Why Are Things As They Are?

Rouge Forum Dispatch: Sow the Wind……

We Say Fight Back!

The Dance of the Dialectic to Dance the Summer Away! (Ross)

Common Core and Reification: “Reification has a least three consequence/causes: first when they reify reading instruction, teachers and administrators lose sight of the fact that reading instruction is a human process; second, reification of the scientific
study of reading instruction as the commercial programs means that their knowledge of reading and instruction is frozen in a single technological form, and third, the reification of learning as test scores requires that they define their work simply as the efficient and effective delivery of this closed system.” (Patrick Shannon, A Marxist Reading of Reading Education)

above, San Diego school workers’ caucus attacking Sptd Cindy Marten’s (Ravitch’s fave sptd) demand that each school layoff one teacher. At a June board meeting, Marten said, “I pass,” in regard to her regular report as the meeting was disrupted by angry staff.

On the Threshold: Class Struggle in Delhi This comprehensive documentary is a product of over a year of conversations with workers in the area. The first part documents the general working and living conditions in Delhi’s industrial belt. The second part focuses on the series of occupations and riots at Maruti Suzuki plant. The third part portrays the debate within the political left about these struggles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F7eYpzD8c8

Read to them In between dispensing advice on breast-feeding and immunizations, doctors will tell parents to read aloud to their infants from birth, under a new policy that the American Academy of Pediatrics will announce on Tuesday.

With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor.

“It should be there each time we touch bases with children,” said Dr. Pamela High, who wrote the new policy. It recommends that doctors tell parents they should be “reading together as a daily fun family activity” from infancy. This is the first time the academy — which has issued recommendations on how long mothers should nurse their babies and advises parents to keep children away from screens until they are at least 2 — has officially weighed in on early literacy education. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/us/pediatrics-group-to-recommend-reading-aloud-to-children-from-birth.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpBlogHeadline&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Ross’ Photos from the Rouge Forum Conference 2014 https://www.flickr.com/photos/ewayne/with/8580582865/

The Little Red Schoolhouse

above, John Covington–capitalist school hustler (one among so many)

KC’s Failed School Boss Covington Collects 3/4 Million From Detroit Schools—and Flees John Covington received more than $74,000 in severance after quitting as chancellor of the embattled Education Achievement Authority, records obtained by The Detroit News show.

Covington left the job that paid $325,000 per year on June 17, saying he had to care for his sick mother. The day before, he signed a seven-page separation agreement that agreed to pay him $74,158 in unused time and two weeks’ pay.

The EAA wasn’t obligated to pay him anything because he quit, but officials with the reform district defended the severance…

A Detroit News investigation found that credit cards issued to Covington rang up more than $240,000 in charges in two years, including $10,000 in gas for his chauffeured car and more than $178,000 in travel. A follow-up investigation this month found the EAA spent another $52,000 on travel in two months alone this year.

The separation agreement paid Covington $60,617 for 45 unused personal days and 54 unused vacation days, as well as $13,541 in salary for the rest of June. Covington worked almost three years and his contract called for him to receive 35 days off per year — 15 personal and 20 vacation days.

Using the EAA’s figures, that would mean Covington took off six days since he started in 2011. From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20140626/SCHOOLS/306260040#ixzz35ipD8tfe

Detroit Class Size to Boom Again Students, parents and community organizers said they are worried about falling enrollment, a reduction in spending on instruction and bigger classes. Under the plan, class sizes would increase from 33 to 38 students in fourth and fifth grades and from 38 to 43 in sixth through 12th grades. Kindergarten through third-grade classes would stay at 25 students. http://www.freep.com/article/20140626/NEWS01/306260199/Detroit-school-class-sizes-budget

Lucy Calkins and “Balanced Literacy” very Comfy inside Common Corpse Balanced literacy took off in New York under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who mandated the approach citywide in 2003 as one of his early efforts to shake up the school system. The city turned to Lucy Calkins, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University who was one of the early advocates of balanced literacy, to help train teachers.

The shift prompted complaints that balanced literacy was loosely organized and lacked rigorous instruction in phonics, an approach that teaches children how to sound out words. Ms. Fariña, who became deputy schools chancellor in 2004, worked to respond to those doubts, arguing that balanced literacy could be used in tandem with robust efforts in spelling and phonics. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/nyregion/new-york-schools-chancellor-carmen-farina-advocates-more-balanced-literacy.html?ref=nyregion

Chicago lays off 1,150 teachers, staff and CTU Boss Shouts a Bit Nearly 1,200 Chicago teachers and other unionized staff received layoff notices Thursday because of declining enrollment, the city’s schools chief announced. Pink slips went out to 550 teachers and 600 other members of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Public schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said the staff reductions “are driven by declining student enrollment at each of the affected schools,” which were not immediately identified. School officials told the Chicago Tribune that the teachers can reapply for the projected 1,780 vacancies to be filled in other schools and that in past reductions 60% have been rehired.

The layoffs are in addition to the 76 teachers and 68 support staffers who lost their jobs at three underperforming schools in the spring, the Chicago Sun-Times notes. Union president Karen Lewis assailed Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the board of education, calling the job cuts “yet another brutal attack on public education” and an “example of the continued destruction and decimation of neighborhood schools.”

She said 5,000 teachers, aides, librarians, technology coordinators and other staff had been laid off in the past year or so. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/26/chicago-teachers-layoffs/11416833/

Obamagogue expands use of standardized tests for special-needs and American Indian students Earlier this week, Duncan announced that the administration was tightening its oversight of states in regard to how they educate special-needs students, applying more stringent criteria. From now on, the department will not only consider whether proper procedures are being conducted but on outcomes, including how well these students score on standardized tests and the achievement gap, based on test scores, between students with and without disabilities. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/27/obama-expands-use-of-standardized-tests-for-special-needs-and-american-indian-students/

above, Felon Gandara

Sweetwater School Boss Gets Wrist Slapped for Felony A former Sweetwater Union High School District superintendent was sentenced Friday to more than seven months in jail for his role in a “pay-to-play” scandal and political corruption probe in South County.

Jesus Gandara, 57, pleaded guilty in April to a felony conspiracy charge and a misdemeanor count of failing to report gifts. Superior Court Judge Ana Espana sentenced Gandara to 220 days in jail and placed him on three years’ probation.

Gandara was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody.

He was among 15 people indicted in 2012 in a probe into a “pay-to-play” culture between contractors and officials from three school districts.

When the case was filed, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said that for years public officials regularly accepted what amounted to bribes — trips, dinners and tickets — in exchange for their votes on multimillion-dollar construction projects.

Construction company executive Henry Amigable pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for providing gifts to school board members to influence their votes. A number of other defendants — including former Sweetwater school board members Arlie Ricasa, Greg Sandoval and Pearl Quinones — have also pleaded guilty. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/jun/27/former-sweetwater-superintendent-sentenced-jail-pa/

Southwestern College: Boss Lies to Judge–and Board Retains Convict Director Arlie Ricasa has been demoted to staff counselor following her admission of guilt in the South Bay Corruption case, but for the time being, remains an employee of the college.

Governing board members voted 5-0 in support of an administrative recommendation to demote Ricasa, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of filing a false instrument in the sweeping corruption case that rocked the South County in December 2011 when armed officers raided the homes of 15 Southwestern College and Sweetwater Union High School District officials. Ricasa was charged with 33 counts – 16 felonies – by the San Diego County District Attorney. Her guilty plea helped her to avoid prison time, but forced her to resign her seat on the Sweetwater board of trustees.

College administrators initially rallied around Ricasa, but public outcry over her refusal to resign from her $125,000 EOPS directorship pressured college leaders to reconsider. A February poll conducted by The Sun found that 82 percent of district voters surveyed favored termination of Ricasa, while 4.5 percent said she should retain her administrative position. http://www.theswcsun.com/ricasa-demoted-but-remains-employed/

Obamagogue’s Pals busy smashing the unionites who elected him Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits — and an all-out public relations campaign led by former aides to President Barack Obama.

The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, will lead a national public relations drive to support a series of lawsuits aimed at challenging tenure, seniority and other job protections that teachers unions have defended ferociously. LaBolt and another former Obama aide, Jon Jones — the first digital strategist of the 2008 campaign — will take the lead in the public relations initiative….

Teachers unions have long counted on Democrats as their most loyal allies. But in the past decade, more and more big-name Democrats have split with the unions to support charter schools, tenure reform and accountability measures that hold teachers responsible for raising students’ scores on standardized tests. Read more: www.politico.com/story/2014/06/robert-gibbs-ben-labolt-legal-fight-teachers-union-incite-agency-108243.html#ixzz360E5Yi5T

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it

Who Lost Afghanistan? Taliban Mount Major Assault in Afghanistan (When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier. Kipling) In one of the most significant coordinated assaults on the government in years, the Taliban have attacked police outposts and government facilities across several districts in northern Helmand Province, sending police and military officials scrambling to shore up defenses and heralding a troubling new chapter as coalition forces prepare to depart.

The attacks have focused on the district of Sangin, historically an insurgent stronghold and one of the deadliest districts in the country for the American and British forces who fought for years to secure it. The Taliban have mounted simultaneous attempts to conquer territory in the neighboring districts of Now Zad, Musa Qala and Kajaki. In the past week, more than 100 members of the Afghan forces and 50 civilians have been killed or wounded in fierce fighting, according to early estimates from local officials.

With a deepening political crisis in Kabul already casting the presidential election and long-term political stability into doubt, the Taliban offensive presents a new worst-case situation for Western officials: an aggressive insurgent push that is seizing territory even before American troops have completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The battle in Helmand is playing out as, about 1,500 miles to the west, Iraq is losing ground to an insurgent force that advanced in the shadow of the American withdrawal there. The fear pulsing through Afghanistan is that it, too, could fall apart after the NATO-led military coalition departs in 2016.

Already, areas once heavily patrolled by American forces have grown more violent as the Afghan military and the police struggle to feed, fuel and equip themselves. The lackluster performance of the Afghan Army so far in Helmand has also evoked comparisons with Iraq, raising questions about whether the American-trained force can stand in the way of a Taliban resurgence. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/world/asia/taliban-mount-major-assault-in-afghanistan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Use of Drones for Killings Risks a War Without End, Panel Concludes in Report The Obama administration’s embrace of targeted killings using armed drones risks putting the United States on a “slippery slope” into perpetual war and sets a dangerous precedent for lethal operations that other countries might adopt in the future, according to a report by a bipartisan panel that includes several former senior intelligence and military officials.

The group found that more than a decade into the era of armed drones, the American government has yet to carry out a thorough analysis of whether the costs of routine secret killing operations outweigh the benefits. The report urges the administration to conduct such an analysis and to give a public accounting of both militants and civilians killed in drone strikes.

The findings amount to a sort of report card — one that delivers middling grades — a year after President Obama gave a speech promising new guidelines for drone strikes and greater transparency about the killing operations. The report is especially critical of the secrecy that continues to envelop drone operations and questions whether they might be creating terrorists even as they are killing them. “There is no indication that a U.S. strategy to destroy Al Qaeda has curbed the rise of Sunni Islamic extremism, deterred the establishment of Shia Islamic extremist groups or advanced long-term U.S. security interests,” the report concludes. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/use-of-drones-for-killings-risks-a-war-without-end-panel-concludes-in-report.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140626&nlid=2254121&tntemail0=y&_r=0

Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq (Mother Jones) MotherJones.com offers a greatly expanded (if now technologically outdated) version of this timeline, one that is completely sourced to primary documents and initial news accounts. It was our hope to make this second draft of history as definitive as possible. So that we won’t be fooled again.—THE EDITORS http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline

Capitalism + Failed Empire+Mysticism=ISIS (great job, CIA) Now Baghdadi’s ISIS has seized control of much of Iraq’s Sunni provinces, is consolidating its hold on two provinces in eastern Syria and is circling the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, as 300 newly dispatched American military advisers arrive in Iraq to assess what the United States can do to stop its advance.

Insurgent records suggest that the United States will find it difficult to rout an organization whose structure and attention to detail allowed it to prosper even during the toughest U.S. counterterrorism efforts of the last decade. U.S. officials believed, incorrectly, that the group had been vanquished.

This rare, in-depth look into the seed money and organizational structure of the militant organization comes from the Department of Defense’s classified Harmony Database, a repository of more than a million documents gathered from Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones. Some 200 Iraq-related documents _ personal letters, expense reports, membership rosters _ were declassified in the past year through West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center for the use of RAND Corp. researchers looking into the evolution of al Qaida in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq, the precursors to ISIS. Some analysis of the documents, which haven’t yet been published, was discussed with McClatchy to lend context to the current crisis.

The documents provide a cautionary tale as the Iraqi government pleads for U.S. military assistance to beat back ISIS’s brazen new campaign. The records reveal that previous incarnations of ISIS have shown an extraordinary ability to regroup even after military defeats.

That’s the direct result of ISIS’s aggressive and diverse fundraising arm, said Patrick B. Johnston, a RAND Corp. expert on militant financing who’s analyzing the declassified documents and preparing them for book-length publication later this year.

Obamagogue wants another $500 Million for Jihadists (whence the Taliban, AQ, ISIS?) President Obama requested $500 million from Congress on Thursday to train and equip what the White House is calling “appropriately vetted” members of the Syrian opposition, reflecting increased worry about the spillover of the Syrian conflict into Iraq. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/world/middleeast/obama-seeks-500-million-to-train-and-equip-syrian-opposition.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Immunity for US Troops in Iraq? The Defense Department said Monday that the U.S. military advisers headed to Iraq to try to shore up the embattled central government there will be protected against potential criminal prosecution for their actions in the war-torn country.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, responded to days of questions from reporters asking whether the Iraqi government had granted a blanket immunity to the up to 300 military advisers President Barack Obama dispatched last week.

“I can confirm for you that Iraq has provided acceptable assurances on the issue of protections for those personnel via the exchange of diplomatic note,” Kirby said in a statement.

Kirby, however, stopped short of using the word “immunity” to describe the scope of the protections. Read more here: www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/06/23/231226/pentagon-wont-use-i-word-in-saying.html?sp=/99/200/#storylink=cpy

From a Familiar Document “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: ” http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

Puppets in Ukraine Sign Deal With EU Shrugging off Russian threats and a burgeoning civil war, Ukraine signed a landmark trade deal Friday binding it to the European Union, a monumental step that came in defiance of months of Kremlin efforts to prevent the country from turning westward.

The move prompted a top Russian diplomat to warn immediately of “serious consequences” for Ukraine. A cease-fire that has brought some measure of calm to the country’s roiling east was extended until Monday, and E.U. leaders hinted that they would slap more sanctions on Russia if it does not take steps to achieve peace by that deadline.

The document signed Friday was the same one that was rejected in November by Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych. That decision sparked months of protests by pro-Western Ukrainians, a crackdown by Yanukovych and his eventual ouster in February, generating the highest tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-signs-landmark-agreement-with-eu/2014/06/27/8e6ca59a-fdd2-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html?hpid=z4

Ukrainian Puppets? A Reminder:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ1ktLS4UhU

Who Lost Libya (that would be Obamagogue, Hillbillary, Susan Rice and more) Libyan human rights activist Salwa Bughaighis killed A prominent Libyan human rights lawyer and activist has been assassinated in her home in Benghazi.

Armed men fought their way into the house of Salwa Bughaighis before shooting her. Ms Bughaighis was an outspoken critic of many of the armed groups, which still control much of Libya.

Her husband Issam has disappeared, and relatives believe he has been kidnapped. The killing is the latest in a string of attacks on politicians, activists and journalists who have spoken out against the actions of certain militias. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28031537

The Most Expensive Plane in the History of the World May not Work so Well It is supposed to be the headliner of the show next month, when the most-expensive fighter jet ever built makes its international debut in England. There will be plenty of other planes at the Farnborough Air Show, but none will get as much attention as the F-35 Lightning II, the futuristic sleek and stealthy jet that proponents say is unparalleled in the history of human flight.

But this week, an F-35A, the Air Force’s variant of the much-heralded plane, caught fire, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff and leading to the suspension of scores of training flights across the country, as investigators scramble to figure out what went wrong. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-f-35-flights-remain-grounded-ahead-of-international-debut-doubts-rise-about-jet/2014/06/27/adeefebc-fe05-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html?hpid=z5

June 28th, 1914, became an excuse for this kind of mass industrialized scientific mutual slaughter (and a revolution)

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/06/25/us-economy-shrinks-by-most-since-great-recession/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxbusiness%2Flatest+(Internal+-+Latest+News+-+Text)

U.S. Economy Shrinks by Most in Five Years Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, fell at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.9% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said in its third reading of the data Wednesday.

That was a sharp downward revision from the previous estimate that output fell at an annual rate of 1%. It also represented the fastest rate of decline since the recession, and was the largest drop recorded since the end of World War II that wasn’t part of a recession….”We just don’t see consumer spending coming back to the levels that they were before,” Virginia McDowell, chief executive of Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc., recently told investors at a presentation of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings. “We continue to get pressured on the top line because our consumer spending habits have changed,” Ms. McDowell said. http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-gdp-contracted-at-2-9-pace-in-first-quarter-1403699600

Emergency Jobless Benefits Cut-Off Has Hit Nearly 300,000 Veterans The number of jobless veterans who’ve lost access to federal jobless benefits since Congress allowed Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) to expire at the end of last year — which we estimated at the end of February was close to 200,000 and counting — will reach an estimated 285,000 by the end of this month.

EUC provided additional weeks of unemployment benefits to people who could not find a new job before exhausting their regular state benefits, which run for up to 26 weeks in most states. About 1.3 million workers were cut off from EUC when the program expired on December 28, according to the most recent Labor Department estimates, and another 1.6 million have exhausted their regular state benefits in the first six months of this year.

We estimate that about 1 in 10 EUC recipients were veterans (based on the Census Bureau’s March Current Population Survey, which shows that over the last three years, 9.7 percent of unemployment insurance recipients who were looking for work for between 27 and 73 weeks were veterans). Applying that percentage to the Labor Department totals, about 285,000 veterans have been cut off from EUC — about 130,000 when the program expired December 28 and even more since then who have exhausted their regular benefits and not received any EUC.

In February, we urged Congress to act quickly to reauthorize EUC retroactively to restore benefits to those who’d already lost them and keep the total number of vets — and other long-term unemployed workers — denied emergency jobless benefits from continuing to grow.

Congress hasn’t acted yet — and the numbers keep growing. http://www.offthechartsblog.org/emergency-jobless-benefits-cut-off-has-hit-nearly-300000-veterans/

NYT Interactive Graphic on Foreclosed Homes in Detroit http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/27/us/detroit-foreclosure-photo-mosaic.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot

Foreclosing Detroit In a city that desperately needs to hold onto residents, there is a virtual pipeline out. At least 70,000 foreclosures have taken place since 2009 because of delinquent property taxes. And more than 43,000 properties — more than one in 10 in this city — were subject to foreclosure this year, some of them headed for a public auction where prices can start as low as $500. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/us/detroit-needs-residents-but-sends-some-packing.html?ref=us

Detroit endures 6 homicides, 9 shootings in 24 hours A bloody Thursday extended into more violence Friday as the city suffered nine shootings and six homicides within a 24-hour period. Of the six homicides, five were from gunshot wounds and the sixth was from a fatal beating.

The violence included a neighbor finding the body of a 30-year-old man stretched out between two houses at 8:55 a.m. Thursday in the 15800 block of Billtmore. According to police, the victim had been severely beaten and died from blunt force trauma to the head. From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20140627/METRO01/306270097#ixzz35snZSQ00

4 days of flames: Detroit firefighters overwhelmed by 80+ fires in houses, buildings By the time Detroit firefighters arrived, there was little they could do. Flames were tearing through two abandoned houses and were spreading to two more homes on Garland Street on the east side at 2:20 a.m. on June 20.

Less than two hours after the intentionally set fires were extinguished, firefighters were called back to the same street a block north where two abandoned houses and an occupied home were ablaze. The suspicious fire spread to two more houses.

The nine fires were the start of a four-day period in which Detroit firefighters battled more than 80 fires in houses, businesses, garages, apartment buildings, a school and a church. Most were suspicious and in abandoned structures. During that time, three residents and a firefighter were injured. http://motorcitymuckraker.com/blog/2014/06/27/4-days-of-flames-detroit-firefighters-overwhelmed-by-80-fires-in-houses-buildings/

photo by Axim–homeless in Bangladesh living in drainage pipes.

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

Memo justifying drone killing of American “Al Qaeda leader” is released A previously secret Justice Department memo, released by a federal appeals court on Monday, justified the targeted killing of Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen who was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011, on the grounds that as a leader of an Al Qaeda affiliate, he was actively “engaged in hostilities against the United States.”

The 2010 memo was written by David Barron, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time, and concluded that neither the Constitution nor several federal statutes would prevent the president from ordering the killing of someone in Awlaki’s circumstances.

“At least where, as here, the target’s activities pose a ‘continued and imminent threat of violence or death’ to U.S. persons, ‘the highest officers in the Intelligence Community have reviewed the factual basis’ for the lethal operation, and a capture operation would be infeasible,” the killing would be considered a lawful act of war, the memo concluded.

The existence of the memo and the outline of its legal argument for why the government had authority to kill Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, has been known for some time. But the release of a redacted copy by a federal appeals court in New York provided the first public view of the specifics.

The Obama administration had resisted efforts to release the document to the public http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80592469/

Marx Archive Killed by Copyright http://www.marxists.org/ In late April 2014, the small British publishers Lawrence and Wishart choose to revoke their permission for their English language version of the Marx/Engels Collected Works to be reprinted in part on MIA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxists_Internet_Archive

The corporate stater John Kerry and Dictator Sisi

US Loves those Fascist Dictators –Hugs for Jailers of Journalists in Egypt Secretary of State John Kerry came to Egypt this weekend to renew its “important partnership” with Washington and to offer its new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, assurance of the swift restoration of military aid.

Less than 24 hours after Mr. Kerry’s visit, a judge on Monday convicted three journalists from Al Jazeera’s English-language network of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false reports. The judge sentenced each one to at least seven years in prison — all without making public any evidence and without a word from Mr. Sisi.

The verdict has set off an international backlash against the Egyptian government’s crackdown on news media freedom and political dissent. But it has also put the White House in the awkward position of appearing to once again ally itself with an authoritarian leader just three years after President Obama backed the popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/world/middleeast/egyptian-court-convicts-3-al-jazeera-journalists.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpBlogHeadline&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

In a U.S. Court, Iraqis Accuse Blackwater of Killings in 2007 More than four dozen Iraqi citizens like Mr. Moniem are scheduled to travel to Washington in the coming months to testify against the Americans who they say fired wildly on unarmed citizens, leaving 17 Iraqis dead. For years, they have waited as the case wound its way through the American court system. In a courtroom steps away from the Capitol, they are finally having their say. The Justice Department says it will be the largest number of foreign witnesses to testify in a criminal trial. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/us/in-us-court-iraqis-accusing-blackwater-of-murders-in-07.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=2

Solidarity for Never

Earl Silbar on the CTU Strike and its Myths The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike of 2012 is widely believed to be a major success, a big win for progressive, member-driven leadership. Indeed, there were big successes won both by the strike preparation and from support for the strike among members, the wider public, and esp. by parents. However, there were major problems both in strike strategy and the settlement itself.

I write this to bring out some of both aspects for consideration and to learn from. The 2012 CTU strike had the potential to accomplish far more than it did. By choosing not to fight over school closings, the leadership undermined its stated goal “Defend and improve our schools! Don’t close them!” What’s more, major concessions greatly enhanced management’s freedom to terminate teachers with satisfactory ratings and established student “achievement” in teachers’ evaluations 2 years before legally required.

This account discusses some features of the strike preparation and the settlement that are widely misunderstood. As educators and as part of the wider working class, we face unending and increasing corporate-inspired attacks. By sharing oft-hidden facts about the strike and the settlement, I hope to dispel rose-colored myths and share unknown strengths. My goal is to assist in the pressing challenges facing public education and educators – organizing effective resistance to these corporate attacks and fighting for the education our kids need to confront the hard times they/we all face.
Fifty years of left activism have taught me that facing hard facts is more useful than building on the sands of comforting myths. Friendly critical evaluation of the CTU strike can help generate the effective, working class solidarity that can effectively resist and lay the basis for the people-first, sustainable world so many of us want and must fight for. Hopefully, this is a small contribution in that process. http://secondcityteachers.blogspot.com/2014/06/ctu-strike-analogy.html

Open Letter to UTLA Elections Committee
About the Unprecedented Number of Challenges Filed and Denied
In the UNION POWER Election Scandal
(Background: A wealth of evidence has been presented to the UTLA Elections Committee showing that Union Power leaders were granted exclusive access to rank-and-file union voters by LAUSD in our recent election. District representatives allowed UP reps, over a six-month period, to campaign unopposed for the entire UP slate on many campuses during the work day while non-UP candidates were in our classrooms teaching our students. In an unknown number of cases LAUSD paid for subs to cover UP reps’ classes while they campaigned. This apparent collusion with management gave UP an overwhelming and insurmountable advantage over all opponents, and accounted for UP sweeping every race in which it fielded candidates, even installing previously unknown and uninvolved candidates. A historically unprecedented number of challenges was filed by non-UP candidates seeking redress. The Elections Committee has refused to disqualify UP on the grounds of receiving special favors from management, and has proposed only to rerun the election in North Area without disqualifying UP, an inadequate remedy that would not level the playing field but would be costly for UTLA. Questions remain about why the Elections Committee refuses to strip UP candidates of their ill-gotten victory, despite the likelihood that UP’s collusion with management allowed LAUSD to successfully influence the outcome of our union elections. Why should we care? Think about it. We all have a stake in fair elections. Analysis by Anne Zerrien-Lee, candidate for North Area director, NEA) June 13, 2014 http://www.hemlockontherocks.com/

Spy versus Spy

How the Feds Are Recruiting Spies at Campuses Across the US Since 2005, Trinity’s IC Center has had its funding renewed, and “Spy Camp” has continued every summer since. In fact, beginning in 2006, the director of National Intelligence dramatically expanded the IC Center program (of which the “Spy Camp” is only one part), and today there are a total of twenty-one such centers throughout the country. These are located at California State University, San Bernardino; Carnegie-Mellon University; Clemson University; Clark Atlanta University; Florida A&M University; Florida International University; Howard University; Miles College (Alabama); Norfolk State University (Virginia); North Carolina A&T University; Pennsylvania State University; Tennessee State University; Trinity University; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Nebraska; University of New Mexico; University of North Carolina, Wilmington; University of Texas, El Paso; University of Texas, Pan American; University of Washington; Virginia Tech; and Wayne State University (Michigan). Significantly, most of these universities have large numbers of minority students, which corresponds with the original objectives of the IC Center program’s architects. Tens of millions of dollars have been appropriated for the programs, with some centers receiving individual grants of up to $750,000. According to the Washington Post, the DNI planned to expand the program to twenty universities by the year 2015. Apparently, it has met this goal far ahead of schedule. (Since 2008, the DNI has included universities with significantly higher percentages of “white” students. It appears that the DNI quickly exhausted its supply of predominantly Hispanic and African American universities.) http://www.alternet.org/books/how-feds-are-recruiting-spies-campuses-across-us?page=0%2C3&akid=11954.4337.nQjfn8&rd=1&src=newsletter1006456&t=3&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Rouge Forum Dispatch: Sow the Wind……

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