Rouge Forum Dispatch: Chicago–the Fight is Still on!
We Say FightBack!
The Chicago Strike is Still on. Delegates will review a Tentative Agreement at 3p.m. on Sunday.
A warning from Substance editor, George Schmidt: “This is the war.
We have won, and now we are being told to surrender an army that is victorious in the field.
When I am asked, my suggestions are as follows:
1. There is no reason for the House of Delegates to meet on Sunday, September 16. The “contract” proposal is an insult to everyone who struck for not only decent wages and benefits, but for lower class size, enough clinicians, etc., etc. etc. “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.”
2. Any House meeting that is held is likely to vote to reject the proposals we are seeing. That would hurt the leadership. Better no meeting than that, but if necessary, that.
3. If, by some strangeness, a House vote narrowly approved the deal proposed, it will be defeated at the membership referendum. That, too, is not a good idea.
When the picket lines resume Monday, we should do less rallying and more preparing for the long haul. Last week was an exhausting (and in some ways inspiring) adrenaline rush.
Next week…
And the week after that…
And for as long as it takes…Have to be a patient and focused battle to win the contract for the demands that the teachers have been inspired over. We all know them, and they are on our lawn signs and in our hearts.
This is the war.
And you know what happened the last time we were asked to surrender. The destruction of all those school closings of the 2000s would not have happened had Debbie not brought in that terrible contracts, and lost the office we needed for our futures in 2004.
I do not want to see a repeat of that sorry history, and I do not want to see people I respect commit political suicide.
It’s that serious. We are not, ultimately, discussing metaphors. We are discussing the contract we want to get “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.” We mean that, and we will fight to win it. The army is no battle tested and on the field. The only way for us to lose is to accept the terms of surrender this weekend. I for one will not go along with that, nor will my 200 or 300 closest friends and unionists.” http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3610#comments
The Chicago Strike is On! Up the Rebels! The Chicago school workers’ strike is on. It is a real class war that must be won.
Enrolling about 400,000 students, with about 22,000 school workers, Chicago is the third largest district in the country, segregated as it may be. Chicago schools are the centripetal organizing point of city life–as is true now of most of de-industrialized North American life.
The Chicago Teachers Union is Local One, the first, of the American Federation of Teachers, the smaller and more urban of U.S. teacher unions.
In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of President Obama’s best friends, appoints the school board. He did, anointing some of the richest people in the city along with an army of Broad Foundation mercenaries like a recent transfer from the collapsed Detroit system, Barbara Byrd Bennett.
There is a direct line from the Chicago fight-back to the ruling elites of the US and the competing needs of each side. http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/10/chicago-the-strike-is-on/
Congratulations on the Award Winning
People Lining up on the Striker’s Side in Chicago Chicago teachers are taking on the education agenda of the one percent, and that means they’re taking a beating in the media. But a new poll shows that it would be a mistake to take negative headlines and criticism from pundits and politicians as representative of what Chicago voters think. It turns out that 47 percent support the strike, with 39 percent opposed.
Additionally, less than 20 percent of the registered voters surveyed by McKeon & Associates said that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was doing a “good” or “excellent” job handling the strike. www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/11/1130467/-Poll-47-of-Chicago-voters-support-striking-teachers?showAll=yes%20Poll:%2047%%20of%20Chicago%20voters%20support%20striking%20teachers
Miners Continue to Fight Murderous Sold Out Mandella/Anc Regime The labor strife gripping South Africa’s mines spread Wednesday, with riots prompting the world’s largest platinum producer to halt production at a number of its mines in the country and guards firing tear gas on protesting workers at a major gold mine. Unrest has rippled across the gold- and platinum-producing regions that surround Johannesburg since the police killed 34 miners at a platinum mine last month in Marikana, 80 miles northwest of here, in an effort to halt a violent, illegal strike by workers demanding that their wages be raised. The spreading turmoil is destabilizing one of the most important industries in Africa’s biggest economy.
In a speech to striking workers at a gold mine on Monday, Julius Malema, the firebrand former leader of the African National Congress Youth League, called for a national mining strike until wages for all miners were increased to about $1,500 a month, roughly double or triple what they take home now. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/africa/south-african-labor-unrest-in-mining-deepens.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
Social Fascist Mandellaite Cops Attack Miners in their homes Hundreds of police officers swarmed the living quarters of workers at a platinum mine 60 miles northwest of here on Saturday, searching for illegal weapons as part of a new push by the government to end a series of violent wildcat strikes that have unsettled the nation. The unrest has spread to other gold and platinum mines, rippling across one of the most important sectors in South Africa, which has Africa’s biggest economy, and raising concerns that South Africa is headed for a long period of labor unrest more severe than anything since the end of apartheid in 1994. Many South Africans have described the killing of the miners as a massacre, and investigations by local journalists suggest that at least some of the miners were trying to flee when they were shot. President Jacob Zuma created a panel of inquiry with broad powers to investigate. …www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/world/africa/south-africa-continues-a-crackdown-on-miners.html?ref=global-home
Spain, the Battle against “Austerity”:Tens of thousands of protesters from across Spain gathered in Madrid to decry austerity measures enacted by the government. Activists accused leaders of “destroying” Spain with brutal program cuts and tax hikes, aimed at avoiding an EU bailout.
Some 50,000 protesters converged in waves in the center of the Spanish capital, blowing whistles and waving banners that read, “they are destroying the country, we must stop them.” Representatives from over 230 civic and professional organizations also turned out to express anger at the new measures, amid cries of “lies!” and “enough!”
Demonstrators called for a referendum to decide whether the unpopular public sector cuts instated by Mariano Rajoy’s government should continue.
The Spanish government’s austerity measures will cut an estimated 102 billion euros ($126.5 billion) from the budget, and are to be introduced before 2014 with the aim of reducing the country’s deficit and avoiding an EU bailout. http://rt.com/news/spain-austerity-protests-madrid-215/
Re-hire Jahi Issa! Jahi Issa was fired on August 17, 2012 from his position as Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Delaware State University (DSU). He also faces serious criminal charges and several years in jail. These actions against Dr. Issa are related to his attendance at a March 1, 2012 student rally/protest against attacks on Black education that was conducted under such slogans as “Its Time for A Change.”
Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware is one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It was established in 1891 as “The State College for Colored Students,” by the Delaware General Assembly under provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890 by which land-grant colleges for African-Americans came into existence in states that maintained separate educational facilities for Black students and for “white” students. The school’s current enrollment is about 4,000 students and it is the second biggest university in Delaware. Currently, an estimated 72% of its students are African-American.
Dr. Issa’s permanent discharge stems directly from his attendance at, and support for, the March 1, 2012 student rally at the DSU Board of Trustees meeting. The specific charges in his notice of dismissal were “failure to perform professional responsibilities” and “serious misconduct.” Dr. Issa maintains he is innocent of all charges. At the time of the protest Dr. Issa was one of only two full-time African-American professors in the Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy, he had received positive reviews, and the Department had no tenured African-American faculty. http://www.jeffreybperry.net/blog.htm
W.E.B Dubois (1956) Why I will Not Vote In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a “Socialist” Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by “force and violence.” Anything he advocates by way of significant reform will be called “Communist” and will of necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.’s and “Liberals” are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly. http://theredphoenixapl.org/2012/09/10/why-i-wont-vote-1956-by-w-e-b-dubois/
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Hide the Kids! Paymaster Duncan and Poodle Van Roekel are Coming! As part of the U.S. Department of Education’s third annual back-to-school bus tour, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, joined by National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel, will visit Emporia, Kan., on Tuesday, Sept. 18 for a tour of the National Teacher Hall of Fame and a discussion with students, prospective teachers and community members at Emporia State University.
“America’s future is directly linked to the quality of education that we provide our children, young people and adults,” said Secretary Duncan, who will begin the tour on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Redwood City, Calif. “This bus tour is an opportunity to highlight what’s working and create momentum for education reforms that improve the lives of all students.”
Secretary Duncan and his senior leaders are crisscrossing the country from Sept. 12-21, leading a series of events that reinforce the message that Education Drives America. Besides Emporia, some of the other stops include Sacramento, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Salt Lake City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Denver; Topeka, Kan.; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; , Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Charleston, W.Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C.
Rahm: Obama Supports Me against the Chicago Strikers Speaking to reporters in Chicago today, Chicago Mayor Emanuel asserted that President Obama has already backed him up against striking teachers, because many of his proposed reforms were taken directly from the President’s “Race to the Top” education incentives.
“I want you to understand, the president has weighed in,” Emanuel said. “Every issue we’re talking about regarding accountability of our schools, quality in our schools to the education of our children, is the core thrust of Race to the Top.”
Emanuel added that the “notion” of the teacher evaluations he proposed came from Race to the Top.
“In that sense there couldn’t be a bigger push for the president,” Emanuel insisted.
Emanuel also thanked Mitt Romney for his statement of support. http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/rahm-the-president-supports-me-against-striking-teachers/article/2507638
San Diego’s Administrators Pension Bonuses The San Diego Unified School District was unable to document or justify pay raises awarded to 29 managers before their retirement, a situation that led the State Controller’s Office last week to determine the district is at high risk of pension spiking.
The controller requested documentation from the district as part of a months-long effort to detect and deter pension spiking involving the California State Teachers Retirement System and its 850,000 members.
Among the five education agencies inspected for possible pension fraud, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified were singled out as high-risk and recommended for an in-depth pension audit.
“These districts lacked the level of transparency and the necessary controls over management pay increases that a public entity should exercise on behalf of its constituents. As a result, pension spiking may be occurring at these districts,” wrote Jeffrey V. Brownfield, the controller’s audit division chief. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/09/paperwork-lacking-administrator-pay-hikes/
Profs as Cheats For Pay Professors writing custom papers for students? Heresy!
But that is the very idea behind the self-described academic prostitutes at unemployed-professors.com, which unabashedly defends its actions on the grounds that education has already become overly commodified and academia is down-sizing the tenure system. So what’s a poor unemployed prof to do?
Sell essays on demand to overwrought students with a catchy tag line: “So you can play while we make your papers go away.”
“The idea that it could be legitimate for any professor to sell their brain, when they know better than anyone that papers are assigned for students to learn,” said Bolton, an associate dean for the faculty of arts and sciences at Concordia University. “There are for sure teaching assistants and graduate students who do this, but professors?” www.theprovince.com/touch/news/story.html?id=7234865
California Community Colleges Gutted Further By New System of Expulsions Community colleges in California plan to give priority enrollment to students seeking job training, an associates degree or transfer to a four-year college over continuing students who have amassed more than 100 units of coursework or who are doing poorly in classes.
The systemwide enrollment priorities, which will go into effect in 2014, were unanimously adopted Monday by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors at its meeting in San Diego.
Community colleges are dealing with ongoing budget cuts and have seen state funding drop by $809 million since 2008. As a result, they’ve cut back on course offerings, leaving thousands of students on wait lists and unable to take the classes they need. www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/11/community-colleges-changing-enrollment-priorities/
Florida College Marionettes Dance for the Common Core The Florida College System Teacher Educator Programs are the first in the nation to voluntarily commit to a system-wide implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The new standards will be embedded in the teacher preparation program curriculum throughout the college system so new teachers who enter the classroom will be ready for the more rigorous standards.
“This is an exciting time for Florida – both K-12 and postsecondary – where major reform on both sides is helping students get ready for success,” said Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna. “Our system is embracing the new Common Core State Standards and the teachers we are producing will be ready to teach them http://www.fldoe.org/news/2012/2012_08_02-3.asp
Who Lost the Queensborough English Department? On Wednesday the English department at Queensborough Community College voted not to adopt a policy of the City University of New York to reduce composition course credits from four to three. In so doing, they rejected the CUNY Pathways initiative, a proposal for streamlining and centralizing CUNY curricula which many faculty regard as antithetical to students’ needs.
Administrators didn’t like this. And in fact they disliked it so much that Queensborough announced two days later that they’re dismantling the QCC English department in retaliation. studentactivism.net/2012/09/15/cuny-administration-declares-war-on-rebel-faculty/
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
To the Shores of Tripoli The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli on Wednesday following a mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. U.S. officials are investigating whether the violence was a backlash to an anti-Islamic video with ties to Coptic Christians, or a plot to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/12/us-sends-marines-to-libya-after-deadly-attack/
Marines In–Diplomats High Tail It The Obama administration ordered the evacuation of all but emergency U.S. government personnel, and all family members, from diplomatic missions in Tunisia and Sudan on Saturday and warned Americans not to travel to those countries.
The action came as leaders across the Muslim world took stock of their relationship with the United States, a major provider of aid and investment, and struggled to balance it with the will of their populations. In Sudan, the State Department order came after the government in Khartoum rejected a U.S. request to send a Marine anti-terrorism unit to protect the embassy there, which came under attack by protesters Friday. In Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement urging more killings of U.S. diplomats, and the Yemeni parliament demanded that all foreign troops in the country be sent home, including roughly 50 U.S. Marines deployed to protect the embassy there. The U.S. military and CIA have been in Yemen for some time, in cooperation with the Yemeni government, as part of counterterrorism operations. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/anti-us-fury-widens-in-muslim-world-as-protests-rage-in-many-countries/2012/09/15/894e2cbc-ff2f-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story.html?hpid=z1
Tomgram: The World of US Bases Even before the new figures on basing in Afghanistan were available, it was known that the U.S. military maintained a global inventory of more than 1,000 foreign bases. (By some counts, around 1,200 or more.) It’s possible that no one knows for sure. Numbers are increasing rapidly in Africa and Latin America and, as is clear from the muddled situation in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has been known to lose count of its facilities.
Of those 505 U.S. bases in Iraq, some today have been stripped clean by Iraqis, others have become ghost towns. One former prison base — Camp Bucca — became a hotel, and another former American post is now a base for some members of an Iranian “terrorist” group. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. But while a token number of U.S. troops and a highly militarized State Department contingent remain in Baghdad, the Iraqi government thwarted American dreams of keeping long-term garrisons in the center of the Middle East’s oil heartlands.
Clearly, U.S. planners are having similar dreams about the long-term garrisoning of Afghanistan. Whether the fate of those Afghan bases will be similar to Iraq’s remains unknown, but with as many as 550 of them still there — and up to 1,500 installations when you count assorted ammunition storage facilities, barracks, equipment depots, checkpoints, and training centers — it’s clear that the U.S. military and its partners are continuing to build with an eye to an enduring military presence. www.tomdispatch.com/post/175588/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_pentagon's_bases_of_confusion/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=1642433ec7-TD_Turse9_4_2012&utm_medium=email#more
Seventy-Two Years on–The Battle of Britain (and still necessary to fight fascists)
There Goes Iraq The vice president of Iraq, a prominent Sunni Muslim, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on Sunday in a trial conducted in absentia. The verdict coincided with a wave of bombings and insurgent attacks that claimed at least 100 lives, making Sunday one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since American troops withdrew last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/world/middleeast/insurgents-carry-out-wave-of-attacks-across-iraq.html?ref=global-home
Who Really Runs Afghanistan’s Jails? The disagreement over the transfer arose when US officials realized Kabul might refuse to adopt the no-trial detention system demanded by the US government.
“Now, the Bagram prison is converted to one of Afghanistan’s regular prisons where the innocents will be freed and the rest of the prisoners will be sentenced according to the laws of Afghanistan,” Karzai said. But the US doesn’t plan on letting that happen.
“Contrary to the Obama administration’s stated goals of increasing Afghan sovereignty and strengthening the rule of law in Afghanistan,” said Tina M. Foster, Executive Director of the International Justice Network, “this aspect of the transition will leave a dangerous legacy of unchecked and limitless power in the hands of whoever takes control of the country long after coalition forces have withdrawn.” http://news.antiwar.com/2012/09/10/us-disputes-handover-of-afghan-prison-fearing-kabul-will-provide-due-process/
Libya Writhing in Violence for Months The attack Tuesday on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was the climax to weeks of rising insecurity in Libya that saw assassination attempts against government officials, standoffs between militias, car bombings in the capital and threats against diplomats, including Americans.
The increasing instability caused the U.S. State Department in late August to warn Americans against all but essential travel to Libya. It’s unclear whether that warning led to any change, at least outwardly, in the security procedures at the consulate, which was as much the seat of the U.S. diplomatic presence in that country as the embassy in Tripoli.
When the mob of gunmen arrived at the consulate, a rented two-building complex at the end of a long road in a residential neighborhood of Libya’s second-largest city, there were no U.S. Marines stationed outside to ward them off; U.S. consulates throughout the world are not routinely provided with Marine guards.
In recent months, threats against foreign embassies from Islamic extremists had become a regular feature of Libyan news reports, and attacks on foreign diplomats happened with surprising regularity. In June, a British diplomatic convoy was attacked, and last month gunmen in Tripoli attempted to http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/12/168210/consulate-attack-was-just-latest.html
The Bush White House Shoulda known On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.
On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.
That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
China Builds up Its War Machine – China’s armed forces have been piling on muscle in the past decade and are always prepared to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, security and interests.
With the international situation undergoing complex and profound changes, competition regarding international order, comprehensive national power, geopolitics and strategic space have become increasingly intense. Conventional and non-conventional threats are interwoven, making the state security issue more complicated.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to help consolidate the Party’s rule, provide guarantees of security during the country’s important period of strategic opportunities, support national interests, and play an important part in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.
The role of military force in the competition for comprehensive national power has been elevated and become a bargaining chip for countries to settle benefit-based relationships.
Therefore, strong military forces are required to be compatible with China’s international status and security interests. China’s armed forces have been piling on muscle in the past decade and are always prepared to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, security and interests. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-09/13/c_131849117.htm
Old Foes: China Vs Japan–when Tigers Fight the diplomatic tensions boiled over, with hundreds of demonstrators throwing rocks and eggs at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, while smaller protests erupted in up to 40 other Chinese cities. Unconfirmed reports said some of the protests turned violent, with protesters said to have burned down a Toyota dealership.
Demonstrators were demanding that Japan give China control of a small group of islands known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan.
Both countries claim them as part of their territory, but Japan exercises control over them.
Because any public gatherings are tightly controlled in China, it seemed likely that at least one faction in the government approved of Saturday’s protests. Protesters near the embassy in Beijing carried Chinese flags and pictures of the founding Communist leader Mao Zedong. www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/world/asia/xi-jinping-returns-amid-tumult-in-china.html?ref=global-home
Why Are Mercs Guarding US Ambassadors? Who Gave the Religofascists the RPG? The USA. A Hero of the Cooked Up Lynch Rescue Mission is Lost. For Slain Contractor, a Life of Risks Overseas http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/world/africa/glen-doherty-killed-in-libya-fought-intolerance.html
War Means Work (one side of the Praetorian Guard story) “Some guys have had seven, eight deployments. That’s a problem for the families. Not having their father there,” said Worthington, whose son is a Navy SEAL. But the work for private firms is often no less grueling, he noted: “When a guy burns out you still have to go (overseas), for the paycheck. But when he’s in the service he can say I need some down time. He can be an instructor. In the civilian world, you don’t have an opportunity to take shore duty for two or three years.” http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/15/seal-vets-drawn-government-security-contracting/?page=2#article
Blowback from the Farcical Arab Spring The anger stretched from North Africa to South Asia and Indonesia and in some cases was surprisingly destructive. In Tunis, an American-run school that was untouched during the revolution nearly two years ago was completely ransacked. In western Afghanistan, protesters burned an effigy of President Obama, who had made an outreach to Muslims a thematic pillar of his first year in office.
The State Department confirmed that protesters had penetrated the perimeters of the American Embassies in the Tunisian and Sudanese capitals, and said that 65 embassies or consulates around the world had issued emergency messages about threats of violence, and that those facilities in Islamic countries were curtailing diplomatic activity. The Pentagon said it dispatched Marines to protect embassies in Yemen and Sudan.
The wave of unrest not only increased concern in the West but raised new questions about political instability in Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle East countries www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/world/middleeast/anti-american-protests-over-film-enter-4th-day.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
More Hellbound drones for Africa The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.
One of the installations is being established in Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in the fight against al-Shabab, the Somali militant group that controls much of that country. Another base is in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, where a small fleet of “hunter-killer” drones resumed operations this month after an experimental mission demonstrated that the unmanned aircraft could effectively patrol Somalia from there. www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-building-secret-drone-bases-in-africa-arabian-peninsula-officials-say/2011/09/20/gIQAJ8rOjK_story.html
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
Fed Bails Out Banks Again, but Offers Nobody a Job The Fed is acting amid some positive signs for the economy but also amid a number of deeply worrisome developments. The housing market, long depressed, has given some hints of improvement. But the labor market has been worsening.
In the past three months, the economy has added an average of 100,000 jobs a month — not enough to keep up with the 120,000 or so needed to match the number of new people searching for jobs as a result of population growth. Employers need to generate closer to 200,000 jobs a month to significantly bring the unemployment rate down.
What’s more, the economy still faces serious risks. Income was up only 1.4 percent in the second quarter, suggesting that consumers will have little to spend this holiday season, which could be a drag on growth. In addition, the U.S. economy faces a double threat abroad.
In Europe, officials have been taking some positive steps to stem the continent’s fiscal meltdown, but Europe is in recession, and the financial crisis burns. In addition, emerging markets, such as China and Brazil, are slowing down. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-expected-to-announce-stimulus-thursday/2012/09/13/38a31be2-fda4-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story_2.html
Obamagogue did the Second Auto Bailout On His Own, Overriding Congress. Why Won’t he Put people to Work? How bad is it when your own ruling class can’t recognize its own self-interests?
Who Lost the “Middle” Class? (new racist code words for “who cares about the workers and poor) The middle class lost ground again last year, falling to an all-time low in their share of how much income they take in, new census data released Wednesday showed.
People with incomes between $20,263 and $62,434 collectively earned less than 24 percent of all income in 2011, even though they made up 40 percent of the population. The dip was part of a long, steady decline dating back to at least the 1960s, when the middle class shared 29 percent of all income. In contrast, the census data shows, the bottom fifth held its own as the poverty level flattened out, while the top fifth increased its share to half of all income. The top 5 percent gained the most income, rising almost 5 percent in a single year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/poverty-was-flat-in-2011-percentage-without-health-insurance-fell/2012/09/12/0e04632c-fc29-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html
Trinagle Shirtwaste Redux–289 Deand in Pakistan Factory Fire As hundreds workers of workers scrambled to escape the flaming factory after a boiler explosion, they found the main sliding door — 30 feet high, big enough for a truckload of cotton — firmly locked. Instead of letting the workers escape, several survivors said Thursday, plant managers forced them to stay in order to save the company’s stock: piles of stonewashed jeans, destined for Europe.
“They prevented people from leaving, so they could save the clothes,” said Shahzad, a stone-faced man in sweat-drenched clothes, standing in the blacked corridors of the factory. www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/world/asia/anger-and-grief-across-karachi-after-factory-fire.html?ref=global-home
California Spends More on Jails than Higher Ed As California struggles to comply with a court order to reduce its prison population, a new study finds The middle class lost ground again last year, falling to an all-time low in their share of how much income they take in, new census data released Wednesday showed.
The No Jobs Reality The official unemployment number we see excludes those marginally attached to the labor force, discouraged workers, and those working part time due to the absence of full time work. The Alternative unemployment statistic is always higher than the official version. It includes most of the unemployed but excludes discouraged workers after twelve months without a job (See Appendix). In the chart above, you will see the official government unemployment number (U-3), the alternative number (U-6), and the shadowstats.com figure, which includes U-3 and U-6 plus all those unemployed who have given up. That represents 23% of the work force. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Real-Unemployment-at-23–by-Michael-Collins-120909-358.html
Lake Forrest Illinois Schools to Open Scab Schools Lake Forest High School and its teachers union have broken off contract talks today with no agreement in sight to end a 3-day-old strike.
That sets the stage for Lake Forest High School District 115 to move forward with its plan, announced earlier Friday, to reopen school Monday with administrators and community volunteers providing instruction – even if teachers remain on strike. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/lake_forest/ct-met-teachers-strike-lake-forest-0914-20120914,0,7584077.story
Solidarity Fornever
Canadian Autoworkers Union Begs to Take a Pay Cut The Canadian Auto Workers union has proposed lower introductory wages for new employees, a proposal that if accepted would benefit Detroit’s Big Three but fall short of the cost savings previously negotiated with the United Auto Workers.
CAW secretary-treasurer Peter Kennedy said Thursday the union has proposed wages for newly hired workers to start at less than the current $24 an hour in an effort to stay competitive with United Auto Workers wages. The pay cut proposal amount is not known.
That proposal would be beneficial to Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. because of the CAW’s aging work force, said Analyst Rebecca Lindland of IHS Automotive. www.detroitnews.com/article/20120914/AUTO01/209140335/Canadian-Auto-Workers-union-proposes-lower-starting-wages?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp
The King of the UAW Speaking at the Democratic Spectacle: “Because of President Obama’s moral courage and leadership, America’s auto industry is roaring again, and we’re proud to lead America’s economic recovery. An industry we once called the “Arsenal of Democracy” is driving us to a new prosperity. This November, America faces a clear choice about what kind of country we want to be. For working families, the choice is clear: we must re-elect President Barack Obama! ” and auto workers now make 1/2 what they made before 2007 and they are not allowed, by the government, to strike http://www.freep.com/article/20120905/NEWS15/120905105/Transcript-UAW-President-Bob-King-s-speech-Democratic-National-Convention
Roscommon Teachers Quit Michigan EA Teachers in Roscommon Area Public Schools have voted 42-22, a nearly 2-to-1 margin, to decertify from the Michigan Education Association.
Jim Perialis, interim president of the new Roscommon Teacher’s Association, said of the victory, “I am excited that my colleagues have shown the courage to stand up to MEA/NEA and its bureaucratic machine. We are not anti-union, we are anti-MEA. http://www.mackinac.org/17517
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement
Empire Begets Barbarism
NYTimes Slimes Chicago Teachers Strike (every idea is stamped with the brand of class) Teachers’ strikes, because they hurt children and their families, are never a good idea. The strike that has roiled the civic climate in Chicago — and left 350,000 children without classes — seems particularly senseless because it is partly a product of a personality clash between the blunt mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and the tough Chicago Teachers Union president, Karen Lewis. Beyond that, the strike is based on union discontent with sensible policy changes — including the teacher evaluation system required by Illinois law — that are increasingly popular across the country and are unlikely to be rolled back, no matter how long the union stays out. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/opinion/chicago-teachers-folly.html
The Muslim Bros Hit the Streets Many demonstrators in Cairo were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest Islamist political movement, which was suppressed for decades by then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors. This year, Egyptian voters elected the Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohamed Morsi, as president. When Obama needed help tamping down the demonstrations in Cairo, he called Morsi on Wednesday night.
Morsi responded by appearing on Egyptian state television Friday and calling for restraint, a reflection of his public pledge of friendship with the United States. Many Egyptians do not share his perspective, despite their country having received more than $70 billion in U.S. aid since 1948. Instead, they remain angry over American support for Israel and for autocrats like the ousted Mubarak. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/us-tries-to-define-relations-with-evolving-arab-world/2012/09/14/c3bff286-fe80-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story_1.html
Gitmo Victim of Bipartisan US Torture Dies Adnan Latif was found dead in his cell on September 10th, 2012, just a day before the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. He was 32. Latif, a Yemeni citizen, had been detained at Guantanamo Bay for over a decade, despite a 2010 court ruling that ordered the Obama administration to “take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate Latif’s release forthwith,” due to lack of evidence that he had committed any crime. He suffered at the hands of the US government in ways that most people can’t begin to comprehend, and his death should be a reminder that the national shame that is Guantanamo Bay lives on and now enjoys bipartisan support. http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/dead-gitmo-prisoners-tragic-letter-about-why-he-gave-life?paging=off
The Odd Contradictions about the Assange Refuge So on August 30, when the United States granted asylum to El Universo’s editorial page editor Emilio Palacio, who fled to Miami last year after being sued by Correa, the news media’s reactions were staggering in their hypocrisy. In covering the story, neither Reuters nor the BBC noted the irony in Palacio’s choice to seek asylum within a country whose record on press freedom includes the six-year, due-process-free imprisonment of Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Hajj at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No media outlet quoted critics of the U.S. government over its relentless prosecution of whistleblowers like the National Security Agency’s Thomas Drake, who revealed the waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to The Baltimore Sun. No news agency found it “ironic” or even “odd” that the U.S. government granted Palacio asylum, even though in 2011, it pressured Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to continue to imprison journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye, who reported on the U.S. cluster bombing of dozens of civilians in al-Majalah, Yemen. No newspaper accused Palacio of hypocrisy in accepting asylum in the United States, where police have repeatedly assaulted and jailed journalists covering Occupy protests. http://nacla.org/blog/2012/9/6/tale-two-asylums-assange-palacio-and-media-hypocrisy
The Magical Mystery Tour
Seven More Dead For Fake God At least seven people were reported to have been killed Friday across the Middle East and Africa in protests over the anti-Islamic video that led to a deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya this week. The U.S. said late Friday it would send 50 Marines to reinforce security at the embassy in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, where the Arabic news service al-Arabiya reported three people were killed Friday afternoon in a protest.
Unrest worldwide was centered mainly on U.S. embassies, but other targets also came under attack, including embassies and other outposts of Britain, Germany and the U.N. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/14/13856452-at-least-seven-reported-killed-in-regional-protests-over-anti-islamic-video?lite
In Mammon We Trust God first got his 2 cents in about U.S. money in 1864.
That’s when the U.S. Mint rolled out the first 2-cent coins bearing “In God We Trust,” as authorized by an act of Congress.
History hasn’t recorded God’s take on it — all we have is what his Son said years before about mixing God and mammon and rendering separately to God and Caesar.
What the U.S. Treasury does tell us is that Civil War-era Secretary Salmon P. Chase moved to put a religious motto on our money after hearing from many devout Americans, the first being a minister who said that it would “relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism” and that “no possible citizen could object.” www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/14/168332/commentary-romney-errs-on-in-god.html
For A Change, Vaticanites Blowing Whistles instead At least 20 whistleblowers are seeking to expose corruption and incompetence at the Vatican, according to the man who is to stand trial at the Holy See this autumn accused of stealing sensitive documents and leaking them to the press.
Paolo Gabriele, a 46-year-old papal butler who has three children, has been indicted for theft after investigators searching his quarters located some of the documents whose contents had found their way on to the front pages of Italian newspapers.
They included reports on the Vatican’s tax affairs and one document that suggested Pope Benedict’s new ambassador in Washington was exiled in the US because he had blown the whistle on financial corruption. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-whistleblower-warns-he-is-not-alone-in-fighting-corruption-8105046.html
Rapist Pastor Gets 330 Years. Enjoy Him Fellas. A pastor was sentenced Friday to 330 years in prison for sexually assaulting five boys between the ages of 9 and 15 in his Lake Forest apartment between 2007 and 2011.
Oscar D. Perez, 69, was an Apostolic pastor and bishop at Iglesia Antigua, a church that rented space at St. George’s Episcopalian Church in Laguna Hills.
Perez befriended various families at the church, enlisted children to help with church services, and eventually began to invite the victims over to his apartment, sometimes for sleepovers, prosecutors said. latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/pastor-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-the-sexual-assault-of-five-boys.html
Spy Versus Spy
Yes, of course, they are Watching Birthmarks, be damned: the FBI has officially started rolling out a state-of-the-art face recognition project that will assist in their effort to accumulate and archive information about each and every American at a cost of a billion dollars.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a milestone in the development of their Next Generation Identification (NGI) program and is now implementing the intelligence database in unidentified locales across the country, New Scientist reports in an article this week. The FBI first outlined the project back in 2005, explaining to the Justice Department in an August 2006 document (.pdf) that their new system will eventually serve as an upgrade to the current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that keeps track of citizens with criminal records across America . rt.com/usa/news/fbi-recognition-system-ngi-640/
Imperial Overreach–Too Many Wars, CIA Stretched Thin The U.S. is sending more spies, Marines and drones to Libya, trying to speed the search for those who killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, but the investigation is complicated by a chaotic security picture in the post-revolutionary country and limited American and Libyan intelligence resources.
The CIA has fewer people available to send, stretched thin from tracking conflicts across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Much of the team dispatched to Libya during the revolution had been sent onward to the Syrian border, U.S. officials say. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/hunt-for-us-ambassadors-killers-complicated-by-overstretched-cia-green-libyan-spy-agency/2012/09/15/5162ad6a-ff06-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html
The Best and Worst things in the History of the World
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4FJIP-eZCA
So Long
Alexander Saxton http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2012/09/the-indispensable-alexander-saxton/
