We Say Fight Back!

Arizona Teachers Walk Out; Oklahoma May Follow Suit

Nine schools around Phoenix had to close as teachers staged a walkout wednesday. Meanwhile, Oklahoma teachers are considering a strike. San Diego is at Impasse.

PHOENIX, AZ – Nine elementary schools in Phoenix and surrounding communities were forced to close Wednesday as teachers staged a protest over low pay. More than 300 teachers in the Pendergrast Elementary School District staged a sick-out, affecting schools in Phoenix, Avondale, and Glendale.

The district said that the nine schools were forced to close for the day because there wouldn’t be enough teachers to supervise the students.

Arizona teachers have been increasing their activities to raise awareness to the fact that they are among the lowest paid teachers in the country. One teacher posted her pay stub online last week to drive the point home.

“No one goes into teaching for the money,” wrote Elizabeth Milich. “But we do need to eat and have a home!”

The Arizona protests – dubbed the “RedforEd” campaign as protesters are urged to wear red – are part of a growing movement around the country. It started last month in West Virginia where teachers went on strike for eight days.  patch.com/arizona/phoenix/arizona-teachers-walk-out-other-states-may-follow

UBC’s Faculty Association is corrupt and must change, say professors

DEFEND THE WATER | MARCH 23rd

On March 23rd, people across the country will take action to Defend the Water and stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Partout à travers le Canada, nous allons défendre l’eau en solidarité avec la résistance contre Kinder Morgan.

The Little Red Schoolhouse

“Some brain workers are worse off than the worst hand workers. Who are these declasses, if not the pariahs of the intellectual world? They are insulted only because they are poor. ..Thousands of fine minds are perishing in the dregs of misery.They are the horror and terror of capital. Capital’s hate is clear-sighted. These declasses, the invisible weapon of progress, are today the secret ferment which makes the mass heave and prevents it falling lifeless and dying away. Tomorrow they will be the reserve of the revolution.” (Blanqui in Postgate, ‘Out of the Past’ p43)

Computers are now grading essays on Ohio’s state tests

Starting with the next academic year, students in a Colorado school districtwill attend classes for four days each week instead of five.

For the past few months, the 27J school district — which covers portions of the Denver suburbs, including Brighton, Commerce City, Henderson and Thornton in addition to unincorporated areas of Adams, Broomfield and Weld counties — has been exploring and discussing the idea of a shorter week and on Monday, the district made it official…

To address concerns from parents about child care on Mondays, the district will offer child care from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a fee of $30 per child per day.

District officials said the change is due in part to the district’s difficulty competing with other districts in terms of recruiting and retaining teachers, who often leave for other districts that pay better. Officials hope a shorter work week will encourage more teachers to stay put.

“I realize this will be a significant change for our students, their families, and the communities we are so fortunate to serve, but our district can no longer be expected to do more with less financial resources,” said 27J Superintendent Dr. Chris Fiedler. “We are 100% committed to providing our students with the necessary skills and competencies that will enable a future far beyond graduation.www.wxyz.com/news/national/denver-area-school-district-moving-to-four-day-school-week-in-the-fall?partner=scripps&partner-sub=WXYZ&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=scripps&utm_content=WXYZ

New York City Is Failing Homeless Students

City workers assigned to help homeless students are desperately overwhelmed, leaving many of those children, among the most vulnerable in the public school system, to miss enormous amounts of school and fall far behind their classmates, two reports say.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has been scrambling for years to stanch the cascade of families falling into homelessness, a wave that has become a crisis for the city, his administration and, most of all, the tens of thousands of people with no place to live. The two reports, scheduled to be released on Thursday, highlight how far the city has to go in addressing their needs.

One is an audit by Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, which examines how the education department deals with the most basic building block of a child’s education: making sure they come to school in the first place.

“I do a lot of audits, but this one cuts at the heart,” Mr. Stringer said. “In violation of the Department of Education’s regulations, I can say they’re doing almost nothing to follow up with the parents when homeless students are absent. Days go by, students are absent, and there’s no word from D.O.E.”

After rising steadily for about five years, the number of homeless students in New York City public schools jumped up in the 2015-16 school year to the somber threshold of 100,000 students. Then it took another leap: More than 111,500 students were homeless at some point during the 2016-17 school year.  www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/nyregion/homeless-students-new-york-city-absent.html

Michigan teacher fired for discussing domestic abuse donates lawsuit settlement to Lake County violence prevention group

A fifth-grade teacher who won a lawsuit against a Michigan school donated her $30,000 settlement to A Safe Place, Lake County’s nonprofit domestic violence prevention and treatment organization.

Teacher Mika Yamamoto was fired in December 2016 for discussing her domestic abuse survivor story at an assembly at Renaissance Public School Academy in Michigan, where she worked, according to a news release.

Yamamoto sued the charter school after her speech prompted students to confide in her their experiences, and then was discouraged by school administration from reporting that information to Children’s Protective Services, according to the release.

“They said that the community we were in was not ready for me. I was being discriminated against. They were violating my First Amendment rights. If teachers are afraid to advocate for student safety, or are fired for discussing oppression, what happens to our society?” Yamamoto said, according to the release.  www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-lns-safe-place-donation-st-0316-20180315-story.html

A University of Wisconsin campus pushes plan to drop 13 majors — including English, history and philosophy

The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has proposed dropping 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences — including English, philosophy, history, sociology and Spanish — while adding programs with “clear career pathways” as a way to address declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.

Students and faculty members have reacted with surprise and concern to the news, which is being portrayed by the school’s administration as a path to regain enrollment and provide new opportunities to students. Critics see something else: a waning commitment to liberal arts education and a chance to lay off faculty under new rules that weakened tenure.

Students are planning a sit-in at the campus administration building on Wednesday in a demonstration called Save Our Majors.  Washington Post 3/21

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

15 Years. More Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible.

The War in Iraq’s latest anniversary passed in all-American silence.

The most tragic and infuriating piece of writing of the week came in Tuesday’s New York Times. It carried a very plain and simple headline.

“Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country”

My short visit only confirmed my conviction and fear that the invasion would spell disaster for Iraqis. Removing Saddam was just a byproduct of another objective: dismantling the Iraqi state and its institutions. That state was replaced with a dysfunctional and corrupt semi-state. We were still filming in Baghdad when L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, announced the formation of the so-called Governing Council in July 2003. The names of its members were each followed by their sect and ethnicity. Many of the Iraqis we spoke to on that day were upset with institutionalization of an ethno-sectarian quota system. Ethnic and sectarian tensions already existed, but their translation into political currency was toxic. Those unsavry characters on the governing council, most of whom were allies of the United States from the preceding decade, went on to loot the country, making it one of the most corrupt in the world.

Except for Sinan Antoon’s richly deserved jeremiad, the 15th anniversary of the worst foreign policy disaster in modern American history went sailing by largely unremarked, at least in this country. After all, over here, everyone was too busy keeping track of the latest news involving the vulgar talking yam the country had installed as president, how he was still truckling to Russian oligarchs, how he was still being run to ground by Bob Mueller, and about how he was being outwitted and out-lawyered by a lady from the adult entertainment industry.

But, overseas, particularly in that part of the world where ruined Iraq has been turned into little more than an occupied battlefield, the people living there marked the anniversary the same way they’ve marked every day since George W. Bush launched his war based on lies. They were trying to stay alive.  www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19547603/iraq-15-years-george-bush/?src=socialflowFBESQ

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq

Plans to exploit Iraq’s oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world’s largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.

The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain’s involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair’s cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The minutes of a series of meetings between ministers and senior oil executives are at odds with the public denials of self-interest from oil companies and Western governments at the time.

The documents were not offered as evidence in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war. In March 2003, just before Britain went to war, Shell denounced reports that it had held talks with Downing Street about Iraqi oil as “highly inaccurate”. BP denied that it had any “strategic interest” in Iraq, while Tony Blair described “the oil conspiracy theory” as “the most absurd”.

But documents from October and November the previous year paint a very different picture.

Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the Trade Minister, told BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq’s enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Tony Blair’s military commitment to US plans for regime change.

The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP’s behalf because the oil giant feared it was being “locked out” of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.   www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-between-oil-firms-and-invasion-of-iraq-2269610.html

Reminder: THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE WHITE HOUSE; BUSH ORDERS START OF WAR ON IRAQ; MISSILES APPARENTLY MISS HUSSEIN

By

John Bolton

Feb. 28, 2018 6:59 p.m. ETS

 

The Winter Olympics’ closing ceremonies also concluded North Korea’s propaganda effort to divert attention from its nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs. And although President Trump announced more economic sanctions against Pyongyang last week, he also bluntly presaged “Phase Two” of U.S. action against the Kim regime, which may be a “very rough thing.”

www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/1976925499005597/

A Glimpse of a Crown Prince’s Dream? Saudi Arabia Invades Iran in CGI

Seated in an animated command and control room in Riyadh, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia directs an invasion of Iran. In scene after he scene, he orders a succession of superior weapons systems to pulverize the enemy. Finally, his forces corner the trembling figure of Qassem Suleimani, the revered commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and the people of Tehran acclaim their Saudi liberator.

The animation, which first appeared on the internet in December and has been viewed more than 1.2 million times, offers a vivid portrait of Saudi Arabia’s increasingly aggressive stance toward its regional rival since the assent to power of the 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — M.B.S., for short — the king’s favorite son and chief adviser.  www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-iran-invasion-video.html

Majority of $1.3 Trillion US Omnibus Spending Bill Goes to Military

Hundreds of billions in new ships, planes ‘not enough,’ say House committee chair

 The last minute signing of the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in the US is a big windfall for the Pentagon, who will be getting the majority of the money, in the realm of $700 billion. This includes 14 new ships, 28 new helicopters, and 56 of the costly F-35 warplanes. This $700 billion does not include other military-related spending, including the VA.

This is part of a $61 billion spending increase over the previous year, and virtually every aspect of the Pentagon is getting more money, more equipment, higher pay, and just general boosts in funding. Which isn’t to say everyone’s happy.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), the House Armed Services Committee chairman, complained that the massive increase is “not enough to fix our problems. Though the military budget is tentatively to swell to $716 next year, policy-makers seem to be setting the stage for another multi-month round of outdoing one another on increases.

The funding covers an active put military of 1,322,500 people, with 816,900 reservists, and offers a long list of new vehicles and gear for them. $65.2 billion is also set aside for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), the budget that nominally is for war, but which in practice the Pentagon can readily shift around to different priorities.  news.antiwar.com/2018/03/23/majority-of-1-3-trillion-us-omnibus-spending-bill-goes-to-military/

Below: oil fields in Niger

Soldier in Bloody Niger Mission Had Warned of Gaps, Defense Officials Say

The leader of an ill-fated team of American soldiers in Niger last fall warned before the mission that his troops did not have the equipment or intelligence necessary to carry out a kill-or-capture raid against a local militant, according to preliminary findings of a continuing Defense Department investigation.

In a departure from normal lines of authority, the report concludes, the Oct. 4 mission was not approved by senior military officials up the chain of command in West Africa and Germany. Instead, it was ordered by a junior officer, according to two Defense Department officials. Four American soldiers and five Nigeriens were killed when the unit was ambushed.

The two officials said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, are troubled that low-level officers are being blamed for the botched mission instead of senior commanders who should be aware when American troops are undertaking a high-risk raid.

The mission began as a routine patrol before Operational Detachment-Alpha Team 3212 was redirected to the operation against the militant, Doundoun Cheffou, who has been linked to the Islamic State.

The orders to the unit normally would have been issued by senior military officers up the chain of command — from Niger to Chad to Stuttgart, Germany, where United States Africa Command is based.  www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/world/africa/niger-ambush-defense-department-report.html

China Prepares: Volunteers for the War? PLA Marine Corps conducts massive groundbreaking maneuvers

By Guo Yuandan Source:Global Times Published: 2018/3/15 23:08:40

10,000 troops travel cross-country via air, water, rail & motor transport

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In the largest exercise of its kind, more than 10,000 troops traveled more than 2,000 kilometers to arrive on Monday at two army training bases in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province and East China’s Shandong Province and begin battle training, China Central Television show Military Report reported.

The largest ever trans-regional training of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Marine Corps combined diverse modes of transport including air, water, railway and motor, the report said.

The process of multi-dimensional delivery of troops and long-distance arrival was accompanied by battle exercises.

The marine officers and soldiers will next carry out training in subtropical mountainous jungle areas in more than 30 specialties including combat, attack and defense, hiding and searching.

This massive military maneuvers proved the marine corps is striving to improve combat capability, according to a military expert who asked to remain anonymous. www.globaltimes.cn/content/1093617.shtml

German newspaper publishes names of 33,000 refugees who died trying to reach Europe

A German newspaper has published the names of 33,293 refugees and migrants who died trying to reach Europe.

Der Tagesspiegel listed victims’ names, ages and countries of origin, as well as causes and dates of death, over 46 pages.

One entry is a 15-year-old boy who drowned on 15 November 2016 when a rubber dinghy he was on with 23 others sank while trying to travel from Libya to Europe.  Another tells of Iraqi migrant Talat Abdulhamid, 36, who froze to death on 6 January after walking for 48 hours through the mountains on the Turkish-Bulgarian border.  www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/german-newspaper-refugees-migrants-names-published-died-europe-try-reach-33000-people-a8047756.html

Israel Acknowledges Having Bombed A Suspected Syrian Nuclear Reactor In 2007

After more than a decade of silence, the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike destroyed a suspected nuclear reactor under construction in Syria in 2007.

It was in the dark, early hours of Sept. 6, near Deir ez-Zor, that “four F-16 jets eliminated a nuclear threat not only to Israel, but to the entire region,” the IDF said in a statement.

“For two years, officials in the Military Intelligence Directorate had been monitoring the Syrian nuclear project,” the Israeli military continued. “Their intelligence suggested that the facility would become active toward the end of 2007, which prompted the IDF to initiate an attack on the facility.”

The IDF also released video of what it says was the airstrike that leveled the building.

www.facebook.com/idfonline/videos/1815493145140214/

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Detroit is officially the unhappiest city in America

Despite Detroit’s never-ending “Comeback City” narrative, it seems we can’t quite escape the doldrums of depression.

This morning, WalletHub released a list of the 182 happiest cities in the United States and of the 182 American cities researched, Detroit came in dead last. We are officially the unhappiest city in the country.

The study was conducted in an effort to show the impact of your surroundings on your happiness combined with other factors such as health, social connections, and job satisfaction.

The list of cities includes the U.S.’s 150 most-populated cities, plus at least two of the most-populated cities in each state, giving us a grand total of 182 cities. The cities were then scored out of 100 using 28 metrics including depression rates, adequate sleep rates, and illness and disability.

The metrics were broken into three categories: emotional and physical well-being, accounting for 75 points; income and employment, 25 points; and community and environment, 25 points. The cities were scored a total of 100 points based on these three categories.

And of the 182 cities, Detroit came in 182nd place for emotional and physical well-being; 181st place for income and employment; and 174th place for community and environment. With 28.65 as our total score, a whopping 9.16 points below Birmingham, who ranked 181.

Oh, don’t worry, it gets worse.

The city also ranked 173rd for lowest adequate sleep rates, 180th lowest income growth, and 182nd highest separation and divorce rates.  www.metrotimes.com/catch-all/archives/2018/03/12/detroit-is-officially-the-unhappiest-city-in-america

5 people shot in Detroit same day as March for our Lives rally–Remember Hope and Change?

On the same day that thousands took to the streets of Detroit to demand tighter gun control, five people in the city were shot.

Police were called to investigate four separate shooting incidents in the city on Saturday, which resulted in four victims being injured and one killed. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/03/26/detroit-shootings-march-our-lives/458293002/

Asian Stocks Tumble as Sell-Off Over Trade Fears Continues

HONG KONG — A brewing trade war between China and the United States sent markets reeling across Asia on Friday, following a sell-off on Wall Street overnight.

Investors drove stocks into red territory from Shanghai and Hong Kong to Tokyo and Seoul as they digested news that the Trump administration would impose stiff tariffs on Chinese goods. Markets fell further as Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs on more than 100 items, including American pork and wine.

By the close of trading on Friday, shares had fallen 3.4 percent in Shanghai and 4 percent in Shenzhen. In Tokyo, major exporters like Toyota and Sony helped to lead a 4.5 percent drop in the market. South Korean stocks fell 3.1 percent.

“This can turn ugly on a global scale very quickly,” Robert Carnell, chief economist for the Dutch financial services group ING Asia, wrote in a note to clients.

Europe looked poised for a similar sell-off, with futures flashing red for major markets.

Markets were following the lead of stocks in the United States, which fell for a second straight day on Thursday, as President Trump announced $60 billion worth of annual tariffs on Chinese imports. www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/dow-sp-trade.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

It’s with a heavy heart that I’m stepping down as CEO (NYer)

Pharma Billionaire Arrested On Charges of Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Opioid Painkillers

The same day President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency, the federal government said it arrested a wealthy pharmaceutical company executive on charges of bribing doctors to needlessly prescribe his firm’s opioid painkiller.

The Department of Justice arrested Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor, 74, in Phoenix, it said Thursday. Kapoor was charged with using bribes and fraud to prop up sales of a pain medication called Subsys, a fentanyl spray typically used to treat cancer patients suffering excruciating pain.

Kapoor’s arrest comes nearly a year after former Insys CEO Michael Babich and five other onetime executives were arrested as part of an alleged “nationwide conspiracy.”

The Justice Department claims that Kapoor and other Insys executives offered bribes in the form of kickbacks to doctors who wrote “large numbers of prescriptions” for patients, many of whom did not have cancer. The Department also alleged that the executives defrauded insurers by forming a “reimbursement unit” dedicated to obtaining prior authorization from insurers who were reluctant to pay for the drug.

“These Insys executives allegedly fueled the opioid epidemic by paying doctors to needlessly prescribe an extremely dangerous and addictive form of fentanyl,”  fortune.com/2017/10/26/john-kapoor-insys-therapeutics-arrested-net-worth/

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

Beyond Gun Control, Hysterical Student Marchers Aim to Upend Elections (right back into that old black hole) Give us More Surveillance!

“It’s going to look like millions and millions of people,” said Ms. Schneid, 16, who is the editor of the newspaper at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. “And it’s going to look scary to politicians.”

With more than 800 student-led demonstrations planned in the United States and internationally, the organizers of the March for Our Lives are aiming for a generational show of strength by a diverse movement united in a conviction that adults have failed them.

Still, for all their fierce energy, these liberal-leaning activists have yet to be tested in the arena of electoral politics. They face a political system that is historically resistant to major change, and a Republican president and Congress with a strong base of support among much older voters, many of whom have more conservative views on guns.  www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/us/politics/march-for-our-lives-gun-control.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Direct quotes from the NYTimes full page ad on Sunday, 3/11/18

March For Our Lives
March 24, 2018

First of all, thank you….

Than you to Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and L. L. Bean. Thank you to Delta, and United Airlines, Thank you to Enterprise Holdings, Hertz, and Avis Budget. Thank you TrueCar. Thank you Kroger. Thank you to Black Rock, First National Bank of Oklahoma, and Symantec. Thank you REI. Thank you to Lockton, MetLife, Paramount RX, SimpliSafe, and Stanley. Thank you to Lyft, bumble, Aetna, and Gucci….

…We…have raised just over $3 million..but it turns out marches are really expensive…

(Signed high school students)

The students of Stoneman Douglas have been the beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America. (That would be segregated and fairly wealth)

Despite the gradual erosion of the arts and physical education in America’s public schools, the students of Stoneman Douglas have been the beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America and that is being dismantled with great deliberation as funding for things like the arts, civics, and enrichment are zeroed out. In no small part because the school is more affluent than its counterparts across the country (fewer than 23 percent of its students received free or reduced-price lunches in 2015–16, compared to about 64 percent across Broward County Public Schools) these kids have managed to score the kind of extracurricular education we’ve been eviscerating for decades in the United States. These kids aren’t prodigiously gifted. They’ve just had the gift of the kind of education we no longer value. slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/the-student-activists-of-marjory-stoneman-douglas-high-demonstrate-the-power-of-a-full-education.html

Imperialist Violence Worthy of Massive Opposition

This fear of guns is just another manifestation of the many hysterical conversion crises going on in the US (see for example, the book ,”Fantasyland”). The students, last week, took out a full page ad in the NYTimes. It proudly said that they are supported by corporations like Walmart, Hertz, Avis, Dicks Sporting Goods, and many other corporations. They have raised $3 million dollars so far but they want more because “demonstrations are expensive.” There are more guns in the US than there are people. Nobody is going to be able to round them up without an even more invasive form of fascism. Most opposition to responsible gun ownership (I own none) comes from people who know nearly nothing about guns. Moreover, if these hysterics, students, Dems and others, want to oppose gun violence, let them oppose endless imperialist warfare–the promise of which is quite real. The only class consciousness about this operation is its complete absence. I teach in a solidly working class school with plenty of vets in the classroom. There isn’t any interest in this bogus “movement” in any of my classes. (RG)

Joined by former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Pfleger and students from the three schools marched to Renaissance Park in solidarity with the more than 3,000 schools across the country taking part in the mass protest.

“I think you are going to look back at this and say ‘I was a part of history, I was a part of making our country better and safer for myself, my family and other kids,'” Duncan told the students. abc7chicago.com/politics/students-across-chicago-area-walk-out-of-class-wednesday-to-protest-gun-violence/3214390/

March 25th, 1894, the first march on Washington meant something:

Maryland school officer stops (shoots) armed student who shot 2 others

Amid mass protests, Sacramento police release video (within) of fatal shooting of unarmed man

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter spent most of the first 15 minutes of her appearance Wednesday at the University of Colorado deriding immigrants as ugly rapists who depress wages and “block vote” for Democrats.

“I’m totally a ‘looksist,’ ” Coulter said, and claimed she could determine who should be allowed in the United States solely by physical appearance. “I told Donald Trump when he was running that he could completely get rid of (Immigration and Naturalization Services) and I’d do it all before breakfast on Tinder,” she said.

The talk was put on by the conservative Turning Point USA as a “free speech” event.

The auditorium on the Boulder campus had filled to almost capacity ahead of Coulter’s appearance, which started about 40 minutes late, but about 100 people stood up and walked out en masse after about 15 minutes.

A man who sat on an aisle and chuckled at Coulter’s jokes about Muslims and immigrants chastised the people as they filed out past him. “You were taking seats away from people who wanted to be here,” the man said.  www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/22/ann-coulter-attacks-immigrants-muslims-prompts-walkout-of-cu-boulder-speech/

Solidarity for Never

Supplicants! Opportunists! Dilettantes!! Party on! You have nothing to lose but integrity.

Freire was a devout Catholic. Ridiculous.

He was always complaining about being in exile. Put me in exile in Switzerland with a plum job with the World Council of Churches and you won’t hear a peep.

He was a revolutionary wherever he wasn’t and liberal wherever he was. When he returned to Brazil, he went to work for the hack Lula and complained about the school buildings, not the core of instruction.

He was a plagiarist. See the “Texts of Paulo Freire.” He stole a lot of his material from Dom Halder Camera, a Brazilian trying to defeat communists with liberation theology.

He built an opportunist little publishing cult around himself, then insisted, too much, on his own humility.

He sought to mix Che, Lenin, Mao, and others–add postmodernism, uncritically. Stupid.

His last wife is/was a gutter racist.

Nobody can fully explain how he goes from Brazil to Chile to Harvard.

Critical consciousness is not class consciousness. That is a dodge–part of the Freire hustle.

He claimed to “invent” a teaching method that probably predated Socrates.

He is a dead end. richgibson.com/rouge_forum/CSSE2008/GibsonCSSE2008.htm

Analysis: The National Education Association — a $1.6 Billion Enterprise With a Red-Ink Problem

The National Education Association is a big business, with market advantages that are the envy of other big businesses. It has a jurisdictional agreement with its only potential rival, the American Federation of Teachers, which keeps competition for members at a bare minimum. It is exempt from antitrust laws, and in 22 states it can compel payments from customers who never asked for its services.

Oh, and almost all of its income is tax-exempt.

That tax exemption does come with obligations, one of which is to file an annual financial disclosure report with the Internal Revenue Service detailing its income and expenditures. According to those filings, NEA and its state affiliates collected a combined $1.6 billion in revenue during the 2015–16 school year, an $8.4 million increase over the previous year.

More money would normally be good news for the union, but it comes with more problems. As revenues have increased, NEA and its affiliates have promised its own employees more and better benefits. Now those future obligations are devouring an increasingly larger share of their current revenue.

If NEA and all of its state affiliates were to sell off everything they own — every investment, building, and paper clip — they would be more than $128 million short of what they need to cover what they owe, primarily to their current and retired employees’ pension and health care systems.

NEA and its affiliates are cumulatively in what accountants call balance-sheet insolvency. In consumer terms, it’s as if your mortgage and credit card debts are larger than your net worth, but you can still make your monthly payments because you haven’t lost your job.

NEA national headquarters and many individual state affiliates are still in strong financial shape. The national HQ has almost $300 million in net assets. The California Teachers Association has almost $191 million.

But 12 state affiliates are accumulating liabilities at an astounding pace. While unwise, this could continue almost indefinitely as long as there is assured and growing income from teacher dues each year. The problem is the specter of falling membership in the wake of an adverse ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which would free teachers and staff of the obligation to pay dues or fees to their unions. www.the74million.org/article/analysis-the-national-education-association-a-1-6-billion-enterprise-with-a-red-ink-problem/

UAW official blew $6,900 at steakhouse with FCA workers’ money

As promised, the federal government has charged another top union official in the growing Fiat Chrysler-UAW scandal — this one accused of pampering herself and associates with $6,900 steak dinners and first-class airline tickets with money that was meant for autoworkers.

But the feds’ torpedoing doesn’t end there as two more high-ranking union officials have been implicated in the multimillion-dollar scandal involving collusion between auto executives and UAW officials.

The latest defendant charged in the case is Nancy Johnson, the onetime second most senior official in the UAW Chrysler Department who is accused of buying — among other things —   $1,200 luggage, $1,160 Christian Louboutin shoes and $6,900 in spa treatments with the help of Fiat Chrysler executives.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Johnson, 57,  is among several UAW officials who unlawfully accepted perks from FCA executives, who, according to prosecutors, were on a mission to keep union leaders “fat, dumb and happy.” They did this by funneling $4.5 million from a training fund to themselves and union officials, who are accused of spending the money on perks galore, everything from golf resort fees and limo services to jewelry and a shotgun.

• In September 2015, Johnson spent $6,912 for a dinner at the London Chop House in Detroit with  funds that came out of the National Training Center, which was supposed to train autoworkers and was funded by Fiat Chrysler.
• In January 2015, Johnson spent $4,587 for a meal at LG’s Prime Steak House in Palm Springs, Calif. The meal was paid for by training center funds.
• The same month, Johnson spent more than $1,800 at Indian Canyons Golf Resort in Palm Springs. The golf fees and other purchases were paid for by the NTC funds.
• The same month, Johnson spent $1,652 at Cardiff Limousine in Palm Springs for a round trip to San Diego. The money came from the training center.
• The same month, Johnson spent more than $1,800 on a shopping spree in Palm Springs where she bought designer clothing and jewelry with training center funds.
• In January and February 2015, Johnson spent $6,900 at the Renaissance Resort & Spa in  Palm Springs. The spa fees were paid for by training center funds.
• In December 2014, Johnson spent $1,914 on a first-class plane ticket for herself to travel to Palm Springs, and another $2,382 for another first-class ticket for her associate. Both plane tickets were paid for with training center money.
• In December 2014, Johnson flew to California again, that time spending $2,382 on a first-class ticket to Los Angeles from Detroit. The plane ticket was paid for with training center money.
• In February 2015, Johnson spent $1,217 at a spa in Pasadena, Calif., using training center funds.
• In March 2015, Johnson spent $1,160 at Neiman Marcus online for a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes using training center funds.
• In April 2015, Johnson spent more than $1,700 for a set of graphite women’s golf clubs and a Diva cart bag purchased from Amazon.com using training center funds.
• In May 2015, Johnson spent more than $1,000 at Divalicious and other retail stores in Orlando, and Clinton Township. She bought clothing, accessories and home furnishings with training center funds.  www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/03/21/uaw-fiat-nancy-johnson-steak/445511002/

Michigan teacher’s union loses appeal on case involving when members can quit

A Michigan Supreme Court decision Friday closes out a case that challenged the Michigan Education Association’s decades-long practice of only allowing members to withdraw from the union during the month of August.

The state high court denied a request for appeals of lower court rulings that said the union — which represents about 130,000 teachers and other school employees — was violating right-to-work rules enacted in 2012.

Those rules make it illegal to require dues payment to a union as a condition of employment.

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruled against the union in August 2015 and the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in 2017.

Doug Pratt, spokesman for the MEA, said the union has been complying with the commission ruling since it was issued. But the union continued to appeal because officials don’t believe right-to-work affects business practices and membership procedures.

“We disagreed with the (ruling) so we appealed it. In the end, we’re abiding with the ruling,” Pratt said.  www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/03/23/michigan-teachers-union-appeal-members-quit/454552002/

Spy versus Spy

Caveat Emptor: MSNBC and CNN Use CIA Apologists for False Commentary

MSNBC prides itself for progressive reporting on national security issues but continues to use apologists for the Central Intelligence Agency in reporting on key intelligence issues. The network’s reliance on former deputy director of the CIA John McLaughlin is an excellent example of the skewed and tailored information that it offers to viewers on matters dealing with CIA. McLaughlin, a former colleague of mine at the CIA who I remember as an amateur magician, regularly pulls the wool over the eyes of such MSNBC veterans as Andrea Mitchell.

The most recent example took place over the past several days, when McLaughlin made the case for confirmation of Gina Haspel as the first woman to become director of the CIA. McLaughlin and former CIA directors Leon Panetta and John Brennan referred to Haspel as a “seasoned veteran” who had the support of senior CIA leaders. Perhaps MSNBC should acknowledge the fact that Deputy Director McLaughlin was Haspel’s boss during this terrible period in American history.

Haspel arrived at the CIA in the late 1980s as I was preparing my resignation, but I know from former colleagues that she is also known as “bloody Gina” for her role as a clandestine operative who was a cheerleader for torture and abuse. Her role as a commander of a secret prison in Thailand where waterboarding was practiced and her support for destroying the 92 secret tapes that revealed the sadistic practices of the CIA are well known. These practices went far beyond the practices that were sanctioned in the unconscionable memoranda from the Department of Justice on the euphemistically labeled “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.”

McLaughlin’s role at the CIA is less well known. Although CIA director George Tenet is infamous for telling President George W. Bush in December 2002 that it would be a “slam dunk” to provide intelligence to take to the American people to support the invasion of Iraq, it was McLaughlin who actually delivered the “slam dunk” briefing at the White House in January 2003. The briefing was based on the phony National Intelligence Estimate that McLaughlin endorsed in October 2002 along with the infamous White Paper that the CIA delivered to the Congress on the eve of the vote to go to war against Iraq. The White Paper was a violation of the CIA’s charter  www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/caveat-emptor-msnbc-and-cnn-use-cia-apologists-for-false-commentary/

Trump’s CIA Pick Took Part in Silencing Torture Suspect

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

21 March 18

An ACLU lawsuit suggests the president’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, has a questionable attitude toward due process

ast year, ProPublica reporter Raymond Bonner published a story about the August, 2002 interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian man the CIA believed was a top al Qaeda lieutenant. The report describes the “enhanced interrogation techniques” employed at a secret CIA “black site” prison in Thailand: As the CIA’s video cameras rolled, security guards shackled Abu Zubaydah to a gurney and interrogators poured water over his mouth and nose until he began to suffocate. They slammed him against a wall, confined him for hours in a coffin-like box, and deprived him of sleep.

As Bonner describes, the CIA’s “chief of base” or “COB,” Gina Haspel – who was just named Trump’s head of the CIA – “mocked” Zubaydah’s complaints and accused him of faking.

That the Bush administration relied upon some of Zubaydah’s statements as justifications for invading Iraq is well known by now. Here’s ProPublica on why Zubaydah might not have been such a great source: “It was clear that CIA analysts were wrong when they had identified Zubaydah as the number three or four in al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden. The waterboarding failed to elicit valuable intelligence not because he was holding back, but because he was not a member of al-Qaida, and had no knowledge of any plots against the United States.”

A trove of CIA cables about this idiotic incident came to light, among other things, as a result of a lawsuit, Salim v. Mitchell, in which the ACLU targeted the psychologists behind the CIA “torture” program. The “COB” comes up more than a few times in these cables.

There are bound to be a lot of excerpts from these cables circulating in the news today, but one in particular stands out. It describes the attitude of the U.S. officials – presumably including Haspel – toward Zubaydah’s future:  readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/49082-trumps-cia-pick-took-part-in-silencing-torture-suspect

The Magical Mystery Tour

Keith O’Brien, Cardinal Ousted in Sex Scandal, Dies at 80

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was removed in 2013 as Scotland’s ranking Roman Catholic cleric after acknowledging that he had engaged in the very sort of homosexual behavior he had earlier denounced, died on Monday in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Northeast England, where he had been living in exile. He was 80.

His death, in a hospital there, was announced by the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, which he served as archbishop from 1985. He was chosen as a cardinal in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

An inquiry by the Vatican’s top sex-abuse prosecutor revealed other complaints against him, as well as evidence that he had quashed a proposed investigation of child abuse by priests since the 1950s.

…Other leading Catholic clerics around the world have resigned for turning a blind eye to sexual abuse; others were convicted of abuse themselves; and some vaguely sought absolution. But few approaching the stature of Cardinal O’Brien have publicly admitted sexual conduct that is frowned upon by the church and that contradicted their own preaching.  www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/obituaries/keith-obrien-cardinal-ousted-in-sex-scandal-dies-at-80.html

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

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So Long

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