Rouge Forum Dispatch: Workers on the Move–no Central Command!
We Say Fight Back!
Guantánamo’s Darkest Secret
The U.S. military prison’s leadership considered Mohamedou Salahi to be its highest-value detainee. But his guard suspected otherwise. Be as STRONG as Salahi!
Salahi often appeared sullen and withdrawn. But, when he wanted to engage, he spoke with a worldly, provocative humor that Wood found appealing. He liked to rile his guards into debating equality, race, and religion, and he wielded a sophisticated understanding of history and geopolitics to chip away at their beliefs. Before meeting Salahi, Wood had never heard of Mauritania; Salahi told him that, to his great embarrassment, slavery was still practiced there, even among people close to him.
Salahi also pushed him to research Western foreign-policy blunders—for example, that in 1953 the American and the British intelligence services had orchestrated a coup in Iran, overthrowing a popular Prime Minister in order to prop up a tyrannical, pro-Western Shah. “Have you heard of Nelson Mandela?” Wood recalled Salahi saying. “Look him up, dude. Look up the prison on Robben Island. See if you think his captivity was just. See what it did to his family.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/22/guantanamos-darkest-secret
Julian Assange’s extraordinary record of investigative journalism
The illegal arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside Ecuador’s London embassy, and the attempt by the US to extradite him on concocted conspiracy charges, are a frontal assault on freedom of the press.
The Trump administration, with the support of the Democrats, and US allies including Britain and Australia, is seeking to establish a precedent that criminalises genuine investigative journalism, including the publication of classified material exposing government illegality.
This is nothing less than an attempt to abolish the function of a genuine free press, established over centuries of struggle against despotism.
The attacks on Assange are opposed by masses of workers, students and young people around the world. Corporate media outlets, however, have responded to Assange’s arrest by escalating their protracted campaign of slanders and lies against him.
They have adapted themselves to the bogus US charges against Assange, with many alleging that he is not a journalist and that WikiLeaks merely “dumps” material it receives online. Australian journalist Peter Greste, for instance, wrote within hours of Assange’s arrest: “To be clear, Julian Assange is not a journalist, and WikiLeaks is not a news organisation.”
Such individuals and media organisations only demonstrate that they are the servile mouthpieces of governments, intelligence agencies and the corporate elite. Speaking for the most affluent layers of the upper-middle class, they are no less hostile than Assange’s persecutors to the publication of material that threatens the status quo.
In reality, Assange’s record as a journalist is unparalleled in the contemporary period www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/04/18/asre-a18.html
A young strike captain wants to unseat the longtime president of the Denver teachers union
On the heels of a three-day teacher strike that resulted in big changes in how Denver educators are paid, a young teacher who was a leader during the strike is challenging the longtime union president, who helped shepherd the deal.
Henry Roman has been president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association for 10 years. Released full time from his teaching position, Roman has led the organization through a time of controversial reform in Denver Public Schools and shifting fortunes for the union, which saw increased membership and community support in the run-up to the strike.
Tiffany Choi is a French teacher at East High School, the district’s biggest school and a union stronghold. Now in her eighth year of teaching, she has lived the reforms firsthand. Choi, who served as a strike captain at East, is also part of a group of younger teachers who want to see the union focus less on internal business and more on social justice. www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2019/04/16/a-young-strike-captain-wants-to-unseat-the-longtime-president-of-the-denver-teachers-union/?fbclid=IwAR1OiGq47y3GN7JEFW5-Fk_tNQsc57-U0ASbwm4OuMt3izlZ2YqxvFJi8Lw
Hundreds of Maine teachers demand right to strike
A fiery blaze of Maine teachers — all dressed in red — filled the legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee on Wednesday, demanding the right to have equal footing at the bargaining table with school administrators.
Teachers showed up by the hundreds to support LD 900, a bill that offers a path to overcoming the power imbalance they’ve said is plaguing their profession and hurting Maine students. The bill would give most public employees, besides public safety workers, the option to go on strike, making it easier for Maine teachers to join thousands of educators in other states who have threatened work stoppages and have sometimes even held wildcat strikes to win better working conditions over the last few years.
Maryann White, a Gardiner resident who’s been a middle-grade math teacher for 17 years, described the right to strike not as something teachers want to use recklessly, but an option to make administrators pay attention.
“Educators want simply that: a voice. A voice and a shift,” she said at the bill’s public hearing Wednesday. “We’re working firsthand with our students, and we would appreciate a shift in the balance of power back towards us. We want to be able to bargain equally. We do not want to strike, but simply the right to do so.”
Thomas Moore, a Bingham resident and teacher since 1963, said educators have been “ignored at best, abused at worst by school management” for decades without having the leverage LD 900 provides.
“The stark reality has demonstrated that far too many school boards and superintendents have acted as guardians of the public purse by justifying an overloaded workload, curtailing student services and programs, freezing teacher salaries and education staff wages,” he said, “often on the advice of cynical and well-paid law firms and lawyers,… mainebeacon.com/hundreds-of-maine-teachers-demand-right-to-strike/?utm_source=fbp&utm_campaign=mg2&fbclid=IwAR1fqUifllJWaknLAbpV9_aWHOmq_-heMcq0_WKDhvQWJSCXl4zCRGF7RNI
PPS cancelling school May 8 due to teacher walkout and rally
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Public Schools has announced it is closing all schools in the district on Wednesday, May 8, due to a planned teacher walkout and rally.
“An unplanned day off of school is big deal for Portland’s 49,000 students.“ says Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) president Suzanne Cohen. “But this is a long term investment in their future.”
Cohen and the PAT say they are encouraging Portland-area teachers, families, and community supporters to join them May 8 at 11 a.m. for a rally and march at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.The event is part of the Oregon Education Association’s designated “Day of Action.”
Thousands of teachers and staff across Oregon schools are expected to gather in Salem, katu.com/news/local/pps-cancelling-school-may-8-due-to-teacher-walkout-and-rally?fbclid=IwAR1dMTjoy_9OWhk7rBd3-_8A753aRhTBKoaE5Q-el-aLS0u3lR3P0PoC2fU
Poland’s teachers’ strike continues
A strike by teachers in Poland, which began almost two weeks ago, shows no sign of ending after another series of negotiations on April 18 broke up in failure.
The government has offered teachers an increase in salaries, but not until 2020. Sławomir Broniarz, the leader of the Polish Teachers’ Union (PNA) was quoted by Business Insider Poland as saying that he would present the proposal to the teachers, but warned: “the prime minister expects that the teachers will react differently to the government’s proposal than the unions… While we do not deny the fact that some are leaving the strike, the circumstances are not yet in place to end it.”
Chairman of the Solidarity-Education Union (WZZSO), Sławomir Wittkowicz, added that, “The government’s proposal for striking teachers who will continue to be teachers is a net raise of approximately 120 zlotys. I emphasise those who will continue to be teachers, because it is a raise of about 10 per cent so it is clear there will be lay-offs. Such a proposal given in a situation when there are over 16,000 schools and several hundred people on strike is nothing more than a provocation aimed at [bringing about a situation] where the strike cannot be suspended”. emerging-europe.com/news/polands-teachers-strike-continues/
‘What else is there to do?’ Facebook group of Mississippi teachers calling for walkout
Mississippi’s largest teacher union says it’s aware of calls for a teacher strike by some educators in response to a $1,500 pay raise that still leaves the state’s teachers as the lowest paid in the nation.
But state law sidelines the group and other teacher organizations from facilitating or promoting a teacher walkout.
“We aren’t shocked that a conversation about protests is taking place,” Mississippi Association of Educators President Joyce Helmick said in a statement outlining the frustrations of many of the group’s members with the results of the 2019 legislative session.
During the session, MAE organized a Red for Ed campaign encouraging educators to wear red in their classrooms to show their support for a competitive teacher salary raise. The group also collected signatures for an open letter calling for the same and encouraged its members to light up the Capitol switchboard. Helmick argued that despite the outreach, teachers were “left out of the legislative process completely.” https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/04/03/mississippi-teacher-strike-talks/3353878002/?fbclid=IwAR1GzrQgfMR6WFHVCGQmIbyD4CZQQfbcZGGX9Vcq3ngWKoPWi68GWFshiho
At the recent NEA RA
A Note published to the delegates of the upcoming NEA Representative Assembly
I see we are now urged to vote Democrat to drive out the devils. That won’t work. I was asked to outline my core beliefs on our union and the current situation. Okay.
I believe workers (us) and bosses have contradictory interests. I know that the NEA leadership, if that is what it can be called, has denied this for decades, even before Bob Chase. That denial unites them with our bosses, which is profitable for our union misleaders (Garcia made more than $512,000 in one year). In effect, they sell labor peace to the Big Bosses in exchange for dues income for the life of a contract. That is precisely the initial deal in labor history.
I believe our power, like all workers, is at work, and much less so, by far, in voting. I know, from experience, that strikes won all the things that we, school workers, have enjoyed. Strikes. Withdrawing our labor. Stopping scabs. Yes, I have done that. NEA mis-leaders focus on the “Vote Dem” mantra, and cheat internal elections (Garcia for Clinton last time–and historically NEA does NOT cheat on internal votes making NEA very different from most unions–but now NEA does). because most Americans have quasi-religious fantasies about “democracy” which has always been defeated by the rule of capital and empire.
“Vote Dems” is a diversion. The two parties are like a two-headed snake: two war parties. Repubs and Dems agree on perpetual war, ruthless exploitation of labor, booming racist inequality, education for submission, and, in general, the use of the state as an executive committee and armed weapon of the rich.
Any nation engaged in perpetual war is going to make seemingly odd demands (NCLB, RaTT–both backed by NEA and AFT– regimented curricula, high stakes exams, leading to merit pay, etc) on its schools. I believe we can fight back and win, but we need to form our own councils, caucuses, etc., to lead the strikes, wildcats, that must come, or we will see our lives ruined by the results of expanding wars and the resulting attacks on education. RG
Paris Police, Yellow Vests Clash as Anti-Macron Protests Hold Up
French police clashed with Yellow Vest protesters in Paris, firing tear gas and arresting scores of people as tens of thousands of police were mobilized to maintain order.
This week’s fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral failed to damp the 23rd straight Saturday of action. Key members of the movement said that contesting President Emmanuel Macron’s policies — the initial motivation for the protests — isn’t at odds with grieving over damage to the iconic Gothic monument. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-20/paris-police-fire-tear-gas-arrest-scores-at-yellow-vest-protest?srnd=premium
How the Stop & Shop strike is affecting store services
The Quincy-based chain’s president is apologizing to customers for the inconvenience.
Stop & Shop had been hoping to “minimize disruption” in the event of a strike. But that doesn’t mean things are business as usual.
In an open letter to customers Tuesday, the Quincy-based grocery chain’s president, Mark McGowan, apologized for the “inconvenience” caused by the 31,000 workers who walked off the job Thursday afternoon, after the company and the union representing its New England workers were unable to agree to a new contract. www.boston.com/news/business/2019/04/16/stop-shop-strike-stores
Ending climate change requires the end of capitalism. Have we got the stomach for it?
Climate change activism is increasingly the domain of the young, such as 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, the unlikely face of the school strike for climate movement, which has seen many thousands of children walk out of school to demand that their parents’ generation takes responsibility for leaving them a planet to live on. In comparison, the existing political establishment looks more and more like an impediment to change. The consequences of global warming have moved from the merely theoretical and predicted to observable reality over the past few years, but this has not been matched by an uptick in urgency. The need to keep the wheels of capitalism well-oiled takes precedence even against a backdrop of fires, floods and hurricanes.
Today’s children, as they become more politically aware, will be much more radical than their parents, simply because there will be no other choice for them. This emergent radicalism is already taking people by surprise. The Green New Deal (GND), a term presently most associated with 29-year-old US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has provoked a wildly unhinged backlash from the “pro free market” wing, who argue that it’s a Trojan horse, nothing more than an attempt to piggyback Marxism onto the back of climate legislation.
The criticism feels ridiculous. Partly because the GND is far from truly radical and already represents a compromise solution, but mainly because the radical economics isn’t a hidden clause, but a headline feature. Climate change is the result of our current economic and industrial system. GND-style proposals marry sweeping environmental policy changes with broader socialist reforms because the level of disruption required to keep us at a temperature anywhere below “absolutely catastrophic” is fundamentally, on a deep structural level, incompatible with the status quo. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/18/ending-climate-change-end-capitalism?fbclid=IwAR3jVH9rM0CNUB3XBO1ofCizQQvEz6VsyHfMhxGS0YWjtc9-cNk_-GZDfps
Judge says US government can be sued for Flint water crisis
FLINT, Mich. (AP) – (04/19/19) – A judge says the federal government can be sued by Flint residents who blame the Environmental Protection Agency for waiting too long to intervene in the city’s water crisis.
Federal Judge Linda Parker didn’t determine whether EPA employees were negligent when Flint’s water system became contaminated with lead in 2014 and 2015. The decision at this stage is more narrow, with the judge saying Thursday that the government isn’t immune to a lawsuit.
Parker says EPA employees knew lead was leaching from old pipes because Flint’s water wasn’t being properly treated. She says the EPA also knew that Michigan regulators were misleading residents about the quality of the water.
The judge says the “lies went on for months.”
The Associated Press sent an email to the EPA seeking comment Friday. www.abc12.com/content/news/Judge-says-US-government-can-be-sued-for-Flint-water-crisis-508805241.html?fbclid=IwAR1D_RjAMSoK4H5StUr5Ag7Jpp17rIOTh_ul_4Gp5qO_1q_tUG5O_jZuigQ
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Judge orders ex-PSU president (and key CIA Asset) Spanier to jail
Former Penn State president Graham Spanier must report to jail in Pennsylvania by May 1 to start serving a criminal sentence for his handling of a complaint about Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy, under a judge’s order made public Wednesday.
Judge John Boccabella said Spanier might do his time in the jail near his home in State College, if county jail wardens approve. If not, he has to report to the Dauphin County Prison in Harrisburg. The judge also gave his approval for Spanier to participate in a work-release program.
Spanier, 70, has remained out on bail since his 2017 conviction by a jury of a single misdemeanor count of child endangerment. He was sentenced to a minimum of two months in jail and two months of house arrest.
A lawyer for Spanier declined to comment Wednesday. The attorney general’s office, which prosecuted Spanier, also did not comment.
Spanier was forced out as university president in November 2011, days after Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, was first charged with child molestation. Spanier was charged a year later, although many of the counts against him were thrown out prior to trial.
Two high-ranking administrators under Spanier — former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz — pleaded guilty to child endangerment on the eve of trial and testified against him. www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26490816/judge-orders-ex-psu-president-spanier-jail
‘It’s an Aristocracy’: What the Admissions-Bribery Scandal Has Exposed About Class on Campus
The criminal actions of a few rogue coaches and parents have shined a spotlight on the role that elite colleges play in perpetuating wealth and privilege. www.chronicle.com/article/It-s-an-Aristocracy-/246131/?key=K9RMtIzWwk9f4WCspEIEE3-20yIOYI9sJ-e7MepC0oEtE5zSmov-5uS7C1_hFh8GWXF2RTI0N0RfVlFOQmpYQXRITllObmx6MnFBV2VaQWN0LXR0cmFIUnY4TQ&fbclid=IwAR2QoqOsWh7vZSzUfj7hfpu16GfNfysHtpQ5HYQT2lLBlFTh_qtSa1ITj-w#.XLh0xF3KYJw.facebook
Below, the racist SDSU Aztec image
SDSU profs fight cuts to humanities
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
True ISIS believers regroup inside refugee camp, terrorize the ‘impious’
A militant band of women loyal to the Islamic State is terrorizing others who fled the battlefront for this sprawling camp in northeastern Syria, demanding they adhere to the strict codes once enforced by the group and creating a vexing problem for the Kurdish-led forces controlling the site.
In the teeming al-Hol displacement camp, the true believers have been threatening those they consider impious, brandishing knives, spitting and throwing stones at them, and even burning down their tents. Intelligence officials say Islamic State loyalists also have formed cells inside the camp to mete out punishment in a more systematic way.
The leaders of this movement are women from countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, which have produced some of the Islamic State’s most militant followers in recent years, according to officials from the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, the Kurdish-led troops.
While there are scores of instigators, the ranks of those who remain staunchly behind the Islamic State could still number in the thousands, and they are committed to upholding its ideology even as the self-declared caliphate has been brought to an end. www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/true-isis-believers-regroup-inside-refugee-camp-terrorize-the-impious/2019/04/19/a30d4986-556c-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html?utm_term=.52a033a1cf1d
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAZy75RKb84
U.S. Has Spent Six Trillion Dollars on Wars That Killed Half a Million People Since 9/11, Report Says
The United States has spent nearly $6 trillion on wars that directly contributed to the deaths of around 500,000 people since the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs published its annual “Costs of War” report Wednesday, taking into consideration the Pentagon’s spending and its Overseas Contingency Operations account, as well as “war-related spending by the Department of State, past and obligated spending for war veterans’ care, interest on the debt incurred to pay for the wars, and the prevention of and response to terrorism by the Department of Homeland Security.”
The final count revealed, “The United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $5.9 trillion (in current dollars) on the war on terror through Fiscal Year 2019, including direct war and war-related spending and obligations for future spending on post 9/11 war veterans.”
“In sum, high costs in war and war-related spending pose a national security concern because they are unsustainable,” the report concluded. “The public would be better served by increased transparency and by the development of a comprehensive strategy to end the wars and deal with other urgent national security priorities.” www.newsweek.com/us-spent-six-trillion-wars-killed-half-million-1215588?fbclid=IwAR0xfdZn8qUULIjr3Hecg02UEEdbuihAHT01SXjQu9oR2A3pZtz42Mtzyjw
In Libya, a rogues’ gallery of militias prepare for war
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya is on the verge of an all-out war involving a rogues’ gallery of militias, many of which are little more than criminal gangs armed with heavy weapons.
The country slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising, in which rebels overthrew and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and looted his vast arsenal. Even more weapons have flowed in since then, despite a U.N. arms embargo, as Arab states have backed local allies and Western nations have partnered with militias to combat extremists and stem the flow of migrants.
A former general is now marching on the capital, Tripoli, where an array of militias — which have fought each other in the past — have for now joined forces to prevent a return to one-man rule. The fighting has already killed around 150 people, according to U.N. figures. The International Crisis Group, a Washington- and Brussels-based think tank, said last week that the two main coalitions “appear equally matched,” with fighter jets, gunships and heavy artillery. www.apnews.com/76313fb7c3654a1a9270bbd7b4bd96f2?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebb%2004.16.19&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
Below, Children’s Game of Endless War
Pentagon developing military options to deter Russian, Chinese influence in Venezuela
The Pentagon is developing new military options for Venezuela aimed at deterring Russian, Cuban and Chinese influence inside the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, but stopping short of any kinetic military actions, according to a defense official familiar with the effort.
Russian ambassador to Venezuela rejects US revival of Monroe Doctrine
As Venezuela’s reliance on Russia grows amid the country’s unfolding crisis, Vladimir Putin’s point man in Caracas is pushing back on the U.S. revival of a doctrine used for generations to justify military interventions in the region.
In a rare interview, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Zaemskiy rejected an assertion this week by U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine is “alive and well.”
The policy, originally aimed at opposing any European meddling in the hemisphere, was used to justify U.S. military interventions in countries including Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, but had been left for dead by recent U.S. administrations trying to turn the page on a dark past.
“It’s hard to believe that the U.S. administration have invented a time machine that not only allows them to turn back the clock but also the direction of the universe,” the 66-year-old diplomat told The Associated Press this week.
In an example of how the Cold War-like rhetoric on all sides of Venezuela’s crisis has quickly escalated, the ambassador compared hostile comments by Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to those of the al-Qaida leaders behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/04/19/russian-ambassador-to-venezuela-rejects-us-revival-of-monroe-doctrine/
U.S. service member dies in Iraq–For What???
A U.S. service member died Saturday in a non-combat incident in Iraq, defense officials said.
The service member died in Nineveh province, according to a release Saturday from Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
The service member was not identified, pending notification of family members.
Further details about the incident were not available on Saturday, and “will be released as appropriate,” the release stated. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/21/us-service-member-dies-in-iraq/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
GM CEO Mary Barra’s compensation was $21.87 million in 2018, 281 times median GM worker
General Motors CEO Mary Barra took home slightly less in 2018 than the previous year, but remains one of the 20 highest-paid CEOs in America.
For 2018, Barra’s total compensation was $21.87 million — about 281 times as much as GM’s median employee’s compensation of $77,849, according to figures the company released Thursday. In 2017, Barra was compensated $21.96 million.
Barra’s total compensation, which includes stock awards and pension payments, represents more than she actually saw in pay. She received a $2.1 million salary and $4.45 million from her nonequity incentive plan. She received a bonus of $811,684, down from $861,683 in 2017. www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/04/18/gm-ceo-barra-compensation-22-million/3415415002/?fbclid=IwAR0mWZfRmiAjbvvTjN927k6sNGRcp7CT_D2MIJ7r3kWO8BMZY_9PDDy6DQQ
Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018
While some people have received some surprise tax bills when filing their returns, corporations continue to avoid paying tax — thanks to a cocktail of tax credits, loopholes, and exemptions.
According to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), Amazon (AMZN) will pay nothing in federal income taxes for the second year in a row.
Thanks to the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Amazon’s federal tax responsibility is 21% (down from 35% in previous years). But with the help of tax breaks, according to corporate filings, Amazon won’t be paying a dime to Uncle Sam despite posting more than $11.2 billion in profits in 2018.
How is that possible?
“It’s hard to know exactly what they’re doing,” said Steve Wamhoff, ITEP’s Director of Federal Tax Policy. “In their public documents they don’t lay out their tax strategy. So it’s unclear exactly which breaks [the company is taking advantage of]. They vaguely say tax credits. One could think of many different ways a corporation could do this, like the depreciation breaks which were expanded under TCJA.” finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-taxes-zero-180337770.html?soc_src=newsroom&soc_trk=com.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard&.tsrc=newsroom&fbclid=IwAR36erMdrhH9v57L0hXKmCuXyoVU91s-vhKD4qMyUm7up11JfuSaSyAV58M
The Truth About Dentistry
It’s much less scientific—and more prone to gratuitous procedures—than you may think.
Among other problems, dentistry’s struggle to embrace scientific inquiry has left dentists with considerable latitude to advise unnecessary procedures—whether intentionally or not. The standard euphemism for this proclivity is overtreatment. Favored procedures, many of which are elaborate and steeply priced, include root canals, the application of crowns and veneers, teeth whitening and filing, deep cleaning, gum grafts, fillings for “microcavities”—incipient lesions that do not require immediate treatment—and superfluous restorations and replacements, such as swapping old metal fillings for modern resin ones.
Whereas medicine has made progress in reckoning with at least some of its own tendencies toward excessive and misguided treatment, dentistry is lagging behind. It remains “largely focused upon surgical procedures to treat the symptoms of disease,” Mary Otto writes. “America’s dental care system continues to reward those surgical procedures far more than it does prevention.”
“Excessive diagnosis and treatment are endemic,” says Jeffrey H. Camm, a dentist of more than 35 years who wryly described his peers’ penchant for “creative diagnosis” in a 2013 commentary published by the American Dental Association. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-trouble-with-dentistry/586039/?fbclid=IwAR36lR1u-XWR1NzIWQXUvnqEiWFLOVKr4C103w9TLOjD8CAP0AZhNZX-37k
Trump’s Plan to Reduce Trade Deficit Falters as it Hits an All-Time High Instead
President Trump’s America First policies are not having their intended effect.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday the U.S. posted a more than $891 billion merchandise trade deficit last year—the largest in the history of the country.
Significantly, the trade deficit with China hit a record $419 billion, despite a series of tariffs the administration imposed on Chinese goods to decrease reliance on imports.
Meanwhile, the overall goods and services deficit jumped 19% between November and December 2018, to $59.8 billion, the highest monthly trade deficit in 10 years.
The data shows that Trump’s America First policies to close the trade gap haven’t had their desired effect. Americans are importing far more from abroad than they are exporting—imports grew 7.5% while exports increased only 6.3%.
What’s more, Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut enacted in late 2017 served to further fuel the deficit. The government had to borrow to pay for the cut, and some of those dollars came from foreign investors.
Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates four times last year to offset fears of an overheating economy, thereby increasing the strength of the dollar and encouraging purchase of relatively inexpensive foreign goods.
This is the third consecutive year of increasing trade deficits, topping the previous record in 2006. fortune.com/2019/03/06/us-trade-deficit-record-high/?utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR2zvxaJrLdsbhj3HKyYc7uTJzhLqP0_cnk-IgWb1NNqusFIHBqL-tRl9AY
U.S. Posts Largest-Ever Monthly Budget Deficit in February
The U.S. posted its biggest monthly budget deficit on record last month, amid a 20 percent drop in corporate tax revenue and a boost in spending so far this fiscal year.
The budget gap widened to $234 billion in February, compared with a fiscal gap of $215.2 billion a year earlier. That gap surpassed the previous monthly record of $231.7 billion set seven years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
February’s shortfall helped push the deficit for the first five months of the government’s fiscal year to $544.2 billion, up almost 40 percent from the same period the previous year, the Treasury Department said in its monthly budget report Friday. The release was delayed a week by the government shutdown earlier this year. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-22/u-s-posts-largest-monthly-budget-deficit-on-record-in-february?fbclid=IwAR3v1dzT1v2LsXsjAdrc8FAnqwtg6VyLzx0pTo5NYM1VbQY5DT0fIQbQY2w
As Rich Lavish Cash on Notre-Dame, Many Ask: What About the Needy?
The pledges came in quick succession.
François-Henri Pinault, France’s second-richest man, put up an eye-popping 100 million euros to rebuild Notre-Dame, just as firefighters were dousing the last flames at the cathedral early Tuesday morning. Not to be outdone, Bernard Arnault, France’s wealthiest scion and a fierce rival to Mr. Pinault and to his father, François Pinault, upped the ante with a 200-million-euro gift a few hours later.
By Wednesday, the government had welcomed some 850 million euros — more than $960 million — offered in the patriotic name of salvaging the cultural treasure, as money from wealthy French families, French companies and international corporations poured in.
But the spectacle of billionaires trying to one-up one another quickly intensified resentments over inequality that have flared during the Yellow Vest movement, just as President Emmanuel Macron was looking to transform the calamity into a new era of national unity. There were accusations that the wildly rich were trying to wash their reputations during a time of national tragedy.
“Can you imagine, 100 million, 200 million in one click!” said Philippe Martinez, the head of the militant CGT labor union. “It really shows the inequalities in this country.” www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/world/europe/yellow-vest-notre-dame-fire-donations.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Solidarity for Never
Judith Clark, Terrorist Weatherman who complained about “White skin privilege” and Getaway Driver in Deadly Brink’s Heist in 1981, Is Granted Parole (another red diaper baby gone to rot)
The decision to release Ms. Clark came after a lobbying campaign involving 11 members of Congress, 11 state senators, the former Manhattan district attorney, a former chief judge, four former parole board commissioners and a former superintendent of the prison where she was housed.
Her supporters, including 70 elected officials, sent a letter to the parole board arguing that the state’s correctional system should not exist solely for retribution, but also for rehabilitation, and that Ms. Clark had served a long sentence, accepted responsibility for her crime and shown genuine remorse. (What is consistent about the Weathermen, before and after, has been their determined opposition to building a mass, integrated, class conscious social movement for equality.) www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-brinks-robbery.html
“Family
Clark grew up in a Jewish[2] family with her older brother and parents, Joe Clark & his wife Ruth.[2] Her parents were members of the American Communist Party for many years. As an infant, Clark lived in the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1953. After the family returned home to the U.S., her parents withdrew from the Communist Party, disillusioned with the Soviet Union.[2] WIKI
UAW Scandal Step by Step
Plea hearing scheduled in U.S. court for former UAW VP
Jewell was charged Monday with conspiracy to violate labor laws by receiving more than $40,000 worth of travel, lodging and meals from people acting on behalf of FCA from at least 2014 to 2016. www.autonews.com/executives/plea-hearing-scheduled-us-court-former-uaw-vp
This Time for Sure! NEA is All About Collecting $$$
This summer, delegates to the National Education Association Representative Assembly will vote – for the fifth time – on whether to allow non-educators to join the union as “community allies.” These members would pay $25 a year for the right to be badgered for PAC contributions.
Needing a two-thirds majority to pass, the proposal received 61 percent of the delegate vote last year. NEA won’t kid around to get those last few votes to push this thing over the top. The union distributed a slick 10-page booklet to the delegates that mostly describes all the rights community allies won’t have.
They won’t be able to serve as national union officers in any capacity, or to vote for them. They can’t serve as delegates nor be appointed to a committee. They won’t be a member of a state or local affiliate, so they “are not permitted to participate as a member in any respect in the affairs of any state or local affiliate.”
The good news (?) is each community ally would be eligible to contribute up to $5,000 to the NEA political action committee. The bad news is they wouldn’t have the right to participate in the PAC candidate recommendation process, so they would have no input into where their money went.
I have a better deal. Send me just $20 a year and you can keep your $5,000 to spend on the candidate of your choice. And you would never need to hear from me again. www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2019/04/15/this-time-for-sure/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Intercepts+%28Intercepts%29
Teachers union and Eli Broad — usually foes — unite behind parcel tax for L.A. schools (attacking other workers–and $0 for strike benefits)
The major backers of a property tax for local public schools include two habitual foes: the local teachers union and billionaire Eli Broad, according to campaign filings.
Other unions and groups with business before the city also have donated large sums, as has Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
The tax, Measure EE, will go before voters within the boundaries of the Los Angeles Unified School District in June and would raise about $500 million annually. District officials decided to put the measure before voters soon after the six-day January teachers strike, hoping to build on widespread goodwill generated by those on the picket lines.
Not surprisingly, one big supporter of the tax is United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents teachers, counselors, nurses and librarians in the nation’s second-largest school system. The union has put in $500,000, the City Ethics Commission reported based on filings through Friday www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-lausd-parcel-tax-unites-foes-20190419-story.html
Antonucci: Los Angeles unions open campaign spigots for special elections
Campaign season came a little early in Los Angeles this year, with the open District 5 school board seat and Measure EE, the parcel tax proposal to fund city schools. United Teachers Los Angeles is devoting its sizable war chest to these elections, and its union allies are also chipping in.
First up is the board seat election on May 14, where UTLA-backed Jackie Goldberg has to be considered the favorite in the runoff against Heather Repenning. Goldberg rang up almost four times as many votes as Repenning in the opening round and nearly captured an outright majority.
Repenning has the backing of a number of labor unions, most prominently SEIU Local 99, which represents L.A. Unified’s support employees. She raised almost $338,000 in direct contributions, significantly more than Goldberg’s $265,000. However, the California Teachers Association’s political action committee spent $142,000 on Goldberg’s behalf in the first round and has added another $41,500 for the runoff.
Next up will be Measure EE on June 4. The proposed parcel tax, which would require a two-thirds majority of votes to pass, would assess a 16 cents per square foot tax on habitable structures. Business groups are promising a $4 million campaign to defeat it, but unions have the jump on them, according to the most recent campaign disclosure reports. laschoolreport.com/antonucci-los-angeles-unions-open-campaign-spigots-for-special-elections/
Sold Out by USW, Harley-Davidson workers pass new labor contract
Harley-Davidson Inc. union workers at the company’s Menomonee Falls plant have agreed to a new labor contract.
The original contract, ratified in 2010 and implemented in 2012, had expired on April 1, but was extended through April 14 after the union workers overwhelmingly rejected a new offer. At a similar vote held Monday, the union workers, represented by United Steelworkers Local 2-209, elected to ratify a new contract following two weeks of renewed negotiations.
Harley-Davidson confirmed the result of Monday’s vote, which yielded a new five-year agreement, and also confirmed that employees of its plant in Tomahawk, represented by USW Local 460, ratified the new contract. All told, the two unions represent roughly 1,000 Harley-Davidson employees in Wisconsin.
“Our Wisconsin operations employees play an essential role in ensuring the strength of our manufacturing operations and our ability to be responsive to our customers around the world, and we appreciate their many contributions,” said Michelle Kumbier, Harley-Davidson’s chief operating officer. “We believe the new contracts will enable us to compete in a challenging business www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/04/15/harley-davidson-workers-pass-new-labor-contract.html
Solidarity Subs Swinging in the Wind–thanks UTLA
Fighting District retaliation against Striking Substitute Teachers!
LAUSD Substitute Teachers who teach in the same position 20+1 days qualify for a pay increase for the duration of that assignment, retroactive to the first day.
The District has admitted that it cut pay for all Striking Substitute Teachers who otherwise qualified for the long-term rate, irrespective of whether their assignments had ended.
A mid-career regular classroom teacher lost roughly $2,500 salary as the result of honoring the picket line.
In addition to that sacrifice, after the Strike, Substitute Teachers in long-term teaching assignments have been penalized roughly an additional $2,000 as the result of LAUSD canceling their long-term assignments because and only because they went on Strike.
UTLA has filed on Unfair Labor Practice charge with PERB.
Please write to LAUSD School Board Members and tell them that you believe the district should not retaliate against striking Substitute Teachers.
Please blind copy RetaliatedSubs2019@gmail.com on your email.
Join the LA Subs on FB below!
www.facebook.com/LAUSDRetaliatedSubs2019/
Spy versus Spy
Declassified documents show CIA knew Latin juntas killed dissidents abroad
With the blessing of a CIA bent on thwarting Soviet expansion, South American military juntas together formed a special unit charged with going to France and elsewhere abroad to exterminate leftist opposition leaders.
While the cooperation of military dictatorships was widely known, details about this special unit, called Teseo, were not, until the release Friday of the final 7,500 declassified U.S. documents shared with Argentina and the world.
President Donald Trump had promised his Argentine counterpart, Mauricio Macri, that the third and final tranche of U.S. documents would be shared, ending a process that began under President Barack Obama to make publicly available documents about a dark period in U.S. history. In all, roughly 47,000 U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence cables pertaining to Argentina’s military junta were declassified.
“The release of records constitutes the largest declassification of the United States Government records directly to a foreign government in history,” said a letter from President Trump to Macri accompanying the release. “My hope is that access to these records provides the people of Argentina information to help in the healing process.”
Details about the Teseo assassination unit were in a CIA document dated May 1976, part of a batch of documents delivered Friday that had to do with Operation Condor. That was a clandestine effort pushed hardest by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet that grew to involve military rulers in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.
“At a meeting of Operation Condor from 31 May to 2 June 1976 in Santiago, Uruguay agreed to operate covertly in Paris with the Argentines and the Chileans against the JCR [Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina] and other terrorists,” the CIA memo said, stressing the document was “not to be reproduced.”
The memo went on to say that participating countries sent would-be assassins to Argentina for two months of training in September 1976, but it was unclear if the team was actually sent to France to conduct assassinations. digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/MiamiHerald/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TMH%2F2019%2F04%2F13&entity=Ar12E1&sk=8A384E95&mode=text&fbclid=IwAR1o3Tcu3xiXHsWWj1BRlrfVKIEb1UWH3MwXFshbuFSK7iioeJmACAByFXs
The Magical Mystery Tour
Divorced Catholics can’t have sex, archbishop says (but Bishops can, with kids)
PHILADELPHIA — The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia is closing the door opened by Pope Francis to letting civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion, saying the faithful in his archdiocese can only do so if they abstain from sex and live “as brother and sister.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput, who is known for strongly emphasizing strict adherence to Catholic doctrine, issued a new set of pastoral guidelines for clergy and other leaders in the archdiocese that went into effect July 1. The guidelines reflect a stance taken by St. John Paul II.
“Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive reconciliation in the Sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the Eucharist,” the guidelines read. nypost.com/2016/07/07/divorced-catholics-cant-have-sex-archbishop-says/?fbclid=IwAR0d8HbjnQLVk6WFmIMB9WboD2FG6S5g62zmVUgLdyVF2N2pTwbEuksIckk
Detroit-area Catholics permitted to eat muskrat
Detroit-area Roman Catholics have one more dining option during Lent than most other followers of the faith. The culinary appeal of that item, however, is up for debate.
A long-standing permission allows local Catholics to eat muskrat – a furry, marsh-dwelling rodent native to the area – “on days of abstinence, including Fridays of Lent,” according to the Archdiocese of Detroit. The custom dates to the region’s missionary history in the 1700s and is especially prevalent in communities along the Detroit River.
Missionary priests “realized that food was especially scarce in the region by the time Lent came around and did not want to burden Catholics unreasonably by denying them one of the few readily available sources of nutrition – however unappetizing it might be for most folks,” said Edward Peters, an expert on canon law who is on the faculty at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/04/16/lenten-muskrat-permission/39351647/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZiIU3u3e6I
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Moon at Point Loma, San Diego
‘Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win’ wins Freep Film Festival’s Audience Choice Award
All the festival’s feature-length documentaries released in 2018 or 2019 were in the running, with more than 40 films eligible. The award, which was presented by Chemical Bank, comes with a $1,000 prize.
Attendees voted on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. The results were averaged and then weighted to reflect the number of votes for each film and across the entire festival.
“It was incredibly close race among the attendees’ top four favorite films,” said the festival’s executive director Steve Byrne. “But there was a very real energy and a ton of audience engagement at the DIA for the ‘Dare’ screening, so we feel like voters made an excellent choice.” www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/04/18/dare-struggle-dare-win-freep-film-festival-audience-choice/3509316002/?fbclid=IwAR0azWPlEyz_zcdFA7mRk8jC1irLx2eoV8l2MVJCwyWGamBooYmTctX9bhs
The Perverse Paradox of the Mueller Report
What did the president [redacted], and when did he [redacted]? The report, as those playfully disappointed assessments suggest, does not fully answer those questions. Instead—a situation that occasionally implies the work of Dons Quixote or DeLillo, rather than Robert Mueller—the report goes out of its way to acknowledge its own limitations. It does not contain the information that would have come from an interview with President Donald Trump, and interviewees lied to the Office of Special Counsel, the report notes, heaving a nearly audible sigh. These factors in combination helped to inform its conclusion: that “the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges” www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/04/mueller-reports-perverse-paradox/587575/?fbclid=IwAR37CySeqsuFr2ZNfpERvsAs6AF-zlkIJwaFtcwgr_ldLTPAKMkokHY4wU0
- Priestess-President Della Torrid welcomes “a new spirit of empowerment and opportunity on the campus of SDSU” as she prepares to offer it the sacrifice of “Wypipo,” a “living embodiment of white privilege and oppression” formerly known as captain of the SDSU football cheerleading squad Stacey Summers. Behind her (right), Academic Dean James Highmighty applauds the action, which both secured Della Torrid’s position from now until the Fourth Dread Dominion and kicked off a diversity initiative designed to make Latinx students feel more welcome on campus, though afterwards he admitted he was glad to be wearing his protective Amulet of Tenure.
Adelaide Della Torrid anointed President of SDSU in blood-drenched ritual
Excerpt from Dr. Della Torrid’s remarks following the ritual: “I’m sure many of you gathered here today have read about the recent FBI Operation entitled Varsity Blues, which exposed the rank and venal corruption of America’s white elite with regard to their children’s education. They subverted the standardized testing standard by getting their children falsely diagnosed with disabilities so that they might take the SAT without time limits. Or they had proctors help them cheat outright. They bribed coaches to label even their most miserable physical specimens as recruited athletes, so that they might circumvent a stringent admissions process. They did whatever it took to make sure that they maintained power over their world, a world that included marginalized and struggling people of all sorts. But starting today, their reign is over, at least here at SDSU. It is not for any of her own sins that Wypipo had to bleed. It was for the sins of her people; she is their spotless lamb. And from her corpse, new life shall flower: a new world, built on new foundations. Rejoice, my fellow Aztecs! For you have a new champion and ruler, and her name is Della Torrid!”
So Long
The mysterious life of James McCord, Watergate burglar whose death went unnoticed for 2 years
In the mid-1990s, the Discovery Channel aired a five-part series on Watergate, calling it a “refresher course” on the audacious White House scandal that drove President Nixon from office.
It might be time for a sequel…
Without fanfare or a public announcement, McCord died June 15, 2017, at his home in Douglassville, Pa. www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-james-mccord-watergate-breakin-dead-20190419-story.html