Rouge Forum Dispatch: Ruled By Depraved Psychotics–not forever…
Sunday, September 8th, 2019We Say Fight Back
Hong Kong Protesters Chant ‘Murderers,’ Demand More Concessions
(Nationalist) Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong clashed with the police for a second straight day on Saturday, despite a concession on Wednesday from the city’s embattled leader.
The clashes there Friday night were the first notable display of unrest since Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s top leader, announced that she would withdraw a deeply unpopular extradition bill that ignited the protests in early June.
Protesters said on Saturday that they would hang up the tools of their trade — hard hats, umbrellas and gas masks — only if Mrs. Lam’s government agreed to meet all of their demands.
Those demands have grown in recent months to encompass calls for fundamental political reforms, as well as several concerns related to the protests themselves. Demonstrators are calling for an independent inquiry into what they say is police brutality, for the retraction of the government’s label of some protesters as “rioters” and for amnesty for the hundreds of them who have been arrested this summer. www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/world/europe/hong-kong-protests-2019.html
Hong Kong students sing Les Misérables song instead of national anthem – video
www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/508952106514692/?t=209
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh: The world is “run by ignoramuses, wackos and psychotics”
In this wide-ranging conversation, Hersh reflects on the current health of the American news media, why today’s newsrooms are so easily distracted by Donald Trump’s use of social media, and why too many reporters and journalists are afraid of telling the truth and instead have become slaves to weak standards of “balance.”
Hersh also shares his thoughts on Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal, whether Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, how Trump may win again in 2020, and how the Democratic National Committee’s attacks on Bernie Sanders in 2016 may be the party’s undoing in the 2020 presidential race….
The complication, of course, is the orange man, the president. We’ve never quite had a situation like this. There were a lot of things wrong with Hillary [Clinton], but there is no question that the situation and the country would be saner with her as president. But when you have a president like Donald Trump who is obsessed with being in the news, something is amiss.
I have some friends on the inside who know more than I do about most of these things regarding Trump and this administration. With Trump and these escalations with Iran I was getting nervous. I asked some of my contacts, “What’s going on?” They told me, “It is a Kabuki dance.” Trump felt like he wasn’t getting enough attention. He’s going to do something to North Korea and he backs off. He’s going to do something in Venezuela and he backs off. You name it. It is part of a pattern.
As a journalist, one of the things I can’t stand is cable news. They just heighten the anxiety. You have one cable station that loves him, which of course is Fox News. You have have two that can’t stand him, CNN and MSNBC. There is no middle ground. There is no place one can actually go to get something that isn’t totally biased, either pro or con. My old newspaper, the New York Times, which is still, by far, the best newspaper going, does a lot of good investigative work. I do read the European press and magazines. They are much better.
It’s all about money. Newspapers are collapsing every nanosecond. We’re going to be a digital world soon. There will still be national papers such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, but that is going to be about it. People will just have to get their news online. Newspapers are competing for fewer dollars. Audio inside www.salon.com/2019/07/23/investigative-reporter-seymour-hersh-the-world-is-run-by-ignoramuses-wackos-and-psychotics/
The Crazed, Rogue Leader is in Washington Not Tehran
History in the Middle East is unkind to us westerners. Just when we thought we were the good guys and the Iranians were the bad guys, here comes the ghostly, hopeless possibility of a Trump-Rouhani summit to remind us that the apparent lunatic is the US president and the rational, sane leader who is supposed to talk to him is the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. All these shenanigans are fantasy, of course – like the “imminent” war between America and Iran – of which more later.
As for the Israelis, they don’t want the man who thinks he might be “King of Israel” talking to the Hitlerite Persians. They suddenly sprayed Iran’s local Middle East proxies with drone-fired rockets – in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon – just in case the wretched, financially broken and inflation-doomed Iranians were tempted to chat to the crackpot in the White House. But the Israelis wasted their ammunition. Rouhani is not mad. America has to drop its sanctions against Iran if Trump wants to talk, he said.
It still amazes me that we have to take all this stuff at face value. No sooner had Trump waffled on about Rouhani being “the great negotiator” than we saw all the White House correspondents dutifully taking this nonsense down in their notebooks – as if the American president was presidential, as if the old dream-bag was real, as if what he was saying had the slightest bearing on reality. www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/02/the-crazed-rogue-leader-is-in-washington-not-tehran/
Anti-fascist rebellion brewing in Pacific Northwest soccer stadiums
The seeds of dissent were visible almost immediately.
Soccer officials had notified the Timbers Army, a fan organization for the team in Portland, Oregon, on the eve of this season that the anti-fascist symbol its members had been waving on a giant banner in the north end of the stadium would no longer be permitted at games. The fan group was not happy, releasing a lengthy critique of Major League Soccer’s new rules, and working with team officials for months in meetings to change the rule.
But what began as an internal dispute between the league, the Timbers front office, and the fan group has morphed into a full rebellion in recent weeks.
The symbol, a re-purposed icon from an anti-fascist group, the Iron Front from Nazi-era Germany, has popped up at stadiums around the country. The MLS ban of it has drawn coverage from left-leaning media outlets. And a recent Timbers game became the venue for a nearly stadiumwide protest that saw two rival fan groups join in silence for more than a half-hour before openly flouting the symbol’s ban.
How did a simple game – the beautiful game – become the setting for such a heated political struggle? www.sfgate.com/news/article/Anti-fascist-rebellion-brewing-in-Pacific-14406190.php?fbclid=IwAR3gnJkCDljLrE0RVKiGCfDJX4KrLHCDT86wGIw8XDVvcMBb-Nm3oqnYsQQ#photo-18153804
Kentucky Coal Miner Weighs In On Railroad Blockade As Protests Continue
Laid-off miners in Kentucky have been blocking a shipment of coal from leaving a shut-down mine for almost six weeks. One miner says they’ll be out there until the bankrupt company pays them the money they’re owed.
Coal miner Blake Watts says he’s owed $6,000 in backpay plus severance pay from Blackjewel LLC, owner of the Cumberland, Ky., mine which filed for bankruptcy on July 1. Most of the workers camping at the tent city surrounding the mine are owed a similar amount.
Since late July, miners have been camping out on the tracks around the clock to prevent the company from completing the sale of the coal before paying the miners who extracted it.
“It’s affected me being able to pay my bills and even buy my little girl things,” Watts says. “It’s made it tighter and a struggle on just daily living really.”
Watts was preparing to work the third shift of the day starting at 9:30 p.m. when a coworker told him the mine was closing and all the miners were going to lose their jobs.
The company tried to discreetly transport a final batch of coal, but when the miners heard the final train cars being loaded, Watts says they saw an opportunity to force the company’s hand to reach its wallet. www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/09/06/coal-miner-raildroad-blockade
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Historian David McCullough: History has been eradicated in American Schools, systematically, and through teachers who know nothing about history. Abolish Colleges of Education!
The problem with the NYTimes project: racism does not stand outside of or above class war. And this is an outrageous outright lie: “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country…” Surely the authors know the dangers of linking race and DNA. What’s the real “project?” To deny the persistent reality of racism with class warfare.
www.facebook.com/boredteachers/videos/1823453561005828/?t=19
The Learning Curve: Teacher Diversity at Every School District in San Diego County, Ranked
Wow. Richest districts=least diverse. But to people teach with their skin? Better to have a dumb white teacher than a smart black teacher, or vice versa?
School district secessions shown to have deepened racial segregation
Since 2000, school district secessions in the South have increasingly sorted white and black students, and white and Hispanic students, into separate school systems, weakening the potential to improve school integration, according to a new study published today (Sept. 4) in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
The study, conducted by Erica Frankenberg, professor of education (educational leadership) and demography at Penn State; Kendra Taylor of Sanametrix; and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley of Virginia Commonwealth University, is the first to systemically explore whether, and to what extent, new school district boundaries segregate students and residents in those counties in the South where school district secessions have taken place.
From 2000 to 2017, 47 school districts in the United States successfully seceded from a larger school district. These secessions have occurred in 13 counties across the U.S., seven of which are in the South. During this time period, 18 new school districts formed in these seven counties in the South. The authors analyzed trends in school and residential segregation during 2000-15 for the seven Southern counties.
In the counties studied by the authors, the proportion of school segregation due to school district boundaries has increased. news.psu.edu/story/586194/2019/09/04/research/school-district-secessions-shown-have-deepened-racial-segregation?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=email&utm_term=586477_HTML&utm_content=09-04-2019-14-54&utm_campaign=Education_Bridges
College admissions scandal: Prosecutors recommend one-month sentence for Felicity Huffman
Prosecutors want actress Felicity Huffman to receive a one-month prison sentence when she appears before a judge next Friday, the first parent to be sentenced in the college admissions scandal that exploded in March with the arrests of Huffman and nearly three-dozen other parents.
Huffman pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge in May, admitting she conspired with college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to fix her daughter’s entrance exams.
But since Huffman tearfully admitted her guilt and issued a written mea culpa, she has brought up “quibbles” with prosecutors, they said in a court filing Friday, in an attempt to “imply that [she] is somehow less guilty — that she participated in fraud only reluctantly, without fully understanding it.” “That is false,” prosecutors wrote. www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-06/college-admissions-scandal-prosecutors-recommend-one-month-sentence-for-felicity-huffman
The High School Course Beijing Accuses of Radicalizing Hong Kong
they are sitting in orderly rows, wearing neatly pressed uniforms. But in this class, as they debate the merits of democracy and civil rights, Hong Kong high school students are prompting Beijing to worry that they are increasingly out of control.
The mandatory civics course known here as liberal studies has been a hallmark of the curriculum in Hong Kong for years, and students and teachers say the point is to make better citizens who are more engaged with society.
But mainland Chinese officials and pro-Beijing supporters say the prominence of the city’s youth at recent mass protests is the clearest sign yet that this tradition of academic freedom has gone too far, giving rise to a generation of rebels.
“The liberal studies curriculum is a failure,” Tung Chee-hwa, a former leader of Hong Kong, said in July. “It is one of the reasons behind the youth’s problems today.” www.nytimes.com/2019/09/01/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-education-china.html
New Michigan high school will have potentially life-saving design
Curved hallways, protective “wing walls,” impact-resistant windows, doors that lock with a touch of a smartphone.
These are some of the design elements Fruitport High School in western Michigan’s Muskegon County will implement in its new building, set to open summer 2021.
Fruitport Community Schools Superintendent Bob Szymoniak said the measures, which were supplemented by a $404,707 grant from Michigan State Police, can potentially save lives in an active shooter situation.
“So often, we feel like we’re going to be hapless victims – that there’s nothing that we can do until after it (a shooting) happens,” he said. “But what I’m learning is there’s a lot we can do on the front end.” www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/09/06/fruitport-high-school-michigan-active-shooters/2213687001/
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Trump Says He’s Called Off Negotiations With Taliban After Afghanistan Bombing
President Trump said on Saturday that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and had called off monthslong negotiations with the Afghan insurgent group that appeared to be nearing a peace agreement.
“Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets, Taliban leaders and the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, were headed to the United States on Saturday for what would have been a historic Sunday meeting at Camp David.
But Mr. Trump angrily said that “in order to build false leverage,” the Taliban had admitted to a suicide car bomb attack on Thursday that had killed an American soldier and 11 others in the capital of Kabul. “I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,” he wrote.
“If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway,” Mr. Trump wrote. “How many more decades are they willing to fight?” …
Even more significant than the fate of the meeting is Mr. Trump’s assertion that he is calling off the peace negotiations that his special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, began last winter. They were propelled by Mr. Trump’s impatience to withdraw American troops from an 18-year conflict that he has called an aimless boondoggle. United States and foreign officials said that the talks had reached an advanced stage and, until Saturday night, that an agreement with the Pashtun insurgent group that once harbored the Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was close at hand. www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/us/politics/trump-taliban-afghanistan.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran
Hawks in Israel and America have spent more than a decade agitating for war against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Will Trump finally deliver?
In July of 2017, the White House was at a crossroads on the question of Iran. President Trump had made a campaign pledge to leave the “terrible” nuclear deal that President Barack Obama negotiated with Tehran, but prominent members of Trump’s cabinet spent the early months of the administration pushing the mercurial president to negotiate a stronger agreement rather than scotch the deal entirely. Thus far, the forces for negotiation had prevailed.
But counterforces were also at work. Stephen K. Bannon, then still an influential adviser to the president, turned to John Bolton to draw up a new Iran strategy that would, as its first act, abrogate the Iran deal. Bolton, a Fox News commentator and former ambassador to the United Nations, had no official role in the administration as of yet, but Bannon saw him as an outside voice that could stiffen Trump’s spine — a kind of back channel to the president who could convince Trump that his Iran policy was adrift.
As a top national security official in the George W. Bush administration, Bolton was one of the architects of regime change in Iraq. He had long called not just for withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or J.C.P.O.A., as the 2015 nuclear deal was known, but also for overthrowing the Iranian regime that negotiated it. Earlier that July, he distilled his views on the matter in Paris, at an annual gathering in support of the fringe exile movement Mujahedeen Khalq, or the M.E.K., which itself had long called for regime change in Iran. Referring to the continuing policy review in Washington, he repeated his belief that the only sufficient American policy in Iran would be to change the Iranian government and whipped the crowd into a standing ovation by pledging that in two years, Iran’s leaders would be gone and that “we here will celebrate in Tehran.” www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/magazine/iran-strike-israel-america.html
‘It’s a tip of an iceberg’: Bulgarian journo reveals how US-purchased arms end up with ISIS in Yemen
This story began back in June, when Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in Yemen demonstrated several Serbian-made 82mm mortar shells in their propaganda video. Independent investigative journalist, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, believes that the deadly munitions ended up with the jihadists after going through US hands.
Tracing origins
Clearly visible on one of the shells is a mark that reads ’82 mm M74HE mortar shells KV lot 04/18.’ The letters KV stand for the Serbian state arms manufacturer Krusik, located in the town of Valjevo, while the digits 04/18 refer to lot 04 produced in 2018. One should not jump to any conclusions, however, as it is not the Serbs who were responsible for the shells suddenly appearing in the hands of terrorists, according to Gaytandzhieva. www.rt.com/news/468064-us-purchased-arms-terrorists-yemen/
Showing in theaters September 8th
Why the entire SEAL Team 7 leadership team got canned
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In the wake of a series of scandals dogging California-based SEAL Team 7, the entire senior leadership team was relieved of duty on Friday morning.
Rear Adm. Collin Green fired the team’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Edward James Mason, executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Luke Hong Il Im, and their top enlisted adviser, Command Master Chief Hugh Chance Spangler, due to what officials termed “a loss of confidence that resulted from leadership failures that caused a breakdown of good order and discipline within two subordinate units while deployed to combat zones.”
WARCOM spokeswoman Capt. Tamara Lawrence told Navy Times that officials will not identify the triad who will replace the three leaders “due to the nature of their work, for their safety, for the safety of their teammates and families, and the safety of current and future missions.”
The statements by Lawrence and other SEAL officials to Navy Times never implicated the triad for any personal misconduct but instead point a spotlight at alleged wrongdoing by their subordinate units.
Lawrence won’t identify the two units tied to the alleged misbehavior, but they might be SEAL Team 7′s Foxtrot platoon and another detachment that was sent to Yemen. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/09/06/why-the-entire-seal-team-7-leadership-team-got-canned/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Bailed out GM now has more workers in China than UAW employees in the U.S.
- President Trump attacked GM on Twitter, claiming it is now one of the smallest car manufacturers in Detroit.
- GM says it employs nearly 49,000 union employees in the U.S., more than rival Fiat Chrysler.
- GM has been investing heavily in China, where it is now one of that nation’s largest car manufacturers.
President Donald Trump on Friday disdainfully labeled General Motors as “one of the smallest car manufacturers” in Detroit, reprising his call that the automaker move jobs back to the U.S. Something else he might not be happy with: GM is also one of the largest car makers in China.
In fact, GM now employs more workers in China than it does members of the United Auto Workers in the U.S. According to its website, the company now has about 58,000 workers in China — that’s about 20% more than its domestic UAW workforce, which has dwindled in recent years. www.cbsnews.com/news/gm-now-employs-more-workers-in-china-than-in-the-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR2B2ozLrPSFHUboZZHxG1htratyWN6lJYYN2RAusqpHHAN5eZLYtTkf6jE#
Why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Sank Today
What happened
Shares of Federal National Mortgage Association (OTC:FNMA) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTC:FMCC) fell more than 8% on Friday after the U.S. Treasury Department announced a plan to reform the housing-finance industry.
So what
Regulators took control over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as the mortgage-finance giants are commonly known, during the 2008 financial crisis. They received a bailout of more than $190 billion to help them remain solvent. But as their businesses strengthened in the decade that followed, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were able to pay back those taxpayer funds plus more than $100 billion in additional dividends.
The Treasury Department’s plan seeks to prevent future bailouts, limit the government’s role in the housing market, and foster greater competition in the housing-finance industry.
“The Trump Administration is committed to promoting much-needed reforms to the housing finance system that will protect taxpayers and help Americans who want to buy a home,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a press release. “An effective and efficient Federal housing finance system will also meaningfully contribute to the continued economic growth under this Administration.” www.fool.com/investing/2019/09/06/why-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-sank-today.aspx
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What Was the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Bailout?
The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout occurred September 6, 2008. The bailout came as the U.S. Treasury Department was authorized to purchase up to $100 billion in preferred stock of the organizations and buy mortgage-backed securities. As a result, Fannie and Freddie were put into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
The Bailout Cost to Taxpayers
According to an independent economic group, the Shadow Open Market Committee (SOMC), keeping the two agencies afloat cost taxpayers US$187 billion over time as the Treasury paid $116 billion for Fannie and $71 billion for Freddie. www.thebalance.com/what-was-the-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-bailout-3305658
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Indian Ambassador Meets Steve Bannon, Calls Him ‘Dharma Warrior,’ Deletes Tweet
One-time White House chief strategist Steve Bannon – known to be as controversial as he is polarising – made a sudden and unexpected appearance in India’s ongoing public diplomacy campaign on Kashmir in the United States before vanishing again into the ether.
Indian ambassador to the US Harsh Shringla tweeted a photo with Bannon, only to delete it several hours later without explanation….
The sources told The Wire that the meeting between Bannon and Shringla was part of the Indian ambassador’s efforts to meet influential persons of different ideologies and affiliations who could be helpful in the coming months to counter Pakistan’s campaign over Kashmir in the US.
It is learnt that the Indian envoy has also sought a meeting with Democrat presidential ticket hopeful Bernie Sanders, who had expressed concern about the continuing communication clampdown in Kashmir.
“It’s a war in Washington and India needs all the help that we can get,” said sources. thewire.in/diplomacy/steve-bannon-india-harsh-shringla-kashmir
Sentences of 3 Blackwater Guards Reduced From 2007 Massacre
A federal judge has greatly reduced the sentences of three former Blackwater security contractors, in the latest development from a complex case dating back to the 2007 shootings of unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Paul Slough to 15 years in prison, Evan Liberty to 14 years and Dustin Heard to 12 years and seven months. All three had received 30-year terms in a 2015 trial — a mandatory sentence for the commission of a felony while using a military firearm. A fourth defendant in the same trial, Nicholas Slatten, was sentenced to life in prison.
The case stems from a chaotic 2007 incident when the men’s Blackwater unit opened fire at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 14 unarmed Iraqis and wounding 17. The men all essentially blamed the fog of war, claiming they mistakenly believed they were under attack.
The shootings strained U.S.-Iraqi relations and focused intense international scrutiny on the extensive use of private military contractors in Iraq. www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-09-06/sentences-of-3-blackwater-guards-reduced-from-2007-massacre
Exclusive: Feds Demand Apple And Google Hand Over Names Of 10,000+ Users Of A Gun Scope App
Own a rifle? Got a scope to go with it? The U.S. government might soon know who you are, where you live and how to reach you.
That’s because the government wants Apple and Google to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It’s an unprecedented move: Never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds have asked the Silicon Valley giants for info on so many thousands of people in one go.
According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn’t provide download numbers, so it’s unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab. www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/09/06/exclusive-feds-demand-apple-and-google-hand-over-names-of-10000-users-of-a-gun-scope-app/#409b91092423
Solidarity for Never
What UAW’s Gary Jones, Teamsters, Conor McGregor have in common: Lawyer
United Auto Workers President Gary Jones, whose home was raided during a nationwide crackdown on auto industry corruption, has hired a criminal defense lawyer who represented the International Brotherhood of Teamsters after the union was linked to organized crime and subjected to government oversight, The Detroit News has learned.
Jones has hired New York lawyer J. Bruce Maffeo, a former state and federal prosecutor, according to two sources familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Maffeo served as outside counsel for the Teamsters during a period of government oversight that lasted more than two decades. That experience is viewed by legal experts as valuable to Jones considering a years-long corruption investigation of the U.S. auto industry that has led to nine convictions, a federal raid at his home and exposed the UAW to the same potential fate as the Teamsters. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2019/09/05/what-uaws-jones-teamsters-conor-mcgregor-have-common-lawyer/2168151001/
Mandela’s Legacy: Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa Spark Calls for Vengeance in Nigeria
At first it looked like dozens of young men and women marching on the highway leading to the international airport here in Nigeria’s capital Wednesday chanting “enough is enough South Africa,” wanted to stage a peaceful protest against recent anti-foreigner attacks in Johannesburg.
But when they began to destroy billboards and set fire to the entrances of a busy mall housing the South African retail store Shoprite, it was obvious that the attackers were out to retaliate for a fresh wave of violence against Nigerian immigrants and Nigerian-owned businesses that began at the start of September.
“We are not going to keep quiet and watch as South Africans slaughter our brothers and sisters who have done nothing wrong but invest in the country and strengthen its economy,” Nnamdi Okechukwu, one of the protesters in Abuja, told The Daily Beast. “This time around, it will be violence for violence and blood for blood.” www.thedailybeast.com/xenophobic-attacks-in-south-africa-spark-calls-for-vengeance-in-nigeria
Spy versus Spy
Thirty-Five Years On: The Mystery of the Grenada Invasion Remains
Thirty-five years ago, in late October, 1983, U.S. troops under the direction of Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada, an island off Venezuela with a population less than Kalamazoo’s.
The invasion of Grenada presaged many of the events that blowback on the US today: unilateral warfare, official deceit about the motives for war, a massive military moving against an imagined foe, stifling the press, leaders proclaiming their guidance from God, denials of human and civil rights, systematic torture and subsequent cover-ups, an unsolved mystery that I will attempt to solve with a bit of speculation-and a hero who refused to go along.
Many of the players in the George W. Bush regime cut their teeth on the invasion of Grenada. Obama and now Trump follow the same lead. It is more than worthwhile to review the events that lead to the invasion, as well as what came next. www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/25/thirty-five-years-on-the-mystery-of-the-grenada-invasion-remains/
The video linked to the FB page below clearly shows Grenadian Soldiers headed to the Fort, riding on the outside of their APC’s, contrary to most reports.
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10159580253820464
Trump Administration Officials at Odds Over C.I.A.’s Role in Afghanistan
Senior White House advisers have proposed secretly expanding the C.I.A.’s presence in Afghanistan if international forces begin to withdraw from the country, according to American officials. But C.I.A. and military officials have expressed reservations, prompting a debate in the administration that could complicate negotiations with the Taliban to end the war.
Some administration officials want C.I.A.-backed militia forces in Afghanistan to serve as part of a counterterrorism force that would prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State or Al Qaeda as American military troops prepare to leave — in effect, an insurance policy.
But others are skeptical that the shadowy militias, many of which face accusations of brutality, can serve as a bulwark against terrorism without the support of the American military.
The C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, has raised logistical concerns about the plan with other administration officials, emphasizing that the agency operatives — who marshal the militias to hunt Taliban, Qaeda and Islamic State militants — largely depend on the military for airstrikes, overhead surveillance, medical support and bomb technicians. www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/us/politics/trump-cia-afghanistan.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The Magical Mystery Tour
US investigation of priest sex abuse produces first charges
Federal prosecutors filed their first charges Thursday in a sweeping investigation of child sexual abuse by clerics in Pennsylvania, accusing a former Catholic priest of lying to the FBI about whether he knew an accuser and his family.
Robert Brennan, 81, was arrested in Maryland and was expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia, authorities said.
Brennan told FBI agents in April that he did not know accuser Sean McIlmail from his years at a northeast Philadelphia parish from 1993 to 2004, according to the indictment.
Brennan was indicted on related state sexual assault charges in 2013, but the case was dropped when McIlmail died of a drug overdose before trial.
His family has settled a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for an undisclosed sum.
A former lawyer for Brennan did not return calls seeking comment. cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/09/05/us-investigation-of-priest-sex-abuse-produces-first-charges/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Depraved Elites Epstein Files: How An Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
New documents show that the M.I.T. Media Lab was aware of Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender, and that Epstein directed contributions to the lab far exceeding the amounts M.I.T. has publicly admitted.
The M.I.T. Media Lab, which has been embroiled in a scandal over accepting donations from the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had a deeper fund-raising relationship with Epstein than it has previously acknowledged, and it attempted to conceal the extent of its contacts with him. Dozens of pages of e-mails and other documents obtained by The New Yorker reveal that, although Epstein was listed as “disqualified” in M.I.T.’s official donor database, the Media Lab continued to accept gifts from him, consulted him about the use of the funds, and, by marking his contributions as anonymous, avoided disclosing their full extent, both publicly and within the university. Perhaps most notably, Epstein appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, including the technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black.
According to the records obtained by The New Yorker and accounts from current and former faculty and staff of the media lab, Epstein was credited with securing at least $7.5 million in donations for the lab, including two million dollars from Gates and $5.5 million from Black, gifts the e-mails describe as “directed” by Epstein or made at his behest. The effort to conceal the lab’s contact with Epstein was so widely known that some staff in the office of the lab’s director, Joi Ito, referred to Epstein as Voldemort or “he who must not be named.” www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein?mbid=social_facebook&utm_source=facebook&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=tny&fbclid=IwAR078DeauNTTUOEpl6WPjqqsrEYXb5AHTx8co3ter7ecZnxibhpRbwrLErU&fbclid=IwAR2tQyIRaA5rFqLp-OjhOdJt3W5dvalkzJwlkZFTENL9WIFXNY2Tl5XxJiA
Harvey Weinstein and disgraced paedophile tycoon Jeffrey Epstein ‘were guests at Princess Beatrice’s lavish £400,000 18th birthday bash at Windsor Castle’
Despite the coming of age party being a tradition for the Royals, it is known that the Queen was not in attendance.
The shamed financier would be arrested eight days later on charges of child prostitution just days later as part of the FBI investigation Operation Leap Year, though he would only serve 13 months after making a plea deal. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7439679/Harvey-Weinstein-paedophile-tycoon-Jeffrey-Epstein-attended-Princess-Beatrices-18th-birthday.html
Hundreds more will be implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, claims Ghislaine Maxwell, as his victims ask judge to open 10,000 pages of secret files detailing the pedophile’s sex crimes
- There are still around 10,000 pages of documents which are yet to be unsealed
- They come from a 2015 lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre Roberts, Epstein’s ‘sex slave’
- She sued him and Ghislaine Maxwell, his British socialite friend and ex-girlfriend
- Maxwell’s attorney told a court on Wednesday that the remaining files implicate ‘literally hundreds of people’
- They are arguing in court over how to release the dump of files
- On Tuesday, one of the people named submitted a letter to the court asking for his name to be protected
Jeffrey Epstein’s Modeling Ties Go Much Deeper Than Victoria’s Secret
Jeffrey Epstein preyed on young women with promises of modeling gigs for Victoria’s Secret, and access to his high-powered connections in the fashion world.
For years, the perverted multimillionaire faced accusations that he sexually abused underage girls brought to him by Jean-Luc Brunel, the owner of the MC2 modeling agency who, according to civil court filings, housed his models in Manhattan apartments owned by Epstein. (Brunel has denied these allegations.)
But Epstein’s ties to the industry run deeper than previously reported.
The financier regularly dropped by the New York offices of one of modeling’s biggest agencies—Next Model Management—according to sources familiar with the business, and lavished funds on charities connected to Next co-owner Faith Kates and her family. Brunel owned a 25 percent stake in Next with his brother, according to previously unreported court documents. And when Brunel’s relationship with Next soured, he and Epstein tried to into deals with the renowned agency Elite Paris.
Michigan man receives permission to import body of rare black rhino he paid $400K to hunt
A Shelby Township man who paid $400,000 to hunt rare black rhino Namibian national park in May 2018 will be allowed to import the rhino’s body, according to the Associated Press.
The Trump administration announced this week that it will issue a permit to the trophy hunter — identified as Chris D. Peyerk of Shelby Township — to import the skin, skull and horns of the rhino. Peyerk Applied for the permit through the Fish and Wildlife Service to import animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. www.mlive.com/news/2019/09/michigan-man-receives-permission-to-import-body-of-rare-black-rhino-he-paid-400k-to-hunt.html
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New Yorker
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So Long
Traitorous Rat Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s strongman ex-president, dies aged 95
The country he finally led to independence was one of the continent’s most promising, and for years Zimbabwe more or less flourished. But when the economy faltered, Mr Mugabe lost his nerve. He implemented a catastrophic land reform programme. Zimbabwe quickly slid into hyperinflation, isolation, and political chaos.
The security forces kept Mr Mugabe and his party, Zanu-PF, in power – mostly through terror. But eventually even the army turned against him, and pushed him out.
Few nations have ever been so bound, so shackled, to one man. For decades, Mugabe was Zimbabwe: a ruthless, bitter, sometimes charming man – who helped ruin the land he loved.
In 2000, he seized land from white owners, and in 2008, used violent militias to silence his political opponents during an election.
He famously declared that only God could remove him from office. www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49604152
Mugabe with counterpart, Mandela.