Rouge Forum Dispatch: We are Unafraid and Hopeful.
November 15th, 2015 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
The Football Choke Point!
University of Missouri President and Chancellor Step Aside Amid Protests
Months of student and faculty protests over racial tensions and other issues that all but paralyzed the University of Missouri campus culminated Monday in an extraordinary coup for the demonstrators, as the president of the university system resigned and the chancellor of the flagship campus here said he would step down to a less prominent role at the end of the year.
The threat of a boycott by the Missouri football team dealt the highest-profile blow to the president, Timothy M. Wolfe, and the chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, but anger at the administration had been growing since August, when the university said it would stop paying for health insurance for graduate teaching and research assistants.
It reversed course, but not before the graduate assistants held demonstrations, threatened a walkout, took the first steps toward forming a union and joined forces with students demonstrating against racism. Then the university came under fire from Republicans for ties its medical schools and medical center had to Planned Parenthood. The university severed those ties, drawing criticism from Democrats that it had caved in to political pressure. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/university-of-missouri-system-president-resigns.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Hundreds march at Yale in solidarity with minority students A crowd of hundreds stopped traffic on city streets surrounding the Yale University campus Monday in a march to show solidarity with minority students who say they are barred from full participation at the Ivy League school.
Winding their way past the university’s four cultural centers — and the Yale chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, where brothers have been accused of turning black women away from a party last weekend — students displayed signs urging the university to support women of color, faculty of color and ethnic studies. One sign read: “Your move Yale.” Winding their way past the university’s four cultural centers — and the Yale chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, where brothers have been accused of turning black women away from a party last weekend — students displayed signs urging the university to support women of color, faculty of color and ethnic studies. One sign read: “Your move Yale.”
The march concluded outside the main library, where protests late last week prompted top-level discussions at the university and vows from the president to change Yale’s culture. On Monday, as concerns about racism and bigotry on the campus of the University of Missouri led to the resignation of that school’s president, students at Yale implored the university to better serve its minority population. www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/09/hundreds-march-at-yale-in-solidarity-with-minority-students/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_highered
This Ain’t Your Grandfather’s Civil Rights Movement
Submitted by Glen Ford
Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King writes on his Facebook page that 2015 saw “the deadliest hate crime against Black folk in the past 75 years” in Charleston, and notes that “more unarmed Black folks have been killed by police this year than were lynched in any years since 1923.” He continues:
“Never, in the history of modern America, have we seen Black students in elementary, middle, and high school handcuffed and assaulted by police in school like we have seen this year. Black students, who pay tuition are leaving the University of Missouri campus right now because of active death threats against their lives. If you ever wondered who you would be or what you would do if you lived during the Civil Rights Movement, stop. You are living in that time, right now.”
Evidence abounds that police and white supremacist violence is reaching a post-World War Two crescendo. Los Angeles is showcased as a model of so-called “community policing,” but the city’s cops are gunning down civilians at twice the rate of last year. It seems the first response of LA’s “first-responders’” is shoot-to-kill. “Right now, police have a down-to-the-bone belief that they have to watch suspects’ hands, and if the hands move, they can shoot,” said civil rights lawyer Connie Rice.
In Ohio, prosecutor Timothy McGinty appeared to be channeling the ghost of Birmingham’s “Bull” Connor when he accused the family of Tamir Rice of having “economic motivations” for seeking justice in the police killing of the 12-year-old. A local judge ruled there was probable cause to arrest the two Cleveland cops on aggravated murder charges, but McGinty is setting the stage for a grand jury whitewash.
“The first response of LA’s ‘first-responders’’ is shoot-to-kill.”
blackagendareport.com/not_your_grandfather%27s_movement
Veterans drop hundreds of empty pill bottles in front of the White House
A couple dozen servicemen and women marched to the White House this Veterans Day and dumped a large box of empty pill containers, calling on the president and other federal officials to make medical marijuana accessible to veterans.
“Here’s what the over-medication of our veterans looks like,” they said as they spilled the canisters onto the floor. “We don’t want it.”
The veterans and protesters — affiliated with various veteran and marijuana advocacy organizations — argued that Veterans Affairs hospitals are over-medicating veterans, prescribing them a large number of psychoactive medications to treat PTSD. They marched from McPherson Square to the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters, then to the White House, some smoking joints along the way, which is illegal in D.C.
VA health-care providers can’t talk to their patients about medical marijuana options, even in states where there are legal medical marijuana programs. www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/11/11/veterans-drop-hundreds-of-empty-pill-bottles-in-front-of-the-white-house/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_veterans-pills-1240am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
‘Days of Rage…America’s radical underground, the FBI, and the forgotten age of revolutionary violence’… Who helped the American ruling class undermine the great social, anti-war, and political movements of the 1960s and 1970s — from the inside?
Burrough’s work is meticulously researched and documented. It takes on a period in the US when everything appeared to be in crisis: the military, the presidency, the economy, the education system, even fundamental social values. It wasn’t a second Enlightenment but “criticize everything.” was the norm. Some naive people thought the US was on the verge of a revolution. It wasn’t.
How do I know? I was there.
I offer highlights of events in the run-up to the creation of a vast anti-war US anti-war movement in bullets:…
Inside the radical Students for a Democratic Society, involving hundreds of thousands ot (mostly white) youth, a split was brewing: Weatherman arriving.
Burrough addresses more than the Weathermen. I chose to stick with them. Readers can make their own decisions about their likenesses and differences with, for example, the Black Panther Party or the Black Liberation Army.
I cleaned up after the Weathermen (from Bob Dylan’s “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing”) and its key leadership, like Billy Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, too much in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
The Weathermen posed as revolutionaries, extending out from tony Ann Arbor, Michigan, west to Kalamazoo and, occasionally, east to my hometown, Detroit. I trailed behind, trying to convince many young people that massive doses of LSD, speed, exploitative sex, terrorism, and running naked through schools would never create the kind of class conscious movement that could not only end the US’ wars on Vietnam -– but also sustain itself for genuine social change for equality and justice.
As we shall see, what ties together the continuum of the lives of the Weathermen, and especially Ayers’ and everyone’s paramour, now his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, is their self-building opposition to forging mass, class conscious, integrated actions.
In their terrorist Weatherman days, they sought to replace that struggle with bombs, often bringing down repression on those they claimed to represent.
Later, despite felony warrants, Ayers became an Annenberg grant favorite, a liberal professor, promoting the patent medicine of “small schools,” to the mortal disease that is segregated, mystifying, capitalist mis-education.
In October, 1997, the city of Chicago, where Ayers led the “Custeristic,” suicide charge of the “Days of Rage” made Ayers a “Citizen of the Year.”
Bernadine Dohrn became a liberal professor after working her way up the SDS ranks, much like Joan Kroc eventually the wife of MacDonald’s Ray Kroc; on her back. www.substancenews.net/articles.php?section=Article&page=5958#comments
Comment on NYT 11/14 Paris article:
joshua newman
And where is the Heart of Darkness now? Who initiated the destruction of the Middle East? Shall we blame Lawrence? Or GWB? Or Obama, the demagogue who continued the Bush policies? Or the crazed women: Susan Rice, Samantha Powers and Hillary? Or shall we just bomb our way back to the 7th century? The only strategic answer to ISIS call for a caliphate is the Enlightenment: People make gods. Gods don’t make people. But in mad America, no politician can say that. So, back to barbarism?
Demonstrators gathered at 115 locations around the United States as part of the Million Student March on Thursday to demand free college tuition and the cancellation of all student debt.
The movement, which was widely organized on social media, used the hashtag “Million Student March.” This was the second highest trending topic in the United States on Twitter by 5 p.m. on Thursday.
“Education is a right, not just for the rich and white,” protesters chanted at Hunter College in New York City. www.newsweek.com/million-student-march-protesters-demand-tuition-free-college-and-debt-393691
Claremont McKenna College update: Dean resigns after student protests
The Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College resigned Thursday, amid a growing outcry from students at the college.
Mary Spellman announced her decision in an email to the student body www.scpr.org/news/2015/11/12/55617/claremont-mckenna-college-dean-resigns-after-stude/
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Pension paid to McGill’s former principal rankles employees Amid a climate of austerity on the McGill University campus, new revelations about the pension that former Principal Heather Munroe-Blum recently started collecting has rankled many union groups.
Access to Information documents show that Munroe-Blum, who retired from her position as principal in 2013 and is no longer teaching at McGill, is entitled to a supplementary pension of almost $284,000 a year on top of the almost $87,000 she gets from regular pension plans from McGill and the University of Toronto.
The information also suggests that Munroe-Blum (below) may have been earning much more than has been documented, perhaps as high as $740,000 — which would make it the richest package of any university president in Canada, then or now. montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pension-paid-to-mcgills-former-principal-rankles-employees
Hillbillary rebukes charter schools (easily steps in front of pro-empire liberals)
decades-long proponent of charters criticizes the schools Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president when she argued that most of these schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them.”
Her comments in South Carolina came straight from charter school critics’ playbook and distanced her from the legacies of her husband, former President Bill Clinton — credited with creating a federal stream of money to launch charters around the country — and President Barack Obama, whose administration has dangled federal incentives to push states to become more charter friendly.
The change in tone on charter schools mirrors other moves Clinton has made to nail down the support of liberal blocs in the face of the progressive challenge of Bernie Sanders, including her recent decision to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. www.politico.com/story/2015/11/hillary-clinton-charter-schools-education-215661#ixzz3rXSQAjXn
FactCheck on Hillbillary’s false claims We take no position on the merits of charter schools. But we find that Clinton’s broad claim that “most charter schools” don’t accept or don’t keep the hardest-to-teach kids is not supported by the evidence. www.factcheck.org/2015/11/clintons-charter-school-exaggeration/
Zuckerburg Can’t Learn that segregated capitalist schooling works Five years after donating $100 million to remake education in Newark, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says he’s using lessons learned about the need for community involvement in his next effort in California. He also highlighted some successes in New Jersey’s largest city.
In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg acknowledged increased graduation rates in Newark and successful charter schools, but also noted the “challenges, mistakes and honest differences among people with good intentions.”
“It’s very important to understand the desires of a community, to listen and learn from families, teachers, elected officials and other experts,” he wrote. “We now better understand why it can take years to build the support to durably cement the changes needed to provide every student with a high quality education.”
Zuckerberg appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show in September 2010 with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker to announce the $100 million donation to remake education in Newark. The goal was to make a struggling city a national model for turning around urban schools.
Advocates see success in the most visible result so far – many more students in charter schools. But the exodus of students and the public funding that goes with them from Newark Public Schools has deepened a financial crisis in a school district that still educates most of the children in the city. www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mark-zuckerberg-newark_5640bebee4b0411d3071a8a5?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education§ion=education
Los Angeles Teachers: Fewer Suspensions Mean More Unruly Students “You cannot piecemeal this kind of thing and think it is going to have the impact that it should have.”
Teachers in the nation’s second largest school district say a new policy aimed at reducing suspensions is also having another effect: More unruly students in their classrooms.
Los Angeles Unified School District was the first to ban suspending students for defiance in California and began instituting restorative justice policies that emphasize counseling and conflict resolution.
Teachers now blame LA Unified for failing to provide the necessary staff and training to effectively implement those policies, the Los Angeles Times reports (lat.ms/20Dac0I ).
Superintendent Ramon Cortines said he agrees: While he supports the discipline policy pushed through by his predecessor, Cortines said the initiative has been poorly executed.
“You cannot piecemeal this kind of thing and think it is going to have the impact that it should have,” he said.
Suspensions across the district declined to 0.55 percent last year compared to 8 percent in 2007-08. That reduction came amid a nationwide push to eliminate zero-tolerance policies that emphasize harsh discipline for even minor misbehavior. www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/la-suspension-policy_5640bbb6e4b0b24aee4aebda?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education§ion=education
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” President Barack Obama seemingly downplayed the threat of ISIS in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired on Friday’s broadcast of “Good Morning America.”
Stephanopoulos asked Obama if ISIS was gaining in strength, to which Obama denied they were.
“I don’t think they’re gaining strength,” Obama responded. “What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq, and in Syria they’ll come in, they’ll leave, but you don’t see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain.”
“What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate their command and control structures,” he admitted. “We’ve made some progress in trying to reduce the flow of foreign fighters and part our goal has to be to recruit more effective Sunni partners in Iraq to really go on offense rather than simply engage in defense.”
The marriage of Capitalism and Imperialism results in barbarized fascism. We do not have to cooperate.
In the financial year that ended on September 30th America’s four armed services—army, navy, air force and marines—aimed to recruit 177,000 people, mainly from among the 21m Americans aged 17-21. Yet all struggled, and the army, which accounted for nearly half that target, made its number, at great cost and the eleventh hour, only by cannibalising its store of recruits for the current year. It failed by 2,000 to meet its target of 17,300 recruits for the army reserve, which is becoming more important to national security as the full-time army shrinks from a recent peak of 566,000 to a projected 440,000 by 2019—its lowest level since the second world war. “I find it remarkable,” says the commander of army recruiting, Major-General Jeffrey Snow. “That we have been in two protracted land campaigns and we have an American public that thinks very highly of the military, yet the vast majority has lost touch with it. Less than 1% of Americans are willing and able to serve.”
That is part of a longstanding trend: a growing disconnect between American society and the armed forces that claim to represent it, which has many causes, starting with the ending of the draft in 1973. Ever since, military experience has been steadily fading from American life. In 1990, 40% of young Americans had at least one parent who had served in the forces; by 2014, only 16% had, and the measure continues to fall. Among American leaders, the decline is similarly pronounced. In 1981, 64% of congressmen were veterans; now around 18% are. www.economist.com/news/united-states/21676778-failures-iraq-and-afghanistan-have-widened-gulf-between-most-americans-and-armed
Intercept: The Drone Papers (from whistleblower)
Objectives
Most of the time, drone operators are trying to kill someone specific. They call these people—the people being hunted—“objectives.”
What does an objective look like? Here’s an example
This timeline was for a man named Bilal el-Berjawi. Intelligence agencies watched him for years, then the British government stripped him of his citizenship.
After calling his wife, who had just given birth in a London hospital, Berjawi was killed by an American drone strike. Some people thought the call might have given away his location, but the drones already knew where he was.
Jackpot
When drone operators hit their target, killing the person they intend to kill, that person is called a “jackpot.”
When they miss their target and end up killing someone else, they label that person EKIA, or “enemy killed in action.”
EKIA
Over a five-month period, U.S. forces used drones and other aircraft to kill 155 people in northeastern Afghanistan. They achieved 19 jackpots. Along the way, they killed at least 136 other people, all of whom were classified as EKIA, or enemies killed in action.
… almost 9 out of 10 people killed in these strikes were not the intended targets. theintercept.com/drone-papers/a-visual-glossary/
Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.
Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.
In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army’s criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to “toss a grenade at someone and kill them”.
One soldier said he believed Gibbs was “feeling out the platoon”. www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers
Congress dodging war powers despite U.S. mission in Syria
In the fight against the Islamic State group, members of Congress talk tough against extremism, but many want to run for cover when it comes to voting on new war powers to fight the militants, preferring to let the president own the battle.
They might not be able to run for long.
The U.S. military intervention in Iraq and Syria is creeping forward, putting more pressure on Congress to vote on a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force. It would be the first war vote in Congress in 13 years.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a leading force in the Senate for a new authorization, said the reluctance to vote runs deep and that many in Congress prefer to criticize President Obama’s policy in Iraq and Syria without either authorizing or stopping the fight. www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/11/08/congress-dodging-war-powers-despite-us-mission-in-syria/75412192/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8IfQNl-_8&feature=youtu.be
Happy Birthday USMC, Here is the Truth About War from Your Most Famous General “I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.
-Major General Smedly D. Butler
Defense Secretary Ash Carter fires senior 3-star military assistant
The three-star general who has been serving as the senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Ash Carter was abruptly fired Thursday amid allegations of misconduct.
Army Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis was removed from his post Thursday morning after Carter learned of the allegations Tuesday night, a senior defense official said.
“The secretary was very surprised to learn of these allegations,” the official said.
Pentagon officials declined to reveal details of the alleged misconduct.
Carter has referred the matter to the Defense Department’s inspector general for an official investigation.
For now, Lewis will report to the Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel B. Allyn. www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/11/12/defense-secretary-ash-carter-fires-senior-3-star-military-assistant/75672766/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
The decline in labor’s share of corporate income since 2000 means $535 billion less for workers
Between 2000 and the second quarter of 2015, the share of income generated by corporations that went to workers’ wages (instead of going to capital incomes like profits) declined from 82.3 percent to 75.5 percent, as the figure shows. This 6.8 percentage-point decline in labor’s share of corporate income might not seem like a lot, but if labor’s share had not fallen this much, employees in the corporate sector would have $535 billion more in their paychecks today. If this amount was spread over the entire labor force (not just corporate sector employees) this would translate into a $3,770 raise for each worker. www.epi.org/publication/the-decline-in-labors-share-of-corporate-income-since-2000-means-535-billion-less-for-workers/
CEO Pay Has Grown 90 Times Faster than Typical Worker Pay Since 1978
Over the last several decades, inflation-adjusted CEO compensation increased from $1.5 million in 1978 to $16.3 million in 2014, or 997 percent, a rise almost double stock market growth. Over the same time period, a typical worker’s wages grew very little: the annual compensation, adjusted for inflation, of the average private-sector production and nonsupervisory worker (comprising 82 percent of total payroll employment) rose from $48,000 in 1978 to just $53,200 in 2014, an increase of only 10.9 percent. Due to this unequal growth, average top CEOs now make over 300 times what typical workers earn. www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-has-grown-90-times-faster-than-typical-worker-pay-since-1978/
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement
Stratfor on the Paris Attacks French President Francois Hollande publicly placed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attack on the Islamic State, declaring it an act of war. This French response to the Paris attacks is markedly different from that of the Spanish Government following the March 2004 Madrid train bombings. Instead of pulling back from the global coalition working against jihadism, it appears that the French will renew and perhaps expand their efforts to pursue revenge for the most recent assault. The precise nature of this response will be determined by who is ultimately found to be the author of the Nov. 13 attack.
To date, there has been something akin to a division of labor in the anti-jihadist effort, with the French heavily focused on the Sahel region of Africa. The French have also supported coalition efforts in Iraq and Syria, stationing six Dassault Rafale jets in the United Arab Emirates and six Mirage jets in Jordan. On Nov. 4, Paris announced it was sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to enhance ongoing airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. To date, French aircraft have flown more than 1,285 missions against Islamic State targets in Iraq, and only two sorties in Syria.
France has numerous options for retaliation at its disposal, but its response will be conditioned by who was ultimately responsible. If it is found that the Islamic State core group was indeed behind the Nov. 13 attack, France will likely ramp up its Syrian air operations. The skies over Syria, however, are already congested with coalition and Russian aircraft. With this in mind, the French may choose to retaliate by focusing instead on the Islamic State in Iraq, or perhaps even other Islamic State provinces in places such as Libya. Another option would be to increase French programs to train and support anti-Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria, or even to conduct commando strikes against key leadership nodes. France also has the option of deploying an expeditionary force like it did in the Sahel, although that would probably require outside airlift capacity from NATO allies, especially the United States.
The Paris attacks occurred during a Europe-wide political crisis over migrant flows from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the Paris attackers, prompting a Greek official to say Nov. 14 that the name on the document belonged to a person who passed though Greece in October. This news means that a number of politicians critical of the European Union’s response to the immigrant crisis will amplify their disapproval. In particular, advocates who want to end the Schengen agreement, which eliminated border controls in Europe, will use Paris to support their cause. www.stratfor.com/analysis/after-paris-france-contemplates-reckoning?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20151114&utm_term=RedAlert&utm_content=button&hsCtaTracking=5b395d78-9ece-419d-bc36-202602f583db%7C78aec08c-49ff-4213-b579-e21302a9d223&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8w3jVfUX7HEcaIEhwYVSXNsmF-D9WxRjn9YOCM77GmWbZeLK86eGTpRx1TEw4ehKCbpLsXL7z1nCsMQWwrL_4Ye92ZSg&_hsmi=23747874&utm_source=hs_email&utm_content=23747874
Police chief: Tasing, beating of Alabama student a ‘black eye’ for Tuscaloosa
Classified Report on the C.I.A.’s Secret Prisons Is Caught in Limbo
A Senate security officer stepped out of the December chill last year and delivered envelopes marked “Top Secret” to the Pentagon, the C.I.A., the State Department and the Justice Department. Inside each packet was a disc containing a 6,700-page classified report on the C.I.A.’s secret prison program and a letter from Senator Dianne Feinstein, urging officials to read the report to ensure that the lessons were not lost to time.
Today, those discs sit untouched in vaults across Washington, still in their original envelopes. The F.B.I. has not retrieved a copy held for it in the Justice Department’s safe. State Department officials, who locked up their copy and marked it “Congressional Record — Do Not Open, Do Not Access” as soon as it arrived, have not read it either.
Nearly a year after the Senate released a declassified 500-page summary of the report, the fate of the entire document remains in limbo, the subject of battles in the courts and in Congress. Until those disputes are resolved, the Justice Department has prohibited officials from the government agencies that possess it from even opening the report, effectively keeping the people in charge of America’s counterterrorism future from reading about its past. There is also the possibility that the documents could remain locked in a Senate vault for good….
The report tells the story of how, in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the C.I.A. began capturing people and interrogating them in secret prisons beyond the reach of the American judicial and military legal systems. The report’s central conclusion is that the spy agency’s interrogation methods — including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other kinds of torture — were far more brutal and far less effective than the C.I.A. acknowledged to policy makers, Congress and the public.
For now, it is the most comprehensive chronicle of one of the most controversial counterterrorism programs after the Sept. 11 attacks. www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/politics/classified-report-on-the-cias-secret-prisons-is-caught-in-limbo.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Solidarity for Never
Noam Chomsky want you to pick the nicer fascist In a new interview with Truthout’s CJ Polychroniou, renowned MIT linguist and longtime political activist Noam Chomsky conveyed his fear that the election of a Republican president in 2016 could further destabilize U.S. international relations, jeopardizing the security of the nation and ripped the notion of “democracy promotion” as a driving force of U.S. foreign policy. www.salon.com/2015/11/10/noam_chomsky_a_republican_president_means_doom/
Spy versus Spy
The NSA school:
The National Cryptologic School is a school unlike any other. It’s extremely carefully guarded, for starters, with a series of checkpoints to get to class.
Some of the students’ identities are secret.
There’s no homework to take home. (It’s classified.)
No cellphones or computers can be brought inside, so the break areas have a surreal, throwback feel. There are landlines, some secure, for checking in on work. Some are not, for checking in on family.
And it has a most unusual mission: Teaching people whose jobs protecting the nation require them to stay ahead of rapidly evolving threats and technology.
The NSA has been sharply criticized in recent years for its efforts to collect all sorts of data, and it also is feared by some; it’s a flashpoint in the debate over privacy and national security. www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/09/the-nsa-school-how-the-intelligence-community-gets-smarter-secretly/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_highered
The Magical Mystery Tour
Pastors Answer Military Calling, Too
The call to ministry and the call to serve in the military each have life-changing impact according to Greater New Jersey pastors who have been or are in both roles. That’s why the impact of Veterans Day each Nov. 11 is not lost on them.
“Veterans Day has always been special in my family,” said Jack Lea, a former GNJ pastor who served 28 years as a full-time Navy chaplain and is one of several generations in his family to serve in the military. “I think Veterans Day has added meaning in our country now because of the thousands and thousands who have served in the last 14 years.”
“To me, it was an honor to serve,” said Rev. Chris Miller, who is the senior pastor at Delran UMC and served as a military chaplain in various branches of the service before retiring from that role last year. “It was something I felt drawn to as a child. I always had an affinity for the military.”https://www.gnjumc.org/news/pastors-answer-military-calling-too/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
So Long