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Ryanair cancels 400 flights as pilots strike

Ryanair was forced to cancel nearly 400 flights on Friday because of pilot strikes in some of its biggest markets.

The discount carrier said it had canceled flights in Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden, affecting thousands of passengers. About 15% of the carrier’s scheduled flights were affected.

Ryanair(RYAAY) pilots in the Netherlands were also striking on Friday, but their action did not result in flight cancellations.

The airline has been rocked by a series of staff strikes in recent months that have forced it to cancel hundreds of flights and sullied its reputation for reliable service. Separately, strikes by French air traffic controllers forced Ryanair to cancel about 1,500 flights and delayed 7,000 more.

Ryanair reversed decades of policy in late 2017 when a pilot shortage and looming holiday strikes forced it to recognize unions for the first time.  money.cnn.com/2018/08/10/news/companies/ryanair-cancelled-flights-strike/index.html

What Are Capitalists Thinking?

If they’re worried about what’s driving the growing appeal of socialism, they need to look in the mirror.

I’ve been fretting lately about the state of mind of America’s capitalists. All these socialists coming out of the woodwork must have them in quite a lather. So I write today with some friendly advice for the capitalist class about said socialists.

You want fewer socialists? Easy. Stop creating them.

Every once in a while in history, cause and effect smack us in the face. The conditions under which the czars forced Russians to live gave rise to Bolshevism. The terms imposed at Versailles fueled Hitler’s ascent. The failures of Keynesianism in the 1970s smoothed the path for supply-side economics.

And so it is here. As I noted recently in The Daily Beast, the kind of capitalism that has been practiced in this country over the last few decades has made socialism look far more appealing, especially to young people…www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/opinion/what-are-capitalists-thinking.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Recruiting operations continue after Berkeley protesters target window of Marine recruiting station

Police deploy flash bang grenades during a rally in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Aug. 4. A day later, protests broke out in Berkeley, Calif. (John Rudoff/AP)

 

Despite this sign, the United Steelworkers union is among the most corrupt in the USA. And, typical of U.S unions, they back Trump’s steel tariffs for “national security.”   www.umass.edu/usa/weingartenqa.htm

www.facebook.com/MotherJonesCork/videos/2214787378550139/?t=31

Fed-up locals are setting electric scooters on fire and burying them at sea

California jury awards $289 million to man who claimed Monsanto’s Roundup pesticide gave him cancer

 

The Little Red Schoolhouse

NEA Bosses Loved Arne Duncan (think Obamagogue)–Will they tout his (not so good) book?

Teacher recruitment takes many forms in Detroit (Hope and change worked so well)

More than 100 candidates turned out for the job fair, vying for 200 open teaching positions in the district, which has been struggling with a high number of vacancies for the past several years.

DPSCD started the 2017-18 school year with 250 teacher vacancies. The number fluctuated but hovered around 200 for the rest of the year.    www.detroitnews.com/story/news/education/2018/08/06/teacher-recruitment-takes-many-forms-detroit/802945002/

Rouger Boyer in a Detroit School

USC president steps down in wake of lawsuits against school, gynecologist

University of Southern California President C. L. Max Nikias has agreed to step down following a scandal involving a former campus gynecologist accused of sexual misconduct and using racist language during exams.

When you look at the stats, it’s hard not to conclude that the current PhD system is fundamentally broken. Mental health issues are rife: approximately one-third of PhD students are at risk of having or developing a psychiatric disorder like depression. The high level of dropouts is similarly worrying – and possibly another symptom of the same problem. Research suggests that on average 50% of PhD students leave graduate school without finishing – with numbers higher at some institutions.

What’s more, aspiring scientists who manage to finish usually take much longer than originally planned. For instance, a PhD in Germany is supposed to take three years, according to university regulations, but most students need five years to complete one. In the US, meanwhile, the average completion time for a PhD in education sciences surpasses 13 years. The result is that in most countries, PhD students usually don’t graduate until they are well into their 30s.

Although 80% of science students start their PhD with the intention to pursue a career in science, theirenthusiasm typically wanes to the point that just 55% plan to continue in academia when nearing graduation. In any case, most are unlikely to be able to continue. One study found that for every 200 people who complete a PhD, only seven will get a permanent academic post and only one will become a professor.

Many academics enter science to change the world for the better. Yet it can often feel like contemporary academia is more about chasing citations. Most academic work is shared only with a particular scientific community, rather than policymakers or businesses, which makes it entirely disconnected from practice.   www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/aug/09/a-phd-should-be-about-improving-society-not-chasing-academic-kudos?CMP=share_btn_fb

A look inside Betsy Devos’ incredibly tacky Michigan mega-mansion

photos.metrotimes.com/a-look-inside-betsy-devos-incredibly-tacky-michigan-mega-mansion/?slide=10&beachhouse_pool

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

www.facebook.com/TimelineWH/videos/1576122539133651/?t=42

Tomgram: A Grim Inheritance of Perpetual War

The Legacy of Infinite War
Special Ops, Generational Struggle, and the Cooperstown of Commandos
By Nick Turse

Raids by U.S. commandos in Afghanistan. (I could be talking about 2001 or 2018.)

A U.S. drone strike in Yemen. (I could be talking about 2002 or 2018.)

Missions by Green Berets in Iraq. (I could be talking about 2003 or 2018.)

While so much about the War on Terror turned Global War on Terrorism turned World War IV turned the Long War turned “generational struggle” turned “infinite war” seems repetitious, the troops most associated with this conflict — the U.S. Special Operations forces — have seen changes galore. As Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ), chairman of the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, pointed out in 2006, referring to Special Operations Command by its acronym: “For almost five years now, SOCOM has been leading the way in the war on terrorism: defeating the Taliban and eliminating a terrorist safe haven in Afghanistan, removing a truly vicious Iraqi dictator, and combating the terrorists who seek to destabilize the new, democratic Iraq

Much has changed since Saxton looked back on SOCOM’s role in the early years of the war on terror. For starters, Saxton retired almost a decade ago, but the Taliban, despite being “defeated” way back when, didn’t do the same. Today, they contest for or control about 44% of Afghanistan. That country also hosts many more terror groups — 20 in all — than it did 12 years ago. “Vicious Iraqi dictator” Saddam Hussein is, of course, still dead and gone, but in 2014, about a third of “the new, democratic Iraq” was overrun by Islamic State militants. The country was only re-liberated in late 2017 and the Islamic State is already making a comeback there this year. Meanwhile, Iraq is beset by anti-government protests and totters along as one of the most fragile states on the planet, while the Iraqi and Afghan war zones bled together — with U.S. special operators now fighting an Islamic State terrorist franchise in Afghanistan, too.

In spite, or perhaps because, of these circumstances, SOCOM continues to thrive. Its budget, its personnel numbers, and just about any other measure you might choose (from missions to global reach) continue to rise. In 2006, for instance, 85% of Special Operations forces (SOF) deployed overseas — Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs, and others — were concentrated in the Greater Middle East, with far smaller numbers spread thinly across the Pacific (7%), Europe (3%), and Latin America (3%). Only 1% of them were then conducting missions in Africa.  Today, the lion’s share — 56% — of those commandos still operate in the Greater Middle East, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by SOCOM, but all other foreign deployments have grown at that region’s expense. Africa Command has leapt from last to second place and now hosts 16.5% of America’s overseas commandos, European Command 13.9% of them, the newly renamed Indo-Phttp://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176456/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_grim_inheritance/#more

Syria’s war could be entering its last and most dangerous phase

Blame Lawrence

As Syria’s war enters what could be its last and most dangerous stretch, the Syrian government and its allies will have to contend for the first time with the presence of foreign troops in the quest to bring the rest of the country back under President Bashar al-Assad’s control.

The government’s recent defeat of rebels in the southwest of Syria has put Assad unassailably in control of a majority of the country, his hold on power now facing no discernible military or diplomatic threat.

But at least a third of Syria remains outside government control, and those areas are occupied both by Turkish and American troops. Turkey has deployed soldiers in the northwest, in parts of the rebel-held province of Aleppo and in Idlib, which Assad has identified as the next target of an offensive. About 2,000 U.S. Special Operations forces hold sway in the northeast, in support of their Kurdish allies fighting the Islamic State.

Iran has meanwhile entrenched its forces and allied militias alongside loyalist Syrian troops across government-held territory, stirring deep concern in Israel.

Even as the war enters its final stages, the risk that it could ignite a wider conflict has not passed, analysts say.

It will fall to Russia to steer Syria through the pitfalls ahead, as the only outside power to enjoy good relations with all the countries that have a stake in the Syrian war, including Israel and Iran. After intervening in the conflict in 2015 to save the Assad regime, Moscow has largely succeeded in balancing the competing interests of the various players, tamping down fears that the conflict could ignite a regional conflagration.  www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrias-war-could-be-entering-its-last-and-most-dangerous-phase/2018/08/09/e9e60442-8f60-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html?utm_term=.0f3ba197d586

Investigation: Yemen war binds US, allies with al-Qaida

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

A Study Found Bankruptcy Soared Among Americans 65 And Older

More older Americans are showing up in bankruptcy court. The rate of seniors age 65 and older who have filed for bankruptcy has tripled since 1991. That statistic comes from a new study from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project. It’s a research collaboration funded by several universities. Deborah Thorne of the University of Idaho is the study’s lead author. And I asked her why more older Americans are turning to an option often thought of as a last resort.

DEBORAH THORNE: Based on their answers to surveys, the lead causes of being in bankruptcy are medical expenses and declines in income. So it could be, you know, they lost money in 2008, or they’ve outlived their retirement ’cause they no longer get a defined benefit or a pension. So they’ve had a decline in income, or they’ve had medical expenses that they just absolutely cannot keep up with.

CHANG: But this is a very different picture than what existed, say, a few decades ago, right?

THORNE: Sure. So if we look at this historically, we had Social Security in place that was adequate, right? You could start full benefits, full replacement benefits at earlier ages. And we had defined benefits rather than defined contributions where we weren’t taking the risk ourselves. So what we’ve seen is these risks that are just in life have been shifted off onto individuals. And that has been exacerbated by policy decisions over about the last 20 years.

The financial squeeze on older Americans has just gotten tighter and tighter and tighter as we have weakened the social safety net that they can depend on. And here’s the pickle for them, is that they’re older, so they cannot recover. They cannot go back to work at 65 and 70 years old and recover the money that they’ve lost.  www.npr.org/2018/08/06/636112810/a-study-found-bankruptcy-soared-among-americans-65-and-older

The New Housing Crisis: Shut Out Of The Market

Ten years after the housing collapse during the Great Recession, a new and different housing crisis has emerged.

Back then, people were losing their homes as home values crashed and homeowners went underwater. Today, home values have rebounded, but people who want to buy a new home are often priced out of the market. There are too few homes and too many potential buyers.

Home construction per household is now at its lowest levels in nearly six decades, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This isn’t just a problem in San Francisco or New York, where home prices and rents have gone sky-high. It is also a problem in midsized, fast-growing cities farther inland, like Des Moines, Iowa; Durham, N.C.; and Boise, Idaho. In Boise, an analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed there is a demand for more than 10 times the number of homes being built right now.

…So how did we get here, especially in cities like Boise that have long been affordable?

One answer lies in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, when home building ground to a virtual halt. The rebound has been slow and painful. Single-family home construction is now at its lowest rate in four decades.

Housing experts tick through a list of reasons for the slow pace: There’s tougher zoning, there’s not enough undeveloped land, lumber is expensive … and one of the biggest problems, a labor shortage.

…The real crunch in supply is for so-called starter homes — a home meant to be affordable, smaller in size — perfect for that first-time homeowner. But across the nation, builders are focusing much more of their efforts on high-end construction. In Boise, for example, 65 percent of homes for sale are on the upper end of the market. Thirty years ago, half of all homes on the market were smaller and less expensive, according to this year’s State of the Nation’s Housing Report from Harvard University. In 2017, that percentage had fallen to 22 percent, or less than a quarter.  www.npr.org/2018/08/06/629410064/the-new-housing-crisis-shut-out-of-the-market

The truth about income inequality, in six amazing charts

If rising inequality is not properly monitored and addressed, it can lead to … political, economic, and social catastrophes.

Let’s start with our most immediate concern, the rising income and wealth inequality in the United States. The rise of the 1% has been especially notable in the U.S. not merely because of this cohort’s share of national wealth, but because it shows the abandonment of American principles of egalitarian economic opportunities.

As inequality grows, so does the political influence of the rich

Concentrated wealth leads to concentrated power

SQUEEZING the top 1% ought to be the most natural thing in the world for politicians seeking to please the masses. Yet, with few exceptions, today’s populist insurgents are more concerned with immigration and sovereignty than with the top rate of income tax. This disconnect may be more than an oddity. It may be a sign of the corrupting influence of inequality on democracy.

You might reasonably suppose that the more democratic a country’s institutions, the less inequality it should support. Rising inequality means that resources are concentrated in  the hands of a few; they should be ever more easily outvoted by the majority who are left with a shrinking share of national income.

Indeed, some social scientists think that historical expansions of the franchise came as governments sought credible ways to assure voters that resources would be distributed more equitably. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that in the 19th century governments across the West faced the threat of socialist revolution. Mere promises of greater redistribution were  insufficient to eliminate such threats; institutional guarantees were needed. Giving credible guarantees, they reckon, meant increasing the share of the population allowed to vote. Other researchers argue that anti-majoritarian institutions embedded within democratic systems, such as Britain’s House of Lords and America’s electoral college, were prized by elites not because they seemed likely to lead to better policies but because they served as a check on the egalitarian tendencies of the masses.

But studies of the relation between democracy and levels of inequality point in conflicting directions.

Mr Acemoglu and Mr Robinson tackle the question in another paper, co-written with Suresh Naidu and Pascual Restrepo. They conclude that democracies raise more taxes than non-democracies do. But this does not translate reliably into lower levels of income inequality.  www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich

The Big, Dangerous Bubble in Corporate Debt

The $30 trillion domestic stock market seems to get all the attention. When the stock market sets new highs, we instinctively feel things are good and getting better. When it tanks, as happened in the initial months of the 2008 financial crisis, we think things are going to hell.

But the larger domestic debt market — at around $41 trillion for the bond market alone — reveals more about our nation’s financial health. And right now, the debt market is broadcasting a dangerous message: Investors, desperate for debt instruments that pay high interest, have been overpaying for riskier and riskier obligations. University endowments, pension funds, mutual funds and hedge funds have been pouring money into the bond market with little concern that bonds can be every bit as dangerous to own as stocks.

Unlike buying a stock, which is a calculated gamble, buying a bond or a loan is a contractual obligation: A borrower must repay a lender the borrowed amount, plus interest as compensation. The upside in a bond is limited to the contractual interest payments, but the downside is theoretically protected. Bondholders expect to get their money back, as long as the borrower doesn’t default or go bankrupt.

But for much of the last decade, risk has been mispriced to a staggering degree. In other words, the prices of bonds (and corporate loans) have not accurately reflected the riskiness of the underlying borrower’s credit. A company that is a poor credit risk, because it has too much debt or is struggling, should have to pay higher rates of interest. And investors would expect a higher yield — roughly the interest rate divided by the price paid for the bond or loan — for taking on that risk. Since the financial crisis, that simple calculus has been upended. Until recently, investors have been paying higher prices for the debt of riskier companies and not getting properly compensated for that risk.

The International Monetary Fund has noticed. In a recent blog post, an I.M.F. economist wrote that the current debt craze was “fueled by excessive optimism among investors,” and he added: “When the economy is doing well and everybody seems to be making money, some investors assume that the good times will never end. They take on more risk than they can reasonably expect to handle.” www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/corporate-debt-bubble-next-recession.html

Turkey’s economic crisis deepens as Trump doubles tariffs: Trade wars become real wars…

Turkey’s unfolding economic crisis has deepened further after Donald Trump announced he was doubling US import tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium, stoking the country’s currency freefall and rattling financial markets.

The Turkish lira plunged by more than 20% against the dollar after the president announced the move, amid a widening dispute between Washington and Ankara over the imprisonment of the US pastor Andrew Brunson.

Pressure has been applied on the country in recent days to stage an emergency interest rate rise to avert further economic damage.

Revealing an increase in US taxes on Turkish steel imports to 50% and on aluminium to 20%, the president tweeted: “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”

ven before Trump’s tweet, the lira had plunged 14% as investors rushed for the exits, choosing to buy the dollar, yen and other assets seen as safe havens during times of financial market volatility. The lira has been under sustained pressure on foreign exchanges, dropping by almost 50% against the dollar in the past 12 months and hitting a succession of record lows this week.  www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/10/turkeys-economic-crisis-deepens-as-trump-doubles-tariffs

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

www.facebook.com/portlandsresistance/videos/888956934647729/?t=0

Sheriff: Armed extremists arrested in New Mexico compound found with 11 kids

Two men who authorities said are extremist Muslims have been arrested in rural New Mexico, accused of kidnapping at least one child and training another to attack schools from their makeshift compound.

The men faced a brief court hearing Wednesday following their arrest Friday by the Taos County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities say the two men were living with three women and 11 starving kids in the ramshackle compound near Amalia, about four hours south of Denver, Colorado.

The three women are charged with child abuse. One of the men, Siraj Wahhaj, 42, was arrested on a kidnapping warrant from Georgia. The other, Lucas Morton, was arrested on suspicion of harboring a fugitive.

The body of Wahhaj’s son, 3, was found buried on the property, according to authorities. The boy disappeared from his Georgia home last year.

The sheriff’s office said Siraj Wahhaj was armed with an AR-15 rifle, four pistols and extra ammunition when he was “taken down” by the SWAT team. Police accuse Wahhaj of kidnapping his son and fleeing across state lines.

…Court documents say Wahhaj taught one of the kids “in the use of an assault rifle in preparation for future school shootings,” the Taos News reported.

Pictures publicized by the sheriff’s office show a tiny, garbage-strewn compound. Investigators say a long tunnel was also discovered beneath the area.

Wahhaj is related to Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a prominent Muslim cleric from the Masjid At Taqwa, a well-known mosque in Brooklyn.  www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/08/sheriff-armed-extremists-arrested-nm-compound-found-11-kids-3-women/939815002/

www.facebook.com/100011200636944/videos/646346092415406/?t=58

1 of 2 arrested in attack on Sikh man in Manteca is a police chief’s son

A year after a violent white nationalist rally “Unite The Right” left three dead and dozens injured, the city is taking extra safety precautions this weekend ahead of the movement’s 2018 rally reboot three hours away in Washington, D.C., Sunday.

With the city eerily quiet from the lack of vehicle traffic, a group of around 50 anti-fascist supporters walked through parts of downtown on Saturday – many dressed in black and wearing headbands.  Some members, reflecting their protest of white nationalism, carried a large banner reading: “Good Night, White Pride.”

Charlottesville was both riddled with concrete barriers, metal fences, security checkpoints and adorned with flowers, notes of solidarity and apologies for the violence that unfolded last August when white nationalists bearing torches marched through the University of Virginia campus.

Amid heavy police presence on sidewalks and at checkpoints, police confiscated a pair of brass knuckles, a razor, knife and aerosol cans, city officials said.

Two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges, one for trespassing and one for disorderly conduct.

While the city prepared for the worst, it also took time to honor the memory of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old legal assistant, who was hit and killed last year when a young Neo-Nazi slammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. Two Virginia state troopers also died when their surveillance helicopter crashed near the protests.

On Wednesday, a section of 4th Street — where she died — was renamed “Honorary Heather Heyer Way” in her memory. Chalk messages, flowers and other mementos are still being placed at the site. www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/11/unite-right-2018-charlottesville-va-dc-rally/966312002/

In Book, Omarosa Says Trump Is a Bigot, Behaved ‘Like a Dog’

Former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman claims in a new book that there are tapes of President Donald Trump using racial slurs and that she saw him behaving “like a dog off the leash” at numerous events he attended.

The accusations are among a long list of scandalous claims contained in her new book, “Unhinged,” set to come out Aug. 14. The Associated Press purchased an early copy of the memoir, which the White House has already slammed as “riddled with lies and false accusations.”

In the book, Manigault Newman, who was a contestant on Trump’s “The Apprentice” reality show and later served as a senior adviser to the president, hurls a litany of allegations, painting the president as scattered, self-absorbed, misogynistic and insecure.

Trump, she said she’d concluded after years of defending him, was a bigot.  www.snopes.com/ap/2018/08/10/book-omarosa-says-trump-bigot-behaved-like-dog/

Solidarity for Never

Ex-teachers union leader freed in Mexico

The flamboyant former leader of Mexico‘s powerful teachers union has been released from custody after a court determined there weren’t sufficient grounds to proceed in a yearslong money-laundering case, her lawyer said early Wednesday.

Attorney Marco Antonio del Toro read a statement from Elba Esther Gordillo in which she said the court had advised her at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday that she was free. She said she would make no further comment until Aug. 20.

Gordillo had been under house arrest in a tony Mexico City neighborhood in recent months.

Gordillo had started as a teacher and is still referred to as “la maestra.” She rose to lead the union for many years and was long an influential and senior figure in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

When she was arrested in early 2013, she was accused of embezzling about $160 million, funneling union funds into private bank accounts with the help of assistants. The case was investigated as organized crime, but she was never convicted.

Her spending — on luxury clothing brands, plastic surgery, homes in San Diego — became legendary and contrasted strongly with the realities of her poorly paid teachers. For years she could reliably deliver teachers’ votes to the PRI, but then switched her allegiance to the conservative National Action Party, helping them break the PRI’s reign with wins in 2000 and 2006.  abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/teachers-union-leader-freed-mexico-57107220

State employee union (of jailers) president seeks another term amid accusations

Months of accusations and drama inside Michigan’s oldest state employee union are to come to a head this weekend, when delegates from the Michigan State Employees Association meet in Big Rapids to decide whether President Ken Moore should get another term.

Members have accused Moore of attempting to break an internal union that represents MSEA office workers.

And the National Labor Relations Board and federal appeals courts have agreed, finding that the MSEA violated federal labor laws with respect to its own employees and ordering the union in recent months to pay close to $500,000 in back pay, interest and expenses to eight members of that internal union, the Central Office Staff Association (COSA).

“That was all unnecessary,” said James Zoccoli of Garden City, an employee in the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs who is challenging Moore for the presidency.

“I’m looking to hopefully get him out of office, so we can restore our reputation in organized labor,” Zoccoli said of Moore and the MSEA.  Moore, president since 2010, has maintained support from a majority of the 14-member MSEA board.  www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/08/06/michigan-state-employee-union-president/899984002/

Spy versus Spy

Nicolas Maduro assassination attempt: Six arrested for failed drone attack on Venezuelan president

Authorities in Venezuela have arrested six people suspected of using explosives-laden drones in a failed bid to assassinate president Nicolas Maduro, in what one witness described as a terrifying attack that shook her apartment building.

The government alleged that opposition factions conspired with assailants in the US and Colombia, although they offered no specific evidence. Opposition leaders decried Mr Maduro for broadly singling out his political opponents and they warned he may use it to further suppress his critics.

The thwarted attack came as Venezuela reels from a worsening economic and humanitarian crisis and Mr Maduro has grown increasingly isolated. Foreign nations, including the United States, are slapping economic sanctions against a growing list of high-ranking officials and decrying his government as an autocratic regime.   www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nicolas-maduro-assassination-attempt-president-six-arrested-caracas-latest-a8478791.html

Reminder: ‘Make the Economy Scream’? Economic, Ideological and Social Determinants of Support for Salvador Allende in Chile, 1970–3

According to the Church Committee report, in their meeting with CIA Director Richard Helms and Attorney General John Mitchell on 15 September 1970 President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, directed the CIA to prevent Allende from taking power. They were “not concerned [about the] risks involved,” according to Helms’ notes. In addition to political action, Nixon and Kissinger, according to Helms’s notes, ordered steps to “make the economy scream.”

These Cold War attitudes persisted into the Pinochet era. After Pinochet came to power, senior policymakers appeared reluctant to criticize human rights violations, taking to task US diplomats urging greater attention to the problem. US military assistance and sales grew significantly during the years of greatest human rights abuses. According to a previously released Memorandum of Conversation, Kissinger in June 1976 indicated to Pinochet that the US Government was sympathetic to his regime, although Kissinger advised some progress on human rights in order to improve Chile’s image in the US Congress.  www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/

CIA reports detail harsh interrogations when chief Gina Haspel led Thailand black site

The wreckage of a building described by the Syrian Information Ministry in an April press tour as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Center compound.CreditLouai Beshara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Aziz Asbar was one of Syria’s most important rocket scientists, bent on amassing an arsenal of precision-guided missiles that could be launched with pinpoint accuracy against Israeli cities hundreds of miles away.

He had free access to the highest levels of the Syrian and Iranian governments, and his own security detail. He led a top-secret weapons-development unit called Sector 4 and was hard at work building an underground weapons factory to replace one destroyed by Israel last year.

On Saturday, he was killed by a car bomb — apparently planted by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

It was at least the fourth assassination mission by Israel in three years against an enemy weapons engineer on foreign soil, a senior official from a Middle Eastern intelligence agency confirmed on Monday. The following account is based on information provided by the official, whose agency was informed about the operation.  www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/world/middleeast/syrian-rocket-scientist-mossad-assassination.html

The Magical Mystery Tour

“They murdered something in me”: Pennsylvania priest sex abuse survivors share stories

The first Pennsylvania statewide investigation into abuses by Catholic priests is expected to be released any day now. The grand jury report details allegations against more than 300 priests in six dioceses, covering more than 1.7 million parishioners. Attorney General Josh Shapiro led the 18 month-long investigation.

CBS News’ Nikki Battiste spoke with several victims who are sharing their stories for the first time. Survivors and their families tell us they’ve suffered through decades of trauma, and believe the report’s release will be an important milestone in their fight for justice.

Shaun Dougherty, Juliann Bortz, Jim Vansickle, Mary McHale, James Faluszczak and Judy Deaven are among the more than one hundred people who spoke to the Pennsylvania grand jury. Their stories fill a nearly 900-page report.

Battiste asked the group when their abuse began, and they said it ranged from when they were 10 to 18.

“My son was 15 when it started,” Deaven said. “His hell was right here on earth.”

Deaven says the death of her son Joey three years ago can be traced to what happened to him as a teenager.

“Because of the way he was, and I’m not gonna say abused, I’m gonna say the way he was raped, at age 17, his back was injured. There was nothing they could do surgically. And because of the pain medication, his death was caused by an accidental overdose,” Deaven said.

“The word ‘abuse’ gets thrown around,” said Bortz. “We’re talking rapes.”  www.cbsnews.com/news/pennsylvania-priest-abuse-victims-share-their-stories-they-murdered-something-in-me/

 

Greensburg bishop: Some names on list of clergy accused of sex abuse ‘will shock people’

GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Catholic Diocese of Greensburg is apologizing Thursday for “grievous failures” of the church and said it will release a list of clergy members with credible allegations of sexual abuse against them.

The grand jury report on sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, including Greensburg, could be released any time between now and Tuesday. It is said to contain the names of as many as 300 clergy members involved in the abuse and potential cover-ups.

The 700-page grand jury report will contain names of accusers, but there will be redactions.

“The facts must be made public if the church and survivors are ever to move past this horrific scourge,” a news release from the diocese said.

According to the diocese, it will release a list of Greensburg clergy with credible allegations against them on the same day the grand jury report is made public.  “Some of the names on the report will shock people. I know that none of those persons are in ministry today in the Diocese of Greensburg,” Bishop Edward Malesic told Channel 11’s Melanie Marsalko.  www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/greensburg-bishop-some-names-on-list-of-clergy-accused-of-sex-abuse-will-shock-people/809441930

In Pennsylvania, Shadow Of Secrecy Lifting From Decades Of Abuse By Priests

For decades, the Catholic Church has grappled with sexual abuse of children by priests — through quiet reassignments and headline-grabbing scandals, internal investigations and public criminal charges, simmering controversies and settlements with survivors.

Now, some parishes in Pennsylvania are reckoning with the problem through an unusual dose of transparency.

In 2016, Pennsylvania’s attorney general launched a grand jury investigation, into allegations of sexual abuse in six of the state’s eight dioceses.

The investigation was conducted under “the umbrella of secrecy,” court documents note. It came closely after a 2016 grand jury investigation that found evidence that two bishops in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese covered up sexual abuse by dozens of church leaders.

The new investigation was far broader — the report, which has been finished but not yet released to the public, names more than 300 specific members of the clergy as “predator priests.”

Individuals named in the document have protested its release, but last week, a judge ordered that the report be made public. He called for “temporary redactions” as necessary to protect reputations of people concerned with their due-process rights.

The 900-page report must be released by August 14. In the meantime, court documents reveal two short previews.

The grand jury wrote that they aim to “shine a light on [the] conduct” of “predator priests,” and they say, “We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this.”  www.npr.org/2018/08/02/634905784/in-pennsylvania-shadow-of-secrecy-lifting-from-decades-of-abuse-by-priests

Church officials shielded priest suspected of murder for decades

A “48 Hours” investigation has uncovered new details in a former priest’s 57-year journey from murder to justice. Father John Feit was shielded by church officials from prosecution in the 1960 murder of a former Texas beauty queen, and allowed to rise to a position of authority overseeing troubled priests, according to dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of public records and documents obtained by “48 Hours.”

On a late Thursday afternoon on Feb. 9, 2016, 83-year-old former Catholic priest John Bernard Feit was escorted into a holding room at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix.

Joining him were two out-of-state investigators, Rolando Villarreal with the Texas Rangers and Frank Trevino with the McAllen, Texas, Police Department.

After reading Feit his Miranda rights, Investigator Trevino presented him with an arrest warrant for a murder in Hidalgo County, Texas.

“I’ve been questioned extensively about this dating back to 1960,” Feit said, according to a transcript of the interview read in court. “So I’m disappointed but not surprised.”

It was the beginning of the end of a cold case that hung like a cloud over the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas for nearly 60 years.

Less than two years after that February 2016 day, Feit was in an Edinburg, Texas, courtroom convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1960 murder of a 25-year-old school teacher and former beauty queen named Irene Garza.    www.cbsnews.com/news/church-officials-shielded-priest-suspected-of-murder-for-decades/

GRADUATION PRAYERS CHALLENGED IN COURT: A decadeslong practice of including prayers during school graduation ceremonies in the Greenville County School District in South Carolina is being challenged in federal district court. The American Humanist Association is asking the U.S. District Court of South Carolina to resolve a yearslong case by ending the practice altogether. The school district and AHA have been entangled in the legal fight since 2013. In 2015, a district judge found the practice unconstitutional, but allowed prayers moving forward as long as they were “student initiated.”

— In a filing Thursday, AHA argues that the prayers have continued in the district in a way that may subject unwilling students, and that the district’s new approach violates the 2015 ruling by including “religious language in written programs, encouraging students to pray and asking audiences to stand for explicitly Christian prayers.”  www.politico.com/morningeducation/

 

…the lead pastor and the entire board of elders of Willow Creek Community Church, a deeply influential nondenominational megachurch in the Chicago suburbs, resigned in front of their congregation.

The moves, which happened in a special congregational meeting Wednesday night, were in response to allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against the church’s founding pastor, Bill Hybels, and to the ways the church had essentially turned a blind eye for nearly five years. In the meeting this week, lead pastor Heather Larson announced to thousands of congregants—Willow Creek is home to some 25,000 members, making it the fifth-largest megachurch in the country—that she would resign immediately, and Missy Rasmussen, an elder, announced that she and eight of her peers were stepping down because, she said, “Willow needs and deserves a fresh start.” Rasmussen apologized to each of the women who reported misconduct.

“To all the women who have come forward, we are sorry that we added to your pain,” Rasmusssen said. “We are sorry that our initial statements were so insensitive, defensive, and reflexively protective of Bill. We exhort Bill to acknowledge his sin and publicly apologize.”  www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/08/the-churchtoo-movement-just-scored-a-historic-victory-for-victims-of-sexual-abuse-willowcreek-community-church-bill-hybels/

Pentagon Officials Listen In Silence As Mike Pence Details Plans For Angel-Guided Defense Weapons System

Feigning polite interest throughout the 90-minute meeting, Pentagon officials from all five branches of the armed forces listened in silence Thursday as Mike Pence presented his detailed plans for a state-of-the-art angel-guided weapons system. “Though we are grateful for the vice president’s interest in national defense, the prospect of using seraphim-targeted bombs and heretic-seeking missiles to protect America from hostile sinners is not feasible, nor indeed useful, at this time,” said Secretary of Defense James Mattis, graciously thanking Pence for his hand-drawn schematics of a proposed Holy Ghost cloaking device that would allow planes to fly undetected above the homes of prostitutes and thieves.  politics.theonion.com/pentagon-officials-listen-in-silence-as-mike-pence-deta-1828231250

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

I must apologize.

I touted Boots Riley’s new film, “Sorry to Bother You,” in part on memory of a brief friendship with his father, and in part on the strength of some of his work with The Coup.

The movie opened in San Diego this week.

I paid my twenty-five bucks to see it.

Unfortunately, it’s terrible, so terrible that I feel no qualms about revealing the plot so nobody else gets robbed.

In sum, this is about young black male telemarketer who has a choice: join with other telemarketers to build a union and engage in mini-job actions, or become a Power Seller, get rich, and betray his pals and paramour, Detroit. Initially “Cash,” (clever, eh?) gets rich–selling slave labor.

Then, he has a change of heart, joins with Detroit, and–a miracle–some workers are turned into ultra-powerful horses (satyrs?–satire, get it?) and the day is won! Woo hoo. A “union.”

That is it.

A telemarketers’ strike? A shut-down by this quasi-lumpen element would be celebrated by most people with phones.

A “union”?

Every union in the U.S. embraces bosses as “partners in production,” while every union leader, living relatively well, does all he or she can to suffocate any job action that might lead to a hint of class consciousness.

“Red” Boots could have, and has, done better. Perhaps he became Cash, at his worst.

My apologies for backing this awful, juvenile, movie.

RG

www.facebook.com/ABCNews/videos/10157522387608812/?t=33

This is NOT a good book

This book is the basis for the military’s counterinsurgency (COIN) plans. It’s by the failed “Surge” (Shoot ’em or Bribe ’em) General David Petraeus, former boss of the CIA who busied himself passing classified information to his paramour while he schmoozed with the rich in homes near military bases. We can see how well the surge went, as in the creation of ISIS.

This is simple.

The US has no grand strategy–which might be reason and equality world-wide, because it CANNOT have a grand strategy: inequality, racism, imperialism, and capital.

Insurgencies usually do have a grand strategy (communism, nationalism, a mix, religious rule, etc.)

It is paramount to defeat the enemy’s grand strategy, rupture its strategy, and counter its tactics.

With no grand strategy, the US has no strategy–which might otherwise be world revolution.

So, the US has only tactics, which is all counterinsurgency via Petraeus is. When the people know that armed men are not in town to liberate them, but to rob them, it’s all downhill.

Petraeus, like his counterparts, is corrupt and stupid.

This is a good Book

Porch proves what is noted above, via the history of decades of COIN.

 

A staggering death toll for firefighters in California’s summer of flames

So Long

 

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