Rouge Forum Dispatch: Thankful for every Freedom Fighter for Equality and Democracy
November 30th, 2019 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
www.facebook.com/briantylercohen/videos/449415362432061/?t=10
NYC Students Strike to Demand Racial Equity in Nation’s Largest—and Most Segregated—School District
“We, the students, have had enough. It is past time to integrate our school system, and we will not relent until the adults stop acting like children.”
For the second consecutive week, students in New York City went on strike Monday morning to protest persistent segregation in their schools more than six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools must serve children of all races equally.
Led by the grassroots campaign Teens Take Charge, hundreds of students from several city high schools demanded an end to New York’s “screening” system which has made the United States’ largest school district also its most segregated.
“We’ve met with politicians time and time again to urge them to integrate our schools,” Marcus Alston, public action leader for Teens Take Charge, said in a video posted to social media. “It is clear that they care more about the voices from the wealthier white parents than they do [about] the voices of students that are being disproportionately affected by this system.”
According to the New York Times, one in five New York City high schools and middle schools screens students’ test scores and grades before admitting them. The system has evolved gradually over the past several decades; for most of the 20th century, most New York City school children attended neighborhood schools.
The screening system has created public schools like NYC iSchool, where 40% of students are white—in a district where only 15 percent of students attending public schools are white—and Stuyvesant High School, where only seven out of 895 slots were offered to black students this past year. Critics say the system allows schools to cherry-pick their student bodies.
On Monday, students walked out of their classrooms at schools including John Jay High School in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s neighborhood of Park Slope, holding a banner that read “Strike for Integration” and chanting, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Segregation has got to go!” www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/25/nyc-students-strike-demand-racial-equity-nations-largest-and-most-segregated-school?fbclid=IwAR3QFkYGY3Rq8ig7kT5gP0NCB9EyimnhAB-LFjoBWJ5MdkIDxZeXlD1lz1o
Photos: A look back at the massive 1969 Vietnam protests on this day, 50 years ago
New Issue of CL! ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/clogic/index
Iraq: Prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi resigns amid spiraling death toll in anti-(puppet) government protests
Iraqi prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi has said he will resign after the latest outburst of violence and unrest in the country left at least 40 protesters dead over the course of 24 hours.
The announcement was met with celebrations among anti-government demonstrators who, for the past two months, have been protesting against corruption, rising youth unemployment levels and a lack of essential services such as electricity and water.
The country has seen an intensification in bloodshed in recent days, with Mr Abdul Mahdi calling upon the government to “act in the interests of Iraq; to preserve the blood of its people; and to avoid slipping into a cycle of violence, chaos and devastation” as he made clear his intention to submit a resignation request to parliament.
Since Wednesday night, deaths have been recorded in the cities of Nasiriya, Najaf and Baghdad, with military troops using live ammunition to disperse crowds and tackle the rising unrest.
In Nasiriya, at least 31 people were killed and 215 wounded after authorities opened fire on demonstrators blocking a number of key bridges in the city. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-protests-death-toll-iran-middle-east-nasiriya-najaf-baghdad-latest-a9225666.html
![Colombians are unhappy with President Ivan Duque's response to nearly a week of protests over a slew of issues including economic reform and corruption [Ivan Valencia/AP Photo]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/11/28/787f5a29217c4e68b38e3f4a3b6bd339_18.jpg "'Enough is enough': Protests continue into 7th day in Colombia")
‘Enough is enough’: Protests continue into 7th day in Colombia
Anti-government demonstrations continue as protesters commemorate the death of a teenager killed by a police projectile
Thousands of Colombians took to the streets for the seventh-consecutive day on Wednesday amid anger over economic reforms, to push for an end to corruption, better implementation of a crucial peace deal, and with many demanding the resignation of President Ivan Duque.
The protests were also a tribute to Dilan Cruz, an 18-year-old protester who died from brain damage on Sunday two days after a projectile fired by riot police hit his head. Many students and teachers attended Wednesday’s march holding posters with Cruz’s face.
“It could have been any of us,” said Benjamin Calderon, a 20-year-old medical student who was at the spot in Bogota’s city centre where Cruz was hit at the time of the incident. www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/protests-continue-7th-day-colombia-191127234000798.html
![Students demonstrate during a protest against the government policies outside the Costanera Center in Santiago [Claudio Reyes/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/11/27/740d9f6cd7004d98b4aeede1cb3e1215_18.jpg "Chile protests: The students 'woke us up'")
Chile protests: The students ‘woke us up’
Secondary students kicked off Chile’s movement for systemic change now in its sixth week.
For 28-year-old Cristina Paillal and many others from her generation in Chile, protesting has almost become the norm.
All Chileans under 30 years of age, including the vast majority of students, were born after the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990.
During Pinochet’s rule, state forces killed or forcibly disappeared thousands of Chileans and tens of thousands were tortured or imprisoned for political reasons. Students and youth dissidents were among the victims.
“The dictatorship lasted a long time. Talking about politics could get you killed. Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations lived with that fear,” Paillal, a Mapuche engineering student, said at a protest in Santiago, where tear gas lingered in the air.
“We are the new generation,” she said. www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/chile-protests-students-woke-191127175718386.html
Required reading for all nationalist protestors www.marxists.org/reference/archive/perlman-fredy/1984/nationalism.htm
The Little Red Schoolhouse
University of Louisville sues former president James Ramsey, aides over foundation spending, compensation
The University of Louisville sued its former president, James Ramsey, and a handful of other former top administrators on Wednesday for allegedly depleting the university’s endowment to fund excessive spending, including lavish compensation for themselves, while using “creative accounting” to conceal the activity.
The lawsuit filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court centers on Ramsey’s management of the nonprofit U of L Foundation, of which he was also president until he resigned both jobs under pressure in 2016.
“Millions of dollars of donations originally intended for the benefit of the University and its students instead were used to pay excessive compensation,” U of L Board of Trustees Chairman David Grissom said in a prepared statement. “Other funds were directed toward risky and inappropriate investments, and spending regularly exceeded the foundation’s own policy.” www.wdrb.com/news/university-of-louisville-sues-former-president-james-ramsey-aides-over/article_9480543c-c997-587a-be52-9e1783ca5a5d.html?fbclid=IwAR2-d38dl_j9mtkkm_USac8zAPS7BH9BKzqCfltAt0_JHoSTz09dVkuJKUM
Detroit’s Biggest Problem: The Children Can’t Read
88 percent of third graders are behind.
– Here’s something that may be the biggest problem in the way of Detroit ever making a truly successful comeback: No, it’s not crime, or urban blight, or even poverty.
It’s that the children in its schools cannot read.
Cannot read well enough, that is, to pass a state reading test given to all Michigan third-graders. Third grade is considered the most important by educators, because that’s the last year teachers concentrate on teaching them how to read.
After that, the kids are expected to “read to learn,” to use their reading skills to study and learn knowledge.
If they don’t read well enough to do that, they are essentially doomed to falling further and further behind.
Michigan as a whole, it should be noted, is not doing well in reading proficiency. Statewide, a majority — almost 55 percent – of Michigan third graders were less than adequate this year.
Ohio students aren’t doing great either, but reading scores are hard to exactly compare because state tests are different.
However, a study by the non-profit research and advocacy group Education Trust-Midwest found last year that third-grade literacy levels were getting worse in Michigan than in any of the other 10 states it examined. That’s possibly because state government has reduced aid to education and weakened teacher benefits, causing many talented teachers to leave the profession. lessenberryink.com/2019/11/30/detroits-biggest-problem-the-children-cant-read/?fbclid=IwAR3QfnhvffrQt64EnC8-TvWqXOio8GtCSHYHuSkclniVPVKUyR6PXA6obAs
Michigan desperate for Pre-K educators. And pays them poverty wages.
Cindy Lester calmly sat down on the child-sized couch with the 4-year-old who had been careening around her classroom all morning. He’d just flipped an empty soup bowl onto his head.
“You have a lot going on inside you today,” she said. “What’s going on? Are you tired?”
To a lot of teachers, a high-spirited boy like this one might seem like a problem — the sort of child who might spend preschool in timeouts, then graduate to the elementary school principal’s office. He might fall behind academically, his curiosity and creativity putting him at odds with classroom rules.
But Lester is determined to create a different future for this child and his classmates at Children of the Rising Sun Empowerment Center in Detroit. She devotes herself to that mission 10 hours a day, masterfully defusing tantrums, tying and re-tying shoelaces, and coaxing a roomful of 4-year-olds to sit relatively still for lessons in phonics and math.
Michigan leaders say the state desperately needs more skilled and committed teachers like Lester to prepare young students for the crucial transition to kindergarten. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has warned that if the state can’t recruit enough early educators, that could impede her plan to offer free preschool to all Michigan 4-year-olds by the end of her first term.
One big reason? Salaries for preschool teachers are extremely low. www.bridgemi.com/detroit/michigan-desperate-pre-k-educators-and-pays-them-poverty-wages?fbclid=IwAR27FIQ_GwRU-bibj_tSbId6W6qWhX44mVlPazZpnFuwNayKLSmuFyRO4sM
How unique Michigan schoolhouse with 6 students has survived 113 years
With few kids in the region, and down to a handful of students, a one-room schoolhouse in the U.P. is doing its best to survive.
ELM RIVER TOWNSHIP – The lunch lady knew what the kids were willing to eat that day because she was related to every single student in the school. All six of them.
I just base it off of what they like at home,” said 38-year-old Raquel Bramble, mother of three of the students, aunt to the three others. She wore a long apron and stood in the basement kitchen at Elm River Township School, where she was preparing a lunch of panko chicken, dressing, and mashed potatoes and gravy, all made from fresh ingredients. “I know what they like and what they don’t.”
Elm River Township encompasses 100 square miles and is home to 170 people and one elementary school educating a handful of kids. Here, there’s a single teacher; who’s also the administrator; oh, and he’s the bus driver, too. There’s also a business manager who handles the accounting, but she also teaches part-time. And when the lunch lady isn’t cooking homestyle meals, she’s in charge of recess, leading the kids to outdoor adventures beyond the playground. On this day, they’d be hiking to the woods to visit the beavers in the nearby pond. www.freep.com/in-depth/news/columnists/john-carlisle/2019/11/30/elm-river-township-school-michigan-u-p/2507119001/
Grief, Anger, Activism Follow AISD’s Move to Close Schools
Lingering questions over unreleased equity report fuel frustration
Grief, Anger, Activism Follow AISD’s Move to Close Schools
Lingering questions over unreleased equity report fuel frustration
As the dust begins to settle following a Nov. 18 vote by the board of trustees of the Austin Independent School District to close four elementary schools and implement a host of districtwide initiatives, community members are reacting with grief, anger, and – above all – a desire to prevent what they consider inequitable school closures from happening in the future.
Lingering questions over a report from district Equity Officer Stephanie Hawley are fueling the frustration from community members. Last week, before the board voted, a district spokesperson told the Chronicle that Hawley’s report, which looks at the impact of the school closures, was mostly complete, but undergoing edits and revisions from other district staff and could not be released until that work was completed. By Friday, Nov. 22, the report was still in draft form, and an estimated time of release remains unclear. www.austinchronicle.com/news/2019-11-29/grief-anger-activism-follow-aisds-move-to-close-schools/?fbclid=IwAR2U4D6dUxJ8-SPiqCtVpbgnSJVBITzLoAyr6hPrBBdiqfB_oupLc4PyRxg
The State Will Take Over Houston’s Independent School District
The school district in Houston, Texas, faces an unprecedented move. Texas officials announced a complete takeover of one of the largest school districts in America. They announced this even though the district came very close to earning an A grade in the latest state report card. So why take it over? Houston Public Media’s Laura Isensee has the story.
LAURA ISENSEE, BYLINE: This year, veteran educator Kerry Petty started a new job teaching digital media in Houston. But during his first week, he learned the state could take over the entire district, which has over 200,000 students.
KERRY PETTY: And I was like, whoa. I’m have – thinking a flashback of New Orleans and back home in Detroit, what happened in Detroit public schools.
ISENSEE: Petty has taught in New Orleans and Michigan and saw states intervene there. In Houston, this threat has loomed over the nation’s seventh-largest district for over two years, but it touches Petty’s school, Wheatley High, directly. So when class started, he heard even more about it.
PETTY: Well, the students have been up in a frenzy. They are just, are we opening? Are we closing? What’s going on? So they’re a little bit – some anxiety there. There’s – some teachers have some anxiety. www.npr.org/2019/11/22/781916123/houston-independent-school-district-to-be-taken-over-by-the-state
It could be someone in my class’: US university rocked by hate incidents
More than a dozen hate incidents at Syracuse University in upstate New York have created a climate of fear among students – and tough questions for the school’s leaders
It’s a university, it says, for those wanting a “quintessential college experience”, and which touts its “gorgeous campus” and 150 years of history.
But in recent weeks, Syracuse University in upstate New York – a five-hour train north of New York City – has been in the news for far less harmonious reasons: over a dozen hate incidents involving racist and antisemitic slurs have created a climate of fear for students and some faculty.
Nathena Murray, a sophomore, told the Guardian: “Just knowing that there’s people who have such hatred toward people who look like me … I have found myself having to look over my shoulder when I’m walking, be cautious with whom I’m sitting with.”
Student protests against the university’s administration for not taking the incidents seriously and hesitating over broad diversity efforts have culminated in calls for the resignation of the school’s chancellor, Kent Syverud.
Despite an investigation into the incidents by the school – which says it is doing all it can – and Syracuse police, the incidents have continued. The FBI has come in to help investigate. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/27/syracuse-university-racism-campus?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTExMjc%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email&fbclid=IwAR3IZW4jr1Bt9HD865rZtRY-RB_lRoPoOBEjTzQ26MGi08yrb__m4TkMSUc
UCSD told not to forget the needs of undergraduates as it builds mammoth research center
UCSD is about to break ground on its next mammoth complex, and the building’s namesake has taken the unusual step of publicly reminding the school not to neglect the interests of undergraduates as it puts together the $180 million research center.
“As UCSD has grown, I worry about the undergraduate experience,” said Franklin Antonio, co-founder of the San Diego-based chipmaker Qualcomm. “I see this sea of undergraduates and I can’t imagine that they all get the faculty access that I wish they would have.
“The interaction between the students and the faculty is the reason we have the university. If you didn’t need that, you could all just watch online courses.”
Antonio attended UCSD as an undergraduate, and donated $30 million toward construction of the 186,000-square-foot building. Chancellor Pradeep Khosla has assured him that his message won’t go unheeded. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-11-25/ucsd-breaks-ground-on-mammoth-engineering-building
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
36,000 veterans were asked if they’d recently considered suicide. A third of them said yes.
Dan Miller didn’t ask for help when he woke up shouting from nightmares about war. He didn’t ask for help after his 1991 deployment in Operation Desert Storm, or after two deployments to Iraq in 2004 and 2008.
He thought about the men he felt he couldn’t save. He thought about all the people he felt he couldn’t stop from killing other people.
It wasn’t until years later, after his work as an Oak Lawn police officer summoned grisly memories of death, and led him to sit in a car by a cornfield with a gun contemplating suicide that he decided to ask for help.
Mental health wasn’t discussed when he deployed to Desert Storm, he said. In Iraq, he didn’t want to be seen as weak. Upon his return to the U.S., he didn’t mention the flashbacks, nightmares or trauma from the deaths he had seen. He just wanted to get home and hold his children.
For years, he said, “I did what I thought was right, and I buried it.” www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-veterans-mental-health-anxiety-depression-ptsd-tt-1108-20191108-yqyr2ok6xnarthswlade3i3o44-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3y6fdmFXr74IIML7qt_Za5vJ0yYcDy9EdODZIYixo20Zg4RE39gL2N82M
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South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean ship
South Korea’s military fired warning shots Wednesday to repel a North Korean merchant ship after it violated their disputed western sea boundary, Seoul officials said, the second such incident in two months.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it believes the North Korean ship crossed the sea boundary due to bad weather and an engine problem. No further violence was reported.
It’s the second time that South Korea has fired warning shots to drive back a North Korean ship in the area since South Korea’s current liberal government took office in 2017. The first incident happened in September, according to South Korea’s military.
Ties between the two Koreas are strained amid a stalemate in U.S.-led diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis. www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/11/27/south-korea-fires-warning-shots-at-north-korean-ship/
Fired Navy leader highly critical of Trump in SEAL case
Richard Spencer, who was fired this week for his handling of a SEAL war crimes case championed by President Donald Trump, wrote Wednesday that the commander in chief “has very little understanding” of how the American military works.
The extraordinary accusation came in an opinion piece published on The Washington Post’s website Wednesday evening, three days after he was fired. Spencer called Trump’s intervention in the case of Navy Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher “shocking” and unprecedented.
Spencer was fired Sunday by Defense Secretary Mark Esper for working a private deal with the White House to ensure that Gallagher be allowed to retire without losing his SEAL status.
In his Post article, Spence acknowledged his mistake, but also asserted that Trump’s actions were detrimental to the military. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/11/28/fired-navy-leader-highly-critical-of-trump-in-seal-case/
After promising withdrawal, Trump says 8600 troops will remain in Afghanistan–and untold numbers of mercs, CIA, etc., etc.
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
by Huck
Online Sales Break Black Friday Record as Clicks Beat Queues
In pacified areas, people become instruments of their own oppression (RG)
Black Friday hit a record $7.4 billion in U.S. online sales as many shoppers spent the day clicking instead of lining up to buy.
It was the second biggest U.S. online sales day ever, behind 2018 Cyber Monday’s $7.9 billion, according to a survey of 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers from Adobe Analytics.
Shoppers increasingly favor buying online from the start of the holiday season, rather than waiting for Cyber Monday as they may have a few years ago. That’s in part as they transition to purchasing via mobile devices from using computers — often at the office after the holiday weekend.
Purchases made by smartphone on Friday accounted for $2.9 billion in sales, the most ever.
“With Christmas now rapidly approaching, consumers increasingly jumped on their phones rather than standing in line,” said Adobe analyst Taylor Schreiner. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-30/online-sales-break-black-friday-record-as-clicks-beat-queues?srnd=premium
Frontline: Flint’s Deadly Water (still)
Frontline: Fire in Paradise
Despite its tilt toward the Dems:
Deutsche Bank executive, 55, who signed off on controversial Donald Trump loans commits suicide in his Malibu home
A former Deutsche Bank executive who signed off on several controversial loans to Donald Trump killed himself in his Malibu home earlier this month.
Thomas Bowers, 55, hanged himself on November 19 at his beachside home. The banker was not working for Deutsche Bank at the time.
He is among a handful of people who signed off on loans totaling $2billion to Trump in the decades before he became president, even after other institutions turned him down. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7735543/Deutsche-bank-exec-signed-Trump-loans-commits-suicide-age-55.html
Adam Neumann’s $1.7 billion golden parachute could be slashed as SoftBank looks to trim its WeWork rescue deal
Adam Neumann’s $1.7 billion golden parachute could be slashed as SoftBank bosses seek to trim the $9.5 billion rescue deal they struck with WeWork last month, according to Bloomberg.
The WeWork cofounder and former CEO was set to sell up to $970 million worth of company stock to the Japanese conglomerate as part of a $3 billion tender offer, receive a $500 million credit line to cover his personal debts, and rake in $185 million in consultancy fees over four years.
Some SoftBank executives, however, have said his exit package is too generous, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the talks. markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wework-adam-neumann-1-7-billion-golden-parachute-softbank-costs-2019-11-1028710846
Wealth gap among retired Americans worsens despite a growing economy
The current record-high level of income inequality in the United States affects all segments of society, but two new reports shed light on how the trend is impacting older Americans.
The disturbing finding of both studies: inequality has reached shocking levels among today’s older adults – and the gap will be much wider for young people when they reach retirement age.
The U.S. economy has been growing for 10 straight years, and median incomes are rising. But income inequality is at a 50-year high, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau last month. A widely used measure of inequality – the Gini coefficient bit.ly/1mVicdp – shows the United States has the highest level of inequality among the largest industrial nations.
The two new research reports look at the gap in ownership of financial assets, and in the housing market. Both show that among retirement-age Americans, ownership of assets is rising among the wealthiest 20% of households, with everyone else treading water or losing ground. And the wealth gap is worsening among today’s younger generations, who will not reach retirement age for some time. www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller-retirement/wealth-gap-among-retired-americans-worsens-despite-a-growing-economy-idUSKBN1XA1BO
Suicides and overdoses among factors fueling drop in U.S. life expectancy
Feds: Mich. doctor ran $8M cream scam by ripping off UAW members
A Michigan doctor and two associates are facing years in prison after admitting to running an $8 million scam that involved stealing from UAW members’ insurance plans to bill for unnecessary scar creams, pain patches and vitamins.
The scheme worked, prosecutors said, by conning UAW members into thinking the prescriptions were free — meaning no co-pay at the pharmacy — when in reality the “free” medications were costing their health care fund millions of dollars.
The doctor and her cohorts admitted to all of this in separate plea hearings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday, noting the scheme bilked nearly $8 million from Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
According to prosecutors, the defendants targeted these insurance plans because of the high reimbursement rate paid by Medicare and BCBS for prescription pain cream, scar cream, pain patches and/or vitamins.
Here’s how they pulled it off: www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/11/27/uaw-scam/4320864002/
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
US votes against UN resolution condemning gay sex death penalty, joining Iraq and Saudi Arabia
The US is one of just 13 countries to have voted against a United Nations resolution condemning the death penalty for having gay sex.
Although the vote passed, America joined countries such as China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in opposing the move.
The Human Rights Council resolution condemned the “imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations”.
It attacked the use of execution against persons with “mental or intellectual disabilities, persons below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime, and pregnant women”. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-gay-sex-death-penalty-un-same-sex-relations-human-rights-council-saudi-arabia-iraq-nikki-haley-a7980981.html?fbclid=IwAR18sr200lONlEWiABaRRejYi6WICH0ZoYIxRoRc4s1R-7X0mAjl8eLnpQY
Clarence Thomas compares ‘modern-day liberal’ to a Klansman in new film
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has blasted Democrats, including former Senate Judiciary Committee and now-presidential candidate Joe Biden, over the sexual-misconduct allegations against the jurist during his 1991 confirmation hearings.
Thomas opens up about the process in a new documentary and claims the “biggest impediment” to his life and legal career was not the KKK but the “modern-day liberal.”
“I felt as though in my life I had been looking at the wrong people as the people who would be problematic toward me,” Thomas says in the film “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” according to ABC News.
“We were told that, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be the bigot in the pickup truck; it’s gonna be the Klansmen; it’s gonna be the rural sheriff.’ But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern-day liberal.” nypost.com/2019/11/28/clarence-thomas-compares-modern-day-liberal-to-a-klansman-in-new-film/?utm_source=maropost&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nypdaily&utm_content=20191129&tpcc=morning_report&mpweb=755-8425250-711682594
ICE arrests 90 more students at fake university in Michigan
About 90 additional foreign students of a fake university in metro Detroit created by the Department of Homeland Security have been arrested in recent months.
A total of about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend the school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies, according to ICE officials.
Many of those arrested have been deported to India while others are contesting their removals. One has been allowed to stay after being granted lawful permanent resident status by an immigration judge. www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/11/27/ice-arrested-250-foreign-students-fake-university-metro-detroit/4277686002/
Father’s Nazi Past Overtakes German Business Guru
Roland Berger, a prominent consultant, often spoke of his father as a moral inspiration and victim of the Gestapo. It turns out he was head bookkeeper for the Hitler Youth.
In his heyday, Roland Berger may have been the best-connected man in Germany. He advised chancellors and chief executives, founded one of Europe’s leading management consulting firms and rode Germany’s postwar rebound to become one of the country’s richest self-made men. Business magazines put him on the cover.
But in the twilight of his career, Mr. Berger’s image as ubiquitous boardroom consigliere and icon of the German economy is at risk. An exposé by the newspaper Handelsblatt asserts that he repeatedly misrepresented a key element of his personal history, portraying his father as a Nazi resister when in fact he was a high-ranking official.
The fallout from the Handelsblatt revelations has been devastating for the reputation of Mr. Berger, 82, and the foundation he endowed with 50 million euros, or $55 million, of his own money. The Roland Berger Foundation was forced last month to cancel a ceremony to bestow its annual Human Dignity Awards after two of the three recipients said they would no longer accept. The ceremony was to be held at the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Mr. Berger had often invoked his father, Georg Berger, as an inspiration for the award. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/roland-berger-father-nazi-past.html
Solidarity for Never
UAW, Fiat Chrysler reach tentative (SELLOUT) labor contract agreement–Bribes and theft on all sides of this RICO op.
The United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have reached a tentative labor contract agreement, the parties said Saturday.
The company has committed to an additional $4.5 billion in investments over the next four years on top of $4.5 billion announced earlier this year, which in total would add 7,900 jobs, according to the UAW. Fiat Chrysler’s national council will meet Wednesday to vote to send the deal for hourly production and skilled trades employees to the 37,200 UAW-FCA members. If it does, ratification votes will begin Friday.
“The pattern bargaining strategy has been a very effective approach for the UAW and its members to negotiate economic gains around salary, benefits and job security,” Cindy Estrada, UAW vice president, said in a statement. “Out of respect for our members, we will refrain from commenting any further or releasing full details of the agreement until the UAW-FCA Council leaders meet and review the details.” www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/chrysler/2019/11/30/uaw-fiat-chrysler-negotiate-tentative-labor-contract-agreement/4302952002/
Ex-UAW President Gary Jones resigns membership
Gary Jones, the former president of the United Auto Workers, has resigned his membership from the union, the UAW said Friday.
The resignation of his membership comes after Jones stepped down as president of the UAW in an unprecedented move last week. His resignation from the presidency came shortly after the union’s executive board filed charges under Article 30 of the UAW constitution against him in an effort to remove Jones, claiming he misused union funds on luxuries in California.
Dropping his UAW membership allows Jones to avoid a trial before UAW members next week, union spokesman Brian Rothenberg confirmed.
Some UAW members celebrated the news: “I say, ‘Good riddance,’” said John Barbosa, 49, of Clinton, a team leader at Fiat Chrysler’s Dundee Engine Plant. “I’m glad he’s resigned and not a part of the UAW anymore. What he did was an absolute disgrace. Because of his actions, he’s called into question the integrity of our organization.”
The action to oust Jones, 62, of Canton Township, came in the middle of a federal corruption investigation that has produced 10 convictions and charges against 13 people. Jones has not been charged, but he has been implicated as an unnamed UAW official in the federal probe. Jones went on paid leave Nov. 3 after The Detroit News identified Jones as “UAW Official A” who embezzled, split and pocketed $700,000 in member dues with a top aide, according to prosecutor www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/11/29/ex-uaw-president-gary-jones-resigns-membership/4331060002/
Corruption Inquiry Spreads to U.A.W. Lakeside Resort
A dozen union officials have been charged or convicted in a sprawling federal investigation.
The United Auto Workers union is based in Detroit, but its spiritual home lies 250 miles to the north, in a dense and remote forest on the shore of Black Lake.
Here, 40 miles from the nearest Starbucks, the U.A.W. owns a spartan retreat known to few people outside the auto industry, though it opened nearly 50 years ago. Covering 1,000 acres, the gated compound includes cabins, lodges, a banquet hall and a recreation center with an Olympic-size swimming pool. An eternal flame marks the hilltop resting place of the ashes of Walter Reuther, who built the U.A.W. into one of the most powerful unions in the country in the 1950s and 1960s.
This tranquil scene was disrupted in August when the F.B.I. raided the compound, seizing documents and records. The raid was the latest chapter in a yearslong Justice Department investigation into corruption at the union that has thrown the U.A.W. into turmoil and embroiled two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers — Fiat Chrysler and General Motors. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/business/uaw-resort-investigation.html
UAW director Vance Pearson latest to resign amid federal corruption probe
Another high-ranking United Auto Workers official has stepped down amid a federal investigation into corruption in the union.
UAW Region 5 Director Vance Pearson has resigned, according to a statement released by the union released Sunday. Pearson, 58, has been on paid leave since early October. He was charged in September with embezzlement of union funds, mail and wire fraud and money laundering.
“Pearson has informed the UAW that he was resigning as director of UAW Region 5, effective immediately, and retiring,” the statement said. “He is also resigning his UAW membership, effective immediately.”
The resignation marks the second high-ranking UAW official to step down amid a wide-ranging scandal involving the improper use of union funds. UAW President Gary Jones announced his resignation last week.
Pearson, Jones and former UAW President Dennis Williams are accused of embezzling more than $1 million in member dues that were spent on luxuries, including private villas, liquor, golf and cigars. Neither Jones nor Williams have been charged. www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/11/24/uaw-region-5-director-latest-resign-amid-federal-probe/4290399002/
FB member post: Anyone with knowledge here, could you explain why the recent FEA bus tour did not make much of an effort of a wider promotion of this rally? The visits seemed to be limited to district leaders and privileged members. The bus tour didn’t make much of a media event here in Miami-Dade. Why wouldn’t FEA take the opportunity of the bus tour to organize promotional rallies to inform teachers, students, parents, community members, etc. of the Tallahassee rally? Why push this after the fact?
And really, what was the point of the FEA bus tour?
Remember! EX-UNION BOSS PLEADS GUILTY TO MAIL FRAUD, TAX EVASION
Pat Tornillo, the embattled former leader of the United Teachers of Dade, the southeast’s largest union, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of mail fraud and one count of tax evasion for stealing more than half a million dollars in union funds.
The plea deal with the United States Attorney’s office will require Tornillo, 78, to serve two years in federal prison followed by two years probation and to pay $650,000 to the union in restitution. He also must pay $160,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and a $25,000 fine.
“Tornillo’s kingdom has fallen and now he will pay the price for his greed,” said Hector Pesquera, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami office. “His downfall is a cautionary tale of what happens when a person has too much power for too long. Tornillo spent money in ways teachers could only dream about.”
Since 1997, Tornillo, who has been head of the powerful, 28,000-member union for four decades, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in union dues to globe trot with his wife Donna to almost every corner of the world. Their travels included a $45,000 cruise in Indonesia, a $3,500 trip to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, a $3,000 vacation to Bangkok, Thailand, and a $14,300 shopping spree in St. Barths, where Tornillo also rented a beachfront vacation home with union money, court records show. www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2003-08-26-0308250472-story.html
Spy versus Spy
Suddenly, the Chinese Threat to Australia Seems Very Real
After a businessman said Chinese agents sought to implant him in Parliament, that revelation and other espionage cases have finally signaled the end of a “let’s get rich together” era.
A Chinese defector to Australia who detailed political interference by Beijing. A businessman found dead after telling the authorities about a Chinese plot to install him in Parliament. Suspicious men following critics of Beijing in major Australian cities.
For a country that just wants calm commerce with China — the propellant behind 28 years of steady growth — the revelations of the past week have delivered a jolt.
Fears of Chinese interference once seemed to hover indistinctly over Australia. Now, Beijing’s political ambitions, and the espionage operations that further them, suddenly feel local, concrete and ever-present.
“It’s become the inescapable issue,” said Hugh White, a former intelligence official who teaches strategic studies at the Australian National University. “We’ve underestimated how quickly China’s power has grown along with its ambition to use that power.” www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/world/australia/china-spying-wang-liqiang-nick-zhao.html
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen looks for boost from claims ‘Chinese spy’ helped her rival
- Opposition candidate Han Kuo-yu and his KMT party have tried to rebut allegations from Wang Liqiang that he worked to undermine island’s democracy and channelled funds from Beijing
- Wang is now seeking asylum in Australia and his claims have been seen as boost for the president and her independence-leaning DPP
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s re-election campaign has been given a fresh boost after a self-professed mainland Chinese spy claimed that he had worked on operations to infiltrate and disrupt the island’s democratic system.
However, the case has already become an explosive topic on the self-ruled island, with Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party using it to illustrate what they describe as a serious threat from Beijing.
While Tsai has not explicitly tied the claims to her campaign for the January 11 presidential vote, analysts believe the case is a godsend to the president, whose pledge earlier this year to prevent Beijing from swallowing up the island has acquired greater resonance with voters in recent months. www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3039468/taiwan-president-tsai-ing-wen-looks-boost-claims-chinese-spy
The Magical Mystery Tour
The pastor will only resurrect when enough $ is on him….
www.facebook.com/lawerence.vaughns/videos/10157559531148744/?t=27
Priests conduct exorcism against evil spirits of abortion
Catholic priests performed an exorcism outside the Hidalgo state legislature in Pachuca to protest an initiative to legalize abortion.
Accompanied by anti-abortion groups, the priests sprinkled “exorcized” salt in the legislative precinct and prayed to expel what they called “evil and impure spirits [and] all the powerful satanic influences.” They also blessed the area with holy water while a chain of men, women and children recited the rosary around the perimeter of the legislature.
An abortion initiative that was passed last week by legislative committees is expected to be voted on by the full legislature by the end of the year. mexiconewsdaily.com/news/priests-conduct-exorcism-against-evil-spirits-of-abortion/
West Virginia bishop calls for predecessor, accused of sex and financial misconduct, to pay $792,000 in restitution and to apologize
The announcement by Bishop Mark Brennan follows a statement in July by Pope Francis that Bransfield’s replacement should decide how the ousted leader “make personal amends.”
“I wish to make clear that it is not my intention to impoverish the former bishop,” wrote Brennan www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/11/26/west-virginia-bishop-calls-predecessor-accused-sex-financial-misconduct-pay-restitution-apologize/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Happy 80th Tina Turner: Greatest R & R record ever
Depraved Ruling Elites File: Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative ‘Hot List’
A shadowy hacker claimed to have the financier’s sex tapes. Two top lawyers wondered: What would the men in those videos pay to keep them secret?
The possibilities were tantalizing — and extended beyond vindicating victims. Mr. Pottinger saw a chance to supercharge his law practice. For Mr. Boies, there was a shot at redemption, after years of criticism for his work on behalf of Theranos and Harvey Weinstein.
In the end, there would be no damning videos, no funds pouring into a new foundation. Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger would go from toasting Kessler as their “whistle-blower” and “informant” to torching him as a “fraudster” and a “spy.”
Kessler was a liar, and he wouldn’t expose any sexual abuse. But he would reveal something else: The extraordinary, at times deceitful measures elite lawyers deployed in an effort to get evidence that could be used to win lucrative settlements — and keep misconduct hidden, allowing perpetrators to abuse again.
Mr. Boies has publicly decried such secret deals as “rich man’s justice,” a way that powerful men buy their way out of legal and reputational jeopardy. This is how it works. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/business/david-boies-pottinger-jeffrey-epstein-videos.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Epstein boasted to teen model that Bill Clinton was his ‘best friend’: suit
Multi-millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein boasted to a young girl he allegedly sexual abused in the early 2000s that he and former President Bill Clinton were “best friends,” according to a suit filed against his estate on Wednesday.
Epstein’s latest accuser — who is identified as “Mary Doe” in the federal suit — alleged that when she went to his Upper East Side townhouse at the age of 16 in 2004, he showed her a photo that he had of Clinton.
“Epstein told her that he and President Clinton were ‘best friends,’” the suit states.
The girl, who came to the US from an unidentified war-torn nation as a refugee years earlier, told the sex criminal that Clinton’s policies made it possible for her and her family to settle in the US.
“When Mary explained her family’s story, Epstein told her that he would personally thank ‘Bill’ on her and her family’s behalf,” the suit states.
The woman alleges in the suit that Epstein sexually abused her a number of times when she was teenage model working and living in New York City. nypost.com/2019/11/20/epstein-boasted-to-teen-model-that-bill-clinton-was-his-best-friend-suit/
The famous connections of Jeffrey Epstein, the elite wealth manager who died in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
A statement released in July by Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña said the former president traveled to Europe, Asia, and twice to Africa on Epstein’s private jet. Clinton’s staff and Secret Service agents also went on these trips, which were to further the work of the Clinton Foundation, according to the statement.
At the time, Clinton told New York Magazine through a spokesperson that Epstein was a “both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science.” www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-jeffery-epstein-money-manager-sexual-trafficking-connected-2019-7#prince-andrew-and-epstein-were-close-friends-the-guardian-reported-in-2015-5
Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell was a guest at a Jeff Bezos-hosted retreat in 2018, report says
www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/jeffrey-epstein-friend-ghislaine-maxwell-was-guest-at-jeff-bezos-event.html
Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past
Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison, managed to lure an astonishing array of rich, powerful and famous men into his orbit.
There were billionaires (Leslie Wexner and Leon Black), politicians (Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson), Nobel laureates (Murray Gell-Mann and Frank Wilczek) and even royals (Prince Andrew).
Few, though, compared in prestige and power to the world’s second-richest person, a brilliant and intensely private luminary: Bill Gates. And unlike many others, Mr. Gates started the relationship after Mr. Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
Mr. Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, whose $100 billion-plus fortune has endowed the world’s largest charitable organization, has done his best to minimize his connections to Mr. Epstein. “I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him,” he told The Wall Street Journal last month. www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html?fbclid=IwAR2n1gC-RBXowY_mvPDW7xEKSXuqmz3wcz9Ph7et6YvRG3BDCp7UQJIIxcs
Jeffrey Epstein’s Charity: An Image Boost Built on Deception
Losing tax-exempt status freed his foundation from disclosure requirements, allowing Mr. Epstein to exaggerate his giving — like in a wildly overstated Wikipedia entry.
Jeffrey Epstein’s foundation looked for all the world like a charitable powerhouse: On its websites and in its press releases, the foundation was described as a patron of hospitals, universities and film festivals, run by a global philanthropist.
The organization — known by various names, but usually called the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation — wasn’t officially a charity for much of its existence, having lost its tax-exempt status in 2008.
But it worked to his advantage, helping improve the reputation of Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
A review of tax documents, government records and information provided by federal officials shows that the foundation lost its tax-exempt status for an unknown reason in the same year Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/business/jeffrey-epstein-charity.html
A giant float at this German carnival didn’t hold back in mocking Trump’s Russia problem
The Powerful Perspective of “Queen & Slim”
Last month, five days after the former police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced in the fatal shooting of Botham Jean, an unarmed twenty-six-year-old black man, whom she shot in his home, and five days before Atatiana Jefferson, a twenty-eight-year-old black woman, was killed in her home by the police officer Aaron Dean, “Queen & Slim” began previews in a small theatre just off Bryant Park. The film is the product of the vision of two black women: Lena Waithe, who wrote it, and Melina Matsoukas, who directed it. (Waithe and James Frey, the shamed memoirist, collaborated on the story.) It means something that a movie that was conceived years ago could land so squarely in the midst of dual tempests involving firearms, police, and black people whose lives expired violently, prematurely, at the hands of white people who were sworn to protect them. The fact that both Jean and Jefferson were at home when they were killed underscores a central conceit of the film: that a system capable of dispensing such arbitrary deaths cannot be trusted in any context, least of all to administer justice on behalf of those whom it also victimizes.
The recognition of this fact changes the implications of the story that Waithe and Matsoukas tell with this film: about a couple on a first date who kill a police officer in self-defense, and their subsequent life as fugitives. www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-powerful-perspective-of-queen-and-slim
Female bodybuilder, 82, smacks intruder around till cops arrive (don’t miss the video within)
An intruder didn’t count on an 82-year-old woman living alone being an award-winning bodybuilder with nerves of steel.
Willie Murphy was getting ready for bed Thursday at her home in Rochester, New York, when a man pounded on the door and said he needed an ambulance, Murphy told WHAM.
She called police but wouldn’t open the door. Then, she said, the man broke in and skulked through the dark house.
“He picked the wrong house to break into,” Murphy said.
She clobbered him with a table, poured shampoo in his face and was beating him with a broom when police arrived.
“I was whaling on that man,” Murphy told the Democrat and Chronicle. “‘Cause I said to myself, ‘If it’s my time to go to hell, I’m taking him with me!’”
The man got his ambulance ride, after all. He was sent to a hospital, and police tweeted a selfie with Murphy, calling her “tough as nails.” www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/25/female-bodybuilder-intruder-table-broom/40707261/
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In The Final Minutes Of His Life, Calvin Has One Last Talk With Hobbes.
Converted this to text from an image I found on a humour website. Try not to cry after reading this.
“Calvin? Calvin, sweetheart?”
In the darkness Calvin heard the sound of Susie, his wife of fifty-three years. Calvin struggled to open his eyes. God, he was so tired and it took so much strength. Slowly, light replaced the darkness, and soon vision followed. At the foot of his bed stood his wife. Calvin wet his dry lips and spoke hoarsely, “Did… did you…. find him?”
“Yes dear,” Susie said smiling sadly, “He was in the attic. “
Susie reached into her big purse and brought out a soft, old, orange tiger doll. Calvin could not help but laugh. It had been so long. Too long.
“l washed him for you,” Susie said, her voice cracking a little as she laid the stuffed tiger next to her husband.
“Thank you, Susie.” Calvin said. A few moments passed as Calvin just laid on his hospital bed, his head turned to the side, staring at the old toy with nostalgia.
“Dear,” Calvin said finally. “Would you mind leaving me alone with Hobbes for a while? I would like to catch up with him.”
So Long
Clive James, a Tireless Polymath Who Led With His Wit
Clive James, who died on Sunday at 80, mined such a rich vein of wit in his writing — poems, memoirs, translations, novels, song lyrics, intellectual journalism and a deep body of criticism — that he was, to his admirers, almost endlessly quotable.
“A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing,” he wrote. “Those who lack humor are without judgment and should be trusted with nothing.”
He said of George W. Bush that he “should not be delivering a State of the Union address. He should be delivering pizza.” He compared Arnold Schwarzenegger’s torso to a “condom full of walnuts.” He made fun of his own looks, comparing himself to a bank robber who forgot to take the stocking off his head.
He told an editor, “Listen, if I wrote like that, I’d be you.” Reviewing a memoir by Leonid Brezhnev, he declared: “Here is a book so dull that a whirling dervish could read himself to sleep with it. If you were to recite even a single page in the open air, birds would fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead.” NYTIMES