Rouge Forum Dispatch: Make Mayday Everyday!
May 5th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
1818
Congratulation on the publication of:
Biting satirical verses mock Oval Office megalomania, greed, and Twittery.
Join Susan at the book launch party organized by Onion River Press at Phoenix Books, in Burlington,
May 7, 7 p.m.
Be there!
Book also available at Flying Pig, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Martin Glaberman”s Work
Punching out and other writings – Martin Glaberman, edited by Staughton Lynd
A great collection of the writings of former-auto worker Martin Glaberman, edited and introduced by Staughton Lynd, published in 2002. Covering topics such as life on the production line, the unions and methods of struggle. (and much more from the best of the Johnson Forrest Tendency). libcom.org/tags/martin-glaberman
Plundering of DR Congo natural resources: Final report of the Panel of Experts (S/2002/1146)
I have the honour to refer to the statement by the President of the Security Council dated 19 December 2001 (S/PRST/2001/39), whereby the Security Council renewed for a period of six months the mandate of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Council requested the Panel to submit to it an interim report after three months, followed by a final report at the end of its mandate. I refer also to the letter dated 12 July 2002 from the President (S/2002/763), by which the Security Council extended the mandate of the Panel until 31 October 2002.
I have the honour to transmit to you the final report of the Panel, which was submitted to me by its Chairman, Mr. Mahmoud Kassem. This independent report comprises an evaluation of the situation on the ground and the Panel’s observations on the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I should be grateful if you would bring the report to the attention of the members of the Security Council. reliefweb.int/report/burundi/plundering-dr-congo-natural-resources-final-report-panel-experts-s20021146
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South Carolina teachers flex their activist muscles after decades of labor losses
..Rarely a hotbed of union organizing or labor demonstrations, the state of South Carolina nevertheless has a rich history of activism by its public school teachers. With or without a union, teachers have led charges to raise education funding, expand access to kindergarten, cap classroom sizes and occasionally topple their political enemies. www.postandcourier.com/news/south-carolina-teachers-flex-their-activist-muscles-after-decades-of/article_e25dd566-6605-11e9-b779-63a44d23af8b.html?fbclid=IwAR3jvXx3OYyT97MGXUVT1nU-Bdon-1tgHb-mZV4cQ2ouehVkdOIbgLGYOE0
South Carolina teacher rally draws 10,000 to Columbia
Teachers went to the South Carolina capitol to ask for better pay, smaller class sizes, and more support. www.wltx.com/article/news/local/plane-carrying-142-people-skids-into-st-johns-river/77-b7db12b0-629b-4b78-83ba-e479f3d13cb5?ref=exit-recirc
above from Broward City, Florida
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Admissions Scandal: When ‘Hard Work’ (Plus $6.5 Million) Helps Get You Into Stanford
Sitting in a plush chair and wearing a white blouse buttoned up to the neck, the young woman looks into the camera, smiles and offers advice about getting into a top American university.
“Some people think, ‘Didn’t you get into Stanford because your family is rich?’” the woman, Yusi Zhao, says in a video posted on social media. It wasn’t like that, she says. The admissions officers “have no idea who you are.”
She adds, “I tested into Stanford through my own hard work.”
The video was recorded in the summer before Ms. Zhao began her freshman year, in 2017. It now stands in sharp contrast with recent news: that her parents paid $6.5 million to a college consultant at the center of an international college admissions scheme, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Prosecutors say that the consultant, William Singer, tried to get Ms. Zhao recruited to the Stanford sailing team, providing a fake list of sailing accomplishments and making a $500,000 donation to the sailing program after she was admitted.
The payment to Mr. Singer was by far the largest known in the case, and the disclosure immediately added Ms. Zhao and her family, pharmaceutical billionaires from China, to a cast of powerful figures swept up in the scandal, including two Hollywood actresses and prominent names from the American legal and business worlds. (below Zhao with Trumps) www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/yusi-molly-zhao-china-stanford.html
Charles Koch gave $25m to our university. Has it become a rightwing mouthpiece?
We are student journalists at Utah State University. Our investigation found an effort to inject universities with conservative thinking
- This story is published in collaboration with the university’s student newspaper, the Utah Statesman
At first, Angel Lopez felt honored to have won the scholarship.
In 2017, the marketing student at Utah State University’s business school was named a Koch Scholar, a program sponsored by Charles Koch, the ultra-conservative billionaire. Fifteen students are given a $1,000 stipend and selected to participate in the “reading group”, tasked with reading one book a week.
But Lopez, 23, the son of Latino immigrants who aspired to become a social worker, soon felt the program was promoting a hardline brand of rightwing politics. His required readings, with titles such as Order Without Law and Anarchy Unbound, could often be boiled down to a single idea: Government is bad.
Critics say the Koch Scholars program is one example of how Charles Koch has sought to transform the Utah State business school into a libertarian mouthpiece. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/02/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTA1MDI%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email&fbclid=IwAR0d3Kk4iSayVjhizKV3-VuASiQBrbLj3Bs_XQIzReRPijS1KGyVZehW7zA
In L.A. Unified elementary schools, library books could be off-limits to many students
Here we go again, tumbling down the shaft and into a bizarro world in which school libraries lock out students who need them most.
L.A. Unified elementary school libraries are on the chopping block once again, and library aides, many of whom could lose their jobs, are screaming for justice.
Some L.A. Unified board members, meanwhile, have made passionate pleas to keep the doors open.
“If you’re not reading by grade level by third grade, you’re going to struggle for the rest of your life,” said board member Scott Schmerelson, who has introduced a resolution calling for the district to come up with the necessary funding.
But just a few months after the L.A. Unified teachers’ strike drew strong public support for better pay and more resources for the struggling district, budget woes are forcing miserable choices that will hit students hard.
“An elementary school library is one of the more magical places in a child’s life,” said Meredith Kadlec, a second-grade parent who has been writing letters in the campaign to ward off cuts. “Imagination is born from books, and what about the kids who don’t get that enrichment at home? I feel like we’re going the wrong way in America when libraries are at risk.”
They’ve been at risk for years now in L.A. Unified. Many years ago, every school had a fully funded librarian. www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-lausd-libraries-20190504-story.html
Below, Detroit school scrapped + waiting demolition
Detroit schools face tough choices with too many repairs, not enough money
The district will spend $9.7 million to repair 46 school buildings and then ask the community to decide the fate of what’s left to fix
Detroit’s public school district is struggling with two realities: Most of its buildings are broken, but it can’t collect a single penny of taxes to address nearly $543 million in needed repairs.
Inoperable boilers. Corroded plumbing fixtures. Missing ceiling tiles in classrooms. Exterior walls with cracks. Roof leaks. Incomplete fire alarm systems. Electrical panels in classrooms known to be fire hazards.
These expensive, growing capital needs exist across 100 school buildings at the Detroit Public School Community District where facilities were neglected for nearly a decade under emergency management.
Waiting another four years to deal with widespread poor building conditionswould cause the price to soar to nearly $1.5 billion, according to an assessment by engineering consulting firm OHM Advisors.
But waiting is what DPSCD must do. The district cannot issue debt to fund school construction through the state’s School Bond Loan Fund — the program most Michigan schools use to fund expensive school construction — because it has already borrowed the maximum permitted by law. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/04/29/detroit-schools-face-tough-choices-too-many-repairs-not-enough-money/3232674002/
Students Live In Tents, Do Homework Under Flashlights, And Deal Without Textbooks Months After California’s Massive Camp Fire
Jay Leaird used to spend his afternoons mulling over math problems and texting his friends. Now, the 17-year-old devotes most of his time to filling out applications for things like financial assistance and food stamps. It’s not how he imagined his last year of high school, but after the Camp fire wiped out his Northern California community in November, the challenge of entering adulthood has been an even steeper climb.
“Staying in school is the hardest thing to do now,” the senior said.
Months after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history destroyed more than 153,000 acres and killed 85 people, students are grappling with how to press ahead without things as basic as textbooks and WiFi, let alone a roof over their heads. www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/students-displaced-camp-fire?ref=bfnsplash&fbclid=IwAR1z9F9ld_owHM6x82uXearaulcLRIaQhJd7wO3q8ov5zYKBGfiXzr9tAso
‘Overtly racist’ messages attributed to Newport Harbor High students spur school district investigation
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District said Friday that it is investigating a series of “overtly racist” messages shared in a private Instagram group chat that included students from Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach.
In a statement sent to parents and the Newport Harbor community, the district stated that though “these online interactions are not school-related, we address them as they come to our attention and when they impact the school. We are in the process of gathering information.”
In a screenshot of one exchange that a student shared with the Daily Pilot, a participant in the conversation asked others if they “wanted anything from alabama/mississippi? I’ll get you a real confederate flag.”
One person wrote back, “Omfg yes plz,” while another wrote, “What do you want? Do they still sell black people down there?” www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-racist-messages-newport-harbor-high-students-20190503-story.html
Questions Raised as Cajon School Board President’s Son Wins $655,000 District Pact
A $655,000 construction contract for a modular building at Los Coches Creek Middle School in El Cajon was awarded last month to the son of the Cajon Valley Union Schoolboard president, East County Magazine has confirmed.
n total, 37 contractors “pulled plans” for the project and eight submitted bids — with Otero Construction Inc. winning the work. The company is owned by Dryw Otero, the son of Tamara Otero.
Before the vote, board member Jill Barto asked Otero: “Is this your husband’s company?”
Otero replied “No” and immediately brushed off the question, saying the internet connection to her computer on the dais was disconnected. (Barto says she asked about the family connections but her phrase “and your family” was masked by Otero’s response.)
Otero abstained from voting, but did not give a reason. timesofsandiego.com/education/2019/05/01/questions-raised-as-cajon-school-board-presidents-son-wins-655000-district-pact/
Profile of student porn worker allowed to run in Stockton high school newspaper
Bear Creek High School student newspaper advisor Kathi Duffel, left, and student journalist Bailey Kirkeby talk about Lodi Unified’s attempts to suppress a story Kirkeby wrote about a student who works in the porn industry. The district decided to allow the story to run. (Clifford Oto / Stockton Record) www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-porn-worker-student-profile-newspaper-20190502-story.html
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
US and China push global military spending to record high
U.S. military expenditure along accounted for 36 percent of total global military spending, as much as the next eight biggest-spending countries combined.
The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit
When the Defense Department flunked its first-ever fiscal review, one of our government’s greatest mysteries was exposed: Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?
r Juhasz for Rolling Stone
Matt Taibbi:
A retired Air Force auditor — we’ll call him Andy — tells a story about a thing that happened at Ogden Air Force Base, Utah. Sometime in early 2001, something went wrong with a base inventory order. Andy thinks it was a simple data-entry error. “Someone ordered five of something,” he says, “and it came out as an order for 999,000.” He laughs. “It was probably just something the machine defaulted to. Type in an order for a part the wrong way, and it comes out all frickin’ nines in every field.” Nobody actually delivered a monster load of parts. But the faulty transaction — the paper trail for a phantom inventory adjustment never made — started moving through the Air Force’s maze of internal accounting systems anyway. A junior-level logistics officer caught it before it went out of house. Andy remembers the incident because, as a souvenir, he kept the June 28th, 2001, email that circulated about it in the Air Force accounting world, in which the dollar value of the error was discussed. www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pentagon-budget-mystery-807276/?fbclid=IwAR13GodauKZkVkOkru-XBn3Y0y0BDnPJWnGrOuQ-iHww1RdexPEl-KhCL1U
The New Revolution in Military Affairs
War’s Sci-Fi Future
..The idea of a future military revolution became discredited amid nearly two decades of war after 2001 and has been further damaged by reductions in defense spending since 2011. But along the way, the United States has also squandered hundreds of billions of dollars trying to modernize in the wrong ways. Instead of thinking systematically about buying faster, more effective kill chains that could be built now, Washington poured money into newer versions of old military platforms and prayed for technological miracles to come (which often became acquisition debacles when those miracles did not materialize). The result is that U.S. battle networks are not nearly as fast or effective as they have appeared while the United States has been fighting lesser opponents for almost three decades.
Yet if ever there were a time to get serious about the coming revolution in military affairs, it is now. www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-04-16/new-revolution-military-affairs?utm_medium=newsletters&utm_source=fatoday&utm_content=20190429&utm_campaign=FA%20Today%20042919%20War%E2%80%99s%20Sci-Fi%20Future%2C%20Sanctions%20and%20Regime%20Change%2C%20The%20Global%20Language%20of%20Hatred&utm_term=FA%20Today%20-%20112017
Sexual assaults in military rise to more than 20,000, Pentagon survey says
n a setback for the U.S. military’s efforts to reduce sexual assault in the military, a new Pentagon survey released Thursday shows the number of sexual assaults increased in 2018 to 20,500, almost the same levels as five years ago, a result that Pentagon officials say will lead to changes in its sexual assault prevention efforts.
The latest figures are included in an anonymous Pentagon survey conducted every two years that estimates the “prevalence,” or rate, of sexual assault in the military. Sexual assault is defined as rape, sexual assault, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact and attempts to commit those offenses. abcnews.go.com/Politics/military-sexual-assault-numbers-increase-young-female-service/story?id=62762858
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYefb3TOvM
Details Emerge on Failed US-Backed Coup in Venezuela
www.facebook.com/642196696/videos/10156035792356697/?t=18
Opposition figure Lopez met with generals while under house arrest
Venezuela has a recent history replete with cases of failed opposition uprisings, rebellions, and coup attempts. US involvement is usually alleged, often with evidence, but rarely confirmed. This week, however, the US was quick to put its stamp on the coup attempt, and seemed highly confident that it would be a great success.
Once it failed, it was a bit too late for the administration to deny involvement. Days later, information continues to emerge on what happened, why the US was so confident, and how ultimately the assured victory they thought they had didn’t pan out.
Much of the coup, after all, is in the planning stages. The US spent weeks getting what thought was sufficient support on their side to force Maduro from power. This network of support was built by US diplomats and, in part, opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez.
Mike Pompeo and others have claimed the US got together a deal with the Supreme Court chief justice, the defense minister, and the head of the presidential guard. Lopez, despite the considerable disadvantage of being under house arrest, said he met with a number of generals. news.antiwar.com/2019/05/02/details-emerge-on-failed-us-backed-coup-in-venezuela/
Media lies in service of war for regime change in Venezuela
3 May 2019
Tuesday’s abortive coup attempt initiated by the US puppet and self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaidó in Venezuela has served once again to expose the criminal role of the US corporate media.
Guaidó’s video of himself and Leopoldo Lopez, the leader of Guaidó’s extreme right-wing CIA-funded party, Voluntad Popular, appearing with a few dozen armed men in uniform and calling for a military uprising, was greeted with undisguised glee by the major media outlets.
This stunt was staged as the 100-day “reign” of Mr. Guaidó, existing only in the greedy imagination of US imperialism and Big Oil, appeared no closer to establishing control over Venezuela. Even as it became evident that it had turned into an unmitigated fiasco, the media continued to broadcast reports suggesting that the military was divided, and the people were in revolt.
As the failure of the coup attempt became increasingly undeniable, CNN and the major networks all repeated the farfetched claims made by the regime-change operation’s principal protagonists within the Trump administration as if they were incontrovertible fact. www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/03/pers-m03.html
ISIS’ Mysterious Leader Is Not Dead, New Video Shows
Five years ago, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi mounted the pulpit of a mosque in Iraq to declare himself the head of a rapidly expanding terrorist organization.
Since then, his group, the Islamic State, has transfixed the world with its apocalyptic violence while he has remained a mystery. Spottings were rare. Rumors swirled that he was wounded or dead. The United States put $25 million on his head and still failed to find him.
On Monday, he reappeared, leaning on a cushion with an assault rifle at his side, in a video seeking to rally his followers after the loss of the group’s territory in Iraq and Syria and its execution of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in years, on Easter in Sri Lanka.
“Our battle today is a battle of attrition, and we will prolong it for the enemy, and they must know that the jihad will continue until Judgment Day,” he said in the video. www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/middleeast/isis-baghdadi-video.html
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
www.facebook.com/RebelHQ/videos/438967423585835/?t=15
Pharmaceutical exec guilty of bribing doctors to push opioid
A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance.
John Kapoor, the 76-year-old former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy after 15 days of jury deliberations. Four ex-employees of the Chandler, Arizona-based company, including the former exotic dancer, were also convicted.
Some of the most sensational evidence in the months-long federal trial included a video of employees dancing and rapping around an executive dressed as a giant bottle of the powerful spray Subsys, and testimony about how the company made a habit of hiring attractive women as sales representatives. www.apnews.com/82f638d6dfcf4193ad28ddf0e65897e1
Labor Department says ‘gig economy’ workers are contractors, not employees, in win for owners
“Gig economy” workers are contractors and not employees, the Labor Department said in a letter to an attorney for one such website Monday.
The letter strengthens the position of online companies — “virtual market economy” websites that connect customers with drivers, cleaners, deliverymen, or others providing — that argue they are not traditional employers and therefore are not bound by the usual legal obligations between management and employees.
“Based on the facts you provide in your letter, it appears that the service providers who use your client’s virtual marketplace are independent contractors. Your client provides a referral service. As such, it does not receive services from service providers, but empowers service providers to provide services to end-market consumers,” the department’s letter states. www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/labor-department-says-gig-economy-workers-are-contractors-not-employees-in-win-for-owners
‘996’ Is China’s Version of Hustle Culture. Tech Workers Are Sick of It.
Chinese programmers once embraced working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. But online, discontent is brewing.
China’s richest internet moguls think their employees should work more.
Jack Ma, a founder of the e-commerce titan Alibaba, called long work hours “a huge blessing.” Richard Liu, who runs the Alibaba rival JD.com, said people who frittered away their days “are no brothers of mine.”
Rank-and-file tech workers in China, discouraged by a weakened job market and downbeat about their odds of joining the digital aristocracy, have other ideas.
They are organizing online against what in China is called the “996” culture: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
For years, Chinese tech employees have worked hours that make Silicon Valley’s workaholics seem pampered. Now they are naming and shaming employers that demand late nights. Some programmers are even withholding their creations from companies that they think overemphasize 996. www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/technology/china-996-jack-ma.html
Profitable Giants Like Amazon Pay $0 in Corporate Taxes. Some Voters Are Sick of It.
Colin Robertson wonders why he pays federal taxes on the $18,000 a year he makes cleaning carpets, while the tech giant Amazon got a tax rebate.
His concerns about a tilted economic playing field recently led Mr. Robertson to join the Akron chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. At a gathering this month, as members discussed Karl Marx and corporate greed over chocolate chip cookies, it wasn’t long before talk turned to income inequality and how the government helps the wealthy avoid taxes.
“One of the benefits of taxation is taking it and using it for the collective good,” said Mr. Robertson, 25, comparing his minimal income to the roughly $150 billion net worth of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive and the world’s richest person.
“He could be taxed at 99.9 percent and still have millions over,” Mr. Robertson said, “and I’d be homeless.”
As records fall on Wall Street, investors seek bets on economic growth
As the bull market gets a new lease on life, Wall Street is growing less fretful of a U.S. growth slowdown and betting on shares of companies in sectors that will benefit from the economic up-cycle, such as industrials and financials.
After tumbling nearly 20% from its peak at the end of 2018, the S&P 500 has rebounded strongly this year as U.S. economic data remain robust and the Federal Reserve has indicated a pause in interest-rate hikes. Last week’s U.S. gross domestic product reading, which put first-quarter growth at a 3.2% annualized rate, further bolstered economic sentiment.
Accordingly, fears of a stock market meltdown have given way to talk of a possible melt-up. The S&P 500 has notched record highs in the past three trading sessions. www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-investments/as-records-fall-on-wall-street-investors-seek-bets-on-economic-growth-idUSKCN1S74HU
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Commander of Guantanamo Bay detention center fired
The admiral in charge of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was fired Saturday, U.S. Southern Command officials confirmed.
Rear Adm. John C. Ring, took command of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo roughly one year ago.
He was relieved “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” according to a SOUTHCOM statement.
The firing came about after the recent completion of a command investigation, according to SOUTHCOM spokesman Jose Ruiz.
Ruiz declined to comment on potential future disciplinary or administrative actions against the admiral. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/04/29/commander-of-guantanamo-bay-detention-center-fired/
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Earlier this year: Guantanamo skipper indicted for lying about affair with dead man’s wife, details of scuffle
The former commander of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was indicted this week for allegedly misleading investigators about the circumstances leading up to a man’s death there four years ago.
Capt. John R. Nettleton, 53, was indicted on several counts of obstruction of justice, making false official statements, falsifying records and other alleged infractions tied to the early 2015 death of Christopher M. Tur, a civilian Navy Exchange employee on the island.
Nettleton is not charged in Tur’s death. Instead, the indictment focuses on the days after Tur disappeared following what authorities suspect was a violent fight with Tur after a party.
Investigators allege that Nettleton stonewalled subordinates, superiors and investigators during a search for the missing man.
Nettleton’s attorney, Marine veteran Colby Vokey, told Navy Times by email that Nettleton was “innocent of these charges” and “is looking forward to the opportunity to finally being able to rebut the allegations and the investigations after having this hanging over his head for several years.” www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/01/10/feds-indict-fired-guantanamo-co-for-misleading-death-investigators/
US begins extradition case against Julian Assange in London
WikiLeaks founder declines to consent to being taken to US to face charges
Julian Assange has declined a chance to consent to his extradition to the US at a hearing in London as Washington started pressing its case to take him across the Atlantic.
Appearing via video link from Belmarsh prison, Assange said: “I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many, many awards and protected many, many people.”
Ben Brandon, the counsel for the US government, presented details of the US case against Assange at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday. He said the charges related to one of the largest compromises of information in US history.
They were connected to the downloading of a “vast amount of classified documents” by Chelsea Manning, the US intelligence analyst who subsequently served a prison sentence. www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/02/us-begins-extradition-case-against-julian-assange-in-london
University Of San Diego: Mexico’s Violence Isn’t Just About Drugs
Above: A Glock 23 handgun seized by Mexican authorities is pictured in this undated photo.
Mexico’s violence is like the many-headed mythical beast known as the hydra, according to a new report from the University of San Diego’s Justice in Mexico.
The hydra can’t be slain by chopping off one head — that just makes two grow in its place. The authors of the report explained that similarly, targeting drug kingpins has been “ineffective” to stop the violence in Mexico, instead causing a fracturing and multiplying of violent cartels.
They wrote that Mexico has to target all criminals, including corrupt politicians and elite CEO’s involved in money laundering, to “starve the beast.”
The annual report used to be called “Drug Violence In Mexico.” This year, on its 10th anniversary, the report has a new title: “Organized Crime And Violence In Mexico.”
Co-author Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira said the change is meant to reflect the fact that oil theft and other criminal enterprises are fueling the violence now, too.
“We wanted to make clear that the reality that what used to be mainly drug trafficking phenomenon, now is becoming more broad,” he said.
Last year, homicides hit an all-time high of more than 33,000 in Mexico. Men, mayors and journalists were the most common victims, although femicides remain a problem. www.kpbs.org/news/2019/may/03/university-san-diego-mexicos-violence-grows-new-he/
Homicides in Tijuana continue to spike despite National Guard
Mexico’s president is expanding the use of a new national security force after claiming widespread success with the strategy in Tijuana.
However, data shows homicides continue to spike in the border city, putting Tijuana on pace for another record-breaking year of violence.
The new security strategy — which included sending 2,000 federal military troops — launched Feb. 4 in certain areas of Tijuana and made significant progress reigning in skyrocketing drug violence, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insisted during an April 12 news conference.
The pilot test program was initiated in Tijuana after 21 homicides were recorded here in a single day, state officials said.
Currently, there are about 2,331 federal troops working in the city — a number the president said he plans to expand to 21,000 within the next three months. Last week, he announced the newly created National Guard will also be deployed to Veracruz after 14 people died in a massacre there on April 19.
Made up of the Army, Navy, federal police, state police, civilians and municipal police, the troops have been working in 11 priority zones in Tijuana like the La Morrita and Mariano Matamoros neighborhoods. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2019-04-30/homicides-in-tijuana-continue-to-spike-despite-national-guard
San Diego has a long history with white supremacists
File – In this Sept. 5, 2000 file photo is Tom Metzger, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the White Aryan Resistance, speaks in in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. Metzger told The Associated Press Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, he is returning property in Leith, N.D., that Craig Cobb deeded to him because he disagrees with his methods and he’s too controversial. The prominent white separatists says he is distancing himself from Cobb, another white supremacist, who faces terrorizing charges for allegedly threatening residents of the North Dakota town he’s trying to turn into an Aryan enclave. (AP Photo/Barbara Minton, File)
At one point in the early 2000s, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, identified six of the “pillars of the old guard” among white supremacists nationwide. Two of them were in Escondido. Recently, an Iraq War veteran with San Diego ties founded the group Identity Evropa, whose members helped plan the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
Every community of any size has spasms of extremism, but they’ve been common enough in San Diego County to merit special attention from local officials. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2019-05-03/san-diego-history-white-supremacy
Solidarity for Never
Xi Praises a Student Protest in China. From 100 Years Ago.
..“History profoundly reveals that patriotism has flowed in the blood of the Chinese nation since ancient times,” Mr. Xi said in the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square. “Those who are unpatriotic, who would even go so far as to cheat and betray the motherland, are a disgrace in the eyes of their own country and the whole world.”
“Chinese youth in the new era must obey the party and follow the party,” Mr. Xi said.
May 4 is one of several politically charged anniversaries that the Communist Party must carefully manage — or muffle — this year. The party has reason to be on guard: The anniversary of May 4 has prompted protests in the past, including pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 that soldiers extinguished in a night of carnage on June 3-4 that year.
The party is also grappling with slowing growth that has magnified its fear of popular unrest. Officials have told schools to guard against displays of discontent around May 4 and other “sensitive” dates, according to notices on government websites.
“From the start of the school term, they told us that this is no ordinary year and is very sensitive, so don’t speak out of line,” said Guo Yuhua, an outspoken professor of sociology at Tsinghua University.
The May 4 protests in 1919 broke out after victorious Western powers at postwar peace talks in Paris decided to let Japan keep colonial territory in eastern China that Japan had seized from Germany, ignoring promises of national self-determination. www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-speech-may-4-protest.html
Kwame Kilpatrick, the racists’ fave mayor, a ‘remorseless’ felon, feds say
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a remorseless felon whose latest attempt to shift blame for a racketeering conviction and 28-year prison sentence should be rejected, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Prosecutors filed a caustic, 22-page, legal brief responding to claims Kilpatrick leveled last month about his trial judge having a conflict of interest that tainted the public corruption trial six years ago.
Kilpatrick claimed U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds was biased in favor of his lawyer James C. Thomas and accused her of sending the attorney a wedding card during the trial. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/05/03/feds-rebuff-ex-detroit-mayor-kwame-kilpatricks-bid-to-leave-prison/1091336001/
Spy versus Spy
Former CIA Officer Pleads Guilty To Spying For China
An ex-CIA officer pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to spying for China, the third separate espionage case in the past year linking a former U.S. intelligence officer to the Asian nation.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 54, entered the guilty plea to the most serious of the three charges he was facing….
“I conspired to gather and send secret information to the PRC (People’s Republic of China),” Lee said when asked by Judge T.S. Ellis to describe his actions.
In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., agreed to drop two lesser charges of retaining secret information after he left the CIA.
The plea agreement calls for a minimum sentence of about 21 years. But Judge Ellis emphasized that this was only a recommendation and he is free to impose the sentence he sees fit when Lee is sentenced on Aug. 23. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison….Lee becomes the third former U.S. intelligence official tied to spying for China over the past year.
Kevin Mallory, a former officer with the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, was convicted at a trial last year and is scheduled to be sentenced this month. Ron Hansen, a former DIA officer, pleaded guilty in March and is now serving a 15-year sentence. www.npr.org/2019/05/01/719006289/former-cia-officer-pleads-guilty-to-spying-for-china
F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016
The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.
The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it Spygate. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/politics/fbi-government-investigator-trump.html
The CIA’s Worst-Kept Secret: Newly Declassified Files Confirm United States Collaboration with Nazis
…Pried loose by Congress, which passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act three years ago, a long-hidden trove of once-classified CIA documents confirms one of the worst-kept secrets of the cold war–the CIA’s use of an extensive Nazi spy network to wage a clandestine campaign against the Soviet Union.
The CIA reports show that U.S. officials knew they were subsidizing numerous Third Reich veterans who had committed horrible crimes against humanity, but these atrocities were overlooked as the anti-Communist crusade acquired its own momentum. For Nazis who would otherwise have been charged with war crimes, signing on with American intelligence enabled them to avoid a prison term.
“The real winners of the cold war were Nazi war criminals, many of whom were able to escape justice because the East and West became so rapidly focused after the war on challenging each other,” says Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations and America’s chief Nazi hunter. Rosenbaum serves on a Clinton-appointed Interagency Working Group (IWG) committee of U.S. scholars, public officials, and former intelligence officers who helped prepare the CIA records for declassification. ips-dc.org/the_cias_worst-kept_secret_newly_declassified_files_confirm_united_states_collaboration_with_nazis/
The Magical Mystery Tour
Michigan residents leaving the Catholic Church as many turn away from religion
The Catholic Church has loomed large over Gloria Emmons’ life.
Growing up in metro Detroit in the 1950s and ’60s, her devout Catholic family was surrounded by other devout Catholics. Everybody went to church on Sundays. Nobody ate meat on Fridays. Almost every home had a statue of Mary.
Emmons attended Catholic schools through college. She married in the church, sent her two sons through Catholic schools and the family attended weekly Mass for years.
But today, Emmons describes herself as an “ambivalent” Catholic.
“There are lots of conflicts” between Catholic doctrine and contemporary values such as equality for gays and women, said Emmons, 65, who lives near Kalamazoo. “As we move forward as a society, they stare you in the face.” www.mlive.com/news/2019/04/michigan-residents-leaving-the-catholic-church-as-many-turn-away-from-religion.html?utm_campaign=mlivedotcom_sf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3-91cS2WD3u2_OFXNm0dGQR0Y4233UQfIID1ifZc1jzjR4ddpOCxfOZs8
www.facebook.com/realrevere/videos/261757187859532/?t=6
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
San Diego Sunset
So Long
‘True hockey legend’: Red Wings Hall of Fame defenseman Red Kelly dies at 91
Red Kelly, whose No. 4 was raised to the rafters in February at Little Caesars Arena, died Thursday in Toronto at the age of 91.
Kelly was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969, after having spent 13 of his 20 NHL seasons in Detroit. He played 846 of his 1,316 games in a Wings uniform — the remainder in Toronto in an illustrious career that included eight Stanley Cup championships. www.google.com/search?q=red+kelly+hockey&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGn_TrjIPiAhXmwMQHHbueA0YQ_AUIDygC&biw=747&bih=518#imgrc=XWraF9XzO7poNM:
