Rouge Forum Dispatch: WS–“The fire-eyed maid of smoky war All hot and bleeding will we offer them.”
March 17th, 2018 / Author: rgibsonWe Say Fight Back!
On the Anniversary of My Lai
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPJgeg6hpA
Congratulations on the publication of:
On the early morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers from three platoons of Charlie Company (1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division), entered a group of hamlets located in the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam, located near the Demilitarized Zone and known as “Pinkville” because of the high level of Vietcong infiltration. The soldiers, many still teenagers who had been in the country for three months, were on a “search and destroy” mission. The Tet Offensive had occurred only weeks earlier and in the same area and had made them jittery; so had mounting losses from booby traps and a seemingly invisible enemy. Three hours after the GIs entered the hamlets, more than five hundred unarmed villagers lay dead, killed in cold blood. The atrocity took its name from one of the hamlets, known by the Americans as My Lai 4.
Military authorities attempted to suppress the news of My Lai, until some who had been there, in particular a helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson and a door gunner named Lawrence Colburn, spoke up about what they had seen. The official line was that the villagers had been killed by artillery and gunship fire rather than by small arms. That line soon began to fray. Lieutenant William Calley, one of the platoon leaders, admitted to shooting the villagers but insisted that he had acted upon orders. An exposé of the massacre and cover-up by journalist Seymour Hersh, followed by graphic photographs, incited international outrage, and Congressional and U.S. Army inquiries began. Calley and nearly thirty other officers were charged with war crimes, though Calley alone was convicted and would serve three and a half years under house arrest before being paroled in 1974.
My Lai polarized American sentiment. Many saw Calley as a scapegoat, the victim of a doomed strategy in an unwinnable war. Others saw a war criminal. President Nixon was poised to offer a presidential pardon. The atrocity intensified opposition to the war, devastating any pretense of American moral superiority. Its effect on military morale and policy was profound and enduring. The Army implemented reforms and began enforcing adherence to the Hague and Geneva conventions. Before launching an offensive during Desert Storm in 1991, one general warned his brigade commanders, “No My Lais in this division–do you hear me?”
Compelling, comprehensive, and haunting, based on both exhaustive archival research and extensive interviews, Howard Jones’s My Lai will stand as the definitive book on one of the most devastating events in American military history. www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/the-tip-of-the-iceberg-my-lai-fifty-years-on/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_p5sQHNw2g
My Lai Massacre–The original documents
An Atrocity Is Uncovered: November 1969
Seymour M. Hersh/St. Louis Post Dispatch
[Here for the first time in electronic form are the unabridged original dispatches by Seymour Hersh on the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The articles are relevant again in light of the revelations of the Marines massacre of twenty-four Iraqi civilians at Haditha last November (as detailed in today’s New York Times account) for several reasons, among them the parallels between the two massacres in terms of methods, motives and the U.S. military and government cover-up—until the press got a hold of the story. At My Lai as at Haditha, the killings were planned, deliberate and executed with leisurly cold-bloodedness. At My Lai as at Haditha, revenge was the motive. At My Lai as at Haditha, the military had the evidence early on, lied about it, covered it up, and, in the My Lai case, may have been involved in murdering a helicopter pilot who threatened to go public with the story. Hersh’s pieces were originally published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on November 13, 20 and 25, 1969. Hersh won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 “For his exclusive disclosure of the Vietnam War tragedy at the hamlet of My Lai.”—pt.] pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-200.htm
Jersey City’s 4,000-member teachers union strikes for first time since 1998
Jersey City’s public-school teachers walked off the job for the first time in 20 years today, leading to confusion and some chaos across the 29,000-student district as teachers led boisterous protests outside city schools.
Students all over Jersey City skipped class to join their teachers on the picket line. A loudspeaker outside School 20 blasted Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” Teachers at McNair Academic High School yelling “scab” tried to block substitute teachers from entering the school.
The work stoppage comes after months of failed negotiations between the Jersey City Education Association — the 4,000-member union representing the teachers and other school employees — and the Jersey City Board of Education. A late-night effort to come to a deal failed at last night’s school board meeting.
Teachers here have worked under an expired contract since Sept. 1 and are demanding lower health care costs. They say Chapter 78, New Jersey’s 2011 law that revamped how public employees pay for their health benefits, has sharply curtailed their take-home pay.
“I’ve been in the system for 20 years and I’m finally making a decent salary and now I’m paying $1,400 a month for premiums,” a 53-year-old physical education teacher at McNair told The Jersey Journal this morning. www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/03/jersey_citys_4000-member_teachers_union_strikes_fo.html
‘This is our future’: Oklahoma teacher sends pay stubs from last 9 years to lawmakers
A teacher from Oklahoma, one of the lowest-paying states in the country when it comes to educators, is sending letters – pay stubs included – to lawmakers in hopes of getting a raise.
“I work two jobs after school, and I have a roommate who shares my house expenses,” Lilli Lyon, a Spanish teacher at Moore West Junior High School, told KFOR.
She said she hasn’t received a noticeable raise since she moved to Oklahoma from Indiana 10 years ago.
Lyon compared her net pay from 2009 to now and realized she has barely received any additional compensation in almost nine years. Any raise she has received in the past she said has been taken by the rising insurance costs.
“It’s like $47, every two weeks, more. I mean, literally nothing,” Lyon said.
She’s seeing more and more of her former colleagues move to other states, including two who just went to Dallas. wgntv.com/2018/01/25/this-is-our-future-oklahoma-teacher-sends-pay-stubs-from-last-9-years-to-lawmakers/?platform=hootsuite
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtJnbJ_TfGk&feature=youtu.be
I Walked 40 km With the Farmers in Maharashtra, Here’s What I Learnt
This is not a staged protest. Try not to let any IT cell mar the credibility of this challenge. Bolster these farmers. They are courageous women and men fighting a difficult battle.
“Meherbani nakko! Hakk Havet!” The farmers marching into Mumbai today are asking for their rights, not favours. An expected 30,000 of them, under the banner of the All India Kisan Sabha, decided to cover a distance of roughly 180 km from Nashik to Mumbai on foot to protest a number of issues ranging from loan waivers to land allotment.
The ‘long march’, as the Kisan Sabha has termed it, began on March 6. Today, the marchers plan to picket Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan until their demands are met. Right at the front, you can see Jiva Pandu Gavit, the CPI(M) MLA from Surgana and Kalwan constituencies, and Ajit Navle, general secretary of the Kisan Sabha along with other leaders. They’re followed by some farmers holding a banner which reads ‘Maharashtra Rajya Kisan’. Then starts an endless queue of farmers holding placards, water bottles, bags and packets of biscuits. The procession also includes some mothers holding their kids, undeterred by the searing heat or the distance. Slogans and songs blaring out from speakers accompany them as they walk.
I walked almost 40 km with the march on Saturday, March 10 before the heat took a toll on me and I had to return to Pune. But these superhumans, accustomed to toiling hard on the field, showed no signs of slowing down. In the midst of all this, some old ladies still took the time to remind me, at least thrice, to cover my head to protect myself from the heat.
Water tankers arrived at regular intervals and the farmers promptly ran towards them to fill their bottles. One of the most astounding aspects of the Long March is the level of discipline these farmers have maintained throughout their journey. They’ve nearly managed to complete their long journey without any instances of violence. The same level of discipline can be seen in their arrangement for preparing and distributing food as well. Before each meal, a team of farmers breaks off from the larger procession to find a clear ground and cook food (from resources collected largely by themselves) before the rest of the group arrives. There are no large tents and farmers eat khichdi under the harsh sun. Musicians play traditional songs and some farmers even dance, somehow still energetic after their gruelling journey.
This is not a staged protest. This is a real protest by a sad farmer community. They are working hard for their demands.
The Little Red Schoolhouse
The Fight Over Teacher Salaries: A Look At The Numbers
The teachers strike in West Virginia may have ended last week when Gov. Jim Justice signed a law giving educators a 5 percent pay increase, but the fight in other states is just warming up.
“You can make anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 more by driving 15 minutes across the state line,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association. “We’re having trouble keeping and attracting young teachers.”
And this refrain is not new or unique to West Virginia.
The ink had barely dried in West Virginia before teachers in Oklahoma made it clear they too could walk out if lawmakers don’t find a way to raise their pay and school spending.
In recent years, thousands of public school teachers in Oklahoma have crossed state lines for better pay.
“It’s gotten so bad that the state Department of Education has had to issue emergency teacher certifications to replace teachers as quickly as possible,” reported Emily Wendler of member station KOSU in July. “Across the state, textbooks are out-of-date, electives have been eliminated and support positions are being terminated left and right.”
Even Shawn Sheehan, a math teacher in Norman, Okla., and the state’s 2016 teacher of the year, decided he simply couldn’t afford to stay. So he moved his family to Texas.
“Sure, life can be done on $400, $450 a month, but I would challenge others out there to buy diapers, groceries and all the things that you need for a family of three on $400,” Sheehan told Wendler. “[Moving] feels good because I know I’m doing the right thing for my family, but it also feels sad.”
This got us wondering: What do teachers make across the country?…
…with the adjustment in cost of living, some interesting things happen to the rankings:
- Oklahoma ranks 49th in average teacher salary but jumps to 40th. Still low, to be sure, and cold comfort to Oklahoma teachers, but it’s nuance worth knowing.
- West Virginia is less mobile, moving from 46th to 43rd.
- Mississippi lands next to last in average salary but rockets up to 37th after the adjustment.
- At first, Indiana and California appear light-years apart, paying $50,715 and $72,842 respectively. But the cost of living adjustment, which favors relatively low-cost Indiana, brings the two states’ salaries to within $100.
- Hawaii offers a similar tale of two salaries. Before the adjustment, it sits high up the list: 18th overall. After accounting for the state’s high cost of living, Hawaii falls to the very bottom.
- New York ranks first in average salary at $77,957 but, after the adjustment, plummets to 17th.
- Michigan moves in the opposite direction, from 11th before the adjustment to first. That’s right, after adjusting for regional cost differences, Michigan tops the list with an average salary of $71,773.
More here www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers
2008 financial collapse all over again…? We need to understand the student loan speculation bubble
For those who may have missed it, a major economic indicator emerged regarding student loan debt last week. Excessive debt, like student loans, has become one of the biggest barriers to current economic growth in the United States. On Thursday, March 1, 2018, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, appeared before U.S. Congressional representatives. During this “meeting” between politicians and their private banking overlords there was discussion of the possibility of reversing federal legislation to allow student loan debt to be discharged through bankruptcy. A move initially questioned by some lawmakers, as they set interest rates for those loans which allow schools to be federally subsidized, this topic is sure to spark further discussion in the weeks to come.
A report issued by CNBC stated the following:
Education debt swelled to nearly $1.38 trillion at the end of 2017, with 11 percent of borrowers 90 days or more delinquent, according to the New York Fed. Policymakers have sought ways to keep the student loan problem from swelling out of control but have struggled to come up with solutions.
It appears the latest investment vehicle for private banking profits is running out of gas. This is not a surprise for those of us who have been following the developments with student loan debt over the past few years. Personally, I happen to be one of the more than 40 million Americans who are now in debt to a private capital lender for partially financing the last two years of my college degree. Ironically, I went to a “public” university in California which was once a state that offered free education from kindergarten to college….mronline.org/2018/03/13/2008-financial-collapse-all-over-again-we-need-to-understand-the-student-loan-speculation-bubble/
www.facebook.com/TSKnowledge1/videos/2229499523742731/
UC regents approve nonresident student tuition hike
University of California regents voted Thursday to increase tuition for nonresident students at a time of surging enrollment and constrained state funding.
They approved the increase by a 12-3 vote despite eloquent pleas from numerous students, including those from California.
The 3.5% increase would boost the supplemental tuition that nonresident students pay by $978 — from $28,014 to $28,992 for the 2018-19 school year. If regents end up raising the base tuition — which is what in-state students pay — nonresidents would have to absorb that increase, too. www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-uc-regents-tuition-20180315-story.html
Betsy DeVos Is Now Fighting the Union at the Education Department
The union representing nearly 4,000 federal employees working for the U.S. Department of Education filed a complaint this week accusing the agency, run by Betsy DeVos, of union busting.
The complaint, filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority on Tuesday, comes after the Education Department effectively declared itself free from union mandates by imposing upon the agency’s 3,900 staffers a “collective bargaining agreement” that commands no union agreement at all.
The move is a first, even for the boundary-pushing Trump administration. But DeVos has never been known for having positive relations with teachers unions. For decades prior to her joining the Trump administration, she funded politicians dedicated to weakening organized labor and backed school choice advocacy groups that depicted teachers unions as selfish enemies of deserving children.
On Friday, management officials at the Education Department informed their workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees Council 252, that they would no longer be bargaining with them. Instead, management issued a 40-page document the department is calling a “collective bargaining agreement.” This unilateral agreement supposedly took effect on Monday. Education Department staffers have been represented by the AFGE since 1982. theintercept.com/2018/03/15/betsy-devos-education-department-afge-union/
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
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President Trump visits the ‘Marine Core,’ and veterans everywhere facepalm
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, praising troops, and promising the largest pay raise in over a decade and “weaponry like we’ve never had before or sent before.”
“Our administration is stacked with Marines because Marines are the kind of people you want at your side, and trust me, you don’t ever want to be on the other side of a fighting Marine, it’s trouble!” Trump told hundreds of Marines in a hangar in the home of the 3rd Aircraft Wing.
The president raised eyebrows by proposing another military service branch, a “space force.” www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/03/14/president-trump-visits-the-marine-core-and-veterans-everywhere-facepalm/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1jkLxhh20
America’s Military Is Nostalgic for World Wars
The Pentagon is a bit too excited about the return of great-power rivalry.
Great-power politics is back,” is a mantra civilian and military officials have repeated with increasing frequency over the past half-decade. The diagnosis has now been formally enshrined in the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy, a summary of which was published by the Pentagon in mid-January. That strategy document proclaimed that “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security.” This means that China and Russia are now the top priority for defense planners, not the Islamic State, al Qaeda, or self-directed terrorists living in the United States.
The emergence of Pentagon-sanctioned great-power politics has been accompanied by a rise in confused talk by senior civilian and military officials about geopolitical competition. An important Cold War-era lesson for today is that it’s consequential how American officials talk about the country’s adversaries. Official narratives shape and limit thinking, which then can then lead to extremely costly or counterproductive foreign-policy initiatives. foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/13/americas-military-is-nostalgic-for-great-power-wars/
Low U.S. Unemployment Is Making Army Recruiting Harder (don’t panic–war still means work)
The lowest unemployment rate in a decade is good news for Americans, but bad news for an expanding U.S. military.
To meet President Donald Trump’s goal for a bigger military, Army recruiters are seeking 80,000 more men and women willing to join the Pentagon’s largest service as deployments continue from Iraq to Afghanistan. That’s 11,500 more soldiers this year than in 2017.
Working against the military is the U.S. jobless rate. Initial jobless claims were at the lowest in almost five decades last month. The U.S. economy added 313,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent. Though the Pentagon has managed to meet its recruiting targets in recent years, unemployment rates below 6 percent — the norm since late 2014 — are seen as a key factor undermining those efforts.
Washington Breaks Out the “Just Following Orders” Nazi Defense for CIA Director-Designate Gina Haspel
During the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, several Nazis, including top German generals Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, claimed they were not guilty of the tribunal’s charges because they had been acting at the directive of their superiors.
Ever since, this justification has been popularly known as the “Nuremberg defense,” in which the accused states they were “only following orders.”
The Nuremberg judges rejected the Nuremberg defense, and both Jodl and Keitel were hanged. The United Nations International Law Commission later codified the underlying principle from Nuremberg as “the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”
This is likely the most famous declaration in the history of international law and is as settled as anything possibly can be.
However, many members of the Washington, D.C. elite are now stating that it, in fact, is a legitimate defense for American officials who violate international law to claim they were just following orders.
Specifically, they say Gina Haspel, a top CIA officer whom President Donald Trump has designated to be the agency’s next director, bears no responsibility for the torture she supervised during George W. Bush’s administration.
Haspel oversaw a secret “black site” in Thailand, at which prisoners were waterboarded and subjected to other severe forms of abuse. Haspel later participated in the destruction of the CIA’s videotapes of some of its torture sessions. There is informed speculation that part of the CIA’s motivation for destroying these records may have been that they showed operatives employing torture to generate false “intelligence” used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
John Kiriakou, a former CIA operative who helped capture many Al Qaeda prisoners, recently said that Haspel was known to some at the agency as “Bloody Gina” and that “Gina and people like Gina did it, I think, because they enjoyed doing it. They tortured just for the sake of torture, not for the sake of gathering information.” (In 2012, in a convoluted case, Kiriakou pleaded guilty to leaking the identity of a covert CIA officer to the press and spent a year in prison.) theintercept.com/2018/03/15/washington-breaks-out-the-just-following-orders-nazi-defense-for-cia-director-designate-gina-haspel/
Saudi Crown Prince expected to visit U.S. March 19-22: source
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to travel to the United States for a short visit from March 19 to 22, a Saudi government source said on Wednesday.
The prince is expected to visit Washington D.C., New York City and Boston, the source told Reuters, adding that the details of the trip have yet to be finalized.
The trip will be the Prince Mohammed’s first since he was named heir to the throne last summer, pushing aside his older cousin Mohammed bin Nayef.
Frontline: Bitter Rivals–Saudis and Iran
www.pbs.org/video/bitter-rivals-iran-and-saudi-arabia-pqsnhk/
Mass Murderer Susan Rich: Tell the Truth About Our Longest War
The nearly 17-year-old Afghanistan conflict, the longest war in United States history, will not end on the battlefield. It can be resolved only at the negotiating table. So, the bold offer last month from President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan to negotiate with the Taliban “without preconditions” is a welcome initiative. But it faces daunting obstacles.
Mr. Ghani’s proposal envisions an outcome in which the Taliban would be recognized as a legitimate political party, prisoners would be released and United Nations sanctions against the group would be lifted. In exchange, the Taliban would have to recognize the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, including women’s rights.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, during a surprise visit to Afghanistan this week, said there was evidence that some Taliban factions are interested in talks. The Taliban have not responded formally to Mr. Ghani’s proposal, but in the past they have refused to negotiate directly with the Afghan government, which they deem an American puppet. Instead, the Taliban have insisted on direct talks with the United States that exclude the Kabul government, as a way to discredit it. The United States has long supported an Afghan-led peace process, in which Washington might play a role but would not stand in for the Afghan government.
Assuming the Taliban refuse Mr. Ghani’s offer, it’s timely to ask: Is there an alternative to an indefinite United States military presence in Afghanistan?
The fact is the Taliban remain strong, controlling or contesting over a third of the country. Their share continues to grow slowly, despite persistent Afghan and American efforts to weaken them. The early Obama-era surge to 100,000 United States troops, plus the infusion of an additional 40,000 troops from NATO nations, did not defeat or even permanently debilitate the Taliban.
Fortress Sweden: Inside the plan to mobilize Swedish society against Russia
WASHINGTON — Roughly 220 miles of ocean separates Sweden from the heavily militarized Russian port of Kaliningrad. The country’s long, narrow shape leaves it vulnerable to air assault from multiple sides. And Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, are in the unique position as the only non-NATO aligned nations on the Baltic Sea.
Hence, the nation spent the Cold War years preparing to fend for itself against a great power invasion, drawing up plans for how to mobilize the entirety of the civilian population and infrastructure to defend its territory. And then the Soviet Union collapsed, a new era of peace dawned and those plans were left to fall fallow.
Now, Sweden is looking to change that.
A landmark commission formed in early 2017 is laying the groundwork to revitalize Sweden’s “total defense” concept, which would see the country ready to use all aspects of Swedish life to push back an invasion from an unspecified foreign adversary — but one that sounds suspiciously like Europe’s biggest bogeyman in Moscow.
In an exclusive interview with Defense News during a recent visit to Washington, Defence Commission head Bjorn von Sydow and commission secretariat chief Tommy Akesson explained their vision for revitalizing Sweden’s defense infrastructure — one they believe must enable the country to hold out against military aggression for three months. www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/03/14/fortress-sweden-inside-the-plan-to-mobilize-swedish-society-against-russia/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebb%2003.15.18&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
Customers’ protests bring high-capacity ammo magazines back to AAFES shelves
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After a vocal response from customers, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service will begin restocking its shelves this week with high-capacity ammunition magazines — reversing a policy to stop selling magazines that hold 11 or more rounds.
Exchange officials reversed their firearm policy based on input from customers, according to a statement from AAFES.
“Feedback from active-duty, Guard and Reserve soldiers and airmen highlighted the criticality of high-capacity magazines as it relates to readiness and proficiency,” officials stated.
The stores — including the online store — stopped selling high-capacity magazines at the beginning of March. In less than 10 days, AAFES had reversed the decision and began making plans to get the products back on the shelves. www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/mil-money/2018/03/12/customers-protests-bring-high-capacity-ammo-magazines-back-to-aafes-shelves/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow
Judge cites widespread ‘failure of leadership’ at Parris Island officer sentencing
The highest-ranking officer charged in connection with a string of recruit abuses that left one dead has pleaded guilty to three charges, and will receive a reprimand and reduction in pay by $1,000 a month for five months.
Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of dereliction of duty, making false official statements and conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Based on his pretrial agreement, he faced a max sentence of a two-thirds reduction in pay for a year and written reprimand, but no reduction in rank or prison time. He had faced a two-week trial.
On Monday military judge Navy Capt. Charles Purnell cited a “myriad failure of leadership” and said Kissoon’s actions were only “one in a legion of contributing causes” to the death of recruit Raheel Siddiqui.
As his wife of 26 years, Neeta, dabbed away tears, Kissoon read a written statement at the end of his hearing Monday saying he knew he’d made serious mistakes and was “contrite,” disappointed in himself, and “must be held accountable.”
A law firm representing the Siddiqui family released a statement regarding the hearing:
“The Siddiqui family’s heartache is immeasurable, and they find no solace for a loss in one’s pay and rank to be compared with the loss of their son,” the Shiraz Law Firm statement read. “However, the fact is, a guilty plea is a guilty plea, but it is absolutely necessary that the entirety of evidentiary truths be disclosed.”
The family has filed a lawsuit against the Marine Corps related to Raheel’s death.
As part of a plea agreement, Kissoon has filed a retirement request. He could face retirement as a major should officials up to the Secretary of the Navy determine the punishment is warranted.
A core part of Kissoon’s dereliction of duty charge was that he had failed to remove Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix from contact with recruits despite being told to do so both by the regimental commander Col. Paul Cucinotta and the colonel’s subordinates.
In November, Felix was convicted of abusing recruits and sentenced to 10 years of confinement. His case is being appealed.
During a 14-hour Article 32 hearing on June 5, 2017, eight witnesses testified about the goings-on in Kissoon’s 3rd Recruit Training Battalion ― known as “Thumpin’ Third” for its reputation of physical treatment of recruits ― leading up to the March 18, 2016, death of recruit Raheel Siddiqui.
Siddiqui had recently returned from suicide watch early in his recruit training cycle. He had attempted to tell drill instructors that his throat was sore and he needed medical assistance. But Felix began to scream at Siddiqui for not giving the greeting of the day, and made him run from one end of the squad bay to the other.
The recruit passed out and was then slapped by Felix, who claimed he was trying to revive him. Siddiqui then got up and ran away, jumping to his death from a height of nearly 40 feet.
Felix was also charged with other physical offenses against recruits, including forcing one recruit into a commercial clothes dryer while the drill instructor reeked of alcohol.
Five of eight witnesses called to testify in the first hearing for Kissoon last year were granted immunity, and a sixth testified as part of his own agreement. Most, if not all, were offered immunity and did not have to request it, a nontraditional practice at that level in most trials.
Kissoon’s civilian defense attorney, Colby Vokey, noted the judge’s comments when talking with reporters following the hearing Monday.
Though his client admitted his guilt, Vokey pointed to a number of other commanders both above Kissoon, who directed the investigation into Felix that had removed him from working with recruits, and below Kissoon, who were working directly with Felix leading up to Siddiqui’s death.
Siddiqui’s death was not directly connected in any charge to Kissoon. Instead it was past recruit abuse complaints against Felix and others that prompted a chain of events, which led to Cucinotta to order Felix to be removed from recruit contact months before Siddiqui’s death.
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
A Timeline of Bear Stearns’ Downfall
It’s been five years since Bear Stearns collapsed. Here are five key events in its downfall.
1993 — “I’m going to be the last CEO of Bear Stearns”
While it’s hard to know exactly what Jimmy Cayne, Bear’s CEO until January of 2008, meant by those words, it isn’t difficult to conclude that the public and humiliating failure of the bank wasn’t it. The reason I picked 1993 as the first date related to Bear’s downfall is because that was the year Cayne became CEO.
If there’s any truth to the notion that the character and culture of an organization is set at the top, then Cayne’s coronation was arguably the moment that sealed the Bear’s fate. He could hardly have been more different from his predecessor, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, who was known as a democratic, humble, hard-charging, risk-obsessed, and penny-pinching leader.
By comparison, Cayne was known for leaving the office early on Thursday to catch a chartered helicopter ride to various golf courses, taking multiple extended vacations each year to compete in bridge tournaments, and habitually smoking marijuana — yes, you read that right. But, worst of all, he purportedly had neither any interest in, nor knowledge of, risk management. And it was for this reason that Bear’s real estate traders were able to accumulate nearly $50 billion in mortgage-related assets on the bank’s balance sheet by the time the housing market began to hemorrhage.
July 2007 — “This is a watershed day”
During the first quarter of 2007, the signs of a problem in the housing market started to reveal themselves. Housing prices started to decline, mortgage delinquencies accelerated, and the secondary market for anything but the highest-quality mortgages began to show signs of fatigue.
The first line of institutions to feel the effects were mortgage originators like New Century Financial and Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) regrettably acquired in 2008. On March 2, New Century announced that, “as a result of the Company’s current constrained funding capacity, the Company has elected to cease accepting loan applications from prospective borrowers effective immediately while the Company seeks to obtain additional funding capacity.”
These tremors subsequently triggered a series of events that culminated, for the time being, at least, in the bankruptcy of two Bear-managed hedge funds that specialized in mortgage-backed securities. And this was the “watershed” moment that Cayne related to Merrill Lynch’s then-CEO Stanley O’Neal during a chance encounter at restaurant in late-July 2007….d hardly have been more different from his predecessor, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, who was known as a democratic, humble, hard-charging, risk-obsessed, and penny-pinching leader.
During the first quarter of 2007, the signs of a problem in the housing market started to reveal themselves. Housing prices started to decline, mortgage delinquencies accelerated, and the secondary market for anything but the highest-quality mortgages began to show signs of fatigue.The first line of institutions to feel the effects were mortgage originators like New Century Financial and Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) regrettably acquired in 2008. On March 2, New Century announced that, “as a result of the Company’s current constrained funding capacity, the Company has elected to cease accepting loan applications from prospective borrowers effective immediately while the Company seeks to obtain additional funding capacity.”These tremors subsequently triggered a series of events that culminated, for the time being, at least, in the bankruptcy of two Bear-managed hedge funds that specialized in mortgage-backed securities. And this was the “watershed” moment that Cayne related to Merrill Lynch’s then-CEO Stanley O’Neal during a chance encounter at restaurant in late-July 2007.Fourth Quarter of 2007 — “You’ve got to step down”
The fourth quarter marked an ignominious occasion for those at the top of Bear, for it was the first quarter in the bank’s 85-year history that it had recorded a loss. To make matters worse, an article published by the Wall Street Journal in early November publicly questioned Cayne’s handling of the unfolding crisis:
As Bear’s fund meltdown was helping spark this year’s mortgage-market and credit convulsions, Mr. Cayne at times missed key events. At a tense August conference call with investors, he left after a few opening words and listeners didn’t know when he returned. In summer weeks, he typically left the office on Thursday afternoon and spent Friday at his New Jersey golf club, out of touch for stretches, according to associates and golf records. In the critical month of July, he spent 10 of the 21 workdays out of the office, either at the bridge event or golfing, according to golf, bridge and hotel records.
March 10, 2008 — “We have a serious problem”
After nearly two months at the helm, Schwartz had barely had time to settle into his new corner office before the immediate series of events leading to Bear’s demise got under way. Two events on the morning of March 10, 2008 — a Monday — served to trigger a run on Bear’s funding sources. First, the Federal Reserve launched a $50-billion lending facility intended to support financial institutions in trouble. And second, a major rating agency downgraded a swath of mortgage-backed securities issued by Bear.
March 16th — “You need to have a deal done by Sunday night”
By Friday, the Federal Reserve stepped in to provide a bridge loan, through JPMorgan, to ensure that Bear could make it to the weekend. But while Bear’s executives had originally interpreted the deal to include financing for up to a month, they soon learned otherwise. During a late-night conversation with Hank Paulson, the then-Secretary of the Treasury informed Schwartz that a deal had to be completed before the markets opened on Monday. And by hook or by crook, a deal was done. By Sunday night, with an additional nudge by the Federal Reserve, Bear’s board of directors agreed to sell the bank to JPMorgan for a mere $2 a share.
The Foolish bottom line
While the price was subsequently negotiated up to $10 a share, the Bear Stearns’ story serves as a valuable reminder to anyone in finance to avoid complacency. While the pieces of the bank’s downfall were arguably put into place in 1993, the actual collapse occurred over the course of a single week. On this, the fifth anniversary of its downfall, here’s to hoping we don’t see another one of these for at least a generation. www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/15/a-timeline-of-bear-stearns-downfall.aspx
More than $8 of every $10 of wealth created last year went to the richest 1%.
That’s according to a new report from Oxfam International, which estimates that the bottom 50% of the world’s population saw no increase in wealth.
Oxfam says the trend shows that the global economy is skewed in favor of the rich, rewarding wealth instead of work.The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International.
The head of the advocacy group argued that the people who “make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food” are being exploited in order to enrich corporations and the super wealthy. money.cnn.com/2018/01/21/news/economy/davos-oxfam-inequality-wealth/index.html
Theranos and CEO Elizabeth Holmes committed ‘massive fraud,’ SEC alleges
the buzz around Theranos continued to grow. In 2014, Holmes told investors that Theranos was on track to generate more than $100 million in revenue. But the company recorded a little more than $100,000 that year, according to the SEC.
In 2015, Holmes was touted by Forbes as the youngest self-made female billionaire. Inc. magazine called her “The Next Steve Jobs,” a nod to the black turtleneck sweaters Holmes frequently wore.
That year, Theranos’ board included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former Sens. Sam Nunn and Bill Frist, and former Marine Corps General James N. Mattis, who is now President Trump’s Secretary of Defense.
The company garnered investments from such notable venture capital firms as Silicon Valley’s DFJ, as well as media mogul Rupert Murdoch, according to the Wall Street Journal. In 2014, the company was valued by venture capitalists at $9 billion after a funding round.
“She had a really good story of this technology that was going to be pretty revolutionary,” said Debbie Wang, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “But I don’t think that any of the investors or any of the members of her board ever really dug into what is the basis of this science.”
The company’s downfall began with a series of stories in the Journal that showed how Theranos’ much-hyped technology was flawed. In one story, Schultz’s grandson, who worked at Theranos, describes how he tried to raise concerns about the company’s practices and attempted to convince his grandfather that something was wrong. www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-theranos-elizabeth-holmes-20180314-story.html
What scandals? Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan gets $4.6M raise–too crooked to jail!
Well Fargo’s (WFC) board of directors has given CEO Tim Sloan a $4.6 million raise, despite the bank continuing to face the fallout of its sales-practices scandal and other issues.
In its annual proxy to shareholders, Wells Fargo said Wednesday that Sloan made $17.6 million last year, up from $13 million in 2016. While Sloan didn’t get a cash bonus in 2017, the value of the Wells Fargo stock awarded him rose to $15 million from $10.5 million. His base salary also rose marginally.
John Shrewsberry, the bank’s chief financial officer, saw his total compensation increase to $11.9 million in 2017 from $9.3 million in 2016.
Sloan’s salary increase was about 35 percent, roughly equal to the pay increase that Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan received. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has not filed its proxy statement for this year yet. Its CEO, Jamie Dimon, received a pay package of $28 million in 2016.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is facing several investigations into its business, most notably its opening of millions of fake accounts without getting customers’ authorization. www.cbsnews.com/news/wells-fargo-ceo-tim-sloan-gets-4-6m-raise-despite-scandals/
Bankruptcy judge approves $14M Toys R Us executive bonus payout
The judge overseeing the Toys R Us bankruptcy case ruled Tuesday that the insolvent retailer can pay its 17 top executives $14 million in incentive bonuses.
Toys R Us, which is based in Wayne, N.J., agreed to trim its original $16 million bonus proposal by $2 million, and to make $5 million of the bonus payout contingent on the company creating a business plan that allows it to emerge from bankruptcy.
The company said the bonuses are necessary because they motivate executives to boost sales during the critical holiday shopping season.
Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips overruled objections by the U.S. Trustee’s office, which serves as a public watchdog in bankruptcy cases, that executives at Toys R Us are already highly paid compared to other retail leaders, and that they also receive lavish perks, such as cars and drivers and private airplane trips. www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2017/12/05/bankruptcy-judge-approves-14-m-toys-r-us-executive-bonus-payout/925447001/
The Heirs to the Walmart Fortune Just Made $5 Billion in One Day
The five members of the Walton family who are the main heirs to the Walmart fortune saw their collective net worths increase by $5 billion yesterday, Bloomberg reported.
Walmart shares rose 4.5% after the announcement on Tuesday that projected the company’s U.S. e-commerce sales would increase 40% in the next fiscal year. Rob, Jim, Alice, Christy, and Lukas Walton saw their combined net worths climb to $140 billion as a result of the increase in the company’s stock price.
As of Wednesday, the net worth of Rob Walton, the eldest son of founder Sam Walton and the wealthiest of the five, was $40.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, leaving him as the world’s 16th-richest person. Tuesday’s share-price surge left Alice Walton with a net worth of $39.2 billion, good for second place behind l’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers as world’s richest woman. time.com/money/4977419/walmart-stock-price-walton-family-fortune-net-worth/
The so-called Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act would roll back or eliminate some of the regulations and protections put in place by Dodd-Frank after 2008. Democrats who support the bill, including Peters, a co-sponsor, say its intent is to provide regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions.A cheat sheet on the bill provided by Peters’ office suggests part of the regulatory relief for “Main Street” would come in the form a provision to increase the threshold at which banks face stricter oversight. Right now banks with more than $50 billion in assets are subject to tougher regulations from the Federal Reserve. The bill would up that amount to $250 billion, which means restrictions would be loosened for regional, mid-sized banks including Suntrust and Fifth Third. www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/03/08/michigan-dems-back-bank-deregulation-after-taking-cash-from-wall-street
California’s Middle Class Is In Decline, Despite The State’s Immense Wealth
…Stratospheric housing costs, the exit of key companies and the failure to replace the jobs that left with them have downsized the state’s middle class.
Since 1970, California’s share of the middle class fell from 60 percent to just over half the population. That trend almost mirrors patterns across the country. The number of middle-income Americans slipped from 61 percent in 1971 to 50 percent in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center.
In California, some have risen to the upper class and others have slid down. And some have left the state.
“The key group leaving is basically in their 30s, 40s and 50s tending to be making about $100,000 to $200,000 a year,” Kotkin said, citing Internal Revenue Service data.
Between 2007 and 2016, California lost 1 million more domestic residents than have come into the state, according to the IRS. Many are moving to Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.
“California opened their doors and basically kicked us out,…”Today, we have a society which over time is becoming more and more feudal with the very rich, very successful — some of the richest people in the history of the world — at the very top, and then a diminishing middle class,” Kotkin said. “And what’s more frightening is you have young people, some of them with college educations working at Uber, working at Starbucks, essentially barely making it.” www.kpbs.org/news/2018/mar/15/californias-middle-class-decline-despite-states-im/
Steve Mnuchin Has Somehow Spent $2,507.42 Per Day on Airfare Since Taking Office
People in the Trump administration have a habit of wasting a ton of money on the dumbest stuff:
• Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned after having spent $900,000 on airfare in a mere seven months.
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson spent $31,000 to order a new “dining room set”—I don’t know why there’s a dining room in the HUD office and I don’t have the energy to find out—and then lied about it.
• Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke spent $139,000 on three sets of doors.
• EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spent $43,000 on a phone booth.
Also in this elite club is Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, who—per official documents newly obtained by the (partisan Democratic) watchdog group CREW—has spent a robust $995,443.81 on eight military jet trips since taking office last February. (CREW observes that Mnuchin has “apparently has never used commercial aircraft” during his tenure; he has previously defended his use of military jets by arguing that “there are times when I need secure communications to be in touch with the president and the National Security Council” during flights. slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/steve-mnuchin-air-travel-costs-staggering.html
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Big Money As Private Immigrant Jails Boom
The Trump administration wants to expand its network of immigrant jails. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called for five new detention facilities to be built and operated by private prison corporations across the country. Critics are alarmed at the rising fortunes of an industry that had fallen out of favor with the previous administration.
The Joe Corley Detention Facility is a sprawling complex surrounded by shiny concertina wire located in Conroe, Texas — about an hour north of Houston.
ICE spends more than $2 billion a year on immigrant detention through private jails like this one.
The Corley facility is owned by GEO Group, the nation’s largest private prison company.
ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service pay GEO $32 million a year to house, feed and provide medical care for a thousand detainees. www.npr.org/2017/11/21/565318778/big-money-as-private-immigrant-jails-boom
Trump’s New CIA Director Nominee Helped Cover Up Torture
Donald Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel, a CIA veteran with deep links to the agency’s controversial Bush-era “enhanced interrogation“ program, as the new director further signals the administration’s support for practices decried by critics as both inhumane and ineffective.
His endorsement of Haspel, currently the CIA deputy director, follows the president’s repeated praise for techniques widely described as torture. “Torture works. OK, folks? You know, I have these guys — ‘Torture doesn’t work!’ — believe me, it works,” he said on the campaign trail. “And waterboarding is your minor form.” (A Senate intelligence committee found the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques were “not an effective means of acquiring intelligence.”)
Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the spy agency, is slated to replace CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who Trump nominated to helm the State Department in place of Rex Tillerson. Pompeo had expressed support for brutal interrogations in the past. But Haspel spent some of her 33-year career at the CIA involved with such practices.
After 9/11, Haspel ran one of the first black sites — secret CIA prisons where the agency held perceived high-level terrorism suspects.* She also participated in the controversial decision to destroy evidence of interrogation sessions in which detainees were subjected to waterboarding.
In Secrets, Politics and Torture, FRONTLINE explored the CIA’s use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” as well as the agency’s dramatic fight to try to hide its program from the public.
One of the most critical pieces of evidence the CIA was anxious to conceal came from the black site Haspel would later run in Thailand: videotapes of the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda operative captured by the CIA. According to a retraction from ProPublica, however, Haspel wasn’t yet overseeing the site when Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded, as had been previously reported.*
Abu Zubaydah had arrived willing to cooperate, according to Ali Soufan, his FBI interrogator. The detainee identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks — a “huge development,” Soufan told FRONTLINE. But the CIA thought they could get more out of him.
Abu Zubaydah was ultimately waterboarded 83 times, and one point became “completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth,’” according to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the program.
When news of the program was first published in the Washington Post in 2005, Jose Rodriguez, who at the time ran the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, grew concerned that the videotapes might be made public.
“I was told if those videotapes had ever been seen, the reaction around the world would not have been survivable,” Jane Mayer, a New Yorkerreporter, told FRONTLINE. “So the CIA is in a panic. They’ve got these red-hot videotapes on their hands.”
As Rodriguez later wrote in his memoir, in 2005, Haspel, then his chief of staff, “drafted a cable” at his direction ordering that the tapes be destroyed. Then, he said, he “took a deep breath of weary satisfaction and hit Send.” www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/trumps-new-cia-director-nominee-helped-cover-up-torture/
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Boo Hoo for FBI boss–Donald Trump and the Craven Firing of Andrew McCabe
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
Every sentence is a lie. Every sentence violates norms established by Presidents of both parties. Every sentence displays the pettiness and the vindictiveness of a man unsuited to the job he holds.
The President has crusaded for months against McCabe, who is a crucial corroborating witness to Trump’s attempts to stymie the F.B.I.’s investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia. McCabe had first earned Trump’s enmity for supervising, for a time, the F.B.I.’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail practices, which ended without charges being filed against her. In these roles, McCabe behaved with the dignity and the ethics consistent with decades of distinguished service in law enforcement. He played by the rules. He honored his badge as a special agent. But his service threatened the President—both because of the past exoneration of Clinton and the incrimination of Trump, and for that, in our current environment, he had to be punished. Trump’s instrument in stifling McCabe was the President’s hapless Attorney General www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trump-and-the-craven-firing-of-andrew-mccabe?mbid=social_facebook
Mueller witness is convicted pedophile with shadowy past
How did George Nader — Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting “fixer,” convicted child molester — get caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation?
The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.
His long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries — and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported. But Mueller, in his investigation of President Donald Trump, his campaign and possible wrongdoing connected to Russia, is focused on Nader’s role in two high-level get-togethers after the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the case.
Nader was caught in Mueller’s web a few days before the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. He was transiting through Dulles International Airport outside Washington, on his way to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, when his plans changed — abruptly and involuntarily.
Mueller’s investigators stopped him, people familiar with the case said. His electronics were seized and he was then allowed to go see his lawyer. Nader later agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, said the people with knowledge of the case as it pertains to Nader. They weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the case and demanded anonymity.
Nader is little known to the public, a man who has led a shadowy existence as a go-between across numerous Middle East capitals and who gave testimony to Mueller’s Washington grand jury earlier this month.
Nader joined a meeting at New York’s Trump Tower in December 2016 that brought together presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon — fired by Trump last August — and Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates.
A second meeting occurred a month later in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles and involved Nader, bin Zayed, former Blackwater boss Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin.
Nader’s record of sexual abuse in Prague appears unrelated to his role in Mueller’s probe in the United States; it is unclear whether Mueller’s investigators knew about it. www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article205252829.html
A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today
Everybody’s heard of the My Lai massacre — March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today — but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (that’s the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). They were going to kill more, but they didn’t — because of what Thompson did.
I met Thompson in 2000 and interviewed him for my radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles. He told the story of what happened that day, when he and his two-man crew flew over My Lai, in support of troops who were looking for Viet Cong fighters.
“We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere,” he told me, “people on the road dead, wounded. And just sitting there saying, ‘God, how’d this happen? What’s going on?’ And we started thinking what might have happened, but you didn’t want to accept that thought — because if you accepted it, that means your own fellow Americans, people you were there to protect, were doing something very evil.”
Who were the people lying in the roads and in the ditch, wounded and killed? www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-wiener-my-lai-hugh-thompson-20180316-story.html
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Solidarity for Never
This is gun violence that needs to be protested
This is a hysterical conversion crisis
National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S.
Students in overseas military schools protest gun violence
Hundreds of students at schools on overseas military bases took part in a protest Wednesday morning to highlight gun safety issues, Stars & Stripes reports.
The protests were organized in light of the Feb. 14 killings of 17 students at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Using the hashtag #EnoughisEnough, the protests were to take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday for 17 minutes.
Many schools sought to accommodate the students, but “one threatened students with potential punishment and referral to military police,” according to the Stripes article.
Seoul American High School at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, however, warned students against participating in the walkout, citing U.S. Forces Korea policy that prohibits protests on military installations. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/03/14/students-in-overseas-military-schools-protest-gun-violence-2/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebb%2003.15.18&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
FCA/UAW scandal widens as 5th person charged
The UAW public corruption prosecution widened Tuesday as a former labor leader was accused of buying luggage, electronics, designer clothes and golf equipment with money that was supposed to help train blue-collar workers.
Keith Mickens, 64, of Detroit, a former senior UAW official assigned to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, is the fifth person charged in a corruption scandal that has led to four convictions. Mickens was charged in a criminal information, which means a guilty plea is expected.
He was charged in federal court with violating the Labor Management Relations Act, a five-year felony. The law prohibits employers or those working for them from paying, lending or delivering money or other valuables to officers or employees of labor organizations — and from labor leaders from accepting such items.
His attorney declined comment Tuesday.
The charge is the latest in a conspiracy that has led to a shakeup at the highest levels of the U.S. auto industry and which raised questions about the sanctity of labor negotiations that determine pay, benefits and working conditions for thousands of workers.
The charge, like the others, is part of a scandal involving UAW training centers funded by all three Detroit automakers.
Mickens is accused of conspiring with Alphons Iacobelli, a former Fiat Chrysler labor executive, the late UAW Vice President General Holiefield and others. Mickens served as Holiefield’s administrative assistant and left the UAW in 2015.
The conspiracy ran from 2010 until 2015 and involved Fiat Chrysler officials giving money and valuable items to UAW officials, according to prosecutors. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/03/13/uaw-scandal-widens-th-person-charged/32887185/
Florida teacher leaders predict depleting ranks in wake of HB 7055
Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, saw things very starkly: Educators, students and parents came to their Legislature with clear points, and got rolled for politics. Key lawmakers showed their emotions, said they sympathized, but at the end of the day followed their plan.
“Our legislators who say they want to hear our voices don’t care,” Fusco said. “They just do what they want. They completely showed that public education doesn’t matter.”
Of course, it can’t be overstated that the current Republican leadership and its laser-like focus on school choice has not sat well with the unions for a long time. The Florida Education Association has been one of the biggest hurdles to the plan, suing (and usually losing) all along the way.
If there are political foes in Florida, the FEA and the GOP leadership are in the mix
Spy versus Spy
Ex-CIA director slams Trump after McCabe firing: You’ll be remembered as a ‘disgraced demagogue’
Former CIA Director John Brennan tore into President Trump for celebrating the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying Trump will be remembered as “a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.”
“You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you,” Brennan tweeted at Trump.
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you. twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/974978856997224448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fadministration%2F378909-ex-cia-director-slams-trump-after-mccabe-firing-youll-be-remembered
The Magical Mystery Tour
Vatican admits doctoring a photo of Pope Benedict’s praise for Pope Francis
The Vatican admitted Wednesday that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards.
The Vatican’s communications office released the photo of the letter on Monday, the eve of the fifth anniversary of Francis’ election. The letter was cited by Msgr. Dario Vigano, chief of communications, to rebut critics of Francis who question his theological and philosophical heft and say he represents a rupture from Benedict’s doctrine-minded papacy.
In the part of the letter that is legible in the photo, Benedict praised a new volume of books on the theology of Francis as evidence of the “foolish prejudice” of his critics. The book project, Benedict wrote, “helps to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, with all the differences in style and temperament.”
The Vatican admitted to the Associated Press on Wednesday that it blurred the two final lines of the first page where Benedict begins to explain that he didn’t actually read the books in question. He wrote that he cannot contribute a theological assessment of Francis as requested by Vigano because he has other projects to do.
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
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So Long
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