The LA Strike MUST Win. No Sellouts! Stay Away NEA and AFT bosses!
January 20th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
www.facebook.com/williamehedrick/videos/10218442875120199/?t=2
Sub Scabs crossing the picket line, iPad learning: Inside the LAUSD strike at one school: We have not forgotten what happens to scabs…
Another sub — who walked around a gym filled with 150 students sitting at long tables — said he was hired through an outside agency.
Newly credentialed, he applied for a job at the Charter Substitute Teacher Network last week, and the agency contacted him Friday to ask if he would be willing to work during the strike.
He didn’t want to give his name but said he was getting paid $160 a day. That’s less than the district rate for an employed, credentialed K-12 substitute, though the district is paying the Charter Substitute Teacher Network considerably more; their contract with the school district lists a daily rate of $250.
He said he was conflicted about crossing the picket line, but he also has $50,000 in student loans to start paying off.
“I fully understand what they’re doing. I support them,” he said of the striking teachers. “But in the back of my mind it’s like, if it’s not me it’s somebody else.” www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-burroughs-middle-20190116-story.html
The UTLA strike is, I believe, the most important strike since PATCO.
It should be clear that the class war from above, waged by business, government and “union” Quislings, is going to run full tilt.
At issue: can the rank and file of all the US respond, grasping why this strike must happen (capitalism and empire) and why the class war must be won.
It’s apparent that CTA and CFT did not want a statewide strike. They could have easily sent out San Diego, Oakland, and LA at the same time.
They could have set bargaining minimums for all large locals, and with an “injury to one is an injury to all” view, enforced those minimums on all the locals.
In 2016/17, The California Teachers Association had a $25.6 million surplus and held more than $226 million in net assets. Even with those millions, there are no strike fund payouts.
They could have, and should have, planned to set up Freedom Schools for kids, to offset the babysitting, food, health care, roll of schools, especially for elementary kids and parents. Add: to teach WHY we must strike. Perhaps that is a lesson for the future.
To prevent a betrayal, UTLA school workers, and others, need to set up local rank and file committees in every school possible. They need to link those committees on social media that are secure from union boss and boss interference. They need to begin to plan to continue the strike, to wildcat, now.
Meanwhile, other school workers, community people, students, profs, and others must begin to plan solidarity actions with UTLA, as with the Oakland Wildcat group. (RG)
L.A. Teachers Strike Diary: Day Four
Laura Palacios and other teachers take a break from the rain to have lunch, then return to the picket line.
L.A. Teachers Strike Diary: Day One (Video within)
Laura Palacios is a Los Angeles public school teacher married to another teacher. Today the mother of two joined 33,000 other union members in the first L.A. teachers walkout since 1989. This week Capital & Main will follow Palacios during the strike. capitalandmain.com/l-a-teachers-strike-diary-day-one-0114
What’s Really at Stake in the Los Angeles Teachers’ Strike
Can California provide sufficient resources to support an effective public education system? Or will charter schools cripple it?
For decades, public schools were part of California’s lure, key to the promise of opportunity. Forty years ago, with the lightning speed characteristic of the Golden State, all of that changed.
In the fall of 1978, after years of bitter battles to desegregate Los Angeles classrooms, 1,000 buses carried more than 40,000 students to new schools. Within six months, the nation’s second-largest school district lost 30,000 students, a good chunk of its white enrollment. The busing stopped; the divisions deepened.
Those racial fault lines had helped fuel the tax revolt that led to Proposition 13, the sweeping tax-cut measure that passed overwhelmingly in June 1978. The state lost more than a quarter of its total revenue. School districts’ ability to raise funds was crippled; their budgets shrank for the first time since the Depression. State government assumed control of allocating money to schools, which centralized decision-making in Sacramento.
Public education in California has never recovered, nowhere with more devastating impact than in Los Angeles, where a district now mostly low-income and Latino has failed generations of children most in need of help. The decades of frustration and impotence have boiled over in a strike with no clear endgame and huge long-term implications. The underlying question is: Can California ever have great public schools again? www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/california-teachers-strike.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
LA’s teachers can teach the working class about the power of labor strikes
Organizing to bring work to a halt fundamentally shifts the balance of power and transforms workers into a force to be reckoned with
Educators in Los Angeles, the second-largest school district in the country, are going on strike on Monday. By deciding to walk out for smaller class sizes, more support staff, fewer standardized tests and charter school regulation, LA’s teachers have ensured that California will be the next state hit by a strike wave that shows no signs of ebbing anytime soon.
The teachers’ upsurge was one of the defining stories of 2018. It began in West Virginia, where teacher and support staff decided to shut down the schools until their demands for better pay and healthcare were taken seriously. They won big, and they inspired educators across the nation to follow their example. Work stoppages soon swept across Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina and Colorado. Though not all their demands were met, teachers won major gains and changed the national conversation about the reasons for public education’s crisis. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/14/la-teachers-working-class-power-labor-strikes?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR2QX2xAEP2-SKyCYxA4q7U_w3TR1KKoVTehowbaaCHMOFcxFDCCgGkJY1o
Oakland teachers stage unauthorized walkout as contract talks hit impasse
Hundreds of Oakland teachers called in sick or took a personal day Friday to rally in front of school district offices and demand a contract that includes higher salaries and smaller class sizes. Students, saying they are tired of seeing their good, qualified teachers leave for districts with higher pay or a lower cost of living, joined them.
The group gathered outside Oakland Technical High School on Friday morning armed with signs, banners, megaphones and drums to call attention to school closures and the rising cost of living, which teachers say is outpacing their wages.
The demonstration is not sanctioned by the Oakland Education Association, but teachers said they want to send a message to Oakland Unified School District that unless the district makes a better offer, they could strike. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-teachers-stage-unauthorized-walkout-as-13544640.php
www.facebook.com/UTLAnow/videos/592413487874345/?t=8
Teachers at 4 charter schools operated by CICS announce strike date
Teachers at four charter schools operated by Chicago International Charter Schools have announced a strike date.
The teachers, who are a part of the Chicago Teachers Union, said Thursday morning that they will walk out on Tuesday, February 5 if a deal is not reached.
“We are here for our students and for our schools. We are demanding better. We are demanding better from management and from CICS. We know that funding for charter schools increased this past year, funding that should have gone to our classrooms and instead, there was only a small increase on what was spent on students and a lot of money went instead to management,” said teacher Jen Conant.
The strike effects teachers at four CICS schools, ChicagoQuest, Northtown Academy, Ralph Ellison and Wrightwood. abc7chicago.com/education/teachers-at-4-cics-schools-announce-strike-date/5092980/?fbclid=IwAR1R_zoajqzAzdwNBb3T8E9Gvmo_6pAIZHLORd2weGYI8w3kmrixPxD2FU4
www.facebook.com/peoplesdispatch/videos/534409770400860/?t=8
See how San Diego schools stack up against Los Angeles in teacher salaries, class sizes
Issues of pay, class size and school staff are far from unique to L.A. Unified, the state’s largest district with 467,000 students. Recent state data show that several school districts in San Diego County have larger average class sizes or lower teacher salaries than L.A. Unified.
For instance, San Diego Unified, the state’s second largest district with about 104,000 students, has a larger average class size than L.A. Unified and similarly has many schools with only a nurse or counselor working one day a week.
But San Diego Unified is less likely to have a strike, partly because of a perception among (utterly sold out) union leaders that San Diego Unified’s school board and superintendent are more in touch with traditional public education than L.A. Unified’s leadership.
Here’s a look at how San Diego Unified and other San Diego County districts compare to L.A. Unified on some of the issues driving the L.A. teachers strike: salaries, class sizes and nurse and counselor ratios. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-school-data-20190117-story.html
The Matamoros Wildcat in Mexico involving 70,000 workers is still on uniting workers from most auto plants, defying the Quisling union and the auto bosses.
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Students in Rural America Ask, ‘What Is a University Without a History Major?’
Chancellor Bernie Patterson’s message to his campus was blunt: To remain solvent and relevant, his 125-year-old university needed to reinvent itself.
Some longstanding liberal arts degrees, including those in history, French and German, would be eliminated. Career-focused programs would become a key investment. Tenured faculty members could lose their jobs. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Dr. Patterson explained in a memo, could “no longer be all things to all people.”
Dr. Patterson’s plan came as Stevens Point and many other public universities in rural America face a crisis. Such colleges have served as anchors for their regions, educating generations of residents.
Now student enrollment has plummeted, money from states has dropped and demographic trends promise even worse days ahead.
Universities like Stevens Point are experiencing the opposite of what is happening at some of the nation’s most selective schools, like Harvard, Northwestern and the University of California, Berkeley, where floods of applications have led to overwhelming numbers of rejected students.
But critics say that in trying to carve out a sustainable path for Stevens Point — and build a model for other struggling, regionally focused universities — administrators are risking the very essence of a four-year college experience.
“Part of the fear is, is this an attempt to really kind of radically change the identity of this institution?” asked Jennifer Collins, a political-science professor, who wondered aloud whether Stevens Point would become a “pre-professional, more polytechnic type of university.”https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/us/rural-colleges-money-students-leaving.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Ex-Michigan governor says he will resign university post in Nassar fallout
Board chair Dianne Byrum had called a meeting on Thursday to discuss firing Engler, a three-time former governor of Michigan, after he told the Detroit News that some of Nassar’s victims were “enjoying” being in the spotlight.
Engler said Nassar’s victims “who’ve been in the spotlight … are still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition,” The News reported. www.reuters.com/article/us-gymnastics-usa/michigan-university-interim-president-to-resign-in-nassar-fallout-media-idUSKCN1PA2XE
Student Paper Competitions and Outstanding Scholarship Awards
The Divisions are pleased to announce the 2019 Student Paper Competitions and Outstanding Scholarship Awards. In order to be considered for any of the Student Paper Competitions, applicants are required to submit their papers through the Annual Meeting Call for Papers, www.sssp1.org/2019_Call_for_Papers. This will ensure that winning papers are both designated and included in the program. Please note that students may only submit to one division and that each division has its own submission process.
Recruitment for Short Term Researchers
Department of Sociology, South Asian University in collaboration with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Germany) invites application for the following posts:1. Short-Term Researchers (03): Position will be based in North East India, Sri Lanka, and Bihar.
Application must reach the office by January 31, 2019
Recruitment for Junior Research Fellow Position
Applications are invited for the post of ONE Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in the DST-funded project entitled “Investigating the role of exogenous ATP in modulating inflammation in the rodent brain” under the supervision of Dr. Ravi Shankar Akundi, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, South Asian University, New Delhi.
Application must reach the office by February 8, 2019
Recruitment for Research Assistant/ Coordinator (Temporary, Full Time)
Florida teacher shortage: More than 2,200 jobs open halfway into school year, union says
Halfway through the school year, Florida’s public schools need to hire 2,217 teachers to fill open jobs in classrooms across the state, a sign of Florida’s growing teacher shortage, according to the statewide teacher’s union.
State schools had 700 more teacher vacancies this month than at the same time last year, with openings in nearly all subjects, from high school math to middle school civics to every elementary school grade, said Cathy Boehme, a legislative specialist with the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union. www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-ne-florida-teacher-shortage-midyear-20190116-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0FbGHYPfQJ5iJNHa7-0UOZkSR7vQ5ryTR7XkXVujqbpKwlKYDoitUxhlk
www.facebook.com/TheSocialistWay/videos/2410661598946518/?t=56
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Army’s long-awaited Iraq war study finds Iran was the only winner in a conflict that holds many lessons for future wars
A two-volume Army study of the Iraq war is a deep examination of the mistakes and success of the war effort that also takes aim at critics who would slough off the conflict as they shift to near-peer threats.
The study, commissioned by former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno in 2013 and continued under current chief Gen. Mark Milley, was delayed for release since 2016, when it was completed. Some said it was due to concerns over airing “dirty laundry” about decisions made by some leaders during the conflict.
The 1,300-page, two volume history, complete with more than 1,000 declassified documents, spans the 2003 invasion through the U.S. withdrawal, the rise of ISIS, and the influence of Syria and Iran.
“At the time of this project’s completion in 2018, an emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor,” authors wrote in the concluding chapter.
Col. Joe Rayburn and Col. Frank Sobchak, both retired, authored the study.
They note the damage to the political-military relationship that the war has caused, even to the American public.
“The Iraq War has the potential to be one of the most consequential conflicts in American history. It shattered a long-standing political tradition against preemptive wars,” authors wrote. “In the conflict’s immediate aftermath, the pendulum of American politics swung to the opposite pole with deep skepticism about foreign interventions.”
They also bluntly address naysayers who see the war as an aberration, and look only for the Army to move back to its traditional large-scale warfighting role, as a quick path to losing the hard-earned lessons of counterinsurgency warfare, portions of which will no doubt be part of future conflicts whether with terrorist groups or with nation state near-peers.
“The character of warfare is changing, but even if we face peer or near-peer competitors in future conflicts, they are likely to employ a blend of conventional and irregular warfare — what is often called ‘hybrid warfare’ or ‘operations in the gray zone,’ ” authors wrote.
In his foreword to the work, Odierno wrote that “those who rejected the idea that there is an operational level of war in counterinsurgency were wrong.” www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/01/18/armys-long-awaited-iraq-war-study-finds-iran-was-the-only-winner-in-a-conflict-that-holds-many-lessons-for-future-wars/
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LUGCWSDC5RCYDIHCOENHDRXTXU.jpg)
Worse than you thought: inside the secret Fitzgerald probe the Navy doesn’t want you to read
A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted.
Obtained by Navy Times, the “dual-purpose investigation” was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and submitted 41 days after the June 17, 2017, tragedy.
It was kept secret from the public in part because it was designed to prep the Navy for potential lawsuits in the aftermath of the accident.
Unsparingly, Fort and his team of investigators outlined critical lapses by bridge watchstanders on the night of the collision with the Philippine-flagged container vessel ACX Crystal in a bustling maritime corridor off the coast of Japan.
Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/01/14/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%2015.01.19&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
Airman found guilty in murder of roommate in Guam
An airman from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, has been found guilty in the murder of his roommate while they both were deployed to Guam, the Shreveport Times reported Thursday.
Airman 1st Class Isaiah Edwards was convicted in the murder of his 20-year-old roommate, Airman 1st Class Bradley Hale, who had been stabbed to death early in the morning on March 27, 2018, in their shared living quarters at Andersen Air Force Base, the Times reported.
Edwards was convicted by a seven-member Air Force panel, which heard the case in the federal district court in Shreveport.
The two airmen were both assigned to the 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron as electronic warfare journeymen, working on B-52s. www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/01/18/airman-found-guilty-in-murder-of-roommate/
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/XBYQCMU7KBABZECVGYDMYBRQWI.jpg)
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
3 Officers Acquitted of Covering Up for Colleague in Laquan McDonald Killing
Three Chicago police officers were acquitted on Thursday of charges that they had conspired and lied to protect a white police officer who fired 16 deadly shots into a black teenager, a contentious verdict in a case over what many viewed as a “code of silence” in the Police Department. www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/laquan-mcdonald-officers-acquitted.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Inside the GM plant where nooses and ‘whites-only’ signs hung
Toledo, Ohio (CNN)It took 14 months for the noose to show up.
El Chapo’s mistress flips, tells jurors about his alleged drug crimes
Move over, Bonnie and Clyde: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López are allegedly the world’s latest male-female crime duo.
They made their telanovela-worthy public debut Thursday before a Brooklyn federal court, where the onetime mistress and alleged partner in narcotics trafficking testifying against the accused Mexican drug lord – all as his wife looked on.
By turns almost breathless and at one point in tears, Sánchez, 29, recounted a three-year relationship in which she said she periodically shared Guzmán’s bed, helped him buy hundreds of kilos of marijuana and joined the buck-naked alleged leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel in escaping Mexican Marines via a secret underground tunnel. www.freep.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/17/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-mistress-lucero-guadalupe-sanchez-lopez-testifies/2597858002/
Hundreds of Central American migrants buck Mexico’s efforts to register their entry at the southern border
Hundreds of Central American migrants broke their way into a federal port of entry on Mexico’s southern border early Friday, authorities said, bucking efforts by Mexican immigration officers to register their arrival in an orderly manner.
Mexico’s top immigration official, Tonatiuh Guillén, said the group broke a lock early Friday at the federal port of entry in Ciudad Hidalgo at about 4 a.m., and crossed over to Mexico from the town of Tecún Umán in Guatemala. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/migrant-caravan/sd-me-caravan-uncoumented-20190118-story.html
Family Separation May Have Hit Thousands More Migrant Children Than Reported
The Trump administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents at the Southern border than was previously believed, according to a report by government inspectors released on Thursday.
The federal government has reported that nearly 3,000 children were forcibly separated from their parents under last year’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted, and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care.
But even before the administration officially unveiled the zero-tolerance policy in the spring of 2018, staff of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that oversees the care of children in federal custody, had noted a “sharp increase” in the number of children separated from a parent or guardian www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/family-separation-trump-administration-migrants.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
House floor erupts after lawmaker shouts ‘Go back to Puerto Rico’
![UNITED STATES - MAY 17: Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., attends a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup in Rayburn Building on opioid legislation on May 17, 2018. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBSopdr.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1848&y=1222"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBSopdr.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1848&y=1222"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBSopdr.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1848&y=1222"}})
The House floor erupted Thursday after Congress adjourned for the week when an unidentified Republican congressman yelled a controversial and potentially racially charged remark across the aisle as Democratic Rep. Tony Cárdenas was at the podium.
“Go back to Puerto Rico!” the lawmaker shouted, punctuating a stream of Republican whooping and hollering at the Democratic majority for holding a voice vote — instead of the normal roll call vote — to pass a continuing resolution that would reopen nine Cabinet departments through Feb. 28
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and other Democrats in the chamber shot out of their seats demanding to know who shouted the comment. www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-floor-erupts-after-lawmaker-shouts-%E2%80%98go-back-to-puerto-rico%E2%80%99/ar-BBSosfK?ocid=sf&fbclid=IwAR033EOpc-9vGnb7sdYrDLX_tOI1zm7CgQTuI-KW3ATBprgT4Dm84-3wZxU
Solidarity for Never
Above, NEA’s Boss, Lily Garcia, rigged NEA’s internal processes to endorse Clinton.
NEA and Its State Affiliates Are a $1.62 Billion Enterprise
Here’s a Breakdown of Their Membership and Finances
What if I told you there was a corporation with franchises in every state — and one overseas — that collected $1.62 billion in revenues annually and paid virtually no federal, state, or local income taxes? That corporation is the National Education Association, whose 3 million members send contributions every paycheck.
The one price NEA does pay for its tax exemption is that it must file an annual financial disclosure report with the Internal Revenue Service detailing its income and expenditures. These reports are public records. They are filed well after each affiliate’s fiscal year is complete, leaving us to examine disclosures that are now 18 months old.
I have compiled information from the filings of NEA and all its state affiliates except Missouri for the 2016-17 school year. If we include an estimate for Missouri NEA based on its previous year’s filings, the total revenue collected by the union exceeded $1.62 billion, a $20 million increase over 2015-16.
NEA national headquarters took in more than $374 million and ran a $13.4 million surplus. It returned nearly $100 million to its state affiliates in the form of UniServ grants and other assistance.
NEA national headquarters took in more than $374 million and ran a $13.4 million surplus. It returned nearly $100 million to its state affiliates in the form of UniServ grants and other assistance.
It appears NEA affiliates are separating into three camps. Its strong affiliates — all of whom represented public education employees in the former agency fee states — are quite rich. The California Teachers Association had a $25.6 million surplus and held more than $226 million in net assets. Affiliates in Alaska, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania all held healthy reserves. www.the74million.org/article/union-report-nea-and-its-state-affiliates-are-a-1-62-billion-enterprise-heres-a-breakdown-of-their-membership-and-finances/
NEA’s Garcia Feted Arne Duncan at an NEA Rep Assembly
Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan Slams LA Teachers for Strike
For example, Duncan tells us LAUSD “is headed toward insolvency in about two years if nothing changes…It simply does not have the money to fund UTLA’s demands.” But arbitrator David A. Weinberg, the Neutral Chair of the California Public Employment Relations Board fact-finding panel, while noting the challenges LAUSD faces, found that the District’s reserves skyrocketed from $500 million in 2013-2014 to $1.8 billion in 2017-2018. Three years ago LAUSD projected that their 2018-2019 reserve would be only $100 million—it’s actually $1.98 billion. We’ve heard these alarming claims for many years–for LAUSD, the sky is always falling, but somehow it never falls. www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/09/obamas-education-secretary-arne-duncan-slams-la-teachers-for-strike/?fbclid=IwAR1vA-8oWKSWeR5vWvM9xYsGRsfm8vYaeJEPmHxHGnu3dVmufWHAOYQdvNc
Spy versus Spy
CIA Covert Operative William Barr Nominated by Trump for Attorney General. His Role in the Iran Contra Affair
This article was originally published on December 12, 2018. The serious questions raised in the piece remain completely unanswered.
Why was Barr chosen, given his shocking and deeply criminal/cover-up kingpin background?
Was Trump duped by Deep State enemies, who have placed another predator into his administration with the power to destroy his presidency? Or has Trump co-opted and turned Barr, in the hopes that Barr will do Trump’s bidding? Why would Barr ever turn against his own Deep State cronies?
Does Trump have a plan? With Barr in place, is Trump signaling to his enemies that “I now own the Deep State”? Or is Barr the Deep State’s ultimate and final weapon against Trump, who remains surrounded by Bush/Clinton “swamp creatures” such as National Security Adviser John Bolton, who is one of Barr’s many fellow Iran-Contra co-conspirators, Vice President Mike Pence (who is in ideal position for a coup against Trump, and remains very cozy with the Clintons, dozens of Obama appointees that remain in place, and Republican “Never Trumpers”, all of whom continue to undermine Trump.
Reminder of cracks in the empire
The Magical Mystery Tour
Working in the Proud Catholic Tradition of the Inquisition, Columbus, Cortez, the California Missions; perhaps these young men will be priests one day and follow the priesthood’s tradition with them…
twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1086552871674368001
Covington Catholic High School in Covington Kentucky
Phone Number: (859) 491-2247
Principal Robert Rowe email: browe@covcath.org
Our Catholic Identity
With a mission to “embrace the gospel message of Jesus Christ in order to educate young men spiritually, academically, physically, and socially,” Covington Catholic High School strives to assist parents and families in forming a Catholic philosophy and identity within students here. The faculty, staff and administration take this responsibility most seriously and our curriculum, facility, and daily activities reflect this commitment.
Students are required to study the basics of the Catholic faith, Sacred Scripture, Sacraments, Morality and Vocations under the guidelines of the Diocese of Covington in conjunction with the Didache series of texts, as mandated by our bishop.
In addition, students are given multiple opportunities to express their Catholic faith outside of the classroom. www.covcath.org/about/who-we-are/our-catholic-identity
Nondiscrimination Statement
In accordance with Federal civil rights laws and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions, including Covington Catholic High School, participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA.
‘Born Again’ Baseball Star John Wetteland Charged With Sexually Assaulting 4-Year-Old
Outspoken Christian and former World Series MVP John Wetteland was arrested by police on Monday and charged with child sex abuse.
Wetteland has been accused of the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 in Texas. Wetteland, 52, was arrested on January 14 in Denton County.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Wetteland allegedly sexually abused a 4-year-old relative beginning in 2004. www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/01/born-again-baseball-star-john-wetteland-charged-with-sexually-assaulting-4-year-old/?fbclid=IwAR0eUXQVMutEj_JUdLpkpHoEsowmY8WhZ3ooPuC71NWe0ebVwrgBhan6Llo
Detroit nun acknowledges ‘inappropriate conduct,’ resigns
An 84-year-old nun has resigned from a Detroit seminary, saying she engaged in “inappropriate conduct” more than a half-century ago with two young women she was training.
Sister Mary Finn stepped down this week from the Sacred Heart Major Seminary faculty.
Deadline Detroit reports that two women were expelled in 1972 after three years of training in the Home Visitors of Mary order. Finn said in a statement on the seminary’s website that she “misused” her position of authority as director of novices.
“I regret that behavior, have repented of my actions, and sincerely apologize for the harm I have caused,” she said.
Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who serves as chairman of the board of trustees at Sacred Heart, said in a statement on the website that he received partial details of the conduct while seminary rector in the late 1990s and thought “the matter had been resolved.”
“It is only in recent days that I have come to know new and additional details and context regarding Sr. Mary’s misconduct,” Vigneron told the Free Press in an e-mailed statement. “Based on this information, the current (seminary) rector, Msgr. (Todd) Lajiness, accepted Sister Finn’s resignation and I endorse this action.” https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/01/18/sister-mary-finn-sacred-heart-major-seminary/2617714002/
Wisconsin diocese reveals that a ‘credibly accused’ priest, the Rev. Simeon Engl, worked in San Diego
he Rev. Simeon Engl, a Catholic priest who served in the San Diego diocese from 1955 through 1969, was “credibly accused” of molesting several boys in 1950, when he was working in the diocese of Green Bay, Wis.
Engl is not known to have assaulted anyone during his years in California, although the San Diego diocese received two inquiries about the man after his death in 1989. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/religion/sd-me-predator-priest-engl-20190118-story.html
Priest gets jail for groping seminary student at Carlsbad bar
A priest who had been assigned to a Carlsbad church was sentenced Friday to 60 days in jail, a month after he was found guilty of groping a seminary student at a local bar.
The Rev. Juan Castillo, 35, was also placed on probation for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender following his conviction for misdemeanor sexual battery in the incident that occurred sometime after midnight Feb. 4. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/sd-me-priest-sentence-20190118-story.html
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
The Ask: Tips on accessing public records
We submit public records requests a lot. As journalists, we use public records all of the time in our reporting.
For example, reporter Megan Wood requested audited financial statements for San Diego Christian College from the U.S. Department of Education in 2017. She used those documents in a story that showed the college had endured financial troubles for years.
But as journalists, we don’t have special rights to access public records. We’re like any other member of the public when we ask local, state and federal agencies for access to records. Just like you, we have a right to know what our government agencies are doing.
The California Public Records Act allows you access to local and state government records in California.
The Freedom of Information Act allows you access to some but not all federal government records. For example, the White House and Congress are exempt. But you can seek records from the executive branch, including cabinet departments such as Education, Health and Human Services, and Veteran Affairs, the military branches, and independent federal commissions. inewsource.org/2019/01/17/ask-inewsource-public-records-foia/?utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=f90e4f2e12-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_Trina_GuiltyPlea_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c99e73181c-f90e4f2e12-221519197
www.facebook.com/ABCNews/videos/1362514113889809/?t=4
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Offers to Lie for Free During Shutdown
Calling it “the least I can do for my country,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Saturday morning that she would lie for free during the government shutdown.
“Now more than ever it’s important that the stream of falsehoods and distortions from this White House continues to flow in a steady and uninterrupted fashion,” Sanders said. “To achieve that, for the duration of the government shutdown I will be lying on a pro-bono basis.”
Sanders said that Donald Trump had asked that she keep a full accounting of the lies she told during the shutdown so that she could be reimbursed for them later, but she turned down that offer. “I’ve often said that I like to lie so much I would do it for free,” she said. “This is a chance to put my money where my mouth is.” www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/sarah-huckabee-sanders-offers-to-lie-for-free-during-shutdown?fbclid=IwAR0rOPo_oUja6c-qoKZE3vmBAx1x3kHwiQ1sZcxdJeKQu-bX2tR1_A4rrOQ
Supermoon! Go look…smooch…
www.facebook.com/brbradio/videos/749999408711565/?t=22
www.facebook.com/Bark/videos/2270925779851909/?t=50
www.facebook.com/NowThisOpinions/videos/1240590596080443/?t=172
So Long