{"id":13931,"date":"2014-08-03T00:03:19","date_gmt":"2014-08-03T08:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=13931"},"modified":"2014-08-03T00:10:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T08:10:18","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-for-a-world-without-buglars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-for-a-world-without-buglars\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: For a World Without the Horns of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Congratulations on the publication of<\/strong><\/p>\n

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


\nRAINWOOD HOUSE, <\/strong>lightly haunted by old civil rights struggles, rampant houseplants and musical plumbing, is home to beleaguered University of Maryland groundskeeper Marlie Mend\u00edval and her bat- and book-loving granddaughter Samantha. Marlie rents a room to Demetrius, an affableradical horticulturist, unaware that prior to knocking on her front door Demetrius has been hiding from the police in her basement.<\/p>\n

Marlie battles mounting bills, bellowing pipes, a lecherous boss, her ex\u2019s scheme to evict her from Rainwood House, isolation, decay and self-doubt, as Samantha becomes embroiled in playground culture wars. Demetrius wanders through Rainwood House\u2019s shuttered rooms pondering how to beat accusations of cop-shooting and terrorism while remaining incognito under Samantha\u2019s friendly but sharp-eyed gaze.Increasingly entangled in each others\u2019 lives, the characters join forces with glamorous union shop steward Laranda Moss and a lively crew of supporters to launch, in the words of Labor Notes<\/em> editor Jane Slaughter,\u201ca cascade of idyllic solutions to very real-world problems,\u201d<\/em> including a friendship club, a people\u2019s history museum and a present-day Underground Railroad stop.<\/p>\n

Written for youth and adults, RAINWOOD HOUSE SINGS<\/strong> paints a true-to-life yet mildly magical picture of activists tackling mysteriesgreat and small with creativity, humor and collective action.<\/p>\n

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

\"capitalist<\/a>Detroit School puts nearly 100 kindergartners in one class in a teaching experiment<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>Brenda Scott Academy of Theater Arts is a high-poverty preK-8th school in east Detroit that is part of the Education Achievement Authority, a district run by Michigan authorities for schools identified as being the lowest-performing. Brenda Scott has an extended calendar and won\u2019t end its current school year until Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

Last February, administrators began what they thought would be a worthwhile teaching experiment: combining three classes of kindergartners into one \u201chub\u201d and instructing nearly 100 youngsters together for a good part of the day. Kids are tracked into smaller groups \u2014 determined by ability \u2014 for math and reading lessons as well as for homeroom, according to this story in the Detroit Free Press.<\/p>\n

Why would school authorities decide to buck overwhelming evidence that young children learn better in small classes? The newspaper said that EAA authorities contend the system allows the three teachers to give more individual attention to students, though it\u2019s not exactly clear how they they are able to do that.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the lead teacher is 30 years old, another teacher is in her second year and the third is in her first year. \u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/answer-sheet\/wp\/2014\/07\/29\/school-puts-nearly-100-kindergartners-in-one-class-in-a-teaching-experiment\/<\/p>\n

Why Are Campus Administrators Making So Much Money? -(in their hothouses for capitalism?) \u00a0<\/strong>In 2011, the last year for which figures are available, 42 private college and university presidents received more than a million dollars each for their work. Robert Zimmer (University of Chicago) was the best-paid, at $3,358,723. At public colleges and universities, nine top administrators garnered more than $1 million each in 2012-2013, with the best-paid, E. Gordon Gee (Ohio State University), receiving $6,057,615.<\/p>\n

Since then, it\u2019s likely that the number of millionaire campus presidents has increased, for their numbers have been growing rapidly. Indeed, in 2012-13, the number of public university presidents receiving at least $1 million for their services more than doubled over the previous year. In addition to their formal compensation, college and university presidents receive some very lavish perks. These include not only free luxury cars and country club memberships, but free university housing. James Milliken, the chancellor of the City University of New York, attended by some of the nation\u2019s most impoverished students, lives rent-free in an $18,000 a month luxury apartment on Manhattan\u2019s posh Upper East Side.<\/p>\n

From 2000 to 2007, when Gordon Gee was chancellor at Vanderbilt University, he benefited from a $6 million renovation of the university mansion in which he and his wife resided. According to a New York Times article, after Gee moved on to his multi-million dollar job at Ohio State, he was known for \u201cthe lavish lifestyle his job supports, including a rent-free mansion with an elevator, a pool and a tennis court and flights on private jets.\u201d – See more at: hnn.us\/article\/156375#sthash.KWugbha8.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n

\"rhee<\/a>Michelle Rhee\u2019s High-Priced PR \u00a0 <\/strong>Michelle Rhee spent about $2 million to buy the public relations services of Anita Dunn [2] and SKDKnickerbocker. It\u2019s a continuing relationship that goes back to early in Rhee\u2019s Chancellorship in Washington, and it\u2019s probably the best money Rhee has ever spent (especially because it was contributed by her supporters).<\/p>\n

Just consider the challenge facing the PR team: The former Chancellor of the Washington, DC public schools ignored clear evidence [3] of cheating by adults [4] on the District\u2019s standardized exams, as Linda Mathews, Jay Mathews, Jack Gillum, Michael Joseloff and I documented in \u201cMichelle Rhee\u2019s Reign of Error.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rhee went beyond covering up the misdeeds. Instead of making a sincere effort to root out the cheaters, Rhee stage-managed four \u2018investigations\u2019 so that they cleared her. All the while, a feckless Mayor and the local newspaper averted their eyes, in sharp contrast to the vigorous investigation of a comparable cheating scandal in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

With her test-based accountability schemes discredited and her reputation as a fearless, tough-minded leader severely damaged, Ms. Rhee might have been expected to disappear from the scene. However, that has not happened. Instead, she remains in the public eye, writing op-eds [5] and offering analysis of educational developments. This fall she will be a presenter in the annual \u201cSchools of Tomorrow\u201d education symposium sponsored by The New York Times\u2013even though the subject is higher education.<\/p>\n

Even more surprising (to this observer anyway) was the omission of the District of Columbia from the list of cities with school cheating scandals in Rachel Aviv\u2019s otherwise solid reporting about Atlanta. [6]<\/p>\n

This can only be the result of a smooth PR campaign. …. Michelle Rhee is smart, talented, hard-working, charismatic and ambitious, but, in the public education arena, she is a fraud.<\/em> That this truth is not widely acknowledged is a tribute to the PR skills of Anita Dunn of SKDKnickerbocker.\u00a0\u00a0 takingnote.learningmatters.tv\/?p=7080<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"obama-drone-cartoon-e1355763192121\"<\/a>Who Lost Afghanistan—Taliban Making Military Gains <\/strong>Taliban fighters are scoring early gains in several strategic areas near the capital this summer, inflicting heavy casualties and casting new doubt on the ability of Afghan forces to contain the insurgency as the United States moves to complete its withdrawal of combat troops, according to Afghan officials and local elders.<\/p>\n

The Taliban have found success beyond their traditional strongholds in the rural south and are now dominating territory near crucial highways and cities that surround Kabul, the capital, in strategic provinces like Kapisa and Nangarhar.<\/p>\n

Their advance has gone unreported because most American forces have left the field and officials in Kabul have largely refused to talk about it. The Afghan ministries have not released casualty statistics since an alarming rise in army and police deaths last year.<\/p>\n

At a time when an election crisis is threatening the stability of the government, the Taliban\u2019s increasingly aggressive campaign is threatening another crucial facet of the American withdrawal plan, full security by Afghan forces this year. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/07\/27\/world\/asia\/taliban-making-military-gains-in-afghanistan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region&region=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot&_r=2<\/p>\n

U.N. says Israel violated international law, after shells hit school (after school) in Gaza \u00a0<\/strong>United Nations officials accused Israel of violating international law after artillery shells slammed into a school overflowing with evacuees Wednesday, an attack that Palestinian and U.N. officials said killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens as they slept.<\/p>\n

It was one of the worst mass-casualty incidents of the three-week war. The building was the sixth U.N. school in the Gaza Strip to be rocked by explosions during the conflict. \u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/israel-presses-attack-16-killed-at-un-school\/2014\/07\/30\/4a643588-17a5-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html<\/p>\n

Your Tax Dollars at Work—Arming the Taliban \u00a0<\/strong>A government audit released Monday said the U.S. has done a poor job tracking small arms supplied to Afghan national security forces, resulting in \u201creal potential for these weapons to fall into the hands of insurgents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poor record keeping by the U.S. Defense Department is coupled with the Afghan government\u2019s limited ability to account for or properly dispose of the weapons, which will \u201cpose additional risks\u201d to U.S. personnel, Afghan troops and civilians, according to the audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction that concluded in June.<\/p>\n

Since 2004, the Pentagon has provided Afghan forces over 747,000 weapons and auxiliary items valued at $626 million, including 465,000 small arms such as rifles, pistols, machine guns, grenade launchers, and shotguns.<\/p>\n

The weapons are transferred to Afghan control via the NATO coalition\u2019s Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

A U.S. database tracking receipt of weapons in Afghanistan had missing or duplicated information in 43 percent of the entries, or 203,888 weapons, auditors found. \u00a0http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2014\/jul\/28\/sigar-audit-weapons-afghanistan\/<\/p>\n

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

US Feeds Zionist Tail Wagging the Faded Empire’s Dog\u00a0<\/strong>US supplies Israel with bombs amid Gaza blitz \u00a0–The United States has allowed Israel, waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, to tap a local US arms stockpile in the past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, has said.<\/p>\n

The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a programme managed by the US military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for US use that Israel can also access in emergency situations. \u00a0http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/middleeast\/2014\/07\/us-supplies-israel-with-bombs-amid-gaza-blitz-2014730233016747143.html<\/p>\n

Camp Pendleton construction chief who took bribes sentenced to prison \u00a0<\/strong>A former civilian employee of the Department of Defense was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison for accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from contractors seeking work at Camp Pendleton.<\/p>\n

Natividad Lara \u201cNate\u201d Cervantes, 64, of San Diego pleaded guilty in January to bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.<\/p>\n

Along with the prison sentence, San Diego federal Judge Anthony J. Battaglia on Friday also ordered Cervantes, who is free on bond, to self-surrender by Sept. 30 and to forfeit $106,964 in illegal profits. \u00a0http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-camp-pendleton-bribery-20140726-story.html<\/p>\n