We Say Fight Back!

DAYTON — Montgomery County Children Services workers’ strike began at 12:01 a.m. today.

Those on the picket line belong to the Professionals Guild of Ohio, which represents 272 Children Services employees who on July 8 filed a 10-day notice of an intent to strike.

The county and guild could not reach an agreement during a Thursday mediation session, said Jane Hay, president of the local PGO union council.

“Wages, it’s simply wages,” Hay said about why some case workers will picket. “We just want a fair wage.”

‘Beat the machine’: Amazon warehouse workers strike to protest inhumane conditions

Ahead of the strike, an effort had been made to decorate the fulfillment center in Shakopee for Prime Day. There were silvered balloons spelling out MSP1, the name of the warehouse, visible through the glass visitor’s window in the lobby, and walls of smiling Amazon boxes festooned with Prime Day banners. Also in the window: a large, smiling man in a blazer, some sort of security person, but it was hard to say because his ID tag was tucked out of sight in his armpit. Above the turnstiles was written: Work Hard. Have fun. Make History. That sign was permanent.

The week before, the Shakopee workers had announced their intention to strike on the first day of Prime Day, which this year lasts two days. It would be the first work stoppage at a US facility during a peak shopping time, the most ambitious in an escalating series of actions at the Shakopee fulfillment center.

Shortly before 2PM, when the day-shift workers planned to walk out, Hibaq Mohamed and several other workers came into the lobby. Twenty-six years old, Mohamed is originally from Somalia but emigrated to Kenya, then won a visa lottery to come to the US three years ago. Her first job in the country was at Amazon. At first she liked it, but the pace of work had increased to grueling levels, and more and more workers were getting fired for not keeping up.    www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20696154/amazon-prime-day-2019-strike-warehouse-workers-inhumane-conditions-the-rate-productivity

These Dramatic Pictures Show The Huge Protests Against The Puerto Rico Governor

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Puerto Rico in protest against Gov. Ricardo Rosselló following the leak of his misogynistic and anti-gay text messages.

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/puerto-rico-governor-protests-photos

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Report Sheds Light on Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie’s Salary, Expenses & Perks

A new report is shedding light on Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie’s expenses and is questioning whether taxpayers are wasting money on “unecessary travel, lobbying activities, perks” and his “super-sized” salary.

Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, outlined the numbers in a Forbes.com article published Wednesday calling Runcie “Florida’s $6 Million Man.” OpenTheBooks.Com is a nonprofit that discloses public employee salary records from every level of government in the U.S.

The report mentions Runcie’s trip to Washington, D.C. to attend March for Our Lives 37 days after the Parkland mass shooting, a trip to Indiana to tour what’s considered the “safest school in America,” and other taxpayer-paid travels in 2018.

All in all, Runcie spent 79 work days traveling, research from OpenTheBooks.com shows.

“I think it begs the question whether or not you’re in tune with the needs of your district,” Andrzejewski told NBC 6 through a video call.

It’s not just the travel, it’s Runcie’s salary, too. Andrzejewski estimates taxpayers will pay Runcie $6.1 million dollars for his services through the lifetime of his contract. The district defended its compensation, saying the superintendent earns less than his counterparts in neighboring Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.  www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Broward-Superintendent-Robert-Runcie-Salary-Travel-Expenses-Forbes-Report-512870461.html?fbclid=IwAR23zX53TPq4rTt-j3eGIKxdIMH1sWE-CsrEMFni2-pOsfdFwb27VuEALH4

Ex-Sweetwater schools employee gets house arrest, probation for embezzlement

A former employee of the Sweetwater Union High School District who siphoned more than $50,000 from the district was sentenced Wednesday to a year of house arrest, three years’ probation, and was ordered to repay the district.

The San Ysidro High School valedictorian whose graduation speech went viral — calling out a supposedly intoxicated teacher and absentee guidance counselor — was celebrated by some for offering a frank moment of truth instead of a litany of platitudes.

But how true was it?

A U-T Watchdog request under the California Public Records Act has found there may be very good explanations for faculty issues, an outcome that may provide one last lesson for the graduation class.

In a statement released Tuesday in response to the records request, Sweetwater Union High School District officials said the valedictorian’s allegations were based on rumors — not fact.   www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-07-18/accusations-in-viral-san-ysidro-high-valedictorian-speech-unfounded

University of California’s showdown with the biggest academic publisher aims to change scholarly publishing for good

This month, academic publisher Elsevier shuttered the University of California’s online access to current journal articles. It’s the latest move in the high stakes standoff between Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scholarly research, and the University of California, whose scholars produce about 10% of the nation’s research publications.

Last February, Elsevier chose to continue providing access to journals via its ScienceDirect online platform after UC’s subscription expired and negotiations broke down. With its instant access now cut off, the UC research community will learn firsthand what it’s like to rely on the open web and other means of accessing critical research.

The UC-Elsevier showdown made headlines because it’s symptomatic of the way the internet has failed to deliver on the promise to make knowledge easily accessible and shareable by anyone, anywhere in the world. It’s the latest in a succession of cracks in what is widely considered to be a failing system for sharing academic research. As the head of the research library at UC Davis, I see this development as a harbinger of a tectonic shift in how universities and their faculty share research, build reputations and preserve knowledge in the digital age.  theconversation.com/university-of-californias-showdown-with-the-biggest-academic-publisher-aims-to-change-scholarly-publishing-for-good-120323?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+July+17+2019+-+1361812789+test+section+headers&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+July+17+2019+-+1361812789+test+section+headers+CID_8369d26e85341f69cbc9ca67c205bb51&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=University+of+Californias+showdown+with+the+biggest+academic+publisher+aims+to+change+scholarly+publishing+for+good&fbclid=IwAR14ZljrSTH5QszGCp6FEiahIRjvP4I1kKWEHWsxp5FfM99g3DydUzu5-dc

Fresno trustee under fire for talk with cheerleaders says superintendent knew about meeting

Slatic is now facing a recall effort after parents and students say he arrived uninvited to cheer practice on July 11 and threatened to have students kicked off the cheer team or barred from attending cheer camp if they brought up the blackface incident.

And the school board has scheduled a special meeting for Thursday evening to discuss the issue.  www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article232744407.html#storylink=cpy

How many students cheated to get into USC? A look inside the admissions investigation

Shortly after federal authorities took down a national college admissions scam in March, officials at USC launched their own investigation with emails to dozens of students.

They did not mince words: The school wanted to know whether the 33 students had lied on their applications to USC. Some of the students understood what was happening because their parents had been charged in the federal case. Others were in the dark.

The reason for the emails would soon become clear to them all. They had been linked to William “Rick” Singer, the confessed leader of the admissions con, and they now faced expulsion, depending on what university investigators discovered.

USC officials told students that decisions would come within weeks, according to lawyers representing several of the students. But the probe has turned into a protracted, fraught push by USC to clear its ranks of any students who were complicit in the trickery Singer carried out to sneak them into the highly selective school. So far USC has ruled on only a few students — clearing each of them of wrongdoing — while the rest wait in limbo to learn whether they will be kicked out.   www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-admissions-usc-20190716-story.html

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Trump says U.S. warship destroyed Iranian drone

Why does America propose military escort coalition in the Persian Gulf ?

By Liang Fang

The US-Iran tension continues and their fight over the control of the Strait of Hormuz keeps escalating. General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his possible successor General Mark Milley both indicated recently that the US was working to put together a coalition with its allies to ensure “freedom of navigation” at the Strait of Hormuz and the Babel-Mandeb Strait in the Middle East. Iran, at the same time, is planning to charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz in return for its efforts to maintain security in the region.

Under the threats of America’s “military escorts” vs Iran’s “forced tolls”, the Strait of Hormuz has once again become a powder keg that worries the world 30 years later.

The US has three purposes by proposing the military escort coalition:

The first purpose is imposing a new round of extreme pressure on Iran. Holding up high the “America first” flag, the US has constantly slapped sanctions on other nations and put extreme pressure on a rival state like Iran. It began to completely block Iran’s oil export on May 2, which nonetheless didn’t fully break off even though it caused serious impacts on the Iranian economy. In response, Iran not only raised its uranium enrichment, but also tried to work with the EU to save the Iran nuclear deal, which made America’s sanctions much less effective. Under such circumstances, the US will definitely step up the pressure on Iran. The US and UK took advantages of the intricate oil tanker attacks and sent more troops to the Gulf, attempting to force Iran to knuckle under grave military pressure….

The third purpose is pushing an “Arab NATO in the Gulf” conception.   eng.chinamil.com.cn/view/2019-07/16/content_9559543.htm

The second purpose is turning the “sanction” issue into an issue of “freedom of navigat

As talks with the Taliban proceed, soldiers and police officers reflect on the pain of making peace with a deadly nemesis.

The war in Afghanistan has raged for nearly 18 years, cost billions of dollars, shattered countless families and consumed the administrations of three American presidents. But it has taken a particularly heavy toll on Afghan troops and police officers, 45,000 of whom have been killed in the past five years of fighting alone.

The fate of more than 35 million Afghans, including the 300,000 members of the Afghan security forces, could soon be decided over a negotiating table hundreds of miles away in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban and the United States are trying to reach an agreement to have Western troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

Members of the security forces have put their lives on the line for a government that many now think will concede too much to their enemies. Some observers believe the military has been so ineffective — plagued by corruption, prone to infiltration, and lacking in leadership — that the government has no choice but to cut a deal.

We talked to soldiers and police officers in seven provinces who spoke frankly about their leaders, the Taliban, the prospects for peace and the loss of comrades and loved ones  NYTimes 7/18/19

You often hear that in these polarized times, Republicans and Democrats are deadlocked on almost everything. But the real scandal is what both sides agree on. The best example of this might be the defense budget. Last week, the Democratic House, which Republicans say is filled with radicals, voted to appropriate $733 billion for 2020 defense spending. The Republicans are outraged because they — along with President Trump — want that number to be $750 billion. In other words, on the largest item of discretionary spending in the federal budget, accounting for more than half of the total, Democrats and Republicans are divided by 2.3 percent. That is the cancerous consensus in Washington today.

The United States’ defense budget is out of control, lacking strategic coherence, utterly mismanaged, ruinously wasteful and yet eternally expanding. Last year, after a quarter-century of resisting, the Pentagon finally subjected itself to an audit — which, in true Pentagon style, cost more than $400 million. Most of its agencies — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps — failed. “We never expected to pass,” admitted then- Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan…

Outside war zones, there are the usual examples of $14,000 toilet-seat lids, $1,280 cups (yes, cups) and $4.6 million for crab and lobster meals. Remember when then- Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted that the Pentagon had about as many people in military bandsas the State Department had active Foreign Service officers? Well, it’s still true today….www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/defense-spending-is-americas-cancerous-bipartisan-consensus/2019/07/18/783a9e1a-a978-11e9-9214-246e594de5d5_story.html?fbclid=IwAR0jWE70aa8PDjMIodkgyNG0HAr5uv89DwRLL-I1qKKR8v2_JAXvcA1uOtA&utm_term=.a5cd8264bcbf

American Commandos Gear Up for New Shadow War With Russia

Secretive, behind-the-lines mission rehearsals and other operations by 1,400 American and allied commandos to combat shifting Russian threats have laid bare a fundamental tension in the Trump administration: While the president courts Moscow, much of his government considers it an increasingly dangerous foe.

Just days before President Trump made light of Russia’s interference in American elections during a meeting last month with President Vladimir V. Putin, teams of Army Green Berets and Navy SEALs were practicing support missions for local resistance forces in Eastern Europe and the Baltics should they have to confront Russian commandos without insignia, the so-called little green men who helped Moscow seize Crimea in 2014.

Under a revamped Pentagon strategy to counter growing threats from Russia and China, American commandos are teaming up with partners on Europe’s eastern flank to thwart Russia’s so-called hybrid warfare, which allied officials say increasingly involves manipulating events using a mix of subterfuge, cyberattacks and information warfare. The threats hark back to Cold War-era intrigue, but so far are being fought with bytes and bandwidth, not bombs and bullets.   www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/us/politics/us-russia-hungary.html

AQAP responds to Al Jazeera documentary

Yemenis are dying from cholera, hunger and other ills because Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are not making good on funding pledges they made earlier this year, a top United Nations official warned on Thursday.

Mark Lowcock, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the UN Security Council while most of the 40 countries that made pledges in February had stumped up aid cash, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh were holding out.

“Those who made the largest pledges – Yemen’s neighbours in the coalition – have so far paid only a modest proportion of what they promised,” said Lowcock, referring to the coalition of the UAE, Saudi and others fighting in Yemen.

Governments promised a combined $2.6bn in February, including $500m each from mega-donors Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Without that cash from the Gulf powers, the “response plan is currently just 34 percent funded”, said Lowcock.

Cash shortfalls have left UN-backed aid teams unable to carry out vital work in Yemen, where fighting has forced millions from their homes and left 24.1 million – more than two-thirds of the population – in need of aid, said Lowcock.  www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/yemenis-die-uae-saudi-withhold-aid-funds-190718164718969.html

 

LAST WITNESSES
An Oral History of the Children of World War II

My grandmother, a former artillery commander in the Red Army and one of the liberators of Auschwitz, talked little about her military service in World War II. When my grandfather’s sister warned him that his bride-to-be was “a common war rag” he slapped her, earning my grandmother’s loyalty for a lifetime. Year after year, when my grandfather donned his medals and marched in the Victory Day parade, my grandmother, like many female veterans, chose to stay at home. Not until I came across “The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II,” by the Belorussian writer Svetlana Alexievich, did I begin to make sense of my grandmother’s complicated pride. “The men were the victors, the heroes; the grooms had made the war,” one of the book’s narrators recounts. “But they looked at us with other eyes. We know what you did there!” Before she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, Alexievich produced four more books of collective oral history, including “Zinky Boys,” “Voices From Chernobyl” and “Secondhand Time,” each in its own way breaking long silences around Soviet-era taboos.   www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/books/review/last-witnesses-svetlana-alexievich.html?te=1&nl=at-war&emc=edit_war_20190719?campaign_id=88&instance_id=10998&segment_id=15363&user_id=75336de5acb455a7a2aadc151b13d255&regi_id=85462422

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Big U.S. Banks Are Earning Billions. Trump’s Tax Cuts Are Helping.

Trump to Nominate Eugene Scalia for Labor Secretary Job

Pete Buttigieg hires former Goldman Sachs executive as national policy director

Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg has hired a former Goldman Sachs vice president and Google executive to run his policy shop, his campaign announced Thursday.

Sonal Shah, now executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, will be the campaign’s national policy director.

Shah worked at Goldman Sachs from 2004 to 2007 as a vice president, according to her LinkedIn page. She then worked for Google as its head of global development initiatives from 2007 to 2009.  www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/07/18/buttigieg-hires-former-goldman-sachs-executive-as-policy-director.html?fbclid=IwAR2dtLyEeirPMF9kUqNT06j1nnIm7ye10Sfby5kgGfEjIob0LG7ewGox79g

Lawsuit filed to stop California’s new wildfire liability law

Just one week after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a sweeping piece of legislation designed to change the way California’s utilities pay for damages resulting from wildfires ignited by their own equipment, a lawsuit was filed in federal court Friday looking to stop it in its tracks.

San Diego attorneys Michael Aguirre and Maria Severson filed the complaint on behalf of Northern California resident Gene Nelson, arguing Assembly Bill 1054 should be declared invalid on multiple grounds, including that its provisions violate the U.S..and California’s constitutions.

More specifically, the lawsuit characterizes AB 1054 as a “bailout” of the state’s big three investor-owned utilities that “as a practical matter, it is now nearly impossible for utility customers to prevent (a utility) from passing uninsured wildfire liabilities onto them.” The complaint asks the U.S. District Court in Northern California to issue an injunction to keep the state from implementing the new law.

The suit names the heads of a host of California agencies and the five voting members of the California Public Utilities Commission as defendants.  www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/energy-green/story/2019-07-19/lawsuit-filed-to-stop-californias-new-wildfire-liability-law

Shinola lays off about 30 employees in Detroit in ‘decision to restructure’

www.crainsdetroit.com/workforce/shinola-lays-about-30-employees-detroit-decision-restructure?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR0FpihyAGy-EElpjIpfyNfo9zj-fB5ZGhAaKg3yMwu76VvIVgCBa0OEZ3Y

Rand Paul slammed after blocking 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund

Late last week, the Democratic-led House voted 402 to 12 to ensure the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund doesn’t run out of money. The bill then went to the Republican-led Senate, where it was expected to pass without controversy.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the process hit an unexpected barrier.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday blocked a bipartisan bill that would ensure a victims’ compensation fund related to the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money.

Paul objected to a request by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to approve the bill by unanimous consent, which would fast-track approval.

Paul, R-Ky., questioned the bill’s 70-year time frame and said any new spending should be offset by corresponding cuts. The government already faces a $22 trillion debt, a figure that grows every year, Paul said.

It’s worth emphasizing that the bill, by congressional standards, isn’t expensive. As the Associated Press’ report added, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation would cost about $10.2 billion over the next decade, all of which go toward care for 9/11 first responders.

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

www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/eric-garner-no-federal-charges-jeff-sessions-andrew-barr-860362/

I first started hearing about federal agents in Staten Island about four years ago, roughly a year after the killing of Eric Garner. I was working on a book about the case called I Can’t Breathe. The streets were abuzz with rumors about G-Men showing up in the old Bay Street neighborhood where Garner had been choked to death, in July of 2014, by a New York City policeman.

The New York Times summarized what happened to Garner:

Bystanders filmed the arrest on their cellphones, recording Mr. Garner as he gasped “I can’t breathe,” and his death was one of several fatal encounters between black people and the police that catalyzed the national Black Lives Matter movement.

Through the years, there has been at least some expectation the federal government might step in and pursue civil rights charges in this case. That the FBI was even in Staten Island for a time suggested at least someone thought it was serious enough to investigate. Friends and family members alternated between belief and unbelief that a prosecution was coming.

That all ended this week, when word came by way of the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, Richard Donoghue, that charges were not forthcoming. Donoghue made the announcement a day before the fifth anniversary of Garner’s death.   www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/eric-garner-no-federal-charges-jeff-sessions-andrew-barr-860362/

Cities and counties are suing major drugstore chains and Walmart, contending they distributed billions of painkillers that devastated communities.

The Los Angeles Police Department ordered a confidential informant to monitor and record meetings held by a political group that staged protests against President Trump in 2017, a move that has drawn concern and consternation from civil rights advocates.

On four separate occasions in October 2017, the informant entered Echo Park United Methodist Church with a hidden recorder and captured audio of meetings held by the Los Angeles chapter of Refuse Fascism, a group that has organized a number of large-scale demonstrations against the Trump administration in major U.S. cities, according to court records reviewed by The Times.   www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-19/lapd-informant-recorded-trump-protesters

Security survey: 74% feel unsafe; Acapulco worst city for corruption

Almost three-quarters of Mexicans feel unsafe in the city in which they live, according to a new survey that also found that Acapulco is the worst city for police corruption.

Carried out by national statistics agency Inegi in the first half of June, the National Survey on Urban Public Security found that 73.9% of respondents consider their city unsafe.

The figure is slightly below those recorded by the same poll in March and June last year, when 74.6% and 75.9% of respondents said their city was unsafe.   mexiconewsdaily.com/news/security-survey-74-feel-unsafe/

Air Force NCO behind viral racist Facebook rant booted over ‘multitude of misconduct’

youtu.be/IX1vj7NLa4A

The Air Force has administratively separated the Nellis Air Force Base sergeant who was investigated for making racist comments about her subordinates in a video that went viral last year, Task & Purpose has learned.

Tech Sgt. Geraldine Lovely was recommended for separation by the Air Force Personnel Board on May 7, 2019 in response to “a multitude of misconduct” following an investigation into a Facebook video in which Lovely blasted lower-ranking “black females” in a profanity-laced tirade, according to an AFPB memo viewed by Task & Purpose.

But Lovely wasn’t just separated for her screed. The memo, signed by John Russo, deputy director of the Air Force Secretary’s Personnel Council, stated that Lovely was recommended for separation due to drug abuse and minor disciplinary infractions, including wrongful use of marijuana, assault, and unlawful entry.

In the video which sparked the investigation, which she initially live-streamed to a private Facebook group called “Nellis Burn Book” before it became public days later, Lovely said that she was trying to avoid starting a “fight club” to correct the attitudes of her subordinates.

“Why is it that every time I encounter my subordinates [who] are black females they have a giant [expletive] attitude?” Lovely said in the video. “And it’s not like I am coming to them with a [expletive] attitude. I don’t.”   taskandpurpose.com/air-force-racist-video-discharge?utm_source=Task+%26+Purpose+Daily&utm_campaign=c40fa000a1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_15_07_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_67edd998fe-c40fa000a1-76834115&mc_cid=c40fa000a1&mc_eid=7e099a64db

Solidarity for Never

Strikes get “silent treatment” at NEA convention, as candidates take center stage

By Nancy Hanover

The National Education Association (NEA) held its annual representative assembly July 4–7 in Houston with barely a mention of the largest teacher strike upsurge in 40 years. Instead, the union hosted a string of Democratic Party presidential candidates and passed a series of reactionary resolutions endorsing identity politics.

NEA President Lily Eskelsen García’s opening address briefly mentioned the strikes, but only as the basis for the Red4Ed election campaign which, she said, brought over 1,000 educators into “local, state and federal offices across the country.” The convention’s theme was gearing up for 2020 elections under the motto of “Our Democracy. Our Responsibility. Our Time!”

One new business initiative (NBI) brought up from the floor referred to the walkouts—that erupted outside of the control of the union to reverse decades of union-backed budget cuts and declining pay scales—and called for establishing a permanent fund to support strikers. Last year, a voluntary fund was established to cover up the fact that the NEA rarely provides strike pay. The fund netted only $910 in receipts. Registering their disagreement to the NBI from the floor, delegates voiced concern that a permanent fund would “encourage strikes.” Such fears sum up the reactionary anti-worker outlook of the NEA, which had $406 million in assets and paid García $414,824 last year. Unsurprisingly, the measure went down to defeat.

CTA raised $480,000 + to waste on electoral lies

www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/15/neaa-j15.html

Quisling Mandela’s Legacy: 2 South African Presidents Are Called to Account on Corruption

South Africans witnessed the extraordinary spectacle this week of having both the president and his predecessor publicly called to account on accusations of corruption — charges that are also escalating a power struggle within the long-governing African National Congress.

The leader of the country’s anticorruption agency said on Friday that the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had “deliberately misled” Parliament about the nature of a $36,000 donation to his campaign in 2017 from a logistics company at the center of a major corruption scandal.

The anticorruption agency leader, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, also said that Mr. Ramaphosa had violated the A.N.C. ethics code, which gave him 30 days to disclose his campaign funding in full. The president’s office answered on Friday that the accusation was “deficient both factually and in law,” and said that a formal response provided by Mr. Ramaphosa’s lawyers had not been given sufficient consideration.

The accusation against Mr. Ramaphosa came at the end of a week in which Jacob Zuma, his predecessor as president, was called to testify before a high-level inquiry into government corruption. On Friday, Mr. Zuma briefly withdrew from testifying, in a standoff that has reflected deep divisions within the A.N.C.    www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/world/africa/cyril-ramaphosa-corruption-inquiry.html

Spy versus Spy

Epstein the Spy: Manhattan and DC Brace for Impact

The Jeffrey Epstein case is an asteroid poised to strike the elite world in which he moved. No one can yet say precisely how large it is. But as the number of women who’ve accused the financier (at least, that’s what he claimed to be) of sexual assault grows to grotesque levels—there are said to be more than 50 women who are potential victims—a wave of panic is rippling through Manhattan, DC, and Palm Beach, as Epstein’s former friends and associates rush to distance themselves, while gossiping about who might be ensnared. Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, architect of the original 2007 non-prosecution agreement that let Epstein off with a wrist slap, has already been forced to resign.

The questions about Epstein are metastasizing much faster than they can be answered: Who knew what about Epstein’s alleged abuse? How, and from whom, did Epstein get his supposed $500 million fortune? Why did Acosta grant Epstein an outrageously lenient non-prosecution agreement? (And what does it mean that Acosta was reportedly told Epstein “belonged to intelligence”?) But among the most pressing queries is which other famous people might be exposed for committing sex crimes. “There were other business associates of Mr. Epstein’s who engaged in improper sexual misconduct at one or more of his homes.  www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-case-grows-more-grotesque

Did Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Work for Mossad?

The extent of Israeli spying directed against the United States is a huge story that is only rarely addressed in the mainstream media. The Jewish state regularly tops the list for ostensibly friendly countries that aggressively conduct espionage against the U.S. and Jewish American Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned in 1987 for spying for Israel, is now regarded as the most damaging spy in the history of the United States.

Last week I wrote about how Israeli spies operating more-or-less freely in the U.S. are rarely interfered with, much less arrested and prosecuted, because there is an unwillingness on the part of upper echelons of government to do so. I cited the case of Arnon Milchan, a billionaire Hollywood movie producer who had a secret life that included stealing restricted technology in the United States to enable development of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, something that was very much against U.S. interests. Milchan was involved in a number of other thefts as well as arms sales on behalf of the Jewish state, so much so that his work as a movie producer was actually reported to be less lucrative than his work as a spy and black-market arms merchant, for which he operated on a commission basis.

That Milchan has never been arrested by the United States government or even questioned about his illegal activity, which was well known to the authorities, is just one more manifestation of the effectiveness of Jewish power in Washington, but a far more compelling case involving possible espionage with major political manifestations has just re-surfaced. I am referring to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire Wall Street “financier” who has been arrested and charged with operating a “vast” network of underage girls for sex, operating out of his mansions in New York City and Florida as well as his private island in the Caribbean, referred to by visitors as “Orgy Island.” Among other high-value associates, it is claimed that Epstein was particularly close to Bill Clinton, who flew dozens of times on Epstein’s private 727.    www.unz.com/pgiraldi/did-pedophile-jeffrey-epstein-work-for-mossad/

 

The Magical Mystery Tour

Storied Russian Miniatures Dwindling in Face of Icon Revival

Once upon a time, the small, picturesque Russian village of Palekh gained fame far and wide for producing religious icons.

Then one day, a revolution came and its adherents, growling, “There is no god,” banned such art.

Hundreds of artists eventually learned to adorn lacquer boxes instead, painting scenes from Russian fairy tales or romanticized versions of country life.

These delicate miniatures made the village famous anew, especially after foreign collectors plunked down tens of thousands of dollars buying an art form considered uniquely Russian.   www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/world/europe/russia-icons-miniatures-art.html

 

In 44 States, Clergy Don’t Have to Tell Police When Someone Confesses to Child Sex Abuse

Under current Utah law, members of the clergy are not required to report confessions of child sex abuse. Utah State Rep. Angela Romero wants to change that.

Romero is drafting a bill that would require any religious leader in a position of authority to become a mandatory reporter—an individual required by law to notify authorities of any admissions of abuse. Teachers, coaches, doctors and others who work with children are often mandatory reporters. Failure to report can be considered a criminal offense.

In a statement on Facebook, Romero said the bill was not targeting any particular religious group, but was rather intended to protect children from harm.

“Too often cases of sexual abuse involving ecclesiastic leaders have been covered up and the victims are denied justice,” she wrote. “We already have laws that mandate reporting whenever anyone learns about abuse of a child or a vulnerable person. Ecclesiastic leaders need to be held to the same standard.”

If the measure passes, Utah would be one of only seven states that explicitly require priests, ministers, rabbis and other religious leaders to report confessions of child sex abuse to law enforcement.

“My concern is getting somebody off the street that shouldn’t be on the street, regardless of if they confessed to a clergy member or regardless if someone they know told a clergy member,” Romero told Fox 13. “Regardless of what that religious institution is, it needs to be investigated by law enforcement.”

In most states, clergy have ecclesiastical privilege,   www.snapnetwork.org/44_states_clergy_dont_tell_police_confesses_child_sex_abuse_jul19

Flint-area pastor accused of embezzling money from 91-year-old churchgoer

A Flint-area pastor is accused of embezzling money from a 91-year-old man to purchase a pontoon, a vehicle, and to take casino trips.

Raymond M. Vliet Jr., 55, of Flint has been arraigned on single counts of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult $20,000 or more but less than $50,000 and stealing or removing a financial transaction device.

Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell said the charges came after a loan officer at ELGA Credit Union became suspicious when Vliet attempted to take out a loan for a pontoon boat.  www.mlive.com/news/flint/2019/07/flint-area-pastor-accused-of-embezzling-money-from-91-year-old-churchgoer.html?utm_campaign=mlivedotcom_sf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0nUJOr4DdFEzQV6jDBjnkPElCfjmDAVQfPfraEtgJrNQKMzfn2D1kJa1g

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

 

More ‘possible graves’ found at Dozier School for Boys

A company doing pollution cleanup at the old Dozier School for Boys property in Marianna, 60 miles west of Tallahassee, has discovered 27 “anomalies” that could be possible graves

The winds of Hurricane Michael might have uncovered another clandestine burial ground inside a thick pine forest on the campus of Florida’s oldest reform school.

After clearing downed trees, a company doing pollution cleanup at the old Dozier School for Boys property in Marianna, 60 miles west of Tallahassee, has discovered 27 “anomalies” that could be possible graves about 165 yards outside the reform school’s Boot Hill cemetery.

Gov. Ron DeSantis directed Florida agencies to work with Jackson County officials “to develop a path forward,” according to an April 10 letter he sent to Jackson Commission Chairman Clint Pate, which was obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

The finding is shocking because forensic anthropologists have already turned up far more burials on school property than the state knew about.

Relying primarily on historical records, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded in 2009 that there were 31 burials in the cemetery. But anthropologists from the University of South Florida found an additional 24 graves — a total of 55 graves — and unearthed the remains of 51 individuals. The vast majority were boys who died in state custody, and they’ve since been returned to families or reburied in Tallahassee.

The brutal 1,400-acre reform school was open from 1900 to 2011, when the state shuttered it under mounting public pressure. The Tampa Bay Times and other newspapers reported at length on terrible, unceasing abuse and neglect of boys held at the school, and on a number of suspicious deaths.

The reports were driven by a group of old men calling themselves The White House Boys, so named for a small, white cinder-block building in which they were beaten bloody by guards with a weighted leather strap.  www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/2019/04/11/more-possible-graves-found-at-dozier-school-of-boys/

Derringer: Spending a hot holiday with Detroit’s slave-owning ancestors

July 4, Independence Day, dawned sunny and promised all the heat that comes with it. Somewhere in faraway Washington D.C., aides were sweating over a final draft of the president’s July 4 speech. Checking Wikipedia, inserting pronouncer guides for the tough words (“Cornwallis,” “Fallujah”) and crossing their fingers for a good delivery.

Here in Detroit, I took a different walk through American history – a literal one. “Enemies of Freedom: Monuments of Detroit’s Slaveowners” was a strolling tour of bronze statues and historic markers downtown workers pass by every day, usually without a glance. After a while, a man rendered in Colonial-era dress is just another thing for pigeons to poop on, after all; who cares what the Macomb family did to get a county named after them?

Jamon Jordan cares. The Macombs were “Michigan’s biggest slave holders,” he told the 30 or so people willing to stand under the broiling sun to learn a little local history. They owned Belle Isle and Grosse Ile, and they didn’t work their farmland by themselves. About 40 human beings, wholly owned by the family, worked with them.

It was a long, sweaty but ultimately very enlightening walk. www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/22776/derringer_spending_a_hot_holiday_with_detroit_s_slave-owning_ancestors?utm_source=Deadline+Detroit+Newsletter&utm_campaign=56d058a932-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_17_04_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4d2ad8703-56d058a932-73197837

So Long

Johnny Clegg, South African Singer Who Battled Apartheid With Music, Is Dead at 66