Rouge Forum Dispatch: More on NEA RA–Assange and Manning and Still More
We Say Fight Back!
Chilean Teachers’ Strike Will Continue For Third Week
Since June 3, the primary and secondary education teachers in Chile are mobilizing against the deterioration of public education, infrastructural problems, long-standing teachers’ debts and curricular changes, among other issues. citizentruth.org/chilean-teachers-strike-will-continue-for-third-week/
Protesters and police clash in Hong Kong after peaceful march
Police use pepper spray and truncheons after protest about cross-border traders
Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Hong Kong on Saturday after thousands took part in a peaceful march in an out-of-town district in Hong Kong.
After the end of the Reclaim Sheung Shui protest against parallel traders who snap up goods such as foreign-made formula milk, medicines and soy sauce for reselling in China in the town near the mainland border, hundreds of protesters put on goggles, face masks and hard hats and occupied the streets around the train station, which had been cordoned off for the police-sanctioned demonstration earlier.
The scene descended into chaos near a shopping centre shortly after 5pm local time. People rushed to rally outside a community hall, where a police van was parked and a protester was reportedly held by the police. Some dismantled roadside metal barriers and set up makeshift barricades and faced off with police officers on several streets.
Police then raised red warning flags to order protesters to leave immediately. They later used pepper spray several times to disperse the crowds and beat some of the protesters with truncheons, who in turn used umbrellas to defend themselves.
“Nasty police! Shame on you!” protesters chanted. www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/13/demonstratrs-and-police-clash-in-hong-kong
Protesters demand closure of immigrant detention facilities
Hundreds filled the streets of San Ysidro Friday evening to protest the living conditions of immigrant children and families and demand the closure of immigrant detention facilities altogether.
The gathering began at Cesar Chavez Park around 5 p.m., which quickly filled up with people holding signs. More than 50 organizations both local and national helped to put on the “Close the Camps” demonstration.
The main concerns for protestors included the separation of families and what they consider “inhumane” treatment of of immigrants while in holding facilities. Many people began referring to those facilities as “concentration camps.”
“We are better than this. We should treat people with humanity with love and compassion,” said Sonia Hamilton.
There were only minor interruptions by a single counter protestor at the park, but also people in attendance on the other side of the issue. fox5sandiego.com/2019/07/12/protesters-demand-closure-of-immigrant-detention-facilities/
We won’t be complicit’: Italian dock workers refuse to load Saudi arms ship over Yemen war (VIDEO)
While the Saudi Arabian ship, the Bahri-Yanbu, was expected to leave for Jeddah by the end end of the day, it seems the delivery might end up being rather late. After unsuccessful attempts to have the ship barred from docking in Italy altogether, it was greeted by banners and a protests as it arrived in port Monday. www.rt.com/news/459806-saudi-arms-ship-blocked-italian-port/?fbclid=IwAR0OxXKdwUQEkyRVld-5az3_6WqERyp3puhgX9RBZN5MHwEQjdT1TeG8L28
www.facebook.com/indianlabournews/videos/438871090064852/?t=14
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Segregation has soared in America’s schools as federal leaders largely looked away
In the aftermath of the social upheaval wrought by the forced busing of the 1970s, the federal government all but walked away from school desegregation, with only lax enforcement of court-ordered integration and token programs to encourage voluntary desegregation.
“For more than a generation, little has been done to address the issue,” said Gary Orfield, the co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “It is crucial that we act.”
In recent elections, candidates have been largely silent about segregation, a posture that experts say is not surprising given the unease of many Americans with discussions about race and inequity, particularly when it involves their children.
“The scars of the busing era are still pretty deep,” said Bruce Fuller, an education and public policy professor at UC Berkeley.
The effect of segregation is profound. Children in integrated schools are more likely to graduate high school and attend college, and they get jobs with higher incomes, studies show. There is also a societal benefit when young people interact with peers of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, scholars say. www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-2020-school-segregation-busing-harris-biden-20190708-story.html
Southwestern College confronts (actually fuels) racial tensions on campus
Over the past decade it almost lost accreditation and was embroiled in a pay-to-play contracting scandal that involved some school districts in south county.
While Southwestern worked to overcome those challenges, it also has been haunted by a history of racial tension between the college’s Hispanic majority and black minority involving students and staff.
Despite its issues with race, Southwestern is notably diverse. It qualifies as a Hispanic-serving institution and Hispanics made up about two-thirds of Southwestern College’s 27,400 students during the 2017-2018 school year. African-Americans made up 5% while white students made up 12%. By comparison, the South Bay region was about 63% Hispanic, 17% white and 4% black.
But a number of employees claim that racial discrimination has gone unchecked, perpetuating tensions between Hispanic and black employees, a tension some say the college has been unable to resolve since the 1990s.
The clash continues despite the fact that both groups are historically disadvantaged in education and in society as a whole and despite college resources aimed at closing equity gaps for students from both groups. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-07-08/southwestern-college-confronts-anti-blackness-racial-tensions-on-campus
Florida’s school grades are really measuring family income on an A to F scale
What on earth is to be gained by labeling schools on the basis of income?
I ask myself that each year when the Florida Department of Education releases grades for public schools and districts, as is expected soon. The answers I come to are never good for kids, parents or communities.
No matter the original intent, the state’s system of A to F school grades has turned out to be an excellent tool for measuring socioeconomic status — and for labeling schools with students from low-income families as “failing.”
Schools graded A have, on average, just under half of their students living in poverty. For schools graded D or F, the poverty rate exceeds 90 percent. www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/floridas-school-grades-are-really-measuring-family-income-on-an-a-to-f-scale-column-20190702/?fbclid=IwAR3lB3R0jNlQ8jF77CQl-EfS_lnlakFHGj8SzaXszq1VrNlHlO8F6QIza2E
The University of Michigan invested big in Detroit. Now come the evictions.
The eviction notice arrived last month at William Nunley’s modest two-story house in Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood, one of the hottest real-estate markets in the city. He had lived in the house for three years with his wife and their three children and had hoped to buy it from their landlord.
The construction worker said he was unaware the landlord had fallen about $6,000 behind in taxes and that the house was sold at Wayne County’s tax auction in October for $17,000 to a company funded in part by the University of Michigan.
“We didn’t know it was up for auction and we didn’t know somebody else owned it,” said Nunley, who said he kept current on his rent and had a good relationship with his landlord.
“Then we got (termination of tenancy) papers telling us to show up for court. But I had to go to work. You can’t just call in and say, I have to go to court,” he continued, a laugh creeping into his voice. “That is going to give you new problems.” www.bridgemi.com/detroit/university-michigan-invested-big-detroit-now-come-evictions?fbclid=IwAR1shgGvH3sxw1hTqd3zN-tr_Fy30-F586AhVkz36SyvtMk02Kchk817J28
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Gen. Mark Milley warns against prematurely withdrawing from Afghanistan after 18 years
You know what they say: If at first you don’t succeed, keep plodding on for two decades with no hope for victory.
That’s the story about the Afghanistan war in a nutshell.
Despite the fact that recruits will soon enter boot camp to train to fight in a war that began before they were born, Army Gen. Mark Milley said it is too soon to pull out of Afghanistan.
“I think pulling out prematurely would be a strategic mistake,” Milley said during his July 11 confirmation hearing to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.’
In fairness to Milley, he was repeating the language used by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who asked if a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would undermine ongoing peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.
Your friend and humble narrator may be bad at math, but it seems strange to call any withdrawal of U.S. troops from nearly 18 years premature. (Especially when a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of veterans surveyed said the Afghanistan war has not been worth the sacrifice.)
For those of you too young to remember, here is a brief summary of everything that has happened in Afghanistan since September 2001: taskandpurpose.com/premature-afghanistan-withdrawal?utm_campaign=RebelAlerts&utm_medium=email&utm_source=RebelAlerts-taskandpurpose&utm_source=Task+%26+Purpose+Daily&utm_campaign=0506ec017d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_13_07_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_67edd998fe-0506ec017d-76834115&mc_cid=0506ec017d&mc_eid=7e099a64db
Service member killed in Afghanistan
A U.S. service member was killed July 13, 2019 in Afghanistan.
In accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the name of the service member killed in action is being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete.
This is the 12th service member to have paid the ultimate price this year in Afghanistan. Of the previous 11 troops, nine died in combat, and two in non-combat incidents. There were also two civilian contractors working with the military killed recently as well. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/07/13/service-member-killed-in-afghanistan/
Flashpoints
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US envoy hails latest talks with Taliban as the best ever
The U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan said Saturday that for the first time he can report “substantive” progress on all four issues key to a peace agreement in the country’s 17-year war, calling the latest round of talks with the Taliban the “most productive” so far.
Zalmay Khalilzad said talks with the Taliban had been exclusively about troop withdrawal and anti-terrorism guarantees. But on Saturday, he said the discussions have broadened to include a timeline for both intra-Afghan negotiations as well as a cease-fire. He declined to give details, however. The talks were to resume Tuesday.
Khalilzad said it will ultimately be up to Afghans to decide among themselves the agenda for negotiations as well as the terms of a cease-fire. www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/07/07/us-envoy-hails-latest-talks-with-taliban-as-the-best-ever/
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A sailor dead in Bahrain and the ‘slap on the wrist’ for the Saudi who killed him
Engineman 2nd Class Austin Williams had been in Bahrain for only three weeks when a Saudi driver killed him.
The 22-year-old enjoyed his work on the mine countermeasures ship Sentry and was still discovering the Persian Gulf island nation, home to the Navy’s 5th Fleet. It was far from his hometown of Freeport, Maine, but his family said he’d enlisted to see the world.
Williams had already made some friends in the barracks and was out barhopping with them on the night of April 5, 2018, according to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service report obtained by Navy Times.
As midnight neared, they opted to jaywalk across Manama’s Awal Avenue and grab a round at Wrangler, a popular bar just down the road from the base. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/07/12/a-sailor-dead-in-bahrain-and-the-slap-on-the-wrist-for-the-saudi-who-killed-him/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
New Yorker Discovers Class War! Alex Acosta Had to Go, But the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Is Really About Money and Privilege
The only surprise about the resignation of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta is that it took so long—four days after the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York arrested the financier Jeffrey Epstein on federal charges of sex trafficking. The moment the Southern District unveiled its indictment, which alleged that “between 2002 through 2005, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money,” it was clear that Acosta’s position as a Cabinet minister was untenable.
Of course, he should never have been nominated or confirmed to begin with. As the U.S. Attorney for Southern Florida a decade ago, it was Acosta who approved the now-notorious deal that allowed Epstein to escape federal prosecution and plead guilty to two state charges of soliciting. At the time, investigators working for Acosta had identified thirty-six victims of Epstein, according to the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown, whose dogged investigative reporting effectively reopened the case.
As a federal official, Acosta wasn’t responsible for the lenient treatment that Epstein received at the hands of the Florida state justice system. Sentenced to eighteen months, Esptein served thirteen, in a private wing at the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was granted “work release” that allowed him to spend up to twelve hours a day, six days a week, at his office in the rich beachfront town. Nor was Acosta responsible for the inexplicable 2011 effort by the office of Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan attorney, to reduce Eptsein’s sex-offender status to the lowest possible classification, which an incredulous New York State Supreme Court Justice dismissed, saying that she had never seen anything like it before.
There is blame aplenty to go around. Indeed, Epstein’s story is a searing indictment of the entire criminal-justice system, and the special treatment it grants to people of great wealth who can afford to hire high-priced legal mercenaries like Roy Black, Alan Dershowitz, Jay Lefkowitz, and Kenneth Starr—the latter two being attached to the Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis, the world’s largest law firm. (All four of these luminaries served on Epstein’s defense team during the Florida prosecution.) www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/alex-acosta-had-to-resign-but-the-epstein-scandal-goes-well-beyond-his-role?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Cassidy_061219&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bea06083f92a404693f7655&cndid=39165830&esrc=newsletters-form-sig&utm_term=TNY_Cassidy
S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq close at record levels again as bulls bank on Fed rate cut
U.S. stocks set more records on Friday, racing in late trade to end in higher territory once again, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in two days of congressional testimony this week bolstered investor expectations for an interest-rate cut at the end of the month.
How are the major benchmarks performing?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.90% gained 244.02 points, or 0.90%, at 27,332.10, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.46% added 13.83 points, or 0.46%, at 3,013.75. The Nasdaq Composite index COMP, +0.59% closed 48.10 points higher at 8,244.14, a gain of 0.59%.
Gains from the three U.S. benchmarks added to highs set earlier in the week.
The Dow on Thursday rose 227.88 points, or 0.8%, to 27,088.08, marking its first close above 27,000. The S&P 500 also pushed back into record territory, advancing 6.84 points, or 0.2%, to end at 2,999.91. The Nasdaq Composite, which scored a record close on Wednesday, pulled back, ending 6.49 points lower Thursday at 8,196.04, a loss of 0.1%. www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-aims-for-another-round-of-records-as-bulls-bank-on-fed-rate-cut-2019-07-12
Ca. Utility customers will pay $10.5 billion for California wildfire costs under bill sent to Newsom
Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign legislation Friday to overhaul how the state pays for utility wildfire damage — a complex bill the governor championed and moved swiftly through the California Legislature this week at Wall Street’s urging.
The bill’s passage was a political victory for the governor, but some questioned whether California leaders were just making a down payment for wildfire costs that will skyrocket if more isn’t done to prevent ever-larger blazes.
The administration says the bill will provide investor-owned utilities with at least $21 billion to pay for damage from blazes linked to their equipment beginning this summer. Utility customers will be required to pay $10.5 billion to the so-called wildfire fund through a 15-year extension of an existing charge on monthly bills, one that was originally expected to expire by 2021. www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-wildfire-fund-gavin-newsom-20190711-story.html
California Senate approves Newsom bill to protect utilities from wildfire costs
Michael Aguirre, the former city attorney of San Diego who now represents customers in cases against the utilities, called the proposal “a funding mechanism to do more wildfires because they’ve given up on stopping them.” If the bill is signed into law, Aguirre said he would sue the state in federal court for violating the Takings Clause in the U.S. Constitution.
“The Takings Clause says you can’t take someone’s property without due process of law and making me prove that you don’t have a right to my money is not due process,” Aguirre said about the money ratepayers will be forced to contribute to the wildfire fund. www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-wildfire-damages-plan-20190708-story.html
www.facebook.com/Lauren.Steiner.LA/videos/10219476491919788/?t=66
PG&E Knew for Years Its Lines Could Spark Wildfires, and Didn’t Fix Them
Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal show that the utility has long been aware that parts of its 18,500-mile transmission system were dangerously outdated
PG&E Corp. knew for years that hundreds of miles of high-voltage power lines could fail and spark fires, yet it repeatedly failed to perform the necessary upgrades. www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-knew-for-years-its-lines-could-spark-wildfires-and-didnt-fix-them-11562768885
Ford knew Focus, Fiesta models had flawed transmission, sold them anyway
The carmaker says that it’s not a safety problem if your car slips into neutral on the highway.
Ford Motor Co. knowingly launched two low-priced, fuel-efficient cars with defective transmissions and continued selling the troubled Focus and Fiesta despite thousands of complaints and an avalanche of repairs, a Free Press investigation found.
The cars, many of which randomly lose power on freeways and have unexpectedly bolted into intersections, were put on sale in 2010-11 as the nation emerged from the Great Recession. At least 1.5 million remain on the road and continue to torment their owners — and Ford.
The automaker pushed past company lawyers’ early safety questions and a veteran development engineer’s warning that the cars weren’t roadworthy, internal emails and documents show. Ford then declined, after the depth of the problem was obvious, to make an expensive change in the transmission technology. www.freep.com/in-depth/money/cars/ford/2019/07/11/ford-focus-fiesta-transmission-defect/1671198001/
Biden earned millions after leaving White House, financial reports shows
Joe Biden released federal tax returns and a financial disclosure Tuesday showing that he and his wife, Jill, took in more than $15 million since leaving the Obama White House — newfound affluence that catapulted the Democratic presidential candidate into millionaire status and outdated the humble nickname he has used throughout his political career.
Long fond of describing himself as “Middle Class Joe” while he took in little more than his government salary, the former vice president has capitalized on a lucrative $8 million book deal and constant publicity touring that brought in more than $4 million over 50 appearances across the country.
Now seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, Biden stressed his working-class roots during his first campaign speech in Pittsburgh last April www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-earned-millions-after-leaving-white-house-financial-reports-shows?fbclid=IwAR0VGsQzceunjssRnq93X8Rxbz2vDkXLFhZ537ex73Y38RMSECrZRaJBTf0
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
A Political Murder and Far-Right Terrorism: Germany’s New Hateful Reality
The death threats started in 2015, when Walter Lübcke defended the refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. A regional politician for her conservative party, he would go to small towns in his district and explain that welcoming those in need was a matter of German and Christian values.
Hateful emails started pouring in. His name appeared on an online neo-Nazi hit list. His private address was published on a far-right blog. A video of him was shared hundreds of thousands of times, along with emojis of guns and gallows and sometimes explicit calls to murder him: “Shoot him now, this bastard.”
And then someone did.
On June 2, Mr. Lübcke was fatally shot in the head on his front porch, in what appears to be Germany’s first far-right political assassination since the Nazi era. The suspect — who made a detailed confession last month, only to retract it this past week under a new legal team — has a violent neo-Nazi past and police record, renewing criticism that Germany’s security apparatus, with its long track record of neglecting far-right extremism, is still failing to take the threat seriously enough. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/world/europe/germany-murder-far-right-neo-nazi-luebcke.html
Moon Landing Anniversary of Nazi Success?
ICE Used Facial Recognition to Mine State Driver’s License Databases
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have mined state driver’s license databases using facial recognition technology, analyzing millions of motorists’ photos without their knowledge.
In at least three states that offer driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, ICE officials have requested to comb through state repositories of license photos, according to newly released documents. At least two of those states, Utah and Vermont, complied, searching their photos for matches, those records show.
In the third state, Washington, agents authorized administrative subpoenas of the Department of Licensing to conduct a facial recognition scan of all photos of license applicants, though it was unclear whether the state carried out the searches. In Vermont, agents only had to file a paper request that was later approved by Department of Motor Vehicles employees. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/us/politics/ice-drivers-licenses-facial-recognition.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
AfroFuture Fest in Detroit changes ticket pricing after backlash over ‘non-POC’ fee
A Detroit music festival is changing its ticket pricing system after organizers say they were harassed by white supremacists and racist comments.
When AfroFuture Fest, an August Afrocentric music and art festival, opened ticket sales, organizers were charging “early bird” people of color $10 and “non-POC” $20, with other tickets as high as $40 on Eventbrite.
Last weekend, after the event was widely publicized and debated across social media, the national attention prompted organizers to change the pricing to $20 for all attendees.
Organizers originally posted the event with an explanation: The prices were based on the idea of equitable access to festivals, which they said are often cost-prohibitive and do not benefit the black communities that host them.
“Events often designed for marginalized Black and Brown communities can be easily co-opted by those with cultural, monetary, and class privileges,” organizer Numi Ori wrote on Facebook. “Our goal is to ensure that the youth of our communities can participate in the building of a just society; one that promotes EQUITY over EQUALITY.[sic]”
While organizers said they intended to make the festival more accessible, the doubled price for white festivalgoers sparked pushback from performers as well. www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/07/08/afrofuture-festival-detroit-ticket-pricing/1674210001/
Police commissioner slams ‘Gestapo tactics’ at meeting
A Detroit police commissioner who was handcuffed and removed from Thursday’s board meeting said he’s alarmed at the “Gestapo tactics” of officers who arrested him and took him to jail.
Commissioner Willie Burton added Friday the experience taught him a lesson: “Jail is not pretty,” he said.
Detroit’s police chief on Friday supported his officers’ actions, insisting it’s vital that order be kept during meetings — and that violators will be continue to be held accountable.
Burton called Thursday’s events “an inhumane experience; something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
“I was handcuffed and taken to jail for trying to speak during a meeting,” Burton said. “They’re shutting down democracy. It’s a dangerous time in Detroit right now.”
Board chair Lisa Carter sees it differently. She said Burton was warned several times Thursday to stop disrupting the meeting at the Durfee Information Center on Collingwood Street on the city’s west side. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/07/12/police-commissioner-slams-gestapo-tactics-meeting-arrest/1716796001/
As Cameras Track Detroit’s Residents, a Debate Ensues Over Racial Bias
Twenty-four hours a day, video from thousands of cameras stationed around Detroit, at gas stations, restaurants, mini-marts, apartment buildings, churches and schools, streams into the Police Department’s downtown headquarters.
The surveillance program, which began in 2016, is the opposite of covert. A flashing green light marks each participating location, and the point of the popular initiative, known as Project Green Light, has been for the cameras to be noticed and help deter crime. Detroit’s mayor, Mike Duggan, received applause when he promised at his State of the City address earlier this year that expanding the network to include several hundred traffic light cameras would allow the police to “track any shooter or carjacker across the city.”
But in recent weeks, a public outcry has erupted over a less-touted tool employed in conjunction with the cameras: software that can, in a matter of seconds, suggest the identities of the anonymous people captured on video.
Studies have shown that facial recognition software can return more false matches for African-Americans than for white people, a sign of what experts call “algorithmic bias.” www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/detroit-facial-recognition-cameras.html
Video: ICE whistleblower interview interrupted
Solidarity for Never
www.facebook.com/BillieJoeWright/videos/10157327789921788/?t=22
Union Report: ‘Community Allies,’ Control Over Locals, Charter School Reports & Impeachment — How Delegates Voted at NEA Convention
The National Education Association held its annual Representative Assembly in Houston last week. Six thousand delegates, representing teachers and education support workers in every state, met to debate and vote on the national union’s budget and agenda for the 2019-20 school year. A number of their decisions will have a profound effect on the future direction of the organization.
The delegates approved opening membership to “community allies,” which the union defines as “persons interested in advancing the cause of public education.” Four previous attempts to add this membership category failed. Now, for the first time, people who do not work in education, or have even a remote connection to it, can join NEA. For an annual fee of $25, they will receive NEA communications and a few discounts but will be ineligible for office or participation in any aspect of union operations.
More crucial to NEA’s purpose, the union will be able to solicit political action committee contributions from these community allies.
Delegates also adopted procedures to allow NEA to establish direct trusteeships over local affiliates and to set restrictions on locals attempting to secede from the national union.
They rejected the idea of soliciting voluntary donations to the strike fund they created last year, and they voted down a Massachusetts Teachers Association-sponsored proposal to conduct a national teacher strike in support of the Green New Deal.
Delegates and the NEA board of directors submitted a record 161 new business items that call on the national union to take specific actions this year. Last year they submitted 128, of which 74 were approved and 19 were referred to committee. This year, the delegates again approved 74 and referred an additional 42 to committee. www.the74million.org/article/union-report-community-allies-control-over-locals-charter-school-reports-impeachment-how-delegates-voted-at-nea-convention/
Cal TA Raised $480,000 at the RA to Waste on Pols
Same Old Folks at the NEA Convention
Let me introduce today’s statistic by first repeating a post from October 20, 2015:
Two years ago, NEA discovered the delegates to its convention were, on average, 51 years old. Even worse, only 10 percent of them were under 35 years of age. This led to much handwringing and vows to create outreach programs to attract and train new union leaders.
Last year, convention delegates were, on average, 49 years old and 8 percent of them were under 35. More consternation followed, along with some nice brochures.
This year, the average age of a convention delegate was 50, and a whopping 2.7 percent of the assembly were under the age of 35.
I don’t have any suggestions on how to attract young public education employees to participate in the union, but I think that whatever NEA officers have been doing the last two years, they should consider doing the opposite.
Well, in 2016 NEA really put its shoulder to the wheel, and after much outreach and recruiting of new teacher union leaders, the results were plain. At the 2016 NEA convention, the average delegate was 49.3 years old. The share of delegates under the age of 35 was again 2.7 percent.
Young teachers aren’t going to participate in union governance in any great numbers unless they feel they can affect and alter the direction of the organization. Those in charge aren’t yet willing to let them do so. www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2016/10/12/same-old-folks-at-the-nea-convention/
Linked below–NEA delegates sing “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
www.facebook.com/claudia.briggs.73/videos/1348841898603963/?t=7
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DSA/Jacobin/Haymarket-sponsored ‘Socialism’ conference features US gov-funded regime-change activists
Socialism is now apparently brought to you by the US State Department.
From July 4 to 7, thousands of left-wing activists from across the United States are gathering in Chicago for the 2019 Socialism Conference.
At this event, some of the most powerful institutions on the American socialist — but avowedly anti-communist — left have brought together a motley crew of regime-change activists to demonize Official Enemies of Washington.
One anti-China panel at the conference features speakers from two different organizations that are both bankrolled by the US government’s soft-power arm the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group founded out of Ronald Reagan’s CIA in the 1980s to grease the wheels of right-wing regime-change efforts and promote “free markets” across the planet.
Another longtime ally who has spoken at every single annual Socialism Conference since 2009, Anand Gopal, works at a liberal foundation that is directly funded by the US State Department. He is headlining a panel this year to provide “A Socialist View of the Arab Spring.” thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/dsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-funded-regime-change/?fbclid=IwAR1Zzjwdi5BuokPD1y3l3N0Jc2wxKS4T-IL97_atR81S0IgW_zBpFM2gPmE
Burn Baby Burn! Fire Breaks Out At UAW Headquarters In Detroit [VIDEO]
Firefighters responded to the United Auto Workers building in downtown Detroit after a fire broke out in the building.
The fire took off Saturday afternoon at the “Solidarity House” on East Jefferson Avenue at Van Dyke Avenue, not far from the bridge to Belle Isle.
Reporting live from the scene, WWJ’s Stephanie Davis said smoke appeared to be coming from the third floor of the building. Nine fire and several EMS trucks were on the scene
Spy versus Spy
The International Spy Museum in DC: Lies, Spies, and Paranoia
The mainstream media have given rave notices to the new International Spy Museum, a striking edifice that is close by the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The New York Times finds the museum “remarkable,” and the Washington Post credits the museum with taking an objective look at both intelligence analysis and clandestine operations. However, there are serious shortcomings in a curation that has given the entire intelligence community a remarkable and stunning recruitment tool.
The most loathsome aspect of the museum is the exhibit on torture and abuse, a section that is euphemistically referred to as “Interrogations.” The museum offers filmed interviews with both Jose Rodriguez and James Mitchell to justify and even praise what the Central Intelligence Agency refers to as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Mitchell designed the program for the CIA, and Rodriguez managed the program.
Mitchell formed a company that received $81million in contracts to develop and conduct techniques to instill fear and apprehension in captives. Mitchell developed at least 20 of these techniques, and personally oversaw and participated in the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In his interviews, Mitchell denied that this was his program, maintaining that it was “America’s program.” He also contends that the program was vetted by “well-intended people,” and that, as a psychologist, he had a “moral obligation” to use his expertise regarding the program.
Rodriguez is best known for ordering the destruction of the 92 torture tapes, which amounted to obstruction of justice. www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/08/the-international-spy-museum-in-dc-lies-spies-and-paranoia/
UCLA professor faces 219 years in prison for conspiring to send U.S. missile chips to China
An adjunct UCLA professor of electrical engineering faces 219 years in federal prison for conspiring to export semiconductor chips with military applications to China.
According to a statement released last week from the Department of Justice, Yi-Chi Shih, 64, obtained access to a U.S. company’s computer system that includes commercial and military applications for the Air Force, Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The company produces semiconductor chips known as monolithic microwave integrated circuits, or MMICs, that are used in missiles, fighter jets, electronic warfare and radar applications.
“This defendant schemed to export to China semiconductors with military and civilian uses, then he lied about it to federal authorities and failed to report income generated by the scheme on his tax returns,” said U.S. Atty. Nicola Hanna. “My office will enforce laws that protect our nation’s intellectual property from being used to benefit foreign adversaries who may compromise our national security.” www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ucla-professor-military-china-20190711-story.html
UCSD doctor resigns amid questions about undisclosed Chinese businesses
A renowned UCSD eye doctor who is part of a Chinese recruitment program under FBI scrutiny has resigned amid inewsource’s questions about his foreign government affiliations and businesses.
inewsource has learned that Kang Zhang, the former chief of eye genetics at theUCSD Shiley Eye Institute, is a member of the Thousand Talents Program, which the FBI says incentivizes scientists to illegally take intellectual property developed at U.S. universities to China. The purpose, authorities say, is to advance the country’s “scientific, economic, and military development goals.”
Our reporting has also uncovered Zhang is the founder and primary shareholder of a publicly tradedChinese biotechnology company that specializes in the same work he performed at the University of California San Diego. He has not disclosed this and his other Chinese pharmaceutical businesses to the U.S. government or UCSD on forms required by university policy and federal regulations. Our reporting has not uncovered any accusation that Zhang illegally took intellectual property abroad. inewsource.org/2019/07/06/thousand-talents-program-china-fbi-kang-zhang-ucsd/
As Cameras Track Detroit’s Residents, a Debate Ensues Over Racial Bias
Studies have shown that facial recognition software can return more false matches for African-Americans than for white people, a sign of what experts call “algorithmic bias.”
Frustrated family ‘in dark’ on Novi native being held in Russia
Six months into Michigan resident Paul Whelan’s detention in Moscow, his family has grown increasingly frustrated with the slow crawl of the diplomatic process.
Whelan, 49, of Novi was arrested Dec. 28 in a Moscow hotel room and charged with espionage, which carries up to 20 years in prison in Russia.
A former U.S. Marine, Whelan has denied the charges against him. His state-appointed lawyers say he was framed when he was handed a flash drive with classified data on it of which he had no knowledge.
His family hoped the U.S. government would quickly help clear up what they considered to be a gross misunderstanding, but instead Whelan has continued to languish in a cell in Lefortovo Prison with any evidence against him still unknown. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/10/frustrated-family-in-dark-alleged-novi-spy-held-russia/1676085001/
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Was Jeffrey Epstein a SPY? Trump’s Labor Secretary Alex Acosta won’t deny he made non-prosecution deal with pedophile in 2007 because he was told the financier ‘belonged to intelligence’
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta avoided on Wednesday answering a reporter’s question about whether he consented to a lenient plea deal for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 because he was instructed that the financier was a spy.
According to The Daily Beast, when President Donald Trump‘s transition team vetted Acosta for the top Labor Department post, he was asked about the deal and replied that he had ‘been told’ to go easy.
Acosta, in one source’s telling, said he ‘was told Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and to leave it alone.’
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, he dodged a pointed question about whether that version of events was true.
‘Were you ever made aware at any point in your handling of this case,’ a reporter asked Acosta, ‘that Mr. Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?’
Acosta neither confirmed nor denied it. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7234435/Acosta-wont-deny-deal-pedophile-Epstein-told-financier-spy.html
The Magical Mystery Tour
Buddhists Go to Battle: When Nationalism Overrides Pacifism
A call to arms for Sri Lankan monks. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar. A Buddhist faith known for pacifism is taking its place in a new age of nationalism.
The Buddhist abbot was sitting cross-legged in his monastery, fulminating against the evils of Islam, when the petrol bomb exploded within earshot.
But the abbot, the Venerable Ambalangoda Sumedhananda Thero, barely registered the blast. Waving away the mosquitoes swarming the night air in the southern Sri Lankan town of Gintota, he continued his tirade: Muslims were violent, he said, Muslims were rapacious.
“The aim of Muslims is to take over all our land and everything we value,” he said. “Think of what used to be Buddhist lands: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indonesia. They have all been destroyed by Islam.”
Minutes later, a monastic aide rushed in and confirmed that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at a nearby mosque. The abbot flicked his fingers in the air and shrugged. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/world/asia/buddhism-militant-rise.html
Michigan attorney general charges sixth priest with criminal sexual conduct
Michigan’s attorney general has charged a priest who spent the last 26 years at several churches around Metro Detroit with criminal sexual conduct.
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Rev. Joseph H. Baker is the sixth priest charged with criminal sexual conduct in the ongoing investigation into clergy abuse within the Catholic Church.
Baker, 57, was arrested Monday morning in Wayne County by special agents from the attorney general’s office, Nessel said. He will be arraigned Monday in 29th District Court in Wayne.
Baker is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct — sexual penetration with a person under 13 years old.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Nessel said. “Our clergy abuse investigative team is working day and night to review the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and files seized from all seven of Michigan’s dioceses last fall. At the same time, we continue to receive calls daily from victims who know we will listen to them, believe in them and investigate their allegations. They deserve nothing less than our very best.” www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan-attorney-general-charges-sixth-priest-with-criminal-sexual-conduct?breaking_news=3879&utm_content=17430390&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News%20Alert&utm_term=wdiv_breaking
Bishop to spray holy water over city from helicopter in mass exorcism of ‘demons’ this weekend
‘We have to get rid of the devil,’ says Colombian monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya
A Catholic bishop will spray holy water over an entire city from a military helicopter in an attempt to conquer the demons he believes are plaguing it.
Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya will perform the mass exorcism for the Colombian seaport of Buenaventura during the city’s annual patron saints’ festivities.
“We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura, from the air and pour holy water onto it to see if we exorcise all those demons that are destroying our port,” he told a Colombian radio station.
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
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‘Sesame Street’ has been mocking Trump since 1988 — here are some of the best moments (video)
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So Long
Jim Bouton, Author of Tell-All Baseball Memoir ‘Ball Four,’ Dies at 80
Jim Bouton, a pitcher of modest achievement but a celebrated iconoclast who left a lasting mark on baseball as the author of “Ball Four,” a raunchy, shrewd, irreverent — and best-selling — player’s diary that tainted the game’s wholesome image, died on Wednesday at his home in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. He was 80.
His wife, Paula Kurman (who declined to identify his town of residence), said he died after a long struggle with vascular dementia. Bouton had a stroke in 2012, and in 2017 revealed that he had cerebral amyloid angiopathy, a brain disease.
“Ball Four,” published in 1970, reported on the selfishness, dopiness, childishness and meanspiritedness of young men often lionized for playing a boy’s game very well, and many readers saw it, approvingly or not, as a scandalous betrayal of the baseball clubhouse.
But the book, which was Bouton’s account of the 1969 baseball season, seven years after his big-league debut with the Yankees, had a larger narrative — namely, his attempt at age 30 to salvage a once-promising career by developing the game’s most peculiar and least predictable pitch: the knuckleball. www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/sports/baseball/jim-bouton-dead-ball-four.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage