{"id":4412,"date":"2011-09-17T20:45:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T04:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=4412"},"modified":"2011-09-17T21:51:27","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T05:51:27","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-september-19-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-september-19-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Illusion Bomber"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Anti-nuke demo in Tokyo,Shinjuku 2011,9.11 with 12 arrested\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SposUB9c26s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/In-the-Cross-Fire.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4421\" title=\"In the Cross Fire\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/In-the-Cross-Fire.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/In-the-Cross-Fire.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/In-the-Cross-Fire-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>In the Crossfire is now online at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bopsecrets.org\/vietnam\/index.htm\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.bopsecrets.org\/vietnam\/index.htm<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dubula trouble\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/neA30UusuhQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Convicted for a Song that Means: Kill the Exploiters! under ANC Rule<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sipho Seepe on the ANC and Much More: <\/strong>Where is South Africa heading?<br \/>\nWe can already see the increasing centralisation of power, which is a threat to democracy and transparency. The Constitution demands that Parliament must have oversight of the executive. Only the ANC MP Andrew Feinstein seems to understand this and as a result his political career is threatened. The leadership can&#8217;t trust the people to elect their own premiers or mayors. Trevor Ngwane of Pimville in Soweto, a former ANC councillor, was suspended for expressing his opposition to the iGoli 2002 plan.<\/p>\n<p>It is obvious from the way appointments are made that it is not quality and qualifications but political expediency and how well you perform the toyi-toyi that count. The centre knows best and more and more power is accumulating around one person &#8211; the president. The late Mobutu Sesi Seko operated the same system in the Congo, which is scary. Just because the ANC fought for democracy and a democratic Constitution does not mean it is immune from turning into an oppressor itself. Africa is full of such examples.<br \/>\nWill the ANC be able to maintain its huge majority?<br \/>\nBefore the last election I wrote an article in the Sowetan arguing that the ANC deserved to get a two-thirds majority. I was wrong about that. Now I think the party will be lucky to get 55 per cent at the next election. The ANC has failed in every major respect. The tensions in the alliance mean it cannot unite its own people; its economic policy has not worked; job creation targets have not been achieved, and there is a consistent attack on the institutions of democracy and a disregarding of the electorate. I expect the Democratic Alliance vote to grow among the black population, especially the educated and employed strata and anyone who can see beyond race. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hsf.org.za\/resource-centre\/focus\/issues-21-30\/issue-23-third-quarter-2001\/interview-with-professor-sipho-seepe-scientist-and-newspaper-columnist\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.hsf.org.za\/resource-centre\/focus\/issues-21-30\/issue-23-third-quarter-2001\/interview-with-professor-sipho-seepe-scientist-and-newspaper-columnist<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Italian Workers Strike vs Attacks on their CLASS: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Italy-Strike.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4438\" title=\"Italy Strike\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Italy-Strike.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Italy-Strike.jpg 395w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Italy-Strike-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thousands of workers took to the streets in Italy in a general strike on Tuesday to protest a package of ever-changing austerity measures, adding to tensions in a crucial week for the future of the euro. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/07\/world\/europe\/07italy.html?_r=3&amp;emc=tnt&amp;tntemail0=y<\/p>\n<p><strong>Longshore Workres Storm Terminal: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/longshore-crowd.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4445\" title=\"longshore-crowd\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/longshore-crowd.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"562\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/longshore-crowd.jpg 562w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/longshore-crowd-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The busy ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., were shut down on Thursday as an increasingly violent dispute between unionized port workers and the owner of a grain export terminal in Longview, Wash., spilled over to the other facilities. About 500 longshoremen stormed the new $200 million terminal in Longview before sunrise Thursday, carrying baseball bats, smashing windows, damaging rail cars and dumping tons of grain from the cars, police and company officials said.<br \/>\nLater in the day, more than 1,000 other longshoremen shut down the ports of Seattle and Tacoma by not coming to work. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/09\/business\/union-dispute-near-seattle-turns-violent-and-idles-ports.html?emc=tnt&amp;tntemail1=y<\/p>\n<p><strong>Peter McLaren: The Death Rattle of the American Mind: <\/strong>I regret to inform my liberal friends and colleagues that we have moved well beyond the return of a progressive Keynesianism. That the domination of post\u2013World War II<br \/>\neconomics by Fordism\/Keynesianism is over (as the production of profit no longer relies upon the production of<br \/>\ncommodities and their sale) should not be a revelation to the most astute observers of the contemporary political scene who have been examining in minute detail the collapse of our capitalist universe. Their most grim prognosis tells us that we have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Either we slay the beast of capital, or it will slay us. \u00a0http:\/\/richgibson.com\/deathrattle.pdf<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wiki Dumps on Diplomats! <\/strong>he whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks made public its entire cache of pirated State Department cables Thursday night in a torrent of once secret information that is sure to renew debate over the impact of one of the largest security breaches in U.S. history.After nearly nine months in which the 251,287 cables had been trickling out at a pace that guaranteed there would be WikiLeaks documents still unreleased 10 years from now, the website announced on Twitter that all of the cables had been made public.<br \/>\n&#8220;Shining a light on 45 years of U.S. &#8216;diplomacy,&#8217; it is time to open the archives forever,&#8221; WikiLeaks said. The &#8220;tweet&#8221; included a link to the WikiLeaks website, showing all the cables had been made public. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/2011\/09\/02\/122923\/wikileaks-makes-all-its-us-diplomatic.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.mcclatchydc.com\/2011\/09\/02\/122923\/wikileaks-makes-all-its-us-diplomatic.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>California Grocery Workers Threaten Strike Action: <\/strong>The union representing Southern California grocery workers has given a 72-hour walkout notice to the grocery chains.<br \/>\nThe earliest a strike could happen is 7 p.m. Sunday, but it could still be averted. A strike won&#8217;t necessarily begin right away, even then. If that deadline passes, grocery workers will begin final strike preparations, massing at local union headquarters to assemble signs, stockpile food for strikers and their families, and continue picket trainings. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/15\/strike-notice-given-grocery-workers\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/15\/strike-notice-given-grocery-workers\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>How was the Last Massive Grocery Strike Defeated? <\/strong> 1. The southern California grocery strike involving 70,000 United Food And Commercial Workers members from October 2003 to March 2004 was one of the most significant actions the U.S. labor movement took in the last twenty years.<br \/>\n2. What happened? The workers lost, betrayed by their union leaders. This defeat was devastating, setting up a spiral of attacks on the lives of people who must work to live, particularly on the minimal health benefits that a few working people still have. The old labor saw, &#8220;An injury to one just goes before an injury to all,&#8221; is already felt in teacher-union contract negotiations.<br \/>\n3. Could this have been won? Yes, it could, but not within the confines of the law, and not in the confines of the structures of the unions, not within the philosophy of the &#8220;labor movement&#8221; (i.e., the AFL-CIO with the independent National Education Association tossed in for good measure), not without preparation-and most importantly, not without organization and wise action. <a href=\"http:\/\/clogic.eserver.org\/2004\/gibson.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">clogic.eserver.org\/2004\/gibson.html<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/grocery_clerks.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4459\" title=\"grocery_clerks\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/grocery_clerks.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"189\" \/><\/a> photo by Nick Ut<\/p>\n<p><strong>Teachers in Tacoma, Washington, go on strike: <\/strong>About 1,900 public school teachers in Tacoma, Washington, the state&#8217;s third-largest school district, went on strike on Tuesday in a contract dispute over salary, class size and seniority.<br \/>\nThe walkout, coming in the second week of Tacoma&#8217;s new school year, followed a strike vote on Monday night and forced the district to cancel classes for its roughly 28,000 students.<br \/>\nSchool district officials said the job action was illegal and said they would seek a court injunction ordering teachers back to work. \u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/09\/13\/us-teachers-strike-tacoma-idUSTRE78C6I320110913\u00a0<em><strong>(a judge ordered them back to work. Teachers voted to continue the strike). <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Little Red Schoolhouse:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/capitalist-school1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4448\" title=\"capitalist school\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/capitalist-school1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"486\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/capitalist-school1.jpg 486w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/capitalist-school1-300x160.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Where Children learn to act Independently, in a Dependent Fashion; Ruled by Products of their Own Minds&#8230;..<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Race to Delusion and Celebrity: <\/strong>A school district that is a finalist for the soon-to-be announced $1 million 2011 Broad Prize for Urban Education is embarking on a public relations effort \u2014 funded with U.S. government and Gates Foundation money \u2014 to end public opposition to its school reform program, which includes a slew of new standardized tests.<br \/>\nThe Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina is using Race to the Top money \u2014 which wasn\u2019t intended to fund public relations efforts \u2014 and $200,000 in Gates Foundation money for the campaign. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/answer-sheet\/post\/school-district-uses-race-to-the-top-money-for-public-relations\/2011\/09\/16\/gIQAn3DnZK\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/answer-sheet\/post\/school-district-uses-race-to-the-top-money-for-public-relations\/2011\/09\/16\/gIQAn3DnZK<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What if they Gave School and Nobody Came? In Detroit, only 54% of Kids Show Up: <\/strong>About 54% of Detroit Public Schools students attended school on Tuesday, the first day of school, a woeful rate, but narrowly better than last year.DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts today said Tuesday&#8217;s attendance was 43,660 students, about half of the 79,611 students that were expected. About 1,800 students were out of school because four buildings were closed due to power outages.<br \/>\nThis year, DPS needs about 66,000 students to meet its budget projections and avoid more cuts. DPS gets about $7,500 in state aid for every student who attends school. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20110907\/NEWS01\/110907051\/In-Detroit-only-54-public-school-students-expected-attend-first-day?odyssey=tab<\/p>\n<p><strong>SAT, born in Fascism, Says US Students are Getting Dumber (or more betrayed by educators?) <\/strong> SAT reading scores for the high school class of 2011 were the lowest on record, and combined reading and math scores fell to their lowest point since 1995.<br \/>\nThe College Board, which released the scores Wednesday, said the results reflect the record size and diversity of the pool of test-takers. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to drag down average scores. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tribune-chronicle.com\/page\/content.detail\/id\/561665\/Wed---3-45pm--SAT-reading-scores-fall-to-lowest-level-on-record.html?nav=5192\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.tribune-chronicle.com\/page\/content.detail\/id\/561665\/Wed&#8212;3-45pm&#8211;SAT-reading-scores-fall-to-lowest-level-on-record.html?nav=5192<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Fascist Origins of the SAT: <\/strong>The frantic rush to high-stakes standardized testing in the US costs one-half billion dollars annually in direct expenditures, probably double that in indirect costs. The chief fetish of the testing movement is the SAT, long known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test but now known, on the insistence of the test&#8217;s owners, the Educational Testing Service, as just &#8220;The SAT.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe SAT measures, above all else, class, sex, and race. (Fairtest, Roney). The SAT, like every similar test, is designed to divide people with razor sharp precision, to enumerate human value and to track people&#8217;s futures under a veil of objective science \u00a0http:\/\/www-rohan.sdsu.edu\/~rgibson\/SATFascistOrigins.htm<a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Fascism-Obvious.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4465\" title=\"Fascism Obvious\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Fascism-Obvious.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Fascism-Obvious.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Fascism-Obvious-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Michigan Students to be even More Stupified by Tougher Idiot MEAP (written by bozos, scored until recently be Standard and Poors, and overseen by the Treasury Dept): <\/strong> Students will have to score higher on Michigan&#8217;s standardized tests this academic year in order to reach what&#8217;s considered a proficient level after a vote Tuesday by the State Board of Education.<br \/>\nThe new scoring scales affect the Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests taken by elementary and middle school students and Michigan Merit Exam tests taken by high school students. The tougher scoring requirements follow up on the board&#8217;s decision earlier this year to raise standards to better reflect students&#8217; preparedness for careers and college. \u00a0http:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/article\/Mich-education-board-OKs-tougher-test-standards-2168689.php<\/p>\n<p><strong>San Diego Schools Headed for the Abyss: <\/strong>The state&#8217;s finances remain in serious trouble. The conversation in Sacramento today isn&#8217;t about education funding getting better soon; rather, it&#8217;s about whether it&#8217;ll get worse.San Diego Unified says it will already need to fill a $57 million hole in its budget to pay for the salary increases and other rising costs next year. But that&#8217;s only if there&#8217;s no further decrease in state funding and the state&#8217;s optimistic revenue projections pan out.The district has been grappling with deficits for several years. Steadily increasing salary and benefit costs, combined with deep cuts from the beleaguered state, have forced San Diego Unified to significantly reduce services like school busing and lay off more than 1,000 people.<br \/>\nBut while the state&#8217;s problems continue to burden districts across California, San Diego Unified has potentially exacerbated their effect with a series of decisions that threaten to further erode class sizes, beloved programs and its overall financial footing. \u00a0http:\/\/www.voiceofsandiego.org\/public_safety\/pavement\/article_9fce1a5a-dd8f-11e0-a189-001cc4c03286.html<\/p>\n<p><strong>Public Records Act Added To Tail-wagging-dog CA Foundations (researchers heads up!) <\/strong>After three years of legislative back and forth, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed Senate Bill 8, subjecting foundations, bookstores and other auxiliary organizations throughout California\u2019s public university system to open records requests.The Richard McKee Transparency Act of 2011 was authored by state Sen. Leland Yee. Adam Keigwin, Yee\u2019s chief of staff, said the bill started as a way to clarify the role \u201cquasi-public\u201d auxiliary organizations had under open records laws.Keigwin said the law clarifies that the public can obtain correspondence, emails, letters, financial statements and contracts from foundations and auxiliary organizations at the University of California, California State University and the state\u2019s community college system.<br \/>\nThe legislation does, however, allow foundation donors to remain anonymous unless they receive gifts from the school worth more than $2,500. Donors can also become public if they enter into a no-bid contract with the school within five years of a donation or if they attempt to influence curriculum or university operations. \u00a0http:\/\/www.splc.org\/news\/newsflash.asp?id=2272<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/School-for-lies.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4510\" title=\"School for lies\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/School-for-lies.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/School-for-lies.png 700w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/School-for-lies-300x192.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>San Diego State &#8220;University&#8221; Opens Eco-Tourism Surf &#8220;Research&#8221; Center: <\/strong>Surf tourism is a rapidly expanding trend throughout the world\u2019s surfable coasts. According to the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, the American surf industry is worth approximately $7 billion annually and surfing and surf tourism impacts coastal environments in nearly 120 countries. Yet, impoverished coastal communities in the less-developed world have become unprepared and sometimes unwilling hosts to traveling surfers with different cultural norms and values.<br \/>\nAccording to Jess Ponting, professor in SDSU\u2019s sustainable tourism program and director of the new center, too often, surf destination communities shoulder major social, cultural and environmental costs while seeing relatively little economic benefit.<br \/>\n\u201cSurfing is such an environmentally aware activity. Surfers take great care of the oceans,\u201d Ponting said.<br \/>\n\u201cBut they don\u2019t always think about the rest of their surroundings. We want to teach students about sustainable surf travel, to conduct research into sustainable surf tourism management, to provide support for surf tourism operators looking to go green and to support surf tourism destination communities.\u201d <em>(Fits well with the Homeland Security Program, The Padres Sport Management Program, The Casino Employee Training Program, and the 70 student &#8220;seminars&#8221;) <a href=\"http:\/\/newscenter.sdsu.edu\/sdsu_newscenter\/news.aspx?s=73126\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">newscenter.sdsu.edu\/sdsu_newscenter\/news.aspx?s=73126<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Capitalist Schooling&#8211;wellspring of corruption (stealing kiddies breakfast money!) : <\/strong>A Staten Island couple stole at least $2.5 million in federal funds meant for nutritious meals for preschoolers, prosecutors asserted in a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday. The complaint accused the couple, <em>Joanna Fan and her husband, Ziming Shen, of siphoning money over five years from accounts at the nonprofit Red Apple Child Development Center preschool chain, of which Ms. Fan, also known as Xiao Ping, is the executive directo<\/em>r. The complaint accused the couple of using the money to make mortgage payments on several Manhattan condominiums and to benefit their private business interests, which include Preschool of America Inc., a chain of about a dozen for-profit preschools in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/17\/nyregion\/couple-accused-of-stealing-food-money-from-red-apple-preschools.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/17\/nyregion\/couple-accused-of-stealing-food-money-from-red-apple-preschools.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Piling on: More Thievery in Detroit Public Schools: <\/strong>A former Detroit Public Schools teacher, a cashier and a cafeteria employee are among 11 people charged with crimes against the school district that include thefts and break-ins, authorities said Thursday.<br \/>\nSix of the defendants were arraigned Thursday in 36th District Court; authorities are seeking the other five, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. \u00a0http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/article\/20110916\/SCHOOLS\/109160339\/1026\/schools\/DPS-workers-hit-with-a-variety-of-charges<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Rich-Man-War-Poor-Man-Blood.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4498\" title=\"Rich Man War Poor Man Blood\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Rich-Man-War-Poor-Man-Blood.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Rich-Man-War-Poor-Man-Blood.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Rich-Man-War-Poor-Man-Blood-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mini Tet&#8211;Kabul Hit Hard: <\/strong>Heavily armed insurgents wearing suicide vests struck Tuesday at two of the most prominent symbols of the American diplomatic and military presence in Kabul, the United States Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters, demonstrating the Taliban\u2019s ability to infiltrate even the most heavily fortified districts of the capital.<br \/>\nAs the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, Westerners sought shelter \u2014 one rocket penetrated the embassy compound \u2014 and Afghan government workers fled their offices, emptying the city center. NATO and Afghan troops responded with barrages of bullets. At least 6 people were killed and 19 wounded. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/world\/asia\/14afghanistan.html?hp<\/p>\n<p><strong>In Obama&#8217;s War that is Peace, Ghadaffi Forces Still Fight back and After 7 months, The Vaunted Historians Against the War have said nothing, nothing, nothing: <\/strong>Forces loyal to Libya&#8217;s Muammar Gaddafi have launched a fierce counter-attack in the fugitive leader&#8217;s stronghold of Bani Walid while putting up fierce resistance in his hometown of Sirte. <a href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/news\/africa\/2011\/09\/2011917154358332235.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">english.aljazeera.net\/news\/africa\/2011\/09\/2011917154358332235.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Egypt&#8217;s Fake Revolutionaries Have been Busy: <\/strong>Egyptian security forces raided the offices of an Egyptian affiliate of the Al Jazeera news network known for attentive coverage of street protests, eliciting allegations on Sunday of a crackdown on the news media as the military-led transitional government seeks to ensure law and order after allowing an angry mob to invade the Israeli Embassy over the weekend. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/12\/world\/middleeast\/12egypt.html?_r=2&#038;hpw\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/12\/world\/middleeast\/12egypt.html?_r=2&#038;hpw<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cockburn on the Truthers: <\/strong>Of course there are conspiracies. The allegations that Saddam Hussein had WMD amounted to just such a one. I think there is strong evidence that FDR did have knowledge that a Japanese naval force in the north Pacific was going to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor. It\u2019s quite possible Roosevelt thought it would be a relatively mild assault and thought it would be the final green light to get the US into the war&#8230;.These days a dwindling number of leftists learn their political economy from Marx. Into the theoretical and strategic void has crept a diffuse, peripatic conspiracist view of the world that tends to locate ruling class devilry not in the crises of capital accumulation, or the falling rate of profit, or inter-imperial competition, but in locale (the Bohemian Grove, Bilderberg, Ditchley, Davos) or supposedly \u201crogue\u201d agencies, with the CIA still at the head of the list. The 9\/11 \u201cconspiracy\u201d, or \u201cinside job\u201d, is the Summa of all this foolishness. \u00a0http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2011\/09\/02\/the-911-conspiracists-vindicated-after-all-these-years\/<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inside the Muslim Bros who Lay Inside the Bogus Egyptian Revo: <\/strong>While Egypt\u2019s secular political parties flounder, the power of the Muslim Brotherhood continues to grow. To understand why, there is no better place to turn than Eric Trager\u2019s article, \u201cThe Unbreakable Muslim Brotherhood: Grim Prospects for a Liberal Egypt\u201d in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs (subscriber restricted). In sharp contrast to generally thin mainstream press reporting on Egypt\u2019s post-revolutionary politics, Trager\u2019s piece is based on in-depth interviews with about 30 current and former Muslim Brothers over a three-month period.<br \/>\nThis enables Trager to piece together a detailed account of the Brotherhood\u2019s structure and recruitment practices, showing in the process how dramatically different the Muslim Brotherhood is from a conventional political party. For example, at first recruiters don\u2019t even identify themselves as Muslim Brothers but simply \u201cbuild relationships with their targets in order to scrutinize their religiosity.\u201d \u00a0http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/276382\/inside-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-stanley-kurtz<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/fukushima.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4511\" title=\"fukushima\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/fukushima.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/fukushima.jpg 950w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/fukushima-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fukushima&#8217;s Link To Japanese Quest for a Nuke (what happened to all those Fukushima reds post WW2? <\/strong>the imperial army\u2019s attempt here in 1945 to mine uranium and develop ways of refining it for use in building a bomb. Compared with the United States\u2019 vast Manhattan Project, historians describe Japan\u2019s two bomb-building programs \u2014 the imperial navy also ran a separate project \u2014 as minuscule, last-ditch efforts, hindered by a lack of resources and pessimism among the projects\u2019 own scientists that such a weapon could actually be completed. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/06\/world\/asia\/06abomb.html?_r=4&amp;scp=1&amp;sq=fukushima&amp;st=cse<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Decline of Oil and America (nice history here) by Michael Klare: <\/strong>So here\u2019s the question all of us should consider, in part because until now no one has: Are the decline of the United States and the decline of oil connected?  Careful analysis suggests that there are good reasons to believe they are. \u00a0http:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/post\/175441\/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_is_washington_out_of_gas\/#more<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/rich-on-poor-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4496\" title=\"rich-on-poor 2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/rich-on-poor-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/rich-on-poor-2.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/rich-on-poor-2-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Rich are Feasting, Feasting. Winter, the Killer of the Poor, Awaits: <\/strong> Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it \u00a0 \u00a0And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1997.<br \/>\nEconomists pointed to a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had not risen over such a long period \u00a0 &#8230;..The past decade was also marked by a growing gap between the very top and very bottom of the income ladder. Median household income for the bottom tenth of the income spectrum fell by 12 percent from a peak in 1999, while the top 90th percentile dropped by just 1.5 percent. Overall, median household income adjusted for inflation declined by 2.3 percent in 2010 from the previous year, to $49,445. That was 7 percent less than the peak of $53,252 in 1999. Part of the income decline over time is because of the smaller size of the American family.<br \/>\nThe census report said that the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line last year, 15.1 percent, was the highest level since 1993. (The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314.) &#8230;Minorities were hit hardest. <strong>Blacks experienced the highest poverty rate, at 27 percent, up from 25 percent in 2009, and Hispanics rose to 26 percent from 25 percent. For whites, 9.9 percent lived in poverty, up from 9.4 percent in 2009. Asians were unchanged at 12.1 percent. <\/strong><br \/>\nAn analysis by the Brookings Institution estimated that at the current rate,<strong> the recession will have added nearly 10 million people to the ranks of the poor by the middle of the decade. <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/us\/14census.htmlhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/us\/14census.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/us\/14census.htmlhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/us\/14census.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last year the share of children under 18 living in poverty jumped to 22%, from 20.7% the previous year. <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/nationnow\/2011\/09\/record-462-million-americans-in-poverty-census-bureau-says.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">latimesblogs.latimes.com\/nationnow\/2011\/09\/record-462-million-americans-in-poverty-census-bureau-says.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>(Wink, Wink) Obama would raise taxes on the rich (triple wink) to pay for jobs plan<\/strong> :<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/OBAMA-WINK.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4419\" title=\"Barack Obama\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/OBAMA-WINK.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/OBAMA-WINK.jpg 226w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/OBAMA-WINK-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>President Barack Obama would pay for his jobs bill primarily by raising $467 billion in taxes on the wealthy over 10 years, the White House said Monday. Obama included the proposed tax increases in the detailed legislation he sent Monday to Congress, along with a demand that the entire package be passed immediately. \u00a0http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/2011\/09\/12\/123892\/obama-would-raise-taxes-on-rich.html<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fran Shor: Take the Jobs Act and Shove It&#8211;<\/strong>Instead of being sucked into the vortex of a dysfunctional political system, we need to generate the same sort of \u201cindignation\u201d found in the mobilization and organization of the outraged global multitudes whether in southern Europe or northern Africa.  And one first step is a clean break with and opposition to Obama and his \u201cAmerican Jobs Act.\u201d Enough with rationalizing and temporizing; just say take this \u201cAmerican Jobs Act\u201d and shove it! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2011\/09\/13\/take-this-american-jobs-act-and-shove-it\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.counterpunch.org\/2011\/09\/13\/take-this-american-jobs-act-and-shove-it\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>With Finance Capital Holding the Reins, Industrialism Evaporates: <\/strong>Despite its goals for manufacturing, the administration lacks an explicit plan for achieving them. \u201cThe United States today is alone among industrial powers in not having a strategy or even a procedure for thinking through what must be done when it comes to manufacturing,\u201d says Thomas A. Kochan, an industrial economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<br \/>\nMANUFACTURING\u2019S muscle helped make the United States a world power, but its contribution to national income is dwindling. And while corporate leaders like Mr. Liveris and Jeffrey R. Immelt of General Electric \u2014 who is chairman of the President\u2019s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness \u2014 are beginning to express concern over manufacturing\u2019s relative decline, the multinationals they command have contributed to the problem by gradually shifting production abroad. About half of Dow Chemical\u2019s $58 billion in revenue last year came from overseas operations&#8230;.A tipping point may already have been reached. Manufacturing\u2019s contribution to gross domestic product \u2014 roughly equivalent to national income \u2014 has declined to just 11.7 percent last year from as much as 28 percent in the 1950s, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In this century, the 20-percent-or-more club draws its members mainly from Asia and Europe. \u201cThe reason you no longer get much of an outcry over this exodus has to do mainly with jobs,\u201d says Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress. \u201c<strong><em>Less than 12 percent of the American work force is in manufacturing today, down from 30 percent in the 1970<\/em><\/strong>s. So there isn\u2019t the same level of public concern.\u201d\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/11\/business\/is-manufacturing-falling-off-the-us-radar-screen.html?_r=4&#038;ref=business\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/11\/business\/is-manufacturing-falling-off-the-us-radar-screen.html?_r=4&#038;ref=business<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wall Street Aristocrats Stole $1.2 Trllion (friggin Trillion) more: <\/strong>Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke\u2019s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.<br \/>\n\u201cThese are all whopping numbers,\u201d said Robert Litan, a former Justice Department official who in the 1990s served on a commission probing the causes of the savings and loan crisis. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about the aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the federal money.\u201d \u00a0http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2011-08-21\/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-trillion-in-fed-s-secret-loans.html<\/p>\n<p><strong>Obamagogue Rushed Dough to Bankrupt Solyndra: <\/strong> Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles\u2014  The Obama administration ignored &#8220;red flags&#8221; about failed Northern California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, rushing through a $535-million loan guarantee for the company in 2009 and improperly restructuring the deal last winter in a failed attempt to boost the economy and the green energy industry, House Republicans said. (ed: who pays? Not Solyndra execs and not the demagogue). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-solyndra-hearing-20110915,0,3717218.story\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-solyndra-hearing-20110915,0,3717218.story<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Tent City, New Jersey<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Tent-City-New-Jersay.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4426\" title=\"Tent City New Jersay\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Tent-City-New-Jersay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"578\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Tent-City-New-Jersay.jpg 964w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Tent-City-New-Jersay-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>reduced to living on handouts from the local church and friendly restaurants and the community is a sad look at troubles caused as the world&#8217;s most powerful country struggles with its finances.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We have been in and out of the camp for a year,&#8217; said ex-hotel worker Burt Haut, 43, who lives with his wife, ex-teacher Barbara, 48 in a tent styled like a teepee from the Old West.<br \/>\n&#8216;Our financial difficulties since the credit crisis three years ago have caused us to camp on public ground, at the back of churches and down the backs of closed down stores.<br \/>\n&#8216;We have had help from our friends and family, but we have run that well dry. \u00a0http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2021173\/Americas-city-broken-dreams-50-jobless-destitute-people-set-forest-community-New-Yorks-doorstep.html<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time to Empty that BoA Account. They&#8217;re emptying up to 40,000 humans: <\/strong>Bank of America Corp. is preparing to slash 40,000 or more jobs nationwide, a dramatic retrenchment that reflects the deepening woes of the country&#8217;s largest bank and the magnitude of the U.S. economic slowdown.<br \/>\nThe layoffs will come mainly from the BofA&#8217;s sprawling consumer-banking operations, which will take a heavy toll on branches, loan centers and other offices throughout California.<br \/>\nBank of America has 45,000 employees in the state, about 1 in 6 of its nearly 300,000-person workforce, and is expected to roll out the job cuts over the next several years. The company, which for years was based in San Francisco and maintains its huge mortgage unit in Calabasas, also is in the process of closing 10% of its branches nationwide. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-bank-america-jobs-20110910,0,4275951.story\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-bank-america-jobs-20110910,0,4275951.story<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/attack-killer-tomotoes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4505\" title=\"attack killer tomotoes\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/attack-killer-tomotoes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/attack-killer-tomotoes.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/attack-killer-tomotoes-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\"><strong><em>Ode To SDG&amp;E<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Steve Peace and the<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Run for Office<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Hip<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Deregulate California Energy<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Gray Davis<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Vending Machine Governor<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Enron loots California<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">$45 Billion<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Davis Appointees go to work for Enron<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Enron Collapses<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">One to Jail<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">One<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">No recoup<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Two Wildfires<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Thousands of Homes burned<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Lives lost<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Mayor and City Council Adopt Yellow FIREMAN Jackets<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Pendleton Marines Retreat to their base<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Pols Hold press conferences<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Casinos Protected<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Fire envelopes city<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Only sea breeze<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">stops conflaguration<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Mayor, the good Judge, resigns.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Blackout<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\">Nature did it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Fascism as a Mass, Popular, International Movement Emerging Fast:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Today&#8217;s Desk Murderers Denounce Fascist Medical Experiments of the Past:<\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Cutler-Dr-John-Fascist-experimenter-stds.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4450\" title=\"Cutler Dr John Fascist experimenter stds\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Cutler-Dr-John-Fascist-experimenter-stds.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Cutler-Dr-John-Fascist-experimenter-stds.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Cutler-Dr-John-Fascist-experimenter-stds-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><em>above, fascist US doctor John Cutler Approved by Harvard et al<\/em><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>The highest medical and legal officials of the American government and experts at Harvard and other top medical schools approved venereal disease experiments on people in the 1940s, which led to the deliberate infection of Guatemalan prisoners and mental patients with syphilis to test penicillin, a White House bioethics panel reported Tuesday. The experiments were \u201cgross violations of ethics\u201d not just by today\u2019s standards but by those of the time, said the report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. It called the experiments \u201cespecially egregious moral wrongs because many of the individuals involved held positions of public institutional responsibility.\u201d<br \/>\nPresident Obama apologized for the experiments to President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala last year, after they were revealed. The ethical errors were made by a startling array of public health luminaries. The surgeon general, the attorney general, Army and Navy medical officials, the president of the American Medical Association, the president of the National Academy of Sciences and experts from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Rochester gave advance approval in principle for experiments that deliberately infected people with venereal diseases, though not all those in authority knew exactly whom the researchers would infect. \u00a0..Dr. John C. Cutler, a 28-year-old former Coast Guard doctor, was put in charge.<br \/>\nThe discovery of his papers in the University of Pittsburgh archives by Susan M. Reverby, a medical historian at Wellesley College, led to the public exposure last year of the Terre Haute and Guatemala experiments. Later in his career, Dr. Cutler would help run the infamous Tuskegee study, in which black Alabama sharecroppers with syphilis were left untreated for decades to study how the disease progressed. <strong>(ed \u00a0The NYTImes callis this a &#8220;lapse&#8221; <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/health\/14syphilis.html?hp\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/14\/health\/14syphilis.html?hp<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Solidarity Fornever<\/strong><\/span><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Happy Teachers assist Personifications of Illusions from NEA; Join in Creating their own Oppression (and the kids too): <\/strong>At McGary, teachers meet regularly to share ideas and analyze student academic data. Pringle, who sat in one of those meetings Monday, said she noticed that teachers were not only focused on their own classes, &#8220;but kids in the whole school.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe approach of involving teachers in administrative-level discussion about student achievement is uncommon in schools across the state and nation, the visitors said. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.courierpress.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/12\/no-headline---ev_union\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.courierpress.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/12\/no-headline&#8212;ev_union\/<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Becky-Pringle-Diane-Ravitch.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4461\" title=\"Becky Pringle Diane Ravitch\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Becky-Pringle-Diane-Ravitch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"332\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Becky-Pringle-Diane-Ravitch.jpg 332w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Becky-Pringle-Diane-Ravitch-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 332px) 100vw, 332px\" \/><\/a>above, vacillating reactionary Ravitch and NEA&#8217;s Sec-Treas, Fifth Columnist Becky Pringle<\/p>\n<p><strong>New York Times Touts Two Tier Wage System: <\/strong> the advent of a two-tier wage system in Detroit is spiking employment for one of the country\u2019s most important manufacturing industries. The new jobs, which are seen as long term, are being watched closely by economists, executives in other industries and Washington policy makers eager to increase employment in manufacturing and other areas. \u00a0&#8230;\u201cThis is not going away,\u201d said Kristin Dziczek, a labor analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. \u201cIt has allowed the Big Three to reduce labor costs without cutting the pay of incumbent workers. Is it good for the health and competitiveness of the companies? Yes. And is that good for job security? Yes.\u201d<br \/>\nFour years ago, the United Automobile Workers agreed to allow Chrysler, G.M. and Ford to pay lower wages to new hires to help close the cost gap with foreign carmakers. <strong> <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/13\/business\/in-detroit-two-wage-levels-are-the-new-way-of-work.html?_r=1&#038;hp\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/13\/business\/in-detroit-two-wage-levels-are-the-new-way-of-work.html?_r=1&#038;hp<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>GM-UAW (in bed) Cut a New Deal (note, the bailout\/sellout included a UAW no-strike promise for years) <\/strong>General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers, sobered by the government bailout and bankruptcy just two years ago, agreed on a new four-year contract late Friday without the public acrimony or strikes that have plagued the talks in the past. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/article\/20110916\/AUTO01\/109160431\/GM-UAW-agree-on-new-contract\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.detnews.com\/article\/20110916\/AUTO01\/109160431\/GM-UAW-agree-on-new-contract<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>How Have the Labor Bosses Failed, but Prospered, by their own Measure? <\/strong><em><strong>No national health care. No card check. No Employee Free Choice Act. No Raise in the Minimum Wage. No &#8220;Living Wage.&#8221; No &#8220;Make Wall Street Pay!&#8221; campaign (but for the nurses). (and more at <a href=\"http:\/\/Laboreducator.org\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">Laboreducator.org<\/a>) But NEA&#8217;s ex-Prezzie, Reg Weaver, made $686,949 in one year of work. Nice. Now he works for Education International. They don&#8217;t return calls about his pay.<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Calif Faculty Assn Boss Joins Gov&#8217;s Commish on Higher Ed, for seat at table (to be lunch) <\/strong>More members may be added, but current participants in addition to Taiz include UC President Mark G. Yudof, CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, CCC Chancellor Jack Scott, UC Regents Chair Sherry Lansing, CSU Trustee Roberta Achtenberg, Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, Crowell and Moring Senior Counsel Michael Kahn, former California Finance Director Tim Gage, AFSCME 3299 President Lakesha Harrison, UC Berkeley student Jeremy Pilaar, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. (ed, plus the CFA gangsterette Lilly Taiz, completely outvoted, outsepent, outsmarted, but not out soldout).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Spy versus Spy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Meet the Man who Drove James Jesus Angleton over the Edge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kim Philby 1955\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N2A2g-qRIaU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Magical Mystery Tour<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CSCUlIcWLos\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CSCUlIcWLos<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>SNAP Wants Fascist Pope Prosecuted by World Court for Crimes vs Humanity: <\/strong><br \/>\nThe biggest association of paedophilia victims who have suffered at the hands of members of the Catholic Church has asked the International Criminal Court to try Benedict XVI and the heads of the Roman Curia, for \u201ccrimes against humanity.\u201d<br \/>\nSNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, presented an 80 page long document to the ICC at The Hague, to show how the Vatican allegedly \u201ctolerated and made possible the systematic and widespread cover up of rapes and sexual crimes against children across the world.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/vaticaninsider.lastampa.it\/en\/homepage\/inquiries-and-interviews\/detail\/articolo\/pedofilia-pedophilia-7994\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">vaticaninsider.lastampa.it\/en\/homepage\/inquiries-and-interviews\/detail\/articolo\/pedofilia-pedophilia-7994\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Detroit Papists (that would be with a &#8220;P&#8217;) want Your Children&#8230;.and One Hundred Thirty Five MILLION Dollars: <\/strong>Despite the challenging economy, the Archdiocese of Detroit launched a campaign today to raise $135 million over the next five years, with Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron making the announcement at Holy Cross Church in Marine City.<br \/>\n\u201cMy first thought was, he\u2019s crazy, because these are tough times,\u201d said Rev. Robert Schuster, pastor at Our Lady on the River Parish, which includes Holy Cross. \u201cBut as I thought more, prayed and listened, it occurred to me this was a great opportunity to do some really wonderful work.\u201d<br \/>\nSeventy percent of the funds raised will go to parishes. The remaining 30% will go to Catholic families for tuition assistance for Catholic schools, parish-based ministries in the city of Detroit, the training of priests, deacons, and lay ministers and to cover campaign costs &#8230;\u201cThere\u2019s no sense of desperation from the Archbishop about this,\u201d Schuster said. \u201cGod calls us to be his disciples. And one of the ways we demonstrate that is by being good financial stewards.\u201d\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20110906\/NEWS05\/110906063\/Archodiocese-Detroit-seeks-raise-135-million-?odyssey=mod\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.freep.com\/article\/20110906\/NEWS05\/110906063\/Archodiocese-Detroit-seeks-raise-135-million-?odyssey=mod<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Irish&#8211;Mad at those who Raped their Kids: <\/strong>This is still a country where abortion is against the law, where divorce became legal only in 1995, where the church runs more than 90 percent of the primary schools and where 87 percent of the population identifies itself as Catholic. But the awe, respect and fear the Vatican once commanded have given way to something new \u2014 rage, disgust and defiance \u2014 after a long series of horrific revelations about decades of abuse of children entrusted to the church\u2019s care by a reverential populace.<br \/>\nWhile similar disclosures have tarnished the Vatican\u2019s image in other countries, perhaps nowhere have they shaken a whole society so thoroughly or so intensely as in Ireland. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/18\/world\/europe\/ireland-recalibrates-ties-to-roman-catholic-church.html?hp<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/God-Bless-America-Teacher.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4487\" title=\"God Bless America Teacher\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/God-Bless-America-Teacher.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/God-Bless-America-Teacher.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/God-Bless-America-Teacher-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a> <strong>After TWO DECADES Court Orders God Blessing Teacher to Take Down Signs: <\/strong>Bradley Johnson, a mathematics teacher in the Poway Unified School District, had displayed banners in his classrooms for two decades that he saw as celebrating the religious heritage of America, including &#8220;In God We Trust,&#8221; &#8220;God Bless America,&#8221; and &#8220;God Shed His Grace on Thee.&#8221; But after he transferred to a new school, a new principal in 2007 ordered the banners taken down. The size of the banners \u2014 some 7 feet wide by 2 feet high \u2014 made them &#8220;a promotion of a particular viewpoint,&#8221; Principal Dawn Kastner is quoted as saying in the court&#8217;s 40-page opinion.<br \/>\nJohnson, who sponsors the Christian club at the school, Westview High School in Rancho Penasquitos, said he thought he was being singled out because the phrases involved Christianity. The banners came down, and Johnson filed a lawsuit.<br \/>\nTo Johnson, the banners were no more an assertion of a religious point of view than the Tibetan prayer flag, Dalai Lama poster and Malcolm X poster that other teachers had in their classrooms. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-0914-religious-banners-20110914,0,7964326.story\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-0914-religious-banners-20110914,0,7964326.story<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Underwear bomber shouts &#8216;Osama&#8217;s alive;&#8217; FBI says he wasn&#8217;t given Miranda (oops): <\/strong>An FBI agent testified today that he did not read Miranda rights to the 24-year-old Nigerian student who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 because he was worried about other suicide bombers.<br \/>\nIn a jury selection hearing, FBI Agent Timothy Waters testified that he questioned Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab at the hospital for about 50 minutes. The hearing will resume Thursday.<br \/>\nWaters, an FBI terrorism expert, said that from experiences abroad, reading non-U.S. citizens Miranda rights complicates the ability to get information quickly.<br \/>\n\u201cIt stops the process dead in its tracks,\u201d Waters said. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel it was necessary.&#8221; (Free the Undies?!) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/underwear-head.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4467\" title=\"underwear head\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/underwear-head.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"626\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/underwear-head.jpg 1824w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/underwear-head-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/underwear-head-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Worst Thing in the History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>101 Year old Woman Evicted in Detroit Foreclosure: <\/strong> A 101-year-old woman was evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived for nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay the mortgage.<br \/>\nTexana Hollis was evicted Monday and her belongings were placed outside the home. Her son, Warren Hollis, said he didn&#8217;t pay the bill for several years and disregarded eviction notices. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/2011\/09\/13\/us\/AP-US-Elderly-Woman-Evicted.html?_r=1&#038;emc=eta1\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/2011\/09\/13\/us\/AP-US-Elderly-Woman-Evicted.html?_r=1&#038;emc=eta1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gumby Bandit Gives Self Up!<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gumby.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4490\" title=\"Gumby\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gumby.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" \/><\/a> Jacob Kiss, 19, the man who detectives said tried to rob a Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos 7-Eleven last week dressed as the famous claymation character, surrendered Tuesday with an alleged accomplice, San Diego police said.\u00a0Police said a man in a Gumby costume and an accomplice went into the store on Carmel Mountain Road near Paseo Montalban on Labor Day about 12:30 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Surveillance video showed the smiling character walking into the store with his arms raised over his head.<\/p>\n<p>He then walked over to the register, put his gloved hands down and leaned his wedge-shaped head over the counter. Police said he told the clerk, \u201cThis is a robbery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The employee, who did not recognize the Gumby character, thought it was a prank and dismissed him, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Gumby insisted he was serious and said that he had a gun, but when he tried to reach into his pocket the costume got in the way. After fumbling around for a minute all he managed to do was drop 26 cents.<br \/>\nIn the meantime his accomplice, who was not dressed as a cartoon character, had already gone outside and was in a minivan, honking the horn. The video shows the clumsy would-be robber struggling to keep the green suit on as he walked out the door. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/13\/gumby-gives-police-keep-suit\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/13\/gumby-gives-police-keep-suit\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Worst and Best Thing in the History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Evicted 101-year-old Detroit woman gets her house back: <\/strong>Two days after being evicted from her house of nearly 60 years, 101-year-old Texana Hollis can move back home \u00a0http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/article\/20110914\/METRO\/109140432\/Evicted-101-year-old-Detroit-woman-gets-her-house-back<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kristi Rossum, Pride of the San Diego Chemistry Department and Daughter of a big Judge, plus methfiend murderess, denied retrial: <\/strong>A former county toxicologist\u2019s effort to get her murder conviction for the killing of her husband overturned stalled Tuesday when a federal appeals court reversed its earlier decision to grant a hearing on key evidence in the case.<br \/>\nKristin Rossum was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2002 in the high-profile case in which prosecutors accused her of poisoning her husband with a fatal dose of the narcotic fentanyl. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.\u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/sep\/13\/kristin-rossum-loses-round-to-get-murder\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kristi-Rossum.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4473\" title=\"Kristi Rossum\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kristi-Rossum.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;she was selected as the outstanding junior in the SDSU Chemistry Department&#8221;: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=w51A0Jsi7NsC&#038;pg=PA50&#038;lpg=PA50&#038;dq=Rossum+SDSU+Chemistry+Department&#038;source=bl&#038;ots=QOwxWVNqT0&#038;sig=p6ulez1LP8uFaIcs6g9M93uJ70I&#038;hl=en&#038;ei=A-ByTsjKCcPniALZ0ZjnDA&#038;sa=X&#038;oi=book_result&#038;ct=result&#038;resnum=7&#038;ved=0CEcQ6AEwBg\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">books.google.com\/books?id=w51A0Jsi7NsC&#038;pg=PA50&#038;lpg=PA50&#038;dq=Rossum+SDSU+Chemistry+Department&#038;source=bl&#038;ots=QOwxWVNqT0&#038;sig=p6ulez1LP8uFaIcs6g9M93uJ70I&#038;hl=en&#038;ei=A-ByTsjKCcPniALZ0ZjnDA&#038;sa=X&#038;oi=book_result&#038;ct=result&#038;resnum=7&#038;ved=0CEcQ6AEwBg<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>It Cannot Happen Here: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/German-Inflation-1923.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4499\" title=\"German Inflation 1923\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/German-Inflation-1923.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"447\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/German-Inflation-1923.jpg 447w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/German-Inflation-1923-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">1920&#8217;s Germany: \u201cThe crisis in Germany opened <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">by the occupation of<\/span><span style=\"color: #686679;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">th<\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">e <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">Ruhr was the <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">deepest <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">which <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">any advanced <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">ca<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">pitalist country <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">had <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">ever experienced. <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">Poverty <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">bec<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">ame general in a state<\/span><span style=\"color: #686679;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">based on the most modern <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">ind<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">u<\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">s<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">trial production. Neatly <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">whole <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">of the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">w<\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5248;\">o<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">rking population suffered absolute <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">pauperisation,<\/span><span style=\"color: #686679;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">and the petty bourgeoisie was ruined. <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">The only <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">privileges which survived were <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">those of the <\/span><span style=\"color: #333451;\">ow<\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">ners <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">of capital and <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">th<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">e <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">means of production. Speculation, <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">corruption and prostitution <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">triumphed. All measures<\/span><span style=\"color: #333451;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">of social security collapsed, and<\/span><span style=\"color: #4c4a61;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">with <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">them all<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\"> democratic ideologies. All so-called <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">moral <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">values<\/span><span style=\"color: #4c4a61;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">were ridiculed. Here was, <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">in <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">short, <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">a fearful balance-<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">sheet of failure and the obverse<\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\"> a <\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\">century <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">of the<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\"> amazing development and brilliant achievements <\/span><span style=\"color: #2c2621;\">of<\/span><span style=\"color: #3f3831;\"> capitalism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #463f38;\"><strong>Runaway inflation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #5a5349;\">The <\/span><span style=\"color: #463f38;\">most <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5349;\">spectacular <\/span><span style=\"color: #463f38;\">feature of the crisis of 1923 was <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5349;\">the <\/span><span style=\"color: #463f38;\">monetary inflation. The phenomenon was not new. It went back to the days immediately after the <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5349;\">war, <\/span><span style=\"color: #463f38;\">and had once been brought under control, in 1919. From 1921, the fall of the mark appears to have been central to the strategy of the Gennan bourgeolsie. They returned to their former calculations in the belief that the monetary crisis was entirely due to the shortfall in <\/span><span style=\"color: #5a5349;\">exports, <\/span><span style=\"color: #463f38;\">thinking that another fall in the mark would reduce their expenses, increase exports, encourage production and provide the conditions for economic recovery. The big industrialists proposed to re-establish a normal monetary situation by replacing state credit with their own, whilst at the same time<\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">demanding guarantees. But no government can safely give such guarantees when an organised working class exists. The Social-Democratic ministers obstructed every slightest hint<\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">b<\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">y <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">their partners <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">in favour of accepting <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">the proposals <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">of <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">Hugenberg <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">and Stinnes,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">It s<\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">eems <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">that from November 1921, the magnates of German industry decided that the general situation must deteriorate before it could improve; runaway inflation <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">would wipe <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">out the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">German <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">debt, <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">bring the state to <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">its<\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">knees before them, <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">exhaust <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">the working people, and<\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">leave <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">the great capitalists alone as <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">masters <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">of <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">situation. <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">The mark fell <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">steadily <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">throughout <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">1922, and <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">its fall <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">became precipitous when <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">the Ruhr <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">was occupied, It would, however, <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">be difficult to <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">apportion precise responsibility <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">for this <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">collapse, one <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">has to<\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">take into <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">consideration <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">effects of <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">increased <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">government spending, together <\/span><span style=\"color: #2b261f;\">with panic, <\/span><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\">as well as any concerted policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3c372f;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">In <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">April <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">1922, the <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">doIlar was worth 1000 marks; in October, 2,000; <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">and in <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">November, 6,000. On 4 January 1923, it was quoted at 8,000, on <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">the 10th at<\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">10,000 and on <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">the 15th <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">at 56,000 marks. From <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">that <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">moment <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">the curve rose madly, <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">with <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">more <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">or <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">less transitory halts, <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">checks and spasmodic <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">falls followed by <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">sharp accelerations. <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">On 17 M<\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">ay <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">1923, the dollar <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">was q<\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">uoted at 96,000 marks, <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">and on 10 J<\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">uly 200,000. On 23 July, the dollar <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">stood <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">at 400,000, and <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">on 28 <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">July <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">at <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">one million; On 7 August, it passed two million; on 9 August, 6.5 milIion; on <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">5 <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">September, a little under 20 million; on 6 September, 46 million; <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">and on 7 <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">September, 60 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">On <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">Sep<\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">tember, the dollar was worth 325 million marks. In one year, the <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">value of <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">the mark ad been divided by 162,500! At this level, figures lost their meaning. <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">On 1 <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">January 1923, there had been 1,654 million marks in circulation. <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">By 15 August, <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">the Reichsbank alone had issued bank notes for 116,402,548,057,000 marks. <\/span><span style=\"color: #423c32;\">The <\/span><span style=\"color: #302b23;\">printing press worked unceasingly, and private <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">presses were called upon to print one, <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">two, five <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">and 10 <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">million mark notes, and<\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\"> then 50 and 100 million mark <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">notes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">The rise in prices followed the same <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">curve. On <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">3 <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">February 1923, an egg <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">cost 300 mark<\/span><span style=\"color: #6f6470;\">s<\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">; on the 5th, 420; on the 10th, 3,400; on <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">the 11th, 4,400; on <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">the 27th, 7,000; on 5 August, 12,000; and on <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">the 8th, <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">30,000. <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">Shops had to <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">mark up their prices from day to day, and <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">then from hour to hour. The big <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">stores employed people simply <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">to <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">add zeroes <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">to marked prices, and they <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">often lagged behind the actual figures. <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">In fact the only real transactions took <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">place on the basis of gold or foreign exchange, preferbly<\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">dollars. The paper <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">mark was no longer of practical <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">use, <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">except <\/span><span style=\"color: #403931;\">for paying wages, when a fixed <\/span><span style=\"color: #584e45;\">rate applied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #51473f;\"><strong>Economic and social c<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\"><strong>onsequences<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">The economic machine se<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">i<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">ze<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">d up irresistibly, bit by bit. The Reichsbank no<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\"> longer gave credit except a agains<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">t material securities of stable value, but went <\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">on acc<\/span><span style=\"color: #645974;\">epting <\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">payment in va<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">lu<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">e<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">l<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">ess <\/span><span style=\"color: #4a4767;\">paper<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">, a good opportunity for speculators who had the necessary means.The rate of interest reached astronomical h<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">e<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">i<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">ghts, 100 per cent for a <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">24-hour loan, 400 per cent for a month, and 5,000 p<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">er cent for a year<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">. <\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">O<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">n<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">e <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">might wonder whether anyone who lent for more th<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">an 24 hours was <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">quit<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">e s<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">an<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">e<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">. In fact, no-one who possessed capital wanted to h<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">ave a<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">n<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">ythi<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">n<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">g i<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">n p<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">aper <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">marks but his debts. The<\/span><span style=\"color: #2c3053;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">peasant refused to sell hi<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">s crops. Shops<\/span><span style=\"color: #645974;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">were empty, and markets were <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">deserted. The crisis took the form <\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">of a real <\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">int<\/span><span style=\"color: #51473f;\">er<\/span><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">nal blockade. Townspeople organized raids into the countryside, attached farms and looted barns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">The German Revolution by Pierre Broue<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #322c25;\">The German revolution failed, in part for lack of class consciousness, and in part for lack of organization&#8212;and we know what came next.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Thing in the History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/old-fart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4454\" title=\"old fart\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/old-fart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/old-fart.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/old-fart-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to escape from hand cuffs.  Real Prison Video!!!!\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o-yyT_Xkc7k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We Say Fight Back! In the Crossfire is now online at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bopsecrets.org\/vietnam\/index.htm\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.bopsecrets.org\/vietnam\/index.htm<\/a> Convicted for a Song that Means: Kill the Exploiters! under ANC Rule Sipho Seepe on the ANC and Much More: Where is South Africa heading? We can already see the increasing centralisation of power, which is a threat to democracy and transparency. The [&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-4412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412","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=4412"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4513,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412\/revisions\/4513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}