Rouge Forum Dispatch: Exterminate all the Appropriate Brutes
August 25th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLT16LP4ACQ
Unpaid Miners Blocked a Coal Train in Protest. Weeks Later, They’re Still There.
A little after 4 p.m. on Friday, four hulking big-rig cabs, facing each other in pairs and taking up both lanes, brought the Kingdom Come Parkway to a standstill. On the highway between the trucks, a group of out-of-work coal miners raised a banner: “No Pay We Stay.”
That is the miners’ plan in its entirety, and for close to three weeks, that is what they have done.
A protest that began with five men blocking a train full of coal has grown into a small 24-hour tent city along some railroad tracks next to the highway. It has become a pilgrimage site for labor activists, a rallying point for the community — “a tailgate party on steroids,” as one local official approvingly put it. And it is the first organized miners’ protest that anyone can remember for decades in Harlan County, Ky., a place once virtually synonymous with bloody labor wars.
The railroad blockade began in late July, about a month after Blackjewel, the two-year-old company where the miners worked, suddenly declared bankruptcy. Blackjewel owned mines in four states, and employed over a thousand miners in central Appalachia.
Miners learned in the middle of an afternoon shift that Blackjewel was shutting down immediately and putting everyone out of work. It did so without filing a mandatory 60-day advance warning and without posting a bond, required by Kentucky law, to cover payroll.
Workers received no pay for their last week on the job. Then they learned that their paychecks for the previous two weeks had bounced. Bankruptcies and layoffs have become routine in the coal fields during a grueling industrywide decline, but no one seemed to recall anything quite like this.
“It’s no different from robbing a bank,” said Jeffrey Willig, a wiry 40-year-old father of six.
In Harlan County, hundreds of miners found themselves with negative bank balances, staring down mortgages, car payments and medication costs. Some were alerted to the news by ex-spouses who had not gotten automatic child-support payments. Lawyers representing the miners in the bankruptcy proceeding estimated that Blackjewel’s employees in central Appalachia were each owed $4,202.91 on average, for wages and benefits earned.
“They was doing it as quiet as could be,” said Dalton Lewis, 20.
A fellow miner called him with the plan: “Come on down here, we’re going to stop this train.”
This instinct runs deep in Harlan County. In the 1930s, efforts to organize miners led to “Bloody Harlan” — currently a hashtag printed on protest signs — a deadly conflict pitting thousands of union miners against coal companies, law enforcement officials and strikebreakers. Blood was spilled again in the early 1970s during a bitter 13-month strike by workers at the Brookside mine, the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Harlan County, U.S.A.” www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/us/kentucky-coal-miners.html
the1a.org/shows/2019-08-22/the-1619-project
NPR Reveal on NYT 1619 Project: Hear a Times reporter describe how change in US has required Violent Revolution
VOA on Hong Kong Protests
$7 an Hour, 72 Hours a Week: Why Laundry Workers Have Had Enough
For some immigrants, owning a laundry can be a path to prosperity. But their employees, also immigrants, can get caught in a spiral of low wages, poor working conditions and social isolation.
One afternoon last February, in front of dozens of riled-up protesters and two police officers, a small, visibly distraught woman confronted her employer at Sunshine Shirt Laundry Center, a family-owned cleaner in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
In the back of the store, stacks of dirty shirts spilled from a few laundry carts alongside an ironing board, as clients entering the place were fighting their way through the crowd of protesters to drop off their laundry at the counter.
“I’ve been working here for 15 years in the same misery,” said Ricarda, 44, who insisted she be identified only by her first name because of her immigration status. A single mother of two from Mexico, Ricarda was being paid around $7 an hour — about half the city’s minimum wage for small businesses — while working up to 72 hours a week without overtime benefits.
Ricarda then aimed her complaints directly at her boss: “When I went to the hospital, I still had to come to work”; “I asked you to install ventilation, and it made you laugh”; “Your brother shoves me and looks at me sideways.” www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/nyregion/nyc-laundry-workers-unionizing.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
58 arrested and fined outside American Airlines HQ in catering workers protest
Fort Worth police arrested, released and fined 58 catering workers and other protesters who blocked traffic to American Airlines’ headquarters Tuesday.
The arrests were part of a coordinated demonstration of civil disobedience on behalf of 11,000 airline catering workers across the country who are bargaining for better wages and benefits from their employer, LSG Sky Chefs.
About 600 supporters showed up at the protest, including catering workers at DFW International Airport along with union members from other airports and local supporters such as American Airlines mechanics.
The union and workers say much of the blame for their low pay rests with American Airlines because the carrier dictates contracts and rates to companies such as LSG Sky Chefs. The company has 926 catering workers at DFW Airport. www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2019/08/13/58-arrested-fined-outside-american-airlines-hq-catering-workers-protest?fbclid=IwAR0YCGeFMAzgW5onUBrcntFkLchKGqrX48iT70WlNrzqxpQummdqt6Ml0RA
Congratulations on the publication of:
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Desegregating N.Y. Schools Was His Top Priority. What Happened? (like capitalism, NYT!)
Entrenched inequality, attacks by conservatives, student protests: Richard A. Carranza’s first year as schools chancellor.
Soon after he took the helm of the nation’s largest school district last year, Richard A. Carranza made his top priority clear: desegregation.
He sought to set himself apart from previous New York City schools chancellors and even his own boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, by promising both frank talk about racial inequality and sweeping action.
At an event for student activists this spring, he slapped the side of a podium and shouted: “No, we will not wait to integrate our schools, we will not wait to dismantle the segregated systems we have!” He repeated the message in speeches, television appearances and national magazine profiles.
But now, as he enters his second year, he seems to be trying to reset expectations. In an interview, Mr. Carranza described himself as a “realist.”
“If I integrated the system, the next thing I’m going to do is I’m going to walk on water,” he said.
The past year has given Mr. Carranza an education in the complexities and challenges presented by the nation’s largest school system, an often unwieldy collection of 1,800 schools that sprawls across five boroughs and enrolls 1.1 million students.
New York is home to one of the most segregated school systems in the country. Black and Hispanic students make up 70 percent of the system, and white and Asian students represent about 15 percent each. About three-quarters of students are low income, and roughly half the city’s schools are more than 90 percent black or Hispanic. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/nyregion/nyc-schools-chancellor-carranza-.html
Professor who quoted James Baldwin’s use of N-word cleared by university
Laurie Sheck, the poet and professor who was investigated by her university for quoting James Baldwin’s use of the N-word in a graduate class, has been cleared of charges of racial discrimination.
After assigning Baldwin’s 1962 essay The Creative Process to her class at the New School in New York, Sheck had asked the students to discuss how the 2016 documentary about the writer and civil rights activist, I Am Not Your Negro, altered Baldwin’s actual quote, in which he had used the racial slur. A graduate student, who, like Sheck, is white, had objected to her language.
Following interventions earlier this month from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire) and PEN America, Sheck has now been exonerated, with a letter from the New School informing her that “after carefully considering the complaints and reviewing the evidence”, they determined that she had not violated their discrimination policies.
Fire had told the New School that the “misguided” case “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”. PEN America, stressing that there “is a distinction to be made between a racial slur wielded against someone and a quote used for pedagogical purposes”, warned that Sheck was protected by the principle of academic freedom.
After her exoneration, Sheck said that if she had a “hope for what can come out of this, it is for a university community that seeks to open itself in the deepest and most informed of ways to the exchange and contemplation of ideas about which there is genuine urgency and concern but not consensus”. www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/19/professor-who-quoted-james-baldwin-n-word-cleared-by-university-laurie-sheck
Michigan high school being built with places to hide in case of shooting
A high school being built in Michigan is designed for students and staff to have places to hide in the event of a shooting.
The $48 million Fruitport High School includes controlled locks on all doors that allows district officials the ability to secure every room with the push of a button, according to ABC 13.
The school is set to be finished in 2021 and Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak predicts schools going forward will follow suit.
“These are going to be design elements that are just naturally part of buildings going into the future,” he told the news outlet.
The school will be equipped with impact-resistant film on all classroom windows and is designed with curve hallways to have reduced sight lines for a potential shooter, Szymoniak said, adding that there are also barricades in the hallway for students to hide behind. thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/458501-michigan-high-school-being-built-with-places-to-hide-in-case-of-shooting?fbclid=IwAR332Bdj9vB3g1wWIgQXOx1Pq2Sbr9SYdcpeMe2YuK3B-d968berxl7H7qg
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
What (Hillary’s) ‘Victory’ Looks Like: A Journey Through Shattered Syria
Picking our way around the ruins of the Damascus suburb of Douma, it took a little while to realize what was missing.
There were women carrying groceries, old men droning by on motorbikes and skinny children heaving jugs of water home.
But there were few young men.
They had died in the war, been thrown in prison or scattered far beyond Syria’s borders. Now, it had fallen to survivors like Um Khalil, a 59-year-old, round-faced grandmother, to reckon with their absence.
Three of her sons had been killed. Another had been tortured in a rebel prison, and a fifth had disappeared into government detention. Her daughters-in-law had to start working, while she was raising five grandchildren without her husband. He had died in an airstrike.
“Sometimes I sit and think, how did this happen?” Um Khalil said in the apartment of a distant acquaintance, where her remaining family was squatting. “I had sons working. Everything was normal, and suddenly I lost them. I had a husband. I lost him, too. I have no answers. God forgive whoever was behind this.”
Then she burst out: “Forgive them, don’t forgive them, what difference does it make? I wish I could find whoever destroyed this city. I would kill him.” www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/world/middleeast/syria-recovery-aleppo-douma.html
As Taliban Talk Peace, ISIS Is Ready to Play the Spoiler in Afghanistan
Even as the United States and the Taliban seem close to a deal on an American troop withdrawal, the Islamic State in Afghanistan is making clear that it stands to inherit the role of violent spoiler if any peace agreement is reached.
That message was punctuated on Saturday by a suicide bomber who killed 63 wedding celebrants in Kabul, mostly from the country’s Shiite minority, in an attack that the Islamic State attributed to one of its loyalists from Pakistan. It was among the most devastating attacks in Afghanistan claimed by the Islamic State in the five years since it first established a beachhead in the eastern part of the country.
The bombing was a painful reminder of the immediate threat posed by the militants: that they can slip through tight security in the capital and cause the kind of carnage that devastates a vulnerable community, while cranking up pressure on a government already on the edge.
But the Islamic State also poses a longer-term danger that the United States military and Afghan officials worry about: It has positioned itself to gain in the event of a peace deal with the Taliban. The Islamic State is set to grow if an extreme layer of insurgents breaks away from the Taliban to keep fighting, and it is likely to thrive if a hastily managed American military withdrawal leaves chaos behind. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/world/asia/isis-afghanistan-peace.html
Benin Awakens to the Threat of Terrorism After Safari Ends in an ISIS Nightmare
A safari guide knew every watering hole in Pendjari National Park in Benin. He did not know that terrorists across the border could reach him in his country.
As a safari guide in a sprawling wilderness preserve in West Africa, Fiacre Gbédji often seemed no different from the tourists in his care: He gushed at each lion sighting and thrilled at each bushbuck he spotted through the trees.
But when Mr. Gbédji and two French tourists he was guiding deep within Pendjari National Park were kidnapped by terrorists, the international response to the men involved was far different.
The tourists were rescued 10 days later by the French military. Two French commandos killed during the mission were given solemn services in the heart of Paris.
Amid the international attention on the kidnapping, Mr. Gbédji disappeared; if he was mentioned at all, it was mostly just “their guide.” He was shot and killed by the kidnappers, officials said, his remains eaten by animals.
…Al Qaeda and ISIS-linked groups have pushed toward Benin as they flee military assaults on their former strongholds in Mali and Niger, according to security experts. They have found recruits and refuge under cover of dense parkland. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/world/africa/safari-kidnapping-benin-terrorism.html
US power waning in Pacific, warns top Australian think tank
The United States no longer has military primacy in the Pacific and could struggle to defend allies against China, a top Australian think tank has warned.
A hard-hitting report from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney released on Monday (Aug 19) said the US military is an “atrophying force” that is “dangerously overstretched” and “ill-prepared” for a confrontation with China.
If correct, the assessment has far-reaching implications for US allies like Australia, Taiwan and Japan who depend on American security guarantees.
Donald Trump’s presidency has deepened concerns that Washington would not defend its allies in the face of aggression from China. But this latest report has suggested that the United States may struggle to help even if it wanted to.
Accusing Washington of “strategic insolvency”, the authors said decades-long Middle East wars, partisanship and under-investment have left Pacific allies exposed.
“China, by contrast, is growing ever more capable of challenging the regional order by force as a result of its large-scale investment in advanced military systems,” they warned. www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/us-power-waning-in-pacific–warns-top-australian-think-tank-11821284
North Korea Launches 2 Missiles, Its 7th Weapons Test in a Month
North Korea’s latest test-firing came two days after South Korea decided to pull out of a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan.
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Volcker Rule Trading Revamp Approved in Win for Wall Street
Wall Street watchdogs handpicked by President Donald Trump eased the Volcker Rule’s controversial ban on banks making speculative investments, wrapping up a top deregulatory priority that’s long been sought by the financial industry.
The changes, approved Tuesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., seek to provide lenders a much clearer picture of which trades are prohibited, giving them confidence to engage in transactions without fear of violating Volcker.
But one Democratic FDIC board member warned the rollback could again endanger the financial system by allowing lenders to recklessly trade hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets like they did before the 2008 financial crisis. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-20/volcker-rule-revamp-takes-shape-marking-big-win-for-wall-street?cmpid=BBD082019_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190820&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Nearly 12,000 Detroit homes lost water over delinquent payments since April
The city of Detroit shut off water to more than 11,800 homes for delinquent payments since April, and most of those houses are still without running water.
City records, first obtained by the online news site Bridge, show that 7,310 of the homes still had no water as of Aug. 1.
“It’s extremely alarming,” Alisha Bell, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, told Bridge. “Shutoffs should be used as an absolute last resort. We need to do a better job being protective of our seniors and those with children in their homes.”
Since the city began shutting off water for delinquent payments six year ago, more than 130,000 homes have lost service. www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/08/20/nearly-12000-detroit-homes-lost-water-over-delinquent-payments-since-april?fbclid=IwAR2FbmO7TKjjKeCS2ZHAK_NTPgghOtNqtwNwNrNjXZC1fHLG63cOYTOAbKw
Detroit: Politicos’ Lies About Comeback City (video)
www.politico.com/sponsor-content/2019/07/the-comeback-city?cid=201907fc
Detroit Family says final goodbyes to Emma Hernandez, 9, mauled by dogs
Emma Hernandez’s family gathered Saturday at St. Cunegunda Church on the city’s west side to say their last goodbyes to the 9-year-old girl who was “so full of life.”
Pink and purple flowers, Emma’s favorite colors, decorated the entryway of the church’s pristine doors as mourners came to pay their respects. The private funeral began at noon, commenced by church bells that could be heard throughout the neighborhood near Lonyo and McGraw Avenue.
Every seat in St. Cunegunda Church was taken as Rev. Zbigniew Grankowski presided over Emma’s mass and there were long pauses in the prayers before Emma’s coffin when words would not come and prayers were replaced by hugs, Judith Kadela, a spokeswoman for the church said.
“At one point, Father Zbigniew stood before the suffering parents and sang a beautiful song,” she said. “It was a song about a mother losing her child. The mother was Mary and the child was her son, Jesus Christ. Father Zbigniew sang the song in Polish — a highlight of a service that celebrated a child whose parents, and a majority of the people in the church, speak mostly Spanish. It needed no translation. It was perfect.” www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/08/24/family-says-final-goodbyes-emma-mauled-dogs/2096412001/
Trade Wars become real wars
Tainted Water, Ignored Warnings and a Boss With a Criminal Past
How a long line of questionable decisions led to the crisis over lead contamination in Newark.
In the year after receiving test results showing alarming levels of lead in this city’s drinking water, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark made a number of unexpected decisions.
He mailed a brochure to all city residents assuring them that “the quality of water meets all federal and state standards.”
He declared the water safe and then condemned, in capital letters on the city’s website, “outrageously false statements” to the contrary.
And he elevated an official to run the city’s water department who had served four years in prison for conspiring to sell five kilograms of cocaine.
The moves were the latest in a long line of questionable actions that have created one of the biggest environmental crises to hit a major American city in recent years. This month, the city told tens of thousands of Newark residents to drink bottled water, but only after receiving a stern warning from federal officials about lead leaching into tap water from aging pipes.
The water emergency has torn at the fabric of Newark, recalling the public health crisis over lead contamination in Flint., Mich., and highlighting the decay of the nation’s infrastructure, particularly in poorer cities.
It has sowed anger, anxiety and confusion among residents, who question whether the city’s negligence has endangered its youngest citizens. More than 13 percent of the children in New Jersey afflicted with elevated lead levels in 2017 were in Newark, which accounted for only 3.8 percent of the state’s children.
The crisis could also cast a shadow over the presidential campaign of Senator Cory Booker, who served as Newark’s mayor from 2006 to 2013. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/nyregion/newark-lead-water-crisis.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/2422509914632284/?t=49
U.S. Added 500,000 Fewer Jobs Since 2018 Than Previously Thought
The U.S. job market isn’t quite as strong as originally believed — with revised figures showing that the economy had 501,000 fewer total jobs this March than initially reported.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that nearly two-thirds of the downward revision came from the retail and leisure and hospitality sectors, the industries most associated with consumer spending. www.huffpost.com/entry/us-fewer-jobs-added-labor-department_n_5d5ece71e4b02cc97c8a4624?guccounter=1
US Steel Lays Off 200 Workers Despite Getting $728 Million from Trump Tax Cuts
United States Steel recently announced what it’s calling “temporary layoffs” in Michigan despite reaping a significant windfall from the Trump tax cuts.
According to Business Insider, U.S. Steel is laying off 200 workers at its Great Lakes Works facility in Ecorse, Michigan over the next several weeks. While the company calls them “temporary layoffs,” the company said more layoffs may come “periodically thereafter based on market conditions” after the first round of layoffs and didn’t give a time frame for when those workers may be hired back at the same production levels. gritpost.com/us-steel-lays-off-200-workers/?fbclid=IwAR01EhNzkrBWyUdbLw06rlCseLCPMeFFza_UWkerAdfqYLvelnng0QOy0H0
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
After Nazi salute video, more racist videos emerge, roiling O.C. school
School officials in Orange County are reopening an investigation into a group of high school students caught on video with their arms raised in a Sieg Heil salute while singing a Nazi marching song as additional racist images continue to surface.
The initial video, which surfaced Monday and was taken during an off-campus event last year, shows about 10 boys from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove standing in what appears to be a banquet room giving the stiff-armed salute used in Nazi Germany. The song “Erika,” written by German composer Herms Niel during Hitler’s ascent to power, plays in the background.
The video, taken before the start of an athletics banquet in November 2018, was originally shared among a small group of students on Snapchat. High school administrators learned of the video four months later and addressed the situation with students from the video and their families, Garden Grove Unified School District spokeswoman Abby Broyles said.
School officials said the students involved were disciplined but declined to discuss the consequences they faced. www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-21/new-racist-videos-orange-county-high-school
U.S. votes against anti-Nazi resolution at U.N.
The United States says it was one of three countries to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism over freedom of speech issues and concerns that Russia was using it to carry out political attacks against its neighbors.
The resolution entitled “Combating glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,” was approved by the U.N.’s human rights committee on Friday with 131 in favor, 3 against with 48 abstentions.
Ukraine and Palau were the other no votes. www.cbsnews.com/news/us-votes-against-anti-nazi-resolution-at-united-nations/?fbclid=IwAR2inHoB6-9gzKQ-I3Mag9y0U60woNxh6wblja-RzSFuE_YCn1RKQavv-UI
Notes on Inauthenticity in a Creeping Fascist Nuthouse
Among the suggestions I would have made to the Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley had I been an editor of his important book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, 2018), two seem particularly relevant in the present political juncture.
Inauthentic Democracy
The first suggestion would have been for Stanley to explicitly call out the state-capitalist and corporate-captive Democratic Party in his perceptive discussion of how the fascist-style 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump got to come off as more “authentic” than his major party opponent while habitually telling untruths and “giving voice to shocking sentiments that were presumed to be unsuitable for public discourse.”
As Stanley rightly pointed out, Democratic candidates “must raise huge sums to run for office…As a result, they represent the interests of their large donors. However, because it is a democracy, they must also try to make the case that they represent the common interest. They must pretend that the best interests of the multinational corporations that fund their campaigns are also the common interest.”
I’m not sure why Stanley thought the United States is “a democracy” (it is no such thing), but he put his thumb on a basic and longstanding conundrum in bourgeois politics. www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/23/notes-on-inauthenticity-in-a-creeping-fascist-nuthouse/?fbclid=IwAR2YXZTN8NzEhLtrvW8nGPLmUMwDC6MP1K-WA45F6yh2-27-FMsa5z1f9OY
White nationalist (fascist) propaganda found posted at (racist) SDSU
Numerous fliers and stickers in support of a “known white nationalist hate group” were discovered posted around San Diego State University Thursday morning, officials said, just as students began moving into campus housing in preparation for the fall semester.
The propaganda was posted throughout campus, including at the Women’s Resource Center and the Pride Center, university officials confirmed.
Officials did not name the group associated with the postings, nor provide the specific messaging on the fliers and stickers. The university said the postings were similar to those found on other campuses across the nation. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-08-22/white-nationalist-propaganda-found-posted-at-sdsu
‘Kashmir is silent as a graveyard’: India seizes local leaders
On Aug. 5, at 1:15 a.m., Asifa Mubeen was woken up by the sound of barking dogs as police officers began pouring into her yard.
Her husband, Mubeen Shah, a wealthy Kashmiri merchant, stepped out onto their bedroom balcony in the night air. The officers shouted that he was under arrest. When he asked to see a warrant, his wife said, the officers told him there wouldn’t be one.
“This is different,” they said. “We have orders.”
It was the start of one of the biggest mass arrests of civilian leaders in decades carried out by India, a close U.S. partner that bills itself as one of the world’s leading democracies.
Local officials say that at least 2,000 Kashmiris — including business leaders, human rights defenders, elected representatives, teachers, and students as young as 14 — were rounded up by the federal security forces in the days right before and after the Indian government unilaterally stripped away Kashmir’s autonomy.
The detainees have not been able to communicate with their families or meet with lawyers. Their whereabouts remains unknown. Most were taken in the middle of the night, witnesses said.
Critics say that even under India’s tough public safety laws this is illegal, and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bending the Indian legal system to cut off any possible criticism in Kashmir and go after anyone with a voice — be that a successful merchant like Mubeen Shah, a politician or a professor.
“Kashmir is silent as a graveyard,” said Vrinda Grover, a human rights lawyer. www.phillytrib.com/nyt/kashmir-is-silent-as-a-graveyard-india-seizes-local-leaders/article_62a48e45-f6f6-5970-b7a6-dafea0c28de3.html
Solidarity for Never
A tale of corruption by the United Auto Workers and the Big Three American automakers
What follows is a somewhat complex tale of what happens when a labor union, structured to be unaccountable to the rank-and-file membership, embraces a system of labor-management cooperation rather than a class-conscious understanding that workers and their employers are adversaries with fundamentally opposed goals and desires. Unfortunately, what is true of the United Auto Workers (UAW) is true for many U.S. labor unions. That the UAW, an iconic union, born of heroic class struggle, could sink into corruption, with a bloated and dictatorial bureaucracy, only shows in microcosm what ails much of organized labor in the United States. And just how difficult it will be to rebuild a labor movement worthy of the name. mronline.org/2019/08/19/a-tale-of-corruption-by-the-united-auto-workers-and-the-big-three-american-automakers/?fbclid=IwAR0uq6Sq72dbxSN8IAF-q4DdNyzMx1eLWwcv-xaNcG58vIW1ML32ow5RJtI
Wage battle looms over contentious UAW auto talks
Four years of strong profits for U.S. automakers all but ensure the United Auto Workers will seek significant hourly wage increases for the union’s rank-and-file as contract talks continue. And that’s expected to be a sticking point as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles prepare for a changing industry, slowing sales and an economic downturn.
The UAW is eager to lock in wage gains and other benefits for the next four years. That comes as hourly labor costs for the Detroit Three continue to rise, widening the gap separating them from non-union, foreign-owned competition in the United States.
How and where bargainers strike a balance both can live with — and sell to both investors and union members — holds major implications for the automakers’ ability to compete amid shifting priorities and greater calls for cash as they invest in autonomy and electrification. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/08/22/wage-battle-looms-over-contentious-uaw-auto-talks/2056823001/
Spy versus Spy
Cspan discussion of Moscow Rules:
www.c-span.org/video/?461182-1/the-moscow-rules
Cspan discussion of Nuking the Moon:
www.c-span.org/video/?460333-10/nuking-moon
Patrick Byrne, Overstock C.E.O., Resigns After Disclosing Romance With Russian Agent
For two decades as the chief executive of the online retailer Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne has never been far from controversy.
He posted elaborate theories on his personal website, railed against an unnamed Wall Street figure he named the Sith Lord and then, last week, delivered the most eyebrow-lifting tale of all. Mr. Byrne — operating on the advice, he said, of the Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett — disclosed that he had been in a romantic relationship with Maria Butina, a woman accused of being a Russian spy who tried to infiltrate circles of political power before the 2016 presidential election.
His statement, with its references to the “Deep State,” “Men in Black” and “political espionage,” sent his company’s shares sharply down and baffled investors. On Thursday, he resigned as Overstock’s chief executive and chairman, saying his continued presence was complicating the company’s business relationships.
Those relationships, he said in an interview, included the kind necessary to fulfill his plan to sell the online retailer. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/business/overstock-ceo-patrick-byrne.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
The Magical Mystery Tour
Mega-church leader Joaquin Garcia charged with human trafficking and child rape charges
LOS ANGELES, California — Worshippers gathered to pray at the La Luz del Mundo church in East Los Angeles Wednesday in the wake of the church’s leader Joaquín García facing human trafficking and child rape charges.
García and a 24-year-old church follower were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Monday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office said. García is expected to be arraigned Wednesday.
Becerra filed 26 charges against him, ranging from human trafficking and production of child pornography to rape of a minor.
García is being held in Los Angeles on $50 million bail.
Prosecutors asked for the high bail amount because they noted the church has plenty of money and international ties. They want to ensure Garcia does not flee the country.
A criminal complaint filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges García committed the felonies over an approximately four year period. abc13.com/mega-church-leader-joaquin-garcia-charged-with-sex-crimes/5333827/?fbclid=IwAR2cueGRHdnvfWLSvRTucRrLRkcee70IkFwazOBoyUtVQEcejpgE3crJoXw
Catholic Priest Abuse Survivors’ Group Says It’s ‘Cowardly’ That Convicted Cardinal Has Not Been Defrocked
An Australian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, who was found guilty earlier this year of molesting two 13-year-old choir boys in the 1990s. And yet, Pell still retains his title in the Catholic Church.
The Vatican said it is waiting for Pell to make his final appeal to the High Court, Australia’s supreme court, before launching its own investigation. It noted that Pell has always maintained his innocence. One abuse survivors’ group says the decision to hold off on discipline is “cowardly” and shows the Church hasn’t made it nearly far enough on responding to sexual abuse.
Pell, Pope Francis’ former finance minister, is the highest-ranking church official to ever be convicted of child sexual abuse. He has been imprisoned since an Australian court sentenced the 78-year-old to six years in prison in March.
Tim Lennon, the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), says the church should have been decisive following Pell’s conviction and immediately defrocked him. time.com/5657523/cardinal-pell-appeal-catholic-church/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
The Depravity of the US ruling class: Epstein Files
Barr Seized on Epstein Case as Doubts Mounted About Justice Dept.
…After Mr. Epstein killed himself, Mr. Barr moved to quell doubt that the department would seek justice.
He immediately determined that prison employees and the warden had broken protocol several times. Mr. Epstein’s cellmate had been removed. The employees overseeing him had stopped their regular checks into his cell the night he died, even though prison supervisors and officials knew that he was to be constantly watched. And the prison had yet to officially determine whether he had earlier tried to commit suicide.
Mr. Barr put on leave the two employees who were responsible for watching over Mr. Epstein the night he died and moved the warden, Lamine N’Diaye. And when he asked Kathleen Hawk Sawyer last Friday to return to run the Bureau of Prisons — a job he had appointed her to in 1992, during his first stint as attorney general — she was impressed by the amount of detail he had gathered about Mr. Epstein’s death and the conditions at the prison where he died, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who was not authorized to share details. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/politics/william-barr-jeffrey-epstein.html
French prosecutors open probe of possible crimes linked to Jeffrey Epstein
- French prosecutors said Friday that they are opening an investigation into possible crimes, including the rape of children and minors, related to the case of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
- The Paris Public Prosecutors’ Office said it was launching a “preliminary investigation” based in part on “the exchanges with the competent American authorities in the so-called ‘Epstein’ case,” according to a translation of that office’s statement.
- Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, was accused by federal prosecutors in New York of sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking conspiracy. www.cnbc.com/2019/08/23/france-opens-probe-of-possible-crimes-linked-to-jeffrey-epstein.html
Weinstein Wants Trial Moved Because of His 11,000 Page Six Mentions
The mogul filed a motion contending he cannot find an impartial jury in Manhattan because of the robust news media
Harvey Weinstein, the once-powerful movie mogul who put Manhattan’s skyline in the Miramax logo, wants his trial on sexual assault charges moved out of New York City, arguing that the intense media scrutiny makes it impossible for jurors to give him a fair trial.
Among the arguments Mr. Weinstein’s legal team made in a court document filed on Friday was that Mr. Weinstein’s name was mentioned online by Page Six, The New York Post’s irreverent gossip column, more than 11,000 times.
The court papers that seek a change of venue also contend that Times Square billboards and newsstands on every corner mean city residents cannot avoid headlines related to Mr. Weinstein, and that Manhattan is the epicenter of global hashtag-driven movements like #MeToo.
“New York City is the least-likely place on earth where Mr. Weinstein could receive a fair trial,” wrote Arthur L. Aidala, a lawyer for Mr. Weinstein. www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-manhattan.html
Now, Relax
www.facebook.com/VT/videos/998139477195128/?t=35
So Long
After Life of Incalculable Harm, Billionaire Climate Denialist and Right-Wing Villain David Koch Dead at 79
“Death is an escape hatch for David Koch while the rest of us are left scrambling for the emergency brake before we go over the cliff.”
Billionaire industrialist David Koch, who spent vast sums of his billions in personal fortune promoting climate denialism and other right wing causes over the last four decades, died Friday at 79.
His legacy in modern American politics was summed up by The New York Times:
Three decades after David Koch’s public steps into politics, analysts say, the Koch brothers’ money-fueled brand of libertarianism helped give rise to the Tea Party movement and strengthened the far-right wing of a resurgent Republican Party.
Koch was a controversial figure. His vast fortune—made in large part through fossil fuel extraction and manufacturing, though the company has interests in nearly everything—made him and his brother Charles two of the richest people in the world. The brothers spent at least $100 million since the 1970s promoting right-wing causes, and David ran for vice president as a member of the Libertarian Party in 1980.
One of the causes Koch dumped his fortune into promoting was climate crisis denialism. www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/23/after-life-incalculable-harm-billionaire-climate-denialist-and-right-wing-villain?fbclid=IwAR2t0DDp3LClBZRB6PmxUYoVScB5VzXmXDLCH52tVnDkjoPFMszo98u_eBY