We Say Fight Back!

DPS students walk out in protest, many hit with suspensions

Administrators threatened to suspend anyone who participated in the protests, but the kids stood their ground and emptied the halls anyway.

They say did it to get the state’s attention and support their teachers.

Students spilled onto the street as Communication and Media Arts high schoolers walked out, standing up for their teachers – and their education despite a five-day suspension handed down by principal Donya Odom.

“I got suspended for five days for an American right,” said Tarik Jackson. “That’s ridiculous.”…

said Jalon Nelson. “Because we deserve books, we deserve money, we deserve better education and we’re not getting it and  if you’re going to stop us from standing up for our rights – we’re going to go. Because Dr. King would have done the same thing.”

Jalon Nelson is senior class president  and he couldn’t even show FOX 2 one of his outdated books because there aren’t enough to go around.

“The textbooks can only stay in class and they expect us to take pictures of it to use while we’re at home,” Nelson said. “It’s unacceptable – we deserve better – it’s time for a change.”

Over at Renaissance High School, students also staged a walkout. This protest was joined by parents.  www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/82368501-story

Video: DPS Cass Tech Walkout on 1/25  www.facebook.com/trinere.bass/videos/vb.100005007788927/562257507284504/?type=2&theater

The only ILLEGAL Strike is a Strike that Fails:

DPS denied injunction against teachers

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Cynthia Stephens today denied Detroit Public Schools’ request for a temporary restraining order against teachers participating in sick-outs, saying she needs more information and that there’s no proof that the union or individual activists organized the sick-outs.

She set another hearing for Feb. 16, telling attorneys on both sides to identify witnesses and submit briefs.

DPS attorney George Butler had argued earlier that teachers are not allowed to strike under the law.

“We are not interested in a witch hunt,” Butler said.

Many teachers sitting in the packed courtroom wore red as a display of unity.

Outside, before the hearing started at Cadillac Place, about 100 protesters carried signs and shouted chants.

“This didn’t just happen overnight. There have been problems for a long time,” said Joann Jackson of Detroit, who marched in support of the teachers along with two of her grandchildren, who both attend DPS.

DPS filed a lawsuit last week against 28 defendants, including teachers, various grassroots groups, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, interim DFT president Ivy Bailey and ousted president Steve Conn. www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/01/25/dps-hearing/79250198/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2SpckZ6uPs

Who Knew? City finds heat, electric issues, rodents at DPS sites

Mold and rodent abatement, and heating and electrical repairs are among the corrective actions being ordered for several ailing Detroit Public Schools buildings, according to inspection documents released Monday.

The findings, along with calls to replace peeling paint, broken glass and water-damaged ceiling tiles, were outlined in the first wave of building inspection reports completed in an ongoing inspection of all the district’s buildings plus Detroit charter schools, to be completed by spring.

The inspections began Jan. 12 at Spain Elementary Middle School, where an inspector listed 16 violations including damage to the ceiling, wall and floor of the gymnasium, rodents, loose door frames, missing floor tiles, broken glass, water damage and mold. The fixes must be made on or before Feb. 16, the correction order says.

At Spain, a separate health inspection conducted by the city’s health department, assisted by DPS’ environmental division, found mold growing under wood flooring in the gym, with possible diffusion of mold spores throughout the building. Evidence of vermin infestation, including fecal matter and carcasses, was seen in various rooms.  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2016/01/25/first-wave-dps-building-inspections-released/79301750/

Who Knew? Detroit and the International War of the Rich on the Poor

Every Detroit teacher was fired in the fall of 2012.

Apparently, the nation did not notice. Hence, this story.

On March 26, 2013, 78% of the voting members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers ratified a contract which DFT president, Keith Johnson, called, “terrible.”

The contract mirrors, does not improve, an edict imposed on the union by an “Emergency Manager,” Roy Roberts, a black 74-year-old former manager at the failed General Motors corporation, once the most powerful company in the world now commonly called Government Motors. Roberts was appointed by Michigan Governor Snyder, effectively setting aside all the key actions of the elected Detroit School Board–the third state takeover in 25 years. None of them repaired the school system.

The DFT contract, though, does allow the union to continue to collect dues, the pacified labor of its members sold to Roberts for the term of the contract. DFT president Johnson will continue to receive his $142,000 salary as the rank and file accept another set of wage and benefit concessions.

Concessions, DFT members should have learned, don’t save jobs. Beginning in 1996, the DFT made concession on concession until, in the fall of 2012, every Detroit public school teacher was effectively fired and forced to reapply for a position.  www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/28/detroit-and-the-international-war-of-the-rich-on-the-poor/

Three arrested, several maced as student walkouts escalate

A large number of the student body at East English Village Prep Academy walked out of school on Wednesday. The students were doing so in support of teachers who have been protesting conditions at Detroit Public Schools for several weeks.

The students were marching down Harper around noon Wednesday when suddenly, chaos erupted.

One activist from the group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) was maced in the eyes and cried out for help. He got some tissues and and water started wiping it off. Two men, both activists from BAMN, and a female teacher from East English Village were all under arrest.

The students said it was a peaceful protest until police arrived.

“They pulled up on us. They kept yelling ‘get out, move, get out, go back to school, take your a-s-ses back to school’,” Erica Power said she was also hit with mace. “They came up on us. They started macing our teachers, they maced me and it was just all chaos.  www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/82850519-story

Gov. Rick Snyder: “People Want To Have Me Shot”

Outrage is building over the Flint Water Crisis. People across the country are weighing in- and pointing the finger at Governor Rick Snyder.

The Governor says he is well aware of the outrage. He said “People want to have me shot. Well, that’s true. So again, that doesn’t help solve the problem”.  www.wilx.com/home/headlines/GovRick-Snyder-People-Want-To-Have-Me-Shot-366689861.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WILX_News_10&device=tablet&c=y

We’re excited to announce The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution will premiere on PBS Independent Lens during Black History Month on Tuesday, February 16th at 9:00pm EST (check your local listings). Over the next few weeks, the film will travel with Indie Lens Pop-Up to participate in over 40 neighborhood conversations across the country. The Black Panthers is a historical documentary that enables deeper understanding of the contemporary social justice issues we face today. Tune-in with us on 2/16 and join the live conversation on Twitter via #BlackPanthersPBS. http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=49ff31bd6a218e1de82e5b47a&id=a9e58d6246

 

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Jamie Dimon Wants your kids too Rethinking the Usual Education Paths to Address Youth Unemployment
By: Freeman Hrabowski and Jamie Dimon

This piece was originally published in USA Today.

As President of one of America’s leading educational institutions and CEO of one of the world’s largest financial firms, we see the world through two very different lenses.

But there is one challenge that we both see clearly and are deeply concerned about: too many young people are not on a path to meaningful employment that will enable them to join the middle class. We see it when students drop out of school and struggle to obtain even a minimum wage job. And we see it when well-paying technical jobs go unfilled because applicants don’t have the necessary skills.

Millions of Americans have come to appreciate the value of four-year college degrees. These degrees remain as important as ever. Yet only half of high school graduates who go on to four-year colleges end up completing a bachelor’s degree within six years. Young people of color and those who come from low-income families fare even worse.1

The social and economic challenges these young people face have been exacerbated by the growing economic crisis of high inner-city unemployment and low high-school graduation rates.

The result is truly a national tragedy: today, over five million young people, including one in five African-Americans and Latinos, are neither working nor in school.2 The youth unemployment rate is over 11 percent; for young African Americans it jumps to over 20 percent.3 With many young people out of work or stuck in dead-end, low-wage and low-skills jobs, economic growth slows and social challenges increase.  www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/news/stories/newskillsforyouth-education.htm

Chula Vista- South Bay Union School District Board President Barbara Elliott-Sanders stunned hundreds of parents, educators and community members at the outset of the January 21 board meeting by gaveling down a boisterous crowd and stating in direct violation of law that “…our meeting is to conduct the business of the district. It is our meeting. It is not a meeting for the public.” South Bay residents reacted with displeasure and joined in a chorus of “boos” that appear to represent a community that feels a disconnect with its board members and district administration. The complete quote appears below:

“Speaking as the President of the Board, we are extremely interested in the diversity of the audience and the diversity of the voices to be heard. But I do want to- maybe some of you know this maybe some of you are not aware- that the purpose of this meeting is for the school board to conduct its business. We are a meeting that is happening (boos from audience) We are a meeting, our meeting is to conduct the business of the district. It is our meeting. It is not a meeting for the public.”

A disappointed Southwest Teachers Association (SWTA) President Lorie Garcia stated, “The lack of understanding of the board president regarding the general public’s ownership and control of its local schools is troubling….propubliced.com/2016/01/28/south-bay-school-district-in-legal-trouble/

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

A protester in a skull mask and wearing an American flag holds up the late-afternoon edition of the San Francisco Examiner during a demonstration in downtown San Francisco on January 16, 1991. Thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown San Francisco calling for a peaceful solution to the Gulf crisis. The San Francisco protests turned violent, with protesters burning a police car. Paul Sakuma/AP

Photos From the First Time We Invaded Iraq  www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/desert-storm-launched-25-years-ago

Pentagon officials have concluded that hundreds more trainers, advisers and commandos from the United States and its allies will need to be sent to Iraq and Syria in the coming months as the campaign to isolate the Islamic State intensifies.

In meetings with President Obama’s national security team in recent weeks, military officials have told the White House that they believe they have made significant progress in the fight against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, administration officials said. But to deal a lasting blow to the extremist Sunni militancy, also known as ISIS and ISIL, they believe that additional forces will be needed to work with Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian opposition fighters on the ground in the two countries.  In the past, the Pentagon’s requests for additional troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan have been met with skepticism by Mr. Obama, and his aides have said he has resented what he has regarded as efforts to pressure him. But the rise of the Islamic State has alarmed the White House, and a senior administration official said Thursday that the president is willing to consider raising the stakes in both Iraq and Syria.www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/world/middleeast/more-is-needed-to-beat-isis-us-military-concludes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

U.S. was supposed to leave Afghanistan by 2017. Now it might take decades

U.S. military commanders, who only a few months ago were planning to pull the last American troops out of Afghanistan by year’s end, are now quietly talking about an American commitment that could keep thousands of troops in the country for decades.

The shift in mind-set, made possible by President Obama’s decision last fall to cancel withdrawal plans, reflects the Afghan government’s vulnerability to continued militant assault and concern that terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda continue to build training camps whose effect could be felt far beyond the region, said senior military officials.

The new American outlook marks a striking change for Obama, who campaigned on a promise to bring American troops home and has said repeatedly that he does not support the “idea of endless war.” And it highlights a major shift for the American military, which has spent much of the past decade racing to hit milestones as part of its broader “exit strategy” from Afghanistan and Iraq. These days, that phrase has largely disappeared from the military’s lexicon.

In its place, there is a broad recognition in the Pentagon that building an effective Afghan army and police force will take a generation’s commitment, including billions of dollars a year in outside funding and constant support from thousands of foreign advisers on the ground.

“What we’ve learned is that you can’t really leave,” said a senior Pentagon official with extensive experience in Afghanistan and Iraq  www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/26/the-u-s-was-supposed-to-leave-afghanistan-by-2017-now-it-might-take-decades/

Afghanistan’s army being ‘rebuilt’ to fight Taliban, U.S. general says

After months of ferocious fighting, Afghan army units battling the Taliban in southern Helmand province are facing major restructuring and leadership changes, with several key commanders being replaced, a U.S. military official said Monday.

Helmand has been a fierce battleground since last fall, with fighting taking place in 10 districts. At times, the insurgents have laid siege on army bases and threatened to overrun large chunks of territory. Local officials have called for help from central authorities and complained publicly over corruption that includes syphoning off salaries, food, fuel and equipment.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, the head of public affairs for the U.S.-NATO mission, told The Associated Press that the Afghan army corps in Helmand is now being “rebuilt” and that senior officers are being replaced.

The reasons for the changes in the Afghan army’s 215 Maiwand Corps “are a combination of incompetence, corruption and ineffectiveness,” Shoffner said. The corps’ commander has been replaced, along with “some brigade commanders and some key corps staff up to full colonel level,” he said.

Helmand is a strategic region for the Taliban, as it as it shares a border of more than 250 kilometers (155 miles) with Pakistan. It grows large quantities of opium, used to produce most of the world’s heroin. The harvest is worth up to $3 billion a year, and helps fund the insurgency.  www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/01/25/afghanistans-army-being-rebuilt-fight-taliban-us-general-says/79291430/

Dunford Discusses ISIL, ‘Decisive Action’ in Libya With French Counterpart

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today that he and his French counterpart discussed the fight against the core Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as the framework against ISIL terrorists in Libya.

Speaking to reporters after talks with his French counterpart, Gen. Pierre de Villiers, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. described France as an “extraordinarily capable partner” in the fight against core ISIL and in the broader fight.

As a member of the coalition fighting ISIL, France conducts airstrikes against terrorist targets, and recently sent its aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle into the fight. Some 3,500 French troops are deployed in the effort, with 3,500 more French troops fighting against terrorists in sub-Saharan Africa.

‘Decisive Military Action’ in Libya

Dunford said he and de Villiers discussed the framework for military action in Libya against ISIL terrorists.  www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/644249/dunford-discusses-isil-decisive-action-in-libya-with-french-counterpart

Pentagon won’t punish David Petraeus any further in sex-and-secrets scandal

Retired U.S. Army general David H. Petraeus arrives at a Senate Armed Services Committee in September 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
By Craig Whitlock and Adam Goldman January 30 at 12:31 PM

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has decided not to impose any further punishment on David H. Petraeus, the former CIA director and retired Army general who was forced to resign in a sex-and-secrets scandal in 2012.

In a brief letter sent Friday to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon reported that Carter had agreed with the Army’s recommendation not to discipline Petraeus.

“Given the Army’s review, Secretary Carter considers this matter closed,” Stephen C. Hedger, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, said in the three-sentence letter, obtained by The Washington Post. The letter did not elaborate….

As part of Petraeus’s plea deal with the Justice Department, he admitted in a signed statement that he had committed wrongdoing while he was still in the Army before he retired in 2011 to take charge of the CIA.

He also admitted that he lied to FBI agents.

Specifically, Petraeus acknowledged providing eight notebooks that contained highly classified material to his biographer, Paula Broadwell, in the waning days of his Army career. Petraeus has also admitted to having an affair with Broadwell.  www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-decides-no-further-punishment-warranted-for-petraeus/2016/01/30/b503348e-c767-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_petraeus-1144am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Playing number games with war deaths: Mainstream media’s double standard in reporting civilian casualties

There’s a double standard in how the U.S. mainstream media reports civilian deaths depending if the U.S. military is fighting the wars or not, accepting absurdly low numbers when the U.S. is at fault and hyping death tolls when “enemies” are involved, a manipulation of human tragedy, says Nicolas J S Davies.

How many people have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia? On Nov. 18, a UN press briefing on the war in Yemen declared authoritatively that it had so far killed 5,700 people, including 830 women and children. But how precise are these figures, what are they based on, and what relation are they likely to bear to the true numbers of people killed?

Throughout the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, the media has cited UN updates comparing numbers of Afghans killed by “coalition forces” and the “Taliban.” Following the U.S. escalation of the war in 2009 and 2010, a report by McClatchy in March 2011 was headlined, “UN: U.S.-led forces killed fewer Afghan civilians last year.” It reported a 26 percent drop in U.S.-led killing of Afghan civilians in 2010, offset by a 28 percent increase in civilians killed by the “Taliban” and “other insurgents.”

This was all illustrated in a neat pie-chart slicing up the extraordinarily low reported total of 2,777 Afghan civilians killed in 2010 at the peak of the U.S.-led escalation of the war.

Neither the UN nor the media made any effort to critically examine this reported decrease in civilians killed by U.S.-led forces, even as U.S. troop strength peaked at 100,000 in August 2010. Pentagon data showed a 22 percent increase in U.S. air strikes, from 4,163 in 2009 to 5,100 in 2010, andU.S. special forces “kill or capture” raids exploded from 90 in November 2009 to 600 per month by the summer of 2010, and eventually to over 1,000 raids in April 2011.

Senior U.S. military officers quoted in Dana Priest and William Arkin’s book, Top Secret America, told the authors that only half of such special forces raids target the right people or homes, making the reported drop in resulting civilian deaths even more implausible.  www.sott.net/article/310602-Playing-number-games-with-war-deaths-Mainstream-medias-double-standard-in-reporting-civilian-casualties

Marines fired commander days before deadly helicopter crash in Hawaii

The Marine Corps helicopter squadron reeling from the recent deaths of 12 colleagues saw its commanding officer removed from his job three days prior to the tragedy because senior officials determined he had failed to keep the unit operating at acceptable standards, Marine Corps Times has learned.

Lt. Col. Edward Pavelka was relieved of command Jan. 11, multiple sources confirmed. On Jan. 14, two CH-53E helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a nighttime training mission about two miles north of Hawaii’s Oahu island, where the aircraft were based. www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2016/01/28/marines-fired-commander-days-before-deadly-helicopter-crash-hawaii/79486936/

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Americans not in labor force

in millions…..

In recent months the value of Mexico’s peso has dropped nearly every day and is now hovering around 19 to the US dollar — an historic low. Many Mexicans are already hurting, and more are worried of what is to come, but economists say they are lucky the situation is under better control compared to other Latin American countries.

“The upper class is not affected but the rest of us suffer,” said Cristobal Casimiro, as he sold toy violins from a blanket laid out on the street in a middle class district of Mexico City. “I have problems in sales. How can we compete? A toy is not a basic need.”

Laura Valdepeña, who runs a small cosmetics store in the upscale Condesa neighborhood, said she was also feeling the pinch.

“In my store products from the US are already expensive and they are getting even more so,” she said. “I need to search for cheaper products to maintain my business.”

Georgina Weller said her job in an indigenous rights NGO has been directly impacted by the peso’s volatility.

“I travel a lot to present reports,” she said. “We have lost our budget. All of our money is going to expenses.”

The Mexican peso’s value against the US dollar has dropped by 27 percent since mid 2014 when it was valued at around 13 pesos. It topped 16 pesos by December with the depreciation accelerating rapidly after that. The currency reached a historic low of 19.10 pesos last Thursday and, although it has recuperated slightly following an uptick in the oil price and some good news from China, most observers expect it to remain around that level for the next week.  news.vice.com/article/mexicans-are-worried-about-their-plummeting-peso-but-one-economist-says-theyre-lucky

Officials: Bathing in Flint water OK despite rashes

State health officials Wednesday repeated a recommendation that Flint parents can bathe children in the city’s water, despite an increase in rashes reported in the past couple of weeks.

An advisory from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said there is “no scientific link” between Flint water and skin rashes that began appearing after the city switched from the Detroit system’s Lake Huron water to Flint River water in April 2014.

The city switched back to the Detroit water system in mid-October, but residents still can’t drink the water due to lead seepage from water pipes damaged by highly corrosive Flint River water.

Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells said there has been an increase in rashes reported to the city’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline, totaling just under a dozen during the the past week and a half. Hurley Medical Center pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha told The News she too has observed an increase in skin rash cases.  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/27/bathing-flint-water-rash-uptick/79422326/

Document: Snyder Admin Trucked In Clean Water for State Building in January 2015

The Snyder administration quietly trucked in water to state buildings in January of 2015 – ten months prior to Governor Snyder publicly admitting there was reason for concern in Flint, according to a document obtained by Progress Michigan.

The document is a Facility Notification sent by the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) in response to poor water quality in Flint. The notification stated that water coolers were being installed on each occupied floor next to the drinking fountains so that state workers could choose to continue to drink Flint water or a safe alternative.

“It appears the state wasn’t as slow as we first thought in responding the Flint Water Crisis. Sadly, the only response was to protect the Snyder administration from future liability and not to protect the children of Flint from lead poisoning,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “While residents were being told to relax and not worry about the water, the Snyder administration was taking steps to limit exposure in its own building.”

An email chain connected to the document shows that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was aware of the notification and action taken to limit state workers exposure to Flint’s water.  www.progressmichigan.org/2016/01/document-snyder-admin-trucked-in-clean-water-for-state-building-in-january-2015/

The lead poisoning of children in Flint is only the latest example of environmental racism in the U.S.

the politics of environmental racism haven’t changed since economist William J. Kruvant described the process in a 1975 journal article:

“Disadvantaged people are largely victims of middle- and upper-class pollution because they usually live closest to the sources of pollution—power plants, industrial installations, and in central cities where vehicle traffic is heaviest. Usually they have no choice. Discrimination created the situation, and those with wealth and influence have political power to keep polluting facilities away from their homes. Living in poverty areas is bad enough. High pollution makes it worse.”  www.alternet.org/environment/7-toxic-assaults-communities-color-besides-flint-dirty-racial-politics-pollution#.VqZqDqWHRu8.facebook

 

More Than 100 Wal-Mart Stores Closing Across US on Thursday

Wal-Mart was shutting down more than 100 locations in the U.S. on Thursday, including five stores in Southern California.

The mega-retailer had announced earlier this month that it was closing 269 stores worldwide, 154 of which are in the United States.

It began shutting down stores on Jan. 17, two days after the closures were announced on the company’s website.  ktla.com/2016/01/28/more-than-100-wal-mart-stores-closing-across-us-thursday-including-5-in-socal/

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

Solidarity for Never

Lieutenant commander gets 3-plus years in prison

On Friday, Malaki, now a lieutenant commander, learned the price he would pay for the crimes that would stem from that ill-fated relationship: three years and four months in prison.

Malaki, 44, was the second to be sentenced in the Navy bribery scandal helmed by Francis, owner of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which provided services to visiting ships in Southeastern Asian ports.

While Malaki was not the first or last to fall under the contractor’s spell — which he likened to a snake charmer — he fell harder than some. Over the course of seven years, Malaki slipped Francis proprietary and confidential military documents to help bolster Francis’ company in exchange for small gifts — hotel rooms, envelopes of cash, the services   of a prostitute at a Malaysian karaoke club.

“You threw it all away for very, very little,” U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino told the defendant during the San Diego hearing.  www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jan/29/malaki-navy-bribery-sentence/

Spy versus Spy

How David Petraeus avoided felony charges and possible prison time  Petraeus admitted that he improperly removed and retained highly sensitive information in eight personal notebooks that he gave to Broadwell. The Justice Department said the information, if disclosed, could have caused “exceptionally grave damage.” Officials said the notebooks contained code words for secret intelligence programs, the identities of covert officers, war strategy and deliberative discussions with the National Security Council.

The plea agreement was an outcome that left some in the Justice Department angry, particularly at the FBI, and some agents have argued privately that it will damage future efforts to secure prison terms in leak cases. But others in government defended the deal as the only viable conclusion to a case where a successful prosecution on the more serious charges was far from certain.

“Nobody was going to be happy with the outcome,” said a former Justice Department official.  www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-david-petraeus-avoided-felony-charges-and-possible-prison-time/2016/01/25/d77628dc-bfab-11e5-83d4-42e3bceea902_story.html

 

The Magical Mystery Tour

Archbishop Says He ‘Wasn’t Sure’ It Was Illegal To Have Sex With Children

The Archbishop of St. Louis, Robert Carlson, testified just last month that didn’t actually know it was illegal for priests to have sex with children.

This, he said in an effort to explain why it was he did nothing to stop such crimes while he served as the chancellor of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese.

Carlson gave a deposition to this effect in a lawsuit that against the Minnesota archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona. The suit claims that both were responsible for, in part for crimes committed against children – and were guilty of being a public nuisance – due to their refusal to release information on abusive priests.

Today, Carlson is 69-year-old. He is facing an additional clergy abuse lawsuit in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he has served as archbishop since 2009.

Court documents reveal that as many as 100 priests and church employees were accused of sexual abuse and Carlson helped to cover it all up.

Now the Missouri Supreme Court has ordered the archdiocese to turn over all of the names related to these cases of abuse, under seal.

Carlson tried to defend his actions, not coming forward until compelled to under court order. In his bizarre statement in response to the Minnesota lawsuit that was filed by a man who says that he was abused by a priest since the 1970s, Carlson told the plaintiff’s attorneys that he simply didn’t know that sex with children was illegal.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson tried to convince the attorneys. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

When asked specifically if he understood it was a crime in 1984, he said “I’m not sure if I did or didn’t.”  countercurrentnews.com/2014/06/archbishop-claims-he-wasnt-sure-it-was-illegal-for-priests-to-have-with-children/#

Cuckqueen Hillbillary on her CHRISTIAN Faith (faked fantasies) “I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist. I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received starting in my family but through my church, and I think that any of us who are Christian have a constantly, constant, conversation in our own heads about what we are called to do and how we are asked to do it, and I think it is absolutely appropriate for people to have very strong convictions and also, though, to discuss those with other people of faith. Because different experiences can lead to different conclusions about what is consonant with our faith and how best to exercise it.

The idea you heard on the radio of looking at individuals, I think, is absolutely fair. My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love the Lord…”http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/25/hillary-clinton-gets-personal-on-christ-and-her-faith/

Italy covers classic statues to please fanatic  www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/europe/hassan-rouhani-italy-visit-nude-statues-capitoline-museums.html?_r=0

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

MOOD – Calvin and Hobbes – Full Story

full story continues and finishes here  web.mit.edu/manoli/mood/www/calvin-full.html

So Long

Regarding Rouge Keynoter and Dear Friend, Richard Brosio–from John Marciano: 

My paesano comrade passed away on January 8th. I just got this statement by Alan Jones, former president of AESA, from Jennifer Stoops.

With the death of Richard A. Brosio on January 8, 2016, at age 77, January  8, 2016, at age 77, the American Educational Studies Association and the social foundations of education community in general lost one of its most passionate and long-time colleagues. During his nearly three decades of service (1972-2000) as a professor in the secondary education department at Ball State University’s Teachers College, Richard was a fierce advocate for the role of all of the educational foundations disciplines in the ongoing study of education and the preparation of teachers. Following the development and publication of the Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies by AESA in 1977, Richard frequently used those principles to support and strengthen the role of foundational studies at his institution and elsewhere. When I was president of AESA in the mid-1980s Richard invited me to speak to the educational faculty at Ball State University and we enjoyed a provocative dialogue on the role of the social foundations of education. Richard was born in Iron Mountain, Michigan, attended the University of Michigan for his B.A. and M.A. degrees, taught high school in San Diego, California, for several years, and returned to the University of Michigan for his Ph.D. under the mentorship of G. Max Wingo and Claude A. Eggertsen. He joined AESA shortly after its founding in 1968 and was a regular attendee and program participant well into the current century. Following retirement from Ball State University, Richard and his wife Martha moved to Wisconsin, where he continued to teach social foundations of education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A prolific scholar and writer, operating from a strong Marxist perspective, Richard was author of numerous articles in educational journals and two significant books, A Radical Democratic Critique of Capitalist Education (Peter Lang, 1994) and Philosophical Scaffolding for the Construction of Critical Democratic Education (Peter Lang, 2000), which continue to be used for classes by many of our foundations colleagues. While Richard was a serious scholar with deep concerns for social justice and democratic education, he was at the same time a marvelous story-teller and entertaining participant in social foundations gatherings over the past half century. He is fondly remembered and will be deeply missed.

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