Rouge Forum Dispatch: To Worry the Empire Til it Ends!
We Say Fight Back!
New Haven teachers keep striking while students keep away from classes
The New Haven teachers strike — the second to hit the Bay Area since the week-long one in Oakland a few months ago — has moved into a third day with no end in sight and summer vacation just three weeks away.
Meanwhile, students of the New Haven Unified School District’s schools in Union City and Hayward are staying away in droves from classrooms staffed by administrators and a dozen or more substitutes. Only about 15 percent of the district’s students went to class Tuesday, according to New Haven spokesman John Mattos, down from about 20 percent Monday.
At James Logan High School — which typically serves about 3,600 students — the drop-off was steep, with roughly 125 students attending Tuesday, or 400 fewer than Monday, Mattos said.
Some students who joined hundreds of New Haven Teachers Association members on picket lines said school without teachers and traditional lesson plans is a waste of time. www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/21/new-haven-teachers-keep-striking-while-students-keep-away-from-classes/
Congratulations on the paperback release of:
‘If I disappear’: Chinese students make farewell messages amid crackdowns over labor activism
The video opens with the 21-year-old sociology student facing the camera. His voice quivers as he recounts his interrogation — his humiliation — for days at the hands of Beijing police.
The officials pressured him to quit labor activism and drop out of Peking University, he says. They slapped him until blood streamed from his nose. They jammed headphones into his ears and played hours of propaganda at full volume.
On the last day, he alleges, they had him bend over a table naked and spread his buttocks, joking darkly that they would teach him how to insert a listening device.
“This all happened on campus,” Qiu Zhanxuan seethes in the video he recorded in February after he said the police released him, temporarily, after a four-day ordeal.
“If I disappear,” he adds, “it’ll be because of them.”
Qiu disappeared April 29.
State security agents seized him that day from Beijing’s outskirts, his classmates say. Qiu’s offense? He was the leader of the Marxist student association at the elite Peking University, a communist of conscience who defied the Communist Party of China.
Over the past eight months, China’s ruling party has gone to extraordinary lengths to shut down the small club of students at the country’s top university. Peking University’s young Marxists drew the government’s ire after they campaigned for workers’ rights and openly criticized social inequality and corruption in China. www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/if-i-disappear-chinese-students-make-farewell-messages-amid-crackdowns-over-labor-activism-/2019/05/25/6fc949c0-727d-11e9-9331-30bc5836f48e_story.html?utm_term=.015389864ebd
www.facebook.com/fightingfascismwithfunny/videos/2167259283395435/?t=30
About 900 Nashville school teachers out again Monday amid protests over funding, pay
Just over 900 Metro Nashville Public Schools teachers called out on Monday morning again amid protests over funding and pay.
“These numbers represent a variety of reasons, including personal illness, family illness, professional leave, personal leave and bereavement,” schools spokeswoman Dawn Rutledge said.
But Amanda Kail, president-elect for the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, has said the teacher absences are meant as a protest against Nashville Mayor David Briley’s proposed budget.
The number of teachers out, Rutledge said, marked 913 as of noon.
More: Nashville teachers protest funding, pay: What parents should know about MNPS sick out
Rutledge did not provide a full list of the schools with absent teachers but did say McGavock High School had 87 teachers out. www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/05/06/nashville-schools-teachers-mnps-sick-out/1115927001/
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Seeing the Corruption on De La Torre’s Wall, 6 executives resign or announce retirement at SDSU as leadership turnover continues
Business school dean Lance Nail, who took the job less than two years ago, among those pursuing other opportunities
Six San Diego State University executives have announced that they are leaving for other schools, jobs or retiring, including a dean who says she grew tired of the turnover and leadership issues the school has experienced over the past two years.
All of the changes have occurred in the past six months, and mark a high degree of turnover during Adela de la Torre’s first year as president.
The departures include two deans, an acting associate dean, the director of the School of Accountancy, the university’s chief fundraiser, and SDSU’s enrollment director.
It is not clear whether de la Torre asked one or more people to leave, or whether the executives sought change.
De la Torre addressed the matter in broad terms, telling the Union-Tribune Wednesday, “In support of recent decisions to either move into a well-deserved retirement, after many years of service to SDSU, or to seize new opportunities that will benefit personal career goals, we are all committed to ensuring a smooth transition.
“I congratulate my fellow colleagues on this new chapter and thank them for their impressive contributions to our campus community.”
The wave of departures is stirring concern among the faculty.
“I am bewildered at the number of deans leaving SDSU,” said Peter Herman, a veteran literature professor. “It suggests that there’s chaos at the top of the university.”
The first to leave was Mary Ruth Carleton, who stepped down as the school’s chief fundraiser in December, in a change that caught some people by surprise. She led the university’s first major fundraising campaign, an effort that raised a record $800 million over a 10-year period ending in 2017. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-05-22/3-deans-leaving-san-diego-state-university-raising-questions-about-schools-leadership
America’s educational system is an ‘aristocracy posing as a meritocracy’
Education is often sold as a great equalizer, but new research suggests it’s actually reinforcing inequality.
Roughly 30% of low-income kindergartners with high test scores wind up getting a college education and a decent-paying entry-level job, according to a study released Wednesday by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. On the other hand, kindergartners who come from families in the highest-income households and have low test scores have a 70% chance of reaching the same education and job level.
The study’s findings provide insight into a very basic question, according to Anthony Carnevale, the director of the Georgetown center and one of the authors of the report. Does our educational system work to propel the people with the most talent to the best jobs?
The answer, according to Carnevale: “It’s not a meritocracy, it is more and more an aristocracy posing as a meritocracy.” www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-educational-system-is-an-aristocracy-posing-as-a-meritocracy-2019-05-15?fbclid=IwAR2x4r2DOk2nhwnEDFlOTyGoFVz_Xe8Tw-VAIs271_Fg6iZcVsZ4ozspXlQ
The Morehouse Gift, in Context: An Average Black Graduate Has $7,400 More in Debt Than White Peers
How many college students hold student loan debt? And how much debt do they have?
About two-thirds of seniors at four-year colleges hold student loan debt — an average of $28,650 per person in 2017, according to an analysis of federal data from the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit that advocates affordable higher education. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/us/student-debt-america.html
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Ed Agenda = War Agenda: Heather Wilson named president of UT El Paso
The UT System Board of Regents has named Heather Wilson, Ph.D., the next president of The University of Texas at El Paso. She begins her new role August 15, 2019.
Wilson’s accomplished career in public service and higher education has spanned more than 35 years and includes top leadership roles in higher education, the military, government and private industry.
Regents approved the appointment at a special called meeting of the board today. Wilson was unanimously selected as the sole finalist for the position at a board meeting March 8. Under state law, university governing boards must name finalists for a presidency at least 21 days before making an appointment.
Wilson was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Air Force in 2017 and oversees 685,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces, and an annual budget of $160 billion. Prior to that appointment, she served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, an engineering and science research university, from 2013 to 2017. www.utsystem.edu/news/2019/04/02/heather-wilson-named-president-of-ut-el-paso
College Board president pushing ‘adversity score’ is same man behind controversial Common Core program
The College Board president behind the recent decision to assign applicants an “adversity score” is the same man who courted controversy pushing Common Core, the national K-12 curriculum standards project that several states adopted, then dropped under pressure from education activists.
David Coleman, the architect of Common Core and current president and chief executive of the College Board, has a controversial history with standardized tests and higher learning. Critics claim Common Core, which was designed to establish baseline K-12 curriculum standards but was derided as a power grab from local school boards, should be seen as a cautionary tale. They also suspect Coleman’s latest effort, in his current job heading the company behind the SAT test, is an effort to stay relevant amid questions about the fairness of standardized testing. www.foxnews.com/us/college-board-president-pushing-adversity-score-is-same-man-behind-disastrous-common-core-program
Below Georgetown U
Long before college admissions scandal, universities saw signs of fraud on campus
More than a year before the college admissions scandal investigation began, Georgetown University “discovered irregularities” in the athletic credentials of two tennis recruits, initiated a secret investigation and eventually forced coach Gordon Ernst to resign, court records show.
University officials say those two athletic recruits were denied admission.
But none of Ernst’s conduct would become public until he was arrested in March on charges he accepted $2.7 million in bribes between 2012 and 2018. He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy.
What the universities missed
As the college admissions scandal investigation continues, a key question is what universities knew and whether more could have been done to detect the widespread fraud. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-admissions-scandal-universities-what-know-explainer-20190520-story.html
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Multiple casualties after US airstrike in Afghanistan: report
Multiple Afghan police officers were reportedly killed in U.S. airstrikes in the southern part of Afghanistan on Thursday.
Afghan officials told The Washington Post that people were killed in U.S. airstrikes but gave inconsistent information on the number of fatalities, saying that between eight and 18 people were killed and 14 were wounded.
U.S. military officials told The Post that Afghan and Taliban forces were killed, but did not say how many casualties there were.
Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman for the U.S. military advisory mission in Afghanistan, told the newspaper in a statement that Afghan authorities asked for “precision air support.” He added that Afghan coordinators “confirmed that the areas were clear of friendly forces,” but “unfortunately, they were not, and a tragic accident resulted.” thehill.com/policy/defense/444419-multiple-casualties-after-us-airstrike-in-afghanistan-report
www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html
Monitor says no evidence of new Syria chemical attack
A British-based war monitor said Wednesday it had no evidence to suggest the Syrian army had carried out a new chemical attack despite Washington’s announcement it had suspicions.
“We have no proof at all of the attack,” Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
“We have not documented any chemical attack in the mountains of Latakia,” he said. www.timesofisrael.com/monitor-says-no-evidence-of-new-syria-chemical-attack/
The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine
Daniel Ellsberg discusses the continuing existential threat posed by the military-industrial complex
My intention in addressing the threat of nuclear annihilation is that it will at least open up the possibility of change. While such a shift in values and norms would be almost miraculous, miracles can happen, and have happened in my lifetime. In 1985, the falling of the Berlin wall a mere four years later would have seemed improbable, if not impossible, given decades of nuclear tensions and near conflicts. But then it happened. And Nelson Mandela coming to power in South Africa, without a violent revolution, was impossible. But it happened.
So, unpredictable changes like these can happen, and their possibility inspires my commitment to continue my peace activities against long odds. My activity is based on the belief that small probabilities can be enlarged and that, however remote success may be, it is worthwhile pursuing because so much is at stake. www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/18/truth-teller-pentagon-papers-doomsday-machine
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
House Democratic Leadership Warns It Will Cut Off Any Firms That Challenge Incumbents
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee warned political strategists and vendors Thursday night that if they support candidates mounting primary challenges against incumbent House Democrats, the party will cut them off from business.
The news was officially announced Friday morning, paired with a statement on the committee’s commitment to diversity in consulting — “which, obviously, is just to give themselves cover,” a Democratic political consultant who learned of it Thursday told The Intercept. The consultant asked for anonymity given their relationship with the DCCC, and the party organization’s professed strategy of blacklisting firms that don’t fall in line.
To apply to become a preferred vendor in the 2020 cycle, firms must agree to a set of standards that includes agreeing not to work with anyone challenging an incumbent.
“I understand the above statement that the DCCC will not conduct business with, nor recommend to any of its targeted campaigns, any consultant that works with an opponent of a sitting Member of the House Democratic Caucus,” the form reads. theintercept.com/2019/03/22/house-democratic-leadership-warns-it-will-cut-off-any-firms-who-challenge-incumbents/
Why Do We Let Political Parties Act Like Monopolies?
When I ran against an incumbent senator, I learned the hard way how well insiders stack primaries against challengers.
When Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, announced his retirement this month after four terms in the Senate, he set off a wave of political speculation similar to what we might expect from the retirement of a Supreme Court justice. After all — they’re both lifetime appointments.
This isn’t literally true, of course, but it might as well be. Protecting incumbents from their voters is one thing the Democrats and Republicans can still agree on. Through a series of anticompetitive tactics, the two political parties have created a hidden monopoly structure that accounts for a Congress with a 77 percent disapproval rating yet a nearly 90 percent re-election rate.
Challenging Senator John Barrasso last year in the Republican primary, I saw how this works first hand. When I tried to hire the law firm to which I’d directed millions of dollars in business while I was a chief executive, it turned me away, explaining that it could work only for Democrats. When I contacted a law firm known to serve Republicans, that firm told me it couldn’t work for a candidate running against an incumbent because it would put its entire practice at risk. As I tried to build an organization to run a credible primary challenge, this story repeated itself, whether I was recruiting campaign staff or a marketing firm. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/opinion/primary-challengers.html
Ford will cut 7,000 white-collar jobs
Ford is cutting 7,000 white-collar jobs, or about 10% of its salaried staff worldwide, as part of a cost-cutting effort it says will save the company about $600 million a year.
Bigger cuts expected: 23,000 more Ford layoffs needed, analysts say
Analyst Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley is among those who say Ford Motor Co. cannot reach its stated profit goals for “Smart Redesign” by laying off just 7,000 salaried workers total worldwide by August.
The company must cut “a further” 23,000 salaried jobs in the near term to fulfill its goals, Jonas wrote Tuesday.
“Ford disclosed that the 7k headcount cuts will save $600 million annually, or an average of $86k per worker,” said an investment report dated May 21. “Our (calculations) … require more than a further 23k salaried headcount reductions.”
The latest assessment from one of the most recognized equity analysts in New York might explain the tepid response from Wall Street over the past two days, since Ford CEO Jim Hackett sent an email to employees notifying them of the layoff protocol this week.
While Wall Street rewarded General Motors with a spike in stock price after its job cuts, Ford value has remained static. It closed at $10.29 a share on Friday and closed Tuesday at $10.24. Ford stock closed at $9.97 Wednesday. www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/05/21/ford-job-cuts-analysts/3754205002/
District Detroit: Inside the Ilitches’ land of unfulfilled promises
Despite promises that the area would be transformed by 2017, more than a dozen of its 50 blocks are now more vacant than before
Ilitch companies own or control at least 60% of the properties in the area they hope to transform into an entertainment district larger than the size of downtown Detroit, according to a Detroit News analysis.
The Ilitch family enterprise, founded by pizza magnates Mike and Marian Ilitch, has a dominant interest in the languishing 50-block area called The District Detroit, according to the review of property records, state records, interviews and tax assessments.
Thursday, the Detroit Medical Center plans to break ground on a new sports medicine facility on Ilitch land next to Little Caesars Arena. Earlier this week, the Ilitch group revealed a new timetable for a renovating the long-vacant 13-story Hotel Eddystone, a few yards away.
Despite promises that the district would transform a forgotten area of Detroit by 2017, more than a dozen of its 50 blocks are now more vacant than when the plan was launched in 2014, according to the News analysis.
The accounting shows just how dependent the area is upon the Ilitch organization for its development as the long-awaited tie between two of Detroit’s high-demand neighborhoods.
“The walkable neighborhood with active restaurants and retail around the arena with year-round activities has not materialized because (the Ilitch organization) doesn’t want it to,” said Richard Etue, a Cass Corridor resident and part of a neighborhood advisory committee that has met with Ilitch officials about the plans. “I just think they don’t know how to do it.” www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/05/22/ilitch-companies-control-district-detroit-area-land-larger-than-downtown/2636965002/
The Ilitches want even more taxpayer money for District Detroit
The Ilitch family isn’t done shaking down the public for money for The District Detroit.
To date, the Ilitches’ Olympia Development has received about $400 million in direct taxpayer funds to build Little Caesars Arena and a surrounding neighborhood full of retail, residential units, restaurants, and nightlife marketed as The District Detroit.
But when the actual value of the land as well as changes to the Olympia and the Ilitch-owned Red Wings’ tax arrangements are factored in, the deal is will be worth over $740 million if the arena is open for 48 years, as the Ilitches say it will be.
Despite the public and local officials’ generosity, The District Detroit is nothing more than a bunch of new parking lots, parking garages, and blighted Ilitch-owned buildings. There are no new apartments, homes, restaurants, or shops to speak of.
That’s led to intense criticism and scrutiny in recent months from the local and national media, and public sentiment is generally shifting against the Ilitches for failing to fulfill its promises.
And yet on Monday evening, Crain’s reported that the Ilitches will show no shame and seek even more public money for The District Detroit. Olympia is claiming it’s going to begin work on the Hotel Eddystone, a vacant, Ilitch-owned 13-story building next to Little Caesars Arena.
However, this is the third time Olympia has announced it’s going to begin work on the Hotel Eddystone, so it’s anybody’s guess as to whether the Ilitches are serious this time. www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/05/21/shameless-the-ilitches-want-even-more-taxpayer-money-for-district-detroit?fbclid=IwAR2wom6LkIWtI5yN6p_qYn1HophgAp0SrzhQ4Dh2rBj8lreLw7QQVYKy014
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act, Raising First Amendment Issues
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks leader, has been indicted on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for his role in obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday — a novel case that raises profound First Amendment issues.
The new charges were part of an expanded indictment obtained by the Trump administration that significantly raised the stakes of the legal case against Mr. Assange, who is already fighting extradition proceedings in London based on an earlier hacking-related count brought by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia.
The charges are the latest twist in a career in which Mr. Assange has morphed from a crusader for radical transparency to fugitive from a Swedish sexual assault investigation, to tool of Russia’s election interference, to criminal defendant in the United States.
Mr. Assange vaulted to global fame nearly a decade ago as a champion of openness about what governments secretly do. But with this indictment, he has become the target for a case that could open the door to criminalizing activities that are crucial to American investigative journalists who write about national security matters. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/assange-indictment.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
US prosecutors to ‘help themselves’ to Julian Assange’s possessions
Julian Assange’s belongings from his time living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London will be handed over to US prosecutors on Monday, according to WikiLeaks.
Ecuadorian officials are travelling to London to allow US prosecutors to “help themselves” to items including legal papers, medical records and electronic equipment, it was claimed.
WikiLeaks said UN officials and Assange’s lawyers were being stopped from being present. Lawyers said it was an illegal seizure of property, which has been requested by the US authorities. The material is said to include two of Assange’s manuscripts.
Assange was dragged out of the embassy last month and is serving a 50-week prison sentence for bail violations. He faces an extradition request from the US next month. www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/19/us-prosecutors-julian-assange-wikileaks-ecuadorian-embassy
Senior military officers rebel against Trump plan to pardon troops accused of war crimes
Current and former military officers have urged the White House not to pardon service members and security contractors implicated in war crimes, warning that forgiving their offenses would send a dangerous signal to U.S. troops and potential adversaries.
Aides to President Trump have been examining high-profile war crimes cases from Iraq and Afghanistan, preparing paperwork so Trump could issue pardons during Memorial Day commemorations next week, according to two senior U.S. officials.
But the possibility that Trump could issue pardons has brought a flood of opposition from current and former high-ranking officers, who say it would encourage misconduct by showing that violations of laws prohibiting attacks on civilians and prisoners of war will be treated with leniency.
“Absent evidence of innocence or injustice, the wholesale pardon of U.S. service members accused of war crimes signals our troops and allies that we don’t take the law of armed conflict seriously,” retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a tweet Tuesday. He added: “Bad message. Bad precedent. Abdication of moral responsibility. Risk to us.” www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pentagon-oppose-trump-pardon-murder-warcrimes-20190522-story.html
Tale of children who survived My Lai massacre falls on deaf ears
51 years later, two siblings who survived the My Lai massacre say their existence is still ignored in certain quarters.
He was six. She was 14 months old.
They had just been shot, and watched their siblings and mother get shot.
As Tran Van Duc and his sister Tran Thi Ha escaped from the armed men carrying out a grisly massacre, a helicopter flew low over them. Duc threw himself on his sister to protect her.
Ronald L. Haeberle, a combat photographer on duty Vietnam, captured that moment.
While the photographic capture of Duc’s valiant act became famous and emblematic of the struggle for survival waged by the residents of My Lai, the two children were virtually forgotten by history.
After the split second in which he clicked a photograph of the children, Haeberle walked away, thinking they had been shot and killed, since there was a lot of firing going on.
The assumption was made by many, including the TIME’s USA edition, which said the children were shot and killed by U.S. soldiers.
However, more than 50 years later, last month, the War Remnants Museum in HCMC acknowledged that Duc and Ha were the children in the photograph, that they were survivors of the My Lai massacre.
It took a decade-long, often frustrating and exasperating struggle to get this acknowledgement, and it is still not complete.e.vnexpress.net/news/life/culture/tale-of-children-who-survived-my-lai-massacre-falls-on-deaf-ears-3925046.html?fbclid=IwAR11H-9uGXl9q5y_-ZstIkI29f2xqOdtj2zJZXnD6WQV3N42SkLvp6ZWG5g
Adachi leak: SF cops explain why they raided journalist, cite conspiracy probe
Under fire for a raid on the home and office of a freelance journalist who refused to identify a confidential source, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott Tuesday explained the action by saying his department suspected the man took part in a criminal conspiracy to steal an internal police report on the February death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi. www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Adachi-leak-SF-cops-to-return-property-to-13867179.php
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCkJO8JJIuY
John Walker Lindh, Known as the ‘American Taliban,’ Is Set to Leave Federal Prison This Week
He was the “American Taliban” captured during the invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. Pictures showed him as a gaunt, filthy 20-year-old held in the aftermath of a prison uprising that claimed the first United States casualty of the war, a 32-year-old C.I.A. officer named Johnny Micheal Spann.
On Thursday, that captive, John Walker Lindh, is scheduled to leave a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., released on probation after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence for providing support to the Taliban.
The case of Mr. Lindh, who converted from Catholicism to Islam at 16 and first left his California home at 17 to study Arabic in Yemen more than three years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has stirred questions and controversy from the start. His journey took him to Pakistan in 2000 and later to Afghanistan, where he spent time at a Qaeda training camp as a Taliban volunteer. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/us/politics/american-taliban-john-walker-lindh.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The New German Anti-Semitism
For the nation’s estimated 200,000 Jews, new forms of old hatreds are stoking fear.
One of Wenzel Michalski’s early recollections of growing up in southern Germany in the 1970s was of his father, Franz, giving him some advice: “Don’t tell anyone that you’re Jewish.” Franz and his mother and his little brother had survived the Holocaust by traveling across swaths of Eastern and Central Europe to hide from the Gestapo, and after the war, his experiences back in Germany suggested that, though the Nazis had been defeated, the anti-Semitism that was intrinsic to their ideology had not. This became clear to Franz when his teachers in Berlin cast stealthily malicious glances at him when Jewish characters — such as Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” — came up in literature. “Eh, Michalski, this exactly pertains to you,” he recalls one teacher telling him through a clenched smile. Many years later, when he worked as an animal-feed trader in Hamburg, he didn’t tell friends that he was Jewish and held his tongue when he heard them make anti-Semitic comments. And so Franz told his son Wenzel that things would go easier for him if he remained quiet about being Jewish. “The moment you say it, things will become very awkward.”
As a teenager, Wenzel defied his father’s advice and told a close friend. That friend quickly told his mother, and the next time Wenzel saw her, she reacted quite strongly, hugging him and kissing his face: “Wenzel! Oh, my Wenzel!” Now a stocky, bearded 56-year-old, Wenzel recalled the moment to me on a recent Saturday afternoon. He raised the pitch of his voice as he continued to mimic her: “You people! You are the most intelligent! www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/magazine/anti-semitism-germany.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Solidarity for Never
Vietnam War left a painful legacy for indigenous minority that fought alongside U.S. See ya Suckers!
Here in the windswept, rolling hills of central Vietnam, there are many reminders of the war that ended four decades ago.
Two Soviet-made tanks sit in the village of Dak To as monuments to the men who died retaking the region from U.S.-backed South Vietnam in 1972. The flag of the communist Viet Cong guerrillas is painted on roadside walls. Undiscovered land mines remain a hazard.
But for the indigenous minority that Vietnam’s French colonizers named the Montagnards, or “mountain people,” the legacy of the war is especially painful.
They fought alongside the Americans and continue to be regarded as enemies by the Vietnamese government, which routinely subjects them to surveillance, arbitrary arrest, land seizures and other abuses that have been documented by human rights groups.
“Hanoi’s perspective on the Montagnards seems fixed in a Vietnam War-era past,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “Ever since the war ended in 1975, the Montagnards have faced systematic harassment, intrusive surveillance and persecution.”
They say that long ago U.S. soldiers they befriended promised them refuge in the United States, but only about 1,500 of the 70,000 who fought have been allowed in. Recently the Trump administration has deported some of their family members for criminal convictions in the U.S. www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-vietnam-war-allies-20190521-story.html
Spy versus Spy
A CIA suicide sparks hard questions about the agency’s Memorial Wall
She had spent the year in Afghanistan targeting senior al-Qaeda and Taliban members from one of the CIA’s most important bases.
Ranya Abdelsayed was less than 48 hours away from returning to the United States in 2013 when a colleague found her body in her bed at the agency’s Gecko Firebase in Kandahar. At 34, she had shot herself in the head.
The next year, Abdelsayed was honored with a black star on the CIA’s vaunted Memorial Wall, which pays tribute to members of the CIA who, its inscription reads, “gave their lives in the service of their country.”
On Tuesday, the CIA held its annual ceremony to recognize the fallen, unveiling four new stars on the increasingly crowded wall. But not everyone agrees that Abdelsayed — one of at least 19 CIA deaths in Afghanistan during the longest war in U.S. history — deserved that honor. Of the 133 men and women given stars, she is the only one to have died by suicide.
Nicholas Dujmovic, a longtime CIA historian who retired in 2016, said that Abdelsayed’s inclusion violates the agency’s own criteria — and that her star “must absolutely come off the wall.” www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-cia-suicide-sparks-hard-questions-about-the-agencys-memorial-wall/2019/05/18/20c8c284-7687-11e9-bd25-c989555e7766_story.html?utm_term=.14b05b58b7c1
Convicted Russian agent releases video pleading for money
A Russian gun rights activist serving a U.S. prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent has released a video asking for money to help pay her legal costs.
Maria Butina was sentenced in April to 18 months after she admitted gathering intelligence on the National Rifle Association and other groups at the direction of a former Russian lawmaker.
In the video that appeared on social media, Butina speaks on a phone in a dormitory with bunk beds. She says her lawyer is filing an appeal and she asks for contributions to help pay him.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday on state TV that “we aren’t financing a lawyer, but we are doing everything so that she will be afforded all rights as a Russian citizen.” www.detroitnews.com/story/news/world/2019/05/19/russia-agent-pleads-money/39495251/
San Diego-based sailor court-martialed in Russia defection, nuclear espionage case
A San Diego-based sailor accused of taking steps toward a defection to Russia and attempting to share classified information about the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered warships has been sentenced to three years of confinement following a court martial, the FBI said Thursday.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Stephen Kellogg III, who served aboard the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson as a nuclear electrician’s mate, pleaded guilty May 16 to two violations of the Espionage Act and one violation of a lawful general order, both related to the illegal communication of national defense information. www.mcall.com/san-diego-based-sailor-court-martialed-in-russia-defection-nuclear-espionage-case-story.html
Secret tracking device found in Navy email to Navy Times amid leak investigation raises legal, ethical questions
A Navy prosecutor last week sent an email to the editor of Navy Times that was embedded with a secret digital tracking device. The tracking device came at a time when the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is mounting an investigation into media leaks surrounding the high-profile court-martial of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes.
That email, from Navy prosecutor Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak to Navy Times editor Carl Prine, came after several months of Navy Times reporting that raised serious questions about the Navy lawyers’ handling of the prosecution in the war crimes case.
When asked about the email Czaplak sent to Prine, NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston said Thursday that “during the course of the leak investigation, NCIS used an audit capability that ensures the integrity of protected documents. It is not malware, not a virus, and does not reside on computer systems. There is no risk that systems are corrupted or compromised.”
The Navy’s top spokesman, Capt. Greg Hicks, declined to comment on the email device targeting Navy Times but acknowledged that the Navy is conducting “an ongoing investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of information covered by a judge’s protective order.” Hicks said the investigation is being conducted by the NCIS. www.militarytimes.com/2019/05/17/secret-tracking-device-found-in-navy-email-to-navy-times-amid-leak-investigation-raises-legal-ethical-questions/
In Baltimore and Beyond, a Stolen N.S.A. Tool Wreaks Havoc
For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.
But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.
Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.
It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/us/nsa-hacking-tool-baltimore.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The Magical Mystery Tour
They Hoped the Catholic Church Would Reveal Their Abusers. They Are Still Waiting.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. — She has watched as diocese after diocese has identified Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children. She saw the victims who, after confronting decades of church silence, could edge toward a sense of closure as bishops apologized and publicly named clergy members who abused them.
Yet for Janet Cleary Klinger, the silence has continued.
She said she had been abused as a teenager by a priest from her family’s parish in the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, which sprawls over the suburbs of Long Island.
But the Rockville Centre diocese — one of the largest in the country with an estimated 1.5 million Catholics — has resisted publishing the names of priests credibly accused of abuse. It is the only diocese in New York that has not released a list. Miami, San Francisco and St. Louis are among the others nationwide.
Church leaders in many dioceses have hailed the release of lists of accused priests as a move toward transparency that will help quell tensions with followers.
But the dioceses that have declined to name priests are calling into question the church’s broader efforts to make amends for the abuse scandals, stirring a growing backlash from victims and their supporters.
They argue that the lack of disclosure creates another impediment toward understanding the church’s handling of the sex abuse epidemic across the nation and makes it more difficult to hold its leaders accountable. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/nyregion/catholic-church-sexual-abuse.html
Nessel charges 5 priests in Michigan sexual abuse investigation
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says Friday. May 24, 2019, during a news conference in Lansing, Mich. Law enforcement with the Michigan Attorney General’s office on Thursday charged five men with 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct as part of its ongoing investigation into sex abuse at Catholic churches in the state. The charges are based on disturbing evidence of abuse investigators said they found in records seized from Michigan dioceses, authorities said Friday, and just the first in what will be a long investigation of clergy abuse in Michigan www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/24/former-flint-priest-80-charged-six-counts-sexual-misconduct/1219431001/
In the wake of its own child abuse scandal, Poland must break the Church’s grip
For us, the unfolding revelations about the abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy in Poland is like watching our own sad, terrible history repeating itself. The recent release of the independent movie ‘Tell No One’, which uncovered cases of sexual abuse by priests, will in time fundamentally change Polish society for the better. But for this to occur, it is Poland’s younger and middle-aged generations – their own Pope’s Children – who must first confront the silence and denial that have long been hallmarks of the Catholic church on these issues.
Based on the Irish experience, many Poles will find the horrific nature of the revelations too much to acknowledge, let alone redress. www.euronews.com/2019/05/21/in-the-wake-of-its-own-child-abuse-scandal-poland-must-break-the-church-s-grip-view
It’s Time to Start Calling Evangelicals What They Are: The American Taliban
“The Council For National Policy” is a Conservative Think Tank, made up of a who’s who of prominent conservatives; Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Reince Priebus, Tim LaHaye, Bobby Jindal, John McCain… the list goes on…
This article, published by the Washington Post, but reported elsewhere, lays out the group’s plan to “restore education in America,” by bringing god into classrooms.
I have said for years and years, the Christian Right is really seeking to establish a theocracy in the United States — at least regionally, throughout the deep south. And this latest effort by the “Council for National Policy” lays further proof to that claim. This is an effort which — in spite of what many Christian leaders say — is NOT supported by the Constitution. The Constitution strictly prohibits the establishment of Religion, as part of the First Amendment, which also guarantees Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. The purpose of this “Separation of Church and State” is intended to do two things:
1. It protects religious freedom for everyone.
2. It prevents the tyranny of any one religion.
But this fact won’t stop many southern christians, who feel it is their duty — as christians — to make the United States “a godly nation” in their eyes. And they will cite the numerous biblical passages in which god exhorts all nations to be faithful to him and condemns those nations who are not, as the basis for this duty — which they feel is their right. churchandstate.org.uk/2017/03/its-time-to-start-calling-evangelicals-what-they-are-the-american-taliban/?fbclid=IwAR2CvAMZ00HBO2S45oQpF9V1DwepNx-UFXTYgRMw7OZXDpdcol3d-lRclqc
Abolish the Priesthood (well superstition would be better…)
To save the Church, Catholics must detach themselves from the clerical hierarchy—and take the faith back into their own hands.
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
So Long
Neus Català, Dogged Anti-Fascist and Camp Survivor, Dies at 103
In early 1939, when General Francisco Franco’s troops invaded Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, Neus Català led 182 orphans in her charge out of the mayhem and across the snow-covered Pyrenees to safety in France.
It was just one episode in a lifetime of anti-fascist resistance that Ms. Català, who died on April 13 at 103, would demonstrate.
She then fought with the French Resistance against the Nazis but was captured by the Germans and deported to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp in northern Germany.
From Ravensbrück, Ms. Català was transferred to the Flossenbürg camp, where she was part of a forced labor group that quarried granite and sabotaged bullets and bombs while working in a munitions factory. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/neus-catala-dead.html