{"id":16020,"date":"2015-03-01T00:49:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T08:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=16020"},"modified":"2015-03-01T00:49:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T08:49:41","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-let-the-present-dominate-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-let-the-present-dominate-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Let the Present Dominate the Past."},"content":{"rendered":"

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

At the Modern Transformations and the challenges of Inequality in Education Conference, New Delhi<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Vikas<\/a>above, conference co-ordinator Vikas Gupta<\/p>\n

Transcriptions of the Proceedings dl.dropboxusercontent.com\/u\/7676311\/Session%20Wise%20Report.docx<\/a><\/p>\n

Video of the proceedings www.vikasinterventions.in\/conference-proceeding-video<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Anil<\/a>Above, Anil Sandoval<\/p>\n

Below, India police beat prisoners from Demonstrations<\/p>\n

\"India<\/a>India: Thousands Protesting\u00a0 <\/strong>A protest that began last Monday with about 1,000 people has now swollen to more than 5,000.\u00a0As Scroll<\/em> reported<\/a> last week, the arrest of a primary school cook, Hadma Mutchaki of Hamirgarh village, brought 1,000 adivasis to demonstrate outside Tongal police station in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on February 16. The police had charged Mutchaki with aiding the Maoists in the murder of a police informer. But the protestors said he was innocent and had been wrongly framed. Men, women and children sat on the national highway outside the police station, blocking it for 17 hours, and bringing all road traffic between Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to a halt.<\/p>\n

The next day, activists Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia persuaded the protestors to move from the highway to a ground near the police station. But the protest itself did not dissipate. It gained strength after the police detained\u00a0three of the protestors, Hidma Kawasi, Ramji Mandavi and Podiyami Budhra. The final straw came when the three men emerged from police custody with injury marks. They alleged they had been beaten up while in custody.\u00a0As the news spread, thousands of adivasis from\u00a0villages across Darbha, Kuakonda, Chhindgarh and Sukma blocks of Bastar and Sukma districts converged on Tongpal on Thursday. scroll.in\/article\/708704\/An-adivasi-protest-in-Chhattisgarh-is-gaining-strength-%E2%80%93-but-not-getting-much-attention<\/a><\/p>\n

Congratulations on the Publication of: Capitalism and Class Consciousness, the Ideas of Georg Lukacs (full edition online at www.counterfire.org\/theory\/37-theory\/6368-capitalism-and-class-consciousness-the-ideas-of-georg-lukacs<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lukacs<\/a>Seven Things to Know about the Texas Prison Rebellion <\/strong>3) The facility is nicknamed “Tent City” or “Ritmo.” While an ICE contracted facility, the Willacy detention center was dubbed Tent City by local advocates and the media because two thirds of the facility is built out of a series of Kevlar pods. The facility was also designated Ritmo (or Raymondville’s Guantanamo) in the media because of its enormous size and appalling conditions.<\/p>\n

4) This is at least the third major uprising at CAR private prison in recent years. An uprising that led to the death of a guard and many injured immigrant prisoners at the Corrections Corporation of America CAR facility in Adams County, Mississippi in 2012 was brought about by poor conditions detailed in this report by Justice Strategies. Another uprising at the Reeves County, Texas CAR facility operated by private prison corporation GEO Group in 2008 followed the death of prisoner Jesus Manuel Galindo and was covered excellently by the Texas Observer amongst other media outlets.<\/p>\n

5) CAR facilities are horrible places, but insanely profitable for private prison corporations.\u00a0 grassrootsleadership.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/seven-things-know-about-uprising-texas-private-prison-immigrants<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

In <\/i>ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror<\/a>, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who behead Western hostages in slickly produced videos and have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS\u2019s first incarnation as \u201cal Qaeda in Iraq,\u201d Weiss and Hassan explain who the key players are\u2014from their elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the former Saddam Baathists in their ranks\u2014where they come from, how the movement has attracted both local and global support, and where their financing comes from.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The following excerpt concerns Iraq midway through the first decade of this century.<\/i><\/p>\n

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Islamic state of Iraq (ISI) weren\u2019t only using U.S.-run prisons as \u201cjihadi universities,\u201d according to Major General Doug Stone; they were actively trying to infiltrate <\/i>those prisons to cultivate new recruits.\u00a0 www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2015\/02\/23\/isis-used-a-u-s-prison-as-boot-camp.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a>Student Debt: We Won’t Pay!\u00a0 <\/strong>athan Hornes didn\u2019t think he\u2019d still be working in fast food on his 25th birthday. He had a plan: he wanted to be a pop singer-songwriter and had moved from Missouri to Los Angeles after his 2008 high school graduation in order to become a star.<\/p>\n

He never thought he would first be getting national press coverage as part of what may be the first organized student debt strike. But he and 14 other students, with the support of the Occupy Wall Street spinoff group The Debt Collective<\/a>, are taking a stand and refusing to pay back the student loans they took out to attend the for-profit Corinthian colleges.<\/p>\n

Corinthian is being dismantled and its students given debt relief on their private loans \u2013 the institution is under federal and state investigations and is the target of multiple lawsuits alleging predatory lending practices. But Hornes and the \u201cCorinthian 15\u201d are demanding relief for their federal student loans, too.<\/p>\n

When Hornes moved to LA, he worked at Smashburger and Carl\u2019s Jr to pay the bills while he pursued his dream: performing at the Staples Center, participating in a web series, even releasing two songs on iTunes. But two years in, he says, his mother began to press him to go to college.<\/p>\n

When he saw a commercial for Everest College, one of Corinthian\u2019s subsidiary schools, he was reminded that his cousin had attended an Everest school in Missouri. She\u2019d made it sound pretty good, telling him Everest had a flexible schedule that allowed her to get a degree while working, and had promised her help with finding a job after graduation.<\/p>\n

The first red flag came when he called the customer service line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called up just to get information,\u201d he says, \u201cand then the calls from them did not stop for two www.theguardian.com\/education\/2015\/feb\/23\/student-debt-for-profit-colleges?utm_content=bufferff93a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=bufferor<\/a> three weeks. They called me every single day. Sometimes, it was three or four times a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LDV<\/a>Internationalist Elementary Students Use Bodies to Promote Unity–San Diego<\/strong>Nearly 1,500 students from San Diego County and Tijuana came together on Thursday to share one message: “Unite Por El Mar,” which translates to “Unite for the Sea.” (photo is larger at link below)<\/p>\n

The children stood to form the words at Borderfield State Park and Playas de Tijuana near the U.S-Mexico border after picking up trash on the beaches.<\/p>\n

Students from seven South County elementary schools participated in the event: Emory and Howard Pence in San Diego; Parkview, Leonardo de Vinci Charter and Halecrest in Chula Vista; Bayside in Imperial Beach; and Silver Strand in Coronado.\u00a0 www.kpbs.org\/news\/2015\/feb\/26\/san-diego-tijuana-kids-send-unite-sea-message\/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=user-share&utm_content=facebook-button&utm_term=share-button<\/a><\/p>\n

Trapped by Union Contracts, Many Adjuncts Couldn’t Walk out\u00a0 <\/strong>When the idea for National Adjunct Walkout Day was first floated last fall on social media, the plan was simple: Designate a single day of action, and stage events nationwide that would call attention to adjuncts\u2019 often-low pay, lack of job security, and challenging working conditions. In contingent circles, the idea spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n

But there was an obvious challenge: Not everyone had the option of walking out. Many adjuncts on unionized campuses were prohibited from doing so by their collective bargaining agreements; other part-time professors felt that they simply couldn\u2019t afford to leave their classrooms.- See more at: chroniclevitae.com\/news\/919-walking-out-teaching-in-and-puppeteering-a-glimpse-at-national-adjunct-walkout-day#sthash.8YJo6nwa.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n

N.M. Teacher Disciplined–distributed opt out of tests <\/strong>lit –NEA Gutless Again<\/strong>\u00a0 A Farmington elementary teacher was placed on administrative leave Thursday after giving her students paperwork for opting out of state testing during class.<\/p>\n

Sharon Yocum, an Esperanza Elementary School fifth-grade teacher, was informed by a member of the Farmington Municipal School District administration Thursday morning that she would be placed on paid leave pending the outcome of an investigation for alleged unprofessional conduct.<\/p>\n

Yocum said she was trying to inform parents and students of their options regarding the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, exam which New Mexico public schools starts administering on Monday.<\/p>\n

Yocum said she has seen her students become discouraged as they take the quarterly assessments and prepare for the PARCC exam.<\/p>\n

“My kids are dreading the test, they are dreading it,” Yocum said. “I don’t think it’s fair to the kids. I’ve got smart kids, top notch kids. On their daily work they get A’s then it comes to this interim testing, they get D’s and F’s. It’s not an accurate reflection of their skills.”<\/p>\n

Yocum believes Farmington schools and other state school districts are trying to hide the choice of opting-out of the PARCC from parents and students.<\/p>\n

The National Education Association for New Mexico said in a statement that they support parent’s rights to opt-out of testing but added that a teacher should speak out about the subject as a citizen or parent, not as a school employee<\/em>.\u00a0 www.daily-times.com\/four_corners-news\/ci_27606609\/farmington-teacher-paid-leave-after-giving-state-testing<\/a><\/p>\n

\"adjunct<\/a>Santa Fe Students Walkout <\/strong> About 250 students walked out of classes Monday at Santa Fe High and Capital High schools in protest of the upcoming PARCC exams, the state\u2019s newly imposed standardized tests that will be used to assess student achievement and evaluate schools and teachers.<\/p>\n

Police were called to Capital after some students pulled down a parking lot gate with a truck, but otherwise the walkouts remained largely civil. About 30 students made their way to the Capitol building in downtown Santa Fe to make their concerns known directly to lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\n

The protests reflect the anxiety both on the parts of students and teachers over the exams \u2014 the latest evolution of high-stakes testing to hit public schools. Teachers unions and some school boards across the state have asked the New Mexico Public Education Department to delay the implementation of the exams \u2014 which test students\u2019 aptitude in reading and math using Common Core standards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The protests, which students promoted using social media, began about 10:30 a.m. About 150 students walked out at Santa Fe High and about 100 at Capital.\u00a0 www.santafenewmexican.com\/news\/local_news\/high-school-students-stage-walkout-over-testing\/article_34ecfcdf-ffc4-5faf-bc30-35df50a88b48.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Marx<\/a>Cambridge: Save Marx! (perhaps Cambridge remembers the Five?)\u00a0 <\/strong>With talk of the Philosophy department drastically cutting the teaching on Marx and other radical thinkers around political philosophy, a student-run campaign and petition has sprung up at Cambridge University in response.<\/p>\n

Arguing for the \u2018Faculty of Philosophy to keep the existing paper and lecture course on Marxism on its syllabus, against the Faculty’s decision\u00a0to reduce coverage of this and other radical philosophy papers\u2019. <\/i>Students are worried\u00a0that \u2018they will receive drastically reduced or no coverage\u2019 <\/i>on the topics or Marxism, Anarchism and on \u2018Power\u2019. <\/i>We share their concern of \u2018vastly reducing the non-liberal content of the syllabus\u2019 and defend the importance of radical ideas especially in times like these.<\/p>\n

To ignore a thinker like Marx seems absurd as his importance even from a very conservative standpoint is hard to overstate. In the area of philosophy, the basis he laid out, which was later elaborated on by others is an incredibly fruitful area of insight and deserves to be studied by not just students but by all.\u00a0 Marx\u2019s dive into Hegelian philosophy to \u2018discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell\u2019 culminated in his elaborate theoretical framework not just designed to understand but to change the world.\u00a0 marxiststudent.com\/save-marx-cambridge-university-students-fight-for-radical-ideas\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Furor Over the National Flag Genuflect <\/strong>It\u2019s a story about three top students at South Portland High School, four little words added to the daily invitation to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and a provocative Facebook post that provided an unexpected lesson in the politics of the freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Senior class president Lily SanGiovanni sparked community outrage in January when she changed the way she invited students and faculty members to recite the pledge.<\/p>\n

At this time,\u201d SanGiovanni said over the intercom, \u201cwould you please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance if you\u2019d like to<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the latest salvo in a monthslong effort by SanGiovanni and some of her friends to make it clear that reciting the pledge is optional under state and federal law, so students cannot be forced to stand and say it every morning. Although no students have filed formal complaints in recent years, SanGiovanni and her friends said they and other students have felt uncomfortable or pressured by their teachers to say it.<\/p>\n

The addition of \u201cif you\u2019d like to\u201d inflamed simmering opposition from staff members who had been wrestling with the pledge issue since June. It also triggered an emotional, anti-immigrant backlash in the community and left SanGiovanni and her friends searching for a way to carry their cause forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reference to \u2018under God\u2019 makes us uncomfortable because it\u2019s a public school,\u201d SanGiovanni said.\u00a0 www.pressherald.com\/2015\/02\/24\/freedom-of-speech-backlash-of-anger-over-four-words-at-high-school\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

\"Teach<\/a>Capital’s Wars on AP History\u00a0 <\/strong>Oklahoma is far from alone in wanting to reinvent the wheel by creating its own, allegedly more patriotic version of advanced coursework. Policymakers in Georgia<\/a>, Texas<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a>, North Carolina<\/a> and Colorado<\/a> have agitated to scrap or doctor the AP course, citing its \u201cliberal bias\u201d and supposed focus on U.S. \u201cblemishes.\u201d The Republican National Committee likewise called on Congress<\/a> last year to withhold funding from the nonprofit that developed the course, the College Board, because its AP course \u201cemphasizes negative aspects of our nation\u2019s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.\u201d In Colorado, where a local school board proposed revamping the AP curriculum to make sure it does \u201cnot encourage or condone civil disorder [or] social strife,\u201d some brave students decided to demonstrate the virtues of civil disorder and social strife by peacefully protesting.\u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/an-unflattering-history-lesson\/2015\/02\/19\/3be9cb0c-b878-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html#AP<\/p>\n

Capital’s Twin, Racism, Doing Fine in Ca Colleges and Universities <\/strong>For a decade, California State University leaders have set aside several Sundays each February to visit churches in the African American community and preach the benefits of preparing young people for college.<\/p>\n

During that time, undergraduate enrollment of African Americans at Cal State’s 23 campuses has mostly been on the decline, from 5.8% of the total student population in 2004 to 4.6% in 2013.<\/p>\n

Factors in that slide include a downturn in the size of the African American population, poor high school preparation and lingering effects of the recession that have reduced access to many public colleges while forcing more students to work full time rather than enroll in school.<\/p>\n

Cal State is not the only system with a low number of black students. The University of California and the state’s community colleges have seen flat or decreasing African American enrollment. Concerns about equal access to higher education for African Americans nationally spurred a White House initiative, which last year awarded more than $28 million in grants to boost college and career readiness.<\/p>\n

The downward trend is particularly vexing for Cal State, the nation’s largest university system, which launched the first-of-its-kind Super Sunday initiative 10 years ago specifically to reach young students and their families through one of the community’s most important institutions: the church.<\/p>\n

Cal State estimates that more than 600,000 churchgoers throughout the state have received information about eligibility, financial aid and the application process. Last Sunday, hundreds of people at South Los Angeles’ Crenshaw Christian Center heard Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White speak before services.\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/education\/la-me-calstate-sunday-20150218-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Capitalist<\/a>An advisory panel of the University of North Carolina\u2019s Board of Governors has recommended closing three academic centers, including a poverty center and one dedicated to social change, inciting outrage among liberals who believe that conservatives in control of state government are targeting ideological opponents in academia.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Conservatives are cheering the move, seeing it as a corrective to a higher education system they believe has lent its imprimatur to groups that engage in partisan activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re moving in the right direction, though I don\u2019t think they went far enough,\u201d said Francis X. De Luca, president of the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank based in Raleigh. \u201cA lot of these centers were started up with a specific advocacy role in mind, as opposed to an educational role.\u201d<\/p>\n

But critics say the moves by a panel whose members were appointed by a Republican-dominated Legislature reflect the rightward tilt of state government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clearly not about cost-saving; it\u2019s about political philosophy and the right-wing takeover of North Carolina state government,\u201d said Chris Fitzsimon, director of NC Policy Watch, a liberal group. \u201cAnd this is one of the biggest remaining pieces that they\u2019re trying to exert their control over.\u201d www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/20\/us\/ideology-seen-as-factor-in-closings-in-university-of-north-carolina-system.html?emc=edit_th_20150220&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=37726494&_r=1<\/a><\/p>\n

San Fran School Boss Gets Nice bump in pay\u00a0 <\/strong>San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza<\/a><\/strong> will see an extra $65,000 in his annual paycheck \u2014 a 27 percent raise granted unanimously by the school board Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The bump in pay brings Carranza, in his third year as superintendent, to $310,000, starting July 1.<\/p>\n

Carranza\u2019s new salary is competitive with other urban and suburban superintendents across the state, yet the increase alone is about the same as the average salary of a teacher in the district and more than double the 12 percent raise that will be given to teachers over the next three years.\u00a0 m.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/Schools-chief-gets-65k-pay-raise-new-6075755.php<\/a><\/p>\n

Sub Shortage <\/strong>School districts across the country have struggled with a severe substitute shortage for the last few years as an economic rebound has created better job options. The shortage has grown more severe as California school districts remove teachers from classrooms to receive training in Common Core State Standards.<\/p>\n

The result: More administrators are substituting in elementary schools, students get crammed into other classrooms for the day, and high school and middle school teachers forgo their preparation periods to fill in for colleagues. Read more here: www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/education\/article10966721.html#storylink=cpy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Human<\/a>Reactionary Jindall Easily Sign’s on to the Bourgeoisie Anti-Common Core <\/strong>After railing against the Common Core academic standards in speeches and on television talk shows, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is now trying another tactic to rally people to the cause: an online petition.<\/p>\n

Jindal, who was a staunch supporter of the Common Core until he changed course in 2014, urged his 174,000 Twitter followers to sign the petition this week.\u00a0 Sign our petition to stop Common Core if you think a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to education is wrong: americanext.org\/common-core\/<\/a>
\n1:00 PM – 18 Feb 2015<\/p>\n

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

\"Military<\/a>Obamagouge’s Legacy: Permanent war and Liberal\/Radical Acquiescence <\/strong>The announcement by the Obama administration that it will seek congressional authorization to expand the war on ISIS in Syria and possibly send more heavy weapons to its client government in Ukraine did not generate the kind of muscular opposition and sense of urgency that one would expect from the anti-interventionist liberals and significant sectors of what use to be the anti-imperialist and anti-war left.
\nOutside of a few articles written by some of us confined to the marginalized and shrinking left, the reports that the administration was considering both of these courses of action were met with passing indifference. It is as if the capitalist oligarchy\u2019s strategy of permanent war has been accepted as a fait-accompi by the general public and even significant numbers of the left.
\nThe fact that the U.S. President could launch military attacks in Syria, supposedly a sovereign state and member of the United Nations, for six months without any legal justification and not face fierce criticism in the U.S. and internationally demonstrates the embrace of lawlessness that characterizes the current epoch of Western imperialist domination.
\nAnd the acquiescence of much of the left in the U.S. and Europe on the issue of Syria and the U.S.-supported coup in Ukraine reveals the moderating and accommodating forces within the faux left that attempts to bully and intimidate anti-imperialist critics.
\nTo oppose the dismemberment of Syria or criticize the dangerous collaboration between the U.S. and racist neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine was reduced to the silly and intellectually lazy arguments that one was \u201cpro-Assad\u201d or a dupe for Putin!\u00a0 blackagendareport.com\/node\/14677<\/a><\/p>\n

Psyche! Staying in Afghanistan After all\u00a0 <\/strong>Washington is considering shifting the deadline for troop its withdrawal from Afghanistan to make sure the \u201cprogress\u201d from over 13 years of US operations in the country \u201csticks,\u201d the new US Defense Secretary said during a surprise visit to Kabul.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority now is to make sure this progress sticks,\u201d Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a news conference in Kabul with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. \u201cThat is why President Obama is considering a number of options to reinforce our support for President Ghani\u2019s security strategy, including possible changes to the timeline for our drawdown of US troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the current arrangement, the 11,000-strong US force should be cut to roughly 5,000 by the end of 2015, before pulling out altogether the following year, when Obama will leave office. By the end of 2016 the US military presence is expected to shrink to a \u201cnormal\u201d embassy security contingent.<\/p>\n

Obama is scheduled to visit Kabul next month, where Ghani will likely discuss US troop numbers with the American leader \u201cin the context of the larger partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US commander on the ground, General John Campbell, has previously suggested slowing the drawdown further. But while traveling with Carter on Saturday, Campbell said that his focus for now was sustaining enough US trainers, advisors and counter-terrorism forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I think we\u2019re comfortable looking at ’15 and ’16,\u201d Campbell told reporters.<\/p>\n

Ghani, however, told CBS’ 60 Minutes last month that Obama should reconsider the 2016 withdrawal deadline, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas,\u201d Ghani said. \u201cIf both parties or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to re-examine a deadline.\u201dhttp:\/\/rt.com\/usa\/234467-troops-withdrawal-timeline-afghanistan\/<\/p>\n

\"roadwarrior-444\"<\/a>Alfred McCoy: US Road Warriors <\/strong>My drone is yours, compadre<\/em>! Or so Washington has now decided. The latest promise of good times in the arms trade comes from an administration that has pioneered a robotic assassination regime organized<\/a> out of the White House (though credit for groundbreaking drone assassination work should go to Israel as well). Run largely by the CIA, the U.S. drone campaigns across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa have weekly taken out suspected enemies or even \u201ctargets\u201d that exhibit (in the judgment of people thousands of miles away and from another culture) enemy-like behavior<\/a>. In the process, the Bush and Obama administrations also pioneered the crossing of sovereign borders<\/a> without permission for an ongoing killing process not defined as war and which, despite much bragging about \u201cprecision,\u201d has regularly taken out<\/a> ordinary civilians, including significant numbers of children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the process, it has brought a sense of daily terror<\/a> to peasant populations in the backlands of the planet.\u00a0 Now, Washington is ready to spread the wealth.\u00a0 The State Department has just announced that armed Predator and Reaper drones will be available for sale to carefully vetted and selected allies around the world.\u00a0 This is, of course, splendid news for U.S. arms makers in a market that, over the next decade, is expected to more than double in size<\/a> from $5.2 billion to $11.6 billion.\u00a0 However, as the Washington Post<\/em> reports<\/a>, this new program will build \u201con the Obama administration\u2019s update last year to rules on conventional weapons transfers, which emphasize human rights protections in decisions about arms sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

For such sales, Washington, as the planetary \u201chuman rights\u201d leader, is planning to set up \u201cproper use<\/a>\u201d or \u201cend use\u201d rules when it comes to assassination by drone. Here\u2019s a typical Washington rule of the road: if you buy an armed drone from the U.S., you must agree<\/a> not to use \u201cunlawful force against… domestic populations\u201d — that is, you must not kill your own citizens in your own country. (Translation: Turkey could theoretically not use such drones against its Kurdish population.) Implied exception: You can target and assassinate your own citizens by drone as long as they are not within your own boundaries. This is a rule of the road that Washington has already definitively pioneered, so far killing four<\/a> of its own citizens by drone in Yemen and Pakistan, which means assumedly that Turkey could indeed kill a Turkish Kurd as soon as he or she stepped across any border.\u00a0 www.tomdispatch.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"afghanistan_pipeline_map\"<\/a>Rashid–That Pakistan Labyrinth <\/strong>There is a bit of a hermetic feel to Pakistan these days, as if the country that lies on the ancient road from the West to Asia, a natural bridge, had somehow contorted itself into a self-imposed isolation. The border with India, dividing the Punjab, lies not far from this great city. It is a barrier rather than a gateway. The border with Afghanistan is problematic in its nonexistence. The beast nurtured in the name of Islamabad\u2019s policy of \u201cstrategic depth\u201d (whatever that may be), the Taliban in its Pakistani iteration, massacred 134 children at Peshawar\u2019s Army Public School late last year. Not surprising then that tourism is down to a trickle. I made my way to the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort \u2014 high-walled, dusky-red, magnificent in extent. There was not a foreigner in sight, not a camera clicking.<\/p>\n

President Obama goes to India and Pakistan is way down on his agenda \u2014 if it is there at all. Nobody in Washington frets any longer about balancing visits to New Delhi and Islamabad. Oh, yes, Afghanistan, American treasure and Pakistan\u2019s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), or top spy agency: Well, the less said about that, the better.racy and a great power rising. Pakistan is a Muslim homeland that lost half its territory in 1971, bounced back and forth between military and nominally democratic rule, never quite clear of annihilation angst despite its nuclear weapons, its prime ministers as susceptible to a violent end as Henry VIII\u2019s wives, struggling to define its identity almost 68 years after it came into being.\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/24\/opinion\/roger-cohen-pakistan-in-its-labyrinth.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

Stratfor: So Long Russia\u00a0 <\/strong>American think-tank Stratfor has issued a new ‘Decade Forecast,’ which says the EU will decay, China will end up in “a communist dictatorship,” and Russia will disintegrate…though it hasn’t done so yet, despite such predictions taking place in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unlikely that the Russian Federation will survive in its current form,\u201d<\/em> the forecast\u2019s chapter dedicated to Russia<\/a> begins. The research maintains that Moscow\u2019s \u201cfailure to transform energy revenues into self-sustaining economy\u201d<\/em> will eventually lead to a \u201crepeat of the Soviet Union’s experience in the 1980s and Russia’s in the 1990s,\u201d<\/em> with the process accompanied by a demographic decline that is set to \u201creally hit\u201d<\/em> Russia.<\/p>\n

However, the forecaster’s founder and CEO, George Friedman, recently said that Russia has the ability to emerge from US-led sanctions and the recent drop in the ruble due to falling oil prices. “Russians’ strength is that they can endure things that would break other nations,”<\/em> Friedman said, suggesting that the country “has military and political power that could begin to impinge on Europe.”\u00a0 According to the forecast, Russia\u2019s territorial losses will not be limited to the European part of the country. Its control over the North Caucasus is also predicted to <\/em>\u201cevaporate,\u201d<\/em> while maritime regions in Russia\u2019s Far East will \u201cmove independently\u201d<\/em> to the countries they are \u201cclosely linked to\u201d<\/em> \u2013 namely China, Japan, and the US. Additionally, Karelia will \u201cseek to rejoin\u201d<\/em> Finland. The US think-tank, sometimes referred to as a \u201cshadow CIA\u201d<\/em> due to its employment of former CIA analysts, also warns that this time Russia’s alleged tendency of solving problems with “secret police”<\/em> won’t work, and the Federal Security Service will be unable to rescue the country\u00a0 rt.com\/usa\/234983-stratfor-decade-forecast-russia\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ukraine\"<\/a>Embedded Stratfor Video on Importance of Ukraine\u00a0 <\/strong>Ukraine is the quintessential borderland state. The country borders three former Soviet states (Russia, Belarus and Moldova) and four countries in the European Union (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania). Ukraine also has a coastline along the Black Sea to the south.<\/p>\n

Ukraine sits on the Northern European Plain, the area that has historically served as an invasion superhighway going east and west.<\/p>\n

Beyond its strategic location, Ukraine’s geography has only facilitated such invasions. The country consists of flat and fertile plains, with the exception of the Carpathian Mountain range that arches into the far west of the country. But even these mountains can be penetrated and have not posed a significant barrier to invasion.<\/p>\n

Given such lack of barriers, Ukraine’s wide-open geography is inextricably linked to that of Russia. Ukraine’s agricultural and industrial belts have traditionally been integrated with Russia’s, and Ukraine serves as the primary transit state for Russian energy exports to Europe.<\/p>\n

Due to its location and abundance of agricultural and mineral resources, Ukraine has been contested between regional powers for centuries. This competition is currently playing out in an extreme form today, with a Western-backed government confronting a Russian-backed uprising in eastern Ukraine.\u00a0 www.stratfor.com\/video\/ukraines-geographic-challenge<\/a><\/p>\n

Brian Williams, again <\/strong>For a journalist there might actually be something as bad as not knowing what\u2019s going on in his area of news coverage, even on his own station. After Brian Williams\u2019 fall from grace, his former boss at NBC, Bob Wright, defended Williams by pointing to his favorable coverage of the military, saying: \u201cHe has been the strongest supporter of the military of any of the news players. He never comes back with negative stories, he wouldn\u2019t question if we\u2019re spending too much.\u201d\u00a0 williamblum.org\/aer\/read\/137<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"Eat<\/a>Capitalist “Democracy”-2014 Midterm Election was Most Expensive, with Fewer Donors\u00a0 <\/strong>The 2014 election was the most expensive midterm election in history, costing a grand total of $3.77 billion<\/a>. But for the first time since 1990, fewer Americans donated money in this midterm election than the one before. Simply put, more money went into the system, but fewer people provided it.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 5, the Center for Responsive Politics projected<\/a> the 2014 election would be the most expensive midterm ever based on how much was spent through early October. A new analysis taking into account year-end filings confirms that projection \u2014 and finds our estimate was low by\u00a0roughly $104 million.<\/p>\n

Among the most significant findings that can now be confirmed is that there were far fewer identifiable donors in the 2014 election than in the 2010 cycle. Then, CRP counted\u00a0869,602\u00a0donors; in 2014, we have been able to identify just 773,582 \u2014 a decline of more than 96,000, or about 11\u00a0percent. (A caveat: Our figure accounts only for those who gave more than $200, since the FEC does not require donors of less than that to be itemized on campaign finance reports.)<\/p>\n

Detroit’s Tax Foreclosures <\/strong>The Burkes are just one year ahead of a massive tidal wave of tax foreclosures building in Detroit. In 2015, nearly 100,000 Detroiters \u2013 more than one-seventh of the city\u2019s population \u2013 are facing foreclosure and the resale of their homes.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/a>The tax foreclosure crisis in Detroit is so dire that local activists compare it to Hurricane Katrina, calling it a \u201churricane without water.\u201d Most disturbing about the Burkes’ situation, but something all too common in Detroit\u2019s foreclosure crisis, is the fact that their home was resold at auction for a fraction of their debt, something they could have afforded themselves.- See more at: www.occupy.com\/article\/detroit-tax-foreclosure-crushing-families-and-robbing-county-funds#sthash.Gatyeo1f.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n

Slavery Continues in Monarcho Fascist Qatar (BBC Video) www.bbc.com\/sport\/0\/football\/31595500<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"India,<\/a>India: Killer Air\u00a0 <\/strong>a few days before U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in India in January this year, the U.S. embassy in New Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index reading of 222, a level that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes as \u201cvery unhealthy,\u201d nearly \u201chazardous.\u201d In fact, the pollution level was so bad that the embassy purchased 1,800 Swedish air purifiers ahead of the president\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

A year before Obama\u2019s visit, New Delhi surpassed Beijing as the most polluted city in the world. As a whole, India\u2019s air quality lags far behind that of the other BRIC countries. The country has 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world and, along with China, the highest average exposure to cancerous fine particles, which, because of their small size, can lodge deeply into human lungs. In 2010, India\u2019s Central Pollution Control Board found that the particulate matter in 180 Indian cities was six times higher than World Health Organization standards.<\/p>\n

Air pollution is an urgent public health crisis. More people in India die of chronic respiratory diseases and asthma than in any other nation in the world. According to a 2013 study conducted by Michael Greenstone, an economist at the University of Chicago, the 200 million people who live in India\u2019s most polluted cities will lose an average of 3.3 years of life because of toxic air; all together, that is 650 million lost years. According to India\u2019s Environmental Pollution Control Authority, air pollution in Delhi alone is responsible for the deaths of 3,000 children every year.\u00a0 …\u00a0 dirty air is just one of India\u2019s many environmental problems. In addition to poor air quality, groundwater pollution, river contamination, indiscriminate mining, and the destruction of forests have severely comprised the health of the <\/a> and its citizens. If India does not change course\u2014and soon\u2014the country will be facing disaster.<\/p>\n

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

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3LmkRyyz4Cc<\/a><\/p>\n

Coppers Murder, attack, Protesting Teachers in Mexico <\/strong>teachers in Acapulco, Mexico<\/a>, ran into a determined police line as they cut the main road to the city\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n

They were demanding better working conditions and justice for disappeared students and teachers, but when a bus was driven into the police line the security forces charged with their batons, killing one protester and injuring dozens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u00a0was\u00a0a\u00a0legitimate\u00a0response\u00a0to\u00a0protect\u00a0those\u00a0taking\u00a0part\u00a0in\u00a0the
\nprotest.\u00a0If\u00a0that\u00a0bus\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0been controlled, there would have\u00a0been
\nmore\u00a0injuries\u00a0both\u00a0to\u00a0policemen and even teachers,\u201d said Interior Ministry Commissioner Cabrera Castro.<\/p>\n

Over 100 demonstrators were detained.<\/p>\n

The teachers and many in Mexico blame local police forces in Guerrero province for colluding with drugs gangs in the disappearance and probable murder of the students and teachers who had been campaigning against corruption before they were kidnapped.<\/p>\n

Education Workers Union CETEG<\/span> has condemned the Acapulco police\u2019s handling of the situation. www.euronews.com\/2015\/02\/25\/mexican-police-kill-one-injure-dozens-at-teachers-protest\/<\/a><\/p>\n