-day-america-germany-strong-relationship-state-department-spokeswoman-heather-nauert-a8387221.html

All you need to know about the G7 (6) Wapo

Solidarity for Never

Union Report: NEA Members Want More Say in How Union Decides Presidential Endorsements. But Leaders Are Refusing to Loosen Their Grip

The officers and elected representatives of the National Education Association are rarely at odds with one another on major issues. A conspicuous exception to the rule has been the recommendation of candidates for president of the United States and the union’s process for making that choice.

It seems an odd bone of contention, since NEA always endorses the Democratic candidate. Many national and state affiliate union representatives are delegates and superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention. Still, choosing among Democrats and deciding when to endorse the proper one has caused a lot of friction within the union.

The 2016 primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was the source of much internal anguish, prompting groups of NEA activists to propose sweeping changes to how the union makes its recommendations. The common element of these plans was to open up the endorsement process to larger groups of members. But it has been an uphill fight, and next month will determine whether the rank and file will get an increased say, or if the top echelon of NEA leaders maintains its hold.

The current system goes like this: NEA sends questionnaires to all announced candidates. The NEA president interviews all candidates who complete it. The NEA president then makes a recommendation to the union’s Political Action Committee Council, which consists of representatives from each state affiliate and internal caucus. If a majority concurs, the recommendation is presented to the NEA board of directors for a vote. A majority of at least 58 percent is needed from the board.

In a primary, that’s where the process ends. The chosen candidate can now receive funding and other resources from the union. In the general election, NEA’s annual representative assembly, comprising some 7,000 delegates, must also concur.

As you can see, the NEA president has an awful lot of control over the process. No one can be endorsed except the candidate he or she chooses.

Center, Lily Eskelsen, NEA boss at $500,000+ a year

This famously came into play during the 2008 Democratic primaries, which were fought down to the wire between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Then–NEA President Reg Weaver was an Obama supporter, but with a substantial number of Clinton supporters on the board, he couldn’t be sure of getting Obama the endorsement. Weaver didn’t recommend Clinton either. The union was frozen in place until Obama sewed up the nomination.

NEA didn’t want a repeat in 2016, so it greased the wheels for Hillary Clinton. The Wikileaks release of hacked emails to and from John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton campaign, demonstrated that the union’s leaders were coordinating their endorsement strategy for Clinton even before sending out questionnaires.

This didn’t go over well with the Sanders supporters within NEA, and the full-court press made others uneasy. Some wanted to wait at least until the primaries began in February 2016. Nonetheless, NEA pushed the endorsement of Clinton through the PAC Council and board of directors in October 2015.

Had Clinton become president, all this would have dissipated. But the election of Donald Trump reignited the fire under those who criticized the endorsement process. They proposed two measures at the 2017 NEA Representative Assembly.

One would have required the PAC Council to survey the general membership for their presidential preference. The second would have required NEA to hold an advisory vote for presidential preference by delegates at the representative assembly. Neither would have changed the union’s current decision-making procedure for presidential endorsements.

After debate on the floor, the items were referred to the PAC Council’s guidelines review committee. The committee made short work of both ideas, concluding they “would not benefit the recommendation process or member engagement” and that no further action would be taken.

Opponents of the status quo have one last Hail Mary to throw. They proposed a constitutional amendment that will be voted on by NEA delegates in Minneapolis next month. It adds to the list of functions of the representative assembly that it “recommend, endorse, or actively choose not to recommend or endorse a candidate for president of the United States during both the primary and general election process.”

A constitutional amendment has the advantage of being voted on by secret ballot, making it more difficult for NEA leaders to influence the outcome. But it requires a two-thirds majority to pass, and that will be a very high hurdle.

The NEA board of directors has already voted to oppose the amendment.

It should not come as a shock to anyone that the entities that currently control the endorsement process voted to maintain it exactly as it is. After the November 2016 election, I wrote:

“With the same people making the decisions, and the ability to amass vast war chests of political cash without organized opposition, there is no reason to expect the teachers unions to change course. Once the pain of this election subsides and they run up against the imperative of preparing for the next cycle, union officers will ultimately determine that they need to do the same thing as before, just on a larger scale.”

I criticize NEA for a lot of things, but never for unpredictability.  www.the74million.org/article/union-report-nea-members-want-more-say-in-how-union-decides-presidential-endorsements-but-leaders-are-refusing-to-loosen-their-grip/

Related–the wiki on how NEA bosses rigged the 2016 endorsement process www.the74million.org/article/analysis-how-nea-brass-made-sure-the-union-endorsed-clinton-even-if-it-didnt-want-to/

UAW-Chrysler training center (fancy resort)sues to recoup stolen money

The United Auto Workers-Chrysler National Training Center is suing two former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles officials and a UAW leader’s widow for nearly $4.4 million, charging it was the victim of a conspiracy.

The 20-page lawsuit, filed Friday in Oakland County Court, names former FCA labor negotiator Alphons Iacobelli and his wife, Susanne Iacobelli. It also names Monica Morgan-Holiefield, who is the widow of former UAW Vice President General Holiefield; and Jerome Durden, a former FCA controller and CFO of the National Training Center.

As part of the conspiracy, the training center’s suit alleges the FCA executives embezzled millions in company money and funneled illegal payments and benefits to UAW leaders through the training center. The intention, prosecutors have said, was to appease labor leaders and win contract concessions that favored FCA.

The lawsuit seeks $2.7 million from Alphons Iacobelli for his role in the embezzlement, $1.1 million from Susanne Iacobelli, $539,000 from Morgan-Holiefield, and $70,000 from Durden.

Iacobelli and Morgan-Holiefield have pleaded guilty to felonies related to embezzling money intended for worker training to enrich themselves. They bought everything from luxury vehicles to paying $75,000 for two Mont Blanc pens, the complaint said. The suit noted that more than $262,000 in training center funds were used to pay the balance of the mortgage on the Holiefields’ home.

General Motors had hired Iacobelli after FCA let him go in 2015, but terminated him last year.It is not clear that anything happened at GM’s and Ford’s UAW training programs on the scale of what the FBI says it found at FCA.  www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2018/06/08/uaw-training-center-sues-former-auto-executives/686110002/

The New Yorker Staff Has Unionized (desperate for new enemies)

The era of white-collar organized labor is fully upon us: the editorial staff of The New Yorker wants to unionize. This morning, organizers sent a letter to the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, asking that the institution and its corporate owner, Condé Nast, voluntarily recognize their membership in the NewsGuild of New York. (Publications ranging from the New York Times to Jacobin have bargaining units with the NewsGuild.) Organizers say that of the 115 or so union-eligible employees, nearly 90 percent have signed union cards.

The group includes copy editors, web producers, fact-checkers, photo and design staff, the social-media and publicity teams, editorial assistants, and assistant editors. Management and senior-level employees are excluded, as are staff writers, whose job title would not escape the red pen of the magazine’s fact department: Writers at The New Yorker are nearly all independent contractors, rather than staff, and thus do not receive health care or other benefits, despite being largely prevented from writing for other outlets. The relatively few editorial staffers who’ve expressed concerns with the unionizing effort say they are worried about retaliation in an industry where reputation is the coin of the realm.

Among the issues organizers cite are pay disparity among employees doing similar jobs, what they say are low wages compared to competitors, and no clear way in which raises are standardized or tied to measurable job performance.  nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/the-new-yorker-staff-wants-to-unionize.html

Part of Mandela’s scam: Corruption Gutted South Africa’s Tax Agency. Now the Nation Is Paying the Price.

As president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma managed to thwart scrutiny into his taxes, his family’s affairs and his allies’ finances with the help of the auditing firm KPMG, former officials say.CreditRajesh Jantilal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The nation’s tax chief steeled himself. Chiding and pleading with President Jacob Zuma to get him to file his taxes — much less pay the full amount — was always an excruciating task.

And it kept getting worse. One of the president’s sons, a nephew and countless business allies had serious tax problems as well, four former senior officials said, alarming investigators and leaving them wondering what to do.

South Africa’s young democracy had depended on the faith — and taxes — of its people since the end of apartheid, so the risks were evident. If the leader of the African National Congress, his relatives and his influential associates could dodge their tax duties, the rest of the country might shirk them, too, hollowing out the government’s ability to function at the most basic level.

The tax commissioner, Ivan Pillay, said he tried to be discreet, visiting the president several times from 2012 to 2014 to prod him to comply.

Nelson Mandela was run by the fake reds of the SACP

Spy versus Spy

Reminder:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAW7wGCPbj8

U.S. Diplomats Evacuated in China as Medical Mystery Grows

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvlUI58vlA

A crisis over a mysterious ailment sickening American diplomats and their families — which began in Cuba and recently appeared in China — has widened as the State Department evacuated at least two more Americans from China on Wednesday.

The Americans who were evacuated worked at the American Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou, and their colleagues and family members are being tested by a State Department medical team, officials said. It is unclear how many of them are exhibiting symptoms, but a State Department spokeswoman said Wednesday evening that “a number of individuals” had been sent to the United States for further testing.

For months, American officials have been worried that their diplomats have been subjected to targeted attacks involving odd sounds, leading to symptoms similar to those “following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury,” the State Department says.

The cases in China have broadened a medical mystery that started in 2016, when American Embassy employees and their family members began falling ill in Havana. In all, 24 of them were stricken with headaches, nausea, hearing loss, cognitive issues and other symptoms after saying they heard odd sounds. The issue has roiled relations with Cuba, which immediately fell under suspicion, and led the United States to expel Cuban diplomats.  www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/world/asia/china-guangzhou-consulate-sonic-attack.html

The Magical Mystery Tour

www.facebook.com/thejournal.ie/videos/1909617919058623/?t=3

These Women Survived Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. They’re Ready to Talk.

As 220 survivors of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries convened for a state-sponsored meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, strikingly similar pleas for the lost went up at their hotel.

Orders of Roman Catholic nuns ran the laundries for profit, and women and girls were put to work there, supposedly as a form of penance. The laundries were filled not only with “fallen women” — prostitutes, women who became pregnant out of marriage or as a result of sexual abuse and those who simply failed to conform — but also orphans and deserted or abused children.

“Their names were changed in the laundries, and it was often hard to talk, and they didn’t get the chance to really know each other there,” said Maeve O’Rourke, legal adviser for the Justice for Magdalenes Research  project. “So they’ve put up a notice board in the hotel, for people to put messages on, to try and trace people they knew in the laundries.”

youtu.be/FtxOePGgXPs

‘Christianity is not on trial’: baby custody case pits B.C. zealots against state

Couple refused legal aid, advising witnesses ‘it was their lawyer Jesus Christ asking the questions’

The couple spoke in tongues in court to a stuffed lion who they claimed was giving them direct counsel from God.

They rejected legal aid, preferring to advise witnesses “it was their lawyer Jesus Christ asking the questions through the voice of the parent.”

The battle was for custody of their baby — who the mother wants to rename Jesus JoyoftheLord.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/christianity-custody-child-religious-debate-1.4693154?cmp=rss

The question either infuriates or intrigues tens of millions of Americans: Did God play a role in the victory of Donald Trump? The debate will soon be presented in movie theaters across the country, as evangelical megaschool Liberty University is making and releasing a film called “The Trump Prophecy.”

The film, which will be released in 1,200 theaters this fall, is Liberty’s largest production to date, and it pairs the university with an independent Christian filmmaker who raised $1 million for the project — a sum its director says could double with postproduction and distribution costs.

Those who share Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr.’s belief that Trump is a “dream” president for evangelicals will probably make up a large part of the target audience — conservatives 55 and older.

But others — including many evangelicals — call the project anti-Christian for what they see as its implicit endorsement of a president who fosters attitudes and policies toward immigrants, minorities and the poor that they think contradict Jesus’ teaching to prioritize the marginalized. www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/05/31/did-trump-fulfill-a-divine-prophecy-what-to-expect-from-a-new-liberty-university-film/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.39ac1e524e3e

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Stormy Daniels’ friend rips Rudy Giuliani’s ‘hypocritical’ rant, notes President Trump himself appeared in softcore porn videos (ugh)

porn stars are pissed.

Rudy Giuliani oozes double standard, adult film actress Alana Evans said Thursday, blasting the former New York mayor as a “hypocrite” for claiming Stormy Daniels can’t be trusted because of her profession.

Evans said she was outraged when Giuliani on Wednesday claimed Daniels’ job makes her ineligible to “credibility of any weight.”

“It’s an insult to every sex worker, every adult film star, every woman who has ever gotten naked for a paycheck,” Evans told the Daily News.

Evans, a friend and vocal supporter of Daniels, pointed out the irony in Giuliani playing the purity card when Trump himself has appeared in three softcore Playboy videos with partially clothed women.

Evans also said Giuliani is either clueless or simply ignores Melania Trump’s moderately successful modeling career, which included posing naked with other women.

“His comments about Stormy are also an insult to Melania,” Evans said. “Her husband’s lawyer is humiliating her.”  www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/ny-news-stormy-friend-rudy-trump-pardon-kardashian-20180607-story.html

www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/videos/2118542561572120/

A great place to smuggle draft dodgers:

www.facebook.com/greg.schulz/videos/10153551027478683/

‘

If you are guilty because you binge watched the “Americans, salve your conscience by reading what was going on in the USSR while Phillip, Elizabeth, Page, Stan, et al.  were having their advantures

Then, for a quick and easy backgrounder, try this:

“Americans on FX and Netflix and Amazon www.fxnetworks.com/video/1197107267734

Insider image:

Sons of Russian spies battle for their birthright

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-wOYi4kkFo

Happier Ending:

 So Long

Ira Berlin Is Dead at 77; Groundbreaking Historian of Slavery

His masterpiece was “Many Thousands Gone,” Joshua D. Rothman, history department chairman at the University of Alabama, said by email. That book recounted the first two centuries of slavery in North America and stressed “how the institution varied and was experienced differently by enslaved people over time and across space,” Professor Rothman said.

“It’s impossible to finish that book and come away with the same stereotypes and preconceptions about slavery that you began it with,” he continued. “Yet even as Berlin centered the story on the struggles of people in bondage to make their own diverse worlds, he never let the reader lose sight of slavery’s fundamental cruelty. The level of difficulty in holding so much together in a coherent narrative is tremendous, and he managed it with elegant prose to boot.”  www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/obituaries/ira-berlin-groundbreaking-historian-of-slavery-dies-at-77.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrv9odqUvlw