{"id":19167,"date":"2016-03-06T00:44:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T08:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=19167"},"modified":"2016-03-06T00:56:42","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T08:56:42","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-capitalist-democracy-consolidates-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-capitalist-democracy-consolidates-fascism\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Capitalist Democracy Consolidates Fascism."},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rouge Forum Conference<\/strong>
\nCall for Proposals<\/strong>
\nMay 27 & 28, 2016<\/strong>
\nHosted by<\/strong>
\nSt. Mary\u2019s University<\/strong>
\nCalgary, Canada<\/strong>
\nProposal Deadline: Monday April 4th , 2016<\/strong>
\nConference Theme: Teaching for Democracy and Justice in an Age of Inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"pen<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Rouge Forum is dedicated to the overarching question of how we engage our students or communities in important issues and work necessary to foster a more
\njust and democratic world. We look to bring scholars, teachers, and community members with varied experiences, perspectives, and approaches in order to contribute to the larger conversation with the conference attendees.<\/p>\n

Here, we are intent on providing a more fulsome conference experience, where attendance means more than simply presenting and listening.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s Rouge Forum we are developing new formats to better enable meaningful conversations between attendees and presenters; one\u2019s that lead to the sharing of ideas and experiences, while forging new relationships within and across disciplines for a common purpose: the pursuit of a more just and democratic world. We encourage speakers and participants from any discipline whose work intersects with the broad theme of the conference to attend this year\u2019s Rouge Forum.<\/p>\n

We are particularly interested in having discussions around pressing issues of current significance in our communities and across the world. Discussions are encouraged to address at least one of the following themes, broadly construed: rougeforum.org\/Proposals2016.pdf\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago Teachers Union to strike April 1 if Claypool’s promise to cut the pension pickup is kept… ‘Unfair Labor Practice strike’ legal under labor law, says union attorney…<\/h2>\n

The Chicago Teachers Union will strike on April 1, 2016, if the Chicago Board of Education goes through with the promise, made by its latest “Chief Executive Officer” Forrest Claypool, to take away the pension pickup from union members at the end of March 2016. The pension pickup, which is seven percent of pay, has been part of the CTU compensation package since 1981 and is included in the union’s contracts since. www.substancenews.net\/articles.php?page=6162&section=Article<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reviewed here\u00a0\u00a0 www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2016\/03\/10\/evicted-kicked-out-in-america\/<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Eviction Nation <\/strong>Three-quarters of families who qualify for housing assistance don\u2019t get it because there simply isn\u2019t enough to go around. This arrangement would be unthinkable with other social services that cover basic needs. What if food stamps only covered one in four families?<\/p>\n

America stands alone among wealthy democracies in the depth and expanse of its poverty. Ask most politicians what we should do about this, and they will answer by calling for more and better jobs. Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, thinks we need to do more to \u201cincentivize work.\u201d Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, thinks we should raise the minimum wage. But jobs are only part of the solution because poverty is not just a product of joblessness and low wages. It is also a product of exploitation.<\/p>\n

Throughout our history, wage gains won by workers through organized protest were quickly absorbed by rising rents. As industrial capitalists tried to put down the strikes, landlords cheered workers on. It is no different today. When incomes rise, the housing market takes its cut, which is why a two-bedroom apartment in the oil boomtown Williston, N.D., was going last year for $2,800 a month and why entire capital-rich cities like San Francisco are becoming unaffordable to the middle class. If rents rise alongside incomes, what progress is made?\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/06\/opinion\/sunday\/the-eviction-economy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-top-region&region=opinion-c-col-top-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-top-region<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"capitalist<\/a>Daniel Webster: “Education is a wise and liberal form of police by which property and life and the peace of society are secured.”\u00a0 (“<\/em>Biology as Ideology”)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corruption Endemic In Capitalist Schools\u00a0 <\/strong>A veteran former compliance officer at the\u00a0University of Louisville says in a lawsuit that President James Ramsey<\/a> and his lieutenants\u00a0tried to squelch enforcement of conflict of interest rules, including in a case involving Ramsey himself.<\/p>\n

In the suit, filed Monday in Jefferson Circuit Court, Robin Wilcox, a deputy compliance officer who worked 10 years at the university, alleges Ramsey “intentionally and knowingly” committed official misconduct, in part by\u00a0refraining “from performing his duties as prescribed” by law to benefit himself and others.<\/p>\n

The explosive 18-page whistleblower complaint\u00a0also alleges that Ramsey falsely stated\u00a0to the university community that allegations of misconduct against two vice presidents were not brought to the university’s attention until the summer of 2014, when he knew they were reported in December 2012.\u00a0 www.courier-journal.com\/story\/news\/local\/2016\/02\/29\/suit-ramsey-guilty-official-misconduct\/81125242\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"UC<\/p>\n

UC Davis chancellor received $420,000 on book publisher\u2019s board<\/h1>\n

UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B Katehi received $420,000 in compensation as a board member for John Wiley & Sons, a leading publisher of science, engineering and math textbooks for universities.<\/p>\n

Katehi served on the Wiley board from 2012 to 2014, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. She received $125,000 in pay and stock in 2012, $144,000 in 2013 and $151,000 in 2014.<\/p>\n

Under pressure, Katehi resigned this week from the board of DeVry Education Group as the for-profit company faces scrutiny from federal officials for allegedly deceiving students about job and income prospects.<\/p>\n

Katehi\u2019s decision in February to accept a paid board seat from DeVry prompted state Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, to demand information on how much she and other chancellors receive in side income at a Capitol hearing Thursday on education funding.\u00a0 Read more here: www.sacbee.com\/news\/investigations\/the-public-eye\/article63917982.html#storylink=cpy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/a>Rouger Bill Boyer in Detroit School<\/p>\n

In Recolonizing Detroit: Ruined Schools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since this city emerged from bankruptcy<\/a> at the end of 2014, it has eked out a tentative recovery, tearing down thousands of abandoned houses, restoring streetlights and luring new businesses.<\/p>\n

Today in Detroit, \u201cyou see a mayor and a Council working together to rebuild this city,\u201d a triumphant Mayor Mike Duggan said in his annual State of the City speech last week.<\/p>\n

But the public school system in Detroit is now on the verge of its own fiscal crisis. Darnell Earley, the departing state-appointed emergency manager, said the Detroit Public Schools, battered by declining enrollment and debt of $3.5 billion, could run out of money by April. Some officials in Michigan have predicted that the district is headed for bankruptcy.\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/01\/us\/as-detroit-starts-to-mend-its-schools-lurch-toward-fiscal-crisis.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

Letter to NYTIMES Re: As Detroit Starts to Mend:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Detroit is not \u201cmending.\u201d It is being re-colonized.<\/strong><\/em> About 8% if the city\u2019s nearly 140 square miles, downtown, have been taken. It\u2019s white, full of public and private police, under constant surveillance. The rest of the city is, for the most part, in ruins. Nearly 2\/3rds of the buildings are vacant. Key to any recovery: good schools which would keep young, employed, people in town. But the schools are wrecked as well. The problem is not democracy. It is racism and poverty. School reform without social and economic reform won\u2019t work. Nothing is planned to address poverty. Rather, a shell game of good\/bad schools exists. Now, the lone people who fought for better schools, rank and file educators, are on trial while the leadership of the union, which organized the decay of Detroit education, collects dues, and stands aside. Colonization, remember, went badly for the first inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Dr Rich Gibson
\nEmeritus professor of education
\nSan Diego State University<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The state has\u00a0agreed to pay\u00a0former Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Darnell Earley $82,862.90 as part of an\u00a0agreement he negotiated with the governor’s office<\/strong> just before announcing his resignation last month.<\/p>\n

Earley will be available through mid-July\u00a0to consult with DPS and\u00a0state Treasury officials as the district goes through a transition under new leadership, the agreement says.<\/p>\n

Earley became DPS’s fourth emergency manager in January 2015 under a $225,000 annual contract. His tenure\u00a0grew increasingly rocky,\u00a0with teachers staging sick-outs earlier this year to protest building problems they said\u00a0he failed to fix. Earley also faced criticism for being the emergency manager in Flint when the city temporarily switched water sources, a move that ultimately led to the water crisis there.\u00a0 www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/detroit\/2016\/03\/03\/state-pays-earley-83000\/81287180\/<\/a><\/p>\n

USC’s tuition will top $50,000 for the first time<\/h1>\n

USC<\/a>, always striving to reach new heights, is set to cross a dubious milestone: Tuition for the 2016-2017 academic year will surpass $50,000 for the first time.<\/p>\n

With a price tag of $51,442 for tuition and an additional $841 in fees, USC is sure to be in the running for the unofficial title of most expensive place in the country to get a college degree. According to U.S. News & World Report, Vassar College in New York won that honor for the current school year by charging $51,300 in tuition and fees. Even Harvard, that paragon of academic excellence, charges undergraduates a mere $45,278 in tuition and fees.\u00a0 The bigger tuition bill comes as USC is rising both in academic reputation and as a financial powerhouse. In two decades, it has climbed from 51st to 23rd in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of national universities. It’s now in the midst of a $6-billion fundraising drive.\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/education\/la-me-usc-tuition-20160304-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

CSU Boss: Hand Out more fake degrees!\u00a0 <\/strong>California State University Chancellor Timothy White sees a \u201ctrain wreck\u201d ahead.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how he described what will happen in the state\u2019s future unless the number of graduates with bachelor degrees significantly increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk a lot about the water drought, but perhaps the degree drought is more significant in and more long-term impact,\u201d he said during a forum Wednesday with faculty members and students at San Diego State University.<\/p>\n

Independent analysts looking at future job demands have predicted that California\u2019s workforce will have a shortfall of one million employees with bachelor degrees by 2025 or 2030.\u00a0 www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/news\/2016\/mar\/05\/chancellor-white-bachelor-graduates\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"https:\/\/ciccib.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/599006_559220970775260_268730626_n.jpg?w=812\"<\/p>\n

Bidding War<\/strong>
\nHow a young Afghan military contractor became spectacularly rich.<\/strong><\/p>\n

America’s war in Afghanistan, which is now in its fifteenth year, presents a mystery: how could so much money, power, and good will have achieved so little?<\/strong> Congress has appropriated almost eight hundred billion dollars for military operations in Afghanistan; a hundred and thirteen billion has gone to reconstruction, more than was spent on the Marshall Plan, in postwar Europe. General David Petraeus, a principal architect of U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, encouraged the practice of pumping money into the economy of Afghanistan, where the per-capita G.D.P. at the time of the invasion was around a hundred and twenty dollars. He believed that money had helped buy peace during his command of American forces in Iraq. \u201cEmploy money as a weapons system,\u201d<\/em> Petraeus wrote in 2008. \u201cMoney can be \u2018ammunition.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The result was a war waged as much by for-profit companies as by the military. Political debate in Washington has focussed on the number of troops deployed in Afghanistan and the losses that they have sustained. To minimize casualties, the military outsourced any task that it could: maintenance, cooking and laundry, overland logistics, even security. Since 2007, there have regularly been more contractors than U.S. forces in Afghanistan; today, they outnumber them three to one.<\/p>\n

One result has been forms of corruption so extreme that the military has, in some cases, funded its own enemy. When a House committee investigated the trucking system that supplied American forces, it found that the system had \u201cfueled a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt Afghan officials, and perhaps others.\u201d Its report concluded that \u201cprotection payments for safe passage are a significant potential source of funding for the Taliban.\u201d The system risked \u201cundermining the U.S. strategy for achieving its goals in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The system has also made a few individuals very rich. Hikmatullah Shadman, an Afghan trucking-company owner, earned more than a hundred and sixty million dollars while contracting for the United States military; for the past three years, he has been battling to save much of his fortune in a federal court in Washington, D.C. In United States of America v. Sum of $70,990,605, et al., the Justice Department has accused Hikmat, as he\u2019s known, of bribing contractors and soldiers to award him contracts.\u00a0 www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2016\/03\/07\/the-man-who-made-millions-off-the-afghan-war?mbid=nl_160301_Daily%20A&CNDID=39165830&spMailingID=8607382&spUserID=MTEyNjMyNjM4NjI0S0&spJobID=880113475&spReportId=ODgwMTEzNDc1S0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"USS<\/p>\n

The U.S. just sent a carrier strike group to confront China<\/h1>\n

The U.S.\u00a0Navy has dispatched a small\u00a0armada to the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters\u00a0in recent days, according to military officials. The carrier strike group is\u00a0the latest\u00a0show of force\u00a0in the tense region, with the U.S. asserting that China is militarizing the region to guard its excessive territorial claims.<\/p>\n

Stennis is joined in the region by\u00a0the cruisers Antietam and Mobile Bay, and the destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockdale. The command ship Blue Ridge, the floating headquarters of the Japan-based 7th Fleet, is also in the area, en route to a port visit in the Philippines. Stennis deployed from Washington state on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

The Japan-based Antietam, officials said, was conducting a “routine patrol” separate from the Stennis, following up patrols conducted\u00a0by the destroyer McCambell and the dock landing ship Ashland in late February.<\/p>\n

The stand-off has been heating up on both sides. After news in February that\u00a0the Chinese deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery to the Paracel Islands, U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Harry Harris told lawmakers that China was militarizing\u00a0the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

“In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea,” Harris testified on Feb. 24. “You\u2019d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise.”<\/p>\n

Overnight, Chinese officials dismissed claims<\/a> that China\u00a0was militarizing the region, pointing to the Stennis’s patrol as evidence that the U.S. was to blame for the increased military tensions.\u00a0 www.navytimes.com\/story\/military\/2016\/03\/03\/stennis-strike-group-deployed-to-south-china-sea\/81270736\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marines Need Rouge<\/strong>\u00a0 MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. \u2014\u00a0 The Corps is asking an unlikely source for help.<\/p>\n

Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has put out the call for \u201cdisruptive thinkers\u201d \u2014 Marines who live outside the box, love to challenge the status quo, and are often viewed as trouble makers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time they step up and speak out, Neller said, and it is time for leaders to listen. The commandant wants nothing short of a cultural revolution; a new era in which Marines are encouraged to come up with solutions, and leaders serve as advocates to accelerate those ideas to decision makers.<\/p>\n

Neller addressed the issue at an innovation symposium hosted by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab Feb. 23-24. The hundreds of Marines and industry officials in attendance were adamant: The system is broken. The Pentagon can\u2019t fix itself, let alonethese emerging issues. There are an increasing number of hot spots around the world; no two are alike, and the circumstances are ever changing and increasingly complex. Technologies that could help have often evolved before older technologies are even fielded.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why leadership is looking to bypass the bureaucracy and harness the cognitive, creative, innovative abilities\u00a0 www.marinecorpstimes.com\/story\/military\/2016\/03\/04\/commandant-looks-disruptive-thinkers-fix-corps-problems\/81279544\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

How a Democrat Killed Welfare <\/strong><\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s 1992 election was meant to be a turning point in American politics. Liberals breathed a sigh of relief, believing him to be a much-needed break from the Reagan-Bush era of \u201csmall government\u201d and social welfare cuts.<\/p>\n

But the optimism surrounding Clinton\u2019s election \u2014 and favorable assessments of his time in office since \u2014 ignore the destruction his administration brought to poor and working people, especially African Americans, and mask not only the continuation but intensification of anti-poor policies. Rather than offering a reprieve from punitive austerity, Clinton took the Reagan-Bush agenda a step further. If his administration was a turning point, it turned us in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

In 1994, Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act<\/a>, the largest crime bill in history, which allocated $10\u00a0billion for prison construction, expanded the death penalty, and eliminated federal funding for inmate education. The act intensified police surveillance and racial profiling, and locked up millions for nonviolent offenses such as drug possession. It helped usher in the era of mass incarceration that devastated communities of color (for which Clinton himself<\/a> has recently apologized).<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s simultaneous expansion of federal law enforcement and shrinking of the federal workforce to its lowest level in thirty years reallocated taxpayer dollars from employing people in social service jobs to putting more cops on the streets.<\/p>\n

The starkest example of the many racist and anti-poor measures directed at African Americans and passed during his administration was the 1996 welfare reform bill, which transformed welfare from an exclusive and unequal cash assistance system that stigmatized its recipients into one that actually criminalized them.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton\u2019s Role in the Mexican Drug War<\/a><\/h1>\n

High-profile human rights cases \u2014 such as the kidnapping and disappearance of the 43 students<\/a> from the teacher-training college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero in September 2014 \u2014 sparked renewed attention to the devastating effects of the U.S.-funded drug war in Mexico. Yet, they didn\u2019t come out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

Forced disappearances like these were ballooning even as Clinton was pushing M\u00e9rida Initiative programs forward, with official records reaching upwards<\/a> of 3,000 to 4,000 people a year in 2011 and 2012. According to the United Nations<\/a>, these widespread kidnappings and disappearances often involve state authorities, and the problem is worsened<\/a> by the government\u2019s failure to investigate.<\/p>\n

U.S. laws explicitly prohibit the delivery of aid to foreign individuals and units implicated in systematic human rights violations. But files released by WikiLeaks revealed that Clinton\u2019s State Department regularly received information on widespread \u201cofficial corruption<\/a>\u201c in Mexico, even as they were bolstering the flow of equipment, assistance, and training that ended up in the hands of abusive and compromised<\/a> security forces.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in 2009<\/a> and 2010<\/a> \u2014 the middle years of Clinton\u2019s tenure at State \u2014 U.S. embassy cables boasted that intelligence and military <\/a> between the two countries had never been better.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At least 2,079 Clinton emails contain classified material<\/h1>\n

At least 2,079 emails that Hillary Clinton sent or received contained classified material, according to the State Department\u2019s final update from its review of more than 30,000 emails.<\/p>\n

The State Department released a new batch of 3,871 pages<\/a> of Clinton\u2019s emails Monday evening in response to a court order. Of those, 261 contain classified information. Most were at the confidential level, which is the lowest level of classification. Twenty-three of them were at the Secret level.<\/p>\n

None of Clinton\u2019s emails was marked as classified during her tenure, State Department officials say, but intelligence officials say some material was clearly classified at the time www.mcclatchydc.com\/news\/politics-government\/election\/article63218372.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy<\/a><\/p>\n

From an 1890 Communist Manifesto preface by Engels:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“When [the Manifesto] appeared, we could not have called it a socialist manifesto. In 1847, two kinds of people were considered socialists. On the one hand were the adherents of the various utopian systems, notably the Owenites in England and the Fourierists in France, both of whom, at that date, had already dwindled to mere sects gradually dying out. On the other, the manifold types of social quacks who wanted to eliminate social abuses through their various universal panaceas and all kinds of patch-work, without hurting capital and profit in the least. In both cases, people who stood outside the labor movement and who looked for support rather to the \u201ceducated\u201d classes. The section of the working class, however, which demanded a radical reconstruction of society, convinced that mere political revolutions were not enough, then called itself Communist. It was still a rough-hewn, only instinctive and frequently somewhat crude communism. Yet, it was powerful enough to bring into being two systems of utopian communism \u2014 in France, the \u201cIcarian\u201d communists of Cabet, and in Germany that of Weitling. Socialism in 1847 signified a bourgeois movement, communism a working-class movement. Socialism was, on the Continent at least, quite respectable, whereas communism was the very opposite. And since we were very decidedly of the opinion as early as then that \u201cthe emancipation of the workers must be the task of the working class itself,\u201d [from the General Rules of the International] we could have no hesitation as to which of the two names we should choose. Nor has it ever occurred to us to repudiate it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Clintons and Wall Street: 24 Years of Enriching Each Other<\/a><\/h1>\n

For twenty four years the Clintons have orchestrated a conjugal relationship with Wall Street, to the immense financial benefit of both parties. \u00a0 They have accepted from the New York banks $68.72 million in campaign contributions for their six political races, and $8.85 million more in speaking fees.\u00a0 The banks have earned hundreds of billions of dollars in practices that were once prohibited\u2014until the Clinton Administration legalized them.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary ambition displayed in the careers of Bill and Hillary Clinton defies description.\u00a0 They have spent much of their adult lives soliciting money from others for their own benefit.\u00a0 A 2014 story in Time<\/i> magazine said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cFew in American history have collected and benefited from so much money in so many ways over such a long period of time\u2026the Clintons have attracted at least $1.4 billion in contributions\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Time <\/i>failed to dig deeply enough.\u00a0 A more thoroughly researched expose\u2019 in the Washington Post <\/i>a year later doubles the amount to $3 billion.\u00a0 www.counterpunch.org\/2016\/02\/26\/the-clintons-and-wall-street-24-years-of-enriching-each-other\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Even<\/p>\n

Even critics understate how catastrophically bad the Hillary Clinton-led NATO bombing of Libya was<\/h1>\n

The Times spoke of \u201cClinton\u2019s deep belief in America\u2019s power to do good in the world,\u201d but did not stress that this belief is rooted in an aggressive militarism. It did quote French President Sarkozy, who fondly remembered how the secretary of state \u201cwas tough, she was bullish,\u201d but the Times\u2019 reporting understated Clinton\u2019s belligerence.<\/p>\n

At 13,000 words in length combined, the articles\u00a0are important contributions to the historical record. Yet although they are critical of Clinton and her leadership in the conflict, they fail to acknowledge the crimes of U.S.-backed rebel groups, and ultimately underestimate just how disastrous the war was,\u00a0just how hawkish Hillary is and just how significant this will be for the future of the United States \u2014 not to mention the future of Libya and its suffering people.<\/p>\n

The U.S. president does not have as much control over economic and social issues as many pundits, analysts and even voters often insist. One must not forget that the head of state does not control the Congress or the judiciary. But the president does have enormous power when it comes to international affairs, diplomacy and war. This makes foreign policy one of the most crucial issues in any presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s leadership in the catastrophic war in Libya should ergo constantly be at the forefront of any discussion of the presidential primary.<\/p>\n

Throughout the campaign, Clinton has tried to have her cake and eat it too. She has flaunted her leadership in the war as a sign of her supposed foreign policy experience, yet, at the same moment, strived to distance herself from the disastrous results of said war.<\/p>\n

Today, Libya is in ruins<\/a>. The seven months of NATO bombing effectively destroyed the government and left behind a political vacuum. Much of this has been filled by extremist groups.<\/p>\n

Millions of Libyans live without a formal government. The internationally recognized government only controls the eastern part of the country. Rivaled extremist Islamist groups have seized much of the country.<\/p>\n

Downtown Benghazi, a once thriving city, is now in ruins. Ansar al-Sharia, a fundamentalist Salafi militia that is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., now controls large chunks of it. ISIS has made Libya home to its largest so-called \u201ccaliphate\u201d outside of Iraq and Syria.\u00a0 www.salon.com\/2016\/03\/02\/even_critics_understate_how_catastrophically_bad_the_hillary_clinton_led_nato_bombing_of_libya_was\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And for the Sanders Believers: <\/strong>Mike Alewitz: BIRDS OF A FEATHER<\/p>\n

To the delight of the faux left and former socialists, Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Tulsi Gabbard has resigned from her post and endorsed Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

Gabbard, along with her father, Hawaii Senator Mike Goddard, was the founder of “Stand Up for America” after September 11 – to promote patriotism and bring the country together as “one nation under God.”<\/p>\n

Mike Gabbard is a vitriolic anti-gay creep that led a campaign against gay marriage in Hawaii in the 1990s, saying: “I am accused of being a hatemonger, but I’ve never given anyone AIDS.” He founded the “Stop Promoting Homosexuality International” and hosted the anti gay radio program “Let’s Talk Straight, Hawaii” and an anti-gay cable TV program “The Gay Deception.”<\/p>\n

Distancing herself somewhat from the elder Gabbard (while cultivating his donors), the apple did not fall all that far from the tree.<\/p>\n

As Tulsi Gabbard has stated: “To try to act as if there is a difference between ‘civil unions’ and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii who have already made overwhelmingly clear our position on this issue… As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists.”<\/p>\n

While a City Councilwoman in Honolulu, Gabbard led a Giuliani-like fight against the homeless. She is a lifelong militarist and military policewoman, citing her support to Sanders as based on her belief that he will be a strong commander in chief.<\/p>\n

Like Sanders, Gabbard has carefully crafted a progressive image while maintaining the support of right-wing forces.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Bernie’s Political Revolution.<\/p>\n

Yuck.<\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/china\/images\/attachement\/jpg\/site1\/20120818\/0022190dec45119920551d.jpg\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

China to lay off five to six million workers, earmarks at least $23 billion<\/h1>\n

China<\/a> aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution, two reliable sources said, Beijing’s boldest retrenchment program in almost two decades.<\/p>\n

China’s leadership, obsessed with maintaining stability and making sure redundancies do not lead to unrest, will spend nearly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) to cover layoffs in just the coal and steel sectors in the next 2-3 years.<\/p>\n

The overall figure is likely to rise as closures spread to other industries and even more funding will be required to handle the debt left behind by “zombie” state firms.<\/p>\n

The term refers to companies that have shut down some of their operations but keep staff on their rolls since local governments are worried about the social and economic impact of bankruptcies and unemployment.<\/p>\n

Shutting down “zombie firms” has been identified as one of the government’s priorities this year, with China’s Premier Li Keqiang promising in December that they would soon “go under the knife”..<\/p>\n

The government plans to lay off five million workers in industries suffering from a supply glut, one source with ties to the leadership said.\u00a0 uk.reuters.com\/article\/us-china-economy-layoffs-exclusive-idUKKCN0W33DS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"China<\/a>Staring down an economic reckoning in the Detroit of China\u00a0 <\/strong>economic storm clouds are gathering in China, particularly in the northeast industrial heartland. Of particular concern are China\u2019s 150,000 state-owned enterprises, which employ some 30 million people. In an ominous sign, China said last week it had set aside $15.3 billion to assist 1.8 million workers who may be laid off \u2014 just in the coal and steel sectors \u2014 in the next two years.<\/p>\n

Whether the government can really cut bloated payrolls at \u201czombie companies\u201d laden with debt and excess capacity, and let market forces play a bigger role, remains to be seen. Moody\u2019s Investor Service lowered its outlook on China\u2019s government bonds from stable to negative this week, citing concerns about rising debt and expressing pessimism about Beijing\u2019s stomach for reforming state-owned enterprises. At the same time, the agency also cut its outlook to negative on dozens of large state-run enterprises such as China Mobile, warning that the government may curb support for them.<\/p>\n

Chinese leaders are gathering this week in Beijing for the country\u2019s annual legislative session, during which they are to approve a five-year economic road map for the country.<\/p>\n

If China does have the will to order mass layoffs at state-run firms, the cuts may hit particularly hard in the northeast, home of Changchun. State-owned companies in heavy industry such as coal, steel and auto-making still account for about half of the northeast\u2019s economic activity, while nationwide, state-backed firms contribute less than one-third of gross domestic product.\u00a0 graphics.latimes.com\/china-economy\/#nt=notification<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

So Long Al Jazeera\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 This is the final Al Jazeera America newsletter. Although we are no longer updating our website, today we launched a legacy page with the best journalism we have produced over the last two and a half years. We encourage you to continue to watch our channel on TV until April 12. And for the latest news please visit Al Jazeera English\u00a0 www.dailykos.com\/story\/2016\/2\/27\/1492281\/-Goodnight-and-good-luck-R-I-P-Al-Jazeera-America<\/a><\/p>\n

New World Order 25 years on…<\/strong><\/p>\n