Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

Above, one of many protests against the sellout in Greece.

Greek PM Fires His Pals, Seeks to Solidify Sellout Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sacked left-wing Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and two deputy ministers on Friday as he reshuffled his cabinet following a party revolt against a tough new bailout deal adopted this week.

The 40 year-old prime minister moved to clear out the rebels after 39 Syriza hardline lawmakers refused to back the government over the measures, which were demanded by European partners as a pre-condition for beginning talks over a new bailout.

The main economic ministries remain unchanged, with Euclid Tsakalotos remaining in place at the finance ministry and George Stathakis staying at the economy ministry.  www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/us-eurozone-greece-reshuffle-list-idUSKCN0PR1Z820150717

Business Insider: Europe’s Big Bosses Fear is the Spectre of Revolution A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Grexit.

And, as Marx would have noted with a smile if he were still alive, Europe’s leaders are now, unusually, openly worrying about whether the high cost of the Greece bailout might lead to “violence” or “revolution.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged the Bundestag to pass the bailout and keep Greece in, using these words, the Financial Times said:

She emphatically rejected the alternatives of stretching further the EU laws until they lost their meaning, and a sudden Grexit which could bring “chaos and violence” to Greece.

Late Thursday night, European Council leader Donald Tusk told the FT:

“I am really afraid of this ideological or political contagion, not financial contagion, of this Greek crisis,” said Mr Tusk.

… “For me, the atmosphere is a little similar to the time after 1968 in Europe,” he said.

“I can feel, maybe not a revolutionary mood, but something like widespread impatience. When impatience becomes not an individual but a social experience of feeling, this is the introduction for revolutions.  “www.businessinsider.com/europe-worrying-about-revolution-if-greece-goes-wrong-2015-7#ixzz3gDkq065A

The 1946 to 1949 Greek Civil War On March 24, 1945, the famed partisan leader Aris Velouhiotis wrote the following in a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE):

Why did you do this? Where are we going? Why did we shed so much blood? Why did they burn our houses for three years? Why are you handing us over without a battle? What are we going to do now? Where is our popular justice our self-government?… Reaction has raised its head…You don’t see any of this. You have been isolated from the popular masses and you have lost their pulse. Wake up. Even at this late stage it’s not too late, but soon it will be and we will then need massive sacrifices in blood and toil. Don’t let reaction permanently gain a foothold.[1]

Velouhiotis was writing in protest to what he perceived as the sell-out of the Treaty of Varkiza, that was signed by the KKE only one month before. Although the Greek Communists had led the resistance to the Nazis and liberated the bulk of the country from the Nazis, they had agreed to demobilise their armed units, accept amnesty and to hold a referendum on the monarchy. The treaty was a political disaster for the KKE, leaving their supporters defenseless before wanton White Terror at the hands of “Security Battalions” that had collaborated with the Nazi occupation.  links.org.au/node/4514

above, Greek Army of National Liberation

Anti-racism Protests in Australia (video embedded)  There have been chaotic scenes on Melbourne’s streets as anti-racism protesters and nationalists clash in demonstrations.

Anti-Islamic groups Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front (UPF) held rallies in several cities and towns on Saturday.

Subsequent anti-racism groups launched counter rallies in response to the protests, holding banners saying “No Room for Racism”.

There were violent scuffles in Melbourne, reminiscent of scenes when the two groups met during demonstrations earlier this year.

Bottles were thrown in the streets, protesters from both sides were punched and kicked as the rival groups clashed.

Some masked protesters attempted to barge through the police blockade but were met with force as officers resisted.

About 400 police members were on hand including officers mounted on horses who rammed through the crowds.

Officers used capsicum spray to subdue the crowds and protesters were seen on the ground having milk poured in their eyes.  www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-18/no-room-for-racism-and-reclaim-australia-protesters-clash/6630358

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Both School Worker Union bosses, Arne Duncan, and Bernie Sanders Endorse new BI-Partisan NCLB (The education agenda is a war agenda–class and empire’s wars)  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded the Senate’s passage of the ESEA rewrite.

He particularly touted provisions in the bill that would give states more flexibility from NCLB’s “one-size-fits-all federal mandates” and those that would reduce the burden of testing on classroom time. Duncan also cheered language in the bill that would increase access to preschool.

But he cautioned that the bill does not include enough protections for the most disadvantaged students.

“This bill still falls short of truly giving every child a fair shot at success by failing to ensure that parents and children can count on local leaders to take action when students are struggling to learn,” Duncan said.

“We need to identify which schools work and which ones don’t, so we can guarantee that every child will have the education they need,” he continued. “We cannot tolerate continued indifference to the lowest performing schools, achievement gaps that let some students fall behind, or high schools where huge numbers of students never make it to graduation.”

The two national teachers’ unions also touted the bill’s passage.

“This bill reflects a paradigm shift away from the one-size-fits-all assessments that educators know hurt students, diminish learning, and narrow the curriculum and that they fought to change,” said National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen Garcia.  blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/07/senate_passes_esea_rewrite_wit.html

Sanders lied And Bernie said he was going to “End No Child Left Behind” yet he voted for this extension of the same.

Right now, Democrats seem to be under the impression that the only way to tell if a school is doing a good job is to engage in high stakes testing and only use the test scores as a guide.

Which is utter bullshit. The only thing a test score shows is parental income.  www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/17/1403177/-Bernie-Sanders-Just-Broke-A-Promise#

Students (little pieces of capital) Matter Rolls Over Opt Out Movement which both loses and teaches people nothing significant An education advocacy group sued 13 California school districts Thursday, claiming that they have ignored a state law requiring teachers’ performance evaluations to include student standardized test scores.

The lawsuit targets the largest school systems in the state that have barred such use of test results through collective-bargaining agreements with teachers unions. These contract provisions are illegal under state law, according to the complaint, which was filed in Contra Costa County.

The litigation represents the latest effort by Students Matter, a Los Angeles-based group that has turned to California courts to make changes in education law that were otherwise blocked at the state and local levels. The organization was founded by tech entrepreneur David F. Welch to build on other attempts to limit teacher job protections and hold them more accountable for student achievement.

Many states and school systems are using scores in instructors’ performance reviews in part because the Obama administration has offered them incentives, including grants and exemptions from some federal rules and penalties. The practice is among those favored by such influential organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and typically opposed by teacher unions.

Students Matter scored a victory last year when a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles ruled that several teacher job protections were unconstitutional. That case, Vergara vs. California, was watched nationally and spawned similar litigation in New York. The California ruling is on hold pending appeals.  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-suit-teacher-evaluations-20150716-story.html

Test scores inside Capital’s schools–rankings, and real estate, again When real estate agents are trying to sell a house to young parents, and make recommendations on where to send their kids to school if they move in, that weighs heavily in the family’s decision. (Anecdotally, I’ve heard this is pretty common.)

Both Zillow and Trulia pull their data from GreatSchools, a nonprofit that provides profiles of K-12 schools nationally. They’re supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Walton Family Foundation.

School rankings are only one part of what they do. They also provide space for principals and staff to create a profile for the school and list some of the things that make it unique. It’s really designed to be a resource for parents, where they can get answers to questions like what schools they should choose, or what sorts of things kids should know by the end of second grade.

Now, on to the rankings. You can search by ZIP code, city or school. When you find what you’re looking for, you’ll see a number, 1 through 10, which will tell you how the school stacks up. Rankings 1-3 mean the school is below average; 4-7 is average; and 8-10 is above average.  www.voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/the-learning-curve1/the-learning-curve-where-real-estate-sites-school-scores-come-from/?utm_source=Voice+of+San+Diego+Master+List&utm_campaign=02f9e018c2-What_We_Learned_This_Week&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2357fd0a3-02f9e018c2-81862829&goal=0_c2357fd0a3-02f9e018c2-81862829

Corruption is endemic in Capitalist Schools  A former cheerleading coach for Farmington High School is charged with a felony after allegedly stealing $9,737 from the team’s account.

Westland resident Kandice Hernandez, 25, faces one count of larceny by conversion. She was in Farmington Hills’ 47th District Court July 10 with her attorney, Jonathan Jones, for a pre-exam conference, when Judge Marla Parker adjourned it until July 22.

According to Ted Warthman, Farmington Public Safety’s deputy director, Hernandez admitted taking the funds for her personal use. “She used them for all kinds of things — rent payment, airline tickets to Florida …” he said.  www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/07/12/cheer-coach-stealing-farmington/30045803/

Secret Teacher on the Absence of Day To Day Solidarity  Our teaching was the same as last year, our staffing was the same too, the exam paper was no harder or easier and we had taught, coached, and supported our students. But despite all this, we found ourselves plunged into an ice cold bath of sympathetic looks in the corridor, sitting alone in cross-curricular meetings, and from that moment on we were blamed for everything from falling numbers in sixth-form classes to rising sea levels.

People I used to consider friends in other departments went out of their way to avoid talking to me at the photocopier. You would think as a department we would have pulled together, supported each other even, but competition over results breeds hostility not team work. Grown women gave each other the silent treatment over whether a non-attender’s D grade should affect the class average points score of Miss New-Teacher who originally taught her, or Mrs Long-Suffering who took her halfway through the course.

There is an attitude among staff that failure is contagious. Teachers operate in a sort of pack mentality; someone is sniffed out as being in some way less capable and are very quickly shunned. www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/aug/23/secret-teacher-pack-mentality-fail-colleagues-help?CMP=share_btn_fb

Pre-K and K on the barricades for kids The war against childhood continues.  Children are no longer generally free to roam, play, and explore on their own, as they were in the past and are designed by nature to do (here). Parents who allow such play are being arrested (here and here (link is external)).  Schools throughout the country have eliminated or greatly curtailed recesses.

The last bastion in the battle to preserve childhood appears to be preschools and kindergartens, where some play still exists.  But ground is quickly being lost there, too, despite the efforts of some teachers to hold on.

I have spoken in recent months at several conferences of early childhood educators, mostly preschool and kindergarten teachers.  At each, I’ve heard passionate descriptions of struggles to preserve play.  They are battling the effects of No Child Left Behind  www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201507/k-preschool-teachers-last-stand-in-war-childhood

Plagiarism Watch Matthew Whitaker at Arizona State University is revising a textbook about modern African-American history after it was found to contain “unattributed and poorly paraphrased material,” according to a statement from the author.

The revised version of the book Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama will include “a statement of apology and admission of error.”

As a result, Whitaker has been demoted to Associate Professor (from full Professor), costing him $20,000 per year in salary and stipend, according to The Arizona Republic. His previous salary was $163,530.

In addition, a Phoenix Councilman is calling for him to lose a nearly $270,000 contract to provide the Phoenix Police Department with “cultural consciousness training.”

An anonymously-penned blog levied plagiarism accusations against Whitaker last year. In May of 2014, Inside Higher Ed confirmed similarities between several passages in the book and those on Archive of American Television, in a book called African American Odyssey (4th edition), and on Infoplease.com.

Following these concerns, “an investigation ensued in keeping with ASU policy,” according to an e-mail from ASU interim University Provost Mark Searle, which was sent to faculty and obtained by The Arizona Republic. According to Whitaker’s statement, he’s the one who “alerted ASU administration.”

When we contacted Whitaker, we got a reply back from Mark Johnson from ASU media relations: “I have attached Dr. Whitaker’s letter, which will serve as his only comment.”  retractionwatch.com/2015/07/13/asu-professor-is-demoted-will-correct-textbook-following-unattributed-and-poorly-paraphrased-material/

Plagiarism Watch II   An architecture professor at the University of Arizona has been sanctioned — lightly — for plagiarizing from the thesis of one of her masters’ students.

According to a report in the Arizona Daily Star, the professor, Susannah Dickinson:

received a “formal admonishment” from the university’s provost after the student accused Dickinson of poaching material from his master’s thesis and presenting it as her own.…

Nicholas Johnson, 28, the alumnus who reported Dickinson, said pursuing the matter was an exhaustive effort that ended in disappointment.

In one of the cases he complained about, the UA’s own analysis showed “roughly 20 percent” of a conference paper Dickinson wrote was copied from Johnson’s thesis without citations or footnotes. Even so, the UA ruled no plagiarism occurred in that instance.

Johnson, who works for a local architectural firm, said the situation has left him afraid to publish his thesis, lest it appear that he plagiarized his professor rather than the other way around.

Although Dickinson removed from the web a document containing lifted chunks of Johnson’s work, she was not forced to remove the conference paper. Why? According to the Daily Star, Dickinson’s citation of Johnson’s work in the manuscript immunized her against the plagiarism charge:  retractionwatch.com/2014/10/01/arizona-prof-plagiarizes-students-thesis-gets-reprimanded-but-keeps-her-job/

UMich picks up $169 Million from Nike Michigan interim athletic director Jim Hackett didn’t hesitate when asked whether U-M’s Nike contract was the largest in the nation.

Maybe because he couldn’t see the next one back.

According to a term sheet dated July 6, Michigan would receive $169 million over the 15-year agreement, with $12 million in upfront money, $76.8 million in additional cash over the course of the deal and $80.2 million in apparel for the school’s 31 teams. That is an average of $11.3 million per year.

Michigan has the ability to opt out of the contract after 11 years. The deal, which starts next August, would be worth a total of $122.3 million if U-M declines the option years (2027-31).

The numbers seem to dwarf the previously reported biggest deal: Notre Dame’s 10-year, $90-million contract with Under Armour. But according to a story from espn.com business writer Darren Rovell, a person with knowledge of Notre Dame’s contract said it’s still bigger than U-M’s on an annual basis.  http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2015/07/15/michigan-nike-contract/30186381/

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Marines Deploy to Bulgaria as “Deterrence Force” About 1,750 North Carolina-based Marines have deployed to Europe for a six-month rotation, including a brand new contingent that will operate in Bulgaria amid growing Russian aggression.

About 150 Marines will be the first to form the Combined Arms Company, which will operate out of Novo Selo Training Area in Bulgaria. The new force is designed to soothe European allies concerned by Russian saber-rattling, but they can also respond to crises in Europe and Africa.  www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/07/18/lejeune-marines-first-deploy-new-deterrence-force-bulgaria/30264873/

Those cluster bombs in Laos  “We need our land to be cleared of bombs,” he said. “If it weren’t for the bombs, I could multiply my production.”

During the bombing the mountain minorities of Laos suffered horribly. In the end it no longer mattered what side you took. The bombs didn’t distinguish between communists and anticommunists any more than they distinguished between soldiers and children. As the bombing accelerated, women used their expertise in embroidery and quilting to depict the catastrophe that fell out of the sky on them. With their images of bleeding children, burning crops, and terrified animals, their wall-size works of art are Laotian equivalents of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica.”   http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/laos/allman-text

Every year in San Diego

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKbKhd3JYkA

and then it’s “Thanks for your service; see ya next year.”

Nearly one in three adults too too fat for military—slenderize the school munition factories The nation’s obesity epidemic is causing significant recruiting problems for the military, with one in three young adults nationwide too fat to enlist, according to report issued Wednesday by a group of retired military leaders.

The nonprofit, non-partisan group called Mission: Readiness (Military Leaders for Kids) is promoting healthy school lunches in Kansas and across the nation as a way to combat the problem. In Kansas, 29 percent of teenagers are overweight, according to figures it cites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About a third of American children and teens are considered obese or overweight.

“We think a more healthy lifestyle over the long term will have significant impacts on both the military posture — those available to get into the military — and across our society as a whole from a medical perspective,” retired Brig. Gen. John Schmader said in a phone interview ahead of the report’s release.

Obesity is among the leading causes of military ineligibility among people ages 17 to 24, the report notes. Others are a lack of adequate education, a criminal history or drug use.

All those put together mean that 71 percent of Kansans are ineligible for military service, according to the group.

The military has also seen a 61 percent rise in obesity since 2002 among its active duty forces, driving up obesity-related health care spending and costs to replace unfit military personnel, the report said.

Schmader, who retired from the military after 32 years and now lives near Leavenworth, is among a group of retired military leaders who has been going to schools around the state promoting healthier lifestyles.  http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/15/report-nearly-1-in-3-young-adults-too-fat-for-military/30178023/

UK pilots embedded with coalition allies’ forces have been conducting air strikes over Syria against the Islamic State group, it has emerged.This is despite UK MPs voting in 2013 against military action in Syria.

About 20 personnel, including three pilots, have been embedded with US, Canadian and French forces, the BBC understands. The UK defence secretary has recently urged MPs to back UK involvement in Syria. Michael Fallon has said MPs’ approval would be needed before any new action.

The Ministry of Defence said the pilots were operating as foreign troops. In response to a Freedom of Information request, submitted by the human rights group Reprieve, the MoD confirmed that some UK military personnel had been involved in military action against IS over Syrian airspace.  http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33562420

Ex Afghan Puppet and gang complain about Afghan new puppets 1. May: A statement from Karzai’s office on the memorandum of understanding between Afghan and Pakistani spy agencies.

“Former president Hamid Karzai expresses his deep concerns over MOU between [the two agencies]. He asks the leaders of government to immediately cancel the MOU and to avoid the signature of any document that is against national interests in the future.”

2. June: On a U.S. drone attack in Khost province.

“Karzai strongly condemns the drone attack that killed around 30 civilians and also wounded a number of civilians. He considers the attack against human values and asks foreign troops to stop any type of operations against Afghans.”  www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/07/18/ex-afghan-president-karzai-and-his-aides-question-u-s-backed-government-and-its-allies/?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z8

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

After Years of Not Prosecuting Banks, Holder Goes to Work Defending them, again After failing to criminally prosecute any of the financial firms responsible for the market collapse in 2008, former Attorney General Eric Holder is returning to Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm known for serving Wall Street clients.

Pilger: the problem with Greece  The leaders of Syriza are revolutionaries of a kind – but their revolution is the perverse, familiar appropriation of social democratic and parliamentary movements by liberals groomed to comply with neo-liberal drivel and a social engineering whose authentic face is that of Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s finance minister, an imperial thug. Like the Labour Party in Britain and its equivalents among former social democratic parties such as the Labor Party in Australia, still describing themselves as “liberal” or even “left”,  Syriza is the product of an affluent, highly privileged, educated middle class, “schooled in postmodernism”, as Alex Lantier wrote.

For them, class (add imperialism and you have nearly the whole of the US’ counterfeit socialist left) is the unmentionable, let alone an enduring struggle, regardless of the reality of the lives of most human beings. Syriza’s luminaries are well-groomed; they lead not the resistance that ordinary people crave, as the Greek electorate has so bravely demonstrated, but “better terms” of a venal status quo that corrals and punishes the poor. When merged with “identity politics” and its insidious distractions, the consequence is not resistance, but subservience. “Mainstream” political life in Britain exemplifies this.

This is not inevitable, a done deal, if we wake up from the long, postmodern coma and reject the myths and deceptions of those who claim to represent us, and fight.  http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-problem-of-greece-is-not-only-a-tragedy-it-is-a-lie

Gas Prices Skyrocket in West  Gasoline prices have reached as high as $5 a gallon in the region, and experts predict the daily double-digit increases that began last week could continue a few more days before retreating.

Prices have risen 50 cents a gallon from a week ago in the Los Angeles-Long Beach region amid a shortage of refined petroleum, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The Tesoro Corp. plant in Carson, for instance, just reduced its refining capacity to perform maintenance. That followed Tesoro’s move in February to idle its Northern California refinery in Martinez after a nationwide union walkout. Then Exxon Mobil Corp. scaled back operations at its Torrance facility after an explosion in February damaged an air pollution monitoring unit.

“The market is responding to all of these pressures,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the Auto Club. “Until the refineries resolve the problems … prices will probably continue to go up at the gas stations.”

Statewide, the average price for a gallon of regular gas stood at $3.72. The Auto Club put Monday’s average price at $4.05 in the L.A. area.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20150713-story.html?lat

Black Children more likely to live in poverty Black children were almost four times as likely as white children to be living in poverty in 2013, a new report has found, the latest evidence that the economic recovery is leaving behind some of the United States’ most vulnerable citizens.

The share of American children living in poverty fell to about 20 percent in 2013 from 22 percent in 2010, according to the report by the Pew Research Center, which analyzed data from the United States Census Bureau.

But the poverty rate remained stable for black children, while it fell for Hispanic, white and Asian children, a sign of just how pervasive and stubborn poverty has been for African-Americans, according to the report. About 38.3 percent of black children lived in poverty in 2013, nearly four times the rate for white children, at 10.7 percent. About 30.4 percent of Hispanic children and 10.1 percent of Asian children live in poverty.

For the first time since the federal government started collecting the data, the number of black children in poverty appears to have overtaken the number of poor white children, even though white children far outnumber black children in the American population, the report said. About 4.2 million black children were living in poverty in 2013, compared with 4.1 million white children, though researchers said the difference was not statistically significant.

A household in poverty in 2013 was defined as a family of four, two of whose members were children, living on an annual income of less than $23,624.

In actual numbers, there were still more Hispanic children in poverty, 5.4 million, than any other group, researchers said, a ranking the group has held since at least 2008. The Hispanic population is larger and younger than any other racial or ethnic group, and the child poverty rate is relatively high.www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/us/black-children-poverty-pew-research-center.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

Yippee! Hundreds of thousands of Americans to Celebrate War at Miramar Air “Show”The three-day show beginning Oct. 2 is scheduled to include a perennial crowd favorite, the Blue Angels. Their U.S. Navy demonstration squadron of Hornet F/A-18 fighter jets is flying this year with its first female pilot: Marine Capt. Katie Higgins, on the C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft dubbed “Fat Albert.”

Other military performers include parachute teams, the new F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jet, and the Marine Air-Ground Task Force demonstration of aircraft and ground troops assaulting down the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The civilian lineup includes two formations of L-39 jets — a standby in recent years of the Miramar Air Show, the Patriots Jet Team, and newcomers The Breitling Jet Team on their first U.S. tour — as well as Sean Tucker’s “Oracle Challenger,” John Collver’s “Wardog,” Chuck Aaron’s Red Bull Helicopter, and the Shockwave Jet Truck.

The Saturday-only night show features the Wall of Fire and the return of the car-munching, flame-throwing, 30-ton Robosaurus. (For a complete lineup and other information, visit www.miramarairshow.com)  http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jul/08/miramar-air-show-financials-lineup/

Laura Poitras Sues US Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras on Monday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. intelligence agencies for subjecting her to what she called “Kafkaesque” harassment at airports throughout the U.S. and the world on dozens of occasions.

Poitras, who won an Academy Award last year for Citizenfour, the documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, said she has been detained, searched without warrant, interrogated for hours, and had vital belongings confiscated more than 50 times over the course of six years—without ever being charged with a crime.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit names the DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and demands the release of all records from those agencies on Poitras.

In a statement on Monday, the filmmaker, who is being represented by the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), made clear that her lawsuit stood for more than just her own experiences.  http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/14/filmmaker-laura-poitras-sues-us-over-kafkaesque-harassment?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

Obamagogue’s Prison Charade Barack Obama attempts to create a phony legacy as the prison “reform” president by extending clemency to 46 non-violent drug offenders – not all that many, by presidential standards. Yet, he went to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep 5,000 non-violent crack-cocaine offenders locked up. Obama’s “sudden desire to look like the Great Emancipator is an ongoing publicity junket.” http://blackagendareport.com/freedom_rider_Obama_prison_charade

Canada No Safe Haven For US Troops who are on the run  When Army Sgt. Patrick Hart decided a decade ago that he would not serve in the war in Iraq, he expected to follow the same path as thousands of American war resisters during the Vietnam era and take refuge across the border.

But after five years of wrangling with the Canadian immigration system, he came back to the U.S. — and ended up in a military prison.

The country that once welcomed war resisters has developed a much different reputation during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan: Supporters say no U.S. service member who has sought legal residence in Canada, either as a refugee or on humanitarian grounds, has been successful.

“Nobody’s won,” said Hart, a Buffalo native who exhausted his legal options then turned himself in to the Army, was court-martialed for desertion and sentenced to two years in prison.

With an estimated two dozen U.S. military members still waiting out their fate in Canada, the resisters’ movement is seen as nearing a crossroads. With a national election three months away, supporters are hopeful for a Liberal Party victory and more sympathetic stance toward American military exiles, but bracing for the possibility Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper wins re-election.  www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/12/us-troops-opposed-to-war-now-find-canada-less-hospitable/30049815/

Solidarity for Never

UAW boss Williams and GM (killer car bailout) bosses laugh at workers as contract scam begins

Mr. Williams, however, was unusually generous in his praise for G.M.’s comeback, and played down the notion that the union was gearing up for a battle or even a strike against any of the three automakers.

“I am not afraid of confrontation, but I don’t want one and our members don’t want one,” Mr. Williams said to the cheers of union workers packing the ceremony at the sprawling G.M.-U.A.W. human resources center in Detroit.

Fiat Chrysler will open its talks with the union on Tuesday, and Ford Motor will follow next week. Together, the three Detroit automakers employ about 138,000 blue-collar workers across the country — about one-third of which have been hired since 2011.

The new jobs have come at a price and entry-level workers have become increasingly vocal about the disparity in pay with longtime union members. And while G.M. and Ford have distributed big profit-sharing checks to workers in recent years, the union has not had an across-the-board wage increase in more than a decade.   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/14/business/gm-is-first-of-big-3-to-open-contract-talks-with-the-uaw.html?_r=0

Capitalist unions have Lots of Assets: NEA in 2013 held $299,734,126  www.unionfacts.com/union/National_Education_Association#basic-tab

AFT Ranks Cry they want to choose a pol other than Hillbillary to oppress them–told to stuff it–quit the union A functionary of the American Federation of Teachers explains how AFT members have no right to public dissent of  AFT leadership decisions and if they don’t like what the AFT leadership did by endorsing Hillary Clinton for president 16 months out, they’re free to leave the union: “If you can’t abide by it, then you always have right to leave” flack Leo Casey twitted

The Modern American version of the 20th Century Second International (which cheered WWI), DSA, responds to the AFT endorsement of Hillbillary  http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18184/AFT_endorsement_clinton

UTLA Deep In Debt (staff salaries, etc) and Dumps Strike fund to bolster bottom line UTLA, the LA Unified teachers union, has been operating at a deficit for seven of the last 10 years, the union’s treasurer, Arlene Inouye, wrote in the group’s May newsletter.

She said union officials approved deficit budgets for three years during the past decade, but when actual expenses were applied, the union overspent in four additional years since 2006,

Contributing to the deficits, she wrote, were a variety of rising costs, including “representational services, communications, staff health care and other insurance, organizational expenses and technology.”

Another factor she cited in contributing the the deficits has been the drop in membership. Inouye said the union has lost 10,000 members since 2007.

Overall, she wrote in her report, which is available on the UTLA website, the union has lost “more than $2.5 million” over the last three years.

And another year in the red may be looming: The union’s budget for the 2015-2016, she said, “projects an operating deficit of approximately $1.5 million, which is roughly $425,000 more than the $1.1 million operating deficit approved with last year’s budget.”

The deficit would be offset “by the additional dues revenue from the salary increases” in the union’s new contract with LA Unified. Also helping is a transfer of $3 million from the union’s strike fund to the general fund.  laschoolreport.com/utla-treasurer-explains-a-decade-of-budget-deficits-with-more-looming/

NEA’s Boss Eskelsen-Garcia Gushes over NCLB The National Education Association’s Lily Eskelsen Garcia was more jubilant. “Every student in America will be better off under this legislation than the generation of students wronged by ‘No Child Left Untested,’” she said. “This bill reflects a paradigm shift away from the one-size-fits-all assessments that educators know hurt students, diminish learning, and narrow the curriculum and that they fought to change. Now, Congress must act swiftly to reconcile the House and Senate legislation and get a bill to the President’s desk.”  www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/16/no-child-left-behind-senate-overhaul_n_7812556.html

 

Prison Guard Union wants better deal for members–more prisoner = more dues  Michigan AFSCME Council 25 says it will challenge the state’s new prison food contract with Trinity Services Group.

The state announced the deal with the private Florida-based company Monday after ending ties with Aramark over months of complaints.

Nick Ciaramitaro, legislative director for AFSCME Council 25, said handing the contract over without first opening it up to other bidders is unlawful.

“We’re simply exchanging one private vendor for another with no evidence that things are going to improve,” Ciaramitaro said.

Trinity Services Group bid on Michigan’s prison food contract in 2013, before it went to Aramark for $145 million.

Ciaramitaro said the state’s new three-year $158 million deal with Trinity is “penny wise, pound foolish.”   http://michiganradio.org/post/union-wants-stop-michigans-new-prison-food-contract#stream/0

Spy versus Spy

above, Arne Duncan and former NEA prezzie Dennis Van Roekel, now retired at Edication International.

Education International (CIA) Conference Upcoming Around 1,000 delegates, 700 observers and 100 visitors are confirmed to be in Ottawa, Canada from 21-26 July making it the best attended Congress in the history of Education International (EI). The world’s largest federation of education organisations and unions, EI represents 32 million teachers and education employees in about 400 organisations in over 170 countries and territories.

In less than two weeks, delegates will debate the major contemporary current issues pertaining to educators’ status, the trade union movement, and ways to achieve quality public education for all around the globe. The Congress’s theme “Unite for Quality Education — Better Education for a Better World” provides the framework for the discussions at the Congress, which follows the global campaign of the same name.

The EI World Congress, held every four years, sets the priorities and agenda for the organisation. It provides an opportunity for representatives of EI affiliates from all over the globe to meet and decide on the policies and strategies for the following four year period. www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/3608

EI’s Exec Board (note NEA and AFT) www.ei-ie.org/en/executive_boards/index/5318

Suit filed vs Continuing Zombie Dragnet of Our electronics  “Today the government is continuing – after a brief suspension – to collect Americans’ call records in bulk on the purported authority of precisely the same statutory language this court has already concluded does not permit it,” the ACLU writes in a motion filed on Tuesday before the second circuit court of appeals.

The venue is significant. On 7 May, as Congress debated ending the domestic phone-records collection, the second circuit ruled the collection was illegal. Yet it did not order Obama’s administration to cease the bulk collection, writing that a preferable option would be to stay out of the unfolding legislative battle over the future scope of US surveillance.

That debate ended on 2 June with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which reinstated expired provisions of the Patriot Act that the government had since 2006 relied upon – erroneously, in the second circuit’s view – for the bulk collection. Yet it ended the NSA’s bulk US phone records collection and created a new mechanism for the NSA to gather “call data records” from telecoms pursuant to a court order.

Within hours of signing the bill, Obama requested that the secret surveillance panel known as the Fisa court reinstate the dragnet, relying on a provision permitting a six-month “transition” period. Judge Michael Mosman granted the request on 29 June.  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/14/nsa-zombie-dragnet-bulk-phone-data-court

Friendly Reminder: Operation Chaos During the life of Operation CHAOS, the CIA had compiled personality files on over 13,000 individuals including more than 7,000 U.S. citizens as well as files on over 1,000 domestic groups. (17)

The CIA had shared information on more than 300,000 persons with different law enforcement agencies including the DIA and FBI. It had spied on, burglarized, intimidated, misinformed, lied to, deceived, and carried out criminal acts against thousands of citizens of the United States. It had placed itself above the law, above the Constitution, and in contempt of international diplomacy and the United States Congress. It had violated its charter and had contributed either directly or indirectly to the resignation of a President of the United States. It had tainted itself beyond hope.

Of all this, the CIA’s blatant contempt for the rights of individuals was the worst. This record of deceit and illegality, implored Congress as well as the President to take extreme measures to control the Agency’s activities. However, except for a few cosmetic changes made for public consumption such as the Congressional intelligence oversight committee nothing has been done to control the CIA. In fact, subsequent administrations have chosen to use the CIA for domestic operations as well. These renewed domestic operations began with Gerald Ford, were briefly limited by Jimmy Carter, and then extended dramatically by Ronald Reagan.

Any hope of curbing these illegal activities is scant. www.serendipity.li/cia/lyon.html

The Magical Mystery Tour

12 years for Priest/molester  A Catholic priest who worked at a Detroit high school was sentenced to 12 years in prison today after he pleaded guilty to transporting child porn to Chicago and admitted to sexually assaulting a former student.

Fr. Richard James Kurtz, 70, was a chemistry teacher years ago at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in Detroit.

Kurtz, who was brought in the courtroom Tuesday shackled and handcuffed, read a statement before Judge Mark Goldsmith, saying he was “deeply sorry” for his actions.

“Words can’t express how much remorse I feel,” Kurtz said. “… Some of my victims have names that are known to me. I am guilty of capturing images of them for my perverse pleasure. … The damage I’ve done must be borne by them for time to come. I accept full responsibility for betraying them.”…

Kurtz’s child porn collection was discovered in 2011 by priests who were packing his belongings at former residences in Clarkston, Mich., and Chicago.

According to federal court documents, the priests observed material containing images of underage boys, both clothed and nude. The images were turned over to the FBI, who discovered more than 2,300 images of child pornography on various computer media, floppy disks, printed pictures and photographic paper.  http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/07/14/detroit-priest-child-porn-sentencing/30123239/

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Boltman: 49 year old man begs San Diego Council to buy Chargers a stadium, yet he sued the Chargers for the cost of his outfit.

Lesson for American 2nd internationalists (that would be you DSA , your front Rethinking Schools and many others)  ignore imperialist war, popular fascism, and capitalitsm itself and they strive to “save” the myth of public schooling: Lenin We have no need of cramming, but we do need to develop and perfect the mind of every student with a knowledge of fundamental facts. Communism will become an empty word, a mere signboard, and a Communist a mere boaster, if all the knowledge he has acquired is not digested in his mind. You should not merely assimilate this knowledge, but assimilate it critically, so as not to cram your mind with useless lumber, but enrich it with all those facts that are indispensable to the well-educated man of today. If a Communist took it into his head to boast about his communism becaused of the cut-and-dried conclusions he had acquired, without putting in a great deal of serious and hard work and without understanding facts he should examine critically, he would be a deplorable Communist indeed. Such superficiality would be decidedly fatal. If I know that I know little, I shall strive to learn more; but if a man says that he is a Communist and that he need not know anything thoroughly, he will never become anything like a Communist.

The old schools produced servants needed by the capitalists; the old schools turned men of science into men who had to write and say whatever pleased the capitalists. We must therefore abolish them. But does the fact that we must abolish them, destroy them, mean that we should not take from them everything mankind has accumulated that is essential to man? Does it mean that we do not have to distinguish between what was necessary to capitalism and what is necessary to communism?

We are replacing the old drill-sergeant methods practised in bourgeois society, against the will of the majority, with the class-conscious discipline of the workers and peasants, who combine hatred of the old society with a determination, ability and readiness to unite and organise their forces for this struggle so as to forge the wills of millions and hundreds of millions of people — disunited, and scattered over the territory of a huge country — into a single will, without which defeat is inevitable. Without this solidarity, without this conscious descipline of the workers and peasants, our cause is hopeless. Without this, we shall be unable to vanquish the capitalists and landowners of the whole world. We shall not even consolidate the foundation, let alone build a new, communist society on that foundation. Likewise, while condemning the old schools, while harbouring an absolutely justified and necessary hatred for the old schools, and appreciating the readiness to destroy them, we must realise that we must replace the old system of instruction, the old cramming and the old drill, with an ability to acquire the sum total of human knowledge, and to acquire it in such a way that communism shall not be something to be learned by rote, but something that you yourselves have thought over, something that will embody conclusions inevitable from the standpoint of present-day education.  https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/oct/02.htm

That is the way the main tasks should be presented when we speak of the aim: learn communism.

Video: California surf nazis   Lunada Bay is famous not just for its waves but also its “Bay Boys” – self-professed locals who have monopolised the spot for decades by intimidating outsiders.

When a Guardian reporter and photographer recently visited, clutching surfboards, the Bay Boys warned us to leave immediately.

“The reason there’s a lot of space is because we keep it like that. We fucking hassle people,” said one man in his fifties as he pulled on a wetsuit and prepared to paddle out. Like the others, he declined to give his name.

They would sabotage any outsider’s attempt to surf, he said: “We’ll burn you every single wave.” Violence was a last resort because it could lead to criminal charges and hiring a lawyer, he said. “That’ll cost me 10 grand. I don’t want to go through that shit again.”

Four other surfers – mostly middle-aged, all men – made similar threats and said we were being monitored from the cliffs.

www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/may/18/california-surf-wars-lunada-bay-localism-surfing

So Long