We Say Fight Back!

Teachers Strike at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public university located in New Delhi, India.)

 

www.facebook.com/linda.teach.7/videos/2200200276881198/?t=59

What Does It Mean to Give David Petraeus the Floor?

Some historians worry that giving the former general an invitation to keynote means giving him a pulpit.

Over the past decade, a familiar narrative about Petraeus’s role in the Iraq War has solidified among elements of the foreign-policy establishment and several of its stenographers in corporate media: As the situation on the ground was rapidly deteriorating in 2006 amid high US casualties and a brutal sectarian conflict unleashed by the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent dismantling of the Iraqi state, David Petraeus emerged. Armed with a Princeton PhD in international relations, the new general rescued the US military from losing the war and Iraqi civilians from widespread violence by implementing a “surge” of troops who embarked on a comprehensive program of counterinsurgency, or COIN, based on FM 3-24, the COIN field manual he developed months before his foray into Iraq. Riding his wave of fame in Washington, Petraeus soon persuaded Barack Obama to initiate a surge of his own in Afghanistan, where deadly night raids commenced and, according to journalist Steve Coll, as commander of US forces Petraeus frequently misspoke by saying “Iraq” when he meant “Afghanistan”—a result of his propensity to hype up his alleged success in the former.

But as COIN critics such as Douglas Porch, Gian Gentile, and Andrew Bacevich have argued, the decline in violence in Iraq was less a result of Petraeus’s program than of shifting sectarian alliances and increasing Sunni-Shia segregation that began well before the surge. “Petraeus and his acolytes merely boarded a train that had already left the station at least six months earlier,” wrote Porch. Other critics, like Charlotte Blatt, have argued that the surge had little long-term strategic success, as violence and sectarianism soon returned to pre-surge levels. This nuanced reality did not stop Petraeus from “creating the myth of his success” as a savior general, as the journalist Gareth Porter has documented.  www.thenation.com/article/mean-give-david-petraeus-floor/

www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/videos/939752932876524/?t=0

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Anniversary of Fat Man and Little Boy, August 1945! Developed under the Aegis of the University of California at Berkeley: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda.

Lawyers seeking right to literacy for Detroit kids file appeal

Attorneys representing Detroit schoolchildren in a “right to access literacy” case filed an appeal last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals after a judge previously dismissed their case.

Attorneys Mark Rosenbaum and Michael Kelley filed their appeal Thursday, asking the appeals court of the 6th Circuit to review the dismissal of their civil lawsuit against the state of Michigan and state education officials by U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III.

The case was filed in 2016 on behalf of Detroit students and was believed to be the first attempting to establish literacy as a U.S. constitutional right.

In the lawsuit, students alleged the conditions of their schools are so poor and inadequate they don’t receive the best education and are denied access to literacy on account of their race, violating their rights under the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.

Above, Detroit Textbook Warehouse–books rotting

The suit argued the state has functionally excluded Detroit children from the state’s educational system. It sought class-action status and several guarantees of equal access to literacy, screening, intervention, a statewide accountability system and other measures.

Attorneys for Gov. Rick Snyder and state education officials have said no fundamental right to literacy exists for Detroit schoolchildren and sought its dismissal.

In his ruling issued on June 29, Murphy said the due process clause doesn’t require Michigan to provide access to minimally adequate education.

“In other words, access to literacy is not a fundamental right — at least not in the positive-right sense,” the judge wrote. “Accordingly, the state’s alleged failure to provide literacy access to plaintiffs fails to state an equal protection claim on the basis of burdening a fundamental right.”  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/07/30/lawyers-seeking-right-literacy-detroit-kids-file-appeal/864357002/

Vacillating Reactionary Ravitch (Republican to Democrat to Clintonite) asks, “bear with me.” Well, no.

You know that I worked for President George H.W. Bush from 1991-1993. I served on the NAEP board for seven years (appointed by Bill Clinton and Secretary Riley). I was a conservative on education issues until about 2007 or so, when the realization hit me that NCLB was a failure. Obama’s Race to the Top was more of the same test-and-punish regime. I experienced a political conversion. I publicly renounced my support for testing and choice…

…n 2016, I made clear that I would endorse whoever was nominated by the Democrats, because the Republican party had taken a strong stand in favor of privatizing our nation’s public schools, attacking teachers’ unions, and undermining the teaching profession. I would have supported Clinton or Sanders, even though neither was perfect on education issues. Clinton won the nomination and I supported her. (“I am writing a book. Bear with me.”)  dianeravitch.net/2018/07/29/an-explanation-to-my-readers/

above, Ravitch accepts NEA “Friend of Education Award” with NEA boss Van Roekel

www.nea.org/grants/40246.htm

Against Ravitch

Nothing significant is going to happen if it takes place behind the leadership of the vacillating reactionary Dianne Ravitch and the union bosses who lionize her.

Still a patriot, still a nationalist, still god-blessing everything in sight, still favoring the exploitation that is at the root of capital and its state, as well as the empire’s wars, there is a reason why she is hugged by unionite heads like the presidents of the NEA and AFT who backed the militarization of schooling, helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and its Democratic inheritor, the Race to the Top, who poured millions of dollars and volunteer hours into electing the easily recognized demagogue, Obama, and who now oversee the wreckage of teachers wages, benefits, and their very jobs. richgibson.com/againstravitch.htm

The Closing of Diane Ravitch’s Mind (from the right)

A once-great education scholar rejects everything she previously believed.

Education writer and activist Diane Ravitch is very angry these days. She’s convinced herself and her followers that elements of the American corporate elite are working to destroy the nation’s public schools, the indispensable institution that has held our republic together for more than two centuries. According to Ravitch, these fake reformers—the “billionaire boys’ club,” as she calls them—are driven by greed: after destroying the schools and stigmatizing hardworking teachers, she says, they want to privatize education and reap the profits from the new market. www.city-journal.org/html/closing-diane-ravitch%E2%80%99s-mind-13600.html

above, a Palm Beach mansion. It’s one of the wealthiest counties in the US.

Lost Decade: How Palm Beach County public schools cut pay for veteran teachers

Life is more expensive now, but the school board pays mid-career teachers less than it used to, The Palm Beach Post found–thank the NEA

More Than 300 Former Patients Suing USC Over Sex Abuse Claims as Faculty Pushes for President’s Speedy Exit

The number of former patients suing USC for allegedly failing to protect them from sexual abuse at a campus health clinic increased to more than 300 this week amid a new push by university faculty to speed the departure of the outgoing president, C.L. Max Nikias.

The university’s trustees announced in May that Nikias had “agreed to begin an orderly transition” to a new president. At the time, the move appeared to be an attempt to quell outrage by professors and students over the handling of Dr. George Tyndall, the longtime campus gynecologist who was the subject of repeated complaints during his three decades at the student health center.  ktla.com/2018/07/31/more-than-300-patients-suing-usc-over-sex-abuse-claims-as-faculty-pushes-for-presidents-speedy-exit/

Ex-Penn State Fraternity Member Sentenced to House Arrest in Hazing Death

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Hooray! War Means Work! Congress approves $717 billion defense budget, includes biggest active duty pay raise in almost a decade (actually $1 trillion +)

The Senate passed the $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday 87-10, paving the way for the Defense Department to add thousands of troops and to prioritize U.S. Cyber Command readiness.

President Trump is expected to sign the legislation.

A 2.6 percent active-duty pay raise — the largest in almost a decade — was included in the bill, as was authorization to increase end-strength across the services by 15,600 troops.

Other aspects highlighted by the Pentagon include investing in U.S. cyber defenses and prioritizing U.S. Cyber Command, recognizing the importance of strengthening the Committee on Foreign Investment and waivers for “key U.S. partners and allies” from certain Russian sanctions.

The authorization act funds the military through fiscal year 2019, which begins Sept. 1.

The bill, which passed the House last week 359-54, is being lauded by Secretary of Defense James Mattis as an example of bipartisanship.

“I am grateful for the strong commitment of members on both sides of the aisle to pass this year’s NDAA in record time,” Mattis said in a news release. “Together, they have demonstrated the deep and abiding bipartisan support our military enjoys.”..www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-defense-budget-20180801-story.html

 

Reminder: Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire
And Ten Steps to Take to Do So
By Chalmers Johnson

However ambitious President Barack Obama’s domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there — 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.

These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive…www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176453/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_chalmers_johnson%2C_dismantling_the_empire

Sailor allegedly slashed Okinawa man’s neck after vandalizing car (it’s a US custom)

The number of contested districts in Afghanistan has risen, according to the quarterly report released today by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Resolute Support, NATO’s command in Afghanistan, meanwhile continues to soft-pedal the security situation and invent new classifications for the status of districts.

Although Afghan forces succeeded in denying the Taliban insurgency control of new districts, the government forces also failed to control more districts themselves. The stalemate undermines confidence in the government and its legitimacy which ultimately favors the insurgent.

Afghan security forces “failed to improve its control over Afghanistan’s districts, population, and territory since last quarter: instead, district and territorial control became slightly more contested between the government and the insurgency,” SIGAR noted. The assessment uses data provided by Resolute Support. In Resolute Support’s district-level assessment, four districts fell out of government influence: Khash Rod, Nimroz; Nahri Sarraj, Helmand; Surkh Rod, Nangahar; and Washer, Helmand. The security situation in Hesark, Nangahar also declined from Contested to Insurgent Activity, according to the military’s assessment.

In this release, Resolute Support continues to invent new terminology to obfuscate the extent of Taliban control in Afghanistan. The military reclassified 11 districts as “High Insurgent Activity.” While this is a more accurate description than “Insurgent Activity,” as these districts were previously classified, it is still an understatement. The Taliban controls these districts,  www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/07/sigar-report.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28FDD%27s+Long+War+Journal+Update%29

 

Report: Marines lead all services in binge drinking, sex partners–shores of Tripoli

A new report from the RAND Corporation analyzed survey data from thousands of active-duty military members and found Marines are more likely to be heavy drinkers, use tobacco and engage in riskier sexual behavior than the sailors, soldiers and airmen of the other branches.

RAND found that incidents of binge drinking and hazardous drinking among Marines was almost double what it was in the Air Force.

The report defines binge drinking as having at least four or five drinks on one occasion. Hazardous drinking is defined as usage that suggests alcohol use disorder, commonly known as alcoholism.

Nearly half of the Marines surveyed reported drinking habits that met the criteria for hazardous.

The survey also revealed Marines were more likely to have had more than one sex partner of the course of one year and were less likely to use condoms with new partners.  www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/data-watch/sd-me-marines-drinking-20180729-story.html

Family files $25 million claim against the Corps over colonel convicted of child abuse

Former Marine recruit sues boot camp meat provider after alleged kidney failure, epilepsy

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Coming Soon: The Anniversary of The Big Bank Bailout

Most people think that the big bank bailout was the $700 billion that the treasury department used to save the banks during the financial crash in September of 2008. But this is a long way from the truth because the bailout is still ongoing. The Special Inspector General for TARP summary of the bailout says that the total commitment of government is $16.8 trillion dollars with the $4.6 trillion already paid out. Yes, it was trillions not billions and the banks are now larger and still too big to fail. But it isn’t just the government bailout money that tells the story of the bailout. This is a story about lies, cheating, and a multi-faceted corruption which was often criminal.

• Rating agencies- Rating agencies like Standard and Poor’s are paid by the banks (which is a conflict of interest) and have a huge influence on the ratings of securities. During the housing bubble ratings agencies continued to give triple AAA ratings to toxic mortgages. The justice department wants $5 billion in restitution from Standard and Poor’s for its part in falsifying ratings.

• Money laundering – It has been proven that the American Division of the HSBC bank did money laundering for Mexican drug cartels to the tune of $881 billion according to the Justice Department. The penalty to this bank for blatant corruption was $1.9 billion and the New York Times laments that HSBC was too big to indict. Nobody goes to jail at a time when an unemployed black person gets 10 years for robbing a minute mart.

• Betting Against – Both JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs worked with hedge funds to bet against the toxic mortgages after the crash had started. They made money by selling short on the financial catastrophe they had created. JP Morgan was fined $296.9 million and Goldman Sachs was fined $550 million for actions

• Insider Trading –The jailed billionaire Raj Rajartmn made nearly $One million a minute by getting inside information from Goldman Schs. The New York attorney has fingered 70 hedge funds but the prosecution is very slow.

The operating principles of the big banks is a cesspool of greed, ethics and criminal intent and they give a very bad name to free market capitalism. During the housing bubble Wall street was considered the heart and soul of free market capitalism, but when they were in danger of total collapse they fell on their knees as socialists, begging the government and tax payers to bail them out

Many people have asked why the government bailed them out. Isn’t capitalism designed to get rid of the weak and the failed; so why didn’t we just let them fail? The answer was that they were too big to fail and allowing them to fail could have created a worldwide depression. . In fact, in a meeting with Congress on September 18th, 2008. Treasury Secretary Paulson told the members that $5.5 trillion in wealth could disappear by 2pm of that day. In a meeting with Senator Sherrod Brown, Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said, “we need $700 billion and we need it in 3 days.”

So how did this all happen?  www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/07/14/the-big-bank-bailout/#40f002b2d83f

What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

…Gennaioli and Shleifer explain these patterns by turning to their own preferred theory of human irrationality — the theory of extrapolative expectations. Basically, this theory holds that when asset prices rise — home values, stocks and so on — without a break, investors start to believe that this trend represents a new normal. They pile into the asset, pumping up the price even more, and seeming to confirm the idea that the trend will never end. But when the extrapolators’ money runs out, reality sets in and a crash ensues. Gennaioli, Shleifer, and their coauthors have been only one of several teams of researchers to investigate this idea and its implications in recent years.

When extrapolative expectations are combined with an inherently fragile financial system, a predictable cycle of booms and busts is the result. At some point during good economic times, irrational exuberance takes hold, pushing stock prices, house values, or both into the stratosphere. When they inevitably come down, banks collapse, taking the rest of the economy with them.

This story, if it became the standard model of the business cycle, would represent a true revolution in macroeconomics. It discards two pillars of recent macroeconomic thought — rational expectations, and shock-driven unpredictable recessions. It would represent a triumph for Minsky’s ideas, and for those outside the academy who have long urged macroeconomists to pay more attention to debt markets and human psychology. And if the code of booms and busts can finally be cracked, there may be ways for central banks, regulators or other policy makers to head off crises before they begin, instead of cleaning up afterward.

So far, Gennaioli and Shleifer’s story isn’t close to achieving dominance in macro. But of all the ideas being put forth in the field, this seems like the most interesting to watch. www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-29/what-economists-still-don-t-get-about-2008-crisis

A Better analysis of the Great Financial Collapse (Cliff forgot the war “solution”)

Wells Fargo to Pay $2.09 Billion to End U.S. Mortgage Probe

Ten years after faulty mortgages upended the global financial system, Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay $2.09 billion to settle a U.S. probe into its creation and sale of loans that contributed to the disaster.

The long-anticipated penalty, announced Wednesday, is in line with what some analysts had predicted and smaller than sanctions borne by some of the bank’s competitors. But the case offers a new look behind the scenes at decisions made inside one of the nation’s largest home lenders before the crisis — and the evidence executives once saw of mounting trouble.

Investors including federally insured financial institutions ended up suffering billions of dollars in losses on securities that contained home loans from Wells Fargo, the Department of Justice said in a statement announcing the accord. The probe focuses on debts in which borrowers were allowed to declare their incomes, without providing proof.

“Abuses in the mortgage-backed securities industry led to a financial crisis that devastated millions of Americans,” Alex Tse, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, said in the statement. “Today’s agreement holds Wells Fargo responsible for originating and selling tens of thousands of loans that were packaged into securities and subsequently defaulted.”

The firm set out in 2005 to double production of two types of risky mortgages, known as subprime and Alt-A. As part of the push, it loosened requirements for stated-income loans, the government said. Yet the bank’s sampling and testing of the debts showed signs that information submitted was too often inaccurate, investigators found.

As the test results circulated within the bank, one employee in risk management called them “astounding,” the Justice Department said. Yet, the employee said, “instead of reacting in a way consistent with what is being reported” the bank was expanding stated-income lending.

U.S. probes into banks’ lending practices before the crisis continue to roll on. Wells Fargo’s accord may ultimately mark the Justice Department’s last multibillion-dollar penalty against a U.S. company for creating or selling crisis-era mortgages.  www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-01/wells-fargo-to-pay-2-09-billion-to-settle-u-s-mortgage-probe?cmpid=BBD080118_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=180801&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

25 Years ago, Bill Clinton moves to “End Welfare as We Know it.” This is the peace dividend that came with the collapse of the USSR.

America’s 1% hasn’t controlled this much wealth since before the Great Depression

The gap between the rich and the poor in America has ballooned over the last several decades.

In 2015, the top 1% of Americans made 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent — an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much, according to a recent study released by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington, D.C. think tank.

A family needed an annual income of $421,926 to be part of the 1% nationally, the study said, but in some states the threshold was higher. The top 1% of Americans took home more than 22% of all income in 2015, the study found. That’s the highest share since a peak of 23.9% just before the Great Depression in 1928.

On Wednesday, Amazon AMZN, -0.60%  founder Jeff Bezos became the richest person of the modern era as his wealth surpassed $150 billion.

The fortunes of people like Bezos and those made on Wall Street, in Hollywood and Silicon Valley fuel much of wealth inequality in the U.S., but the issue affects most of the country, the report showed. The incomes of the top 1% grew faster than the bottom 99% in 43 states between 2009 and 2015. In nine states in the U.S., the top 1% represents more than half of all income growth.

…the median net worth of Americans currently hovers at $68,828 per household. One in five Americans say they have more credit-card debt than they do in emergency savings and less than 40% of Americans say they have enough savings to cover a $1,000 emergency room visit or car repair.  www.marketwatch.com/story/wealth-inequality-in-the-us-is-almost-as-bad-as-it-was-right-before-the-great-depression-2018-07-19

Worst Poverty in California? Not Where You Might Think

The two counties with the highest poverty rates are Los Angeles (24.3 percent) and Santa Cruz (23.8 percent).

Not far behind is Santa Barbara County, where 23 percent of residents don’t have enough money to live on.

That’s not to say poverty rates in places like the Central Valley are low. Fresno County’s poverty rate is 19.6 percent, while Tulare County’s to the south is 20.3 percent.

Beaumont pays $84.5 million to settle whistleblower lawsuits

Beaumont Health announced Thursday it has paid $84.5 million to settle allegations of illegal payments made to doctors in exchange for patient referrals between 2004 and 2012.

The health system made no admission of wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $82.74 million to the United States and $1.76 million to the state of Michigan to settle whistleblower lawsuits brought by four former administrative and physician employees.

Beaumont also agreed to enter into a five-year “corporate integrity agreement” as part of the settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the state and the four whistleblowers.

The whistleblowers claimed that Beaumont overpaid eight physicians and provided them with offices and employees at below-market rates, in exchange for patient referrals, and then billed the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of this case,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement. “This result should impress on the medical community the fact that we will aggressively take action to recover monies wrongfully billed to Medicare, through the remedies provided in the federal False Claims Act.”  www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2018/08/02/beaumont-pay-84-million-kickback-claims/894075002/

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

As the nation elects its next leader, it is a tragedy that such hopeful people are offered this glut of shoddy candidates

In the run-up to Wednesday’s elections in Pakistan, hard-pressed attempts at democracy seem to have given way to a fully-fledged circus. We have powerful, all-knowing ringmasters, caged lions, knife-throwers, trapeze artists flying from perch to perch, even cruelty to animals is included. Ours is a circus which looks to be performing its last show before it shuts down – evidenced most clearly by its last act, the clown. The political record of the former cricket star Imran Khan, who is thought to be near to victory due to the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, has long been one of opportunism and obeisance.

In 2006, he voted against the women’s protection bill, an amendment to the grotesque Hudood Ordinances, which jail a woman for the crime of pre-marital sex or adultery. As a consequence, allegations of rape are nearly impossible to prove unless the victim can call upon four upstanding men who witnessed the exact moment of rape. Without those witnesses, it was often the victim, not the rapist, who found herself behind bars. The 2006 amendment only did away with the requirement of witnesses; which would have allowed a woman who said she had been raped to be taken at her word and given the right to file a police case and have a rape test administered in a hospital. Khan voted no. He has defended Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, has called for the military’s gargantuan share of the national budget to remain untouched, declared that feminism degrades motherhood, attracted an army of online trolls who send death threats to his critics, and most recently welcomed the support of Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who reportedly founded the militant organisation Harkatul Mujahideen, was reportedly an associate of Osama bin Laden and remains on a US terror watchlist.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/24/imran-khan-pakistan-election-candidates-military

America’s Addiction to Mercenaries

… Since 2009, the ratio of contractors to troops in war zones has increased from 1 to 1 to about 3 to 1.

Private military contractors perform tasks once thought to be inherently governmental, such as raising foreign armies, conducting intelligence analysis and trigger-pulling. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they constituted about 15 percent of all contractors. But don’t let the numbers fool you. Their failures have an outsized impact on U.S. strategy. When a squad of Blackwater contractors killed 17 civilians at a Bagdad traffic circle in 2007, it provoked a firestorm in Iraq and at home, marking one of the nadirs of that war.

Contractors also encourage mission creep, because contractors don’t count as “boots on the ground.” Congress does not consider them to be troops, and therefore contractors do not count again troop-level caps in places like Iraq. The U.S. government does not track contractor numbers in war zones. As a result, the government can put more people on the ground than it reports to the American people, encouraging mission creep and rendering contractors virtually invisible.

For decades now, the centrality of contracting in American warfare—both on the battlefield and in support of those on the battlefield—has been growing. During World War II, about 10 percent of America’s armed forces were contracted. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that proportion leapt to 50 percent. This big number signals a disturbing trend: the United States has developed a dependency on the private sector to wage war, a strategic vulnerability. Today, America can no longer go to war without the private sector.

Why did this happen? During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, policymakers assumed a quick and easy victory. As former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2002, the Iraq War would take “five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that.” When these wars did not end in mere months, the all-volunteer force found it could not recruit enough volunteers to sustain two long wars. That left policymakers with three terrible options. First, withdraw and concede the fight to the terrorists (unthinkable). Second, institute a Vietnam-like draft to fill the ranks (political suicide). Third, bring in contractors to fill the ranks. Not surprisingly, both the Bush and Obama administrations opted for contractors.

Today, 75 percent of U.S. forces in Afghanistan are contracted…

Contracting is big business, too. In the 2014 fiscal year, the Pentagon obligated $285 billion to federal contracts—more money than all other government agencies received, combined. That’s equal to 8 percent of federal spending, and three and a half times Britain’s entire defense budget. About 45 percent of those contracts were for services, including private military contractors.

This means that contractors are making the ultimate sacrifice. Today, more contractors are killed in combat than soldiers—a stunning turnaround from the start of the wars Iraq and Afghanistan, when fewer than 10 percent of casualties were contractors. By 2010, more contractors were dying than troops. However, the real number of contractor deaths —versus the “official” tally—remains unknown.

Even more troubling: Most of those fighting for the United States abroad aren’t even Americans. Private military companies are multinational corporations that recruit globally. www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/iraq-afghanistan-contractor-pentagon-obama/495731/

Marine with alleged neo-Nazi connections booted from the Marine Corps

Solidarity for Never

Important Element Omitted From “Company Union” Scheme (how low can unionites sink for dues money?)

…Justice Sotomayor first put forth the dubious proposition that teachers unions were state entities. Even the California solicitor general, who was arguing in favor of agency fees, didn’t buy that logic. But Sotomayor then suggested that when it came to agency fees, the middleman – the teacher – could be cut out of the equation.

Speaking of government agencies and school districts,

Sotomayor asked, “Why can’t they assess all of their employees a tax for that contribution [to collective bargaining]?”

The scheme has gained enough traction to become the subject of proposed legislation in New York and Hawaii, and the topic of a debate on the pages of Labor Notes, a pro-union publication.

In an editorial explaining his opposition to the plan, Chris Brooks quotes Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research at Cornell University. I was surprised to find her reaction was exactly the same as mine.

“It is like a company union,” she said. “What the employer gives out, it can take it away.”

University of California at Davis law professor Aaron Tang is credited with coming up with the idea. In his counterpoint editorial on Labor Notes, Tang defends his thesis by describing how the process would work.

“Just like the process used before Janus to calculate agency fees, unions would set their budgets with member approval, calculate their bargaining-related expenses, and submit them to the employer,” he wrote. “The employer would then be required by law to reimburse those expenses.”

…Who knew that when the time came, public employee unions would argue in favor of using a taxpayer-funded voucher to cover their private expenditures?  www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2018/07/30/important-element-omitted-from-company-union-scheme/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Intercepts+%28Intercepts%29

Union Report: More Bad News for Unions — Many May Have to Disclose Their Finances–But Why Not Ask your Union boss for a chart of the union’s employees’ salaries, expense accounts, etc?

Most of what members and the general public know about how unions spend dues money comes courtesy of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959. Unions subject to the law are required to itemize virtually every financial transaction they make and file an annual report, known as an LM-2. Because of the LM-2, members and the public know how much unions have spent on ballot initiatives, contributions to advocacy groups, and compensation to each officer and employee.

The law was interpreted from the beginning to apply only to unions operating in the private sector. That may be about to change, however, and it will have dramatic consequences for affiliates of many public employee unions — particularly teachers unions — that have been operating out of the public eye.

How this works in practice can be illustrated by looking at the National Education Association. Some of its state affiliates enroll members who work in the private sector. The Pennsylvania State Education Association, for example, has members who are private sector nurses and health professionals. PSEA is required to file an LM-2. Because those PSEA members are also members of NEA, NEA is also required to file an LM-2.

Most NEA state affiliates, like the California Teachers Association and the New Jersey Education Association, have no private sector members and have never filed an LM-2.

The LMRDA also established rules and disclosure requirements for union trusteeships, which refers to the process used by national and state unions to take control of an affiliate, usually because of malfeasance or a financial crisis. The interpretation of the law enabled NEA to escape any formal scrutiny of trusteeships it placed over its state affiliates in Indiana, South Carolina, and Alabama during the past 13 years. Even though NEA, which established the trusteeships, is subject to the LMRDA, the Department of Labor did not exercise oversight because those three affiliates have only public sector members.

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule change that contained a new interpretation of language in the LMRDA, stating that “any conference, general committee, joint or system board, or joint council” that is “subordinate to a national or international labor organization” is subject to the act. In other words, if your union was affiliated with a national union regulated by LMRDA, your union was also regulated by LMRDA.  www.the74million.org/article/union-report-more-bad-news-for-unions-many-may-have-to-disclose-their-finances/

Spy versus Spy

therealnews.com/stories/debunking-the-putin-panic-with-stephen-f-cohen

STEPHEN COHEN: So, I’m not sure what you’re asking me about. The folly of NATO expansion? The fact that every president in my memory has asked the Europeans to pay more? But can we be real? Can we be real? The only country that’s attacked that region of Europe militarily since the end of the Soviet Union was the United States of America. As I recall, we bombed Serbia, a, I say this so people understand, a traditional Christian country, under Bill Clinton, bombed Serbia for about 80 days. There is no evidence that Russia has ever bombed a European country.

You tell me, Aaron. You must be a smart guy, because you got your own television show. Why would Putin want to launch a military attack and occupy the Baltics? So he has to pay the pensions there? Which he’s having a hard time already paying in Russia, and therefore has had to raise the pension age, and thereby lost 10 percentage points of popularity in two weeks? Why in the world can we, can we simply become rational people. Why in the world would Russia want to attack and occupy Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia? The only reason I can think of is that many, many of my friends love to take their summer vacations there. And maybe some crazy person thinks that if we occupy it, vacations will be cheaper. It’s crazy. It’s beyond crazy. It’s a kind-.

AARON MATE: Professor Cohen, if you were on CNN right now I imagine that the anchor would say to you, well, okay, but one could say the same thing about Georgia in 2008. Why did Russia attack Georgia then?

STEPHEN COHEN: I’m not aware that Russia attacked Georgia. The European Commission, if you’re talking about the 2008 war, the European Commission, investigating what happened, found that Georgia, which was backed by the United States, fighting with an American-built army under the control of the, shall we say, slightly unpredictable Georgian president then, Saakashvili, that he began the war by firing on Russian enclaves. And the Kremlin, which by the way was not occupied by Putin, but by Michael McFaul and Obama’s best friend and reset partner then-president Dmitry Medvedev, did what any Kremlin leader, what any leader in any country would have had to do: it reacted. It sent troops across the border through the tunnel, and drove the Georgian forces out of what essentially were kind of Russian protectorate areas of Georgia.

So that- Russia didn’t begin that war. And it didn’t begin the one in Ukraine, either. We did that by [continents], the overthrow of the Ukrainian president in [20]14 after President Obama told Putin that he would not permit that to happen. And I think it happened within 36 hours. The Russians, like them or not, feel that they have been lied to and betrayed.  therealnews.com/stories/debunking-the-putin-panic-with-stephen-f-cohen

Report: Spy agencies suspect North Korea is building new missiles

The Magical Mystery Tour

Catholic Church Faces Reckoning in Chile as Sex Abuse Scandal Widens

After Pope Francis this spring acknowledged a “culture of abuse” in Chile and Vatican investigators found a pattern of inaction and concealment, Chilean prosecutors have stepped up their own efforts to investigate scores of church officials.

Special prosecutors, who have been appointed in each of Chile’s 15 regions, are examining cases involving 104 potential victims, half of whom were underage when the reported offenses took place. Nearly 70 clergy and lay people are under investigation, including three bishops.  www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/world/americas/chile-pope-francis-catholic-church-sexual-abuse.html

The EpiscopalianBishop’s School investigating sexual misconduct reports: Alumni file claims from ‘the turbulent years’ (sic)

The Bishop’s School has issued a letter disclosing that it has discovered more than a dozen incidences of sexual misconduct, which took place over the span of 30 years, following almost a year of investigation.

In a letter issued to alumni dated July 23, school leadership stated seven alumni had come forward and described 15 separate incidences, five of which were first-hand accounts of sexual misconduct or a “boundary violation” committed by a school employee.

…one such alumna contacted the school and spoke with La Jolla Light on the condition of anonymity. She explained that she engaged in what was then viewed as a sexual relationship with a teacher in the 1980s.

“When I attended Bishop’s, there were multiple students who had relations with faculty. I was not alone,” she said in an e-mail.

Since the initial letter from the school was sent in September, the victim spent nine months in communication with school administrators to provide a thorough report.

After the September outreach, other victims came forward to share their stories. In July, The Bishop’s School issued a follow-up letter. An excerpt reads: “We thank those who responded to September’s letter. Such care for the community and empathy for classmates is an example for Bishop’s students and alumni. … We are deeply saddened by their experiences and apologize for what occurred.”

The letter went on to say reports were still coming in, some as recently as late June, and that the school would be focusing on the five first-hand accounts. These occurred in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and in each incident, a different perpetrator is named. Two are deceased, and the other three are no longer school employees. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/sd-bishops-school-investigating-sexual-misconduct-reports-20180731-story.html

Ex-pastor will serve 18 years for sexual assaults of minors

The 75-year-old pastor and founder of a Medford church and the country’s largest Christian rock festival was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday after sexually assaulting four minors and having “inappropriate interaction” with another over a 16-year period.

Harry Thomas was the pastor of Come Alive Church in Medford and the co-founder of the Creation Festival, perhaps the largest Christian music festival in the country.

Thomas pleaded guilty in February to one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, three counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

But his attorney, Robin Lord, told the Courier-Post this week that the plea would be “a death sentence.” An attempt to withdraw the guilty plea led to Judge Jeanne Covert rescheduling his sentencing.

Covert later denied the motion to withdraw the plea.

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said in a statement that the court proceeding showed “the unmasking of a true Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”  www.nj.com/burlington/index.ssf/2018/07/ex-pastor_will_serve_18_years_for_sexual_assaults.html

Franklin Graham: Wear your support for President Trump — for $15.99

Now Franklin Graham is inviting evangelical Christians to wear their support for Donald Trump, America’s 45th president.

The North Carolina-based evangelist is selling “Pray for 45” T-shirts in the store at Charlotte’s Billy Graham Library.

It’s Graham’s answer to “Impeach 45” T-shirts, baby clothes and Frisbees that were briefly advertised by third-party sellers on Walmart’s website.Read more here: www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article214561100.html#storylink=cpy

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Goddard looking for a new president

Goddard College is looking for a new president because the current president’s contract is up and he’s not looking to renew it.

President Robert Kenny wrote in an email Tuesday, “In October 2017 I let the Board (of Trustees) and Goddard Community know I would complete my contract term through June 30, 2018 but would not renew it. I do not have any post position plans at this time and the range of possibilities go from retirement to seeking another position in higher ed.”

Kenny and the school agreed on a three-year contract in 2015. He was the interim president at the time, replacing President Barbara Vacarr, who left in December 2013 due to family reasons. The school opted against doing a search for a president and decided to give the position to Kenny.  www.timesargus.com/articles/goddard-looking-for-a-new-president/

www.facebook.com/FoxNews/videos/10157234473801336/?t

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above, blood moon over San Diego’s Balboa Park

So Long

Overlooked No More: Clara Lemlich Shavelson, Crusading Leader of Labor Rights

Shavelson ignited a huge strike by women garment workers that helped galvanize the labor movement. She went on to fight for suffrage and tenants’ rights.

A slight young woman with lively dark eyes pushed her way to the front of a crowd of garment workers at a union meeting in New York City in 1909 and demanded to be heard.

“I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms,” the woman, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, declared in Yiddish, as the audience lifted her onto the platform, according to news reports that November. “I move that we go on a general strike!”

The crowd roared its approval. Male union officials had cautioned against a strike, arguing it would be too difficult and too costly, especially for young women working in the factories.

But the day after the speech, thousands of young women were among the garment workers who formed the Uprising of the 20,000, a milestone action in a swelling labor movement that made workplaces safer, workdays shorter and wages higher.

…  By the time she spoke that day, at Cooper Union in Manhattan, she had been arrested 17 times and beaten by police and company guards, who broke six of her ribs. She had hidden her injuries from her parents, fearing they would forbid her from returning to the picket line.

The Uprising of the 20,000 ended when many shops agreed to pay higher wages, adopt a 52-hour week and recognize the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union on the factory floor. (One holdout was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where an infamous fire killed 146 workers a year later. The male union negotiators had ignored the striking women’s safety concerns, letting factories off the hook for conditions inside.)

The strike also had a different kind of impact, as a weekly paper noted in 1910: “These young, inexperienced girls have proved that women can strike, and strike successfully.”    www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/obituaries/overlooked-clara-lemlich-shavelson.html

Michael Sheehan, Prescient Counterterrorism Expert, Dies at 63

Mr. Sheehan urged the Clinton administration to step up efforts to persuade Afghanistan and its neighbors to cut off financing to Mr. bin Laden and stop giving Al Qaeda sanctuary, according to an account in The New York Times.

Mr. Sheehan’s memo outlined a series of actions the United States could take toward Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to persuade them to help isolate Al Qaeda. The document called Pakistan pivotal to the strategy, urged Clinton aides to work with the countries to curb terrorist financing, and recommended that the United States go public if any of the governments failed to cooperate.

Mr. Sheehan’s plan “landed with a resounding thud,” one former official told The Times.  www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/obituaries/michael-sheehan-counterterrorism-expert-dies-at-63.html