{"id":16560,"date":"2015-04-18T22:44:02","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T06:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=16560"},"modified":"2015-04-19T00:00:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T08:00:23","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-opt-out-of-their-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-opt-out-of-their-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Opt Out of Their Wars…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where the attached “merit pay,” is death. <\/em><\/p>\n

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

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

US Pilots Fight against Drones\u00a0 <\/strong>A group of military veterans is taking aim at U.S. drone strikes overseas with graphic TV ads directly asking Air Force pilots to stop flying the unmanned aircraft, calling the operations immoral and illegal.
\nThe ads are the first commercials opposing U.S. drone operations ever shown on American TV, according to sponsors, which include the Veterans Democratic Club of Sacramento County and the Sacramento chapter of Veterans for Peace. The campaign is spearheaded by an activist website, KnowDrones.com<\/a>.
\nThe commercials are airing this month on Comcast in Northern California communities near Beale Air Force Base, which is home to Golden Hawk reconnaissance drones. Pilots at Beale remotely fly the spy drones over areas believed to be controlled by terrorists in foreign countries and pinpoint human targets for attack by armed Predator and Reaper drones.\u00a0 The two 15-second spots show images from a drone operations video screen, an explosion and civilians searching through rubble after a drone attack. On-screen messages read “Drone killings violate law and morality” and “Drone pilots. Please refuse to fly. No one has to obey an immoral law.”
\nOne of the ads, which includes images of dead and mutilated children, is being run only after 10 p.m., while the other spot airs from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Both are posted on YouTube.\u00a0 www.military.com\/daily-news\/2015\/04\/09\/military-veterans-target-us-drone-strikes-in-tv-ads.html<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6tjMNM6xmmY<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrested U. Delhi Prof Goes on Hunger Strike <\/strong>Eleven months after he was arrested<\/a> for suspected links with Maoists, Delhi University professor GN Saibaba has gone on an indefinite hunger strike at the Nagpur Central Jail to protest mistreatment.<\/p>\n

Saibaba, a wheelchair-bound polio patient, stopped eating on April 11 because he is allegedly being deprived of his prescribed medicines and proper food. He completed five days of fasting on Wednesday, with his lawyers and family claiming that his health is rapidly declining.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaibaba\u2019s condition has worsened and he desperately needs proper medical attention, but the jail authorities are refusing to shift him to a hospital,\u201d said Surender Gadling, one of the advocates fighting the professor\u2019s case. \u201cThe medicines being given by the jail doctor are not appropriate for him.\u201d Saibaba\u2019s arrest last year sparked a controversy because of the manner in which the Maharashtra police captured him. An English professor at Delhi\u2019s Ram Lal Anand College and the deputy secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, Saibaba had been questioned at his home the previous year for suspected links with Maoists.<\/p>\n

\"Delhi<\/a>
\nOn May 9, 2014, when he was on his way back home, Saibaba\u2019s car was forcefully stopped by men in plain clothes. While they blindfolded his driver, Saibaba was taken away and his wife later got a call from the police in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, informing her of the arrest.<\/p>\n

He was accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy with two Naxalite commanders in the forests of Gadchiroli, a charge that many of his supporters find implausible<\/a>, given that Saibaba is wheelchair-bound. In February, nine months after his arrest, the Gadchiroli sessions court finally framed charges against Saibaba under the controversial Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.<\/p>\n

Since then, his applications for bail on medical grounds have been denied thrice\u00a0 scroll.in\/article\/720821\/Arrested-Delhi-University-professor-goes-on-hunger-strike-in-Nagpur-jail-against-medical-neglect<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ai23ElDTwiw<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifty thousand Mexican farmworkers have gone on strike in Baja California, and they’re aggressively protesting low wages, poor working conditions and rights abuses.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Protest leaders are set to meet with growers; meanwhile, millions in crops have rotted as the two groups fight to find middle ground.<\/p>\n

According to reports, workers have been throwing rocks and burning tires to raise attention to the apparent mistreatment of the employees who farm millions of dollars in strawberries, tomatoes and other produce in the agricultural sovereign state of Baja.<\/p>\n

During the height of disputes, protesters blocked the main north-south highway and Transpeninsular Highway, and partner strikes have sprouted across the state. The workers have demanded overtime pay, breaks, healthcare, water and time off. Also, the demonstrators requested field bosses end arbitrary firings, sexual abuse and other abuses.<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press, farmworkers make as little as $8 to $10 for a full 10-hour day of labor, and they are asking to be paid $20 a day for long days in hot-houses and in the sun. According to workers who spoke with AP, workers must use their small wages to support themselves and their families, which is difficult.<\/p>\n

Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega released a public statement that urged the farmers to return to work because the crop loss will lead to the destruction of jobs, and it will likely “affect everyone who depends on this part of the economy.”<\/p>\n

Since the protests began, more than 200 demonstrators have been arrested for vandalism, riots and rock-throwing. Businesses have boarded up their windows, and more than 1,000 police officers have been piped throughout the state to promote control. Just one month ago, Mexico’s agricultural sector created an alliance of industry trade groups that was meant to improve work conditions for farmworkers, but the group has yet to respond to the turmoil.\u00a0 www.latinpost.com\/articles\/45297\/20150401\/50-000-mexican-farmworkers-have-gone-on-strike-in-baja-california-demanding-overtime-pay-breaks-healthcare-and-water.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Veterans For Peace 30th Annual Convention<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
VFP 2015 Annual Convention <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
August 5-9, 2015 San Diego www.vfpnationalconvention.org\/<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\"GI<\/a>IVAW NATIONAL CONVENTION\u00a0 www.ivaw.org\/<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"London<\/a>London Rougers and friends picket Dictator Mugabe<\/p>\n

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

\"School<\/a>In Capital’s schools on test days, all the words are covered. Words. All of them. Photo Tom H.<\/p>\n

As Opportunist as the Fake “Test Resistance,” Talk Opt out, but opt in <\/strong>This past winter, Nicholas Gottlieb, the father of a third grader and a sixth grader in Manhattan, helped organize a citywide forum against standardized testing during which more than 200 parents and teachers talked about ways to \u201cattack the issue from different angles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just last month, he led chants at a rally to protest Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo\u2019s education platform, including a plan to make teacher evaluations more dependent on test scores.<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, when more than a million third through eighth graders in New York State sit for the first of six English and math testing sessions, Mr. Gottlieb\u2019s two daughters, who attend Public School 3 in the West Village and the Clinton School for Writers and Artists<\/a> in Chelsea, will be opting in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to think that I would have the courage of my convictions,\u201d he said. \u201cBut can I really do that when it means I\u2019m gambling with my kids\u2019 futures?\u201d<\/p>\n

New York has become a center of the nationwide anti-testing movement, and this could be a crucial year in determining whether it breaks out of the realm of rallies and Facebook pages to become a significant educational force. But for various reasons, even parents who are uncomfortable with the exams are discovering it is hard to push the button on the nuclear option \u2014 refusing to have their own children take them.<\/p>\n

David Michaelson, a biologist, and Joy Romanski, a climate scientist, recently attended a school rally with their son Jacob, a fifth grader at Public School 321<\/a> in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to protest the proposal of Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, to make student test scores count for 50 percent of teacher ratings. (The bill that eventually passed allows the state\u2019s Education Department to decide.)<\/p>\n

But when it came time to decide whether Jacob would take the tests, Dr. Romanski said, \u201cboth of us knew that, no, we could not refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her husband want Jacob to take the test for Hunter College High School<\/a>, a school for the gifted on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which is offered to students who reach a high benchmark on the state tests.\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2015\/04\/14\/nyregion\/despite-opposing-standardized-testing-many-new-york-parents-and-students-opt-in.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news<\/a><\/p>\n

\"atlanta-teachers-20150407-001\"<\/a>With Rico Overcharge, Opportunist and Cowardly Gatekeepers turn to mystics <\/strong>Bowing their heads in prayer, a congregation of teachers, pastors and civil rights activists pleaded for mercy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers were crucified the other day,\u201d the Rev. Anthony Motley, pastor of Lindsay Street Baptist Church, cried from the pulpit as the crowd linked arms and swayed to the sound of an electric organ. \u201cOne of these days, one of these days, one of these days our teachers are going to rise up from this unjust grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several hundred people had gathered at the First Iconium Baptist Church in East Atlanta for a prayer vigil to support a notorious group \u2014 11 former Atlanta educators convicted of cheating to inflate student test scores.<\/p>\n

While many civic leaders, including Mayor Kasem Reed, welcomed the guilty verdicts earlier this month as the final resolution of a scandal that roiled the city for nearly six years, some are uneasy about the prospect of teachers serving up to 35 years in jail.<\/p>\n

Jurors in the Atlanta case \u2014 one of the largest academic misconduct trials in U.S. history \u2014 found 11 of 12 defendants guilty April 1 of violating Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.<\/p>\n

Some were also found guilty of additional felonies, such as influencing a witness, theft by taking, false swearing or making a false statement or writing.<\/p>\n

Their supporters complain that the teachers and administrators \u2014 all African Americans who worked in low-income neighborhoods \u2014 were unfairly targeted with a racketeering statute popularly associated with mobsters and gangsters.\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/nation\/nationnow\/la-na-atlanta-teachers-20150407-story.html?fb_action_ids=10153264425609650&fb_action_types=og.shares#page=1<\/a><\/p>\n

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

In LA, Deasy’s Corrupt IPad Deal now investigated by FBI and SEC <\/strong>The federal Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an informal inquiry into whether Los Angeles school officials\u00a0complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the now-abandoned $1.3-billion iPads-for-all project.<\/p>\n

In particular, the agency was concerned with whether the L.A. Unified School District\u00a0 properly disclosed to investors and others how the bonds would be used, according to documents provided to The Times.<\/p>\n

District officials said they were optimistic that they had addressed the SEC concerns.<\/p>\n

The news of the SEC inquiry came the same week that L.A. Unified officials demanded a refund from computer giant Apple over curriculum supplied on the devices by Pearson, which sells education services and materials worldwide.<\/p>\n

Problems plagued the fall 2013 rollout of the iPad project and questions later arose about whether Apple or Pearson had an unfair advantage in the bidding process. An ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI is looking into that matter. Current and former district officials have denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Pearson also has consistently defended its actions. Apple has not responded to requests for comment. In the iPad effort, Pearson was a subcontractor to Apple.\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-sec-ipad-inquiry-20150416-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Deasy’s Fake Degree <\/strong>Deasy claims to have earned his PhD at the University of Louisville (UL) in the College of Education. The Dean of the College at the time was one Robert Felner, now serving a jail term of 63 months for a variety of frauds committed against UL — and other universities.<\/p>\n

The controversial history of John Deasy (and the fact that his quickie “PhD” was awarded by a University of Louisville dean who later went to prison for fraud) seems to be no barrier to the top job in Los Angeles. Deasy has the support of both the Gates and Broad foundations, and that’s enough for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa. One charge against Feiner was the misappropriation of a $649,000 federal grant. In total, Felner was convicted of stealing $2.3 million in research grants. He was ordered to pay UL $51,000 and the University of Rhode Island $1.3 million. Felner resigned from UL in 2008. He was sentenced on May 17, 2010.<\/p>\n

John Deasy earned his PhD directly under Felner, in a period of four months, earning nine UL credit hours.<\/p>\n

Prior to coming to UL, Deasy had awarded Felner’s research company, the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy, a $375,000 grant from the Santa Monica district where Deasy was head.<\/p>\n

Before he came to UL, Felner had been dean at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Education from 1996-2003. Deasy studied there in the same period, while Deasy was also a Rhode Island school superintendent.\u00a0\u00a0 www.susanohanian.org\/show_atrocities.php?id=9593<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sexism\"<\/a>LA’s Sexist System approves All Girl STEM school <\/strong>The nation’s second-largest school district on Tuesday approved the creation of an all-girls school focused on science, technology, engineering and math in an attempt to narrow the gap between boys and girls in those subjects.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted unanimously to start the Girls Academic Leadership Academy on the condition the district receives a waiver from the state Board of Education to operate a single-gender school.<\/p>\n

District officials said the school is modeled after the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem and joins a handful of other single-gender public schools nationwide focused on what are known as STEM courses.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Unified data shows girls perform as well or better in math and science in elementary schools but their scores decline as they continue through middle and high school.<\/p>\n

Fewer female students also take Advanced Placement courses in math and science.<\/p>\n

A recent study of federal data found that fewer high school girls than boys reported liking science and math. Among 2009 high school graduates, male students had higher average math and science scores then female students who took specific math and science classes.<\/p>\n

The school was the idea of a Los Angeles district counseling coordinator whose own daughters had attended private, all-girls schools.\u00a0 www.chron.com\/news\/education\/article\/LA-Unified-considers-starting-all-girls-science-6198764.php<\/a><\/p>\n

\"student-loan-sharks-approach-a-scared-young-man-one-b-new-yorker-cartoon\"<\/a>Video Embedded: Racist Bullying at Rich, Segregated West Bloomfied MI Middle School <\/strong>www.clickondetroit.com\/news\/threats-bullying-on-school-bus-caught-on-video\/32333954<\/a><\/p>\n

So Long UW Madison? <\/strong>The University of Wisconsin-Madison<\/a> will eliminate about 400 positions, most of them vacant, and will close or restructure several academic programs across campus over the next two years in response to anticipated state budget cuts, Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced on her blog Friday.<\/p>\n

The College of Letters and Science \u2014 which teaches more than 80% of all freshman and sophomore credit hours, and nearly 60% of the overall credit hours at UW-Madison \u2014 will drop roughly 320 courses across departments by the end of fiscal 2017. Fewer courses and class sections will reduce the total number of class seats by nearly 9,000, according to the college’s dean, Karl Scholz.<\/p>\n

The course cuts go hand in hand with the elimination of 92 positions in Letters and Science: 48 faculty and 44 academic staff, including instructional staff, Scholz said. Graduate students who teach labs and introductory courses also would be affected as UW-Madison’s largest college cuts $7.4 million, or 5%, of its $145 million base budget.<\/p>\n

“The strategy is to not replace existing vacancies,” Scholz said. “I’m trying to do everything I can to mitigate and ideally avoid layoffs.”<\/p>\n

Blank said information technology, agriculture and the arts would be among the academic areas facing closures and mergers. But she said all parts of campus will feel the effects of staff reductions and budget cuts.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Blank said, cuts will likely lead to larger class sizes, reduced course options and fewer undergraduate advisers. Retention rates and time to degree also could be affected because this is just the beginning of cost-cutting measures, she said.<\/p>\n

“I want to emphasize that these changes, as difficult as they are, cannot and will not stop with this year’s budget,” Blank said\u00a0 www.jsonline.com\/news\/education\/uw-madison-to-cut-400-jobs-close-and-merge-programs-b99483267z1-300310501.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The Future of US Schooling unless a class conscious movement overcomes the empire<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Southwestern<\/a>\"Southwestern<\/a>Southwestern High, Detroit—scrapped detroit.curbed.com\/archives\/2015\/04\/detroit-wants-to-demolish-whats-left-of-historic-southwestern-high-school.php<\/a><\/p>\n

Bertell Ollman Writing More than a Decade Ago on “Why So Many Exams?” <\/strong>The psychologist, Bill Livant, has remarked, “When a liberal sees a beggar, he says the system isn’t working. When a Marxist does, he says it is”. The same insight could be applied today to the entire area of education. The learned journals as well as the popular media are full of studies documenting how little most students know and how fragile are their basic skills. The cry heard almost everywhere is “The system isn’t working”. Responding to this common complaint, conservatives – starting (but not ending) with the Bush Adminstration – have offered a package of reforms in which increased testing occupies the central place. The typical liberal and even radical response to this has been to demonstrate that such measures are not likely to have the\u00a0 “desired” effect.\u00a0 The assumption, of course, is that we all want more or less the same thing from a system of education, and that conservatives have simply made an error in the means they have chosen to attain our common end. But what if students are already receiving – more or less – the kind of education that conservatives favor? This would cast their proposals for “reform” in another light. What if, as Livant points out in the case of beggars, the system is working?\u00a0\u00a0 richgibson.com\/whyexams.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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

a reminder while the Iraqi bosses are in the USA demanding more $ and weapons for their “military”<\/em><\/p>\n