Rouge Forum Dispatch: We Did Not Make This Stuff Up!
We Say Fight Back!
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Citizens of Tierra Colorado Mexico Seize City, Arrest Cops Thousands of armed vigilantes have taken over a town in Mexico and arrested police officers after their ‘commander’ was killed and dumped in the street.
The self described ‘community police’ and arrested 12 officers and the town’s former director of public security, who they accuse of taking part in the killing of Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of a local organised crime group.
The 1,500-strong force has also set up improvised checkpoints on the major road running through Tierra Colorado, which connects the capital Mexico City to Acapulco, a coastal city popular with tourists less than 40 miles away. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300381/Vigilantes-seize-town-Mexico-shoot-tourists-commander-killed.html#ixzz2PHhcClzO
San Diego, “Home of the Drone” Protest April 2013
Kids Fight Capitalist-Schooling-as-Jailing “We want our school to be more like a school,” says Ruff, a shy honor student with a cheeky grin and aspirations to become a University of Florida Gator some day. “Other schools don’t have police officers. So why does our school have to have that?”
They’re hoping to use the photographs to persuade D.C. school officials to start a “restorative justice” program to cut down on the 6,000 students or so who were suspended last school year, some multiple times.
But in the current climate they may have trouble winning over school administrators such as the principal at Woodson, who says he thinks tight security is crucial to keeping kids safe. www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-students-use-photography-to-protest-school-security/2013/04/04/e32bef48-8b44-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html
Fast Food Workers Protests How much should employers pay the people who serve up your french fries and ring up your tacos? It’s an issue that’s being raised for the second time in six months as hundreds of fast food workers in New York City walked out on the job Thursday to demand higher wages. An estimated 400 workers from 60 restaurants in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Harlem participated, organizers say.
The campaign, organized in part by the group Fast Food Forward, is asking for wages to be raised to $15 an hour, which in some cases would double the pay of some workers, raising their pay to around what a substitute teacher makes, or an emergency medical technician, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. www.latimes.com/business/money/la-mo-fast-food-workers-20130404,0,7892003.story
Dockworkers Srike in Hong Kong A rare strike among contract dockworkers at the cargo terminals owned by Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, stretched into its seventh day Wednesday, and the walkout is starting to have a real and increasing effect on the flow of ships and goods on the doorstep of the world’s workshop, in southern China.
If the strike drags on, it could affect the peak season for cargo volume, which begins in May and lasts until October, as exporters hurry goods from southern Chinese ports to retailers in the United States and Europe to meet holiday season demand. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/business/global/hong-kong-strike-clogs-shipping-traffic.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Detroit EFM Fires Academics Boss Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts in an executive order is expected to announce today that he has fired the interim superintendent of academics, just as a new emergency manager law takes effect.
Roberts said he fired John Telford and reappointed Karen Ridgeway, Telford’s former deputy superintendent.
The school board battled Roberts in court to expand the board’s authority for months when a weaker emergency manager law, Public Act 72, was in effect. The court ruled Feb. 22 that Roberts had no jurisdiction when it came to academics. As a result, the board instructed Ridgeway to report to Telford instead of Roberts.
“I know that these last few months have been filled with confusion…,” Roberts wrote in a letter expected to be released to staff today. “However, we have made it through those difficult times and can now focus on the future.”
As a part of the executive order, Roberts also terminated Telford’s pro bono staff of five.
Telford said Wednesday night that Roberts didn’t have the authority to terminate his contract, which runs through December. He said he will continue to serve as “superintendent in waiting.” From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20130328/SCHOOLS/303280386#ixzz2P9gVPeeJ
Shocker! Michigan “Bad Bank” Schools have t LOT of Discipline Problems Officials with Michigan’s statewide school district released some stunning statistics that show the challenges to reform the worst-performing schools are not just academic — they are behavioral, too.
In the first five months of the school year in the Education Achievement Authority — the statewide system for failing schools — authorities documented more than 5,000 discipline-related infractions across 15 school buildings in Detroit, ranging from fights to truancy to gambling and disorderly conduct.
The number of incidents skyrocketed in the second quarter, from mid-November through the end of January, when 4,000 infractions piled up, including 1,000 truancy cases, 986 disorderly conduct incidents, 63 drug possessions, 33 firearm possessions and 22 physical assaults against staff.
Also reported were 876 cases of insubordination and 52 cases of threats of violence or coercion. From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com/article/20130403/SCHOOLS/304030358#ixzz2PcpOvwLC
Those who are at the Heart of the Creation of the Reasons for the Bad Bank Michigan Schools pretend to fix the problem www.detroitpush.org/MBC/board.htm
Michelle Rhee has at least one kid in a private school The Times asked Rhee’s spokeswoman again about what type of school Rhee’s children attend.
Shaw declined to answer the question directly. Instead, after multiple emails and phone calls from Times reporters, she issued a statement apologizing for “misleading” the newspaper with her initial response.
“It was not our intention to be misleading. It is our policy not to discuss where Michelle’s children attend school out of respect for their privacy,” the statement says. “While it is true Michelle is a public school parent, we understand how that statement was misleading, and we apologize to the Los Angeles Times.”
Asked whether those remarks indicate that at least one of Rhee’s children attends private school, Shaw again declined to answer. www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-michelle-rhee-a-public-school-parent-20130328,0,6195587.story
Test Cheat, Religious Fanatic, Snitch, breaks Atlanta Test Score Scam When asked during an interview if she was surprised that out of Atlanta’s 100 schools, Mr. Hyde turned up at hers first, Ms. Parks said no. “I had a dream about it a few weeks before,” she said. “I saw people walking down the hall with yellow notepads. From time to time, God reveals things to me in dreams.”
“I think God led Mr. Hyde to Venetian Hills,” she said.
Whatever delivered Mr. Hyde (he said he picked the school because he knew the area from patrolling it as a young police officer), 10 months after his arrival, on June 30, 2011, state investigators issued an 800-page report implicating 178 teachers and principals — including 82 who confessed to cheating.
By now, almost all are gone. Like Ms. Parks, they have resigned or were fired or lost their teaching licenses at administrative hearings. …“The cheating had been going on so long,” Ms. Parks said. “We considered it part of our jobs.”
She said teachers were under constant pressure from principals who feared they would be fired if they did not meet the testing targets set by the superintendent.
Dr. Hall was known to rule by fear. She gave principals three years to meet their testing goals. Few did; in her decade as superintendent, she replaced 90 percent of the principals.
Teachers and principals whose students had high test scores received tenure and thousands of dollars in performance bonuses. Otherwise, as one teacher explained, it was “low score out the door.” www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/former-school-chief-in-atlanta-indicted-in-cheating-scandal.html?pagewanted=2&hp&pagewanted=all
Almost as bad as Wall Street–test cheats everywhere In the past four academic years, test cheating has been confirmed in 37 states and Washington D.C. (You can see details here, and, here, a list of more than 50 ways that schools can manipulate test scores.) The true extent of these scandals remain unknown, and, as Michael Winerip of The New York Times shows here in this excellent article, it is very hard to get to the bottom of these scandals. In Atlanta, it took the will of two governors who allowed investigators to go in with a lot of time and subpoena power. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/01/atlanta-test-cheating-tip-of-the-iceberg/
Test Cheats in El Paso turn schools into Diploma Mills Widespread cheating continued at the El Paso Independent School District even after disgraced Superintendent Lorenzo García was arrested, as many high schools became “diploma mills,” according to an 86-page audit released Monday by the district.
A number of administrators cited in the report by Weaver and Tidwell, an Austin-based forensic accounting firm, said the company conducted an incomplete investigation and its auditors seemed unfamiliar with Texas education law.
The audit report noted that for much of García’s five-year tenure, “the district was run by a criminal.” But the report said problems continued even after García’s arrest in the summer of 2011.
“Long after García’s arrest and departure on August 1, 2011, many of these practices continued unabated. Although García was gone, the Bowie Plan infrastructure he created was still intact. In the rush to avoid accountability consequences for inadequate graduation rates, many district high schools became credit mills and, eventually, diploma mills, as unearned credits resulted in the graduation of ill-prepared students. These students are the victims of the culture García promulgated, and it is not a culture easily undone,” the report said. www.elpasotimes.com/ci_22917594/audit-cheating-made-many-episd-schools-diploma-mills
There Goes Camden: Christie Takes Over Gov. Chris Christie today announced the state would assume control of Camden public schools, describing a district “at the breaking point” with “chronic and severe” problems.
The move would make Camden the fourth school district under state control and the first for the Christie administration.
The state took over its three biggest districts — Newark, Jersey City and Paterson to try to impose fiscal discipline and stamp out corruption. www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/nj_to_take_control_of_camden_s.html
So Long California Community Colleges California’s community colleges — the nation’s largest public higher education system — have lost so many teachers and classes that students are being driven away.
With the number of course sections down systemwide by as much as 20 percent since 2008, enrollment rates have hit their lowest point in two decades, concludes a Public Policy Institute of California report released Monday.
The community colleges’ ideal of open access for all, still dear to many Californians, barely resembles the reality on campuses today after years of budget cuts.
“I expected to get the classes I needed, but I was wrong,” said Rigo Navarro…..The community college chancellor’s office reports that a half-million students have been shut out of the system in recent years because they couldn’t get into classes. The system counted 2.4 million students in 2011-12, down from 2.9 million students in 2008-09, according to the report. .. Last semester, class instructor Chad Mark Glen tried to ease the damage, letting in every student who tried to register for his introduction course. The cap was 44 students, but he invited more than 90 into a little lecture hall — basically, packing two sections into one. Students sat on the floor and poured into the hallway.
Glen said the class was vibrant and fun to teach. It was also draining. This semester, he said, “I told my dean, ‘Put it back to 44.’ I just felt I couldn’t do it again.” www.insidebayarea.com/education/ci_22870735/hundreds-thousands-have-been-shut-out-community-colleges?source=rss
Chicago’s Unionist Karen Lewis Defends Capitalist schools, Manages an Entire interview without saying “Capitalism, Imperialism,” or even “Poverty” and buys the nationalism inherent in “the common good” WHY? Lewis: What’s interesting to me is if you read blogs, you read Facebook, you go to wherever you need to go, teachers across the country are complaining about being scapegoated for problems that they’re not responsible for. They are given mandate after mandate that does not help children. And I think the problem is, as teachers and clinicians and paraprofessionals, our main goal is to help children, and when we see that the corporate agenda is actually doing harm, we have to call that out. We have tried to accommodate these people, we have done everything they have ever asked us to do, and yet it is not enough. It will never be enough until they destroy our profession.
And there are those of us that feel that we have to be on the line to protect not only our profession, but the common good of publicly funded public education. There’s a reason we have public education in this country, and it is because it serves the common good. truth-out.org/video/item/15543-chicago-teachers-union-president-karen-lewis-on-fighting-school-closures#13651179890591&action=collapse_widget&id=2953861
Rise of the RoboGraders Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program.
And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.
EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/how-would-you-feel-about-a-computer-grading-your-essays/
New Marketing Niche for Historians (discovering capitalism) Markets and financial institutions “were created by people making particular choices at particular historical moments,” said Julia Ott, an assistant professor in the history of capitalism at the New School (the first person, several scholars said, to be hired under such a title).
To dramatize that point, Dr. Ott has students in her course Whose Street? Wall Street! dress up in 19th-century costume and re-enact a primal scene in financial history: the early days of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Some of her colleagues take a similarly playful approach. To promote a two-week history of capitalism “boot camp” to be inaugurated this summer at Cornell, Dr. Hyman (a former consultant at McKinsey & Company) designed “history of capitalism” T-shirts. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/education/in-history-departments-its-up-with-capitalism.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder: We’re gonna come out of this war rich!
Yossarian: You’re gonna come out rich. We’re gonna come out dead.
above, flyer distributed by vets to vets this week at Fort Hood
Vets Die Awaiting Benefits: The VA’s inability to pay benefits to veterans before they die is increasingly common, according to data obtained by The Bay Citizen. The data reveals, for the first time, that long wait times are contributing to tens of thousands of veterans being approved for disability benefits and pensions only after it is too late for the money to help them.
In the fiscal year that ended in September, the agency paid $437 million in retroactive benefits to the survivors of nearly 19,500 veterans who died waiting. The figures represent a dramatic increase from three years earlier, when the widows, parents and children of fewer than 6,400 veterans were paid $7.9 million on claims filed before their loved one’s death.
These veterans range from World War II veterans like Alderson who die of natural causes without their pensions to Iraq war veteran Scott Eiswert, who committed suicide after his disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder was denied.
The ranks of survivors waiting for these benefits also have surged, from fewer than 3,000 in December 2009 to nearly 13,000 this month. www.baycitizen.org/news/veterans/number-veterans-who-die-waiting-benefits/
2004 and the Origins of the Drone Wars Mr. Muhammad and his followers had been killed by the C.I.A., the first time it had deployed a Predator drone in Pakistan to carry out a “targeted killing.” The target was not a top operative of Al Qaeda, but a Pakistani ally of the Taliban who led a tribal rebellion and was marked by Pakistan as an enemy of the state. In a secret deal, the C.I.A. had agreed to kill him in exchange for access to airspace it had long sought so it could use drones to hunt down its own enemies.
That back-room bargain, described in detail for the first time in interviews with more than a dozen officials in Pakistan and the United States, is critical to understanding the origins of a covert drone war that began under the Bush administration, was embraced and expanded by President Obama, and is now the subject of fierce debate. The deal, a month after a blistering internal report about abuses in the C.I.A.’s network of secret prisons, paved the way for the C.I.A. to change its focus from capturing terrorists to killing them, and helped transform an agency that began as a cold war espionage service into a paramilitary organization.
The C.I.A. has since conducted hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed thousands of people, Pakistanis and Arabs, militants and civilians alike. While it was not the first country where the United States used drones, it became the laboratory for the targeted killing operations that have come to define a new American way of fighting, blurring the line between soldiers and spies and short-circuiting the normal mechanisms by which the United States as a nation goes to war. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/origins-of-cias-not-so-secret-drone-war-in-pakistan.html?ref=global-home
US/NATO Murders 6 More–by mistake – A NATO airstrike killed four policemen and two civilians on a rural road in Afghanistan’s eastern Ghazni province, Afghan officials said Thursday.
Fazel Ahmad Tolwak, governor of Deyak district, said the four police had attended a memorial ceremony for a deceased villager Wednesday and, on the way back, gave a ride to several members of the Taliban and two members of Tolwak’s family.
The police let the Taliban off, while the civilians remained in the vehicle, he said. The NATO aircraft apparently saw the Taliban riding in the vehicle and assumed they were still there, Tolwak said. He said he didn’t know why the Taliban were riding with the police.
Tolwak said the airstrike was not called by Afghan security forces as some had reported, but by a NATO patrol a few miles away that had come under attack from Taliban fighters, leading to the apparent case of mistaken identity. ..On Wednesday, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers killed more than 40 civilians in a court complex over an eight-hour period in western Farah province. The death toll was the highest in Afghanistan resulting from a single attack since December 2011 when a Shia Muslim shrine was bombed in Kabul, killing 80 people. www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-afghanistan-nato-airstrike-20130404,0,5683266.story
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN5TTNn7h4c
US Brass visits Afghanistan–Seven Americans Killed On the same day that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan for an assessment visit, six Americans were killed Saturday in attacks by Afghanistan insurgents.
Hours after Dempsey arrived in the nation, five Americans — three soldiers and two civilians — were killed when a bomb-laden vehicle exploded in southeastern Zabul province. An Afghan doctor was also killed in the attack on a convoy headed to a hospital for a visit.
Another American was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, military officials said. The one-day American death toll was the highest since last summer. www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-six-americans-killed-in-afghan-attacks-as-top-uscommander-visits-20130406,0,2895175.story
Japan Readies for War Perhaps the most notable feature of the war games in February, called Iron Fist, was the baldness of their unspoken warning. There is only one country that Japan fears would stage an assault on one of its islands: China.
Iron Fist is one of the latest signs that Japan’s anxiety about China’s insistent claims over disputed islands as well as North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats are pushing Japanese leaders to shift further away from the nation’s postwar pacifism.
The new assertiveness has been particularly apparent under the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a conservative who has increased military spending for the first time in 11 years. With China’s maritime forces staging regular demonstrations of their determination to control disputed islands in the East China Sea and North Korea’s new leader issuing daily proclamations against the United States and its allies, Mr. Abe’s calls for a bolder, stronger military are getting a warmer welcome in Japan than similar efforts in the past. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/asia/japan-shifting-further-away-from-pacifism.html?pagewanted=all
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
The Council on Foreign Relations Shivers about Income Inequality Rising U.S. Income Inequality
Income inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, with the top echelon of earners rapidly outpacing the rest of the population. According to the Congressional Budget Office (PDF), the average real after-tax household income of the top 1 percent rose 275 percent from 1979 to 2007. Meanwhile, income for the remainder of the top quintile (81stto 99th percentile) grew 65 percent. Income for the majority of the population in the middle of the scale (21st through 80th percentiles) grew just 37 percent for the same period. And the bottom quintile experienced the least growth income at just 18 percent. Furthermore, in 1965, a typical corporate CEO earned more than twenty times a typical worker; by 2011, the ratio was 383:1, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
While many of the suspected drivers of rising income inequality—globalization, technological change and the rising value of education—affect other nations as well, few have seen as stark a rise in inequality. From 1968 to 2010, the share of national income earned by the top 20 percent rose from 42.6 to 50.2 percent, with gains concentrated at the very top. Meanwhile, the “middle class,” the middle 60 percent, saw its share decline from 53.2 to 46.5 percent. This increasing income inequality is captured by the steady rise in the U.S. Gini coefficient, from 0.316 in the mid-1970s to 0.378 in the late 2000s. Today, the U.S. income distribution is one of the most uneven among major developed nations (PDF). www.cfr.org/united-states/income-inequality-debate/p29052#p2
Democrat Obamagogue Set to Cut Social Security (nice job, liberals) President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/us/social-programs-face-cutback-in-obama-budget.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130405&_r=0
One Half Million Forced Out of Work Force The Labor Department reported that the economy added 88,000 jobs in March, the slowest monthly job growth since last June when it added 87,000 jobs. In spite of the weak reported job growth, the unemployment rate edged down to 7.6 percent. However, like the February decline, this drop was also associated with people dropping out of the labor force. The household survey reported a decline of 496,000 in the size of the labor force. The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) fell to 58.5 percent, just 0.3 percentage points above the low hit in the summer of 2011. The EPOP for women fell by 0.2 percentage points to 54.6 percent, tying the low hit in January. …The March report should end the excessive wave of optimism that led many analysts to claim the economy had reached a turning point and to talk about the end of the Fed’s quantitative easing policy. It is bizarre that this sort of talk ever gained much currency. After all, the economy grew at just a 1.6 percent annual rate in the second half of 2012. While the February jobs report was better than expected, and the last five months showed somewhat more rapid growth than the year-round average, it was well below the pace from a year ago.
It is important to remember that the March data does not reflect the impact of the sequester. Apart from the drop in postal employment, which was not affected by the sequester, federal employment was virtually unchanged. Given the underlying weakness of the economy, the hit from the sequester could push the employment growth rate below the 100,000 monthly rate needed to keep the unemployment rate stable. It is more likely that the unemployment rate will rise than fall through the rest of 2013. www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/jobs-bytes/job-growth-falls-to-88000-half-a-million-workers-leave-labor-force
The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid 1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor. It comes at a time when government spending cuts of $85 billion have kicked in after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit. The cuts will directly affect 50 million Americans living below the poverty income line and reduce their chances of finding work and a better life….The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government’s so-called War on Poverty.
As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty.
The bureau said 20 percent of the country’s children are poor.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302997/U-S-sees-highest-poverty-spike-1960s-leaving-50-million-Americans-poor-government-cuts-billions-spending.html#ixzz2PT1L0tqd
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Taxes? Taxes? We Don’t Pay no Stinking Taxes An enormous leak of confidential financial records has revealed the identities of thousands of wealthy depositors — including European officials and corporate executives, Asian dictators and their children, and even American doctors and dentists — who have stashed immense amounts of money in offshore tax havens. …the files “illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy to avoid taxes, fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations.” The current banking crisis threatening Cyprus, it said, “is one example of how the offshore system can impact an entire country’s financial stability.” (included among the named) Denise Rich of the United States, the songwriter and former wife of Marc Rich, the onetime fugitive oil trader, who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on tax evasion charges. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/vast-hidden-wealth-revealed-in-leaked-records.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
EuroZone–Massive Unemployment The euro zone jobless rate rose to 12.0 percent in the first two months of the year, the latest in a series of record highs tracing to late 2011, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, reported Tuesday.
The agency revised upward the January jobless rate for the euro zone from the previously reported 11.9 percent, itself a record. For the overall European Union, Eurostat said the February jobless rate rose to 10.9 percent from 10.8 percent in January, with more than 26 million people without work across the 27-nation bloc. Both the jobless rates and the number of unemployed are the highest Eurostat has recorded in data that reach back to 1995, before the creation of the euro. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/global/unemployment-in-euro-zone-reaches-a-record-high-of-12-percent.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
Currency Wars Often Become Hot Wars–there goes the Yen with the Visible hand of the Corporate State Japan plans to flood its economy with freshly printed yen in coming months in an effort to shock one of the world’s major industrial powers out of a 20-year-old stupor.
The impact of an unexpectedly ambitious move by the Bank of Japan on Thursday could course quickly through the world economy, pulling down the value of Japan’s currency and with it the prices of the cars, electronics and other goods the country sells worldwide. That could mean a larger U.S. trade deficit with the country and a more difficult market for American exports, which will become more expensive in Japan by comparison. The yen fell 3 percent against the dollar on Thursday, continuing a six-month-old trend in which it has dropped about 25 percent as the country prepared to shake up economic policy. On Friday, the yen fell again and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average soared, closing its morning session up 3.76 percent and climbing above 13,000 for the first time in almost five years.
Rivaling what the U.S. Federal Reserve did in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Japan’s move is the latest example of how the developed world is relying on its central bankers to keep the economy afloat while politicians grapple with underlying problems, including government debt and economic competitiveness.
Institutions such as the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have waded deep into unfamiliar territory to do the job, buying government bonds and other assets while their own internal balance sheets balloon. They are pushing money into the economy with historic low interest rates to try to battle the fact that households are slow to spend and companies are hesitant to invest and hire. The risks are known but impossible to quantify: of inflation remaining tame until it roars out of control, or of asset bubbles creeping into unexpected parts of the economy as investors take advantage of cheap money worldwide to make ever-riskier bets. www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/japan-opens-the-spigot-with-a-torrent-of-yen-planned-to-boost-the-economy/2013/04/04/fbd3027e-9d47-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html?hpid=z2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq8Zq7-S0LM
Who Lost Stockton? And San Berdoo and…. federal judge ruled Monday that Stockton is eligible for bankruptcy protection, over the objection of creditors who argued the city could come up with more money.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said Stockton can move forward with a plan to reorganize debt. He twice stated that the creditors had acted in bad faith and had refused to pay their share of the costs for negotiations.
“The creditors got a big black eye today,” said Karol Denniston, an attorney who helped draft the legislation that guided Stockton’s mandated mediation before filing for bankruptcy protection. “Now the stage is set for the real dogfight.”
In late June, Stockton became the nation’s largest city to fail financially. At that time, all eyes were on the port city of 300,000 as experts warned the action could set off a string of similar filings among cash-strapped municipalities. Since then, a half-dozen cities have filed for Chapter 9 protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, including the city of San Bernardino. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-stockton-bankrupt-20130401,0,7979388.story
With No Criminal Charges but $616 Million Fine, SAC Boss buys $150 million Picasso Reports surfaced last week that Mr. Cohen had bought the Picasso for $155 million. That, coupled with news that Mr. Cohen paid $60 million for an oceanfront estate in the Hamptons, led to speculation that Mr. Cohen’s shopping spree was a statement of confidence that his legal problems were over or an effort to shield assets from the government.
News of the purchases emerged less than two weeks after SAC agreed to pay the government a record $616 million penalty to settle civil insider trading accusations against the fund. Mr. Cohen has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and has said he believes that he has at all times behaved appropriately. dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/suit-by-ex-wife-of-sacs-cohen-revived-on-appeal/
Dynasty=Tyranny= Kennedy as Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, is likely to be the next United States ambassador to Japan, according to people familiar with the appointment process. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/caroline-kennedy-is-considered-for-japan-ambassador.html
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement
Obamagogue’s Honduran Death Squads The video (warning: contains graphic images of lethal violence), caught randomly on a warehouse security camera, is chilling.
Five young men walk down a quiet street in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A big black SUV pulls up, followed by a second vehicle. Two masked men with bullet-proof vests jump out of the lead car, with AK-47s raised. The two youths closest to the vehicles see that they have no chance of running, so they freeze and put their hands in the air. The other three break into a sprint, with bullets chasing after them from the assassins’ guns. Miraculously, they escape, with one injured – but the two who surrendered are forced to lie face down on the ground. The two students, who were brothers 18- and 20-years-old, are murdered with a burst of bullets, in full view of the camera. Less than 40 seconds after their arrival, the assassins are driving away, never to be found.
The high level of professional training and modus operandi of the assassins have led many observers to conclude that this was a government operation. The video was posted by the newspaper El Heraldo last month; the murder took place in November of last year. There have been no arrests.
Now, the Obama administration is coming under fire for its role in arming and funding murderous Honduran police, in violation of US law. www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/30/congress-us-support-honduras-death-squad-regime
Solidarity for Never
How About your NEA dues? NEA and its state affiliates spent more than $310 million in direct contributions on political campaigns for candidates and issues in that 12-year period. That figure does not include independent expenditures or issue advertising. Almost $53.4 million came from NEA national headquarters, while another $257.1 million was spent by affiliates.
More than 47.3 percent of that total – almost $147 million – was spent in California or on behalf of California ballot measures and candidates. www.eiaonline.com/2013/03/25/neas-legacy-310-million-in-direct-campaign-spending-since-2000/
Spy versus Spy
Ex CNN Reporter Ordered to Fake News Ex-CNN reporter Amber Lyon revealed that during her work for the channel she received orders to send false news and exclude some others which the US administration did not favor with the aim to create a public opinion in favor of launching an aggression on Iran and Syria. sana.sy/eng/22/2013/03/30/475112.htm
Carl Berstein Reminder–the US Press and the CIA The CIA’s use of the American news media has been much more extensive than Agency officials have acknowledged publicly or in closed sessions with members of Congress. The general outlines of what happened are indisputable; the specifics are harder to come by. CIA sources hint that a particular journalist was trafficking all over Eastern Europe for the Agency; the journalist says no, he just had lunch with the station chief. CIA sources say flatly that a well‑known ABC correspondent worked for the Agency through 1973; they refuse to identify him. A high‑level CIA official with a prodigious memory says that the New York Times provided cover for about ten CIA operatives between 1950 and 1966; he does not know who they were, or who in the newspaper’s management made the arrangements. …Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune.
By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
Ayers, once a Liberal with a bomb, now merely a grant sucking liberal, regrets nothing (including the destruction of the largest student movement in the history of the US, on the eve of a mass outpouring of activism, nor trying to blow up a dance for young military officers and their dates–ever arrogant and repellent, here is Ayers’ latest interview coming out as the media once more tries to heroize the Weathermen–who did the work of the police I feel like I’ve lived a very blessed life. Having three amazing kids and three amazing grandchildren, being a teacher for 40 years, it is all terrific stuff. And opposing the war in Vietnam with every fiber of my being? I couldn’t be happier or prouder of that. In terms of opposition to the war, I have no regrets. www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/03/exclusive-bill-ayers-on-the-weathermen-obama-s-crap-job-more.html
The CIA Spy who Said Too Much and Got Ten Years in Prison from Obamagogue n 2007, John Kiriakou was settling into a lucrative life as a former spy. His fourteen-year career as a C.I.A. officer had included thrilling, if occasionally hazardous, tours as a specialist in counterterrorism. In Athens, in 1999 and 2000, he recruited several foreign agents to spy for the United States, and at one point was nearly assassinated by leftists. In Pakistan, in 2002, he chased Al Qaeda members, and when Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda logistics leader, was wounded and captured, Kiriakou guarded his bedside. (Kiriakou recounted many of his exploits in a colorful memoir, “The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the C.I.A.’s War on Terror.”) In 2004, he retired, and soon took a job with the accounting and consulting firm DeLoitte. He worked in the field of corporate intelligence and advised Hollywood filmmakers on the side.
At the time, the press was looking into allegations that C.I.A. officers and contractors were involved in torture, and it wasn’t long before they sought out Kiriakou for comment. For several years, the agency had managed to keep secret the scope of its abusive interrogations of Al Qaeda-affiliated prisoners, which had the formal approval of President George W. Bush. Gradually, however, investigative reporters revealed details of the interrogations, and in 2006 Bush acknowledged the existence of the C.I.A.’s detention program. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained confirming documents through the Freedom of Information Act, but what the public knew often came from journalists quoting anonymous sources.
On December 6, 2007, the Times published a story by Mark Mazzetti revealing that the C.I.A. had made classified videotapes of harsh interrogations, Abu Zubaydah’s among them. The tapes were made in 2002, but the agency destroyed them three years later. Jose Rodriguez, who then led the National Clandestine Service, had ordered the tapes destroyed, despite reservations expressed by others in the Bush Administration.
Read more: www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/01/130401fa_fact_coll#ixzz2PZD6X8oc
CIA Renditions Ok by Italy Italy’s president on Friday pardoned a United States Air Force colonel convicted in absentia by Italian courts in 2009 for the abduction of an Egyptian terrorism suspect from a Milan street in an operation conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. The office of President Giorgio Napolitano said he hoped that the pardoning of the American, Col. Joseph L. Romano, would ease a “delicate” situation between the two allies, which cooperate closely on security matters. Colonel Romano was security chief of the Aviano air base in northern Italy, where the abducted Egyptian Muslim cleric was taken before being flown out of the country and eventually to Egypt. The trial was the first in the world involving the C.I.A.’s extraordinary rendition program to abduct terrorism suspects and transfer them to third countries where torture is permitted. The cleric, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, was abducted in 2003 in Milan, where he lived while seeking asylum in Italy. He was taken to Aviano, then transferred to an American military base in Germany before being flown to Egypt, where, he said, he was tortured. He was eventually released. Twenty-three Americans were convicted in Milan, all in absentia; Colonel Romano was the only one who was not a C.I.A. employee. www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/world/europe/italys-president-grants-pardon-in-rendition-case.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y&_r=0
The Magical Mystery Tour
Monsignor Meth Pleads Guilty A shamed Roman Catholic priest “MONSIGNOR METH” after cooking up $300,000 of the highly addictive drug — and running an adult video and sex toy shop — pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge on Tuesday.
Kevin Wallin, of Waterbury, Connecticut, was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and will now face 11 to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 25.
The 61-year-old dealer in a collar had up to four pounds of meth mailed to him by co-conspirators in California that he then sold from his apartment, according to prosecutors.
Wallin also bought an adult video and sex toy shop in North Haven named Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place, in a bid to launder his drug earnings, law enforcement said, RadarOnline noted. www.nationalenquirer.com/true-crime/breaking-really-bad-monsignor-meth-pleads-guilty
Catholic Schools in Decay The nation’s Catholic schools, facing increasing competition, rising costs and a diminishing core of potential pupils, continue to struggle to keep students and find new ones. But there are some signs of growth in cities including Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
Enrollment in Catholic schools nationwide declined almost 12% for the 2012-13 school year compared with five years ago, a National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) report says. About 2 million children, from pre-K to 12th grade, attend Catholic schools across the U.S. In 2007-08, there were 2.27 million, says the report, released in February. www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/04/catholic-schools-failing-to-keep-up-enrollment/2054767/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCdWrpkstI
Ammo Flies off Store Shelves Gun enthusiasts fearful of new weapon controls and buying into rumor mills about government hoarding are purchasing bullets practically by the bushel, making it hard for stores nationwide to keep shelves stocked and even putting a pinch on some local law enforcement departments. www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/04/laws-rumors-have-ammo-flying-off-store-shelves/
So Long
I just got the news that Harry Kelber, The Labor Educator, 98 years old, quietly passed away this morning. Harry was an inspiration, writing three columns for me to send out to this list and post to this website until about a month ago.
A strong union man for some 70+ years, Harry was also critical of union leadership and a believer in rank-and-file unionism. Harry announced last June on his 98th birthday that he planned to run for the presidency of the AFL-CIO, not so much to win, but to articulate his road to strong unionism.
Harry has written a number of booklets that are used by labor unions in large number, especially “Why Unions Are Good for You and Your Family” (in English and Spanish), “Why Unions are in Politics” and “Belong and Be Strong…” You can read about all his booklets on his website at www.laboreducator.org.
About a month ago, Harry stopped sending me articles. When we checked on him, it was clear that he was slowing down and might not write another column.
However, on his website, you can see his articles from the past almost 10 years. In the past year, Ralph Nader, The Nation, The Progressive, Corporate Crime Reporter and others have interviewed him and/or written articles about Harry.
Harry will be missed by us all and the labor movement be a bit weaker without his prodding!
There will be a memorial some time time in May or June.
In solidarity,
Lew Friedman
for The Labor Educator