Rouge Forum Dispatch: The NEA RA and MORE!
July 7th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
Hong Kong police move to forcibly clear protesters occupying legislature complex (video within)
Police used force early Tuesday to clear thousands of protesters in and around Hong Kong’s legislative building after some broke in and occupied it Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the semiautonomous city’s return to Chinese rule.
The escalation has brought Hong Kong into unprecedented and uncertain territory, and represents the biggest test of Beijing’s grip over the global financial hub and the status under which it operates.
On Tuesday morning, Hong Kong’s streets were reopened, the rush-hour traffic flowing through like on any other day.
But outside the Legislative Council building, piles of broken umbrellas, traffic cones and jumbled barricades zip-tied together by protesters littered the sidewalk. Cleanup and repair operations, which are expected to take weeks, had begun with garbage trucks carting away the wreckage. Police officers stood around the perimeter of the building, where tempered-glass doors and windows shattered by demonstrators had been cordoned off by flimsy blue-and-white tape. Graffiti denouncing the police could be seen just inside the major public entrance to the building. www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-police-clash-with-protesters-on-anniversary-of-return-to-china/2019/06/30/7f0a05ae-9b3c-11e9-83e3-45fded8e8d2e_story.html?utm_term=.22162b0c5b78
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD19FYPqpj8
The Little Red Schoolhouse
University Of Alaska Readies For Budget Slash: ‘We May Likely Never Recover’
The University of Alaska System is bracing for a 41% cut in funding it receives from the state, after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a $130 million line item in the state’s budget.
The announcement came last Friday, three days before the fiscal year began on July 1. Dunleavy vetoed roughly $400 million in items in the budget, with education receiving the largest cut.
The university system will lose $130 million from the veto — on top of an additional $5 million previously agreed upon by legislators. The governor’s 182 line-item cuts also included Medicaid, senior benefit payments and homelessness services.
University President James Johnsen says he was caught by surprise.
“I was pretty stunned. No question it was a grim day,” Johnsen tells NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “To get this huge reduction on top of all the cuts we’ve already taken is extremely challenging. … There aren’t any nickels and dimes laying on the floor anymore. It has to be – to borrow a medical term – amputation at this point.”
That means faculty layoffs, furlough notices for 2,500 employees and a freeze on hiring and travel. Johnsen envisions having to close down one of the system’s three universities — with main campuses in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau — and all of its 13 community campuses. www.npr.org/2019/07/03/738569508/university-of-alaska-readies-for-budget-slash-we-may-likely-never-recover?ft=nprml&f=1001&fbclid=IwAR3j8QQagdYG2lIe0TbJjl-JU93fXAHDEhd7npUqOq6q5r1lzp8RrTEXc8o
USC to pay $50 million and apologize to UC San Diego for poaching its Alzheimer’s research program (in capital’s schools, it’s all about the money)
USC has agreed to pay UC San Diego $50 million and to publicly apologize to the school for the way it wrested control of its prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study in 2015 during a raid that led to a highly contentious lawsuit.
The penalty and apology have resulted in the settlement of a lawsuit the UCSD and the UC Board of Regents brought against USC in San Diego County Superior Court.
The move also represents an extraordinary turnaround from four years ago, when USC took control of the program’s data and contracts worth tens of millions of dollars and gave jobs to the program’s star researcher, Paul Aisen, and some of his staff.
“USC and Dr. Paul Aisen regret that the manner in which Dr. Aisen and members of the ADCS staff left UC San Diego and brought research assets to USC [and] created disruption to UC San Diego,” the university said in a statement late Tuesday. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-usc-apologizes-uc-program-20190703-story.html
Financially struggling River Rouge district officials travel big on school dime
River Rouge school Superintendent Derrick Coleman says money he and other top administrators spend traveling to places like Las Vegas, Orlando, Anaheim, Nashville and Washington, D.C., is educational.
“This is training that we don’t believe we can find locally that’s offered nationally,” Coleman said. “And so we choose to, you know, send qualified people there. They’re bringing that information back.”
The district has spent more than $288,000 on out-of-state travel over the past six years, including almost $23,000 this past year alone.
The district has about 2,300 students, about 75% of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches because their family incomes are so low. Household income in River Rouge is about half the state average, according to census figures. www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/07/01/river-rouge-schools-travel-expenses/1514275001/?fbclid=IwAR2hWpluWbOIoql3uTjg2YlH_M9FSoMiBX2e56hQOxw2iWcqsQ7AmYzYBAs
Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder named Harvard fellow (Then not)
A former Michigan governor who’s been criticized for his administration’s role in the Flint water crisis is headed to Harvard University to teach and study subjects related to state and local government.
Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government announced Sunday that Rick Snyder begins work as a senior research fellow Monday. His fellowship is with the school’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government.
Center Director Jeffrey Liebman says in a statement the two-term Republican governor brings “expertise in management, public policy and promoting civility.” Snyder says he looks forward to sharing his experiences.
He’s previously said he’s most proud of Detroit’s turnaround and keeping young people in Michigan.
He’s acknowledged failure at all levels of government for the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint that began in 2014. www.clickondetroit.com/news/former-michigan-gov-rick-snyder-named-harvard-fellow-1?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=wdiv4&fbclid=IwAR2HmyQk7wmjg0PBKRY0tEqurNDghZ1OE_GhHVFb0KcOgqf4AbOlpNDUWhU
State auditor attacks SDSU for dearth of student parking
Qualcomm time bomb
As the clock continues to tick on super-secret talks between San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer and the California University System over turning over the city-owned stadium formerly known as Qualcomm to San Diego State, a newly-released audit has cast a pall over the university’s integrity. “Under a 2015 bond, San Diego State took on nearly $900,000 in annual debt payments to finance a 300-space parking facility in a housing and retail development,” says the June 20 report by California State Auditor Elaine Howle regarding SDSU’s high-end commercial redevelopment featuring Trader Joe’s, Verizon, Eureka! and a bevy of other tenants.
Said a May 2017 SDSU news release, the parking garage “is intended for the general public with paid hourly parking and validation from participating businesses in South Campus Plaza. SDSU parking permits will not be valid in the South Campus Plaza parking structure.” Notes Howle’s audit: “Although students who purchase semester parking permits are not eligible to park within the new facility, the campus is using those students’ parking permit fees to make its debt payments related to the facility’s construction.”
The report goes on to blast the school for misrepresenting student parking demand in order to justify the commercial center’s parking charges. “San Diego State’s transportation management plan indicates that although campus-wide student parking was below practical capacity, some facilities were completely full during peak times.” In addition, auditors charge that university went out of its way to hide closed-door development wheeling and dealing from students, the public, and local transit authorities. “Although state law requires alternate transportation committees to consult with students and local government officials, not all campuses required their committees to include representatives from these groups,” says the document. “In practice, San Diego State generally has only parking and administrative staff serving on its committee.”
The school broke the law by failing to consult with city officials about burgeoning traffic and parking loads, per the audit. The secrecy has bled over into the wrangling for a sweetheart deal on the city-owned Mission Valley stadium acreage, with CSU refusing to release details of its lobbying arrangement with the high-dollar downtown law and influence peddling firm of Sheppard Mullin. www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/jul/03/radar-state-auditor-attacks-sdsu/
Former O.C. high school employee is suspected of embezzling student council funds
A former finance clerk is suspected of embezzling at least $859,000 in funds that belonged to Esperanza High School’s student council, according to a statement from the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.
State auditors identified 270 checks that didn’t correspond with the Anaheim school’s financial records. The vast majority of the checks were made out to the former finance clerk who oversaw the books, while others were written to two of the clerk’s relatives, the district said. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-esperanza-high-school-theft-allegations-20190627-story.html
Why We Shouldn’t Teach Literature With Excerpts
At this moment in the field of English/language arts, I’m noticing an odd friction between two significant, growing movements that touch our work.
The first one, to me, is perhaps the most exciting thing going on in education right now, period: the bursting field of new literature written for children and young adults by an increasingly diverse field of authors. Wonderful titles are released almost daily—and maybe for the first time it doesn’t feel like a huge struggle to find books that represent the diversity of our students and the real world. While more work needs to be done to reach full representation and challenge stereotypes, the movement forward is undeniable. A great many educators are passionate about bringing diverse texts into our classrooms and disrupting traditional canons, and they’re spreading the word in their schools and on social media. In so doing, we are helping to create life-long readers who learn empathy and self-determination through powerful storytelling.
This literary boom is very much centered on books, especially novels, as a major format for reading. And when we think of the voracious young readers we know, books are generally what they like to read. While I’m all for including and honoring all mediums and genres for reading, I believe that the practice of reading actual books plays a key role in developing engaged readers. www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2019/06/26/why-we-shouldnt-teach-literature-with-excerpts.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58873316&U=1666178&UUID=1077d6867cfb1e9eaaaa4a81b0c3ab4b
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Year after year, San Diego hosts “stand down,” where vets, most homeless, can get a haircut, bathe, counseling, etc., usually for a week. Then, at the conclusion, the vets march around the park behind a huge American flag—and go away.
The 9/11 War Authorization and Iran: An Important Lesson for Congress
Amid escalating tensions with Iran in June, President Trump told the press that he didn’t need authorization from Congress to go to war with Iran. His bold claim follows on the heals of successive statements by administration officials that the President could rely on the war authorization that Congress passed after 9/11 nearly 18 years later to start a new and unrelated conflict with Iran.
This situation has prompted a round of legal explainers detailing the domesticand international legal issues related to using force against Iran covering the scope of Article II to the restrictions imposed by the U.N. Charter. One of the key legal issues is whether the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which authorized force against those responsible for 9/11, provides authority for using force against Iran nearly two decades later, as the administration keeps suggesting. In one legal explainer by former executive branch lawyers, the authors explain why the claim that the 2001 AUMF authorizes force against Iran is “thoroughly unconvincing.”
In another, former administration lawyers explain how the Trump administration is wrongly talking as if a mere connection—such as members of al-Qaeda being present in Iran—is sufficient to bring war with Iran within the scope of the 2001 AUMF. www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/911-war-authorization-and-iran-important-lesson-congress
SEAL war crimes suspect not guilty on murder charge
More than nine months after he was charged with murder, attempted murder and a string of other alleged war crimes tied to a 2017 deployment in Iraq, Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher strolled out of a Naval Base San Diego courtroom a free man, guilty only of appearing in an inappropriate photograph.
Military prosecutors had accused Gallagher, 40, of stabbing to death a seriously wounded Islamic State prisoner of war on May 3, 2017 in a SEAL compound near Mosul, but a military panel composed mostly of combat-tested Marine officers disagreed and acquitted the chief.
Several junior petty officers in Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 also alleged that he had shot at least two civilians from a sniper perch and later tried to cover up his actions, but jurors tossed those charges, too.
Gallagher’s defense team had savaged the witnesses in court as liars bent on usurping a demanding chief they didn’t like and making sure he failed to receive a Silver Star commendation for battlefield heroism. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/07/02/seal-war-crimes-suspect-not-guilty-on-murder-charge/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%2007.03.19&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
Another Record Breaking Year for Opium Production in U.S. Occupied Afghanistan
Now officially a national federal emergency, the opioid crisis is gutting America. The roots of this complex issue lie in supply, not demand, and while we are beginning to see major pharmaceutical executives being indicted for conspiracy and bribery of doctors, we have a long way to go to turn this thing around.
Pharmaceutical and synthetic opioids are a major part of the catastrophe, but the other side of the supply chain is actual opium, and the world’s biggest opium market just happens to be occupied Afghanistan, the epicenter of the global heroin trade. The United States military has been operating in Afghanistan as part of the war on terror for over 16 years now, and opium production in the war-torn nation continues to increase, year-over-year, coinciding with the rise of the opioid crisis. www.wakingtimes.com/2017/11/02/another-record-breaking-year-opium-production-u-s-occupied-afghanistan/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com&fbclid=IwAR2gmc6F1p9ALg9FdFyg-zd3XV8PBqJXXBjuLVrRCOCWUsVcjgIegLhDHcw
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Journalism Job Cuts Haven’t Been This Bad Since the Recession
Reporters become bartenders and baristas while looking for work
The news business is on pace for its worst job losses in a decade as about 3,000 people have been laid off or been offered buyouts in the first five months of this year.
The cuts have been widespread. Newspapers owned by Gannett and McClatchy, digital media companies like BuzzFeed and Vice Media, and the cable news channel CNN have all shed employees.
The level of attrition is the highest since 2009, when the industry saw 7,914 job cuts in the first five months of that year in the wake of the financial crisis, according to data compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement and executive coaching firm.
The firm’s tally is based on news reports of buyouts and layoffs, and includes downsizing at printing operations and advertising and tech executives at Verizon Media Group, home of HuffPost and Yahoo, which announced in January that it was laying off about 800 employees.
About 88,000 people worked in U.S. newsrooms in 2017, according to Pew Research Center. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-01/journalism-layoffs-are-at-the-highest-level-since-last-recession?fbclid=IwAR3KqMHFd9gmImQxfGagZ2sopOJYXUH5XvOmhJ1xjExqky1C3lFmqCG8WUM
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
by Huck
Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes
The three-year-old group, which has roughly 9,500 members, shared derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers who plan to visit a controversial Texas detention facility on Monday, calling them “scum buckets” and “hoes.”
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If he dies, he dies.”
Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15” and boasts roughly 9,500 members from across the country. (10-15 is Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody.”) The group described itself, in an online introduction, as a forum for “funny” and “serious” discussion about work with the patrol. “Remember you are never alone in this family,” the introduction said. www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes#
‘Painful to watch’: The French government released a video of Ivanka Trump having an awkward chat with world leaders
Ivanka Trump appears to be trying to get involved in a talk among Macron, May, Trudeau and Lagarde (IMF head).
The video is released by French Presidential palace. pic.twitter.com/TJ0LULCzyQ— Parham Ghobadi (@BBCParham) June 29, 2019
- The White House adviser Ivanka Trump attended the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, over the weekend.
- A video released by the French government shows her engaging in an awkward conversation with world leaders including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the International Monetary Fund’s chairwoman, Christine Lagarde. www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-g20-macron-may-trudeau-lagarde-snubbed-video-2019-6?fbclid=IwAR0wtyEPDA7bIgO8Nl3klBJ4uKZx4-NmnB-GpBfrJCwBePbyANvcWkbFzds
Teenager Accused of Rape Deserves Leniency Because He’s From a ‘Good Family,’ Judge Says
The family court judge also said the victim should have been told that pressing charges would destroy the accused’s life.
60+ fires broke out overnight on July 4 in Detroit, surpassing Devils’ Night
In just 10 hours beginning at 8 p.m. on July 4, more than 60 fires broke out in houses, garages, cars, trash cans and a vacant furniture store. Two fire trucks crashed and another (Engine 27) broke down en route to a burning house as the city continues to rely on an aging, worn-down fleet of rigs.
The fires were more frequent and destructive than any period during the past five Devils’ Nights, according to a Motor City Muckraker analysis of fire data.
In those 10 hours, fires burned: motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/07/06/60-fires-broke-out-overnight-on-july-4-in-detroit-surpassing-devils-night/?fbclid=IwAR2Ft-Vs2waOaBUcPPU18K4IJMrIAYeOkl2DT9CrhF1LuWz9sZ7sK2GzRvk
Even with 1,500 additional police officers on duty, the holiday weekend has gotten off to a bloody start, with at least 33 people shot since July 4th, four of them fatally.
The weekend’s violence included a shooting in the South Shore neighborhood which left five people wounded.
Police said officers responding to a call of shots fired shortly after 2 a.m. found five people who had been shot near 67th and Stony Island:• an 18-year-old woman had been shot in the chest and arm, and was stabilized at the University of Chicago Medical Center;
• a 33-year-old man was shot twice in the back, and was taken to the University of Chicago in good condition;
• an 18-year-old man was shot in the chest and leg, and was stabilized at the University of Chicago;
• a 20-year-old woman was shot in the ankle, and was in good condition at the University of Chicago;
• a 26-year-old man was shot in the leg, and was in good condition at Stroger Hospital.
Meantime, the most recent fatal shooting happened around 3 a.m. in the Fuller Park neighborhood. chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/07/05/july-4th-holiday-weekend-shootings-violence/
Cartoonist let go from N.B. newspapers days after Trump image goes viral
Ted Rall: The Death of Political Cartoons
A century ago newspapers employed more than 2000 full-time editorial cartoonists. Today there are fewer than 25. In the United States, political cartooning as we know it is dead. If you draw editorial cartoons for a living and you have any brains you’re working in a different field or looking for an exit.
You can still find them online so political cartoons aren’t yet extinct. But they are doomed. Most of my colleagues are older than me (I’m 55). As long as there are people, words and images will be combined to comment on current affairs. But the graphic commentators of tomorrow will be ad hoc amateurs rather than professionals. They won’t have the income and thus the time to flesh out their creative visions into work that fulfills the medium’s potential, much less evolves into a new genre.
With zero youngsters coming up in the ranks and many of the most interesting artists purged, our small numbers and lack of stylistic diversity has left us as critically endangered as the wild cheetah. The death spiral is well underway. rall.com/2019/07/01/death-of-editorial-political-cartooning-murdered?fbclid=IwAR0GK_l69IMOD6rxPhyPK61hjUUtkQpAvIIwMk3muUHv1wSAtyYxdw1OhY8
Solidarity for Never
The Bullshit Association of Liberal Teachers will be at the RA–organizing nothing significant
“Taking new submissions for 2019 RA bingo and for the selfie challenge 🙂!
Post submissions below!
(Proceeds go to the NEA Fund!)”
FB Post to NEA RA California
Those of you who went to the RA in Boston May remember the light up swings that were next to the convention center. Houston has light up seesaws next to its convention center.
Chick-a-Fil Was Originally invited to the RA–then banned by militant school workers!
NEA’s Sock Puppet Candidate Show was ignored by the media
Here is the hysterical conversion crisis acted out at the RA
The Bullshit Association of Teachers doused themselves in identity politics at the RA
www.facebook.com/BadassTeachersAssociation/videos/619169735270442/?t=8
Exclusive: New Hampshire Delegates Will Not Attend National NEA Convention, Citing Anti-Immigrant and LGBTQ Policies in Texas
As they have every year for decades, some 6,000 union delegates from every state will spend the Independence Day holiday at the National Education Association Representative Assembly, this year in Houston, Texas.
Every state but one, that is.
NEA New Hampshire’s 17,000 members will not be represented at this year’s gathering where the national union’s policies for the 2019-20 school year will be debated and approved. The move is a protest against what the union sees as discriminatory policies against undocumented immigrants and the LGBTQ community in Houston and the state of Texas, according to sources familiar with the decision. It wasn’t immediately clear which specific policies aimed at these two groups prompted the New Hampshire delegation to stay home and the state affiliate’s spokesperson did respond to a request for comment. www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-new-hampshire-delegates-will-not-attend-national-nea-convention-citing-anti-immigrant-and-lgbtq-policies-in-texas/?fbclid=IwAR24rsh6sTo9_soDZqGjgottnE3FwrgXGXy0dq7Nv5a1_95uJ9G7pilQUb8
A photo montage of NEA RA delegates by Nixon
This Comment was repeatedly removed from the RA FB page
I see $512,000+ Garcia plans a sock puppet show of several tweedle-dees–dums–and–dum-dums. Who will Garcia rig for this time—which bootle-bag of lies and shams will we be told holds the soundest truth? Everyone expects politicians to lie, deflect, dissemble, during campaigns. It’s a rule of thumb. Then many, many, forget, listen, and become instruments of their own oppression. Ms $512,000 + seeks to lure us into the black hole of electoral politics when we should have learned the lessons of the Obama, Duncan, Emanuel, “Hope and Change” years–persistent attacks on education and a reality of perpetual war eating our students alive, our incomes, and reason itself.
Think magic curses: gerrymander, earmarks, bribes, voter suppression, more rigging. The lessons are simple: solidarity and direct action get the goods. The essential NEA boss’ line will be: Vote–Don’t Strike. The Democrat clown circus needs to interrupted with shouts of “On Strike! Nationwide Strike! Shut it Down.” Nobody ever voted their way out of exploitation. Don’t be fooled again. (RG)
Reminder: DNC to Court: We Are a Private Corporation With No Obligation to Follow Our Rules
Update: A federal judge dismissed the DNC lawsuit on August 28. The court recognized that the DNC treated voters unfairly, but ruled that the DNC is a private corporation; therefore, voters cannot protect their rights by turning to the courts:
“To the extent Plaintiffs wish to air their general grievances with the DNC or its candidate selection process, their redress is through the ballot box, the DNC’s internal workings, or their right of free speech — not through the judiciary.” www.richgibson.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=23609&action=edit&classic-editor
Union Report: One Year Later, It’s Clear — the Janus Effect Is Not Yet What Either Side Had Hoped for, or Feared
In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public-sector unions could no longer charge representation fees to nonmembers. The decision in Janus v. AFSCME was expected to have an immediate explosive effect. Unions had argued before the court that the loss of fees would be devastating, and in her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan warned that the majority’s ruling “wreaks havoc on entrenched legislative and contractual arrangements.”
Much of the press followed suit, with headlines such as “Why ‘Janus’ Figures to Juice Income Inequality in America” and “SCOTUS Ruling for Janus v. AFSCME Crumbles Labor Unions.”
It’s now a year later, and the apocalyptic predictions have not come to pass, leading the press to swing uncontrollably in the opposite direction, with headlines such as “1 year after Janus, unions are flush” and “So much for the labor movement’s funeral.”
The immediate effect of the Janus decision was to free fee-payers. Those who were previously compelled to pay upwards of 70 percent of full dues now paid nothing. Nor did they have to do anything at all to achieve this new status. To comply with the ruling, school districts stopped extracting the fees from teachers’ paychecks. www.the74million.org/article/union-report-one-year-later-its-clear-the-janus-effect-is-not-yet-what-either-side-had-hoped-for-or-feared/
A Record 160 New Business Initiatives (one third more than in the past, were submitted to the NEA RA. None of them were about the wildcats, strikes, Quisling betrayals, etc. In pacified areas, people become instruments of their own oppression–and responsible for it. Here are the NBI’s in order, with results: ra.nea.org/business-items/
Below is a real FB post from an RA delegate.
You know as I lay here unable to sleep, I keep thinking of this year’s RA. I have never been so disappointed to belong to a group in my life. This is my 9th RA and I have always been proud to be an NEA member and delegate. But this year the amount of hate, anger, and down right rudeness that I’ve seen and experienced myself makes me sad to say “I belong”. I have walked through the Convention Center for 3 days now, smiling at others, only to get a frown or a nasty look in return from most. I was bullied for not wearing what others thought I should. A colleague of mine was bullied and made to feel like am outcast for being Republican. What a disgraceful way to treat a colleague and family member. As a veteran teacher of 26 years it pains my soul to think that this is the future of our organization and what is teaching our beautiful, hopeful young folk. If we can’t value each other’s differences in opinions and embrace one another as individuals in this profession, than what do we have to offer our future generations. People need to realize we’re in the land of the “FREE ” NOT the free as long as you agree with me. I don’t care if you are black, white, brown, LGBTQ+, disabled, or what you practice religiously, you are FREE TO YOUR OPINION and I will love you and respect you for it. #teachers4life #teachers4all WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! I have stood next to you when you asked to fight for your LGBTQ rights, your Black Lives Matter rights, your Religious rights, your rape victim rights, your Native American rights, your anti- bullying rights, and much more…I did it proudly!!! But where are you when I ask you to stand up for my HUMAN RIGHTS??? Hopefully proudly next to me!!! I belong here just like you. Yes I’m “white”, I’m a “female”, I’m a “mom”, I’m a “friend”, I’m a “teacher”, I’m a “Californian”, but first and foremost I’m a “HUMAN BEING” with feelings!!!
Top Union Officials ‘Sal’ and ‘Cigars’ Indicted by DOJ for ‘Rampant Admissions-Bribery Scheme’
Top union officials for the Brooklyn and Manhattan chapters of an international labor union for carpenters were indicted on Thursday by the Department of Justice for allegedly accepting “tens of thousands of dollars in cash bribes” in a union admissions-bribery scheme.
Salvatore “Sal” Tagliaferro, the 54-year-old president of the Local 926 chapter of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in Brooklyn, and John “Cigars” Defalco, the 51-year-old VP of the Local 157 chapter of the same union in Manhattan, have each been charged with honest services wire fraud, conversion of union assets, and conspiracy. Both were arrested on Thursday. lawandcrime.com/high-profile/top-union-officials-sal-and-cigars-indicted-by-doj-for-rampant-admissions-bribery-scheme/?fbclid=IwAR2h7973It25ATcdxFgSesebfvV_nHXIqiT-9SzBkVVQFXfZXEsTNL–Jdc
Spy versus Spy
U.S. Intelligence Undercuts Trump’s Case on Iran-al Qaeda Links
To bolster the Trump administration’s case against Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has given classified briefings to Congress in recent weeks alleging close ties between Iran and al Qaeda. But experts familiar with the views of the U.S. intelligence community are contradicting these claims, saying that the Iran-al Qaeda relationship almost certainly does not include active collaboration in terrorist acts and is even less evident now than it was at the time of 9/11.
“The administration is grasping at straws,” said Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We are at the lowest point since 9/11 in terms of al Qaeda numbers in that country. The numbers I have looked at suggest it’s less than five [people].” foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/24/u-s-intelligence-undercuts-trump-case-on-iran-al-qaeda-links/
Leaker remains mystery as stolen government document case winds up
Federal agents descended on the suburban Maryland house with the flash and bang of a stun grenade, blocked off the street and spent hours questioning the homeowner about a theft of government documents that prosecutors would later describe as “breathtaking” in its scale.
The suspect, Harold Martin, was a contractor for the National Security Agency. His arrest followed news of a devastating disclosure of government hacking tools by a mysterious internet group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. It seemed to some that the United States might have found another Edward Snowden, who also had been a contractor for the agency.
“You’re a bad man. There’s no way around that,” one law enforcement official conducting the raid told Martin, court papers say. “You’re a bad man.”
Later this month, about three years after that raid, the case against Martin is scheduled to be resolved in Baltimore’s federal court. But the identity of the Shadow Brokers, and whoever was responsible for a leak with extraordinary national security implications, will remain a public mystery even as the case concludes.
Authorities have established that Martin walked off with thousands of pages of secret documents over a two-decade career in national security, most recently with the NSA, whose headquarters is about 15 miles from his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to a single count of willful retention of national defense information and faces a nine-year prison sentence under a plea deal. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/06/nsa-leak-mystery-stolen-documents/39658631/
The Magical Mystery Tour
How the Bible Belt lost God and found Trump He’s a divorced adulterer who ran a gambling empire, so how did America’s Moral Majority get so evangelical about Donald Trump?
I went down to Alabama a few weeks ago and had a religious experience. A man of God welcomed me into his home, poured us both cups of English tea and talked about what has been happening to Jesus Christ in the land of Donald Trump. My host was Wayne Flynt, an Alabaman who has made the people of the southern US his life’s work. A 76-year-old emeritus professor of history at Auburn University, he has written empathetically about his region in books such as Poor But Proud. A Baptist minister, he still teaches Sunday school at his church and delivered the eulogy at last year’s funeral of his friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird.
I took my place in the book-lined study of Flynt’s redwood house in Auburn, Alabama, to hear his thoughts on the local economy, but the conversation turned to a central mystery of US politics. Trump would not be president without the strong support of the folks Flynt has chronicled — white residents of the Bible Belt, raised in the do-it-yourself religious traditions that distinguish the US from Europe. I wondered how a thrice-married former casino owner — who had been recorded bragging about grabbing women by the genitals — had won over the faithful. www.ft.com/content/b41d0ee6-1e96-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c?fbclid=IwAR3XiHBP_6no2APE4RIYuAstnoaNP9kobMJ8EENN-Ek4-MiLb8Vd9T6ZpVc
Bishops received money and complaints about Bransfield, report says
Allegations of financial impropriety against former Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield went unheeded for years, according to a new report. Letters from lay men and women, and from Bransfield’s own chancery staff raised serious concerns about the bishop’s spending and that he was using diocesan resources to “purchase influence.”
On July 3, the Washington Post reported that concerns about Bransfield’s spending were raised as early as 2012 with senior Church authorities in the Unites States and Rome. Several of those to whom complaints were made were themselves recipients of gifts of money from the bishop.
Bransfield’s resignation was accepted by Pope Francis last September, eight days after he turned 75, the age at which diocesan bishops are required by canon law to submit a letter of resignation to the pope. Following allegations of sexual and financial misconduct by him over a period of years, local metropolitan Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore was ordered by Pope Francis to conduct an investigation. Lori subsequently barred Bransfield from public ministry in both Wheeling-Charleston and Baltimore.
On Wednesday, The Post reported that specific concerns had been raised years earlier about the use of financial gifts to Church authorities by Bransfield, and the role they may have played in delaying action against him. www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/bishops-received-money-and-complaints-about-bransfield-according-to-report-95653
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
San Diego Sky. June 29th
by Huck
The Battle At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 1776
“Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do…” — Donald Trump, during his “Salute to America” speech, 7/4/19– – –
It was before the dawn of September 18, 1776. Great Britain and the 13 American colonies were in the thick of the Revolutionary War. The Battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought. The Declaration of Independence had been signed. It’d be another three days before the British Invasion of New York City — which is remembered as The Great Fire of 1776.
But this was a day in history unlike any other. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-battle-at-john-f-kennedy-international-airport-1776?fbclid=IwAR2ah3cE7hnCci_JG50LTIiGaOSPEM35uUPMbhkwMeD1ly-S-MoUGwneN1g
Mad Magazine to cease publication of new material
US satirical publication Mad Magazine is ceasing publication of new material after 67 years.
The magazine will stop publishing new content after its next issue. Any new issues will feature previously released content with a new cover.
It will also now only be available in comic stores and to subscribers.
Many fans responded to the news to share their disappointment. Some described how influential the magazine had been growing up. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48865342
www.facebook.com/FOX10Phoenix/videos/461976811035006/?t=39
www.facebook.com/CBSSundayMorning/videos/472101040216515/?t=12
So Long
In 1979, Chrysler bosses got a $1.2 billion bailout. Nearly 60,000 workers lost their jobs. Since then, Chrysler has been bailed out by the feds once again, and sold itself to both the Germans and Italians. The ’79 bailout was immediately followed by massive welfare cuts in Michigan.
Gloria Vanderbilt told (CIA ASSET)Anderson Cooper not to expect a trust fund. He got the estate instead
Anderson Cooper is getting a gift he didn’t expect: the bulk of the estate of his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt.
The CNN anchor, 52, will inherit all of her property except for a Midtown Manhattan, N.Y., co-op, which is going to Vanderbilt’s eldest child, Leopold “Stan” Stokowski, according to documents obtained by Page Six. Middle brother Chris Stokowski is estranged and inherits nothing, the will said. Carter Cooper, Anderson’s older brother, took his own life in 1988.
Vanderbilt, who died June 17 of stomach cancer at age 95, was estimated by Page Six to be worth $200 million, though a source close to the family said that number was “wildly inaccurate” and that the value of the estate was closer to $1.5 million. When she turned 21, the heiress-socialite-fashion entrepreneur inherited north of $4 million — the remainder of a trust fund that had already been tapped a bit by her mother. www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-anderson-cooper-gloria-vanderbilt-inheritance-20190702-story.html
Obit we missed–Pride of Penn State Victor Marchetti, 88, Dies; Book Was First to Be Censored by C.I.A.
Mr. Marchetti worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 14 years as a Soviet-military specialist and executive assistant to the deputy director, Rufus L. Taylor. Disillusioned by what he saw as the agency’s unchecked excesses and its increasing involvement in attempted assassinations, coups and cover-ups, he resigned in 1969.
He and John D. Marks, a former State Department intelligence officer, then wrote a nonfiction book, “The C.I.A. and the Cult of Intelligence,” which was ultimately published in 1974.
“The cult of intelligence is a secret fraternity of the American political aristocracy,” they wrote. “It seeks largely to advance America’s self-appointed role as the dominant arbiter of social, economic, and political change in the awakening regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.” www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/obituaries/victor-marchetti-dead.html