Rouge Forum Dispatch: The US Ruling Class is Worse than Jeffrey Epstein.
We Say Fight Back!
Orange County Fl teachers reject district’s new contract Four to One
Orange County teachers have voted to reject the new contracts offered by the district.
The proposed contract was rejected by a nearly four-to-one margin, a landslide victory for those teachers opposed to the contract. Now, it is back to the bargaining table for Orange County teachers and the school board.
Next year, the Department of Education predicts there will be 10,000 vacant teacher positions across the state.
“We might not have that many vacancies. But one is one too many,” said Wendy Doromal, president of the teacher union.
With 79 percent of the vote, teachers voted ‘no’ on the latest proposed contract that would have given teachers set raises.
But some teachers say the contract included hikes in health insurance costs and that would have canceled out the raise and even left some employees with less money than they made last year.
“Teachers are nickled and dimed,” said Doromal. “It’s not just that they have low wages. They’re expected to work for free. That’s not OK.”
This rejection marks the first time Orange County teachers have voted ‘no’ on a contract.
Now the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association will have to fight for a better deal with the school district. www.fox35orlando.com/news/mobile-app-news-feed/orange-county-teachers-reject-district-s-new-contract?fbclid=IwAR1lmeNP9tQvEDeQ-koGkZf9iwaIKdJtHzLHaDNN4tcOtTqtX3YQxAbkCG4
Toby Walsh, A.I. Expert, Is Racing to Stop the Killer Robots
Autonomous weapons, capable of acting without human oversight, are closer than we think, Dr. Walsh believes, and must be banned.
What was your argument?
That you can’t have machines deciding whether humans live or die. It crosses new territory. Machines don’t have our moral compass, our compassion and our emotions. Machines are not moral beings. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/science/autonomous-weapons-artificial-intelligence.html
A dazzling group portrait of Franz Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, and his circle of women scientists, who upended American notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the 1920s and 1930s–a sweeping chronicle of how our society began to question the basic ways we understand other cultures and ourselves.
At the end of the 19th century, everyone knew that people were defined by their race and sex and were fated by birth and biology to be more or less intelligent, able, nurturing, or warlike. But one rogue researcher looked at the data and decided everyone was wrong. Franz Boas was the very image of a mad scientist: a wild-haired immigrant with a thick German accent. By the 1920s he was also the foundational thinker and public face of a new school of thought at Columbia University called cultural anthropology. He proposed that cultures did not exist on a continuum from primitive to advanced. Instead, every society solves the same basic problems–from childrearing to how to live well–with its own set of rules, beliefs, and taboos. www.amazon.com/Gods-Upper-Air-Anthropologists-Reinvented/dp/0385542194
No pay, we stay’; Protesting miners in Harlan County are not going anywhere
HARLAN COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) – 3:15 p.m. Tuesday
People and organizations continued to stop by a railroad track in Cumberland Tuesday, bringing food and water to protesting miners. The miners have prevented a train hauling coal from the Cloverlick #3 mine for more than 24 hours.
One group among the endless stream of supporters came from JonEvan Jack’s in Corbin. They rolled their mobile kitchen to Harlan to feed the miners free of charge.
“I just seen these people and they need help. I know what it’s like to go without a paycheck,” said owner Nathan Brown. “I think they already know their community supports them. I seen a lot of people dropping off water and stuff and I think that’s really cool.”
Community members indicated that they will continue to help each other out as long as the miners are left in the dark.
“My family has mined these mines as long as I can remember, so the pride we have in each other when we’re in need in Eastern Kentucky. We step up and help each other,” said Brown.
A CSX spokesperson sent WYMT a statement on behalf of the rail company: www.wymt.com/content/news/Unpaid-miners-want-answers-as-train-carries-coal-away-from–513348141.html
Video shows Hong Kong protesters using lasers to disrupt government facial-recognition cameras
- A video shows Hong Kong protesters shining lasers into facial-recognition cameras in an apparent attempt to blind them.
- The video, broadcast by Hong Kong’s Now TV, shows people shining laser pens at cameras, Hong Kong police officers, and government buildings.
- Protesters have sought to remain anonymous by spray-painting and shining lasers at cameras inside the Chinese government office in Hong Kong, The New York Times reported.
- The concentrated light emitted by lasers can heat up and damage sensitive surfaces like camera sensors, the International Laser Display Association says.
- The protests, which started in early June over the territory’s relationship with mainland China, have raged for weeks and show no sign of easing. www.businessinsider.com/video-hong-kong-protesters-point-lasers-blind-facial-recognition-cameras-2019-8?r=US&IR=T&utm_content=buffer2d696&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-ti&fbclid=IwAR3sGnqdjfcIiLxZLcxl2y80b3G_L8uZQzLnA4jPjhshXirdXpx3cMlcLp8
Images de «Science fiction» à Hong Kong: les manifestants pointent des lasers sur la police pour empêcher la reconnaissance faciale du gouvernement chinois t.co/qkLdGbxl7n @aletweetsnews pic.twitter.com/zovVac5Y95
— L'important (@Limportant_fr) July 30, 2019
Hong Kong civil servants embarrass government with protest against extradition bill and determination to ‘stand together with citizens’
Hong Kong civil servants risked the wrath of their embarrassed employer on Friday night as they gathered for an unprecedented rally in the city’s business district and called on the embattled government to meet protesters’ demands over the raging extradition bill turmoil.
Flanked by thousands of ordinary Hongkongers, the government employees’ protest went ahead despite – just hours earlier – the city’s second-highest official, Mathew Cheung Kin-chung, urging those on the public payroll not to “do things in contrast with the government’s views”.
But those who turned up at the Chater Garden rally said they were undeterred and had joined the protest in their personal capacity and on their free time. www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3021276/hong-kong-civil-servants-embarrass-government-protest
Here’s what protesters were chanting at the start of the Democratic debate
Candidates weren’t 20 minutes into the debate when protesters interrupted their introductory remarks, their chanting “Fire Pantaleo!” causing U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey to halt his remarks.
The first up to speak in Wednesday’s debate, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio touted his record of decreased crime, free early childhood education and an increased minimum wage.
He took the first swipe at former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, criticizing them for plans that weren’t ambitious enough. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/31/man-removed-during-democratic-debate-detroit-leading-chant/1885063001/
Police: Protesters arrested for blocking Detroit-Windsor Tunnel
“There was a group of … people who were protesting (the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and deportations,” Craig said. “They were blocking incoming and outgoing traffic from Canada at the tunnel.
“They were warned three times they’d be arrested if they didn’t move; they said they weren’t leaving and submitted to arrest,” the top cop said. “They were all arrested without incident.”
Craig said 22 people — 11 men and 11 woman — were arrested and charged with failing to follow a police officer’s order, a misdemeanor.
The arrests happened about 5:30 p.m., a few hours before the second Democratic presidential debate at the Fox Theatre.
While about 20 protesters sat along Randolph Street, blocking the tunnel’s exit and backing up traffic, dozens more stood in front of the Old Mariners’ Church. Dozens of Detroit police officers directed traffic at the intersection of Jefferson and Randolph while coordinating the removal of the protesters.
Demonstrators near the church chanted “No Justice, No Peace, No (expletive) Police” and cheered as officers police arrested those blocking the tunnel exit. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/07/31/dozens-protesters-arrested-blocking-detroit-windsor-tunnel/1883200001/
Biden, Harris and Buttigieg rack up donations from big bank executives on Wall Street
Executives at Wall Street’s biggest banks have begun throwing financial support to their early favorites in the 2020 Democratic presidential field: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.
All three candidates combined to receive contributions during the second quarter from at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The donations represent just a fraction of the millions the candidates brought in during the three-month frame. Yet they provide clues about where these well-heeled donors could place their support as the campaign barrels toward the first voting contests of the season, which begin in February. www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/07/25/biden-harris-and-buttigieg-rack-up-donations-from-wall-street-executives.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR0EQRf9fmUO9UOU79RqE8tJfVxww1VBSIvcF9oWV5i0vNGY0wE9CECFqhk
and to round out the continued sock puppet show;
Dismissed! Judge throws out Democrat lawsuit against Trump campaign, Russia & WikiLeaks
The DNC sued in April 2018, claiming that the Trump campaign welcomed “help” from Russia and WikiLeaks, who stole and published the party’s emails in an effort to sway the US electorate during the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday, US District Judge John Koeltl disagreed.
The DNC “raises a number of connections and communications between the defendants and with people loosely connected to the Russian Federation, but at no point does the DNC allege any facts … to show that any of the defendants – other than the Russian Federation – participated in the theft of the DNC’s information,” Koeltl wrote in the 81-page opinion dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice.
There can be no liability for publishing materials of public interest under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, so long as those disseminating it “did not participate in any wrongdoing in obtaining the materials in the first place,” Koeltl wrote, explaining that the DNC offered no proof that either Trump campaign staff or WikiLeaks did so.
“The Witch Hunt Ends!” Trump tweeted celebrating the ruling, noting that Koeltl was “a highly respected judge who was appointed by President [Bill] Clinton.” www.rt.com/usa/465430-dnc-lawsuit-trump-russia-wikileaks/
Tom Waits releases anti-fascist folk ballad, his first new song in 2 years
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Cultural Logic: A Journal of Marxist Theory & Practice is Back!
Articles
California Wants to Teach Your Kids That Capitalism Is Racist (WSJ)
California’s Education Department has issued an “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” and is soliciting public comments on it until Aug. 15. The legislatively mandated guide is a resource for teachers who want to instruct their students in the field of “ethnic studies,” and was written by an advisory board of teachers, academics and bureaucrats. It’s as bad as you can imagine.
Ethnic studies is described in the document as “the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with an emphasis on experiences of people of color in the United States.” But that’s not all it is. “It is the study of intersectional and ancestral roots, coloniality, hegemony, and a dignified world where many worlds fit, for present and future generations.” It is the “xdisciplinary [sic], loving, and critical praxis of holistic humanity.”
The document is filled with fashionable academic jargon like “positionalities,” “hybridities,” “nepantlas” and “misogynoir.” It includes faddish social-science lingo like “cis-heteropatriarchy” that may make sense to radical university professors and activists but doesn’t mean much to the regular folks who send their children to California’s public schools. It is difficult to comprehend the depth and breadth of the ideological bias and misrepresentations without reading the whole curriculum—something few will want to do.
Begin with economics.
Capitalism is described as a “form of power and oppression,” alongside “patriarchy,” “racism,” “white supremacy” and “ableism.” Capitalism and capitalists appear as villains several times in the document. www.wsj.com/articles/california-wants-to-teach-your-kids-that-capitalism-is-racist-11564441342?fbclid=IwAR3o1PQVTYhXQqiefaTEM-4ngWLzcJBPvbFD3pZRQDc1qpyO9T1jhIZ8VX4
Need Extra Time on Tests? It Helps to Have Cash
Demand for disability accommodations for schoolwork and testing has swelled. But access to them is unequal and the process is vulnerable to abuse.
The boom began about five years ago, said Kathy Pelzer, a longtime high school counselor in an affluent part of Southern California. More students than ever were securing disability diagnoses, many seeking additional time on class work and tests.
A junior taking three or four Advanced Placement classes, who was stressed out and sleepless. A sophomore whose grades were slipping, causing his parents angst. Efforts to transfer the children to less difficult courses, Ms. Pelzer said, were often a nonstarter for their parents, who instead turned to private practitioners to see whether a diagnosis — of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, perhaps, or anxiety or depression — could explain the problem.
Such psychological assessments can cost thousands of dollars, and are often not covered by insurance. For some families, the ultimate goal was extra time — for classroom quizzes, essays, state achievement tests, A.P. exams and ultimately the SAT and ACT.
“You’ll get what you’re looking for if you pay the $10,000,” Ms. Pelzer said, citing the highest-priced evaluations. “It’s a complicated mess.” www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html
500,000 Children Could Lose Free School Meals Under Trump Administration Proposal
More than 500,000 children would lose automatic eligibility for free school meals under a rule proposed last week by the Agriculture Department intended to tighten access to food stamps.
The impact on school meals, revealed by Representative Robert C. Scott, Democrat of Virginia and the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, was not disclosed when the proposed food stamp rule was published last week. Agriculture officials said the new rule would close a loophole that they said allowed people with high incomes and accumulated assets to receive food stamps. The Agriculture Department said the proposal would cut off an estimated 3 million people from food stamps, a figure that critics said would include tens of thousands of working poor families.
But the department said nothing about children from those same households who would automatically lose eligibility for free meals at school. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/politics/free-school-meals-children-trump.html
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
INF nuclear treaty: US pulls out of Cold War-era pact with Russia
The US has formally withdrawn from a key nuclear treaty with Russia, raising fears of a new arms race.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
It banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km (310-3,400 miles).
But earlier this year the US and Nato accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow has denied.
The Americans said they had evidence that Russia had deployed a number of 9M729 missiles – known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation was then put to Washington’s Nato allies, which all backed the US claim.
“Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49198565
Wary of Trump’s Hard Line on Iran, Europeans Decline to Join Escorts in Gulf
BRUSSELS — With tensions rising with Iran, the United States and Britain have been shopping for European support to bolster patrols in the Persian Gulf around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage way for global oil supplies.
But so far the American requests for help to escort shipping in the Gulf have been met with silence or rejection, including a blunt “no” on Wednesday from Germany.
Nor have nations like France, Germany, Italy or Sweden yet responded favorably to Britain’s suggestion of a European escort force, separate from the Americans, even after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the gulf.
www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/world/europe/trump-iran-gulf-patrol.html
Navy’s top admiral steps in, assumes authority in Navy SEAL war crimes cases
Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, dismissed all charges against Navy SEAL Lt. Jacob X. Portier, who was set to face trial in September on charges related to the high-profile murder case of Special Operator 1st Class Edward R. Gallagher.
Richardson also ordered a full review of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps., (JAG) which is the judicial system for the military.
“Recent events indicate a need to review the leadership and performance of the (JAG) Corps,” Richardson said in a memo.
A Navy official, who asked to be anonymous because he is not authorized to comment on the case, told the Union-Tribune Thursday evening that Richardson also stripped San Diego-based Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar of her authority over the Gallagher case. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2019-08-01/navys-top-admiral-steps-in-drops-charges-against-navy-seal-charged-in-connection-with-high-profile-war-crimes-case
On Costliest U.S. Warship Ever, Navy Can’t Get Munitions on Deck
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Essentially, the ship can’t deploy,’ lawmaker Luria says
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Weapons can’t be lifted to the deck of USS Gerald R. Ford
Only two of 11 elevators needed to lift munitions to the deck of the U.S. Navy’s new $13 billion aircraft carrier have been installed, according to a Navy veteran who serves on a key House committee. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-30/flawed-elevators-on-13-billion-carrier-miss-another-deadline?cmpid=BBD073019_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190730&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
How many times has OBL’s son been killed so far?
Shocker! Declassified CIA Document Reveals Iraq War Had Zero Justification
The justification for going to war in Iraq thirteen years ago, was based on a 93-page classified document that allegedly contained “specific information” on former Iraqi leader President Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs he was apparently running.
Now that document has been declassified and it reveals that there was virtually zero justification for the Iraq war. The document reveals that there was “no operational tie between Saddam and al Qaeda” and no WMD programs.
The report reveals that the intelligence community and the US Department of Energy did not think Saddam was pursuing any type of WMD program, and was instead developing rocket motors.
Vice.com reports:
The CIA released a copy of the NIE in 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, but redacted virtually all of it, citing a threat to national security. Then last year, John Greenewald, who operates The Black Vault, a clearinghouse for declassified government documents, asked the CIA to take another look at the October 2002 NIE to determine whether additional portions of it could be declassified.
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAZy75RKb84
National debt tops $22 trillion for first time in U.S. history
Sears Retirees’ Life Insurance Payouts Could Be Just $135 Each
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Plan had provided death benefits of up to $14,500 for workers
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Estate says it doesn’t have enough money to pay premiums
Workers who retired after years of folding shirts and selling refrigerators for Sears Holdings Corp. banded together earlier this year to complain when the retailer’s bankrupt shell terminated their life insurance plan. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-30/sears-retirees-life-insurance-payouts-could-be-just-135-each?cmpid=BBD073019_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190730&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Beers, nostalgia and worry in Michigan as historic GM plant closes
Line workers rolled into the Motor City Sports Bar & Grill after their shift ended, clinking Budweiser bottles, playing billiards and trying to talk above a loud mix of rap and country music.
Workers at the nearby GM transmission plant come to this restaurant for lunch, happy hour or to get an early start on the weekend. But this was no typical Friday. For many of the workers, it was their final day at the 78-year-old plant.
“It was a little somber. It was a little bittersweet when the last transmission rolled out,” said Jack Arnold, 49, who has worked on the assembly line for more than two decades.
“Getting a job at GM 23 years ago, for me, it was like winning the lottery,” he said. “I was trying to start a family. It kept my now ex-wife at home to raise the children. I was able to buy a house. We went to Disney World — all of that.”
The closure of the plant — one of five GM factories being closed in North America by the end of 2019 — is upending hundreds of lives here.
The factories all make parts for or assemble passenger cars such as the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS that GM is discontinuing in response to changing consumer preferences. It’s part of a broader restructuring that is expected to provide the company $6 billion in cash flow by the end of next year.
But it also has political ramifications. The moves come about a decade after the company filed for bankruptcy and received a roughly $50-billion bailout from the U.S. government. The rescue effort saved large numbers of jobs, but taxpayers ultimately lost $11.2 billion. www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-07-27/democratic-debate-gm-factory-in-michigan-closes-workers-laid-off
GM Squeezed $118 Million From Its Ohio Workers, Then Shut The Plant
UAW agreed to cut skilled-trade jobs and use contractors
The union hall in Lordstown, Ohio, is a hive of confusion, anxiety and anger. Mostly anger.
Three weeks after employees at the town’s General Motors Co. compact car plant assembled their last Chevrolet Cruze, employees are filing into the United Auto Workers Local 1112 hall to sign up for unemployment benefits and try to figure out if they should take a transfer to another GM plant, or wait it out in the one factory most have ever worked and see if it survives.
Union workers are livid that they agreed to make $118 million a year in annual concessions to save the plant in mid 2017, only to have GM effectively threaten to close it down a year and a half later. Unless GM reverses its course, Lordstown will fall victim to the harsh reality that fewer consumers are buying small cars and that Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra is hyper focused on doing business only where GM can earn big returns. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-29/gm-brushed-off-union-concessions-before-idling-ohio-car-plant?fbclid=IwAR1QC-nfV4dAQ2cPJvROswrAv3RGXChIUcIsGqOvlxdhq_G30_M_7rDTLNs
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Mural of George Washington seen as racist and set to be destroyed draws a crowd (Slides)
More than 100 people filled the lobby of a San Francisco high school on Thursday to see a mural of George Washington that has been ordered destroyed because its depiction of slaves and the subjugation of Native American is deemed by some to be racist.
The San Francisco United School District allowed the public inside George Washington High School to see the 13-panel, 1,600-square work “Life of Washington,” which the school board voted on June 25 to paint over.
The massive mural shows Washington at various points in his life, with images of slaves working at his Mount Vernon home and a dead Native American killed in America’s westward expansion. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/allegedly-racist-george-washington-mural-set-be-destroyed-draws-crowd-n1038641?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR2nxZB73Nn_3r60igZXKCKa6BHhLxh21o01W4FMKBlWiPkuVYQgN1SWh5g&fbclid=IwAR0yCr7zGmtVzsqPRqyu8FWT-2DYweWMARzb8ReR1B5EXs_5OWi2hDxDg4A
A Political 100-Year Flood
Trump’s Venom Against the Media, Immigrants, “Traitors,” and More Is Nothing New
By Adam HochschildAlong rivers prone to overflowing, people sometimes talk of preparing for a 100-year flood — a dangerous surge of muddy, debris-filled water so overwhelming it appears only once a century.
In our political world, we are now seeing a 100-year flood of toxic debris. The sludge washing ashore includes President Trump’s continuing cries of “fake news!” and “traitors”; his rage at immigrants and refugees; his touting of an “invasion” at the southern border; and his recent round of attacks on “the squad,” four young congresswomen of color who, he raged, should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” (Three of them, of course, were born in the United States.) When he talked about the fourth, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a legal immigrant from Somalia, the inflamed crowd at his July 17th reelection rally in North Carolina began spontaneously chanting, “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!”
Donald Trump, of course, has a long history of disliking people of color, going back to the days when he and his father tried to keep them out of their New York real estate dynasty’s apartment buildings. Presidents, however, usually find it politic to keep such feelings under wraps. Nonetheless, Trump’s particular brand of xenophobia, racism, and media hatred isn’t completely unprecedented. The last time we had a similar outpouring from Washington was almost exactly 100 years ago and it, too, involved a flood of angry rhetoric and a fear of immigrants — and it included repression on an enormous scale.
Fear of Immigrants, 1917 Version
The 100-year flood I’m thinking of lasted for three violent years during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson — from early 1917 to early 1920. www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176592/tomgram%3A_adam_hochschild%2C_america%27s_real_war/
Newly released tape reveals Ronald Reagan using racist language: ‘Those monkeys from those African countries’
- When Ronald Reagan was governor of California he made racist comments in a 1971 phone call with President Richard Nixon.
- Reagan was angry at African delegates in the UN for siding against the US in a vote to recognize the People’s Republic of China, and he described them as “monkeys.”
- “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Reagan said. www.businessinsider.com/ronald-reagan-uses-racist-language-against-africans-in-released-tape-2019-7?fbclid=IwAR28O6pnjQc293cYQViGAiJwpCgVWKDLh-gkN6spUnD6taIbeaAAGlrwG4Y
“Those who are against fascism without being against capitalism, who lament over the barbarism that comes out of fascism, are like those who wish to eat their veal without slaughtering the calf. They are willing to eat the calf, but they dislike the sight of blood. They are easily satisfied if the butcher washes his hands before weighing the meat. They are not against the property relations which engender barbarism; they are only against the barbarism itself. They raise their voices against barbarism, and they do so in countries where precisely the same property relations prevail, but where the butchers wash their hands before weighing the meat.” – Bertolt Brecht, Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties, 1935
Solidarity for Never
Disgraced UAW boss’ life of luxury revealed ahead of sentencing
Former United Auto Workers Vice President Norwood Jewell betrayed blue-collar workers by pocketing tens of thousands of dollars in illegal payments from Fiat Chrysler executives so he could live like a “big shot” and “fat cat,” federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
As proof, prosecutors revealed photos of the glamorous vacation spots and valuable gifts Jewell received from Fiat Chrysler executives trying to tilt labor negotiations in the automaker’s favor.
Prosecutors used the photos and tough words Tuesday to try to convince a federal judge to send Jewell to prison for 15 months. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman will sentence Jewell on Aug. 5.
Jewell was one beneficiary of a broader plan by Fiat Chrysler executives to keep UAW leaders “fat, dumb and happy” and wring concessions favoring the automaker, according to the government.
For example, Jewell was in Palm Springs for two UAW/Fiat Chrysler conferences in early 2016. The conferences lasted a total of seven days but Jewell used the villa for two months. Fiat Chrysler spent almost $9,000 for the villa. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/chrysler/2019/07/30/uaw-boss-norwood-jewell-faces-sentencing-fiat-chrysler-scandal/1865283001/
California Teachers Association loses thousands of members after faculty association decides to ‘disaffiliate’
Ending a decades-long connection, the association representing California State University faculty has severed its ties with the California Teachers Association, resulting in a significant loss in membership for the state’s largest teachers union.
In a little noticed move, the board of the California Faculty Association voted in late May to “disaffiliate” from the CTA. The association, whose members include faculty, part-time lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches on the 23 CSU campuses, is an affiliate of the CTA, which means that its members can be CTA members as well.
The CTA wields considerable clout educationally and politically the state. Defying predictions that the Janus ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago would eviscerate public employee unions by limiting the fees they could collect, the CTA says it has added new members, as have many other unions across the country. The CTA anticipates that some 22,000 new members it says it has recruited over the past year will offset the approximately 19,000 CSU staff the CTA says belonged to both the faculty association and the CTA. The CTA says its overall membership will remain around 325,000. edsource.org/2019/california-teachers-association-loses-thousands-of-members-after-faculty-association-decides-to-disaffiliate/615683
Spy versus Spy
Trump Adds to Sanctions on Russia Over Skripals
President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on Russia, responding to growing pressure from Congress to further punish Moscow after a nerve agent attack last year against a former Russian spy in Britain.
It is the second round of sanctions by the administration after a botched attempt in March 2018 to fatally poison a former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, in the British town of Salisbury.
The attack put Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, into a coma, and sickened at least three others. One of them, a British woman named Dawn Sturgess, died.
American and European intelligence officials accused Russia of staging the attack. Moscow has denied any involvement. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/us/politics/russia-sanctions-executive-order.html
The Magical Mystery Tour
Three priests added to list of ‘credibly accused’ molesters with San Diego ties
Two of the accused, the Revs. John Dennis Mitchell and Edward Augustine Sheehy, are dead. A third, the Rev. Donald G. Timone, worked in San Diego County in 2018.
Revelations made Thursday in Manhattan sent ripples across the nation: three of the 310 priests from the Archdiocese of New York “credibly accused” of molesting children had worked or lived in San Diego.
In one case, the abuse reportedly happened in San Diego.
“It’s time for the truth to be known,” said Jeff Anderson, founder of the law firm that issued this report. “The full truth, not the half truth.”
Investigators from Jeff Anderson & Associates, a Minnesota firm that specializes in sexual abuse cases, scoured public records for months, unearthing reports of perpetrators who had been publicly accused of molesting minors.
In February, the firm released 112 names.
In April, the archdiocese responded with 120.
That number was soon eclipsed, and investigators continue to work.
“How many more are out there?” Anderson asked.
While all the clerics named Thursday spent the bulk of their careers in New York, three had San Diego ties: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/story/2019-08-01/three-priests-added-to-list-of-credibly-accused-molesters-with-san-diego-ties
The Nuns Who Bought and Sold Human Beings
America’s nuns are beginning to confront their ties to slavery, but it’s still a long road to repentance.
Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, one of the oldest Roman Catholic girls’ schools in the nation, has long celebrated the vision and generosity of its founders: a determined band of Catholic nuns who championed free education for the poor in the early 1800s.
The sisters, who established an elite academy in Washington, D.C., also ran “a Saturday school, free to any young girl who wished to learn — including slaves, at a time when public schools were almost nonexistent and teaching slaves to read was illegal,” according to an official history posted for several years on the school’s website.
But when a newly hired school archivist and historian started digging in the convent’s records a few years ago, she found no evidence that the nuns had taught enslaved children to read or write. Instead, she found records that documented a darker side of the order’s history. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/opinion/sunday/nuns-slavery.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Barbarism Rising: Which one is Scum?
Jeffrey Epstein’s gal G. Maxwell at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
Alan Dershowitz, Devil’s Advocate
The noted lawyer’s long, controversial career—and the accusations against him. Toss in a long aside about Epstein
…the next segment began, with images of several controversial Dershowitz clients: Claus von Bülow, O. J. Simpson, Mike Tyson. The lineup included Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy money manager who had been accused of sexually abusing underage girls. Starting in 2005, investigators had traced a sex-trafficking operation that extended from mansions in New York and Palm Beach to a Caribbean island, Little St. James, that Epstein owned. As charges became public, press accounts enumerated his famous acquaintances—including Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Kevin Spacey—and described trips to the island on his plane, the so-called Lolita Express. Despite sworn accounts from more than a dozen women, Dershowitz and his team secured a deal in which Epstein pleaded guilty to minor charges and served only a brief sentence. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/alan-dershowitz-devils-advocate
5 Surprising Details From That ‘New Yorker’ Alan Dershowitz Profile
- He once advocated for lowering the age of consent to 15. He wrote a 1997 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times advocating for the lowering of the age of consent to 14 or 15. He tweeted Monday reaffirming his “constitutional” support for that argument, which sparked a big reaction.
- Dershowitz’s alibi for Epstein-related allegations comes under fire. Virginia Giuffre alleges she had sex with Dershowitz multiple times between 2000 and 2002, which Dershowitz categorically denies. The proof he gave the New Yorker—a series of travel records—showed that “every day had been accounted for, and in most cases there was documentation.” Some of those days, however, were noted only with handwritten entries, like “New York.” As the article noted, Dershowitz lived in New York from September 2000 to June 2001, when Giuffre frequented Epstein’s Manhattan mansion. www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/07/30/5-surprising-details-from-that-new-yorker-alan-dershowitz-profile/#1a994c51300e
“It’s Going to Be Staggering, the Amount of Names”: As the Jeffrey Epstein Case Grows More Grotesque, 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. We do know that,” www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-case-grows-more-grotesque
Giraldi: Did Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Work for Mossad?
Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi writes that the affair has ‘all the hallmarks of a major espionage case, possibly tied to Israel… the filming procedure smacks of a sophisticated intelligence service compiling material to blackmail prominent politicians and other public figures…’ Prosecutor Acosta said: ‘I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence’ israelpalestinenews.org/giraldi-did-pedophile-jeffrey-epstein-work-for-mossad/
Jeffrey Epstein Allegedly ‘Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA’ by Impregnating Multiple Women
Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein wanted to spread his DNA across the human race by impregnating nearly two dozen women at his New Mexico ranch, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Anonymous sources told the outlet that the wealthy financier had spoke about his plan to a number of prominent figures within the science community; however, the Times points out there is no evidence that Epstein ever followed through with the idea. Insiders said the scheme stemmed from Epstein’s bizarre fascination with transhumanism, an interdisciplinary science that aims to enhance the human race through modern technologies, like genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Many have criticized “transhumanism” as a modern-day version of eugenics, a discredited scientific movement that aimed to improve the population through controlled breeding. www.complex.com/life/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-alleged-eugenics-fascination-detailed-by-sources
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Jeffrey Epstein case: The ‘open secret’ at Royal Palm High
At least 15 students were lured with offers of cash to Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.
Tucked in the drawer of Jeffrey Epstein’s bedroom desk, near a massage table and a wooden armoire filled with sex toys, was a teenage girl’s Royal Palm Beach High School transcript.
She was 16 years old when Epstein lured her to his Palm Beach home set at the end of a dead-end street behind a wall of hedges.
And she’s one of at least 15 girls from Royal Palm Beach High School who Epstein sexually exploited in that bedroom 15 years ago, police reports reveal.
Epstein, a multimillionaire financier then in his 50s, lured a procession of girls as young as 14 to his home to perform nude massages for money, police and court records say. The massages often ended with Epstein groping or sexually assaulting the girls.
Epstein’s victims attended several Palm Beach County schools, including Lake Worth Middle and Palm Beach Gardens High.
But Royal Palm Beach High, with about 3,000 students, many from the county’s rural reaches, was ground zero.
Evidence suggests Epstein knew his victims were school girls and the signs didn’t escape Royal Palm Beach High administrators. The girls endured teasing and classmates called them “prostitutes.” After two girls fought, an administrator found one of them had $300 in her purse. www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190726/jeffrey-epstein-case-open-secret-at-royal-palm-high?educationgroup&fbclid=IwAR3CK8TZ5R3XUilRlN1pxbm2YS8hM0ajuqM3fVFz5wKriprtOU9EO8EjTTA
So Long
Vivian Gussin Paley, renowned early education researcher and Laboratory Schools teacher, 1929–2019
Vivian Gussin Paley was a keen observer of young children, defining in her work a key tenet of how they should negotiate relationships in class and on the playground—that no child should tell another: “You can’t play with us.”
A renowned educator and researcher of early childhood education who spent most of her career at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Paley died July 26 at the age of 90.
Paley, PhB’47, who spent most of her nearly four decades teaching at Lab, wrote 13 books about children based on her experiences in the classroom. Paley was Lab’s most prominent example of teachers who contribute to academic scholarship in the area of education.
In 1989 Paley received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her special contributions to education, which included developing a “story playing” technique that helps teachers understand how children’s natural interest in fantasy can be used to help them learn. Stories, which students can tell or act out, play a central role in children’s growth, she contended. In particular, Paley was interested in issues of fairness and the ways in which students understand the concept.
Among themselves, children tell and act out fantasies to describe their feelings and ideas, she wrote. ”We call it play. But it forms the primary culture in the classroom. Fantasy and storytelling are the abstract thinking of the young, carrying a deeper sense of reality than could any form of adult thoughts,” she explained. news.uchicago.edu/story/vivian-gussin-paley-renowned-early-education-researcher-and-lab-teacher-1929-2019