Rouge Forum Dispatch: Class Conscious News!
July 27th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
Book Review: The Right Side
The revolutionary class politics of the Civil War.
On May 30, 1878, the Abraham Lincoln Post No. 13 of the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic invited Frederick Douglass to speak at its annual Memorial Day celebration in New York. Douglass took the occasion to reflect on the previous decade’s civil war, particularly in light of the recent attempts by leading secessionists to whitewash the cause for which they’d fought by erasing slavery from their memoirs and history books. Southern writers were already asserting that they had fought nobly and heroically, if in vain, for the “lost cause” of states’ rights and limited government. But Douglass was having none of it. The bloody struggle between the North and the South, he insisted, was “a war between the old and new, slavery and freedom, barbarism and civilization.” The sentimental urge to honor the courage of the men who fought on both sides was all well and good, he said, but remember:
There was a right side and a wrong side in the late war, which no sentiment ought cause us to forget, and while today we should have malice toward none and charity for all, it is no part of our duty to confound right with wrong, or loyalty with treason.
Elizabeth R. Varon quotes Douglass’s speech in the introduction to her 2008 book Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, and she quotes it again in the conclusion to her latest one, Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War. By bookending her two-volume history of the war with the same quotation, Varon makes her point effectively but without fanfare: This was a momentous struggle over slavery, and in that struggle the South was on the wrong side. www.thenation.com/article/civil-war-elizabeth-varon-book-review/
You know who was into Karl Marx? No, not AOC. Abraham Lincoln.
It was December 1861, a Tuesday at noon, when President Abraham Lincoln sent his first annual message — what later became the State of the Union — to the House and Senate.
By the next day, all 7,000 words of the manuscript were published in newspapers across the country, including the Confederate South. This was Lincoln’s first chance to speak to the nation at length since his inaugural address.
He railed against the “disloyal citizens” rebelling against the Union, touted the strength of the Army and Navy, and updated Congress on the budget.
For his eloquent closer, he chose not a soliloquy on unity or freedom but an 800-word meditation on what the Chicago Tribune subtitled “Capital Versus Labor:”
“Labor is prior to and independent of capital,” the country’s 16th president said. “Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
If you think that sounds like something Karl Marx would write, well, that might be because Lincoln was regularly reading Karl Marx. www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/27/you-know-who-was-into-karl-marx-no-not-aoc-abraham-lincoln/?utm_term=.8b182fd7a7d8
Salt of the Earth: Made of labour, by labour, for labour
Sixty years ago a team of radical, blacklisted filmmakers made Salt of the Earth, a powerful representation of the agency of US workers. Sukhdev Sandhu celebrates a talisman of the American leftDemonised and hounded off screen on its release, Salt of the Earth, released in almost impossible circumstances 60 years ago, has a strong claim to being the most ambitious American film ever made. According to its director Herbert J Biberman and screenwriter Michael Wilson, it was the “first feature film ever made in [the US] of labour, by labour, and for labour”. More than that, it was “a film that does not tolerate minorities but celebrates their greatness”.
Biberman, Wilson and producer Paul Jarrico had all been exiled from Hollywood for their politics. Biberman had worked in theatres in Moscow and co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League before being jailed for six months for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Jarrico believed that Marx “had a lot to contribute to an understanding of society and history”. Forming the Independent Productions Corporation with other blacklistees, and eager to tell “stories drawn from the living experience of people long ignored in Hollywood – the working men and women of America”, they headed to New Mexico to make a film based on a recent strike by Chicano labourers against the Empire Zinc Company. www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/10/salt-of-the-earth-labour-workers-blacklisted-filmmakers?fbclid=IwAR3aoSASiLCfmF2zzbv-ru2DTx6hR-CFafy3hJXM2rk7ZroZQnb_7pfqw8g
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Did this student deserve admission to UCLA’s renowned gymnastics team?
Even by the lofty standards of UCLA gymnastics, the team’s 2016 freshmen stood out.
The group was one of the greatest collections of recruits in NCAA history, including two Olympic gold medalists and others with state, regional and national accolades.
One of the nine women, however, stood apart. Maria Caire’s team biography had no record of a competitive career.
UCLA listed Caire as a past member of Pasadena-based Club Champion Gymnastics, but top gymnasts who trained at the club during the same period told The Times they had never seen her practice. There is no record of her participating in a meet for the club. www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-20/la-sp-ucla-athlete-recruits-children-coaches-admissions-20190721?utm_source=kw&kwp_0=1311396&kwp_4=4115835&kwp_1=1714860&fbclid=IwAR3pdIOqfZiixfujQ-zRkZ19qkH4dGDhgCH1aEYIjuObku9IygqzpCW9Lg8#track=lat_social__content-promotion__fb-ad_keywee_______cpa
The Learning Curve: Big Disparities in College Attendance for Latino Students in San Diego Unified
New data released earlier this month by the Department of Education shows that California’s college attendance rate has not changed significantly in the last four years. It hovers around 64 percent.
But behind that 64 percent, the new data – which provides granular detail on student groups and what type of institution they attend – has an interesting story to tell. It gives us a hint about how many of that 64 percent actually earn a degree. And it tells us a lot about who gets to go to college and what student groups our public school system is failing to serve.
Four-year college, obviously, doesn’t make sense for everyone. But we know students who attend college, on the whole, tend to earn more and even have better health outcomes.
First, let’s take the 30,000-foot view. You can see across the school districts of San Diego County there is a wide disparity in college attendance rates.
San Diego Unified School District performs extremely well compared with its peers. Only three other school districts – and surprise, they are fairly wealthy ones – outperform San Diego Unified. But when we drill down on the data by ethnicity a disconcerting trend emerges.
It’s hard to see at first. The bar graph just looks like a jumble of colorful lines. But look at the yellow bar. That represents Latino students in San Diego Unified. Latino students represent roughly 57 percent of the San Diego Unified population. And yet the district is failing to help them achieve graduation rates in line with their peers.
You’ll also notice that Asian and white students tend to enroll in college in much higher rates than their peers….
Research from 2010 showed that 70 percent of California community college students did not complete a two-year associate’s degree or transfer to a four-year institution. Some students who enroll in a community college on a remedial track drop out before they’ve ever had the chance to take a true college-level course.
So even though the attendance figures don’t look bad, they don’t look good either. Many of those who enroll in college will never get close to graduation. They may get knocked off track by financial concerns, a family health problem or a curriculum that didn’t serve their needs. www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/the-learning-curve-big-disparities-in-college-attendance-for-latino-students-in-san-diego-unified/?utm_source=Voice+of+San+Diego+Master+List&utm_campaign=ce9a8743e5-Morning_Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2357fd0a3-ce9a8743e5-81862829&goal=0_c2357fd0a3-ce9a8743e5-81862829
With Less Than Half of Prospective Graduates in Los Angeles District Eligible for California State University System, College Trustees Eye New Requirement
The California State University system this week is considering a new admissions requirement for incoming freshmen — a development that’s sparked opposition from L.A. Unified, a district where less than half of the prospective graduates are eligible to apply under current standards.
CSU’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday will review an informal proposal to add a fourth year of “quantitative reasoning” to admissions requirements across the system’s 23 campuses. A quantitative reasoning course largely centers on problem-solving using math-based skills; a high-level math class, certain science courses or an elective with “a quantitative reasoning foundation,” such as statistics and personal finance, could all qualify, according to the proposal. Three high school math courses— Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II — are already a must for CSU admissions.
System advocates say the extra prerequisite, which wouldn’t be implemented until 2026, would ensure that more students build a strong learning foundation before college and have a wider array of career opportunities. Some other public university systems, such as Arizona State and Texas State, have adopted a similar requirement.
CSU is “the people’s university, and we want to provide as many options as possible,” said Susan Holl, a mechanical engineering professor at the Sacramento campus and chair of the CSU Academic Senate committee that has proposed the change. “We’re trying to fling the doors wide, bring everyone in and say, ‘You can do this.’” www.the74million.org/article/with-less-than-half-of-prospective-graduates-in-los-angeles-district-eligible-for-california-state-university-system-college-trustees-eye-new-requirement/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e797be7c8d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_22_09_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-e797be7c8d-176109065
PA District Rejects Philly CEO’s Offer To Pay Student Lunch Debts
In the wake of a viral letter to parents of the Wyoming Valley West School District that threatened to put children in foster care if their parents didn’t pay outstanding school lunch debts, a Philadelphia CEO stepped up to help.
However, Todd Carmichael, CEO of La Colombe coffee roasters here in Philly, had his charitable offer rejected.
The district’s letter went viral last week when it made the rounds on local and national news outlets
According to Carmichael’s representative, the businessman offered up $22,467 to the district to settle the debt.
Ultimately, Wyoming Valley West School District School Board president Joseph Mazur rejected Carmichael’s offer after Carmichael’s representatives tried to contact district officials but never heard back from them.
Mazur told Carmichael’s people that he believed the parents could afford to settle their respective debts. But Carmichael, whose family received food assistance when he was a boy, simply wanted to wipe the slate clean to stop the calls, letters, and threats to Wyoming Valley West School District parents. patch.com/pennsylvania/chestnuthill/s/gse2g/district-denies-philly-coffee-ceos-donation-cancel-lunch-debt?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=business&utm_campaign=autopost&utm_content=mtairy-chestnuthill&fbclid=IwAR2DmFM2XRcPph526FuI2nUXWL-OBwF4pT_q1PfWX2bjeSVxjdN6Dr8ixSc
Wayne State board rift widens in real estate, legal fights (it’s all $ and not minds)
Wayne State University’s decision to pay up to $16.15 million to lease – and potentially buy – a Midtown building for a new pediatrics center has widened a rift within the Board of Governors and sparked accusations of backroom dealing, open meeting violations and a conflict of interest.
Four of the board members were absent at the late June meeting where the other four governors – with WSU President M. Roy Wilson sitting as an ex officio member – agreed to lease a former hospice at 400 Mack Ave., with an option to buy it by July 1, 2021, to house university physicians.
The four who missed the session – Michael Busuito, Anil Kumar, Sandra Hughes O’Brien and Dana Thompson – sued the other members this month, alleging their colleagues lacked a quorum to conduct business at the June 21 meeting and asking that board actions that day be voided.
The real estate deal – and the dispute over how it was approved – is at the center of the latest battle between those four governors and the rest of the eight-person board, which has wrangled for months over numerous issues, including the future of Wilson. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2019/07/25/wayne-state-board-rift-widens-real-estate-legal-fights/1734028001/
San Diego Unified paid $400k for claim against Lincoln High coach0
He changed his name in February
After being accused of sexual assault a former Lincoln High School soccer coach, Said Cajica, continued coaching youth soccer teams and on February 21 changed his name to Xavier Cajica-Bautista.
Said’s path to becoming Xavier started seven years ago at San Diego High School, where the 31-year-old first worked as a special education assistant.
According to a lawsuit filed against him: “From 2012 to 2014 [San Diego High] principals Dianne Cordero and Gretchen Rhoads observed…Cajica…flirting with underage female students… Cordero [followed him] around campus…to monitor his…inappropriate behavior…
“Rhoads described…Cajica had a ‘creepy vibe’ like he should not be hanging around young children.” (Cajica says there is no truth to what they were thinking about him.)
In August 2014 San Diego Unified School District approved Cajica to transfer his classroom job from San Diego High to Lincoln High, where he was already coaching soccer.
After hearing the news, Rhoads reportedly emailed Cordero, “Guess he was tired of us getting in his bidness!” Cordero reportedly replied, “We were ruining his game.” (Cajica says he transferred to keep an eye on his soccer players.) www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/jul/23/stringers-san-diego-unified-paid-400k-claim-/
Emails Show DeVos Aides Pulled Strings for Failing For-Profit Colleges
Dream Center Education Holdings, a subsidiary of a Los Angeles-based megachurch, had no experience in higher education when it petitioned the federal Education Department to let it take over a troubled chain of for-profit trade schools.
But the organization’s chairman, Randall K. Barton, told the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, that the foundation wanted to “help people live better lives.”
The purchase was blessed despite Dream Center’s lack of experience and questionable finances by an administration favorable to for-profit education. But barely a year later, the company tumbled into insolvency, dozens of its colleges closed abruptly and thousands of students were left with no degree after paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.
Making matters worse, the college is accused of enrolling new students and taking their taxpayer-supported financial aid dollars even after some of its campuses had lost their accreditation, which rendered their credits worthless. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/politics/dream-center.html
LSU Just Unveiled a $28-Million Football Facility. The Flood-Damaged Library Is Still ‘Decrepit.’
On Sunday night Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge unveiled a $28-million renovation of its Football Operations Building, an all-in-one venue with a player’s lounge, weight room, training center, and nutritional facility serving prime rib, king crab, and jambalaya. The renovated locker room has lounging pods complete with iPad mounts, charging stations, and ventilated storage drawers.
“This is why you come to LSU,” said one LSU football tweet, accompanied by a video of players celebrating the new digs.
These are good days for LSU athletics. Tens of millions of dollars each year pour into the Tiger Athletic Foundation, the department’s main fund-raising arm. The football team, a barometer of any major university’s athletic achievement, is a perennial Top 25 power.
Meanwhile, the university’s funding from the state Legislature has been cut in half in the past decade. The situation was so dire in 2015 that the university drafted plans to declare financial exigency due to a lack of academic funding from the state. www.chronicle.com/article/LSU-Just-Unveiled-a/246750?key=lZNp9FHkDfv6nyFEhWZrDXAz68xnZbFHHiJh4xPl4PmgKKNuyJaKIkflcliwjI7pTGxwSG51MXlnZUtKMjNKUElDWUhsVmdqbk1DdUpTbGxCcnZ3dm9JWnZ3MA&fbclid=IwAR0Y6MWmddiGeDjbkI13YchivQeJ3iSYZg4rXyjxtlSBoPAyvPfY8p8h8YI
Principal files $5M lawsuit claiming Ann Arbor schools discriminates against whites
An Ann Arbor school principal has broken her silence about her abrupt leave of absence from Lawton Elementary, filing a lawsuit alleging discrimination.
Shannon Blick, 39, filed a $5 million federal lawsuit Saturday, July 20, against the Ann Arbor Public School District, its board, Superintendent Jeanice Swift and other administrators.
The lawsuit, filed by Ann Arbor attorney William G. Tishkoff, claims Blick faced racial discrimination, was forced into paid leave, stripped of her duties as principal and deprived of her right to free speech when she was asked to tell supporters not to comment on her behalf at a public school board meeting.
In addition to financial compensation, Blick is asking her full duties as principal be restored.
“The Ann Arbor Public Schools has not been served with a copy of the complaint,” Ann Arbor Public Schools spokesman Andrew Cluley told the Ann Arbor News/MLive. “The AAPS does not comment on pending litigation or personnel matters.” www.mlive.com/news/2019/07/principal-files-5m-lawsuit-claiming-ann-arbor-schools-discriminates-against-whites.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aanews_sf&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Jcl9UdqivLdYenDC6SRxO1S6bIe8qzK3eSJ1SVhkr-KBnGmiT6Y-xQXU
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Hong Kong Enters China’s Danger Zone
To Beijing, unruly citizens staging sometimes violent demonstrations on behalf of principles barred in the mainland are a great embarrassment and even a threat.
The great game of international chicken that did not occur in the 1980s was the United Kingdom holding a referendum on Hong Kong’s future rather than negotiating with China. Territorial legislators generally opposed the handover to Beijing while London consciously refused to consult the residents.
Had Hong Kongers voted for independence or continued UK control, then Deng Xiaoping’s government, early in the reform process and only shortly beyond a costly conflict with Vietnam, would have hesitated to use military force to retake the territories. However, it is hard to imagine a later Chinese government not revisiting the issue and refusing to accept no for an answer.
Hong Kong, essentially stolen by the world’s then dominant imperial power from the enfeebled Qing Dynasty, was reclaimed by the People’s Republic of China to great fanfare in 1997. Even many ethnic Chinese around the world were proud to see what they conceived of as historic China rather than the ephemeral PRC overcome yet another humiliation inflicted by the West.
Beijing promised to preserve the unique character of what became a Special Administrative Region for a half century. Hong Kong would be an anomaly, an outpost of liberty and tolerance in what remained a dictatorship capable of great violence, as in Tiananmen Square in 1989. And for years the PRC largely kept its bargain. A journalist friend said that in the early years Chinese authorities may have intervened less in his field than had British colonial administrators.
However, that world changed in 2014. And while Beijing is the source of growing restrictions, it is Hong Kong’s own activists—call them simultaneously impassioned and irresponsible—who accelerated a process that otherwise might have taken much longer. nationalinterest.org/feature/hong-kong-enters-chinas-danger-zone-68472
16 Camp Pendleton Marines arrested on human smuggling and drug-related allegations
Sixteen Marines were arrested at Camp Pendleton Thursday morning during battalion formation for various illegal activities ranging from human smuggling to drug-related offenses, the 1st Marine Division said in a statement.
The Marine Corps said information from a previous human smuggling investigation led to the arrests. On July 3, two Marines — Byron Darnell Law II and David Javier Salazar-Quintero — were arrested for allegedly transporting unauthorized immigrants as part of a smuggling operation.
Eight additional Marines were questioned about other alleged drug offenses unrelated to the arrests, the Marine Corps said.
The Marine Corps confirmed the Marines involved in Thursday’s action are from the same unit as Law and Salazar-Quintero — 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2019-07-25/16-camp-pendleton-marines-arrested-on-human-smuggling-drug-related-activities
Two more Camp Pendleton Marines and a sailor arrested in human smuggling, drug probe
Three more Camp Pendleton-based service members — two Marines and a sailor — were arrested Thursday, bringing to 19 the total arrests in a sweeping human smuggling and drug probe, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said Friday.
Jeff Houston, an NCIS spokesman, said the two Marines are attached to the same unit — 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment — as the 16 Marines arrested at morning formation Thursday.
The sailor, Houston said, is a corpsman assigned to Camp Pendleton. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2019-07-26/two-more-camp-pendleton-marines-and-a-sailor-arrested-in-human-smuggling-drug-probe
A Navy SEAL Platoon Is Pulled From Iraq Over Misconduct Reports
An entire platoon of Navy SEAL commandos was abruptly removed from Iraq this week after commanders heard reports of serious misconduct and a breakdown of discipline in the elite unit.
Officials did not release any details. But a senior Navy official with knowledge of the matter said the Navy is investigating reports that the unit, Foxtrot Platoon of SEAL Team 7, held a Fourth of July party where some members consumed alcohol against regulations, and that a senior enlisted member of the platoon had raped a female service member attached to the platoon.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about a continuing investigation.
Jeremiah Sullivan, a civilian attorney representing one of the SEALs in the platoon, confirmed that there was an investigation into reports of sexual assault and unauthorized drinking. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/navy-seal-platoon-withdrawn-iraq.html
Merger mania: The military-industrial complex on steroids
When, in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the “unwarranted influence” wielded by the “military-industrial complex,” he could never have dreamed of an arms-making corporation of the size and political clout of Lockheed Martin. In a good year, it now receives up to $50 billion in government contracts, a sum larger than the operating budget of the State Department. And now it’s about to have company.
Raytheon, already one of the top five U.S. defense contractors, is planning to merge with United Technologies. That company is a major contractor in its own right, producing, among other things, the engine for the F-35 combat aircraft, the most expensive Pentagon weapons program ever. The new firmwill be second only to Lockheed Martin when it comes to consuming your tax dollars — and it may end up even more powerful politically, thanks to President Trump’s fondness for hiring arms industry executives to run the national security state.
Just as Boeing benefited from its former Senior Vice President Patrick Shanahan’s stint as acting secretary of defense, so Raytheon is likely to cash in on the nomination of its former top lobbyist, Mike Esper, as his successor. Esper’s elevation comes shortly after another former Raytheon lobbyist, Charles Faulkner, left the State Department amid charges that he had improperly influenced decisions to sell Raytheon-produced guided bombs to Saudi Arabia for its brutal air war in Yemen. John Rood, third-in-charge at the Pentagon, has worked for bothLockheed Martin and Raytheon, while Ryan McCarthy, Mike Esper’s replacement as secretary of the Army, worked for Lockheed on the F-35, which the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has determined may never be ready for combat. www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/16/merger-mania-military-industrial-complex-steroids
Revisiting Democratic Obama-Biden-Clinton Administration’s 2011 War for Regime Change in Libya: Conclusion
The Democratic Obama-Biden-Clinton administration ended its Operation Odyssey Dawn overt military attack on Libya on March 31, 2011. But, along with other NATO government administrations, it continued to wage its overt war for regime change in Libya under the code name “Operation Unified Protector,” after Apr. 1, 2011.
So Libyan government leader Qaddafi then sent a letter on Apr. 6, 2011 to Democratic President Obama requesting that the Democratic Party leader put an end to NATO intervention in Libya.
But instead of agreeing to end U.S. military intervention in Libya, on Apr. 7, 2011 the Obama-Biden-Clinton administration again demanded that Qaddafi abdicate power and live in exile; and it continued to wage its war for regime change in Libya until Qaddafi was finally murdered on Oct. 20, 2011, in violation of international law.
According to the 2015 RAND Project Air Force Precision and Purpose study, during the Operation Unified Protector phase that began in early April 2011, “U.S. forces flew more than 7,100 total sorties…which represented nearly 27 percent of the total sorties during the” NATO “operation.” But, according to the Sowing Chaos: Libya In The Wake of Humanitarian Intervention book, “more than 2,000 residents” of the Libyan “city of Sirte,” were “killed in NATO air strikes;” and, by waging its war for regime change in Libya in 2011, “NATO handed over part of Libya’s territory to Al Qaida.” wherechangeobama.blogspot.com/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Nissan plans 12,500 layoffs after operating profits fall 98%
Nissan says it will reduce global headcount by 12,500 people over the next three years after a brutal quarter that saw net income fall by 95% year over year.
Automakers around the world have been struggling in recent months. Ford said earlier this year that it would cut 12,000 jobs in Europe, while General Motors has announced plans to eliminate thousands of jobs in a series of cuts.
Nissan has been having a particularly rough year. Then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 on corruption charges, creating a massive distraction for the company. Nissan has a complex set of financial relationships with Renault and Mitsubishi that make management of the company more complicated. Since Ghosn’s dismissal from Nissan’s board, CEO Hiroto Saikawa has struggled to turn the automaker’s fortunes around. arstechnica.com/cars/2019/07/nissan-plans-12500-layoffs-after-operating-profits-fall-98-percent/
Ford profits slide 86% on restructuring charges
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday its annual profits would be lower than analysts expected as the company’s second-quarter profits slid 86% due to the automaker’s ongoing global restructuring.
The automaker’s income will likely continue to take hits through the remainder of 2019, officials said Wednesday, as the automaker moves to cut costs and reform unprofitable pieces of its global business. The situation could make contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers contentious, as the UAW will be looking for pay increases while Ford’s profits shrink under the current restructuring.
Ford is making strong progress right-sizing its problem European and South American business, said CEO Jim Hackett and Ford’s new chief financial officer Tim Stone. The short-term hits to earnings will pay out later when the company reports stronger earnings over the long-term following its global restructuring, the executives said.
“There’s a lot of good news in this year of execution,” Hackett said. “We are improving fitness.” www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2019/07/24/ford-profits-slide-86-restructuring-charges/1815950001/
One dead, others hurt when rebar topples at UCSD construction site
One person died and at least three others were injured when a 35-foot rebar wall collapsed at a construction site at the University of California San Diego on Thursday morning, officials said.
It was unclear how many people were hurt. State officials said they had been told five workers were injured. Local fire officials and the construction company said four people were taken to a hospital.
The call for help came in just after 8:20 a.m. at the site of the under-construction North Torrey Living and Learning Neighborhood, which will be a mixed-use development featuring housing and retail space on the west end of campus.
The $627 million complex is the single largest construction project in UC San Diego history. The plan includes housing for 2,000 students, as well as two research towers, dining, retail shops and a theater. www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-25/at-least-two-hurt-in-possible-construction-accident-at-uc-san-diego
This London Firm Helps the Wealthy Hide Assets – or Steal Them. Luckily We Have 15 Years of Their Client Communications.
It is my cheerful duty to announce the acquisition of around 85 gigabytes of leaked emails, phone calls, faxes, and other documents originating from the London-based tax shelter firm Formations House, best known to the public for the assortment of often colorful scandals involving such figures as former Ukranian president Viktor Yanukovych, and best known to the global kleptocracy as a cheap and discreet option by which to avoid taxes or steal them altogether. These materials, which cover fifteen years from the company’s founding in 2001, were recently obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets, the transparency organization founded by longtime researcher, activist, and Freedom of Information Act request record-holder Emma Best to facilitate and host leaks from state and corporate actors. My own non-profit Pursuance, meanwhile, has partnered with DDOS to help oversee early access by reporters, and thereafter to implement experimental crowd-sourced research protocols by which networks of volunteers will sift through this immense field of data to better ensure that critical stories are discovered and made public over the coming months and years. www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/this-london-firm-helps-the-wealthy-hide-assets-or-steal-them-luckily-we-have-15-years-of-their-client-communications/
Trump Admin Proposal Would Cut Food Stamp Benefits for 3.1M People
The USDA estimates that the new rule would save the government about $2.5 billion a year.
The Trump administration is planning to announce a rule on Tuesday that would tighten restrictions on food stamps and cut 3.1 million people from the program.
Under current regulations, 43 states allow people to automatically become eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program if they receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
SNAP currently provides free food to about 42 million Americans.
However, officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture say that the proposal would require people who receive benefits through TANF to pass a review of their income and assets to determine whether they are eligible for benefits from SNAP.
The USDA estimates that the government would save about $2.5 billion a year by removing people from SNAP under the new guidelines. Benefits would be slashed for about 3.1 million people.
USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said on a conference call Monday that “some states are taking advantage of loopholes that allow people to receive SNAP benefits who would otherwise not qualify and for which they are not entitled,” Reuters reported. www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-07-23/trump-administration-proposal-would-cut-food-stamp-benefits-for-31m-people
Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 22, 2019
Reparations Demand: End Capitalism
“We cannot negotiate with the system that facilitated our ancestors’ enslavement,” sad William C. Anderson, author of the article, “Reparations is One Step in the Long Fight to End Racial Capitalism.” Said Anderson, “We need something much bigger than a settlement.” www.blackagendareport.com/black-agenda-radio-week-july-22-2019
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Gun-toting frat bros pose in front of Emmett Till memorial, may face federal charges
Three fraternity brothers at the University of Mississippi have been suspended by chapter officials — and are possibly facing federal charges — for taking a photo in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till while holding a shotgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” says a complaint filed with the UM Office of Student Conduct.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, reviewed the complaint and obtained a copy of the picture in question, which was taken earlier this year.
Ole Miss student and Kappa Alpha Order member Ben LeClere posted it on his private page in March and is reportedly the one holding a shotgun.
Two of his fraternity brothers, John Lowe and another young man who has yet to be identified, can be seen posing alongside him — the latter of whom is toting the AR-15.
A fourth person, said to be the photographer, may have also been with the trio, the complaint says. nypost.com/2019/07/25/gun-toting-frat-bros-pose-in-front-of-emmett-till-memorial-may-face-federal-charges/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=facebook_app&fbclid=IwAR00nEdH8YY6jNRs9ATNHPtUfXMc5UXh58tNwJNeq-4pC8IILoGM6B8jfK8
Neo-Nazi group drops flyers in Birmingham and Royal Oak
A couple of weeks ago, as Sandra Thake and her husband pulled up to a stop light at Adams Road and Hazel Street, she couldn’t believe what she spotted on a utility pole outside her passenger-side window: a black and white flyer encouraging readers to join the new Nazi party.
…Soon Thake learned that several of her neighbors in the Poppleton Park area had seen similar signs, all attributed to the group Atomwaffen Division, a global network of neo-Nazis that many law enforcement agencies consider to be a terrorist organization.
One flyer was found at Wimbleton and Abbey streets, another at the entrance of Manor Park, and another on the gates of Clover Hill Park Cemetery, a traditional Jewish cemetery on 14 Mile Road. One was found in Royal Oak too. www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/22864/neo-nazi_group_drops_flyers_in_birmingham_and_royal_oak?fbclid=IwAR13MML79yfsOkasxK_I5wHi1u59tuPiHBOCvpmwNTE9YCGajia3WRtqKeY
3 members of California white power group who rioted in Charlottesville sentenced to prison
Three members of a white supremacist group that was based in Southern California have been sentenced to prison for their roles in provoking violence at a deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
Benjamin Daley, a founder of the now-defunct Rise Above Movement, was sentenced Friday to 37 months in prison. Thomas Gillen, a Redondo Beach resident, was sentenced to 33 months, and Michael Miselis, a member who worked as an aerospace engineer for Northrop Grumman, was sentenced to 27 months. A fourth defendant, Cole White, will be sentenced later.
All four previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-21/california-white-power-group-members-sentenced-prison-charlottesville?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=adc8dd8848-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-adc8dd8848-74652733
Solidarity for Never
When Stern left the SEIU in 2010, he was a true political power player—his official bio, in fact, brags that “Stern has visited the White House more frequently than any other single person during the Obama Administration.” Under his leadership, his union dramatically grew its membership and helped Barack Obama get elected. But his successes came at a cost. Stern developed a reputation as a business-friendly union leader, known for striking deals with companies that were often seen as too weak by many in the labor movement. Under the guise of modernization and growth, Stern seemed to lose his connection to the grassroots, radical, people-powered aspects of the union world. In 2010, The Nation quoted one union leader as saying, “Andy Stern leaves pretty much without a friend in the labor movement.”
His post-SEIU years have only intensified this feeling. Stern has spent the past decade serving on corporate boards, touting the idea of a universal basic income as an economic solution superior to building labor power, and further ingratiating himself to corporate America as a sort of post-union ambassador to the Aspen Institute world. He also took a seat on the board of the Broad Foundation, a billionaire-funded group that pushed charter schools—raising eyebrows from teacher’s unions, who are often cast as the villain by wealthy reformers seeking to build alternatives to America’s public education system. splinternews.com/high-profile-labor-leader-has-a-new-gig-fighting-agains-1836597318?fbclid=IwAR2YpTky_kRyJF6EXTiV8zxJ0SNGXmDXfjhABtE2uHzfZEQa_LfuBZzRhbA
Union Report: Mysterious Turnovers of Top Staff May Come as a Surprise, but They Are the Norm for the NEA and Its Affiliates
In the National Education Association governance system, the executive director is the most senior, highest-paid employee. He or she acts as chief of staff, overseeing all aspects of the union’s operations and deployment of personnel on the orders of the elected officers. But the executive director is often a player in union — and government — politics in his or her own right.
Executive directors tend to last a long time, which is an internal advantage since most elected officers are term-limited. So when one of them resigns, is dismissed or non-renewed, or experiences some other type of job separation that is not easily explained, it generates a lot of speculation.
In a matter of months, both NEA national and its largest state affiliate, the California Teachers Association, saw executive director turnover.
At the national union, John Stocks stepped down last month from the position he had held since 2011. He concurrently serves as chairman of the board of the Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy progressive political donors. He will continue in that role while acting as a senior adviser at NEA until after the 2020 elections.
His successor as NEA executive director is Kim Anderson, a longtime senior staffer at the union who for the past three years has been executive vice president of the Democracy Alliance.
The arrangement allows Stocks to direct the campaign strategies of both NEA and the Democracy Alliance while leaving all other duties in Anderson’s hands. www.the74million.org/article/union-report-mysterious-turnovers-of-top-staff-may-come-as-a-surprise-but-they-are-the-norm-for-the-nea-and-its-affiliates/
Former President Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $100K From Indianapolis Teachers Union
The former president of the Indianapolis Education Association pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling more than $100,000 from the union during her five-year tenure.
Rhondalyn Cornett “used her position and authority to write checks from the union’s bank account as well as use the union’s debit card for personal expenses and to withdraw cash,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Cornett faces up to 20 years in prison, though her plea agreement will likely result in a much lighter sentence.
Cornett was forced to resign last November after an audit by the Indiana State Teachers Association uncovered “serious financial mismanagement and misappropriation.”
The state union was quick to take credit for Cornett’s prosecution. “Today’s announcement from the Department of Justice reinforces ISTA’s original findings of financial mismanagement,” reads an ISTA statement. “ISTA’s reporting of the misappropriation of funds led to these charges and demonstrates that ISTA and IEA are committed to protecting our members.”
No surprise that this statement is a half-truth.
ISTA’s did forward its findings to law enforcement, which led to Cornett’s arrest. However, the Indianapolis whistleblower who alerted ISTA to Cornett’s embezzlement claimed the state union delayed acting for months.
A second Indianapolis Education Association activist commented that “At least one ISTA staff member was fully aware of the local’s failure to adhere to mandated fiscal safeguards. Both the state and local’s lack of accountability is as insulting as it is incomprehensible.”
A group of Indianapolis teachers has formed an independent local union to rival IEA and has of forcing a representation election.
Spy versus Spy
Iran says it arrested CIA spies and sentenced some to death
The intelligence ministry said the suspects had been collecting information in the nuclear, military and other sectors.
US President Donald Trump has dismissed the Iranian allegations, saying they are “totally false”.
Washington and Tehran are at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear programme and tensions have grown.
Iran says the spies who are alleged to work for the US Central Intelligence Agency were arrested over a 12-month period up until March this year.
The 17 were all Iranians working in “sensitive centres” in military and nuclear facilities and the private sector who had acted independently of each other, a top Iranian intelligence official told reporters.
He did not say how many had been sentenced to death or when the sentences had been handed down.
“Sentences for these spies have been issued, some of whom are to be put to death as ‘corruptors on earth’ [a charge punishable by death under Islamic rules in Iran],” the head of the intelligence ministry’s espionage department was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA). www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49074162
Private Surveillance Is a Lethal Weapon Anybody Can Buy
The plan was simple: Give the government of Uzbekistan the ability to monitor everyone’s communications.
I first heard the story about five years ago from an American defense consultant. I had spoken to him over the years about arms sales, particularly those involving the former Soviet Union. He had been involved in overseeing foreign military sales for the American government before he went into the private sector, using his expertise to help broker deals around the world. In 2014, the market in Uzbekistan looked promising.
It was the same year that Human Rights Watch declared that “Uzbekistan’s human rights record remained abysmal across a wide spectrum of violations.” Islam Karimov, the country’s president at the time, reportedly boiled at least one of his enemies alive. The Uzbek government wanted to buy what is known in official parlance as “lawful interception,” and among privacy advocates as surveillance technology. The American company the defense consultant was working for was offering the Uzbeks technology to surveil cellphone and internet communications as well as fixed landlines.
A small team representing the American company went to Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, to meet with officials and tell them what they had to offer. “We don’t want to stop people from using the internet, we want to control it,” the American defense consultant said the Uzbek general in charge of the procurement told one of his colleagues. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/opinion/private-surveillance-industry.html
The Spy Business Is Booming and We Should Be Worried
Spyware and hacking know-how are more available than ever, making our data more vulnerable and the world more dangerous.
What is going on? Russian spies are assassinating people in other countries, directing internet companies to troll our social media and trying to undermine our political process almost in plain sight.
At the same time, agents acting at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party are stealing our proprietary information and technology. North Korean spies have become New Age bank robbers, while Iranian spies have attempted to assassinate dissidents in Denmark and a Saudi diplomat in the United States. And the United Arab Emirates has hired former government hackers to spy on dissidents and civil rights activists.
The spy business is clearly booming.
But it is not just government spy agencies. We are also witnessing the democratization of spy tools and techniques that used to be the sole purview of a highly select group of intelligence services. Less sophisticated services in other countries are now getting into the act. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/opinion/sunday/the-spy-business-is-booming-and-we-should-be-worried.html
The Magical Mystery Tour
Televangelist Jim Bakker Warns His Flock That Christian Leaders And Republicans Will Die If Trump Loses In 2020
Jim Bakker, otherwise known as half of disgraced ’80s televangelist power couple Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker — pictured above with his current wife, Lori — has spent the past decade and a half quietly rebuilding his empire after serving nearly five years of a 45-year prison sentence (for fraud and conspiracy-related charges) from 1989 to 1994. (Not to be confused with the drugging and rape allegations from actress Jessica Hahn which had previously derailed his career in 1987.)
In the present, it should come as very little surprise that the “reformed” Bakker is back on his bullshit, now as a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and spewing dangerous rhetoric. In a sermon recently flagged by Right Wing Watch, Bakker told his followers that if Trump doesn’t get reelected in 2020, that “leaders of the gospel and the political conservative leaders” are going to be murdered. By who? Presumably AOC and the other women in Congress who Trump supporters chant “send them back” at rallies about? Dark lord Nancy Pelosi? Satan? Your guess is as good as ours! uproxx.com/viral/jim-bakker-trump-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0Io2MTI4bPIZ2fJEyX7cw7xysINpRVrP_oCmvoLGSUYo7BezGW3JrEglE
Gay people exist because pregnant women have anal sex, bishop says
Religious leader the Bishop of Morphou Neophytos has claimed women enjoying anal sex while pregnant is the reason that gay people exist. Speaking at a primary school in Akaki, Cyprus, he claimed that the enjoyment the mother experiences transfers to the foetus, making the child gay. In a video translated by Metro.co.uk translators, he said: ‘It happens during the parent’s intercourse or pregnancy. It follows an abnormal sexual act between the parents. To be more clear, anal sex. ‘[Saint Porfyrios] says that when the woman likes that, a desire is born, and then the desire is passed on to the child.’ The Bishop was speaking during a series of ‘spiritual meetings of dialogue’ that ran until this month, according to Accept LGBTI Cyprus. metro.co.uk/2019/07/26/gay-people-exist-pregnant-women-anal-sex-bishop-says-10464758/?fbclid=IwAR2lyB2mraubXOqGyxzcrinxBAHfuqaNCsQoLf3geLarCdfHEAtnZVPhilY?ito=cbshare
An Evangelical Megachurch Is Sued for More Than $1 Million in Child Sexual Abuse Case
A woman who said she was sexually abused as a child by a pastor at one of the country’s most prominent evangelical megachurches sued the church on Friday, alleging gross negligence and seeking more than $1 million in damages.
The case against the Village Church — which is based in Flower Mound, Tex., outside Dallas, and is led by Matt Chandler — is perhaps the most high-profile current lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. It comes as the largest Protestant denomination in the United States has vowed to address widespread sexual abuse in its congregations.
The suit alleges that the church was “willfully negligent” in its failure to protect a child in its care from being sexually assaulted. It also says the church is liable for the actions of the pastor, who was removed from the staff last year. The woman is seeking damages after she says the abuse caused emotional distress, including an ongoing struggle with depression. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/us/village-church-texas-sexual-abuse-lawsuit.html
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
How a Fake Presidential Seal Ended Up Onstage With Trump
A Turning Point USA staffer was dismissed after the image, featuring Russian elements and golf clubs, was taken from an online store critical of the president. “It kind of made my day,” the store’s operator said.
Detroit statue finds a barefoot, undaunted Viola Liuzzo walking again for civil rights
Her face looks young, her expression determined, and there’s a certain kindness to her eyes and mouth. She walks barefoot, shoes dangling from her hand.
Her steps are taking her away from the Ku Klux Klan hood that lies flat on the ground behind her. Her path is toward a better future.
On Tuesday, a statue of Viola Liuzzo was dedicated at the neighborhood park on Detroit’s west side that bears her name. A few hundred people gathered for the ceremony to commemorate her ultimate sacrifice 54 years ago when the Detroiter became the only white woman to die for the civil rights movement.
“It looks just like her, and it’s the size she was!” said Liuzzo’s daughter Sally Liuzzo, 60, moments after the unveiling of the petite figure who left behind such a powerful legacy.
“My mama!” she said as the tears flowed. www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/07/23/statue-civil-rights-icon-viola-liuzzo-dedicated-detroit-park/1806238001/?fbclid=IwAR3eQ98pYrDtexfWqcqL539vrcD7tDhnooL4pWJQTSeLsS-pwZLkWlIUeGw
350,000 people, mostly adult Americans, attended ComicCon in San Diego
Trump aide Monica Crowley plagiarized thousands of words in Ph.D. dissertation
Conservative commentator Monica Crowley, who is slated to serve in a top national security communications role in Donald Trump’s presidential administration, plagiarized thousands of words of her 2000 dissertation for her Columbia University Ph.D., a CNN KFile review has found.
On Monday, Politico reported that it found more than a dozen examples of plagiarism in Crowley’s Ph.D. dissertation. CNN’s KFile has found nearly 40 lengthy instances of Crowley lifting paragraphs from numerous sources, including several scholarly texts, the Associated Press, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The revelation comes on the heels of another CNN KFile investigation, which found more than 50 instances of plagiarism in Crowley’s 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened.” On Tuesday, the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, announced that it would stop selling the book until “the author has the opportunity to source and revise the material.”
Crowley’s first plagiarism scandal came in 1999, the year before she submitted her dissertation. After The New York Times reported a reader found that a column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal strongly resembled a 1988 article in the neoconservative magazine Commentary, a Journal editor said that the paper would not have published her piece if it had known of the parallels. Crowley denied the charge but acknowledged that the language is similar. money.cnn.com/interactive/news/kfile-monica-crowley-dissertation-plagiarism/index.html?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial&fbclid=IwAR0yO2AV1g186Ld_PNxC5N3XBfPyWncKuURgrPKzAAmcsQDo4JiWT5xASAQ
So Long