Rouge Forum Dispatch: Superior to Our Circumstances.
February 14th, 2016 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
Coal Miners fire hand-made rockets at cops during strike in Spain
Miners fire homemade rocket launchers at riot police near the Soton coal mine near Oviedo. Strikes, road blockades, and mine sit-ins continue as 8,000 mine-workers at more than 40 coal mines in northern Spain continue their protests against government plans to cut coal subsidies. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9334383/Coal-miners-fire-rockets-at-police-during-ongoing-strike-in-Spain.html
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Carrier workers shout at boss from the empire……
Detroit: Walkout Met (at last) by the beginnings of Freedom Schools Parents, children and other advocates for quality education, fed up with what they say are unsafe, inadequate schools, gathered on one of the most important days of the year — Count Day — to launch what they call the “Let the Children Come” Freedom School.
It is described as a direct descendant of the Freedom Schools founded in Mississippi in the 1960s during the civil rights era to protest inadequately funded segregated schools.
Parent Aliya Moore brought her two daughters, Chrishawna Jefferson, 14, and Tyliya Wilson, 6, to the makeshift school.
“Initially, when the sickouts began, it was just the teachers who were involved and then the students began the walkouts, but there wasn’t a loud voice for parents,” said Moore. “We support teachers and the elected school board, and we felt having this on Count Day would make the biggest statement because we want to show as stakeholders, we have the power.”
Legitimacy Crisis!
www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/1-trust-in-government-1958-2015/
Govt. acts tough, JNU student leader charged with sedition
As the Centre hardened its position, a Delhi court on Friday remanded Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in three-day police custody. He was arrested on the charge of sedition, after “anti-India” slogans were allegedly raised at the university during a recent protest meeting in memory of Afzal Guru, hanged in 2013 after his conviction in the Parliament attack case.
A case of sedition against several unknown students was lodged at Vasant Kunj (North) police station on Thursday. It was registered under IPC Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons with a common intention). Five more persons are absconding in the case.
The university also initiated action, barring eight students from academic activity pending an enquiry, though they would be allowed to stay as guests in the hostels. www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/jnusu-president-arrested-under-sedition-charges/article8227527.ece
Capitalism and the Efficacy of Education Reform
this philosophical assumption that I am going to posit is the reason the American education system cannot transcend beyond what it always has been. From this position I will argue the following thesis: the American Education system is an implicitly violent and oppressive apparatus that is the dialectical product of – and product for – the promotion and replication of the dominant capitalistic (neoliberal) ideology; that — within the ideological power structures at-hand — cannot and will not have efficacy to transcend itself beyond the paradoxical current state of affairs. That is the long way of saying American education cannot be repaired until the system it is subordinated to is repaired as well. philosophersforchange.org/2016/02/09/capitalism-and-the-efficacy-of-education-reform/
Opposition MPs in South Africa have been thrown out of parliament during President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address for continuous heckling.
The leader of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters MPs said the president has made the country “a joke”.
The speech is seen as a watershed moment for Mr Zuma, who is facing a court case over the use of $23m (£15m) of state money to upgrade his home.
The opposition has rejected Mr Zuma’s offer to repay some of the money.
Before being ejected from parliament in Cape Town, the EFF MPs chanted “Zupta must fall”, referring to the president’s alleged links to the influential Gupta family. www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35550049
94-year-old former guard at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp went on trial Thursday in Germany charged with being an accessory to the murder of thousands, a court official in the German city of Detmold said.
Reinhold Hanning, a former Nazi SS guard, is accused of having assisted the deaths at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between 1943-4, the official said.
CNN affiliate RTL reports that Hanning faces charges of being an accessory in 170,000 murders. www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/europe/germany-auschwitz-guard-trial/
The Curse and Failure of Identity Politics
I think we’ve all had enough of the bullshit: identity politics has been a curse to leftist movements in the U.S. for far too long. How could anyone argue otherwise?
During the Obama years, leftists were chastised for their critiques, with many, including myself, being accused of racism. Racism, really? I’ve spent the last ten years of my life dedicated to progressive social movements, yet I’m a racist because I think that Barack Obama is an imperialist scumbag? Piss off…
Today, the same is happening in the context of Hillary Clinton’s run for U.S. President. Any and all critiques of Hillary are deemed “sexist” by HRC’s bootlickers.
On a recent DemocracyNow! program, Clinton lackey Bertha Lewis (former CEO of ACORN and currently of the Black Institute and Working Families Party of New York) had some profoundly ignorant and misinformed things to say. Of course, none of this is surprising, nor is it really out of the ordinary, but it is disheartening and troublesome.
The best part of the interview was Bertha’s statement that, “If you want to see a revolution, then elect a female president!” Indeed, Bertha may be right: under Thatcher, the U.K. underwent quite a revolution, www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/the-curse-and-failure-of-identity-politics/
When Hillary Clinton spoke to Goldman Sachs executives and technology titans at a summit in Arizona in October of 2013, she spoke glowingly of the work the bank was doing raising capital and helping create jobs, according to people who saw her remarks.
Clinton, who received $225,000 for her appearance, praised the diversity of Goldman’s workforce and the prominent roles played by women at the blue-chip investment bank and the tech firms present at the event. She spent no time criticizing Goldman or Wall Street more broadly for its role in the 2008 financial crisis.
“It was pretty glowing about us,” one person who watched the event said. “It’s so far from what she sounds like as a candidate now. It was like a rah-rah speech. She sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director.” www.politico.com/story/2016/02/clinton-speeches-218969
The Little Red Schoolhouse
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FODBMLQF-w
Wow! Capitalism at UC Berkeley!
With money tight, chancellor says UC Berkeley must ‘reimagine’ its future
A budget deficit at UC Berkeley has hit critical mass and could force a fundamental transformation of the institution, the university’s chancellor announced Wednesday.
In a message to Berkeley students, faculty and staff, Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks said a “new normal” of dwindling taxpayer support would continue to squeeze one of the nation’s premier public research universities and had prompted a sweeping review likely to bring painful change.
Under a months-long strategic planning process, Berkeley will scrutinize its entire workforce, redesign some academic programs, step up fundraising, expand online course offerings and take other steps to cut costs and increase revenue, Dirks said.
In a teleconference with reporters, Dirks declined to specify areas that might be cut but said officials would carefully choose them rather than impose across-the-board reductions.
www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-berkeley-deficit-20160210-story.html
Eastern Illinois University laid off 198 staff members this week, and the college president is blaming the state government.
The cuts impact 13% of the school’s employees. Support staff — like those who work in the food, housing, and building maintenance departments — were the hardest hit. Professors escaped the cuts, but some of the remaining administrative staff members will be required to take one furlough day a week, starting March 1. http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/12/pf/college/illinois-college-layoffs/index.html?iid=EL
Poor Students in Illinois Don’t get stipends, but lottery winners do…
The money for grants awarded to low-income students is tied up while Democratic lawmakers continue to hash it out with a Republican governor over the state’s financial mess — seven months after a budget was due. Without it, Illinois cannot pay out funds for most state programs.
Don’t worry about lottery winners, though. The state found a way to push through the money for them while the budget battle continues. money.cnn.com/2016/01/21/pf/college/illinois-budget-college-grants/index.html?iid=EL
“Kill the Cuddly Bunnies” Prez wants to keep his job
The president of Mount St. Mary’s University defended his tenure at the private college in Maryland in a letter to parents on Wednesday, and he said he had taken “the high road” despite intense public scrutiny of his recent actions.
After two professors were fired Monday — one tenured, one who had been the adviser to the student newspaper when articles critical of the president, Simon Newman, were published — a heated backlash spread not just on campus but nationally. The move was seen by many as retribution for faculty members who had opposed Newman, and a violation of academic freedom. Several national groups criticized it, and a petition calling for the professors’ reinstatement has gotten more than 6,000 digital signatures since it was posted Tuesday.
Newman was a divisive figure on campus before he fired anyone, in large part because he has a vision for the university’s future that would dramatically change it. As he and others at the school have said repeatedly, change can be hard.
And some of Newman’s policies have drawn alarm on campus. Newman was quoted in the student newspaper as saying, in a private conversation with colleagues about his plan to usher out 20 to 25 freshmen early in the fall semester as part of an effort to improve the retention rate at the liberal-arts school, that there would be collateral damage. He said a professor needed to stop thinking of freshmen as cuddly bunnies. www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/10/in-letter-to-parents-mount-st-marys-president-defends-his-tenure-amid-national-backlash/
Films for Action: Who Stole the American Dream?
www.filmsforaction.org/watch/heist_who_stole_the_american_dream/
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
‘This is set to get worse’: Saudi Arabia says it has made a ‘final’ decision to send troops into Syria
Saudi Arabia has made a “final” decision to send ground troops into Syria to fight ISIS, the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition force in Yemen told reporters on Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri said that Riyadh was “ready” to join the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition in Syria, according to Saudi news agency Al Arabiya. He noted, however, that the coalition — which has largely targeted the militants with airstrikes — has not given its final approval on the Saudis’ decision to send ground troops. www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-troops-syria-2016-2
Isis Reaches Indonesia: On January 14, militants killed four civilians and wounded at least 20 in a terrorist attack in Jakarta, in the first successful operation that the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has launched in Southeast Asia. For several months, security officials from several Southeast Asian governments had been warning that ISIS supporters might mount an attack in the region. The signs were ominous: increased chatter on Malay and Indonesian language sites expressing support for ISIS, a steady stream of Southeast Asians departing for conflict zones in Syria and Iraq, and the arrest of ISIS sympathizers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Indonesian counterterrorism authorities had already received intelligence that militants were planning to mount attacks over the holiday period a couple of weeks earlier, which prompted the arrest of several militants and foiled a potential earlier attack.
When it comes to terrorism, it never takes more than one successful attack to trigger panic in society and overreaction by anxious governments. But when the January 14 attack finally did come, the Indonesian people met it with a spirit of defiance, rallying round the hashtag “We Are Not Afraid.” Meanwhile, during a visit to the scene soon after the attacks, Indonesian President Joko Widodo condemned the acts of violence as terrorism www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/indonesia/2016-02-08/isis-reaches-indonesia?cid=nlc-twofa-20160211&sp_mid=50677960&sp_rid=cmdAcmljaGdpYnNvbi5jb20S1&spMailingID=50677960&spUserID=MTI3MzA3Mzc1MjA2S0&spJobID=861380614&spReportId=ODYxMzgwNjE0S0
Panel to VA: Stop studying causes of Gulf War illnesses, focus on treatment
A scientific panel has concluded that the Veterans Affairs Department should stop searching for links between environmental exposures in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and veterans’ illnesses and instead focus on monitoring and treating those who have health problems related to deploying 25 years ago.
In a report released Thursday, Institute of Medicine researchers said Gulf War veterans are at increased risk for developing some physical and psychological health conditions like post-traumatic stress, anxiety, Gulf War illness and chronic fatigue syndrome, but other diseases like cancer, respiratory illnesses and most neurodegenerative conditions do not appear to occur at higher rates in these former troops.
Without concrete information on each Gulf War veteran’s exposure and the unlikely prospect of ever having the data, VA should focus instead on following this group as members age and treat illnesses that develop, panelists said.
According to the report, the federal government has spent more than $500 million since 1994 to study Gulf War veterans’ health but “there has been little substantial progress www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/health-care/2016/02/11/panel-va-stop-studying-causes-gulf-war-illnesses-focus-treatment/80225672/
More U.S. troops heading to Helmand province
American commanders in Afghanistan are sending more U.S. troops to Helmand province in response to a surge in violence as Taliban insurgents seize new ground at the center of the region’s lucrative opium industry, defense officials said.
The additional troops — U.S. officials won’t reveal the precise number — will include some ground-level combat advisers working alongside Afghan special operations forces as well as additional U.S. Army infantry soldiers providing enhanced force protection for the American advisers, officials said.
“We are increasing our number of advisers in Helmand, and the force protection that will be there for those troops will be what is appropriate given the number of troops we have down there,” Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, a U.S. military spokesman
www.navytimes.com/story/military/2016/02/11/more-us-troops-heading-helmand-province/80236342/
the next stop after Baghdad on the Occident Express would be either Damascus or Tehran, that America’s enemies in the region would go down like ten pins, and that the oil heartlands of the planet would become an American dominion. (As the neocon quip of that moment had it, “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”)
It was a hell of a dream, with an emphasis on hell. It would, in fact, prove a nightmare of the first order, and the cameras just kept rolling and rolling for nearly 13 years while (I think it’s time for an acronym here) the FFFIHW, also known as the Finest Fighting Force etc., etc., proved that it could not successfully:
*Defeat determined, if lightly armed, minority insurgencies.
*Train proxy armies to do its bidding.
*Fight a war based on sectarian versions of Islam or a war of ideas.
*Help reconstruct a society in the Greater Middle East, no matter how much money it pumped in.
*Create much of anything but failed states and deeply corrupt ruling elites in the region.
*Bomb an insurgent movement into surrender.
*Drone-kill terror leaders until their groups collapsed.
*Intervene anywhere in the Greater Middle East in just about any fashion, by land or air, and end up with a world in any way to its liking. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176100/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_%22the_finest_fighting_force_in_the_history_of_the_world%22/#more
Navy officer sentenced in ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery case
A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Navy officer to 40 months in prison for providing ships and submarine schedules to a Malaysian contractor in exchange for cash, the services of a prostitute and luxury hotel stays in Singapore, Hong Kong and the island of Tonga.
Lt. Cmdr. Todd Dale Malaki told Judge Janis L. Sammartino that he regretted his actions before he was sentenced Friday in San Diego.
Malaki is among nine defendants who have pleaded guilty to bribery charges including the case’s central figure, Singapore-based executive Leonard Francis. The gregarious businessman bribed Navy officials with extravagant gifts to obtain information that helped his Glenn Defense Marine Asia bilk the Navy out of at least $20 million, according to the criminal complaint. Francis is awaiting sentencing.
Only one defendant is still fighting the charges. Prosecutors have suggested there still could be arrests in the ongoing investigation that has rocked one of the world’s largest Navy fleets.
Sammartino told the court that a more significant sentence was warranted because of Malaki’s long-term corruption over more than seven years www.navytimes.com/story/military/crime/2016/01/29/malaki-sentenced-fat-leonard-bribery-case/79533754/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Economic Stagnation Crisis, in Finance and Industry: “We will force you to consume or by casino/stocks—
A decade ago, negative interest rates were a theoretical curiosity that economists would discuss almost as a parlor game. Two years ago, it began showing up as an unconventional step that a few small countries considered. Now, it is the stated policy of some of the most powerful global central banks, including the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.
On Thursday, Sweden’s central bank lowered its bank lending rate to a negative 0.5 percent from a negative 0.35 percent, and said it could cut further still; European bank stocks were hammered partly because investors feared what negative rates could do to bank profits. The Federal Reserve chairwoman, Janet Yellen, acknowledged in congressional testimony Wednesday and Thursday that the American central bank was taking a look at the strategy, though she emphasized no such move was envisioned.
But as negative rates — in which depositors pay to hold money in bank accounts — become a more common fixture, there are many unknowns about what these policies mean for finance, for the economy and even for the definition of money….
The global financial system is built on an assumption of above-zero interest rates. Going below zero could cause damage to the very architecture by which money and credit zoom through the economy, and in turn inhibit growth.
Banks could cease to be viable businesses, eliminating a key way that money is channeled from savers to productive investments. Money market mutual funds, widely used in the United States, could well cease to exist. Insurance companies and pension funds could face their own major strains.
In a speech last year, Hervé Hannoun, then the deputy general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, even argued that this could “over time encourage the use of alternative virtual currencies, undermining the foundations of the financial system as we know it today.” www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/upshot/negative-interest-rates-are-spreading-across-the-world-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html?_r=0
As the Chinese economy stumbles, wealthy families are increasingly trying to move large sums of money out of the country, worried that the value of the currency will fall and their savings will be worth less.
To get around the country’s cash controls, individuals are asking friends or family members to carry or transfer out $50,000 apiece, the annual legal limit in China. A group of 100 people can move $5 million overseas.
The practice is called Smurfing, named after the blue, mushroom-dwelling cartoon characters, and it is part of an exodus of capital that is casting doubt on China’s economic prospects and shaking global markets. Over the last year, companies and individuals have moved nearly $1 trillion from China.
Some methods are perfectly legal, like investing in real estate elsewhere, buying businesses overseas and paying off debts owed in dollars. Others, like Smurfing, are more dubious, and in certain cases, outright illegal. Chinese customs officials caught a woman last year trying to leave the mainland with $250,000 strapped to her chest and thighs and hidden inside her shoes. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/business/dealbook/chinese-start-to-lose-confidence-in-their-currency.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
CIA Asset Gloria Steinman and Mass Murderer Albright Scold Women backing Social Nationalist Sanders Young women, in particular, have been drawn to the septuagenarian socialist from Vermont, and the dynamic has disappointed feminists who dreamed of Mrs. Clinton’s election as a capstone to the movement.
Two feminist icons of Mrs. Clinton’s generation made their frustration known over the weekend, calling on young women who view Mr. Sanders as their candidate to essentially grow up and get with the program.
While introducing Mrs. Clinton at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, talked about the importance of electing the first female president. In a dig at the “revolution” that Mr. Sanders often speaks of, she said that the first female commander in chief would be a true revolution. And she scolded any woman who felt otherwise. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/us/politics/gloria-steinem-madeleine-albright-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Final Shots: the Clintons and Colombian Death Squads
If ever there was a couple who left a sour taste in the mouth by the manner of their parting it was surely Bill and Hillary Clinton. From time to time, against our better judgment, we’ve tried to summon some sympathy for them, and time after time they’ve brusquely brought us back to Earth with some bleak reminder of their all-round rottenness.
Try Colombia.
Less than 48 hours before Bill and Hillary quit the White House, with a legal deal covering his own ass, his administration announced that it would employ a highly questionable legal interpretation of “Plan Colombia”–the $1.3 billion in aid going mostly to the Colombian military. The interpretation allowed the administration to dodge entirely any certification or waiver of human rights conditions attached to the aid, thus circumventing the whole certification process in providing money to the Colombian government. www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/04/final-shots-the-clintons-and-colombian-death-squads/
When Hillary Clinton spoke to Goldman Sachs executives and technology titans at a summit in Arizona in October of 2013, she spoke glowingly of the work the bank was doing raising capital and helping create jobs, according to people who saw her remarks.
Clinton, who received $225,000 for her appearance, praised the diversity of Goldman’s workforce and the prominent roles played by women at the blue-chip investment bank and the tech firms present at the event. She spent no time criticizing Goldman or Wall Street more broadly for its role in the 2008 financial crisis.
“It was pretty glowing about us,” one person who watched the event said. “It’s so far from what she sounds like as a candidate now. It was like a rah-rah speech. She sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director.”
The entire community is living in fear — all because Governor Rick Snyder wanted to save money, and switched the city’s water supply from one of the largest and cleanest water supplies in the world to the highly corrosive Flint River.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s Governor has been cozying up with Nestlé, allowing it to pump 200 gallons of fresh water every minute out of the state’s reserves.
Nestlé is the largest owner of private water sources in Michigan — water the people of Flint sorely need – and the water-guzzling corporation has deep ties to Governor Rick Snyder’s office. This is the same office that thought nothing off undermining the public system that was supposed to keep the people of Flint safe.
Deb Muchmore, the head spokesperson for Nestlé Michigan, is married to Governor Snyder’s chief of staff. community.sumofus.org/petitions/while-flint-drinks-poison-nestle-is-pumping-out-200-gallons-of-fresh-water-every-minute?source=facebook-share-button&time=1455056389
Diverse Group of Adults Face SNAP Cutoff This Year
Some 500,000 to 1 million childless adults will be cut off SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) over the course of 2016 as a three-month limit on benefits for unemployed childless adults returns in most areas of the country. This is a diverse, struggling, and underserved group, as we explain in a new paper that addresses some basic questions about the adults who may face the time limit, based on a review of research since it was first imposed as part of the 1996 welfare law.
This demographically diverse population has multiple barriers to independence and self-sufficiency. About 45 percent are women and close to one-third are over 40 years old. Among those who report their race, about half are white, a third are African American, and a tenth are Hispanic. About a quarter have less than a high school education, and more than half have only a high school diploma or GED. Some are veterans, and some are non-custodial parents. They live in all areas of the country less than 40 percent live in urban areas.
Helped by falling oil prices, airlines are reporting record profits, but for many passengers this sudden bonanza has meant little more than extra bags of free peanuts and pretzels.
The four biggest domestic carriers — American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — together earned about $22 billion in profits last year, a stunning turnaround after a decade of losses, bankruptcies and cutbacks. A big reason for this is the plunging price of jet fuel, which now costs only a third of what it did just two years ago. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/business/energy-environment/airlines-reap-record-profits-and-passengers-get-peanuts.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Swedish Bank Move Creates a Global Shudder
What if the bazooka is shooting blanks?
Since the financial crisis, it has been gospel for many investors that some combination of actions by central banks — bond buying, bold promises or flirtations with negative interest rates — would be enough to keep the global economy out of recession.
But investors’ distress over the latest volley by a major central bank, the surprise decision on Thursday by the Swedish central bank to lower its short-term rate to minus 0.50 percent from minus 0.35 percent, has heightened fears that brazen actions by central bankers are now making things worse, not better.
Global stock markets sank, the price of oil plunged to a 13-year low and investors fled to safe haven instruments like gold and United States Treasury bills.
Markets generally embrace conviction and run away from indecision — which is what many see in the policy making of some of the large central banks these days. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/business/dealbook/swedish-bank-move-creates-a-global-shudder.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Gap Between Rich And Poor Named 8th Wonder Of The World
At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially recognized the Gap Between Rich and Poor as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” describing the global wealth divide as the “most colossal and enduring of mankind’s creations.”
“Of all the epic structures the human race has devised, none is more staggering or imposing than the Gap Between Rich and Poor,” committee chairman Henri Jean-Baptiste said. “It is a tremendous, millennia-old expanse that fills us with both wonder and humility.”
“And thanks to careful maintenance through the ages, this massive relic survives intact, instilling in each new generation a sense of awe,” Jean- Baptiste added.
The vast chasm of wealth, which stretches across most of the inhabited world, attracts millions of stunned observers each year, many of whom have found its immensity too overwhelming even to contemplate. By far the largest man-made structure on Earth, it is readily visible from locations as far-flung as Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and Brazil, as well as all 50 U.S. states. www.theonion.com/article/gap-between-rich-and-poor-named-8th-wonder-of-the–18914
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement
Stingray! Covert cellphone tracking devices, which have proliferated in law enforcement agencies across the nation, have been used by the New York Police Department on at least 1,000 occasions since 2008 in the course of investigating rapes, murders and other crimes as well as searching for missing people, according to documents obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The documents, which the civil liberties group released publicly on Thursday morning, offers the first glimpse into how the nation’s largest municipal police department has used the surveillance devices, known as StingRays, as frequently as 200 times a year, while avoiding any public debate or any major courtroom review of the constitutionality of what it was doing. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/nyregion/new-york-police-dept-cellphone-tracking-stingrays.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Forensic experts reject Mexico’s claim that criminals burned missing students
Independent forensic experts have rejected the Mexican government’s investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers, concluding that there is no physical evidence to support the attorney general’s claim that the missing students’ bodies were incinerated at a rubbish dump.
Investigators from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) combed through the dump near the town of Cocula in the state of Guerrero but found nothing to suggest a single fire was ignited the night of the students’ disappearance.
And while the remains of 19 bodies were found at the dump, there was no evidence to conclude they included the missing students, said the team’s report, released in Mexico City on Tuesday.
The findings further discredit the Mexican government’s handling of one of the most notorious crimes in Latin America’s recent history. A federal investigation concluded that the students from the Ayotzinapa training college were killed by criminals before their bodies were destroyed on a bonfire of tyres that burned for 60 hours before their ashes were thrown into the nearby San Juan river. www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/09/missing-student-teachers-ayotzinapa-mexico-investigation-evidence-dump?CMP=twt_gu
A fight between two inmates at a penitentiary in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey escalated into a riot early Thursday that left 52 prisoners dead, the state governor said.
The trouble began just before midnight at the Topo Chico Prison when the two men, identified only as Jorge Ivan “N” and Juan Pedro “N,” began fighting, said Gov. Jaime Rodríguez Calderón of Nuevo León.
As the violence spread, prisoners set fire to the prison warehouse.
It remained unclear precisely how the inmates had died.
Twelve inmates were reported injured in the uproar at the prison, the oldest in Nuevo León.
Initial news reports said that the riot had broken out as part of an escape attempt, but the government said on its Twitter feed that none of the inmates had escaped.
“We are living through tragedy due to the conditions in the prisons,” Governor Rodríguez said at a news conference in Monterrey. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/americas/topo-chico-prison-mexico-riot.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Torture Center Commandant, Convicted, Keeps Fat Pension Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca could lose his freedom for up to six months when he is sentenced in federal court in May, but there’s one thing he won’t forfeit — his county pension.
Reforms enacted in 2013 to strip pensions from public employees who commit job-related felonies will have little effect, if any, on the roughly $328,000 annual benefit owed to Baca, who pleaded guilty this week to lying to federal officials investigating corruption and brutality by deputies at the Los Angeles County jail….
agents found evidence of assaults, including attacks on a mentally ill inmate and a man visiting a jailed relative. More than a dozen former sheriff’s officials have been convicted of charges related to the beatings and attempts to cover them up. Baca is to be sentenced May 16 by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson.
Baca, who stepped down in 2014, was initially eligible for a monthly pension of $26,961, a sum that has been adjusted twice for inflation. The former sheriff’s current monthly benefit is about $27,300, of which he collects $19,447, with the remainder paid to his ex-wife in accordance with a court-approved dissolution agreement, Rademacher said. www.latimes.com/local/countygovernment/la-me-baca-pension-20160212-story.html
Pentagon Releases Its Most innocuous photos from their Iraq and Afghan Torture Centers, others still secret www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704800-Photos-Previously-Certified-Under-the-Protected.html
The Ticker: count of people shot by police (118 so far this year) www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database
Solidarity for Never
Dull normal UTLA members vote to enrich their overseers: a rallying cry went out from the leaders of Los Angeles teachers’ union: We need more money to fight the rich and powerful forces that want to take over public schools.
Members have responded by agreeing to raise their annual dues by about a third, to $1,000 a year.
The increase was approved by 82% of those who cast ballots, according to United Teachers Los Angeles, which tallied the votes Wednesday.
Union President Alex Caputo-Pearl said the additional money is needed to fight well-funded opponents, including foundations and wealthy donors who have sought to reduce teacher job protections, limit union fundraising and spur the growth of nonunion charter schools. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-utla-dues-increase-20160210-story.html
False Flag Op:California State University faculty union announces potential system-wide strikes
The union representing faculty from California State University, the nation’s largest university system, announced Monday the dates of two potential strikes in April.
For the last two years, the California Faculty Association (CFA) has waged a “Fight for Five”— a 5% general salary increase for all faculty, according to a statement on its website. Chancellor Timothy White and CSU management have repeatedly rejected the increase, it reads, and instead have offered only a 2% raise.
The strikes would take place on April 13-15 and April 18-19. Around 26,000 university employees are expected to participate, affecting the some 470,000 students enrolled in the system’s 23 campuses.
“We’ve said all along that we don’t want to strike, but we will if we have to,” CFA President Jennifer Eagan said in the statement. “We must take a stand so that we can support our families, protect our profession, and provide high quality education for our students.” college.usatoday.com/2016/02/10/california-state-university-strike/
Teamsters pension crisis driving deep cuts for retirees
The Central States fund said it covers 24,205 current retirees in Michigan — and 13,179 now face benefit reductions. Reduced pension benefits also would hit about 18,757 plan participants in Michigan who are not yet retired.
Nationwide, the proposed cuts by Central States trustees would affect about 270,000 people.
If the plan is approved as submitted, many retirees said they may receive only half of what they receive now in retirement checks. Others — who worked at some point for companies that went out of business — have reported being told of deeper cuts to their existing pension checks ranging up to 70%.
Under the law, some plan participants’ benefits cannot be reduced at all, including retirees 80 years of age and older (partial protection beginning at age 75), and participants receiving disability benefits.
Those good times in the Teamsters Union Jackie Presser was carried like a Caesar in a sedan chair borne by four weightlifters dressed as Roman centurions in togas and red-plumed gold helmets. It was not an easy task; Presser weighs 300 pounds.
After making a brief speech, with martial music in the background, Presser was carried out of the reception the same way. The crowd loved it.
Presser’s election was the second time in five years that the Teamsters have elected as president a man under indictment.
Presser’s predecessor, Roy Williams, was elected at the 1981 convention after he was indicted on charges of bribing a senator. Williams was convicted in 1983, clearing the way for Presser to be appointed to the top job.
Presser is the fourth of the last five Teamsters presidents to be indicted. The three who stood trial were convicted — Dave Beck, Jimmy Hoffa and Williams, now in a federal prison hospital. www.upi.com/Archives/1986/05/25/At-the-Teamsters-convention-a-Presser-personality-cult/1024517377600/
Selling labor peace for…among Teamster officers, Presser can do no wrong, judging from numerous interviews with convention delegates. They describe him as a hard-working union leader and believe he has been wrongly accused of crimes, victimized by overzealous prosecutors and unfairly attacked by the news media.
Underscoring Presser’s popularity, the convention today resoundingly defeated a proposal by union dissidents to cut Presser’s salary by $100,000 and prohibit him from collecting multiple union salaries that bring him more than $500,000 a year.
Several delegates, in fact, proposed a raise to $1 million for Presser, already the nation’s highest-paid union officer. “I see $1 million as too low for you, for the kind of guff you have to take,” Jack Mendelson, a Toledo union officer, told Presser. www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/05/21/presser-gets-regal-reception/6894552b-adfb-412c-bae2-409264733692/
Above, pathological liars Hillbillary and Lily Garcia, boss of NEA. Both would climb a tree to tell a lie.
Spy versus Spy
John Brennan, CIA director, withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the first Obama administration over concerns about his support for the use of waterboarding by the CIA under President George W. Bush
American and British authorities say police in the United Kingdom have arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges that he’s the hacker who bluffed his way into the AOL email account of CIA Director John Brennan and got a look at some Comcast account information for DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.
The teen was arrested Tuesday in the East Midlands on various computer crime charges …
The hacker, calling himself “Cracka” posted emails taken from Brennan’s AOL account last October.
Brennan said in October that he was outraged that someone hacked his personal email account and publicized sensitive data, including his contact list and his wife’s social security number.
The hacker has said he is a high school student protesting U.S. policy. He said he fooled Verizon into providing him access to Brennan’s account.
Brennan denied any impropriety on his part www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teen-accused-hacking-cia-dhs-chiefs-info-arrested-n517581
Iraqi militias who once fought ISIS with U.S. help are now working with Russian and Iranian forces to crush American-backed rebels in the strategic Syrian city of Aleppo, two defense officials have told The Daily Beast.
At least three Shia militias involved in successful battles against ISIS in Iraq—the Badr Brigade, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and the League of the Righteous—have acknowledged taking casualties in fighting in south and southeast Aleppo province. U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Daily Beast that they believe “at least one” unit of the Badr Brigade is fighting in southern Aleppo alongside other Iraqi militia groups. Those groups are backed by Russian airpower and Iranian troops—and all of whom are bolstering President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army.
Reports on social media say the Iraqi militias in Syria are armed with U.S. tanks and small arms they procured on the Iraqi side of the border www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/12/exclusive-u-s-allies-now-fighting-cia-backed-rebels.html
The Magical Mystery Tour
Medieval Superstitious fanatics with funny outfits kiss in the Caudillo’s Cuba
Arizona mayor forcibly removes Jewish rabbi who objected to Christian-based invocation
After sexually abusing children for decades, Catholic brother lives under the radar in Hawaii
www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-serial-molester-20160212-story.html
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
The California Coastal Commission, the powerful agency that regulates development in 1,100 miles of scenic mountains, cliffs and beaches along the Pacific Ocean, voted Wednesday night to fire its executive director, handing a defeat to environmentalists who had fought the move.
The vote came after hundreds of people crowded a hearing hall in Morro Bay and warned that firing the director would open the way for developers seeking to build on some of the most striking property in the nation.
The vote to dismiss the executive director, Charles Lester, was 7 to 5. It came after the commission listened to hundreds of witnesses, nearly all of them in support of retaining Mr. Lester, and then recessed into a closed session. www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/us/california-coastal-commission-votes-to-fire-executive-director.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Social Nationalists blather at each other:
Debate highlights:
- Borrowing language from her opponent, Mrs Clinton said the economy was “rigged” in favour of the rich.
- Mr Sanders took aim at mass incarceration, promising if elected the US would no longer have the largest prison population in the world.
- Mrs Clinton contended that Mr Sanders’ sweeping proposals would increase the size of the government by 40%.
- Mr Sanders spoke more authoritatively on foreign policy, a weakness in earlier debates.
- Asked to name a foreign leader they admired, Mr Sanders pointed to (racist imperialist) Winston Churchill while Mrs Clinton selected (repugnant sellout CPer) Nelson Mandela.
Mrs Clinton is trying to rebuild her campaign after Mr Sanders decisively won the New Hampshire primary.
She received a much-needed endorsement from an influential bloc of black Democrats in Congress on Thursday. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35554518
Scalia Dead Following 30-Year Battle With Social Progress
So Long