Rouge Forum Dispatch: Comrades Twenty Five Years! And ON!
We Say Fight Back!
I Participate, You Participate, We Participate…”: Notes on Building a K-16 Movement for Democracy and Social Justice (The Dispatch has gone on, in one form or another, ever since)
Abstract
Prevailing educational practices are guided by educational policies, such as No Child Left Behind Act, that reflect the same obstacles to achieving education for democracy and social justice as identified by John Dewey early in 20th century—namely the powerful alliance of class privilege with philosophies of education that sharply divide mind and body, theory and practice, culture and utility.
There is no “one best system” for organizing people to act for positive change, such as creating schools and universities where pedagogy is democratic, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and empowering.
The Rouge Forum is one among many groups of committed activists who are contributing to the construction of a K-16 movement for progressive change in education and society and it is our hope that by sharing our experiences in building a grassroots organization that our comrades in this struggle might learn something that advances the movement as a whole and that we might, in turn, learn from them. doi.org/10.14288/workplace.v0i10.184644
The Prop. 187 rebellion inside the L.A. Times newsroom
It was one of the Los Angeles Times’ most controversial editorials.
In the fall of 1994, California was being torn apart by Proposition 187, the ballot measure that would bar immigrants in California illegally from receiving many public services. The Times Editorial Board strongly opposed Prop. 187, calling it misguided and wrong.
But in that same election, The Times decided to endorse Gov. Pete Wilson for reelection. Wilson was a leading supporter of Prop. 187 and had used illegal immigration as a central campaign issue. “All things considered, Pete Wilson is a leader who deserves a second term as governor,” The Times wrote.
The decision sparked a rebellion in The Times’ newsroom, led by senior editor Frank del Olmo. Many in the newsroom felt the conflicting editorial positions were hypocritical. www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-08/rebellion-inside-los-angeles-times-proposition-187-pete-wilson
“There’s but two sides to this world: them that work and them that don’t,” the union organizer Joe Kenehan says to the hardscrabble coal miners of West Virginia in Matewan, the indie-film hero John Sayles’ vivid, warm portrait of the events that touched off the great West Virginia “coal war” of 1920. Released in 1987, Matewan was frankly leftist in its politics, portraying the union as an u nalloyed good in a town being exploited by greedy coal barons and menaced by company thugs. But it’s also a thoughtful exploration of how difficult it can be for workers of different races and backgrounds to find solidarity. INTERVIEW WITH JOHN SAYLES portside.org/2019-11-05/interview-john-sayles-if-they-can-do-it-busting-union-theyll-do-it
Instead of a Generational Culture War, Let’s Fight the Rich
“Ok billionaire” is a better rallying cry than “ok boomer.”
Generations are pretty bogus. The labels we use to casually slice up society — boomer, millennial, Gen X, Gen Z — are a nearly useless way of thinking about politics, culture or business in America. The very idea that tens of millions of people across different classes and races and geographies might hold similar views on a range of subjects just because they happened to be born during the same 20-year span of American history — the whole thing sounds a bit too much like astrology, doesn’t it?
In fact, demographers, whose profession came up with these labels, constantly stress the limitations and complications of generational analysis. Generations can be useful for observing broad-scale changes in attitudes over long periods of time, but they break down into clichés and stereotypes when they are used to make specific observations about the world. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/opinion/ok-boomer-billionaire.html
Left is the New Right, or Why Marx Matters
The American obsession with electoral politics is odd in that ‘the people’ have so little say in electoral outcomes and that the outcomes only dance around the edges of most people’s lives. It isn’t so much that the actions of elected leaders are inconsequential as that other factors— economic, historical, structural and institutional, do more to determine ‘politics.’ To use an agrarian metaphor, it’s as if the miller was put forward as determining the harvest.
The American left has had an outsider role in this politics from the inception of the nation as a capitalist oligarchy to the improbable cobbling together of the idea that popular democracy can exist alongside concentrated wealth. If the powers that be wanted popular democracy, they could stop impeding its creation. The ‘first mover’ advantage, that once gained, power is used to close the door behind it, has be understood for centuries in the realms of commerce and politics.
As was probably the intent, the 2016 presidential outcome was used by the more persistent powers to divide the American left. Counterpunch 11/9/19
‘Green Book’ sites in Detroit and throughout Michigan on display at MSU
When Walter Davenport came up from Georgia 66 years ago, he said the situation for black residents in Metro Detroit reminded him of what he thought he had left behind.
“I left segregated Georgia,” Davenport said. “I was 19. To my surprise, it was almost as segregated here as it was in Georgia.
“I noticed when I started at Chrysler, there were jobs that I couldn’t get,” said the 85-year-old deacon, one of the founders of the Mt. Hebron Missionary Baptist Church, just over the Ferndale city line.
“After the riot, you know, things opened up. Michigan, it was better than Georgia, but not that much.”
In those days, “The Negro Motorists’ Green Book,” a guide to traveling amid segregation from 1936 to 1966, listed dozens of businesses in Detroit and around the state where black visitors could sleep, eat, shop, get a haircut and clothes cleaned in safety and comfort.
They are all part of an exhibition on display at the MSU Library in East Lansing. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/11/06/green-book-sites-black-travelers-detroit-michigan-state/3998486002/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHuU5eZCIzM
Below, the Story of Tunnel 29
www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/Od4dL9Lip2/tunnel_29
The Little Red Schoolhouse
SDSU Suspends 14 (racist “Aztec”) Fraternities After Suspected Hazing Leaves Student Hospitalized
San Diego State University on Friday suspended the activities of 14 fraternities after a student was hospitalized following a suspected hazing event.
Campus police were called to Tenocha Hall in the 6100 block of Montezuma Road Thursday morning regarding a student in need of medical attention, according university police.
The hospitalized student was reportedly a freshman Phi Gamma Delta pledge who suffered a medical emergency at a fraternity event.
The university responded to the incident by suspending the Interfraterity Council and all 14 of its member fraternities until further notice.
“Given the severity of this incident, and as the safety and well-being of students is a primary concern of the university, SDSU President Adela de la Torre has suspended the Interfraternity Council and all chapter organizations under the council,” according to a statement from the school.
The suspension affected as many as 1,400 students, but not the majority of fraternities and sororities. There are 46 recognized Greek organizations on the campus. timesofsandiego.com/education/2019/11/08/sdsu-suspends-14-fraternities-after-suspected-hazing-leaves-student-hospitalized/
California Teachers Build a ‘Nest’ for Migrant Kids at the Border
Classical music plays, silk curtains blow in the wind and comfy couches offer a place to curl up with a book. There are wooden toys, colorful magnetic blocks, and crayons organized by color in glass jars. Children use light projectors to make patterns and shapes on the walls.
It may sound like a high-end early childhood education center in California, but this is Tijuana.
The students and their parents have fled violence in Central America, or other parts of Mexico, and are waiting for their asylum applications to the U.S. to be processed.
A California woman opened this school, the Nest, in September. It’s the first one of its kind attached to a migrant shelter in the Mexican border town.
They welcome children 6 and under, and give them a chance to spend time away from the crowded shelter across the street — and to just be kids.
“This isn’t a Band-Aid solution,” said founder Alise Shafer Ivey, a veteran early childhood director from Santa Monica. “This isn’t sweetening the day of a child who might be stuck on a mattress in a shelter. Of course we’re sweetening the day of that child, but it’s so much more than that. This is about really setting a trajectory that will have an impact.” www.kqed.org/news/11782393/california-teachers-build-a-nest-for-migrant-kids-at-the-border?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20191103MindShiftNewsletterSubscribers&mc_key=00Q1Y00001msmAiUAI&fbclid=IwAR24JKuX1EpliNHA5jC_BMwywUAlkR76kl6BYtnGqAZDTs5dyuo5JFfHck8
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Is too much screen time affecting young kids’ brain development? Here’s what parents should know
Screen time is associated with lower attention spans in preschoolers who spend two hours daily vs. 30 minutes in front of a screen, found an April study out of Canada. Right before that, a study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics found a significant association between the use of smartphones and tablets and expressive speech delays in 18-month-old children.
Yet another study, this one published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that 2- and 3-year-olds with higher levels of screen time perform particularly poorly on developmental screening tests at 3 and 5 years old.
And now the latest findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics, have revealed that the brains of prekindergarten children who spend more than an hour per day of screen time without parental interaction are associated with underdeveloped areas (called white matter) that control language and self-regulation.
The study, conducted by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, looked at the brains of 47 children between the ages of 3 and 5, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cognitive testing. The authors found that the children, along with having lower levels of brain development, also had lower scores on language and literacy measures. www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/is-too-much-screen-time-affecting-young-kids-brain-development-heres-what-parents-should-know-221340722.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=fb
Army Recruitment Now Based on Student Debt (The Education Agenda is a War Agenda)
The U.S. Army wants a 500,000 active-duty force by the end of this next decade, about 25,000 more than today. And preying on low income high schoolers is apparently how they intend to do it.
This past month the Army announced that they have already surpassed their recruitment goals for 2019–with three months still to go. That a big change from recent years’ where unsuccessful recruiting outcomes have been the norm. So what changed?
Recruiters are no longer using patriotism as their main marketing strategy. And wars in the Middle East are not on the talking points either.
Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, head of Army Recruiting Command, stated this past month that discussion of the endless wars and their potential outcomes “was not really part of the discussion” recruiters are having with high schoolers. Today, recruiters have found a new niche to meet their 2019 goals: the national student debt crisis.
“One of the national crises right now is student loans, so $31,000 is [about] the average,” Muth told reporters at the Pentagon. “You can get out [of the Army] after four years, 100 percent paid for state college anywhere in the United States.” portside.org/2019-11-04/army-recruitment-now-based-student-debt
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Twenty Veterans Take Their Own Lives Every Day.
Watching My Students Turn Into Soldiers of Empire
A New Generation of West Pointers Joins America’s Hopeless Wars
By Danny SjursenPatches, pins, medals, and badges are the visible signs of an exclusive military culture, a silent language by which soldiers and officers judge each other’s experiences, accomplishments, and general worth. In July 2001, when I first walked through the gate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at the ripe young age of 17, the “combat patch” on one’s right shoulder — evidence of a deployment with a specific unit — had more resonance than colorful medals like Ranger badges reflecting specific skills. Back then, before the 9/11 attacks ushered in a series of revenge wars “on terror,” the vast majority of officers stationed at West Point didn’t boast a right shoulder patch. Those who did were mostly veterans of modest combat in the first Gulf War of 1990-1991. Nonetheless, even those officers were regarded by the likes of me as gods. After all, they’d seen “the elephant.”
We young cadets arrived then with far different expectations about Army life and our futures, ones that would prove incompatible with the realities of military service in a post-9/11 world. When my mother — as was mandatory for a 17-year-old — put her signature on my future Army career, I imagined a life of fancy uniforms; tough masculine training; and maybe, at worst, some photo opportunities during a safe, “peace-keeping” deployment in a place like Kosovo.
Sure, the U.S. was then quietly starving hundreds of thousands of children with a crippling sanctions regime against autocrat Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, occasionally lobbing cruise missiles at “terrorist” encampments here or there, and garrisoning much of the globe. Still, the life of a conventional Army officer in the late 1990s did fit pretty closely with my high-school fantasies. www.tomdispatch.com/post/176626/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_inauspicious_futures_in_the_u.s._army/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
www.facebook.com/ThePaulaProject/videos/10213561399805180/?t=103
For 53 Million Americans in Low-Wage Jobs, a Difficult Road Out
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44% of 18-64 year-olds earn less than two-thirds median pay
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Brookings: 52% chance lowest earners stay in same pay bracket
Unemployment is hovering near a five-decade low, workforce participation is at the highest level in six years and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently called the labor market “strong.” Yet, 44% of Americans age 18 to 64 are low-wage workers, according to a Brookings Institution report.
An estimated 53 million Americans are earning low wages, according to the study. Their median wage is $10.22 an hour and their annual pay is $17,950.
While many are benefiting from high demand for labor, the data indicated that not all new jobs are good, high-paying positions. The definition of “low-wage” differs from place to place. The authors define low-wage workers as those who earn less than two-thirds of the median wage fofull-time workers, adjusted for the regional cost of living.
“We have the largest and longest expansion and job growth in modern history,” Marcela Escobari, co-author of the report, said in a phone interview. That expansion “is showing up in very different ways to half of the worker population that finds itself unable to move.”
The millions of Americans in low-wage jobs are likely to stay there. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-07/53-million-in-u-s-have-low-wage-jobs-they-ll-likely-stay-there?cmpid=BBD110719_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=191107&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Flint’s Children Suffer in Class After Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water
The city’s schools, stretched even before the lead crisis, are struggling with demands for individualized education programs and behavioral interventions for children with high lead exposure.
Nakiya Wakes could not understand how her wiry, toothy-grinned 6-year-old had gone from hyperactive one school year to what teachers described as hysterical the next. Then, in 2015, the state of Michigan delivered a diagnosis of sorts: Ms. Wakes’s neighborhood’s water — which her son, Jaylon, had been drinking and bathing in for more than a year — was saturated with lead, at some of the highest levels in the city.
Jaylon would cycle through two schools, receive 30 suspensions and rack up 70 unexcused absences. In one of Ms. Wakes’s clashes with Flint Community Schools, she delivered administrators a warning: “You can’t keep suspending him because soon, you’re going to have to suspend the whole school system.”
Five years after Michigan switched Flint’s water supply to the contaminated Flint River from Lake Huron, the city’s lead crisis has migrated from its homes to its schools, where neurological and behavioral problems — real or feared — among are threatening to overwhelm the education system.
Stock Market Hits Another Record High, As Recession Fears Ease
The stock market reached yet another milestone on Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its first new record high since July, with the index boosted by continued optimism around a U.S.-China trade deal, solid economic data and strong performances from heavyweight stocks like Apple.
- The Dow’s new benchmark comes on the heels of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index both hitting record highs last week—and again on Monday, after a flurry of good trade, economic and corporate earnings news.
- Much of the market’s optimism, unsurprisingly, comes from trade progress: China said last Friday that it had in principle reached a consensus with U.S. negotiators, and on Sunday U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said that American firms would “very shortly” be granted licenses to sell to Chinese tech giant Huawei.Recent economic data has also helped spark the market-wide rally: Jobs data for October came in better than expected (128,000 new jobs vs. 90,000 forecast) and consumer spending has remained strong. www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2019/11/04/stock-market-hits-another-record-high-as-recession-fears-ease/#a9a7880c038d
Kmart to close last 2 stores in its hometown
Stores in Waterford and Warren will be shuttered as another 96 Sears and Kmart locations have been targeted for closure, according to a Thursday announcement by Transform Holdco LLC, which formed in February to acquire the assets of Sears Holdings Corp.
The Kmart store in Waterford and the Sears store in Lansing are set to close by February with liquidation sales starting in December. The Warren location will close in late December or early January, Transform Holdco spokesman Larry Costello said.
Classic image of Rouge’s Bill Boyer in Detroit School Ruin
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and
The War on Reason
The Persistent Influence of Trump’s “Shadow Adviser” Erik Prince
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration approached Blackwater founder and Trump shadow adviser Erik Prince about potentially buying a Ukrainian aerospace company that the U.S. government wants to prevent the Chinese government from acquiring. “Motor Sich is a leading maker of helicopter and airplane engines and the U.S. wants to scuttle its pending sale to a group of Chinese companies to keep Beijing from acquiring vital defense technology,” according to the report. “A U.S. government official sought out Mr. Prince in Washington earlier this year. Mr. Prince expressed interest in Motor Sich, as long as the company remained a Ukrainian entity and he could receive its client list, the U.S. official said.” Prince is an interesting choice if the White House wanted to prevent China from acquiring the firm. Prince’s latest venture, Frontier Services Group, is a Hong Kong-based company and largely controlled by the Chinese government’s powerful investment arm. theintercept.com/2019/11/05/erik-prince-trump-ukraine-china/
Mormon Family Massacre Stuns Mexico, Laying Bare Government’s Helplessness
When the gunfire on a rural roadway finally stopped, six children and three women were dead.
The women and their children were taking a drive along a familiar rural road in northern Mexico when the gunmen attacked, riddling the three-car convoy with bullets.
One woman was shot at close range in the chest. One child was shot in the back. Several others — among them 6-month-old twins — were burned beyond recognition when one of the vehicles caught fire.
When the shooting stopped, six children and three women were dead, all members of the LeBarón family, dual Mexican and American citizens who have lived for decades in a fundamentalist Mormon community near the border.
“When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that’s in this world, it’s just hard to cope with that,” Kenny LeBarón, a cousin of the women who were killed, said in a telephone interview.
But coming closely on the heels of two other prominent episodes of violence, the ambush horrified a nation reeling from a record-high number of murders. And it added to the pressure on Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to fulfill the promise he made when he took office nearly a year ago: that he would curb the killings.
Mr. López Obrador seems to be struggling to fashion a coherent response.
In mid-October, at least 13 police officers were killed in the state of Michoacán in an ambush stemming from a struggle between rival criminal groups….
On Tuesday, FECKLESS Mr. López Obrador rejected rising criticism that his government is merely improvising against organized crime groups, and struck a defiant tone over his approach.
“You can’t fight violence with more violence,” Mr. López Obrador said at a news conference. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/world/americas/mexico-mormons-killed.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Solidarity for Never
Former UAW leader and GM director Ashton charged in fraud, money laundering conspiracies
Ashton, who retired in 2014 and was appointed as the union’s representative on the board of General Motors Co., was charged three months after The Detroit News identified him as the the unnamed union official accused in a federal criminal complaint of demanding $550,000 in kickbacks and bribes from vendors.
In return, a list of vendors that included Ashton’s personal chiropractor, received contracts to produce more than $15.8 million worth of union-branded trinkets, including backpacks, jackets and commemorative watches.
The criminal allegations mark a sharp fall for a powerful union leader who resigned from the GM board two years ago after The News revealed he was under investigation aimed at rooting out corruption within the U.S. auto industry and one of the nation’s largest and most powerful unions.
The criminal case also ends a period of prolonged uncertainty for Ashton, and leaves two big targets of the federal investigation: UAW President Gary Jones and retired President Dennis Williams. Jones, who is on paid leave, and Williams are accused of participating in a conspiracy that embezzled more than $1.5 million from the UAW. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/11/06/uaw-leader-joe-ashton-charged-fraud-money-laundering-conspiracies/4175530002/
GM UAW workers ponder the point of the strike in light of Ford’s deal
General Motors hourly workers Mike Yakim and Sean Crawford are lucky.
They each work at a GM factory pretty much guaranteed to keep building vehicles over the next four years. That’s considered by union members to be job security.
Still, both men said they now think that the six-week strike against GM was not worth it in the end.
“I lost six weeks of pay and it didn’t accomplish its goal, product allocation being a goal,” said Yakim. He works at GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant, where he transferred after GM shuttered Lordstown Assembly in Ohio. He had hoped, during bargaining, the union would win new product to restart Lordstown.
“The allocation of products was tremendously important and we didn’t get it,” said Yakim, who lives in an apartment near Lansing. His family still lives in Lordstown. “That was the ‘no’ vote right there. We don’t have any guarantees.” www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/11/06/gm-strike-worth-it-uaw-ford/4155669002/
Feds hint at secret recordings in UAW investigation
United Auto Workers President Gary Jones is stepping aside amid mounting pressure from federal corruption investigators armed with evidence that includes bank records, cooperation from top labor leaders and what court records suggest are secret recordings, The Detroit News has learned.
The apparent recordings were revealed by the government Thursday when prosecutors charged UAW official Edward Nick Robinson, a close Jones associate. Two days later, the UAW announced that Jones, who has not been charged with wrongdoing, is taking paid leave from a post that pays more than $200,000.
In federal documents, Robinson and Jones are accused of embezzling as much as $700,000 in member dues and splitting the money, part of what prosecutors called a broader conspiracy that involves stealing an additional $1.5 million in member dues spent on personal luxuries during conferences in California and Missouri.
In charging Robinson, 72, of St. Louis, Missouri, with conspiracy to embezzle union funds and conspiracy to defraud the United States, prosecutors provided an unprecedented view of evidence gathered during a four-year investigation. The Robinson criminal case includes references to what legal experts describe as undercover recordings capturing Jones and others discussing possible crimes. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/11/04/feds-evidence-corruption-case-uaw-president-gary-jones/4121938002/
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Chicago teachers denounce union’s sellout agreement as Bernie Sanders, Democrats claim “victory”
After the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shut down the powerful 11-day strike of more than 25,000 teachers last week, the Democratic Party and the media have rushed to celebrate the strike’s end and the sellout tentative agreement as a huge “victory.”
Despite the official celebration, the CTU’s tentative agreement for a five-year contract entirely accepts the terms set by Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Opposition to the contract among teachers was widespread as soon as the CTU announced the deal. “Those 10 days were a waste! CTU played us as pawns,” said Michelle on the CTU’s Facebook page. “The rank-and-file doesn’t want this!” added Veronica. Kim said, “They sold us out!” Another teacher, Elizabeth, added, “Horrible contract!”
Chicago teachers fought a bitter battle in one of the longest strikes in three decades, but the CTU and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) prevented the strike from developing into a direct conflict with the Democratic Party, which controls Chicago.
Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders began the victory lap for the CTU’s sabotage of the strike, according to the Chicago Tribune.
After CTU President Jesse Sharkey ended the strike following his meeting with Lightfoot in City Hall, Sanders called him to praise the union’s sellout. “I just called to congratulate you and the union,” Sanders told Sharkey, “on what looked to me like a very significant victory at a time of having a major funding crisis and staffing crisis in public education. You guys have won a victory that will not only be for Chicago but be for the whole country. So very proud of what you have accomplished. Look forward to working with you in the future.”
The tentative agreement is no victory for teachers in Chicago or across the country as Sanders proclaims. The deal is in fact virtually indistinguishable from the proposals made by Lightfoot prior to the strike. www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/05/chic-n05.html
Below, the detailed reality of the sellout Chavez
Pick Justice Action launches campaign against Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher and in support of farmworker rights
Pick Justice Action, a 501(c)(4) social welfare non-profit organization with the mission of educating the public about the rights and interests of farm workers and general laborers, and to promote policies that protect these rights.
They have recently sponsored a “call to arms” campaign in support of California farm workers. They have announced a six-figure ad campaign on all platforms to get their of supporting farm workers rights out. Their ads call out Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher for supporting unions over individual workers.
Their full-page ad appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune earlier this week and the TV ad below has been airing in various places.
Gonzalez-Fletcher responded to it on Twitter but her original response has been deleted and is no longer available. She responded to her original tweet continuing, “Oh, and if there is any question about my commitment to farmworkers, maybe ask @UFWupdates or Dolores Huerta or anyone else that actually advocates for farmworkers.. Of all of the attacks I’ve seen, the ad in the newspaper today has to be the most ludicrous.” www.kusi.com/pick-justice-action-launches-campaign-against-lorena-gonzalez-fletcher-and-in-support-of-farmworker-rights/
Spy versus Spy
Ypsilanti engineer funneled tech secrets to Iran, FBI says
The FBI’s counterintelligence team has arrested an Ypsilanti engineer accused of stealing confidential technical data and sending the information to his brother who is linked to Iran’s nuclear weapons industry.
The national security case against Amin Hasanzadeh, an Iranian military veteran, is outlined in a 14-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Detroit. The complaint describes a year-long, coordinated plan to steal sensitive, confidential data about a secret project involving an aerospace industry supercomputer and alleges Hasanzadeh emailed the data to his brother in Iran.
The full scope of the investigation was unclear Wednesday and it was unclear whether the technical information Hasanzadeh is accused of sending to his brother would help Iran rebuild a nuclear weapons program halted in 2003.
“We don’t have any concerns that there is a current threat to the safety of the United States,” FBI Special Agent Mara Schneider told The Detroit News.
Hasanzadeh, 42, a hardware engineer who also is a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, made an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday and was ordered temporarily detained until a bond hearing Friday in downtown Detroit. No defense lawyer was listed in court records. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/11/06/ypsilanti-engineer-funneled-tech-secrets-brother-iran-fbi-says/2514213001/
The Magical Mystery Tour
Donald Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Paula White Suggests People Send Her Their January Salary or Face Consequences From God
Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser has suggested that people send her money in order to transform their lives, or face divine consequences.
Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary.
“Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.
“If God doesn’t divinely step in and intervene, I don’t know what you’re going to face—he does,” she said. www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-spiritual-adviser-paula-white-suggests-people-send-her-salary-775228?fbclid=IwAR2PXbev2_AQDhPiPO94sfjVmurKyxfVuAGTKUcnLkKgxvfKMJ4jBIgXP8g
How the Trump Cabinet’s Bible Teacher Became a Shadow Diplomat
Ralph Drollinger, who has spent much of the last three years teaching the Gospel to President Trump’s cabinet, dresses like a man of the world. One morning this summer, during a layover at Miami International Airport, he was the very picture of American business — a friendly-looking, dark-suited, jowly man in his late prime. The woman sitting beside him, looking just as exactingly appropriate in her black pantsuit and white shirt, was his wife, Danielle. She quietly scrolled through her iPad as Drollinger explained why the trip they were about to embark on to Managua, Nicaragua, had him uncharacteristically worried.
The Drollingers were flying to Managua at the behest of Daniel Ortega, the country’s strongman president, who had invited them down as his guests. Drollinger, who has set up Bible studies in the capitals of 32 states and 24 foreign countries, saw another opportunity for growth. He did not engage in too much soul-searching before accepting www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/magazine/ralph-drollinger-white-house-evangelical.html?fbclid=IwAR34VHuiqB3xAJkN-0hQu_PoF0nDlX5Vw2EMWuGW1z4u3j0Op5SLdNuccvs
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Roaming Charges: Enter Sondland
One of the useful life-lessons Roy Cohn taught the young Donald Trump was always to have a fall guy, a patsy on retainer to take the blame when a deal goes sour. In the Ukraine extortion scheme, the patsy was supposed to be Gordon Sondland. Sondland was a guy who, though not exactly an intellectual, understood how quid pro quos work. After all, he sank $1 million into Trump’s coffers with the expectation of landing an ambassadorship in the administration.
He got the gig he wanted, ambassador to the EU, but perhaps not the assignment he expected: shake down the new Ukrainian regime to provide political favors to Trump. Sondland was meant to be Trump’s stooge, one of the three amigos (along with Rick Perry and Kurt Volker), who would blindly do Trump and Rudy’s bidding even if he didn’t have a clue about the consequences or precarious legality of his mission. After all, Sondland wasn’t a real diplomat. Like Trump, he was in the hospitality business (Provenance Hotels). He aimed to please. His were the fingerprints meant to be left on the extortion scheme, if it was ever exposed. So imagine Trump’s surprise, when even the ass-lickers like Sondland started to cover their own asses, at his expense.
+ This is what happens, Trump, when you hire someone richer than you who only wanted the gig to attend ambassadorial parties www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/08/roaming-charges-enter-sondland/
Watch astronauts play ball on the space station and remember it for war preparation.
So Long
Yvette Lundy, French resistance heroine, dies aged 103
Schoolteacher helped Jewish people hide and survived Nazi concentration camps
Yvette Lundy, a heroine of the French resistance who survived detention in German concentration camps, has died aged 103.
The schoolteacher supplied fake papers to Jewish people and others being rounded up by the Gestapo and sent them to hide at her older brother Georges’ farm.
She and her brother were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where Georges died. Lundy spent most of the rest of her life relating the horrors of Nazi Germany to schoolchildren and was made a grand officer of the Légion d’honneur in 2017.
Lundy, the youngest of seven brothers and sisters, was working as a teacher in a village near Épernay, where she also served as secretary to the mayor, when France was occupied.
as a member of the local resistance network, codenamed Possum, she drew up false papers for Jews www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/yvette-lundy-french-resistance-heroine-dies-aged-103