{"id":42,"date":"2009-10-31T13:21:37","date_gmt":"2009-10-31T21:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=42"},"modified":"2009-10-31T13:21:37","modified_gmt":"2009-10-31T21:21:37","slug":"rouge-forum-update-great-depression-halloween-special-boo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-update-great-depression-halloween-special-boo\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Update: Great Depression Halloween Special: Boo!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- BODY {font-family=\"Arial\"} TT {font-family=\"Courier New\"} BLOCKQUOTE.CITE {padding-left:0.5em; margin-left:0; margin-right:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; border-left:\"solid 2\";} --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><!-- BODY {font-family=\"Arial\"} TT {font-family=\"Courier New\"} BLOCKQUOTE.CITE {padding-left:0.5em; margin-left:0; margin-right:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; border-left:\"solid 2\";} --><\/p>\n<div>Dear Friends,<\/p>\n<p>Our Updates go on a hiatus for two weeks as RF  Steering Committee members and others hit the road for Pittsburgh (AESA), Ohio,  Detroit, and even Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p>The core issue of our time: The real  promise of perpetual war and rising inequality met by the potential of a mass  class conscious movement for equality and justice.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Smile of the  Week:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong>Student asks his principal, &#8220;Where is my  teacher?&#8221;.<br \/>\n&#8220;Citywide layoffs&#8221;, replies the  principal.<br \/>\n&#8220;My text books?&#8221; asks the  student.<br \/>\n&#8220;State austerity plan&#8221;, says the  principal.<br \/>\n&#8220;Student loan?&#8221; continues the  student.<br \/>\n&#8220;Federal budget cuts&#8221;, says the  principal.<br \/>\nFinally, exasperated, student asks, &#8220;But how am I going to get an  education?&#8221;.<br \/>\nTo which the equally exasperated  principal replies, &#8220;This is your education&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Education Agenda  is a War Agenda and the War Agenda is an Education Agenda Featurette:<\/p>\n<p><\/span><em>Duncan Flunked Chicago School Closing Project: <\/em><\/strong>&#8220;This  report reveals that eight in 10 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students displaced  by school closings transferred to schools ranking in the bottom half of system  schools on standardized tests. However, because most displaced students  transferred from one low-performing school to another, the move did not, on  average, significantly affect student achievement.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/ccsr.uchicago.edu\/content\/publications.php?pub_id=136\">ccsr.uchicago.edu\/content\/publications.php?pub_id=136<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Hey  Kids, Photograph that Recruiter:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.photographarecruiter.com\/\">www.photographarecruiter.com\/<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>DFT  Praises Extension Of Broad&#8217;s Bobb Contract:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20091029\/NEWS01\/91029012\/1318\/Bobb-to-extend-stay-at-DPS\">www.freep.com\/article\/20091029\/NEWS01\/91029012\/1318\/Bobb-to-extend-stay-at-DPS<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Detroit:  An Individual and Collective Wrong&#8211;Award Winning Counselor Mr Z has to Go: <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/article\/20091015\/SCHOOLS\/910150386\">www.detnews.com\/article\/20091015\/SCHOOLS\/910150386<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>NEA  Loses NCLB Suit;<\/em><\/strong> How Many Hundreds of Thousands of Your Dues $s did NEA  Waste?<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/school_law\/2009\/10\/appeals_court_upholds_dismissa.html\">blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/school_law\/2009\/10\/appeals_court_upholds_dismissa.html<br \/>\n<\/a>&#8220;Depending  on whom you ask, the No Left Child Behind Act might be described in many ways:  bold, ground-breaking, noble, na\u00efve, oppressive, all of the above and more,&#8221;  Judge Sutton wrote. &#8221; But one thing it is not is ambiguous, at least when it  comes to the central tradeoff presented to the states: accepting flexibility to  spend significant federal funds in return for (largely) unforgiving  responsibility to make progress in using them.&#8221; NEA will do anything, like  courts and ballots, to avoid educator\/student alliances to control work places  and communities, as those actions would make NEA as irrelevant as it already is.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>NEA Bosses Escalated Their Once-Secret Effort to Boost Their  Salaries and Merge With the Worst Union in the USA, the AFT and AFL-CIO<\/em><\/strong>,  When NEA Prez Dennis Van Roekel Directed Key Committees to Revisit the Issue.  This is what one researcher rightfully concluded about what would happen some  time ago: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eric.ed.gov\/ERICWebPortal\/custom\/portlets\/recordDetails\/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&amp;_&amp;ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED386428&amp;ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&amp;accno=ED386428\">www.eric.ed.gov\/ERICWebPortal\/custom\/portlets\/recordDetails\/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&#038;_&#038;ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED386428&#038;ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&#038;accno=ED386428<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>And  this is what happened last time NEA tried the merger scheme:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/clogic.eserver.org\/2-1\/gibson.html\">clogic.eserver.org\/2-1\/gibson.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>DPS  Lost Millions on Corrupt Land Deals:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20091027\/NEWS01\/91027050\/1318\/We-way-overpaid-for-land--DPS-says\">www.freep.com\/article\/20091027\/NEWS01\/91027050\/1318\/We-way-overpaid-for-land&#8211;DPS-says<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>$30+  Million Detroit Public School Fraud and Growing Every Day:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wxyz.com\/mostpopular\/story\/Surprise-Revelation-at-DPS-Realty-Hearing\/uVsjL5FTYkOR6M29KJGu8g.cspx\">www.wxyz.com\/mostpopular\/story\/Surprise-Revelation-at-DPS-Realty-Hearing\/uVsjL5FTYkOR6M29KJGu8g.cspx<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Smashing Protest at Southwestern College, San Diego:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2009\/10\/26\/southwestern\">www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2009\/10\/26\/southwestern<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Public  Universities Gut Student Life, Charge More:<\/em><\/strong> &#8220;The stimulus isn\u2019t a  bridge; it\u2019s a short pier&#8230;This fall, flagships still had to cut costs and  raise tuition, most by 6.5 percent or more. And virtually all of the nation\u2019s  top public universities are likely to push through large increases in coming  years.&#8221;..\u201cThe students are at a point of rebellion, because they\u2019re paying more  and getting less,\u201d Flagships are attracting more wealthy and better-prepared  students. At U.C.L.A., class size has increased by 20 percent over three years  ..Today, UM is largely protected from Michigan\u2019s plummeting economy. Only 7  percent of its budget is provided by the state.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/01\/education\/edlife\/01public-t.html?ref=education\">www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/01\/education\/edlife\/01public-t.html?ref=education<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Obama  Demagoguery Featurette:<\/p>\n<p><\/span><em>Obama Claims 675,000 Jobs Saved, But 8  Million Jobs are Lost, Unemployment Tops 15 %<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/04\/weekinreview\/04norris.html?_r=1&amp;scp=2&amp;sq=floyd&amp;st=cse\">www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/04\/weekinreview\/04norris.html?_r=1&#038;scp=2&#038;sq=floyd&#038;st=cse<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Edmunds  on the Cash for Clunkers Program:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmunds.com\/help\/about\/press\/159446\/article.html\">www.edmunds.com\/help\/about\/press\/159446\/article.html<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Endless  War Featurette: &#8220;In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take  the enemy&#8217;s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so  good.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong> Sun Tzu<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>November 9, 1989, The End of Decades of  Soviet Fascism. About nine months after the last &#8220;Red&#8221; Army troops fled  Afghanistan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Tom Weston&#8217;s Background Information on Oil,  Iraq, and the USA:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/tomweston.net\/persianglf.pdf\">tomweston.net\/persianglf.pdf<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>How it Was  the USSR Ran Off from Afghanistan in Their Underwear:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cAbout 99 percent  of the battles and skirmishes that we fought in Afghanistan were won by our  side,\u201d Marshal Akhromeyev told his superiors in November 1986. \u201cThe problem is  that the next morning there is the same situation as if there had been no  battle. The terrorists are again in the village where they were \u00ad or we thought  they were \u00ad destroyed a day or so before.\u201d<br \/>\nhonor. \u201cHow to get out racks  one\u2019s brains,\u201d Mr. Gorbachev complained in the spring of 1986, according to  Politburo minutes. \u201cWe have been fighting there for six years. If we don\u2019t start  changing our approach we\u2019ll be there another 20 or 30 years. We have not learned  how to wage war there.\u201d\u00a0 Mr. Gorbachev was also haunted by the image of the last  Americans leaving Saigon in panic: \u201cWe cannot leave in our underpants &#8230; or  without  any\u201dhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/29\/opinion\/29sebestyen.html?_r=1&amp;ref=opinion<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Top  US Diplomat Quits:<\/em><\/strong> &#8220;But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation  letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there &#8212; a  growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including  other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national  government is rejected &#8220;He concluded, he said in his resignation letter, that  the war &#8220;has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and  modern of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional.  It is this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency.  &#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/10\/26\/AR2009102603394.html?hpid=topnews\">www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/10\/26\/AR2009102603394.html?hpid=topnews<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Drug  Dealer Brother of Karzai Said to be on CIA Payroll (NYTimes)<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/28\/world\/asia\/28intel.html\">www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/28\/world\/asia\/28intel.html<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Bombers  Hit Pakistani Nuke Site:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/336\/story\/77650.html\">www.mcclatchydc.com\/336\/story\/77650.html<\/p>\n<p><\/a><strong><em>Spy  vs Spy: Fidel&#8217;s sister:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/homepage\/story\/77732.html\">www.mcclatchydc.com\/homepage\/story\/77732.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Whoops,  There Goes the Economy Again Featurette:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>October 29, 1929,  Eighty Years on==The Great Depression.<\/strong> The best analysis of the time is  here, free:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/corey\/1934\/decline\/\">www.marxists.org\/archive\/corey\/1934\/decline\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>UAW  Locals Rejecting Ford Sellout: Will the UAW Make the Members Vote Til They Get  it Right?<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20091030\/BUSINESS0102\/91030058\/1318\/\">www.freep.com\/article\/20091030\/BUSINESS0102\/91030058\/1318\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For  Halloween&#8211;Boo! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI<\/a> and take this  you devil Ghoul you: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6xBuYDq0le8\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6xBuYDq0le8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to  Adam and Gina, Amber, Wayne, Doug, Kerry, Tony, Bertell for the joke, Sandy and  Van, Ken and Barb, Doug and Connie, Pat, Suber (happy birthday ssi!), Tania,  Jill, Carole, Kathy, Arturo, Vincente, Marty, John P, Bill, Greg, Joe and Joe,  the Susans, and Ghouldini himself.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Halloween and good luck to us,  every one.<\/p>\n<p>r<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ps.<\/div>\n<div>The Maoists are Coming! The Maoists are Coming! Naxalites part One:<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/01\/world\/asia\/01maoist.html?_r=1&amp;hp\">www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/01\/world\/asia\/01maoist.html?_r=1&#038;hp<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, Our Updates go on a hiatus for two weeks as RF Steering Committee members and others hit the road for Pittsburgh (AESA), Ohio, Detroit, and even Vancouver. The core issue of our time: The real promise of perpetual war and rising inequality met by the potential of a mass class conscious movement for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}