{"id":11664,"date":"2013-12-22T00:34:51","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T08:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=11664"},"modified":"2013-12-22T10:19:16","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T18:19:16","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-happy-holidays-and-dont-forget-to-read-marx-and-make-class-war-e-w-ross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-happy-holidays-and-dont-forget-to-read-marx-and-make-class-war-e-w-ross\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Happy Holidays and Don’t Forget to “Read Marx and Make Class War!” (E.W.Ross)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We<\/strong><\/span> Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Marx<\/a><\/p>\n

“Communism differs from all previous movements in that it overturns the basis of all earlier relations of production and intercourse, and for the first time consciously treats all natural premises as the creatures of hitherto existing men, strips them of their natural character and subjugates them to the power of the united individuals. Its organisation is, therefore, essentially economic, the material production of the conditions of this unity; it turns existing conditions into conditions of unity. The reality, which communism is creating, is precisely the true basis for rendering it impossible that anything should exist independently of individuals, insofar as reality is only a product of the preceding intercourse of individuals themselves.” (Marx, the Materialist Conception of History)<\/em><\/p>\n

Germany–Amazon on Strike \u00a0<\/strong>Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market behind the United States and sales there grew almost 21 percent in 2012 to $8.7 billion, a third of its overseas total. Amazon took its most daily orders in Germany last December 16, when almost 4 million articles were bought, with shipments peaking on December 17.
\nAmazon, which employs 9,000 warehouse staff in Germany plus 14,000 seasonal workers at nine distribution centers, said 1,115 staff had joined the strike at three sites \u00a0\u00a0 www.reuters.com\/article\/2013\/12\/16\/us-amazon-germany-idUSBRE9BF0M220131216<\/a><\/p>\n

Congratulations on the Publication of–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Education<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Works & Days editor David B. Downing’s “Foreword to the Revolution” here:
\nblogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/files\/2013\/12\/WD-Front-pages.pdf<\/a>
\nWorks & Days + Cultural Logic
\nEducation for Revolution
\nE. Wayne Ross & Rich Gibson (Editors)<\/em> available at worksanddays.net\/<\/a> \u00a0($15 cheap!)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"capitalist<\/a><\/p>\n

Capitalist College Presidents Doing Pretty Well \u00a0<\/strong>Forty-two presidents of private colleges were paid more than a million dollars in 2011, up from 36 for the previous two years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education\u2019s annual analysis of the colleges\u2019 latest available tax forms.\u00a0The three top earners were Robert J. Zimmer, University of Chicago ($3,358,723);<\/strong><\/em> Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern University ($3,121,864)<\/strong><\/em>; and Dennis J. Murray, Marist College ($2,688,148).<\/strong><\/em>
\nAccording to the Chronicle, Dr. Zimmer\u2019s pay doubled in 2011, Dr. Aoun\u2019s nearly tripled in the same time, and Dr. Murray\u2019s almost quadrupled from the previous year. Although their base salaries all remained under $1 million, the top three, like many other highly paid presidents, earned much more from retirement packages, bonuses or deferred compensation. (chart with date here chronicle.com\/article\/Executive-Compensation-at\/143541#id=table<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Detroit Schools (where the fake union let every teacher be fired) lowest in US: reading\/math \u00a0<\/strong> Students in Detroit Public Schools scored the lowest in the nation among big-city districts in math and tied for lowest in reading, according to national test results released Wednesday.
\nDPS\u2019 fourth- and eighth-graders trailed 20 other large cities that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment in mathematics, remaining in the bottom rung of test scores since first taking the test in 2009 and again in 2011 and 2013.
\nIn reading, Detroit fourth- and eighth-graders trailed all but one other district, tying Cleveland students for last.
\nFrom The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20131218\/SCHOOLS\/312180085#ixzz2nsXueDlD<\/a><\/p>\n

\"adjunct\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Adjuncts in Capitalist Apartheid America \u00a0<\/strong>Once again, we find ourselves in a moral predicament. In educational institutions of every kind, adjunct faculty are being subjected to de facto discrimination and exploitation. They know it, tenure-track faculty know it, administrators know it. The awful secret is out, and we can no longer avert our eyes. We\u2019ll have to deal with this injustice as we did with those that came to a head in the sixties, because if we do not close the gap between our principles and our practice, the profession will forfeit its honor. \u00a0I need not belabor the immorality of paying adjuncts a fraction of what other faculty earn, and of denying them benefits, office space, parking rights, and a voice in departmental and institutional policy. These insults and humiliations are reminiscent of the degradation and injustice that roused academics to act against racial, gender, and other indignities.
\nOf course, there\u2019s a reason that things are as they are. There is always a reason, one which seems cogent enough until suddenly it does not. What began as part-time teaching to meet a temporary need or plug a gap in the curriculum has evolved into systemic institutional injustice.
\nNo one takes exception to cost-cutting, but forcing one group to subsidize another that\u2019s doing comparable work, while maintaining working conditions that signal second-class status, is what the world now rejects as Apartheid. \u00a0 www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/somebodies-and-nobodies\/201312\/ending-academic-apartheid<\/a><\/p>\n

CA Districts Fear Losing Millions For Low Income Students\u00a0<\/strong>Major California school districts fear they will be shortchanged millions of dollars in funding for their low-income students under new state rules requiring them to verify family incomes every year.
\nOfficials in Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno and elsewhere are scrambling to collect verification forms but said that hundreds of families have not yet turned them in \u2014 potentially jeopardizing funding that school districts are counting on this year. At stake, for instance, is $200 million in L.A. Unified and $6 million in San Diego.
\nThe districts are urging the state to guarantee them all funding due this year, based on last year’s count of low-income students, whether the new forms are turned in or not. \u00a0\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/la-me-school-funding-20131210,0,4964524.story#ixzz2naWZ4krK<\/a><\/p>\n

\"JC<\/a><\/p>\n

Corruption in Capitalist Schools Snares DC TV News Anchor \u00a0<\/strong>Anchoring news broadcasts at WUSA for more than 40 years, she appeared in thousands of living rooms across the region, becoming a face and a name that Washingtonians recognized. She emceed countless charity fundraising galas, built a reputation for caring about the city she covered. Viewers came to trust her, and many came to feel as if they knew her.
\nAnd then she was gone.
\nShortly before Hayward appeared on air that first day of October \u2013 dressed as glamorously as ever in a pale pink suit and a pair of towering slingback heels \u2013 the D.C. attorney general filed a lawsuit naming her as one of five people involved in an effort to divert millions of dollars from a city charter school for troubled teens.
\nAs chairwoman of Options Public Charter School, the complaint said, Hayward allegedly signed off on lucrative contracts that funneled local and federal tax dollars to two for-profit companies founded and run by school managers. Hayward allegedly helped incorporate one of the companies named in the civil lawsuit, a company that according to several people familiar with the investigation is now under federal scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\"Garcia,<\/a><\/p>\n

Criminal School boss Garcia gets sentenced reduced \u00a0<\/strong> The former superintendent of an El Paso school district who was sent to prison in one of the country\u2019s worst education scandals has received an unexpected reward \u2014 a nearly one-year reduction in his prison term. \u00a0A recent decision by the federal Bureau of Prisons to take 11 months off the sentence of the former superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, has angered educators, parents and lawmakers in El Paso and has drawn attention to the obscure drug counseling program that has become a popular way for white-collar criminals to reduce their prison time.
\nMr. Garcia, 58, had been scheduled for release in October 2015 after being sentenced to three years and six months. …Mr. Garcia, who once led the El Paso Independent School District, pleaded guilty last year to his role in a scheme to inflate test scores in struggling schools by preventing low-performing students from taking the exams, as a way to improve school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
\nTo prevent students from taking the tests and dragging down scores, Mr. Garcia and others manipulated their grades, kept some from attending school, discouraged others from enrolling and held transfer students from Mexico in the ninth grade so they would not take a 10th-grade test. The parents of students who were forced out of school used the term \u201clos desaparecidos,\u201d or \u201cthe disappeared,\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/13\/us\/sentence-cut-in-texas-for-school-official-jailed-in-test-scandal.html?ref=education<\/a><\/p>\n

Double-dipping SDSU pensioner gets $270,000 CSU job –Sally Roush also to rake in monthly $1000 car allowance<\/strong> \u00a0In June, when last we checked on Sally Roush, the scandal-plagued vice president of business and financial affairs at San Diego State University was retiring from her position after 30 years of university service. Her total pay in 2012, according to a database of state salaries posted online by the Sacramento Bee, was $301,957.
\nDuring the hands-off era of university president Stephen Weber, many academic insiders said she virtually ran the institution, parrying a bevy of sports scandals, buttering up the city\u2019s wealthy male donors.
\nSome expected Roush to turn up in the business arms of John Moores, the mega-millionaire and ex-Padres owner with whom Roush was especially friendly, as documented by a February 1999 letter from Roush to Moores obtained under the state’s public records act:
\nAs you know, sometimes we have stretched our thinking and, heaven forbid, our administrative processes. But this is a good thing, and we enjoy the challenge of striving for new levels of accomplishment.
\nYour gifts and gentle guidance have been tremendously motivating. As always, if you would like a briefing on project status, or any issue at the University, please do call on me.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 www.sandiegoreader.com\/news\/2013\/dec\/13\/ticker-sdsu-pensioner-gets-270000-csu-job\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweetwater trustee Arlie Ricasa to resign–\u201cI accepted gifts…with a value of $2099 and I did not report them.”<\/strong> \u00a0Sweetwater Union High School District trustee Arlie Ricasa, who had initially been charged with 28 felony and misdemeanor counts in the South Bay\u2019s schools corruption case, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor today, December 18.
\nEarly today, U-T reporter Greg Moran tweeted that Ricasa \u201centered her plea in South Bay Superior Court as more than a dozen supporters quietly looked on\u2026. Ricasa pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. She won’t get any jail time\u2026. She will have to resign her seat on the board by tomorrow.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 www.sandiegoreader.com\/news\/2013\/dec\/18\/stringers-sweetwater-trustee-arlie-ricasa-resign\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"adjunct<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re Constantly in Fear: The life of a part-time professor–Academia’s dirty little secret.<\/strong> \u00a0Soto, though full-time, is the former president of the faculty union, Southwestern College Education Association, and claims her current interest in matters of part-timers revolves around the implementation of seniority or rehire rights, what they call \u201cvesting.\u201d One of the handouts she has brought is a copy of the Southwestern District vesting policy.
\n\u201cShe is the one who implemented the rehire right language for part-time faculty [in August 2007],\u201d Professor M says of Soto. \u201cSo she\u2019s in our court.\u201d
\nSoto jumps back in, speaking a mile a minute and punctuating the air every couple of seconds with a zebra-striped pen. \u201cThe position of the union is supposed to be to support rehire rights for part-timers. My contention is they\u2019re not fighting as hard for it as I think they should,\u201d she says. \u201cIn my opinion, the district is engaging in regressive bargaining because they\u2019re trying to do away with the right that was already negotiated.\u201d \u00a0 www.sandiegoreader.com\/news\/2013\/dec\/18\/cover-constantly-fear\/?page=4&amp<\/a>;<\/p>\n

In the Stream of Starving Adjuncts \u00a0<\/strong>Mary-Faith Cerasoli. She\u2019s a professionally dressed middle-aged woman with a careworn face, hair swept back prettily over her ears, plucked eyebrows, rouged lips, and manicured nails. She\u2019s an adjunct professor who teaches Spanish and Italian at the Bronx and Manhattan campuses of Mercy College and Nassau Community College in Long Island. She has a life-threatening thyroid disease, and she\u2019s homeless. Since fall of 2010, when the 52-year-old started adjuncting, Cerasoli has had to rely on the kindness of friends to survive because her pay is so meager. Over the past six months she\u2019s had to move four times. Her annual salary for teaching five courses per semester is around $22,000 before taxes. Because she has no health insurance, she goes to a specialty clinic in Manhattan, where she has racked up thousands of dollars in medical bills. – See more at: chroniclevitae.com\/news\/226-how-i-get-by-mary-faith-cerasoli#sthash.c3KDXIp3.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n

To the (NYT)Editor: \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I am humbled to be mentioned in Joe Nocera\u2019s column. By no coincidence am I quoted twice uttering the phrase, \u201cI had to learn.\u201d I am still learning.Teaching in the \u201cinner city\u201d \u2014 teaching anywhere for that matter \u2014 requires skills that are difficult to master. Indeed, teachers need training and continuing systemwide support to meet the challenges of the profession.Edu<\/a>cation reform, however, will continue to have limited success to the extent that inequality persists. Economic and social insecurity all too often lead to emotional and cognitive difficulties that no classroom can fully rectify. Yet that\u2019s the hand we\u2019re dealt, students and teachers alike, and we soldier on, ever determined to make a difference.And we do so despite the fact that our students graduate into an economy of insecure, low-wage, no-benefit, part-time jobs. While a new tide of progressivism offers a glimmer of hope, punishing programs of fiscal austerity and standardized testing portend a dim future. \u00a0 KEVIN GREER
\nBrooklyn, Dec. 18, 2013<\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mauldin<\/a><\/p>\n

Whoever wants War With China–Stand up! Not you–Obamagogue, Hagel, Clinton, et al \u00a0<\/strong>China was “irresponsible” and “unhelpful” during the near-collision of a US warship and a Chinese naval vessel, the US Defence Secretary said.
\nChuck Hagel said the Chinese boat cut in front of USS Cowpens on 5 December, and described the act as “incendiary”.
\nChina, who described the incident as an “encounter”, said the incident was handled with “strict protocol”.
\nIt has been described as the most serious Sino-US confrontation in the South China Sea since 2009.
\nThe US said its guided missile cruiser was operating in international waters when a Chinese navy vessel forced it to take evasive action.
\nBut China claims parts of the South China Sea, and state-run newspaper Global Times quoted an expert as saying that the US boat had been “harassing” China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, as it carried out drills. \u00a0\u00a0 www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-25459570<\/a><\/p>\n

\"China<\/a><\/p>\n

US Military Planes Flee Sudanese Small Arms Fire\u00a0<\/strong>United States aircraft flying into a heavily contested region of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens were attacked on Saturday and forced to turn back without completing the mission, American officials said. Four service members were wounded, one seriously. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/22\/world\/africa\/south-sudan.html?hp&_r=0<\/p>\n

US Vets’ Enemy At Home–the VA \u00a0<\/strong>“You’d call up and you’d ask, ‘What’s the status?’ Nobody knew,” he said. “Then you’d make an official inquiry, and they would say, ‘OK, here’s the number.’ And then when you call up a week later, there’s no record of that inquiry.”
\nIn an attempt to expedite his claim, the VA office in Oakland sent the file to be processed in another state. But documents were apparently misplaced in the transfer. Sonnenberg says he was asked to resubmit paperwork, in some cases multiple times.
\n“I was losing my mind at one point,” he said. “I just started to feel like it was hopeless.\u2026 Nothing’s going to change, no one gives a damn about us.” \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/la-me-c1-1220-veterans-backlog-20131219-dto,0,1667083.htmlstory#ixzz2oBOyFAAm<\/a><\/p>\n

Karzai Woos India Inc. as Doubts on U.S. Pact Sideline Billions \u00a0<\/strong>As Karzai explains his reluctance to sign a security pact with the U.S. to political and business leaders in the region, investors are voicing concerns. The agreement would assuage businesses seeking to tap mineral resources estimated at $3 trillion and ensure that the country\u2019s 31 million people, who live on an average of less than $2 per day, receive billions of dollars in aid money over the next decade.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think the Americans are thinking of the zero option,\u201d Karzai told reporters in New Delhi two days ago, referring to a scenario under which all U.S. troops might leave Afghanistan in 2014. \u201cIt\u2019s a brinkmanship they\u2019re playing with us. Even if they did, then come what may.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2013-12-15\/karzai-tells-investors-u-s-will-meet-his-security-pact-demands.html<\/a><\/p>\n

West Tells Syria Rebels: Assad Must Stay –SNC Member: West Open to Assad Running for Reelection<\/strong> \u00a0Members of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) report that they have been told by Western officials that they believe President Bashar Assad must remain in power to prevent an al-Qaeda takeover of the country. \u00a0\u201cSome do not even seem to mind if he runs again next year,\u201d noted one SNC member. That\u2019s not sitting well with the SNC, but it may not matter.
\nWestern diplomats confirmed the shift, saying that the rebels have been warned that any \u201ctransitional administration\u201d would have to include a major presence from Alawites, and that Assad could stay as president with \u201cdiminished powers.\u201d
\nIf the rebels reject that plan \u201cthey will lose most of the West,\u201d one diplomat said, reflecting the dwindling confidence in the secular rebels\u2019 ability to accomplish anything on their own. \u00a0\u00a0 news.antiwar.com\/2013\/12\/17\/west-tells-syria-rebels-assad-must-stay\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"syria3\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s policy on Syria has just been sunk, and nobody noticed \u00a0<\/strong>The final bankruptcy of American and British policy in Syria came 10 days ago as Islamic Front, a Saudi-backed Sunni jihadi group, overran the headquarters of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) at Bab al-Hawa on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey. The FSA, along with the Syrian National Coalition, groups that the United States and Britain have been pretending for years are at the heart of Syrian military and political opposition, has been discredited. The remaining FSA fighters are in flight, have changed sides, or are devoting all their efforts to surviving the onslaught from jihadi or al-Qa\u2019ida-linked brigades.
\nThe US and Britain stopped the delivery of non-lethal aid to the supply depot at Bab al-Hawa as the implications of the disaster sank in. The West\u2019s favourite rebel commander, General Salim Idris, was on the run between Turkey and his former chief supporter and paymaster, Qatar. Turkey closed the border, the other side of which is now controlled by the Islamic Front. The so-called moderate wing of the Syrian insurgency has very limited influence, but its representatives are still being urged by Washington and London to attend the peace conference in Geneva on 22 January to negotiate Bashar al-Assad\u2019s departure from power.
\nConfusion over what is happening is so great that Western leaders may not pay as much of a political price at home as they should for the failure of their Syrian policy. But it is worth recalling that the Syrian National Coalition and the FSA are the same people for whom the US and UK almost went to war in August, and saw as candidates to replace Assad in power in Damascus. The recent debacle shows how right public opinion in both countries was to reject military intervention.
\nWho are the winners in the new situation? One is Assad…\u00a0 www.unz.com\/pcockburn\/britains-policy-on-syria-has-just-been-sunk-and-nobody-noticed\/<\/a><\/p>\n

AQ Fascists Training Kiddies (on US money) \u00a0<\/strong>They are \u201cZarqawi\u2019s Cubs,\u201d the youth brigade of Syria\u2019s most fearsome Islamist rebel group and one of the newest manifestations of al-Qaeda\u2019s deepening roots in rebel-controlled sections of the country. Building on earlier efforts to expand their influence in Syrian schools, radical Islamists appear to be stepping up efforts to indoctrinate and train children, some as young as 10, according to independent experts who have studied the phenomenon. \u00a0The establishment of the Zarqawi\u2019s Cubs camp \u2014 revealed in a video posted last month by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS \u2014 is viewed as particularly worrisome because of the similarities to Iraq\u2019s \u201cBirds of Paradise.\u201d That brigade was created a decade ago by the same terrorist group, in its earlier incarnation as al-Qaeda in Iraq, to train children for military missions,including suicide bombings.
\n\u201cThis is the future threat,\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/extremist-syrian-faction-touts-training-camp-for-boys\/2013\/12\/16\/e0b4cca4-628e-11e3-a373-0f9f2d1c2b61_story.html?hpid=z5<\/a><\/p>\n

Imperialist War MEANS Corruption (Navy Again) \u00a0<\/strong>Amid a scandal that has already ensnared two ship supply companies in allegations of overbilling the Navy, a third firm that provides services to the Navy\u2019s fleet has placed one of its senior executives on leave over questions about how he handled Navy contracts at another company. \u00a0The third firm, Multinational Logistic Services, known as MLS, is the Navy\u2019s largest ship supply company, with $346 million in contracts for ports in Africa, the Mediterranean, Central America and the Pacific.
\nBut in early 2011, as the Navy was evaluating the company\u2019s bid to provide services in Africa, MLS hired an executive named Akbar Khan, who had worked at a rival firm that was then \u2014 and still is \u2014 under federal investigation for overcharging the Navy for supplies and port services.
\nThe Justice Department, with the Navy\u2019s help, was investigating the rival firm, Inchcape Shipping Services, after former employees alleged that Mr. Khan had been involved in questionable billing practices while he headed its Middle Eastern and African operations, people close to the investigation say.
\nBut while that investigation was underway, Mr. Khan took a similar job at MLS. Later that year, the Navy awarded the company the Africa contract, estimated at $52 million, and has given it additional business since. \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/20\/us\/in-navy-billing-scandal-a-third-company-puts-an-executive-on-leave.html?hp&_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=usM70MtPtHU<\/a><\/p>\n

They’re Droning on and on \u00a0<\/strong>On my wedding day, my wife and I hired a couple of shuttle vans to ferry guests between a San Clemente hotel and the nearby site where we held our ceremony and reception. I thought of our friends and family members packed into those vehicles when I read about the latest nightmarish consequence of America’s drone war: “A U.S. drone mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen’s al-Baitha province after intelligence reports identified the vehicles as carrying al Qaeda militants,” CNN reported, citing government sources in Yemen. “The officials said that 14 people were killed and 22 others injured, nine in critical condition. The vehicles were traveling near the town of Radda when they were attacked.”
\nCan you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage, the outrage, and the empathy for the victims that would follow if an American wedding were attacked in this fashion? Or how you’d feel about a foreign power that attacked your wedding in this fashion?
\nThe L.A. Times followed up on the story and found slightly different casualty figures: “The death toll reached 17 overnight, hospital officials in central Bayda province said Friday. Five of those killed were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda, but the remainder were unconnected with the militancy, Yemeni security officials said.” \u00a0\u00a0 www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2013\/12\/if-a-drone-strike-hit-an-american-wedding-wed-ground-our-fleet\/282373\/<\/a><\/p>\n

US Backed Islamic Fascists Kill 80+ Civilians in Syria <\/strong>\u00a0Over 80 civilians in a town northwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus have been executed by Islamist rebels, sources within the Syrian military told RT. Many others were kidnapped to be used as human shields.
\nGovernment forces are continuing a large-scale operation against Jabhat al-Nusra and Liwa Al-Islam fighters, who captured the town earlier this week. The area is located some 20 kilometers away from Damascus.
\nAccording to SANA news agency, around 1,000 militants were in the town when it was enveloped by the army on Friday.
\nThe military sources said the \u201carmed groups have performed an execution of civilians\u201d in Adra, RT Arabic correspondent Abutaleb Albohaya reported from Syria. \u00a0\u00a0 rt.com\/news\/syria-adra-civilian-execution-289\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Navy<\/a>U.S. Marine instructor with Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific, drives a group of Japanese soldiers from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force\u2019s Western Army Infantry Regiment around San Diego Bay in a rigid-hull inflatable boat.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A new draft of Japan\u2019s national security strategy calls for an expansion of the country\u2019s military power in reaction to China\u2019s military rise and growing territorial claims. <\/strong>Specifically countering China\u2019s military rise is near the heart of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s call for increased military spending, \u201cwith a firm commitment to defend the people\u2019s lives and possessions,\u201d he said in a Wednesday meeting with Japanese defense officials over the new strategy.China quickly called the move by the Abe government unreasonable. \u201cJapan\u2019s unreasonable criticism of China\u2019s normal maritime and air activities and hyping up of a China threat have hidden political motives,\u201d said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei in state run media.
\n\u201cWe urge Japan to pay attention to Asian neighbors\u2019 security concerns, comply with the historical trend, follow the path of peaceful development, and make due efforts to improve relations between the two countries and maintain regional stability.\u201dThe draft calls for the use of unmanned surveillance aircraft to increasingly patrol Japanese southwestern territory and standing up an amphibious force on Okinawa. \u00a0\u00a0 news.usni.org\/2013\/12\/11\/japan-seeks-expand-military-power-response-chinese-expansion<\/a><\/p>\n

USS Ronnie Regan Sailors Sue for Cancers from Fukishima \u00a0<\/strong>Fifty-one crew members of the USS Ronald Reagan say they are suffering from a variety of cancers as a direct result of their involvement in Operation Tomodachi, a U.S. rescue mission in Fukushima after the nuclear disaster in March 2011. The affected sailors are suing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), alleging that the utility mishandled the crisis and did not adequately warn the crew of the risk of participating in the earthquake relief efforts.
\nCrew members, many of whom are in their 20s, have been diagnosed with conditions including thyroid cancer, testicular cancer and leukemia. The Department of Defense says the Navy took “proactive measures” in order to “mitigate the levels of Fukushima-related contamination on U.S. Navy ships and aircraft\u201d and that crew members were not exposed to dangerous radiation levels.
\nCharles Bonner, attorney for the sailors, says the radiation the USS Ronald Reagan crew was exposed to extended beyond the tasks of Operation Tomodachi. Deployed ships desalinate their own water, so crew members were unknowingly drinking, cooking with, and bathing in contaminated water due to the ship’s close proximity to the disaster site, according to Bonner. The USS Reagan was ultimately informed of the contamination after a month of living approximately 10 miles offshore from the affected region.
\nThe number of plaintiffs in the case could grow significantly as 150 \u00a0\u00a0 america.aljazeera.com\/watch\/shows\/the-stream\/the-stream-officialblog\/2013\/12\/16\/uss-reagan-sailorsreportcancersafterfukushimarescuemission.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Brazil: War Means Work, but NSA Insults Count too\u00a0<\/strong>Brazil has rejected a contract for Boeing\u2019s F\/A-18 fighter jets in favor of the Swedish Saab\u2019s JAS 39 Gripens. The unexpected move to reject the US bid comes amid the global scandal over the NSA\u2019s involvement in economic espionage activities.
\nThe announcement for the purchase of 36 fighters was made Wednesday by Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim and Air Force Commander Junti Saito. The jets will cost US$4.5 billion, well below the estimated market value of around US$7 billion.
\nSaito said the development of the fighters will occur in conjunction with Embraer and other unspecified companies.
\nThe 12 Mirage aircraft currently in use by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) will be retired at the end of this year. They were acquired by Brazil in 2005. As it waits for the new fighters, the FAB will use the F5 style, which will stay viable up to 2025. \u00a0\u00a0 rt.com\/news\/brazil-nsa-defense-contract-454\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"dominoes<\/a><\/p>\n

And the Winner is–The Bi-partisan Defense Budget!<\/strong> In reality, there was one clear winner: the bipartisan defense lobby, a category that does not apparently include wounded veterans, who must give up some of their pensions for the sake of restoring that public faith, not to mention funding the extra $22 billion for defense that will flow inexorably into the pockets of Lockheed (stock already up 55% this year), Raytheon (up 54%), Northrop (up 64%) and their peers. With the hearty endorsement of both parties, they have emerged triumphant from the budget wars at the expense of old-fashioned special interests such as veterans, the poor, the unemployed, children (57,000 kicked off Head Start) and the aged.
\nThus, while some sequestered nondefense cuts have theoretically been restored, federal employees get soaked for higher pension contributions, military veterans (including the wounded) lose part of their projected raises, airline passengers have to fork out higher taxes \u2014 a total of $26 billion. Including the “savings” from not extending unemployment benefits ($25 billion), the nondefense sector suffers a net loss of $20 billion.
\nwww.latimes.com\/opinion\/commentary\/la-oe-cockburn-budget-deal-defense-20131220,0,4067784.story#ixzz2oBUpCSW2<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Steel Plant Explosion Near Detroit Kills Worker, Injures 2 \u00a0<\/strong>Antonino Palazzolo, a 32-year-old remote-control locomotive operator who had worked at the company for almost two years, was killed in the explosion, according to an e-mailed statement from Courtney Boone, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based manufacturer. Two others had minor injuries and received medical treatment.
\nThe company\u2019s Great Lakes Works site, where the explosion occurred, is capable of about 3.8 million net tons of steelmaking per year, according to the company\u2019s website. The plant is along the Detroit River in the Michigan towns of Ecorse and River Rouge. \u00a0\u00a0 www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2013-12-15\/u-s-steel-plant-explosion-near-detroit-kills-worker-injures-2.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Unemployment<\/a>A needed extension of federal emergency jobless benefits was absent from this week\u2019s budget agreement<\/strong>, potentially leaving almost 5 million jobless workers in the lurch over the next 12 months, according to Department of Labor estimates.[1] Failure to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program would affect jobless workers in every state.<\/p>\n

As Figure 1[2] shows:
\nAn estimated 1.3 million jobless workers now receiving EUC will receive no benefits after Christmas week if the program expires as scheduled.
\nAn estimated 1.9 million people receiving regular state unemployment insurance (UI) payments, which typically run for a maximum of six months, will exhaust them in the first half of 2014 before they can find a job. If EUC expires, these workers will receive no further benefits.
\nAn estimated 1.6 million people who lose their jobs in the first half of 2014 will exhaust their regular state UI in the second half of the year before they can find a job. If EUC expires, these workers will receive no further benefits.
\nIn all, an estimated 4.9 million workers would lose out on EUC benefits by the end of 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Capitalism<\/a><\/p>\n

US Stocks Hit Record Highs\u00a0<\/strong>High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com<\/a> to buy additional rights. www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/d6f6ebac-691e-11e3-996a-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2oBX0qjkw<\/a>
\nGlobal equities ended the last full trading week of 2013 in strong form, as the markets largely took the Federal Reserve\u2019s decision to begin winding down its economic stimulus in their stride.
\nIndeed, US stocks raced to record highs, bolstered by a robust third-quarter GDP reading that, on the surface at least, appeared to vindicate the Fed\u2019s move. \u00a0\u00a0 www.ft.com\/intl\/cms\/s\/0\/d6f6ebac-691e-11e3-996a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2oBWpCVeP<\/a><\/p>\n

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"seuss2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Judge, a Bush appointee, says mass NSA Spying Unconstitutional \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI cannot imagine a more \u2018indiscriminate\u2019 and \u2018arbitrary invasion\u2019 than this systematic and high tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,\u201d said Leon, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. \u201cSurely, such a program infringes on \u2018that degree of privacy\u2019 that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.\u201d \u00a0…Snowden praised the ruling in a statement made to journalist Glenn Greenwald, who received NSA documents from Snowden and first reported on the program\u2019s existence.
\n\u201cI acted on my belief that the NSA\u2019s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,\u201d said Snowden, who has received temporary asylum in Russia, where he is seeking to avoid U.S. prosecution under the Espionage Act for leaking NSA documents. \u201cToday, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans\u2019 rights. It is the first of many.\u201d
\nThe ruling also comes as Congress is debating whether to end the NSA\u2019s \u201cbulk\u201d collection of phone data or endorse it in statute. The White House, U.S. officials say, supports maintaining the program. \u00a0\u00a0 www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/judge-nsas-collecting-of-phone-records-is-likely-unconstitutional\/2013\/12\/16\/6e098eda-6688-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Obamagogue Tries to Prevent Judge From Ruling on Surveillance Efforts \u00a0<\/strong>In a set of filings in the two long-running cases in the Northern District of California, the government acknowledged for the first time that the N.S.A. started systematically collecting data about Americans\u2019 emails and phone calls in 2001, alongside its program of wiretapping certain calls without warrants. The government had long argued that disclosure of these and other secrets would put the country at risk if they came out in court.
\nBut the government said that despite recent leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, that made public a fuller scope of the surveillance and data collection programs put in place after the Sept. 11 attacks, sensitive secrets remained at risk in any courtroom discussion of their details \u2014 like whether the plaintiffs were targets of intelligence collection or whether particular telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon had helped the agency. \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/22\/us\/white-house-tries-to-prevent-judge-from-ruling-on-surveillance-efforts.html?hp<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Waterboarding\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NYTimes (!) “Release the Torture Files \u00a0<\/strong>A dozen years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it is appalling that official reports about the extent and nature of the rendition, detention and torture that came in their aftermath are still being kept from the American public and even members of Congress charged with overseeing intelligence activities…Likely the closest to a full accounting the nation is going to get, the report is said to contain unsparing criticism of the program. News reports have said it chronicles the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s repeated misleading of the White House, Congress and the public about the value of brutal and lawless methods that yielded little valuable intelligence despite the claims of former Vice President Dick Cheney and other defenders of torture. \u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/20\/opinion\/release-the-torture-reports.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131220&tntemail0=y<\/a><\/p>\n

The C.I.A. wrote a 122-page rebuttal to the Senate\u2019s report, which was delivered by the agency\u2019s current director, John Brennan, in June, four months after the committee\u2019s deadline. It, too, remains under wraps.<\/p>\n

Obamagogue’s Incredible Shrinking Presidency \u00a0<\/strong>Of course, Obamacare is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. The list of policy disasters that preceded this latest fiasco is nearly endless, including everything from blanket pardons for the Wall Street big-wigs who took down the global financial system, to re-upping the Bush tax cuts, to appointing a commission of deficit hawks to slash Social Security and Medicare (Bowles-Simpson), to breaking his word on Gitmo, to reneging on his promise to pass Card Check, to expanding wars in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, to droning four-times as many civilians as the homicidal maniac he replaced as president in 2008. \u00a0 \u00a0Obama’s treatment of undocumented immigrants has been particularly shocking although the details have been kept out of the media, presumably because the news giants don’t want to expose the Dear Leader as a heartless scoundrel who has no problem separating mothers from their children, locking them up in privately-owned concentration camps and booting them out of the country with nothing more than the shirts on their backs. \u00a0 www.counterpunch.org\/2013\/12\/20\/the-incredible-shrinking-presidency-of-barack-obama\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Colombia\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CIA Assassinating FARC in Columbia\u00a0<\/strong>The 50-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once considered the best-funded insurgency in the world, is at its smallest and most vulnerable state in decades, due in part to a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according to interviews with more than 30 former and current U.S. and Colombian officials.
\nThe secret assistance, which also includes substantial eavesdropping help from the National Security Agency, is funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget. It is not a part of the public $9 billion package of mostly U.S. military aid called Plan Colombia, which began in 2000.
\nAbove: A Colombian Air Force member cleans an A-29 Super Tucano, a turboprop aircraft typically involved in strikes on FARC targets. (Raul Arboleda\/AFP via Getty Images)
\nThe previously undisclosed CIA program was authorized by President George W. Bush in the early 2000s and has continued under President Obama, according to U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic officials. Most of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program is classified and ongoing. The covert program in Colombia provides two essential services to the nation\u2019s battle against the FARC and a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN): Real-time intelligence that allows Colombian forces to hunt down individual FARC leaders and, beginning in 2006, one particularly effective tool with which to kill them.
\nThat weapon is a $30,000 GPS guidance kit that transforms a less-than-accurate 500-pound gravity bomb into a highly accurate smart bomb. Smart bombs, also called precision-guided munitions or PGMs, are capable of killing an individual in triple-canopy jungle if his exact location can be determined and geo-coordinates are programmed into the bomb\u2019s small computer brain. \u00a0The roster is headed by Mexico, where U.S. intelligence assistance is larger than anywhere outside Afghanistan, as The Washington Post reported in April. It also includes Central America and West Africa, where trafficking routes have moved in response to U.S. pressure against cartels elsewhere.
\nAsked to comment on U.S. intelligence assistance, President Juan Manuel Santos told The Post during a recent trip to Washington that he did not wish to speak about it in detail, given the sensitivities involved. \u201cIt\u2019s been of help,\u201d he said. \u201cPart of the expertise and the efficiency of our operations and our special operations have been the product of better training and knowledge we have acquired from many countries, among them the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Colombia and the FARC have been in peace negotiations in Havana for a year. They have agreed so far on frameworks for land reform, rural development and for allowing insurgents to participate in the political process once the war ends. The two sides are currently discussing a new approach to fighting drug trafficking. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 www.washingtonpost.com\/sf\/investigative\/2013\/12\/21\/covert-action-in-colombia\/?hpid=z1<\/a><\/p>\n

\"smartbomb\"<\/a>Ultra Dubious Homeland Security Boss Moved <\/strong>The official in charge of exposing wrongdoing inside the troubled Homeland Security Department has been transferred amid allegations that he abused his position, officials said Tuesday.
\nCharles K. Edwards was scheduled to appear before a Senate panel on Thursday to answer questions about allegations that he improperly employed his wife, misused travel funds and covered up details about a Secret Service prostitution scandal. He has denied any wrongdoing.
\nThe Senate hearing was canceled after he left his post.
\nEdwards, a career civil servant, was the department’s deputy inspector general. But he had run the office since February 2011 because the White House had not nominated a new inspector general.
\nAt his request, Edwards was reassigned to the department\u2019s science and technology directorate, the research and development arm, officials said.
\nSenate investigators have been looking into allegations that Edwards held back details from reports about U.S. Secret Service agents who hired prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, while planning a presidential visit to the country in 2012.
\nSubordinates also said that Edwards improperly hired his wife as an auditor in his office, and gave bonuses to employees who helped him write a university dissertation for a doctoral course in information systems.
\nBefore he stepped down, Edwards was overseeing an internal investigation of Alejandro Mayorkas, Obama\u2019s pick to be the No. 2 official at Homeland Security.
\nCritics have said Mayorkas, the current head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, fast-tracked visas for foreign investors on behalf of businesses with political connections. Mayorkas has denied wrongdoing \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/nation\/politics\/politicsnow\/la-pn-homeland-security-watchdog-20131217,0,2114225.story#ixzz2nnkDFq8M<\/a><\/p>\n

Merkel to Obamagogue: NSA Spying is like the Stasi \u00a0<\/strong>In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up.
\nThe German chancellor also told the US president that America’s National Security Agency cannot be trusted because of the volume of material it had allowed to leak to the whistleblower Edward Snowden, according to the New York Times.
\nLivid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the Americans were listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: “This is like the Stasi.” \u00a0\u00a0 www.theguardian.com\/world\/2013\/dec\/17\/merkel-compares-nsa-stasi-obama<\/a><\/p>\n

LA Copper Crimes and Nepotism <\/strong>\u00a0Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca maintained a special hiring program that granted preferential treatment to the friends and relatives of department officials, including some candidates who were given jobs despite having troubled histories, according to interviews and internal employment records reviewed by The Times.
\nThe program, known as “Friends of the Sheriff,” has been in existence for at least eight years. Some high-ranking sheriff’s officials injected themselves into the vetting process to lobby for favored job candidates, records show.
\nAmong those hired was a man convicted of sexual battery, according to court records. His friend \u2014 and contact with the department \u2014 was Baca’s driver. Another hired under the program was arrested last week on a federal weapons charge in connection with the FBI’s corruption investigation in the sheriff’s jails. His tie to the agency was his brother, a deputy. \u00a0\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/la-me-friends-of-the-sheriff-20131219,0,901455.story#ixzz2nsbUq5Du<\/a> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Solidarity for Never<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a>above, Mandela as portrayed by S. African rebels, MK fighters\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Quisling Rat Weingarten Who Snared Newark Teachers with Merit Pay Whines about the trap she set \u00a0<\/strong>The agreement between the district and the Newark Teachers Union included the state\u2019s first large-scale use of performance bonuses for teachers found to be performing at a high level. It also included extensive provisions for teachers to take part in peer evaluations and the reviews of the final job ratings.
\nWeingarten cited what she called \u201cgrievance upon grievance\u201d lodged by union members who say the district has not lived up to its pledges, which included additional support and coaching of lower-performing teachers.
\nOf Anderson, Weingarten said she has \u201cturned her back and stopped listening to teachers\u2019 voices. . . .She has said tough luck, and if you can\u2019t do it, you\u2019ll be fired.\u201d
\nAnderson largely stayed out of the fray yesterday, leaving her spokesman to issue a statement criticizing the rally as a whole…In a phone interview, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf was less reluctant to engage, and he strongly contested Weingarten\u2019s specific claims.
\nHe said an additional $50 million was spent to meet the agreement\u2019s promises to teachers and other staff.
\n\u201cI can assure you that the contract has been fully and honorably implemented,\u201d Cerf said. \u201cI am absolutely confident that all the components of the contract have occurred exactly as they were agreed upon.\u201d
\nThe bulk of the additional money came from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s $100 million donation to the Newark schools.
\nCerf added that the city teachers union subsequently blocked the district from gaining federal Race to the Top money for new technology and programming, because they union claimed it has not been kept apprised of the application.
\n\u201cWhat Randi seems to have forgotten is this contract brought $50 million more into the pockets of Newark teachers, \u00a0\u00a0 www.njspotlight.com\/stories\/13\/12\/09\/new-era-of-cooperation-in-newark-school-gives-way-to-animosity\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sellout<\/a><\/p>\n

The Teacher “Union” Problem Within\u00a0<\/strong>As teacher unions step up their calls to stop the “corporate agenda” in education and to confront the “privatization” movement, there is a far more real and serious threat facing teacher unions. The threat comes not from billionaires or charter schools or philanthropists. Rather, it comes from many teacher unions’ difficulty to modernize and reshape themselves in the midst of profound demographic changes of their members. At stake are the relevance and even existence of teacher unions–a force that historically has played such a vital role in American public school education.
\nThree basic demographic facts of today’s public school teachers should give teacher unions long pause before continuing to support policies that appeal primarily to a shrinking base of veteran teachers: 1) 52% of U.S. public school teachers have fewer than 10 years of experience (up from 25% in the 1980’s); 2) Approximately one million (or about 30%) of all U.S. public school teachers are expected to retire in the next five years; and 3) Today, there are more first year teachers in American classrooms than there are teachers at any other experience level.
\nAs significantly, the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national surveyconducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations \u00a0\u00a0 www.teachplus.org\/page\/newsroom-6\/news\/december-2013-342.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Boeing Union Forcing Workers to Vote until They Surrender\u00a0<\/strong>Unionized workers at Boeing Co (BA.N) who resoundingly rejected a proposed contract last month will get a chance to vote on the company’s latest offer, the union’s national office said on Saturday, despite opposition to the revised deal from local labor leaders.
\n“I can confirm that a vote will take place,” Frank Larkin, a spokesman for International Association of Machinists, told Reuters. “But the date and details are still being finalized.”
\nIn November, machinists at the Everett, Washington, plant where Boeing’s 777 jet is built voted 2-to-1 against the company’s initial offer.
\nThe eight-year contract would have kept production of Boeing’s next jet – the 777X – in Washington state. But in exchange, management wanted to replace the workers’ pension plan with a 401(k)-style retirement savings account and raise their healthcare costs.
\nIn the aftermath of that vote, Boeing said it would look for other locations to build the 777X, the only jet the company is likely to develop in the next 15 years.
\nBoeing also came back with a revised offer that included a signing bonus and some concessions. But leaders of IAM District Lodge 751, which represents the 31,000 workers, refused to put it up for a vote, saying the changes were not significant enough. \u00a0\u00a0 www.reuters.com\/article\/2013\/12\/21\/us-boeing-union-vote-idUSBRE9BK0E520131221<\/a><\/p>\n

AFGE Boss Sentenced <\/strong>\u00a0On November 1, Federck Petro, former president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2094, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to six months of home confinement and three years of probation for embezzling $112,477 from the Manhattan union, which represents VA hospital employees. He also was ordered to pay full restitution and a $100 special assessment. Petro, who had served as local president during February 2006-July 2008, wrote nearly 200 unauthorized union checks for his own benefit. He had been arrested in December 2011, and pleaded guilty in February of this year following a joint probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Veterans Affairs Department’s Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n

Spy versus Spy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Operation<\/a><\/p>\n

Operation Mockingbird and Wurlitzer Redux: the WashPost and the CIA \u00a0<\/strong>News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper\u2019s CIA coverage are left in the dark.
\nThe Post\u2019s new owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder and CEO of Amazon \u2014 which recently landed a $600 million contract with the CIA. But the Post\u2019s articles about the CIA are not disclosing that the newspaper\u2019s sole owner is the main owner of CIA business partner Amazon.
\nEven for a multi-billionaire like Bezos, a $600 million contract is a big deal. That\u2019s more than twice as much as Bezos paid to buy the Post four months ago.
\nAnd there\u2019s likely to be plenty more where that CIA largesse came from. Amazon\u2019s offer wasn\u2019t the low bid, but it won the CIA contract anyway by offering advanced high-tech \u201ccloud\u201d infrastructure.\u00a0Bezos personally and publicly touts Amazon Web Services, and it\u2019s evident that Amazon will be seeking more CIA contracts. Last month, Amazon issued a statement saying, \u201cWe look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.\u201d
\nAs Amazon\u2019s majority owner and the Post\u2019s only owner, Bezos stands to gain a lot more if his newspaper does less ruffling and more soothing of CIA feathers.
\nAmazon has a bad history of currying favor with the U.S. government\u2019s \u201cnational security\u201d establishment. The media watch group FAIR pointed out what happened after WikiLeaks published State Department cables: \u201cWikiLeaks was booted from Amazon\u2019s webhosting service AWS. So at the height of public interest in what WikiLeaks was publishing, readers were unable to access the WikiLeaks website.\u201d
\nHow\u2019s that for a commitment to the public\u2019s right to know?
\nDays ago, my colleagues at RootsAction.org<\/a> launched a petition that says: \u201cThe Washington Post\u2019s coverage of the CIA should include full disclosure that the sole owner of the Post is also the main owner of Amazon \u2014 and Amazon is now gaining huge profits directly from the CIA.\u201d More than 15,000 people have signed the petition so far this week, with many posting comments that underscore widespread belief in journalistic principles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 www.globalresearch.ca\/the-washington-post-and-amazon-doing-business-with-the-cia\/5362026<\/a><\/p>\n

America’s Great Game in the Middle East \u00a0<\/strong>If hard to imagine today, there were two distinct moments when the United States was regarded as a beacon of hope to the peoples of the Middle East. The first opportunity was thrown away at the end of World War I when, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab leaders sued for either independence or American conservatorship, believing that the nation\u2019s \u201cdisinterested benevolence\u201d might save them from the imperial grasps of Britain and France. By turning his back on those desires, Woodrow Wilson consigned the region to its fate: a carving up by the European powers that created the fractious borders of today. At the end of World War II, however, with the British and French empires in rapid and terminal decline, the Americans were granted a do-over. It is this vitally important juncture in Middle Eastern history that is the subject of Hugh Wilford\u2019s frustratingly uneven \u201cAmerica\u2019s Great Game: The C.I.A.\u2019s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/15\/books\/review\/americas-great-game-by-hugh-wilford.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Breaking News! Companies (even in France) Spy on lots of people \u00a0<\/strong>A regional court in Versailles, near Paris, is now examining whether Ikea executives in France broke the law by ordering personal investigations \u2014 not only of Ms. Paulin but of hundreds of other people over the course of a decade.
\nA review of the court records by The New York Times indicates that Ikea\u2019s investigations were conducted for various reasons, including the vetting of job applicants, efforts to build cases against employees accused of wrongdoing, and even attempts to undermine the arguments of consumers bringing complaints against the company. The going rate charged by the private investigators was 80 to 180 euros, or $110 to $247, per inquiry, court documents show. Between 2002 and 2012, the finance department of Ikea France approved more than \u20ac475,000 in invoices from investigators. \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/16\/business\/international\/ikea-employee-spying-case-casts-spotlight-on-privacy-issues-in-france.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The Magical Mystery Tour<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bad<\/a><\/p>\n

Praise the Bad Bishop: William Montgomery Brown–“\u201cBanish Gods from the Skies and Capitalists from the Earth!\u201d richgibson.com\/BadBishop.htm<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bad<\/a><\/p>\n

1 in 200 Women Say they Had a Virgin Pregnancy \u00a0<\/strong>An unbelievable-sounding new study finds that one in 200 young American women claims to have experienced a virgin pregnancy, \u00e0 la the Virgin Mary.
\nThe U.S. researchers looked into a long-term, confidential study about reproductive health, and found that 45 of the 7,870 women involved said they had become pregnant without ever having had vaginal intercourse or going through in-vitro fertilization, AFP reports. Of those, 31% had made a “chastity pledge” of the type popular among Christian groups. The research was published in the British Medical Journal. \u00a0\u00a0 www.freep.com\/article\/20131218\/FEATURES08\/312180101\/1-in-200-women-say-they-ve-had-a-virgin-pregnancy-<\/a><\/p>\n

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=71Tbf5IZfRc<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"UT<\/a><\/p>\n

ASA members vote 2-1 for academic boycott of Israel<\/strong> \u00a0A landmark in the boycott movement: In an election that attracted 1252 voters, the largest number of participants in the American Studies Association\u2019s history, the majority of votes (66%) supported the boycott. \u00a0\u00a0 mondoweiss.net\/#13872573135953&event=close<\/a><\/p>\n

He’s not in the Hall? No Justice–No Peace!<\/em><\/p>\n