Rouge Forum Dispatch: Remember Greensboro!
Saturday, November 2nd, 2019We Say Fight Back!
Do today’s global protests have anything in common?
In recent weeks, mass protests have broken out in countries from Lebanon to Spain to Chile. All are different – with distinct causes, methods and goals – but there are some common themes that connect them.
While thousands of miles apart, protests have begun for similar reasons in several countries, and some have taken inspiration from each other on how to organise and advance their goals.
Here’s a look at the issues at stake – and what binds many of those taking to the streets.
Inequality
Many of those protesting are people who have long felt shut out of the wealth of their country. In several cases, a rise in prices for key services has proved the final straw.
Demonstrations began in Ecuador this month when the government announced that it was scrapping decades-old fuel subsidies as part of public spending cuts agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The change led to a sharp rise in petrol prices, which many said they could not afford. Indigenous groups feared that the measure would result in increased costs for public transport and food, and that their rural communities would be hardest hit.
Corruption
Claims of government corruption are at the heart of several of the protests, and are closely linked to the issue of inequality.
In Lebanon, protesters argue that while they are suffering under an economic crisis, the country’s leaders have been using their positions of power to enrich themselves, through kickbacks and favourable deals.
“I’ve seen a lot of things here but I have never seen such a corrupt government in Lebanon,” said 50-year-old protester Rabab.
The government on Monday approved a package of reforms, including slashing politicians’ salaries, in an effort to quell the unrest.
People in Iraq have also been calling for the end of a political system that they say has failed them. One of the main points of contention there is the way government appointments are made on the basis of sectarian or ethnic quotas, instead of on merit.
Demonstrators argue that this has allowed leaders to abuse public funds to reward themselves and their followers, with very little benefit to most citizens.
Political freedom
In some countries, protesters are angered by political systems in which they feel trapped.
Demonstrations in Hong Kong began this summer over a bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China in certain circumstances. Hong Kong is part of China but its people enjoy special freedoms and there is a deep sense of fear that Beijing wants to exert greater control.
Like fellow protesters in Chile and Lebanon, the mass action in Hong Kong led to the withdrawal of the controversial legislation, but the protests themselves continued. Among their demands, protesters now want complete universal suffrage, an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality and amnesty for demonstrators who have been arrested. www.bbc.com/news/world-50123743
In a Strong Economy, Why Are So Many Workers on Strike?
At first glance, it may seem like a paradox: Even as the economy rides a 10-year winning streak, tens of thousands of workers across the country, from General Motors employees to teachers in Chicago, are striking to win better wages and benefits.
But, according to those on strike, the strong growth is precisely the point. Autoworkers, teachers and other workers accepted austerity when the economy was in a free fall, expecting to share in the gains once the recovery took hold.
In recent years, however, many of those workers have come to believe that they fell for a sucker’s bet, as they watched their employers grow flush while their own incomes barely budged. Corporate profits are up by nearly 4 percent, about the same percentage as household income since their pre-recession peak. But corporate profits had already recovered by 2010, while it took the typical household another six years to regain its footing. Many Americans still find themselves struggling. The resulting frustration is partly behind the recent upturn in strikes.
“That was the understanding — that if we gave up the concessions back in 2007 and 2009, that once G.M. got back on their feet, we would slowly get those things back,” said Tammy Daggy, who worked at the now-idled G.M. plant in Lordstown, Ohio, for nearly 25 years. But on many issues, “we never did.” www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/business/economy/workers-strike-economy.html?fbclid=IwAR0Wny5584eea0z3qNyesn6XnrkFFv_vfNlc2BrMsYtzuACC2wSqUKx64xY
November 3, 1979
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygfAsEZkKA0
CSPAN On Greensboro
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygfAsEZkKA0
The Entire Incredible Rocky is linked Below
www.takeoverworld.info/Rockefeller_incrediblerocky_1973.pdf
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Why US teachers have been walking out of schools nationwide
The 25,000 teachers went on strike on 17 October, demanding pay raises, resource improvements, school staffing increases and even solutions to the city’s pricey housing.
The Illinois city is just the latest in a wave of teachers’ strikes that has swept through many US cities.
Last year saw the most US workers on strike in a generation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , there were 20 major work stoppages in 2018, involving 485,000 workers – the most since 1986. In a big shift, the most-represented industry was teaching.
Significant state-wide work stoppages in education occurred in West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and North Carolina. In January 2019, teachers in Los Angeles – the nation’s second-largest school district – went on strike for six days. Smaller strikes have taken place nationwide as well.
Why are US teachers striking?
The strikes are about better working conditions for school staff and better learning conditions for students, according to Eric Blanc, a sociologist at New York University and author of “Red State Revolt”, a book about the teachers’ strike wave. (Not money? Really?)
Specific demands may differ, but across the country teachers claim to face many of the same challenges – large class sizes, teacher shortages, low pay and a lack of proper resources. In Chicago, teachers are calling for things like:
- Raising teacher salaries
- Reducing class sizes
- Staffing every school with a nurse and social worker
- Adjusting school schedules to add morning preparation time for teachers
- Investment in affordable housing by the city
The starting salary of Chicago public school teachers – who are required to live within city limits – is nearly $53,000 (£41,000) under the existing contract .
Strikes in other states involved similar issues, with some pointing towards a lack of funding as the root of the problem. www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-50233474
San Diego students required to take Identity Politics ethnic studies
Aimed at “white terrorism” (Hey! Class War!)
On September 24 the San Diego Unified school board passed a resolution in support of a state bill (AB 331) that would add one semester of ethnic studies to California public high school graduation requirements and would extend all state graduation requirements to charter schools.
The board already passed its own requirement for San Diego Unified high school students. On September 10, Superintendent Cindy Marten announced students who start high school next fall (the class of 2024) will be required to take ethnic studies to graduate, one year sooner than AB 331 would require, if passed. Marten expressed her support for the state’s effort to create an ethnic studies model curriculum, which was stalled in August after the first draft was accused of spreading hate and political indoctrination.
Over the summer, the California Department of Education posted a 300-page draft for public review. It includes lessons about the immigration of various ethnic groups to America and the discrimination many experienced, including 55 pages with intermingled lessons on Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/oct/16/city-lights-san-diego-required-ethnic-studies/
Former Solana Beach surfing exec sentenced to two months in college bribery scandal
When faced with the possibility of federal investigators uncovering the bribe that got his son into the University of Southern California, Jeffrey Bizzack’s first instinct was to lay low.
“Just keep my head down” is what he told William “Rick” Singer, the scheme’s mastermind, in a secretly recorded phone call meant to elicit a confession.
That call was made last October, months before the bombshell scandal involving numerous wealthy families and elite educational institutions was made public. In March, as the first 30-some parents were charged, the Solana Beach entrepreneur kept quiet.
Several weeks later, after he discovered that he was personally under investigation, he decided to confess.
In a Boston courtroom on Wednesday, Bizzack was sentenced to two months in prison. He was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and serve 900 hours of community service over three years of supervised release. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2019-10-30/solana-beach-surfing-exec-sentenced-college-bribery-scandal
One in 10 NYC Public School Students Are Homeless, Report Says
More than 114,000 students were homeless in New York City in the last academic year. Put another way, that’s one in every ten children in the city’s public schools, according to a report from Advocates for Children.
“Over the past decade, the number of New York City students who are homeless has increased by 70%. This past year we did see a decrease of about half a percentage point, but the number has remained stubbornly high, tipping 100,000 for the fourth consecutive year,” says Randi Levine, the policy director at Advocates for Children.
Nearly 74,000 of the homeless students were “doubling up,” meaning they stayed with relatives or family friends. Another 34,000 lived in shelters.
The numbers were compiled by a private group, Advocates for Children, from data from the Education Department. As a group, homeless children do not do as well academically as other children — only 57% of homeless city students graduate high school. One reason is that nearly two-thirds of students who live in a shelter are chronically absent from class. The city says it’s added resources to help. www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2019/10/29/one-in-10-nyc-public-school-students-are-homeless–report-says?cid=share_fb&fbclid=IwAR3S5VIAXL57-kJGs3DPbjZIlwjHMIFAiJ28DPXSUeMUDpIFhc5KsoaVaug
Nick Cannon-Jason Crawford sex trafficking probe closed
A sham, says victims’ attorney
The Reader’s August 28 story “Shark Bait” told of Sara, Monet, Julia, and other girls from Lincoln High School who say Nick Cannon, host of comedy show Wild ‘N Out, served as the bait for their former teacher Jason Crawford’s attempt to recruit girls.
Julia says Crawford boasted he recruited Wild ‘N Out girls for Cannon and told female students they had promising futures as models and says Cannon himself told her she should audition to be a Wild ‘N Out girl when he visited the school with Crawford last year. (Wild ‘N Out girls were referred to as Cannon’s “hoes” in the very first episode of his show.) Sara says Crawford worked on her daily and she almost gave in. Crawford allegedly tried to persuade multiple underage girls from Lincoln, including Sara and Julia, to have sex with friend Anthony Bell Jr., his “boy with the Bentley,” in exchange for compensation.
In May the San Diego District Attorney’s office started an investigation in conjunction with the Human Trafficking Task Force. On October 15 deputy DA Carolyn Matzger informed the girls’ attorney Marlea Dell’Anno: “There is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect committed pandering and human trafficking offenses. We are therefore unable to file those charges.”
Dell’Anno, a former sex crimes prosecutor, responds, “I’ve been doing this long enough to know when an agency is doing a sham investigation. If you don’t try to get [the evidence] then you can say you don’t have it. We were repeatedly told the DA investigator was busy with much bigger projects…” www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/oct/29/stringers-cannon-jason-crawford-sex-trafficking/
35 Things You Never Thought You’d Say Until You Became a Teacher
50 Things You Never Thought You’d Say Until You Became a Teacher
3 Wayne State governors say they weren’t told about free tuition, want president out
When Wayne State University announced a program to give free tuition to Detroit high school graduates, it didn’t notify members of the Board of Governors until the last minute, leading some members to renew calls for President M. Roy Wilson to leave.
With the exception of WSU Board Chair Kim Trent, board members were alerted about two hours before the unveiling of the Heart of Detroit Tuition Pledge, announced last week with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit students.
It is the latest example of Wilson’s “lack of transparency and accountability to his employer,” governors Michael Busuito, Sandra Hughes O’Brien and Dana Thompson said in a statement Monday night.
“The announcement of the Tuition Pledge was a desperate move by a President on the ropes who has exhausted all options and is digging in but as Board members, we will continue to hold him accountable,” said the statement..www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/10/29/3-wayne-state-governors-say-they-werent-told-free-tuition/2495431001/
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
CIA-backed Afghan troops ‘committed war crimes’: report
Afghan strike forces backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have committed abuses “amounting to war crimes”, according to a new report.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleges the troops “committed summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability”.
These include extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and attacks on healthcare facilities.
Afghanistan’s government told the BBC the current situation was unacceptable.
Disputing the report, the CIA said its covert operations were carried out in “accordance with law and under a robust system of oversight”.
Two Afghan men from Maidan Wardak province spoke to the BBC about alleged US-backed raids on their home.
One man named Masihurahman said he lost 12 members of his family, including his wife, four daughters and three sons, when a “huge bomb” was dropped on his village.
“They martyred them all,” he said. “When I returned, I found my house in rubble.”
Another man, Wahidullah, said troops broke into his home and dragged him and his family out. He said they took them to the top of a mountain, where Americans “gave them the order” to carry out killings. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50236357
SecNav Again Blasts Huntington Ingalls On Ford Carriers
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, hours after the USS Ford returned to port after sea tests, renewed his criticism of its shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls, for failures installing new technologies aboard the nation’s newest and most expensive aircraft carrier, leading to schedule slippages and cost overruns.
Refusing to backtrack from previous criticisms and admitting anew he has questioned if executives at Huntington “really know what they’re doing,” Spencer did signal a new detente with a congresswoman he sparred with recently about the Ford class, however.
Rep. Elaine Luria, who served as a Naval officer for 20 years, has blasted the Navy for problems getting new technologies aboard the $13.2 billion USS Gerald R. Ford to work properly, and failing to provide Congress with a schedule for when the fixes will wrap up. The delays have forced the service to blow through cost caps and postpone testing on the ship by about a year, leading Luria to label the Ford little more than a “$13 billion nuclear-powered berthing barge.” breakingdefense.com/2019/10/secnav-again-blasts-huntington-ingalls-on-ford-carriers/?utm_campaign=Breaking%20Defense%20Sea&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=78795870&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9kLO3Il_PJyBHO0sXxKultBzGft8P2YgQjdOJnvTIM6z5gDpX6Wlie-jaEHMMoZ5WgW6mAMjhtZQnJudeDSucAK-XkVQ&_hsmi=78795870
US Navy officer and others charged with trying to smuggle military-style boats and engines to China
An active duty U.S. Navy officer, his wife, and two Chinese nationals have been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle military style boats and outboard motors to China, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Prosecutors say Lt. Fan Yang, 34, of Jacksonville, Fla., and his wife Yang, 33 — both naturalized citizens — conspired with Chinese nationals Ge Songtao, 49, and Zheng Yan, 27 in a fraudulent attempt to export seven small inflatable boats and eight engines made for military use.
All four were arrested on Oct. 17 and are currently detained, the release said.
All four defendants have been charged with conspiring to submit false export information and to fraudulently attempt to export articles from the United States. Additionally, Yang Yang, Ge Songtao, and Zheng Yan have been charged with causing the submission of false and misleading information into the U.S. Automated Export System, and fraudulently attempting to export seven vessels and eight engines taskandpurpose.com/china-navy-officer?
Iraq: Gruesome string of fatalities as new tear gas grenades pierce protesters’ skulls
The Iraqi authorities must ensure anti-riot police and other security forces in Baghdad immediately stop using two previously unseen types of tear gas grenade to kill rather than disperse protesters, Amnesty International urged today after its investigation found they caused at least five protester deaths in as many days.
Amnesty International carried out telephone and email interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, reviewed medical records and consulted medical professionals in Baghdad as well as an independent forensic pathologist about the horrific injuries caused by these grenades since 25 October.
The organization’s Digital Verification Corps geolocated and analyzed video evidence from near Baghdad’s Tahrir Square documenting the fatalities and injuries – including charred flesh and “smoking” head wounds. Its military expert identified the types of tear gas grenades being used as two variants from Bulgaria and Serbia that are modelled on military grenades and are up to 10 times as heavy as standard tear gas canisters, resulting www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/iraq-gruesome-string-of-fatalities-as-new-tear-gas-grenades-pierce-protesters-skulls/?fbclid=IwAR2tzOzczDshiKGC7JfMKgWaM5x6w7NlDNXVxX0mHaIzGLwJFRScjJXUH2win horrific injuries and death when fired directly at protesters.
Deported U.S. Veterans Feel Abandoned By The Country They Defended
Miguel Pérez Jr. locked himself in a hotel room for an entire weekend in one of the most dangerous cities along the border between the United States and Mexico.
A Mexican native, Pérez, 41, grew up in Chicago. He enlisted in the military and served two tours in Afghanistan. When he returned home, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
Those struggles led to a drug-related conviction that landed him in state prison for seven years. While there, he received treatment for his condition, both therapy and medication. But that conviction also triggered deportation proceedings. After a year in an immigrant detention center, Pérez was deported to Matamoros, Mexico.
In that hotel room, as he waited for his friend to pick him up and take him to Tijuana, Pérez began to feel the weight of his new reality.
Pérez held his documents and two days worth of medication close to him. He was alone and overcome with anxiety, as he tried to figure out a way to live in a country he’d left when he was a boy. www.npr.org/local/309/2019/06/21/733371297/deported-u-s-veterans-feel-abandoned-by-the-country-they-defended?fbclid=IwAR3Mn_lu33kOiyirnPpR9_47M9F-It_niDKW2BQg8J4uYIu5wCrbEIO-kFY
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
We Found Over 700 Doctors Who Were Paid More Than a Million Dollars by Drug and Medical Device Companies
ProPublica has been tracking drug company spending on doctors since 2010. We just updated our database and found that companies are still paying private doctors huge sums for promotional talks and consulting.
Back in 2013, ProPublica detailed what seemed a stunning development in the pharmaceutical industry’s drive to win the prescription pads of the nation’s doctors: In just four years, one doctor had earned $1 million giving promotional talks and consulting for drug companies; 21 others had made more than $500,000.
Six years later — despite often damning scrutiny from prosecutors and academics — such high earnings have become commonplace.
More than 2,500 physicians have received at least half a million dollars apiece from drugmakers and medical device companies in the past five years alone, a new ProPublica analysis of payment data shows. And that doesn’t include money for research or royalties from inventions. www.propublica.org/article/we-found-over-700-doctors-who-were-paid-more-than-a-million-dollars-by-drug-and-medical-device-companies#169337
There’s Absolutely a Problem Here’: Readers on Long Job Hunts Even in a Strong Labor Market
Readers who have struggled to find good jobs despite the strong economy shared their experiences.
The labor market in the United States is the strongest it has been in half a century. Unemployment is at a shockingly low 3.6 percent, and 109 months of consecutive job gains have raised wages and hours for many Americans.
But Patricia Cohen, a reporter who covers the national economy for The Times, found that many people who have lost their job are still struggling to find work that provides a middle-class income. After her article published, many readers shared their own experiences with long and discouraging job hunts.
Below is a selection of those reader comments, which have been lightly edited. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/reader-center/job-market.html
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and
The War on Reason
Dresden: The German city that declared a ‘Nazi emergency’
A city in eastern Germany has declared a “Nazi emergency”, saying it has a serious problem with the far-right.
Dresden, the capital of Saxony, has long been viewed as a bastion of the far-right and is the birthplace of the anti-Islam Pegida movement.
Councillors in the city – a contender for the 2025 European Capital of Culture – have now approved a resolution saying more needs to be done to tackle the issue.
But opponents say it goes too far.
What is a ‘Nazi emergency’?
“‘Nazinotstand’ means – similar to the climate emergency – that we have a serious problem. The open democratic society is threatened,” local councillor Max Aschenbach, who tabled the motion, told the BBC. www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50266955?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR3bfxt_SarSXFgP5e_kopsmwPG-D6q0D-7wtic31Kljj6G-f2hfHFayjVM
South African police arrest 100 people in protest against xenophobia
Around 100 people were arrested on Wednesday as part of an operation to disperse a group of refugees and asylum seekers who had staged a prolonged sit-in near the United Nations refugee agency in Cape Town, South African police said.
The refugees and asylum seekers have been camping outside the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for weeks, asking to be moved out of South Africa, where they say they do not feel safe after a wave of xenophobic violence.
Local media showed footage of police firing water cannon into the crowd of protesters, some of whom were visibly distressed or had small children strapped to their backs, and removing personal items like clothes, sleeping bags and cooking equipment from the street. www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-refugees/south-african-police-arrest-100-people-in-protest-against-xenophobia-idUSKBN1X91LP
Depraved Ruling Elite File: Jeffrey Epstein’s injuries look more like murder than suicide, noted pathologist says (Video inside)
Since his brother Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a New York federal jail in August, Mark Epstein has been worried that his own life, and the lives of other people, may be in danger because federal authorities, believing it a suicide, have not fully investigated the circumstances of the sex trafficker’s death.
Now a private forensic pathologist hired by Mark Epstein to monitor his brother’s autopsy has offered an opinion that bolsters what conspiracy theorists have suggested for months: that the available evidence does not support the finding that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself.
Dr. Michael Baden, one of the world’s leading forensic pathologists, viewed Jeffrey Epstein’s body and was present at the autopsy — held Aug. 11, the day after Epstein was found dead at the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan. Read more here: www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article236809668.html#storylink=cpy
Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell was a guest at a Jeff Bezos-hosted retreat
www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/jeffrey-epstein-friend-ghislaine-maxwell-was-guest-at-jeff-bezos-event.html
This was the moment Mexican forces captured the son of ‘El Chapo.’ Soon after, they freed him
It is an extraordinary video — a behind-the-scenes look at what happened this month when Mexican security forces briefly captured one of the world’s most-wanted cartel leaders.
In the clip, which was released Wednesday by Mexico’s defense secretary, Ovidio Guzman Lopez is shown surrendering to soldiers who had trapped him in a home in the northern city of Culiacan.
Instead of putting Guzman in handcuffs and immediately taking him into custody, the soldiers instead waited while he made a phone call.
Outside, fighters from Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel were seizing control of the city, taking hostages, blocking intersections with burning vehicles and laying siege to a housing complex for the families of military personnel. The soldiers, who at that point probably knew they had no clear way out, asked Guzman to order his men to stand down.
“Tell them to leave now!” a soldier is heard shouting at the 28-year-old Guzman, who is the son of notorious drug boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-29/video-shows-mexican-soldier-begging-son-of-el-chapo-to-order-his-cartel-fighters-to-stand-down
U.S. Knew of Saudi Plan to Seize Missing Journalist, Post Says
Solidarity for Never
UAW President Gary Jones goes on paid leave amid corruption probe (Videos Inside)
United Auto Workers President Gary Jones stepped aside Saturday, 16 months into a rocky tenure leading one of the nation’s largest and most powerful labor unions — a union beset by corruption and accusations he helped steal $2.2 million from blue-collar workers.
Jones did not resign as president of the union, his attorney, Bruce Maffeo, told The Detroit News. Jones is taking paid leave from a post that pays more than $200,000. Effective Sunday, Vice President Rory Gamble, head of the union’s Ford Department, will serve as interim president and become the UAW’s first African American president in the union’s 84-year history….
The News first reported in September 2018 that a team of investigators from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department were investigating union leaders spending $1 million of membership dues on condominiums, liquor, food and golf in Palm Springs, California, where Jones held annual conferences before becoming president. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/11/02/uaw-president-gary-jones-goes-paid-leave-amid-corruption-probe/4138236002/
Feds say UAW President Jones, aide schemed to embezzle, split $700K in dues
United Auto Workers President Gary Jones and a top aide were accused Thursday of conspiring to embezzle as much as $700,000 in member dues and splitting the money, according to a new criminal filing that marked a dramatic escalation of a years-long corruption investigation.
The allegation was outlined in a criminal case filed against Edward “Nick” Robinson, 72, of St. Louis, president of a regional UAW community action program council. He was charged with conspiracy to embezzle union funds and conspiracy to defraud the United States, felonies punishable by up to five years in federal prison.
The criminal case deepens an alleged conspiracy involving the top echelon of the UAW and aired new allegations involving Jones, who prosecutors refer to in court filings as “UAW Official A.” Sources familiar with the investigation have said that official is Jones, who has not been charged with wrongdoing and continues to lead the UAW.
The alleged conspiracy outlined in court records Thursday includes a failed cover-up, attempts to obstruct the investigation, labor leaders using burner cell phones to thwart federal agents and a promised payoff designed to shield Jones from prosecution. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/10/31/uaw-president-gary-jones-aide-charged-corruption-scandal/4108832002/
Ford-UAW deal includes closing Romeo Engine Plant, moving 600 jobs
Ford Motor Co. plans to close the Romeo Engine Plant and relocate or buy out an estimated 600 UAW workers, four sources with knowledge of the situation told the Free Press on Thursday.
Plant officials delivered the news to workers during early shifts less than 12 hours after a proposed tentative contract agreement was announced publicly, following three days of intense negotiation.
Notifications were made to hourly workers including electricians, millrights, pipefitters and machine repairmen about 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
“People are shocked and very disappointed,” said one skilled tradesman who has worked in Romeo more than 10 years. “We have a small workforce now but, at one time, we had over 1,800 people. We believe our union failed us and management wasn’t much help.”
He added, “We were once the best in the world, building the 4.6 liter V8 engine.”
Currently, the plant builds engines of various sizes for different uses, ranging from the high-performance Mustang Cobra to the big F-Series pickups. Sources with knowledge of the plans say the manufacturing work currently done in Romeo will move to other U.S. plants, that this is not about shipping work out of the country. www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/10/31/romeo-engine-plant-closure-uaw-ford-tentative/4109905002/?fbclid=IwAR21e0m8YkNYkADLB0_6F_py9kWzwPivZqRj1QXkJvOhyoL8sDJrSccZoag
Berkeley Unified reaches agreement with sold out teachers union (parcel tax?)
After months of rallies, teary testimonials, and a final 11-hour negotiation session, Berkeley Unified and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers have finally reached a tentative agreement on the union’s new contract.
Teachers have two weeks to ratify the tentative agreement, released Wednesday afternoon. The School Board has final say. Teachers have been working on an expired contract since the summer.
The new two-year contract would guarantee all teachers raises of 2.5% in 2019-20 and again in 2020-21, plus 7% more next year if a proposed new parcel tax passes. All classified staff (such as custodians and cafeteria workers) as well as administrators (such as principals and program supervisors), who each have their own union, would receive the same 12% increase over two years.
BFT’s president called it a “historic agreement,” with “huge wins” for educators. www.berkeleyside.com/2019/10/31/berkeley-unified-reaches-agreement-with-teachers-union-for-12-raise-more?fbclid=IwAR1KGIwKe19ldrhEGGyVs9QpMd_hdDrDS793VZOvxWRRAZyiBc7uLvfF4Sg
Spy versus Spy
Professors, Beware. In China, Student Spies Might Be Watching.
With a neon-red backpack and white Adidas shoes, he looks like any other undergraduate on the campus of Sichuan University in southwestern China.
But Peng Wei, a 21-year-old chemistry major, has a special mission: He is both student and spy.
Mr. Peng is one of a growing number of “student information officers” who keep tabs on their professors’ ideological views. They are there to help root out teachers who show any sign of disloyalty to President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party.
“It’s our duty to make sure that the learning environment is pure,” Mr. Peng said, “and that professors are following the rules.”
In a throwback to the Mao Zedong era, Chinese universities are deploying students as watchdogs against their teachers, part of a sweeping campaign by Mr. Xi to eliminate dissent and turn universities into party strongholds.
The use of student informers has surged under Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, with hundreds of universities now employing the practice, according to interviews with more than two dozen professors and students, as well as a review of public records. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/world/asia/china-student-informers.html
The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos
BuzzFeed News sued the US government to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. We have published the first installment, with revelations about the Ukraine conspiracy theory, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and more.
The president’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, “had to keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia” in preparation for his testimony to Congress under oath and that the false testimony was “not his idea.”
Top Trump campaign aide Rick Gates said the campaign was “very happy” when a foreign government helped release the hacked DNC emails.
These are some of the revelations that BuzzFeed News pried loose after pursuing five separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits for all the subpoenas and search warrants that then–special counsel Robert Mueller’s team executed, as well as all the emails, memos, letters, talking points, legal opinions, and interview transcripts it generated. www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/mueller-report-secret-memos-1
The Magical Mystery Tour
166 Children Were Abused By Colorado Clergy. Just One Priest Went to Prison
In the last 70 years, hundreds of allegations of abuse that veteran prosecutors classify as credible have been lodged against Colorado priests.
Just one is serving time for a crime.
Several others are still alive, and living in retirement, but special investigator Bob Troyer said making a criminal case against any of them would be a challenge for local authorities.
That’s because, in his view, whether by design or coincidence, Colorado’s Catholic dioceses prevented prosecutions by failing to report abuse in a timely manner, counseling victims to keep them quiet and moving priests out of the communities where they committed abuse.
“The pattern I’m talking about (with the church) we will take reports, keep them close, transfer the priest, tell the family ‘you did the right thing,’ all is good now,” said Troyer, a former U.S. Attorney who led the investigation into 70 years of priest abuse in Colorado.
“That’s the frustrating thing. It worked.” www.cpr.org/2019/10/25/166-children-were-abused-by-colorado-priests-just-one-went-to-prison/
A San Diego Church Is Proposing an Affordable Housing Plan Called “Yes In God’s Backyard” Tax Free Superstition
“There’s lots of places with unused land and it’s a way to take advantage of the resources congregations have in order to make better use for the whole community,” Doolittle said.
A San Diego church is gaining support to build affordable housing in its parking lot. They are calling the initiative “Yes In God’s Backyard.”
“YIGBY is Yes In God’s Backyard, it’s a great acronym for what we hope to be able to do, to use places of worship as a place to build affordable housing,” said Pastor Jonathan Doolittle.
Doolittle is the pastor of Clairemont Lutheran Church; he explained to NBC 7 how he wants to help San Diego’s homeless crisis.
“There’s lots of places with unused land and it’s a way to take advantage of the resources congregations have in order to make better use for the whole community,” Doolittle said. www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/San-Diego-Church-Affordable-Housing-Yes-In-Gods-Backyard-510948091.html
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
The ‘Whimpering’ Terrorist Only Trump Seems to Have Heard
President Trump offered a vivid account of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “crying and screaming” in the final minutes before his death. The only problem: No one else knows what he’s talking about.
It was a vivid scene worthy of the ending of a Hollywood thriller, the image of a ruthless terrorist mastermind finally brought to justice “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” to his death. But it may be no more true than a movie script.
In the days since President Trump gave the world a graphic account of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s last minutes, no evidence has emerged to confirm it. The secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the regional commander who oversaw the operation that killed the leader of the Islamic State all say they have no idea what the president was talking about.
Four other Defense Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details of the raid, said they had seen no after-action reports, situation reports or other communications that support Mr. Trump’s claim. Nor did they have any indication that Mr. Trump spoke with any of the Delta Force commandos or ground commanders in the hours between the Saturday night raid and his Sunday morning televised announcement. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/us/politics/trump-isis-leader-baghdadi.html
Psychiatric Diagnoses Found to Be “Scientifically Meaningless”
Diagnostic manuals such as the DSM were created to provide a common diagnostic language for mental health professionals and attempt to provide a definitive list of mental health problems, including their symptoms.
The main findings of the research were:
• Psychiatric diagnoses all use different decision-making rules
• There is a huge amount of overlap in symptoms between diagnoses
• Almost all diagnoses mask the role of trauma and adverse events
• Diagnoses tell us little about the individual patient and what treatment they need www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/psychiatric-diagnoses-found-to-be-scientifically-meaningless-321555?fbclid=IwAR1ntjEGpuqd4s-Gwei_tLpnb00jO0J2eWzCqqBUKpqwpAUgFVguqIelg-o
So Long
