on behalf of the rich in their homelands.

We Say Fight Back!

Thousands march in Mexico City to mark year since 43 students disappeared

Thousands of people marked the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students by marching down Mexico City’s premier avenue in an atmosphere of defiant hope on Saturday.

Activists said the movement might bring justice for Mexico’s disappeared, though only two of the students’ remains have been identified by the DNA analysis of charred bone fragments.

While the march was smaller than past demonstrations, the case has helped publicise the thousands who have gone missing since Mexico’s drug war started in 2006.

The peace and anti-crime activist Maria Guadalupe Vicencio wore a skirt made out of a Mexican flag splattered with fake blood. The names of three disappeared activists from her violence-plagued home state of Tamaulipas were written across her shirt.

Vicencio said the students’ movement “sets an example for all Mexicans to wake up, and not be silent”.  www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/27/thousands-march-in-mexico-city-to-mark-year-since-43-students-disappeared

The New Imperialism of Globalized Monopoly-Finance Capital

An Introduction by John Bellamy Foster

…A war between the great powers does not appear to be an imminent danger at present. However, the instability generated by the hyper-exploitative and expansionist imperialist world system of today, led by the United States, which is now engaged in simultaneous military interventions and drone warfare in a half dozen countries (and which is planning to spend $200 billion dollars in the next decade modernizing its massive nuclear arsenal), suggests any number of ways in which a deadly confrontation could emerge. Climate change itself, with the continuation of business as usual, is expected to destabilize civilization, heightening the threat of a world war, which would quickly lead to a planetary level of destruction.59

The responsibility of the left under these circumstances is to confront, in Lenin’s terms, the “contradictions, conflicts, and convulsions—not only economical, but also political, national, etc.”—that increasingly characterize our era. This means fostering a more “audacious” global movement from below in which the key challenge will be the dismantling of imperialism, understood as the entire basis of capitalism in our time—with the object of creating a more horizontal, egalitarian, peaceful, and sustainable social-metabolic order controlled by the associated producers.60

CSU faculty to hold strike vote over compensation

 

About 25,000 faculty members from the 23 California State University campuses will vote next month on whether to strike, the California Faculty Association announced Thursday.

The vote, which will happen from Oct. 19 through Oct. 28, is contingent on the current bargaining process that is happening between the faculty union and the CSU Chancellor’s Office, according to union officials.

The two parties are in mediation over salary for the current 2015-16 school year, union officials said.

The chancellor’s office has already rejected the union’s proposal of a 5 percent general salary increase for all faculty members and a 2.65 percent service salary increase for eligible faculty, according to the union.

Instead, the chancellor’s office has offered a 2 percent salary increase, which the faculty rejected last October, union officials said. www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_28878132/csu-faculty-hold-strike-vote-over-compensation

Congratulations on the publication of

John Pilger speaks frankly (video embed) about the “War on Terror,” saying that no such thing exists. “There is a war OF terror,” he says, and it is primarily state-sponsored terror, and most of the victims of terrorism in the world are Muslims. Please watch this and share. So profound. People need to understand this. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the greatest purveyor of violence today is by my own government.”http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/john_pilger_there_is_no_war_on_terror_there_is_a_war_of_terror/#.VfgZmF6_WB0.facebook

 

Assistant/Associate Professor of Teacher Education

College of Education – Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Foundational Studies Boisie State
Status	Open
Position Summary	Be part of an innovative and creative faculty committed to improving teaching and learning through research.  We are a collaborative department with numerous opportunities for individuals to further their own research agenda, work with K-12 and post-secondary learners, and partner with others.  We host numerous grants focused on improving outcomes for students, teachers, schools and districts.  We are seeking a colleague who will engage in teaching, research, and grant writing. Our Department is recruiting for a full-time tenure-track position in teacher education at the Assistant/Associate Professor rank. In addition to supporting teacher preparation, successful candidates will work locally with our K-12 partners, teach undergraduate and graduate courses, maintain an active scholarly agenda, and engage in meaningful service.
Minimum Qualifications	Required Qualifications: (1) Earned doctorate by August 2016, (2) Expertise in teacher education/preparation, (3) Experience working with K-12 school partnerships, (4) Demonstrated potential for significant research and professional activity within teacher education/preparation, (5) Demonstrated excellence in K-12 teaching, and (6) Evidence of teacher leadership. hrs.boisestate.edu/careers/searchcareers/assistantassociate-professor-of-teacher-education-2/

 

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Adjunct faculty: Living below the poverty line with no unemployment benefits educationvotes.nea.org/2015/09/20/adjunct-faculty-living-below-the-poverty-line-with-no-unemployment-benefits/?utm_source=EdVotes&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Adjuncts&utm_campaign=092615EdVotesEmail

Education Gap Between Rich and Poor Is Growing Wider–Yikes! Capitalism!

For all the progress in improving educational outcomes among African-American children, the achievement gaps between more affluent and less privileged children is wider than ever, notes Sean Reardon of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford. Racial disparities are still a stain on American society, but they are no longer the main divider. Today the biggest threat to the American dream is class.

American higher education is increasingly the preserve of the elite. The sons and daughters of college-educated parents are more than twice as likely to go to college as the children of high school graduates and seven times as likely as those of high school dropouts.

Only 5 percent of Americans ages 25 to 34 whose parents didn’t finish high school have a college degree. By comparison, the average across 20 rich countries in an analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is almost 20 percent.

The problem, of course, doesn’t start in college.

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/economy/education-gap-between-rich-and-poor-is-growing-wider.html

Where are all thee black male teachers? Just two years ago Black male teachers represented 3.7 percent of teachers in Maryland public schools. And nationally, no more than 2 percent of teachers in the nation’s public schools are Black men. neatoday.org/2015/09/22/where-are-all-the-black-male-teachers/

San Diego Bonds: $107  Millions for stadiums–$14 for ac It’s tempting to snark this argument, but in a 2011 board presentation, the district pointed to research that showed better facilities correlate to higher academic performance, when students’ socioeconomic statuses are controlled.

“The things that people want to prioritize aren’t always the things we need to prioritize,” Barnett said. “It’s about what the parents want and what the politicians want. Look, you can’t do a ribbon-cutting on new plumbing, right? But you can do it on a new stadium.”

America

This is one of my favorites. When I spoke to Lee Dulgeroff, the district’s facilities planning and construction officer, he mentioned that stadiums aren’t just places for football games. They’re also large gathering places for assemblies and graduation ceremonies. In that respect, they need to be accessible to everyone.

“You don’t know who’s going to arrive in a large assembly space,” Dulgeroff said. “It could be somebody’s grandmother, grandfather, mom, dad or a veteran returning home from war.”

In short, it’s downright un-American of you to question bond spending. www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/the-learning-curve-how-san-diego-unified-defends-stadiums-over-air-conditioning/

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Syria crisis: US-trained rebels give equipment to al-Qaeda affiliate

A group of US-trained Syrian rebels has handed over their vehicles and ammunition to fighters linked to al-Qaeda, the US military has admitted.

It said one rebel unit had surrendered six pick-up trucks and ammunition to the al-Nusra Front this week – apparently to gain safe passage.

Congress has approved $500m (£323m) to train and equip about 5,000 rebels to fight against Islamic State militants.

But the first 54 graduates were routed by al-Nusra Front, the military said.

Gen Lloyd Austin told US lawmakers last week that only “four or five” US-trained rebels were still fighting.

“Unfortunately, we learned late today that the NSF (New Syrian Forces) unit now says it did in fact provide six pick-up trucks and a portion of their ammunition to a suspected al-Nusra Front (group),” Pentagon spokesman Cpt Jeff Davis said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Col Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for US Central Command (Centcom), said this happened on 21-22 September.

He added that the surrendered vehicles and ammunition amounted to roughly 25% of the equipment issued to the unit.

“If accurate, the report of NSF members providing equipment to al-Nusra Front is very concerning and a violation of Syria train-and-equip programme guidelines,” Col Ryder said.

The unit was part of some 70 rebel fighters who participated in the second US training course.

The train-and-equip programme is at an early stage, but this is just the latest in a series of setbacks, the BBC’s Laura Bickers in Washington says.  www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34368073

Thousands Enter Syria to Join ISIS Despite Global Efforts

Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters.

Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

President Obama will take stock of the international campaign to counter the Islamic State at the United Nations on Tuesday, a public accounting that comes as American intelligence analysts have been preparing a confidential assessment that concludes that nearly 30,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Iraq and Syria from more than 100 countries since 2011. A year ago, the same officials estimated that flow to be about 15,000 combatants from 80 countries, mostly to join the Islamic State.

That grim appraisal coincides with the scheduled release on Tuesday of a six-month, bipartisan congressional investigation into terrorist and foreign fighter travel, which concludes that “despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists.”

Other parts of the Obama administration’s policies on Syria and for combating the Islamic State have suffered significant setbacks, as well.

A $500 million Pentagon effort to train rebel forces to take on the Islamic State in Syria has produced only a handful of fighters. Russia has defied American attempts www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/world/middleeast/thousands-enter-syria-to-join-isis-despite-global-efforts.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Afghan Allies’ Abuse of Boys

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militias to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.” www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

US Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations

..day after day, they carry out shadowy missions over much of the planet: sometimes covert raids, more often hush-hush training exercises from Chad to Uganda, Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, Albania to Romania, Bangladesh to Sri Lanka, Belize to Uruguay. They belong to the Special Operations forces (SOF), America’s most elite troops — Army Green Berets and Navy SEALs, among others — and odds are, if you throw a dart at a world map or stop a spinning globe with your index finger and don’t hit water, they’ve been there sometime in 2015. This year, US Special Operations forces have already deployed to 135 nations, according to Ken McGraw, a spokesman for Special Operations Command (SOCOM). That’s roughly 70 percent of the countries on the planet. Every day, in fact, America’s most elite troops are carrying out missions in 80 to 90 nations, practicing night raids or sometimes conducting them for real, engaging in sniper training or sometimes actually gunning down enemies from afar. As part of a global engagement strategy of endless hush-hush operations conducted on every continent but Antarctica, they have now eclipsed the number and range of special ops missions undertaken at the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.billmoyers.com/2015/09/24/us-special-ops-forces-deployed-in-135-nations/

Iraq liaising with Russia, Iran and Syria against ISIL

Iraq has said that its military officials are engaged in intelligence and security cooperation in Baghdad with Russia, Iran and Syria to counter the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a pact that could raise concerns in the US.

A statement from the Iraqi military’s joint operations command on Saturday said the cooperation had come “with increased Russian concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia undertaking criminal acts with Daesh (ISIL)”.

The move comes as at the same time Russia has stepped up its military involvement in Syria in recent weeks, while pressing for Damascus to be included in international efforts to fight ISIL, a demand Washington rejects.

The announcement also reflects Iran’s increasing influence just four years after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted a military diplomatic source in Moscow as saying the Baghdad coordination centre would be led on a rotating basis by officers of the four countries, starting with Iraq.

The source added a committee might be created in Baghdad to plan military operations and control armed forces units in the fight against ISIL.www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/iraq-liaising-russia-iran-syria-isil-150927032744633.html

After what has been described as “repeated requests” by the White House, President Obama has agreed to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

It will be a relatively rare face-to-face meeting for two of the most powerful political leaders in the world. While the pair talk on the phone with relatively frequency, they have not met in person recently. Many of their previous personal meetings have been remarkably brief – and sometimes quite awkward.www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/26/putin-and-obama-a-brief-history-of-painfully-awkward-face-to-face-meetings/

Report: US to Ditch Afghan Pullout Plan, Leave Thousands of Troops Behind

The myth of the Afghan War having “ended” a couple of years ago seems to have convinced most people to cut back on coverage of the conflict, but officials are reporting that the likely result of latest deliberations on Afghanistan are for the US to scrap their pullout plans once again, leaving thousands of troops behind through the end of President Obama’s final term in office.

The initial plan was for the US to draw down several times and have a very token presence left behind for training purposes, but exactly when this is happening keeps getting pushed back, and now the suggestion is that the current levels, around 10,000, are likely to remain roughly flat at least through 2016.

The argument by those in favor of keeping the troops in place is largely the same throughout the war, that the Afghan government simply isn’t capable of beating the Taliban on their own, and that a US pullout would add pressure to that struggling military, which is already losing ground to Taliban fighters left and right.news.antiwar.com/2015/09/25/report-us-to-ditch-afghan-pullout-plan-leave-thousands-of-troops-behind/

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Guardian UK–facts on the refugee (imperialism) crises when you’re facing the world’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war, it helps to have a sober debate about how to respond. But to do that, you need facts and data – two things that the British migration debate has lacked this summer. Theresa May got the ball rolling in May, when she claimed on Radio 4 that the vast majority of migrants to Europe are Africans travelling for economic reasons. The media has followed suit, one example being the Daily Mail’s unsubstantiated recent assertion that seven in 10 migrants at Calais will reach the UK.  Far from being propelled by economic migrants, this crisis is mostly about refugees. The assumption by the likes of Hammond, May and others is that the majority of those trying to reach Europe are fleeing poverty, which is not considered by the international community as a good enough reason to move to another country. Whereas in fact, by the end of July, 62% of those who had reached Europe by boat this year were from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan, according to figures compiled by the UN. These are countries torn apart by war, dictatorial oppression, and religious extremism – and, in Syria’s case, all three. Their citizens almost always have the legal right to refuge in Europe. And if you add to the mix those coming from Darfur, Iraq, Somalia, and some parts of Nigeria – then the total proportion of migrants likely to qualify for asylum rises to well over 70%.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis

Wealthy and middle-class baby boomers can expect to live substantially longer than their parents’ generation. Meanwhile, life expectancy for the poor hasn’t increased and may even be declining, according to a report published Thursday by several leading economists.

Call it a growing inequality of death — and it means that the poor ultimately may collect less in money from some of the government’s safety net programs than the rich.

As of 2010, the average, upper-income 50-year-old man was expected to live to 89. But the same man, if he’s lower income, would live to just 76, according to the report.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/18/the-government-is-spending-more-to-help-rich-seniors-than-poor-ones/

1 Dead After Detroit firefighters’ alarm fails –again

Detroit firefighters took too long and didn’t have the proper equipment to save a man from a house fire in Woodbridge early this morning. Two people also were injured.

The closest fire engine, #1, which protects downtown, arrived 12 minutes after being dispatched because their alarm system didn’t work for the second time this month. The fire was only 1.6 miles from Engine #1’s quarters.

“Engine 1 is out of service, out of radio contact,” a dispatcher alerted the chief as other fire companies rushed to the house at 4114 Commonwealth near W. Alexandrine.

Although 911 callers warned that the house was occupied at 1:20 a.m., dispatchers sent a truck with a nonfunctioning aerial ladder, which is used to rescue people. Ladder #20 was using a replacement rig after becoming the sixth ladder truck in six days to go out of service for repairs.

By the time Engine #1 arrived in its new rig, the house was engulfed in flames, prompting the chief to call a second-alarm.

“I have civilians inside,” the chief radioed to dispatchers.

Two of the occupants managed to get out, but one of them, a 73-year-old man named Doug, died.motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/09/26/1-dead-in-house-blaze-after-firefighters-alarm-malfunctioned-again/

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

 

 

 

Al Jazeera on the murder of Emmett Till (video inside) On Aug. 28, 1955, a 14-year-old named Emmett Till was kidnapped, tortured and murdered for whistling at a white woman in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

But for Till’s cousin Simeon Wright, his story is more than a chapter in history books. He was there when his cousin encountered Carolyn Bryant – the young wife of a local store owner.

“Whistling at a white woman in Mississippi?” he said. “Oh no, it’s better to play with a rattlesnake.”

It’s been 60 years since the murder of Emmett Till, but his story remains unfinished. His death helped spark the civil rights movement and frame the ongoing debate over racism in America.

Nobody has ever been brought to justice for his kidnapping and killing. Meanwhile, family members and community activists are trying to reconcile what happened that summer night. Wright wants the public to know the whole story, starting with an understanding of Till’s life and personality. america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2015/8/26/emmett-till-anniversary-cousin-history-civil-rights.html

 

Year later, few answers in Mexican students’ killings

Unlike the families of the 43 students who disappeared a year ago, Julio Cesar Mondragon’s loved ones were left with a body to bury. But there is little comfort in that, because Mondragon’s corpse bore witness to the horror of his final moments.

His autopsy showed several skull fractures, internal bleeding and other injuries consistent with torture. His face had been flayed, a tactic often used by the drug cartels to incite terror. Photos of his bloody skull were uploaded to the Internet.

International attention has been focused on the 43 students who vanished a year ago Saturday, but six others died at the hands of police in those hours, including Mondragon, a 22-year-old father of a girl who is now 1 year old. According to an independent group of experts, the disappearances and the killings were the result of a long coordinated attack against students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, who had come to the southern city of Iguala to commandeer buses for a protest.

But the events of last Sept. 26 were far from isolated. Some 25,000 people have been reported missing in Mexico since 2007, and hundreds from the Iguala area in the last year alone. The disappearance of the students has drawn attention to others who have been lost, as well as brutal drug cartels, official corruption, government indifference and languishing legal cases.www.detroitnews.com/story/news/world/2015/09/25/year-later-answers-mexican-students-killings/72843162/

Solidarity for Never

The NEA May Be About to Endorse Hillary Clinton Without Input From Majority of Members

The largest labor union in the United States may be about to endorse Hillary Clinton for President without a poll of its membership.

Leadership at the National Education Association (NEA) has been making troubling moves toward endorsing Clinton that could commit the organization to supporting the Democratic presidential hopeful with no regard for the wishes of its 3.2 million members.

An endorsement could come as early as Oct. 2-3 when President Lily Eskelsen Garcia is expected to propose a primary endorsement of Clinton at the NEA Board meeting, according to multiple NEA sources. Then the PAC council would vote. If approved, it would go to the board for a final decision.

However, since this is only an endorsement for the primary election, the matter would not need to go before the Representative Assembly (RA). In effect, the move could sidestep the voices of the RA’s 8,000 delegates representing state and local affiliates, student members, retired members, and other segments of the united education profession. gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/the-nea-may-be-about-to-endorse-hillary-clinton-without-input-from-majority-of-members/

NEA Members Suckered: NEA RA members should pay special attention to this article and this section: “At the NEA’s convention in 2011, the union formally declared that it was “appalled” with Duncan’s work. But at the same convention, the NEA endorsed the president’s reelection, as if the education secretary whose family hung out with the Obamas at Camp David was some kind of rogue operative. I heard from several sources that Duncan actually helped negotiate the language of his own condemnation; he’s no politician, but you can’t run the Chicago schools without some sense of politics. “Arne understood the political realities,” a former aide said. “The union needed a target for its anger, and he was happy to take a bullet for the president.” www.politico.com/…/arne-duncan-education-profile…

UAW members oppose the contract sellout As contract voting ramps up for 40,000 United Auto Workers members at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, some Metro Detroit workers are increasingly voicing concerns about the tentative four-year deal.

About 30 UAW members picketed the international union’s Detroit headquarters Wednesday, chanting and marching with signs with slogans like “Time for action, Protect & defend the retirees” and “Speak up for the rank and file.”

Some Fiat Chrysler members are concerned the proposed deal does not eliminate the contentious two-tier pay system; fails to cap entry-level hires; doesn’t do enough to address alternative work schedules; and doesn’t increase wages enough.  www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/chrysler/2015/09/23/mopar-workers-question-fca-uaw-contract-wage-system/72680336/

Comments of a Quisling on the lingering destruction of the Detroit Federation of Teachers: Ivy Bailey, DFT interim president released this statement.

“It is my understanding that after last night’s DFT meeting at which Steve Conn was unsuccessful in overturning his misconduct conviction, Conn is encouraging members to not pay union dues and to form his own union.

The DFT is the bargaining unit recognized legally by DPS with exclusive bargaining rights and representation of members. Any group or union that Conn forms is just that a “group.”

If Steve Conn organizes members to not pay union dues, he essentially would be serving as an agent of Governor Snyder and the Mackinac Center by destroying unions and collective bargaining for DPS employees. These are not the actions of a Labor Leader. These are the actions of a Union Buster!” www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/former-detroit-federation-of-teachers-president-steve-conn-to-start-own-union

Spy versus Spy

How to explain the KGB’s amazing success identifying CIA agents in the field?

What Totrov came up with were 26 unchanging indicators as a model for identifying U.S. intelligence officers overseas. Other indicators of a more trivial nature could be detected in the field by a vigilant foreign counterintelligence operative but not uniformly so: the fact that CIA officers replacing one another tended to take on the same post within the embassy hierarchy, drive the same make of vehicle, rent the same apartment and so on. Why? Because the personnel office in Langley shuffled and dealt overseas postings with as little effort as required.www.salon.com/2015/09/26/how_to_explain_the_kgbs_amazing_success_identifying_cia_agents_in_the_field/

The Magical Mystery Tour

 

..He began his speech to Congress by praising the United States, in the most hackneyed jingoistic terms, as “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” How that squares with the reality of omnipresent NSA spying, police killings and a military establishment that regularly incinerates defenseless people with remotely controlled missiles and bombs, he did not bother to explain.

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Counterpunch demeans Alexander Cockburn: Runs Jesse Jackson praising the pope Washington is girding itself for what will be an historic visit by Pope Francis this week. So many are expected to flock into the city that government employees are encouraged to work at home. The pope will address a joint session of Congress, celebrate mass, meet with the president and tend to the impoverished. He may meet with the low-wage workers who serve food to the senators and not just with the senators. He will then go to Philadelphia and New York, give an address on climate change and possibly celebrate mass on Wall Street. www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/23/the-prophetic-voice-of-pope-francis/

So Long