We Say Fight Back!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPJgeg6hpA

More than 70 protests planned across US against Soleimani strike

Gold Star Families Sue Defense Contractors, Alleging They Funded The Taliban

More than 100 Gold Star families are suing several major defense contractors, alleging they made illegal “protection payments” to the Taliban — thereby funding the Taliban’s insurgency efforts that killed or wounded thousands of Americans in Afghanistan.

It’s illegal under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act to provide material support to the Taliban. The U.S. has warned defense contractors that protection payments are against the law, but according to the lawsuit, the practice has proliferated because defense contractors feel it’s a cost of doing business.

“Defendants supported the Taliban for a simple reason: Defendants were all large Western companies with lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests,” the complaint says. “Those protection payments aided and abetted terrorism by directly funding an al-Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans.”   www.npr.org/2019/12/28/792065458/gold-star-families-sue-defense-contractors-alleging-they-funded-the-taliban?utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR0trQD2CFN4XKdLJrbA0mF451EJZvuK3aLXRF5mggPlcAKoGl1Tm7YTItU

The Little Red Schoolhouse

MI CORE Statewide Teacher Walkout/Strike

2 hrs ·

I just made this post a few hours ago. My year has been the toughest one yet (poverty, trauma, homelessness, hunger, language delays, developmental delays, extreme behaviors, etc.), and I’ve been getting migraines and panic attacks since September. I had a very restful break, (lots of sleep and relaxing) and began to feel my determination/passion rise back up. Then… I received an email about our tentative TA. Now, I am sick to my stomach.

Our district has not received movement on steps the past 12 years. We did receive one 2 years ago. We are getting 1/4 of a step. That’s it. So instead of making $44,485, I get a $700+ raise and will make $45,273. Honestly, even if I made $80,000 a year, I’m not sure how much longer I can handle the stress. I am spread way too thin, and can’t meet the intense demands of my 24 kindergarten students. Teachers don’t leave because their heart isn’t in it – they leave because their nervous systems can’t take it.

My 16 year old daughter came home last night after working a 5 hour shift at a diner. Just working as a cashier/hostess (not even waitressing!) she made $9.45 an hour, plus brought home $42 in tips. That’s $16 an hour. My bi-weekly check is $1,117.44 – divide that by 80 hours (I really work close to 110-120 hours) and that’s $14.67 an hour.

My coworkers are making $15,000 less than they were TEN YEARS AGO.

I can go get a job in a wealthier district (without the intense needs as a result of poverty), and make $15,000+ more instantly. I will leave teaching before I abandon our most vulnerable children for a wealthier district. (but I completely understand why people do, and don’t blame them!!!)

We need a walkout. The power is in our hands. (we can’t get subs to cover for a couple of teachers on a Friday, imagine trying to get subs to cover districts that are rallying in Lansing?)

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Iraq’s Worst Fears Have Come True – a Proxy War Is on Its Doorstep

Iraqis have a well-honed instinct about approaching danger which stems from their grim experience during 40 years of crisis and war. Three months ago, I asked a friend in Baghdad how she and her friends viewed the future, adding Iraq seemed to me to be more peaceful than at any time since the US and British invaded in 2003.

She replied that the general mood among people she knew was gloomy because they believed that the next war between the US and Iran might be fought out in Iraq. She said: “Many of my friends are so nervous about a US-Iran war that they are using their severance pay on leaving government service to buy houses in Turkey.” She was thinking of doing the same thing.

My Iraqi friends turned out to have been all too right in their depressing prognosis: the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by a US drone at Baghdad airport is an act of escalation by President Donald Trump that ensures that Iraq faces a violent future. It may not lead to a full-scale military conflict, but Iraq will be the political and military arena where the US-Iranian rivalry will be fought out. The Iranians and their Iraqi allies may or may not carry out some immediate retaliatory act against the US, but their most important counter-stroke will be to pressure the Iraqi government, parliament and security forces into pushing the US entirely out of Iraq.

Ever since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iran has generally come out ahead of the US in any struggle for influence within Iraq. The main reason for this is has been that Shia community in Iraq, two-thirds of the population and politically dominant, has looked to its fellow Shia in Iran for support against its enemies. Ironically, Iranian influence and popularity had been seriously damaged because of General Soleimani overseeing the brutal efforts by pro-Iranian security forces and paramilitary groups to crush Iraqi street protests, killing at least 400 protesters and injuring another 15,000.   www.unz.com/pcockburn/iraqs-worst-fears-have-come-true-a-proxy-war-is-on-its-doorstep/

Will There Be a Draft? Young People Worry After Military Strike

For decades, American men over the age of 18 have gone through the ritual of registering with the government in case of a military draft. In recent years, this action has felt more like going through the motions, simply checking a box.

But on Friday, after a United States drone strike in Iraq killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, prompting concerns about the possibility of a new war in the Middle East, that oft-forgotten paperwork became a reason for spiking anxiety among many Americans.

“World War III” started trending on social media. Young men suddenly recalled registering after their 18th birthdays, many having done so while applying for college financial aid. One Twitter user posted that he had blocked the account of the United States Army, with the (faulty) reasoning that: “They can’t draft you if they can’t see you.”

Interest was so high that it apparently crashed the website for the Selective Service System, the independent government agency that maintains a database of Americans eligible for a potential draft. “Due to the spread of misinformation, our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time,” the agency said on Twitter, adding, “We appreciate your patience.”

Here is an explanation of the current military system and what it would take to enact a draft in modern times.   www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/will-there-be-a-draft-young-people-worry-after-military-strike-in-iran/ar-BBYAMYu?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280&fbclid=IwAR3sMav8NQLt1o8NJ9pIc8zyWlzXfigcItPC8wwBz11zI0yi6_sEViRopxI

“This your first reëlection campaign, kid?”

On Hijacking History

by Tom Engelhardt

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor    

             

Detroit ranked last in report on best cities for jobs

                   Detroit came in dead last when WalletHub compared more than 180 cities to determine which of them had the strongest job markets.

Unemployment across the country is at 3.6 percent (a near 50-year low), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Plus, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers report that they plan to hire 5.8 percent more new college graduates in 2020 than they did in 2019. However, this good news doesn’t seem to apply much to the Motor City.

The study, which ranked 182 cities across 31 metrics, focused on two main metrics: Socio-economics and Job Market, with a ranking of 1 being the best…

Of all the cities, Detroit had the lowest socio-economics ranking at 182, and the city placed 179th in job opportunities.

The city also ranked 180th in unemployment rate, 181st in percentage of workforce living in poverty, 178th in median annual income (adjusted for cost of living), 165th in industry variety, and 72nd in monthly average starting salary.  www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/01/03/detroit-ranked-last-in-report-on-best-cities-for-jobs?fbclid=IwAR34vtuZLZ2_HVkWDASI1X4Xrzgs9JgvWkQV2nZRQw1UugByMYcineQw49s

Texas man who used ‘affluenza’ as defense jailed for probation violation

A Texas man who used “affluenza” as a defense at his trial for killing four people while driving drunk was arrested Thursday after authorities say he violated the terms of his probation.

Ethan Couch, 22, was booked into a jail in Fort Worth after he tested positive for THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, court records show.

Couch’s attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said their client has been intensely monitored for alcohol and illegal substance use for more than 20 months and “has never been positive for the use of any substance before.”

“We cannot make any further statement until we have the opportunity to conduct an investigation to determine if, in fact, Ethan ingested THC and, if so, if it was a voluntary act on his part,” Brown and Wynn said in a statement.  www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-02/texas-affluenza-man-ethan-couch-jailed-probation-violation

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason

Killing of Iranian general marks huge gamble by Trump

The CIA’s torture program, as explained by the psychologists who designed i

They were paid $81 million for helping the CIA torture prisoners

Jessen and Mitchell argued that the CIA controlled the program and that they simply worked as contractors. Under the agency’s guidance, the psychologists said they proposed “enhanced interrogation techniques” and trained other people to use them. Over the course of several years, they received $81 million.

Mitchell said he urged the CIA to destroy videotapes showing torture

Even though Mitchell, one of the defendants, claimed the techniques he and Jessen developed caused no harm, he still encouraged the CIA to destroy video footage the agency had made of the interrogations.

He rationalized that decision by saying the videos were too graphic  www.vox.com/world/2017/6/21/15845896/cia-torture-program-psychologists-testimony-jessen-mitchell

CIA ‘torture psychologists’ avoid trial with secret settlement

Two psychologists who helped design the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation program settled a lawsuit on Thursday (Aug 17) by detainees alleging they were illegally tortured.

The secret settlement in the suit, brought on behalf of two living ex-detainees and one who died of hypothermia after brutal questioning in US custody, avoided what would have been the first public trial of the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of torture on suspected Al-Qaeda members.

But it also allowed the two psychologists who supplied the CIA with “coercive” interrogation techniques, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, to maintain that they personally had nothing to do with the use of waterboarding, extreme stress positions and beatings on detainees.   www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/cia-torture-psychologists-avoid-trial-with-secret-settlement

Solidarity for Never

Shocker! Sold out by UAW, Harvard Graduate Student Union Returns to Work Following 27-Day Strike

Bearing wind, rain, snow, and sleet on the picket line, striking members of Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers spent the month of December conducting the longest graduate student strike in recent history.

HGSU-UAW rang in the new year by returning to work Tuesday night, ending nearly a month of marching on Harvard’s campus, calling administrators, and arguing at the bargaining table. At points, hundreds of students and supporters joined the picket line.

Still, the union and University have yet to reach a contract. They remain at odds over the three provisions that prompted picketing: compensation, health care, and grievance procedures for discrimination and sexual harassment complaints.

The union first stepped toward the strike via an October authorization vote. The vote began Oct. 15, exactly one year after HGSU-UAW first met Harvard at the bargaining table. By Oct. 25, more than 90 percent of the union had voted in favor of the strike. Of the 2,682 members who cast ballots in the election, 90.4 percent voted in favor of withholding their labor, according to an email sent to HGSU-UAW members by the union’s bargaining committee.   www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/1/3/HGSU-strike-postmortem/

Spy versus Spy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYAdeXJhZlE

The Magical Mystery Tour

As window for sex abuse lawsuits opens, alleged victims begin filing against Catholic church, Boy Scouts

SAN DIEGO — 

More than just an opulent private retreat for a high-spending bishop, Elmcrest was the site where the heavy-drinking cleric quaffed Cointreau and made unwanted sexual overtures toward younger priests in a basement with a custom-made sunken bar, according to a confidential report by church investigators for the Vatican completed earlier this year. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the report and published a redacted version online on Dec. 23.

In his 13 years as bishop, Bransfield spent more than $2.4 million traveling the world, often by private jet, and gave fellow clerics hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gifts that originated from the diocese’s accounts, church documents show. Nowhere did he spend more church money than on the turn-of-the-century mansion at 52 Elmwood Place in Wheeling, according to investigators.    www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/disgraced-bishop-spent-46-million-on-mansion-that-sold-for-only-12-million/2019/12/29/6d7ad002-225f-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html

Mormon Church Stockpiled $100 Billion Intended for Charities and Misled LDS Members, Whistleblower Says

A whistleblower complaint filed at the Internal Revenue Service in November by a knowledgeable church member alleges that a non-profit supporting organization controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used member tithes to amass more than $100 billion in a set of investment funds and the Church misled members about uses of the money.

The complaint may be the most important look at LDS finances in decades, a window into one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the United States and the world. Details of the IRS filing reveal financial assets largely hidden from the church’s membership (often known as “Mormons”) and the public view.   www.newsweek.com/mormon-church-stockpiled-100-billion-intended-charities-misled-lds-members-whistleblower-says-1477809?fbclid=IwAR36o3bPNNjXeUw2iiKGJmxzS_MIfJHoge6exGxqeb8tIF2lCCdDgADQ3KU

Amid clergy abuse, survivors of color remain in shadows

The Samples were a black Chicago family, with six children and few resources. The priest helped them with tuition, clothes, bills. He offered the promise of opportunities — a better life.

He also abused all the children.

They told no one. They were afraid of not being believed and of losing what little they had, said one son, Terrence Sample. And nobody asked, until a lawyer investigating alleged abuses by the same priest prompted him to break his then 33-year silence.

“Somebody had to make the effort,” Sample said. “Why wasn’t it the church?    www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2020-01-04/amid-clergy-abuse-survivors-of-color-remain-in-shadows

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

So Long