People Before Profit blog

Protest hypocritical charter school TV ad

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 16:57:00 +0000

NEW YORK CITY -- Parents, civil rights leaders, elected officials, clergy and advocacy groups held a spirited rally outside the NYC Department of Education Headquarters on Chambers Street today. The gathering protested a controversial television ad produced by "Families for Excellent Schools, a hedge-fund backed charter school front group.

At the rally were Dr Hazel Dukes, NYS NAACP, Bertha Lewis of The Black Institute, Bill Lipton from the Working Families Party, as well as leaders and members of the Alliance for Quality Education, the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, Make the Road New York, NY Communities for Change, the Strong Economy for All Coalition.

The ad is titled "A Tale of Two Boys," and is directed at the to African American and Latino families whose children make up the majority of the students at the city's charter schools. A statement released at the rally criticized "the hypocrisy of the ad" given that FES "has actively opposed educational equity by working against fair funding for schools that serve high need students."

The Alliance for Quality Education has led the fight for fair funding for more than a decade. Despite a favorable New York Court of Appeals ruling in 2006, opposition in the Republican-controlled State Senate and inaction on the part of Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo have prevented that fair funding from materializing. "Governor Cuomo gets failing marks in all areas of his education policy, even though he is skilled at rhetoric and helping his billionaire donors get a good return on their investment," reads his "report card" on the AQE website.

Photo: PW

Sanders visits University of Chicago

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:53:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made a brief appearance at the University of Chicago on Monday to address the congregated student body in Rockefeller Chapel. The event itself, squeezed between a tight Iowa campaign schedule and a pressing vote in the Senate, was ticketed entry and resulted in a standing room only crowd.

David Axelrod, famed Democratic strategist and now Director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, introduced Sanders by running down his accomplishments at U of C and beyond. He noted that Sanders took part in the first sit-in for desegregation of housing at the University of Chicago.

"I think about the many many hours that I spent in the basement of Harper Library reading everything, except books that I was supposed to read for the next day," Sanders shared, arousing knowing giggles from the predominately young crowd.

The first part of the speech was broadly themed around the progress that the United States has made in the areas of women's, LGBT, and civil rights since Sanders' walked for graduation in that very chapel back in 1964. After that brief look backwards, Sanders shifted gears towards talking about his policies for the future in his trademark campaign style: paid family and medical leave, expansion of Medicare, and the fight for public elections.

"As a result of the disastrous decision in the Citizens United case, the American political system has become totally corrupted," Sanders proclaimed. The gathered mass responded in cheers of affirmation at his use of no uncertain terms.

"I cried. That was the first time I've cried for a good reason. There's plenty of politicians that have made me cry for other reasons," said Katherin Wuthrich, a life long resident of Chicago. She was impressed by Sanders' willingness to take on the fundamental issues like campaign finance reform without a Super PAC to back him up.

"I've been following him ever since the 80s when he worked on Jesse Jackson's campaign," said Carolyn J. Ruff, another long-time resident of Chicago, but she was aware that many in her community have not.

"A lot of white people know who he is, not African Americans. That's why I'm trying to introduce him to the African American community." She went on to say that she hopes that she will be able to get Sanders to address her church congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Ruff was not the only person who spoke to People's World to relate a hope that Sanders would begin to expand his campaign stop schedule into more diverse communities, specifically working class communities of color.

Photo: Patrick J. Foote/PW

The Pentagon and Hawaii, militarized state of armed occupation

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:07:00 +0000

Days of infamy: Invasion and overthrow

The upper chamber of the Japanese parliament's Sept. 19 decision to "reinterpret" Article 9 of the country's pacifistic constitution to allow Tokyo's so-called "Self-Defense Forces" to participate in combat overseas for the first time since World War II is eyebrow-raising if not hair-raising. Ironically, it comes almost exactly 75 years to the day of the Tripartite Pact, when Imperial Japan joined the Berlin-Rome Axis, the alliance of Hitler's Nazis and Mussolini's fascists, on Sept. 27, 1940.

The pact helped set the stage for the Japanese attack on the U.S. territories of Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and elsewhere, engulfing America in WWII. President Roosevelt called the Dec. 7, 1941 imperial Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor "a date which will live in infamy." But for Hawaiian nationalists the realpolitik pitting Washington against Tokyo is a case study in how Pacific islands are used as pawns, caught in the crossfire of superpowers. The U.S.-backed coup and invasion almost half a century earlier are also days of infamy.

Recently, I interviewed three longtime Hawaii activists on the role and impact of the U.S. armed forces in Hawaii, including the environmental devastation this century-plus long occupation has wrought on the isles' fragile ecosystems.

Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele is the leader of the pro-independence Nation of Hawaii. In the recent Cameron Crowe movie "Aloha" he co-stars with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel MacAdams, playing a version of himself called Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, the head of a liberated village of Hawaiians, that was shot, in part, at the actual site in Waimanalo, Oahu, where such a community actually exists, led by Kanahele. In the feature film, which has an anti-nuclear, anti-weaponization of outer space theme, Kanahele wears a T-shirt proclaiming on the front "Hawaiian By Birth" and "American By Force" on the back.

I also interviewed human rights activist attorney Hayden Burgess, whose Hawaiian name is Poka Laenui. Unlike Kanahele and Laenui, peace campaigner Jim Albertini is a haole (Caucasian), who has lived in Hawaii for decades. President of the Big Island-based Malu 'Aina Center for Non-violent Education and Action, Albertini co-authored the 1980 book "The Dark Side of Paradise, Hawaii in a Nuclear World."

Laenui believes U.S. militarism "was actually the second wave of an insertion of American colonization into Hawaii" after the Christian missionaries. Washington's military interest in Hawaii goes back to at least 1872, when Major General John Schofield was dispatched to Hawaii "as a scout. He was casing out the area, doing recon at strategic areas, such as Pearl Harbor," states Kanahele. Laenui adds that Schofield and Brevet Brigadier Gen. B.S. Alexander went to Hawaii "under the pretense of coming as tourists.... They came here as spies to determine the military possibilities of using Hawaii so that in the future the U.S. could reach farther out in their [forward] basing strategy to continually expand the American empire into the Pacific and Asia. It was part of the general trend of American expansionism, following the theory of 'manifest destiny'" beyond the West Coast, eventually aiming at turning the Pacific into an "American lake."

Schofield and Alexander reported back to the high command that with Oceania's largest anchorage, Pearl Harbor would be an excellent place for a Navy base. Laenui notes that a contentious 1887 Treaty of Reciprocity ceded Pearl Harbor to the U.S., giving sugar planters (mostly descended from the original American missionaries) duty free access to the American market. The proverbial camel's nose was under the tent - with Hawaii about to get humped.

Kanahele unambiguously calls the American armed forces' actions during the 1893 overthrow of the independent, internationally-recognized Kingdom of Hawaii "an act of war. The role of the U.S. military was to support the Committee of Public Safety at that time. Basically, the U.S. military pointed the cannons on the gunship directly at Iolani Palace," the seat of Polynesian power located in downtown Honolulu where Queen Liliuokalani - who was attempting to promulgate a new constitution enhancing indigenous rights and control - resided. "They invaded Hawaii," Kanahele asserts.

Laenui explains that plantation owners and businessmen largely descended from the missionaries colluded with U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary John Stevens, who "landed 162 Blue-jackets from the [steel warship] USS Boston at Honolulu Harbor, near Hawaii's center of business and politics. They landed with the howitzer cannon and the Gatling gun and marched up Honolulu's main street, King Street, that faces Iolani Palace, our national capitol. There they performed military exercises...and were stationed at the opera house.... The next day the Committee of Public Safety [arrived nearby]..., read a proclamation declaring they were now the 'provisional government' of Hawaii and demanded that Queen Liliuokalani surrender." There were 18 people on the Committee, mostly white missionary-descended planters/businessmen. After Her Majesty refused, "the U.S. military surrounded these 18 members and John Stevens assured he'd protect and defend these Americans, and also recognized the provisional government as Hawaii's official government," Laenui recounts.

To make a long, complicated story short, this led to Hawaii's annexation during the Spanish-American War period - when voracious, rapacious Washington also grabbed the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc. - and eventually to statehood in 1959.

Imperial occupation/indigenous landlessness and homelessness

What is the Pentagon's presence in the so-called "Aloha State" today? Annexation resulted in "All of the public lands of the Hawaiian government and that belonged to the crown went to the U.S.... Today, most of the U.S. military" is on these so-called 'ceded lands,'" Laenui points out. The Pentagon's largest command post, the U.S. Pacific Command, is now headquartered at Camp H.M. Smith near Naval Station Pearl Harbor, where the U.S. Pacific Fleet is HQed. USPACOM's area of jurisdiction covers more than 50 percent of the surface of the globe, 100 million-plus square miles, including the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.

According to Albertini, DoD's "major concentration is on Oahu, where there are over 100 separate military installations...about 25 percent of Oahu.... Expansion has been on the Big Island at the Pohakuloa Training Area...now 133,000 acres. Most of that land is not purchased by the military; it's simply seized under presidential executive order or a state lease." Statewide, the Pentagon controls more than a quarter million acres - or, according to "The Dark Side of Paradise," 6 percent-plus of the land mass of America's third smallest state, "more acreage [for the military than in] than 36 of the 49 mainland states. By percentage, Hawaii is the most militarized state in the nation.... The Pentagon has property on all the islands except those...privately owned."

Asked who is actually on more of Hawaii's land - Hawaiians or the DoD - Kanahele laughs: "The military, of course." The DoD controls more than 10 percent of the 1.8 million acres of so-called Ceded Lands, exceeding the approximately 200,000 acres set aside for Natives through the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Hawaiians have not only been transformed into a landless minority in their ancient homeland, but homelessness is widespread, affecting Natives and other locals, too. "The military occupies not only so much land, contributing to our homelessness, but the land they got is prime, prime land. Places where Hawaiians used to fish, farm, do a lot of our subsistence living. Remember: With agriculture comes water...which plays a big part."

In addition to on-base barracks and residences, military families compete with locals for off-base housing. Laenui laments, "More and more of our people become homeless because of the grab for limited resources and housing, and our people, who are the homeless, will have to leave Hawaii because it's so expensive.... The military shoots up housing costs," and pays little if any lease fees and taxes on DoD-controlled land, while the state government must use unreimbursed taxpayer money to educate dependents of armed services personnel, who number in the tens of thousands. More people of Hawaiian ancestry now live in the continental U.S. than in hyper-inflated Hawaii. Kanahele says that along with tourism, militarism is one of the 50^th State's two economic mainstays.

Making the world and islands safe for imperialism

"Hawaii has always been a military strategic point for invasions," maintains Kanahele. The Defense Department has put its massive Hawaii presence to frequent use, as an integral part of its forward basing posture enabling U.S. imperialism to project power in the vast region under the USPACOM purview, stretching from West Coast USA to India, from North to South Pole. Of course, the Pearl Harbor sneak attack triggered U.S. entry into WWII, and since then "the air war in Vietnam was commanded from Hickam Air Force Base," says Albertini, adding that Hawaii played an integral role in the Iraq Wars.

"As time goes by we realize more who the real decision makers are," Kanahele muses. "The military's role in Hawaii is to pull the trigger. Anytime something happens that has to do with Hawaii itself, now that the national sovereignty movement is picking up pace again - it's under the guise of threats from outside forces. It's still a U.S. military occupation of Hawaii.... The military plays an important role, because it's the muscle."

Regarding Defense Department land ownership in Hawaii, Kanahele asserts: "I don't know about 'owning' land. They do have long term leases for free, for $1. It's an occupation.... The U.S. military presence is here to keep us in order."

Resistance

Hawaiian nationalists have had direct confrontations with the military. Starting in 1976 a series of Native occupations of Kahoolawe - an isle near Maui which Uncle Sam used for target practice since the 1940s - pitted activists against the Navy, eventually forcing them to stop the bombing there in the early 1990s. Kanahele adds that during a protest at Oahu's Bellows Air Force Station, "some of our family went there, they stepped in front of military vehicles to make a point about training and exercises." (In May two Marines died and 20 were injured after an Osprey crashed at Bellows during a training mission.)

Kanahele adds that Nation of Hawaii militants have disrupted missile launching at the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, a Kauai installation for training and testing programs such as anti-ballistic missiles. "We've gone on the offense with the military, peacefully, nonviolently," says Kanahele.

Health and environmental concerns

The massive Pentagon presence in Hawaii has allegedly come at a huge cost. Does the DoD have weapons of mass destruction in Hawaii? "It definitely does," Kanahele declares. "It's been a terrible impact," insists Albertini, whose 1970s/1980s research "indicated there were 3000-plus nuclear weapons at Oahu, with West Loch Pearl Harbor being the main storage depot.... Pearl Harbor is a major Superfund site with major contamination.... Huge fuel tanks at Red Hill are leaking now, threatening to contaminate the groundwater of Oahu, which has a population of 1 million.... There's unexploded ordinance all over the islands...[sometimes] with no signage or fences and housing complexes being built on military lands with serious contamination issues.... [Near] Kona, a World War II bombing range's expected cleanup cost is $760 million," claims the veteran peace organizer.

According to Laenui, in the Waianae area are "extremely tall towers, Oahu's largest manmade structures, which broadcast extra-low frequency waves said to communicate with submarines half way around the world...." Radiofrequency radiation from the towers has been suspected of causing cancer and a leukemia cluster at Lualualei, but this has not been proven to be the case. Laenui suspects nuclear and/or chemical weapons are stored in bunkers there, but the secretive Pentagon (which has much to hide) neither confirms or denies nukes. "This Lualualei Valley was regarded as the first of Superfund sites.... Of course, Pearl Harbor was not very far behind. It goes to show the abuse of weapons to store and even bomb lands without appropriate cleanup," says Laenui.

Live fire training continues at the Big Island's Pohakuloa and Oahu's Schofield Barracks and Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, says Albertini, adding: "There's confirmed radiation contamination at both Schofield and Pohakuloa and likely at [Oahu's] Makua Valley.... Depleted uranium was used as part of the training of the Davy Crockett nuclear weapon launcher system.... Today there are literally dozens of weapons systems that use DU."

Johnston Atoll, located 700 miles south of Hawaii, was a nuclear test site from 1958-1963. A 1962 atmospheric thermonuclear blast produced a fireball visible in Honolulu, where it knocked out traffic lights. Years later chemical weapons were incinerated on an industrial level at Johnston.

From republic to empire

Once the indigenous people of the continental U.S. were conquered, "Manifest Destiny" began expanding overseas. By the 1890s Washington trained its sights on the Hawaiian Islands. The U.S.-backed overthrow of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii, followed by the annexation of what became the Territory of Hawaii, not only marked the extinguishment of sovereignty for the Native people. It also meant America's transition from being a republic to becoming an empire with global imperial ambitions. These colonial, expansionist aspirations were not only carried out by the U.S. military but often perpetrated in order to secure foreign bases for the American armed forces as part of a forward basing policy to enable Washington to project its power worldwide.

Among other things, Kanahele envisions the decolonization of Hawaii as a way to solve landlessness and homelessness. "We're airing out all the bad history and it's not good for America when you look at the past. But how they could actually straighten out the mess is even a blessing in disguise. As they withdraw their forces places will be available" for sheltering those living on the beaches and streets at what had been Pentagon bases and buildings. "It falls in line with the restoration of the Hawaiian government," adds the independence advocate.

Albertini states, "Hawaii is part of full spectrum dominance, air, land, sea and space, it has every aspect of militarism - and we want to demilitarize the islands." Kanahele, co-star of the anti-weaponization and nuclearization of outer space movie Aloha, declares: "National sovereignty, our identity as Hawaiians, and our control over our lands is still on the line.... I believe the U.S. is eventually going to leave. It's not like we want them here."

The Japanese move to remilitarization, along with America's ongoing armed occupation of Hawaii, threaten the lives and well-being of indigenous people and other locals for whom the islands are home - not forward bases for projecting imperial power.

Photo: Protest against militarization in Hawaii. Hawaii Peace and Justice. [The Osprey is a U.S. tiltrotor military aircraft. Since entering service with the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, the Osprey has been deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Kuwait.]

Ed Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Micronesia and Hawaii for 23 years reporting for AP, Honolulu Weekly, Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand, ABC News' "20/20," etc., on the Hawaiian Sovereignty and Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movements. Rampell co-authored 2001's "Pearl Harbor in the Movies" and the new book he co-authored is "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book" (see: http://hawaiimtvbook.weebly.com/).

Pledge in Michigan: Advocate for the earth and the poor

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 14:39:00 +0000

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. - More than 60 people of many traditions gathered at the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph in Southwest Michigan on September 23. They came together to participate in a Multi-Faith Climate Justice Vigil on the night before Pope Francis addressed a Joint Session of Congress.

The service included prayers and readings from the Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist traditions, along with passages from authors Naomi Klein and Wendell Berry.

Episcopal Bishop Whayne M. Hougland, Jr. was the featured guest and speaker. In his address, he answered the question why he was supporting the Pope, even though he isn't Roman Catholic. "The care for our common home is not just a Roman Catholic issue. It's not just a Christian issue.... The care for our common home concerns us all-all humanity and all of creation."

Bishop Hougland also issued a prophetic critique of neoliberalism along the line followed by Pope Francis in his encyclical "Laudato Si." "We've sold our souls to the gods of capitalism and consumerism, making us shallow and unreflective. We worship profits and comfort. We strive for ourselves only. We have neglected the poor. We chastise the poor and the least and the last and the losers.... We have made ourselves God."

Before concluding with the song "We Shall Overcome Someday," the participants took the five-point Saint Francis pledge. The final point was to advocate for the earth and the poor. Together the participants pledged to insist:

"We will insist that our elected and appointed officials act on behalf of us, our common home and the poor. We will use our power. We will make our voices heard. We will insist! This we pledge!"

As the gathering dispersed, the feeling was one of unity, of gratitude for an opportunity to participate in the kind of event that people in smaller cities often only read about. Everyone who turned out left with a strong determination to let that night's vigil be the beginning, and not the end, of a struggle for climate justice in Southwestern Michigan.

Photo: St. Joseph workers blogspot

Blankenship to finally face justice for 29 miners’ deaths?

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:25:00 +0000

CHARLESTON, W.V. - The accused coal criminal, Don Blankenship, may finally face justice this coming month. Blankenship was the CEO of Massey Energy, which owned the Upper Big Branch Mine at the time when an April 5, 2010 underground explosion killed 29 miners.

The Upper Big Branch Mine is located near Beckley, in Raleigh County, W.V. After many delays, it appears that the criminal jury trial in Case # 5:14-cr-00244/01, USA v. Donald L. Blankenship, may finally begin on October 1 in Charleston, WV where it will be tried in the U.S. District Court's Southern Division. Perhaps the defendant had hoped that time would dim the light of public attention from Mr. Blankenship and his alleged crimes but families of those who died have not forgotten and will not let the cause of those workers' deaths remain buried in that dark mine.

There have been so many twists, turns, and delays in this case that some wondered whether Blankenship would ever be made to answer the charges against him. On November 13 of last year a federal grand jury indicted Blankenship on four criminal counts: Conspiracy to violate mandatory mine safety and health standards, Conspiracy to impede mine safety officials, Making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Securities fraud. The safety violations are believed to have caused a build up of highly combustible methane gas, leading to the explosion that killed those miners. At that time, Blankenship was facing a maximum of 31 years in prison, if convicted on all four charges. But he may now be facing only three of those charges during the trial that is due to begin on October 1^st.

Blankenship's trial was originally to take place in Beckley on January 29 of this year before District Judge Irene Berger, but his army of lawyers won him delays and permission to visit his present home in Las Vegas. Blankenship's lawyers argued, at the time of his arraignment, that he had such strong ties to his native southern West Virginia, that Blankenship should be released on his own recognizance. In the meantime, his attorneys have also won him permission to travel to Ohio to watch his son compete in a professional auto-racing event. Finally, Blankenship's legal team has obtained a change of venue from Beckley to Charleston, because, they allege, he could not receive a fair trial in the same county where the 29 miners were sacrificed for Massey's bottom line.

With the kind of legal dream team that Blankenship has been able to afford, it's not certain that the trial will actually begin Thursday and it seems unlikely that it would extend into the weekend. But, with three or four felony counts against Blankenship, it's unlikely that the trial will wrap up in two days either. Whatever the duration of the Blankenship trial, People's World will be there to cover the events as they unfold.

Photo: Don Blankenship, the former CEO who ran the mine that exploded in 2010, killing 29. Carolyn Kaster/AP

Right-wing scheme to shut down government may flop

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:09:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Although right-wing Republicans are still scheming to shut down the federal government, at the moment their efforts seem to be faltering.

They've tried to close the doors of government in the past - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This time, they seem to be so against the right of women to make their own health care choices, they would rather shut down government functions than pass a spending bill that includes some funding for Planned Parenthood.

President Obama has promised to veto any budget bill that excludes Planned Parenthood.

If a federal budget is not passed by Thursday, October 1, large parts of the government will be shut down. Despite right-wing efforts, it seems that a bill leaving Planned Parenthood untouched will, in fact, pass.

Even if it does pass, however, it will only fund the government until December 11. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse. The nation is in its current pickle because the far right has been using this power for narrow political purposes.

Last week, right wingers tried a ploy in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., introduced a version of a spending bill that excluded the funds normally given to Planned Parenthood. It pleased Ted Cruz, R.-Tex., and his tea party cronies, but cutting funding for women's health was too much for eight Republicans to swallow and they joined Democrats in defeating the measure. It garnered 53 votes, falling seven votes short of the 60 it needed to pass. (One Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted with the Republicans.)

Now Speaker McConnell has bitten the bullet and has set up votes for next week that would keep the government open for two and a half months without touching Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile in the House, Speaker John Boehner, R.-Ohio, although a long-time opponent of allowing women the right of healthcare choice, for weeks had been trying to convince his colleagues that a shutdown battle would be fruitless because they lack enough votes to prevail in the Senate or to overcome an Obama veto. Furthermore, Boehner said he believed that voters in general oppose a shutdown and would punish the GOP in next year's elections if one occurred.

Boehner's advice fell on deaf ears. The House passed, by 241 to 187, a budget bill that defunded Planned Parenthood. Furthermore, House right wingers threatened to force a House vote on removing him as Speaker.

A few days later, in a move that caught most observers by surprise, Boehner announced, in effect, that his erstwhile colleagues could not fire him, because he will quit Congress altogether at the end of October. He implied that he had been deeply moved by Pope Francis' recent speech to a joint session of Congress and that he wanted to take time off for self-examination.

No matter what led Boehner to announce his soon-to-come resignation, he has made himself immune to being punished politically and is now free to cooperate with the Obama Administration in getting a federal budget passed that includes funds for Planned Parenthood.

What do these funds total? What is all the fuss about? A pittance: about $450,000. Federal law prohibits the use of any of these funds for abortion-related services, and such services account for just three percent of those offered by Planned Parenthood.

The right wingers are hanging the hat on a secretly taped, highly edited video purportedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing harvesting tissue from aborted fetuses for medical research.

"We are 100 percent nonprofit. We make zero profit from any fetal tissue donation," Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood executive director told NBC News.

"This wasn't an effort to discover wrongdoing. This was a three-year effort to create [the appearance of] wrongdoing."

"Enough is enough," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who chairs the Democratic National Committee. "Some of their members are willing to risk women's lives just to score political points."

Photo: John Boehner, GOP Speaker of the House as he announced his resignation. Boehner, who was unable to control the right wing extremists in his caucus, said he was moved by the pope's speech in Congress and would take time for personal reflection. | AP

Today in history: Ethel Rosenberg born, commemoration in Los Angeles

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 11:00:00 +0000

Ethel Greenglass was born on September 28, 1915, to a Jewish family in New York City. She was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius Rosenberg in 1936. They married in 1939.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens executed at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y. on June 19, 1953, for treason and conspiracy to commit espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

Other atomic spies who were caught by the FBI offered confessions and were not executed, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents to Julius from Los Alamos and served 10 years of his 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in federal prison asGreenglass's courier; and a German scientist, Klaus Fuchs, who served 9 years and 4 months. Morton Sobell, who was tried with the Rosenbergs, served 17 years and 9 months of a 30-year sentence. In 2008, Sobell admitted he was a spy and stated that Julius Rosenberg had spied for the Soviets, but that Ethel Rosenberg had not.

In 1995, the U.S. government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets, but did not provide definitive evidence for Ethel's involvement.

David Greenglass confessed to having passed secret information on to the USSR through Gold. Though in his initial grand jury testimony he denied any involvement by his sister, eventually he claimed that she knew of her husband's dealings and typed some documents for him. The problem of a weak case against Ethel Rosenberg was solved just 10 days before the start of the trial when David and Ruth Greenglass were reinterviewed. In 2001 Greenglass said, "I told them the story and left her out of it, right? But my wife put her in it. So what am I gonna do, call my wife a liar? My wife is more important to me than my sister. And she was the mother of my children." Ruth had been the actual typist of the classified documents he stole, but the prosecution encouraged him during the trial to implicate his sister. As a result of this new testimony, all charges against Ruth were dropped. In further self-defense Greenglass later claimed that he did not realize the death penalty would be invoked.

The notes allegedly typed by Ethel contained little that was relevant to the Soviet atomic bomb project; some suggest Ethel was indicted along with Julius so that the prosecution could use her to pressure Julius into giving up the names of others who were involved.However, neither Julius nor Ethel Rosenberg named anyone else and during testimony each asserted their right under the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate themselves whenever asked about involvement in the Communist Party or with its members. The then Deputy Attorney General of the United States William P. Rogers, when later asked about the failure of the indictment of Ethel to extract a full confession from Julius, reportedly said, "She called our bluff."

A political frame-up

Commenting on the sentence given to them, Julius Rosenberg claimed the case was a political frame-up:

"This death sentence is not surprising. It had to be. There had to be a Rosenberg case, because there had to be an intensification of the hysteria in America to make the Korean War acceptable to the American people. There had to be hysteria and a fear sent through America in order to get increased war budgets. And there had to be a dagger thrust in the heart of the left to tell them that you are no longer gonna get five years for a Smith Act prosecution or one year for contempt of court, but we're gonna kill ya!"

After the publication of an investigative series in the National Guardian and the formation of the National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, a growing number of Americans came to believe both Rosenbergs were innocent or received too harsh a punishment, and a grassroots campaign was started to try to stop the couple's execution. Between the trial and the executions there were widespread protests and claims of anti-Semitism, which were widely believed abroad, but not among the vast majority in the U.S., where the Rosenbergs received no support from mainstream Jewish organizations nor from the American Civil Liberties Union; the ACLU did not acknowledge any violations of civil liberties.

It has often been noted that all of the principals in the case were Jewish - the judge, the lawyers on both sides, and the defendants. But the prosecution made sure that in New York City, with by far the largest Jewish population in the country, not a single Jew was selected for a jury of the Rosenbergs' peers. Might the prosecution have feared a hung jury based on its preposterous claims?

The French Nobel Prize-winning existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre called the trial "a legal lynching which smears with blood a whole nation. By killing the Rosenbergs, you have quite simply tried to halt the progress of science by human sacrifice. Magic, witch-hunts, autos-da-fé, sacrifices - we are here getting to the point: Your country is sick with fear...; you are afraid of the shadow of your own bomb."

Worldwide outrage over what the French termed "America's Dreyfus Affair" was unable to halt the execution. The all-black International Longshoremen's Association Local 968 stopped working for a day in protest. Pope Pius XII appealed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spare the couple, but Eisenhower refused, and all other appeals were unsuccessful.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg's two sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol (who were adopted by Abel and Anne Meeropol after their parents' execution), believe that whatever information their father gave the Soviets was minimally useful, and that in any case the trial was legally compromised by open judicial misconduct. Neither of their parents deserved the death penalty.

In a statement published in the New York Times on August 8, 2015, they write, "Our mother was not a spy. The government held her life hostage to coerce our father to talk, and when that failed, it extracted false statements to secure her wrongful execution. The apparent rationale for such action - that national security demanded it during a time of international crisis - has disturbing implications in post-9/11 America. It is never too late to correct an egregious injustice. We call on the government to formally exonerate Ethel Rosenberg."

In Los Angeles tonight

The Los Angeles Workers Educational Center presents The Ethel Rosenberg Centennia lConcert, hosted by singer-songwriter Ross Altman, with music, poetry and spoken word, including a readers' theater performance from the prison letters of Ethel and Julius, with a new song trilogy based on the perjured grand jury testimony of her brother David Greenglass,an unreleased song by Bob Dylan,and a commissioned poem by San FranciscoPoet LaureateJack Hirschman.

This event takes place at 1251 S. St. Andrews Pl., Los Angeles, Calif. 90019, on Ethel Rosenberg's 100th birthday, Mon., Sept. 28, at 7:00 pm. Admission is $5 (no one turned away).

Adapted from Wikipedia, The New York Times, People's World and other sources.

Indigenous news: Junípero Serra, Marvel Comics, Doctrine of Discovery

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 13:17:00 +0000

Second-grader sent home for traditional Mohawk hairstyle

A Native seven-year-old second-grader attending school in the Washington County school district in Santa Clara, Utah, was sent home last week because his traditional Mohawk hairstyle was "too distracting" to teachers and students.

The boy, whose parents are from the Seneca and Pauite tribes, decided he wanted a hairstyle "popular to Native peoples," according to his father, but the school, Arrowhead Elementary, called the student's mother to tell her it was against the dress code.

Walk for the Ancestors focuses on mission system, Serra sainthood

Caroline Ward Holland, who is a descendant of the Tataviam tribe from Santa Clarita, Calif., experienced a life-changing event upon learning that Franciscan priest Junípero Serra would be canonized by Pope Francis on Sept. 23. She consulted with her Tribal Chairman Rudy Ortega, and decided to walk the 650 miles of the 21 mission system from Sonoma to San Diego. Her son Kagen Holland, usually in college studying art, is walking the entire way with her. The two began the walk on September 7 at mission Sonoma, and expect to end the pilgrimage in mid-November at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission founded in 1769 by Serra.

Suzan Shown Harjo to Pope Francis: Don't canonize Junípero Serra

The Morning Star Institute is proud to join the Native Nations, as well as the many Christian churches and religious organizations which are calling on His Holiness Pope Francis to rescind the anti-Indian Papal Bulls and Doctrine of Discovery, and to reverse the canonization of Father Junípero Serra.

The artist behind Marvel's first Native American character

The artist Jeffrey Vereggeis contributing to the huge comeback for Marvel's first Native American character. Mashable reported recentlyy that the "Red Wolf" character will star in his own new ongoing series by Nathan Edmondson, coming this December 2015. The character first debuted way back in Avengers #80, then starred in his own short-lives series in the 1970s set in the Old West. The new Red Wolf will fight crime in the American Southwest, and Jeffrey Veregge, an acclaimed Pacific Northwest artist, is part of new Red Wolf team.

Wisconsin school district bans American Indian team logos

Sports fans may have to leave their Blackhawks, Indians or Redskins gear at home if they plan on entering a Madison public school next year.Starting this fall, public school students in Wisconsin's capital city cannot wear shirts, hats or other items that display the name, logo or mascot of any team that portrays a "negative stereotype" of American Indians. Those who do must change or face suspension or expulsion."The existence of these mascots destroys our self-esteem. The existence of these mascots shows us how people really think of us," Gabriel Saiz, a junior at Madison West High, told the city school board in May shortly before it voted unanimously to adopt the policy.

Pope should rescind "Doctrine of Discovery"

As Pope Francis prepared to come to Philadelphia this month for the 2015 World Meeting of Families, the first pontiff from the so-called "New World" has the attention of indigenous peoples. They hope that finally there is a leader of the Holy See who understands the Catholic Church's role in the devastation visited upon Native peoples in the five centuries since Europeans first sailed across the Atlantic on a mission of conquest and evangelization.

"I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the church herself, but also for the crimes committed against the Native peoples during the so-called conquest of America," the Pope said this summer during a Mass in Bolivia.

The Pope did not just place blame on conquistadores for the genocidal campaign of subjugation, massacre, starvation, displacement, and disease. He properly put blame on the church itself for providing the spiritual and legal justification for those crimes. But the Pope stopped short of the most important step he can take to heal wounds that continue to fester more than 500 years after that conquest began. He did not renounce and rescind the Doctrine of Discovery.

Photo: Arrowhead Elementary sent a Native second-grader home simply for sporting a Mohawk hairstyle.

Pope to Congress: Politics cannot be a slave to finance

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 10:50:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Pope Francis today admonished U.S. representatives and senators not to be "slaves of finance." He is the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress.

Francis said, "If politics must be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy or finance."

He spoke about the men and women who struggle every day to support themselves and their families, yet are trapped by poverty. "They need to be given hope," he said.

The fight against poverty and hunger takes many forms, the Pope continued. "Part of this great effort is the creation and redistribution of wealth."

"Business," he said, "is a noble profession," but only if it sees as one of its priorities, "the creation of jobs."

Aside from his reminding representatives and senators of their obligations, during his 45 minute address, Francis touched on the causes of war and the need for environmental action. He reiterated his call to abolish the death penalty and repeated his plea on behalf of immigrants.

Francis cited four individuals who he said represent what is best in American history: Abraham Lincoln, who "fought for liberty," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who "fought for full civil and citizenship rights for African Americans," Dorothy Day, the leader of the Catholic Workers movement who "advocated for the oppressed," and Thomas Merton, an American theologian who encouraged people of all views to "enter into dialogue" and "contemplation."

He warned against "religious fundamentalism of all types" because it encourages hatred and promotes war.

He asked, "Why are weapons given to those who use them to inflict harm on innocent people?" The answer, he said, "is money."

He called for action to "protect nature," because we all share this planet and are responsible for the human actions that are destroying it.

"From the beginning of my ministry," Francis said, "I have advocated for the global abolition of the death penalty. I believe that even for those convicted of crime, punishment should never exclude the hope and possibility of rehabilitation."

The Pontiff devoted much of his speech to advocating for aide to immigrants. "Today we face an immigrant crisis that is the largest since World War II," he said. "But we must never see the crisis in terms of numbers. We must see the faces of human beings. We must understand the sacrifices of people who come north to find a better way of life."

He received a standing ovation when he said, "I address you as a son of immigrants, and I know many of you are the sons and daughters of immigrants, too."

The Pope continued, "Sadly, the rights of those who lived [in North and South America] were not respected. First contacts were turbulent and violent.

"We must not repeat the injustices of the past. We must never again treat strangers in our midst" with anything less than the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The Pope was greeted by an enthusiastic standing ovation when he first entered the Senate chamber to begin his address. But most Republicans noticeably did not applaud when he discussed economic justice, environmental protection and immigrant rights.

When he left the Capitol building, however, he was greeted by thousands of people calling "Father" and chanting, "What do we want? Freedom."

Photo: Alessandra Tarantino/AP

GOP: No bootstraps for you, baby!

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:20:00 +0000

Before suspending his presidential campaign, Scott Walker one-upped the gang of GOP presidential candidates all jostling for the coveted Republican title of Best Billionaire Bootlicker.

He accomplished that by announcing with pomp and fanfare that, unlike those other Republicans, a President Walker wouldn't stop at crushing labor unions. No. That wouldn't hamstring the middle class sufficiently for Walker. He'd also deny workers paid sick leave and compensation for overtime. Now those are some real anti-worker, middle-class-hatin' chops!

In a GOP field filthy with candidates who kiss up to corporate bosses and systematically suppress workers' wages, Walker was a standout. But the whole motley GOP crew is determined to do whatever it takes to deny workers and their children economic mobility.

Workers organize themselves into unions to obtain the clout they know is essential to persuade powerful multinational corporations to provide decent wages, benefits and working conditions. Unions are a method workers use to pull themselves and their families up economically. Walker and his GOP buddies want to deny workers and their children that bootstrap.

Families across this country have for decades unionized to rise out of poverty and lift their children up to the next level. This is documented in a report issued earlier this month by the Center for American Progress. The research demonstrates that unions provide families with access to the American Dream.

Many previous studies have shown that union members earn more than non-union workers and that states with higher rates of collective bargaining benefit from higher family incomes.

But this new study, "Bargaining for the American Dream," establishes that the children of union members earn more money. Not only that, it shows that the children of non-union members who live in areas with high union concentration earn more money as well.

That means collective bargaining provides the added advantage of helping kids who happen to live in union members' neighborhoods.

"What is clear," the report concludes, "is that mobility thrives where unions thrive."

Economic mobility is the American Dream - the ideal that every American has the opportunity to work hard and do better for himself and his family. And that is what Republican presidential candidates want to kill by destroying unions.

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, would start by punching union teachers in the face. Last month, CNN's Jake Tapper asked the governor: "Who deserves a punch in the face?"

Not Putin. Not Isis. No, the governor replied: "The national teachers' union."

This is the governor who in 2011 demanded that teachers and other public workers fork over more of their wages to help balance their pension account, which the state had under-funded for years. The teachers kept their end to the deal. But Christie punked them - refusing to pay the state's share.

Despite this betrayal, Christie has asserted, "Unions are the problem." So, to Christie, the organizations that provide children with upward mobility are the blight on society, not politicians who renege on pledges.

Another of the GOP presidential also-rans, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, would deny all postal workers their right to collectively bargain. And, like Walker, Paul would outlaw fair share fees nationwide.

Employees don't have to join a union that has organized their workplace, and they don't have to pay union dues. But if they don't, they are required in 25 states to pay a fair share fee that covers the cost of union services that benefit them, such as collective bargaining and grievance litigation.

Federal law mandates that the union provide services for all workers, including those who don't join. The 25 states that prohibit fair share fees deliberately deny unions that income in order to financially cripple them. The likes of Paul and Walker are eager to financially strangle the organizations that provide millions of workers and their children with access to the American Dream.

Walker ran his campaign on his record of crushing unions in his home state of Wisconsin. There, he first revoked government workers' bargaining rights. Then he outlawed fair share fees for private sector workers. When he attacked public unions, workers and their supporters rallied at the state Capitol.

Walker later compared those demonstrators to Isis terrorists. He actually said that his experience with crowds of American schoolteachers, child welfare workers and firefighters singing, chanting and carrying signs prepared him to deal with murderous enemy combatants who behead and immolate innocents.

In his anti-union screed issued just before suspending his campaign, Walker promised that as president, he would kill the federal board that investigates unfair labor practices, annihilate all unions representing federal workers, end fair share fees nationwide, terminate the requirement that contractors on federally subsidized jobs pay workers a fair wage based on local standards, stop mandating federal contractors provide paid sick leave and slash the number of workers who must be paid overtime when they work more than 40 hours.

Sounds like a big, fat pay cut for millions who are struggling to support their families.

Walker, Paul, Christie and the rest of the Republican candidates are doing the bidding of CEOs to sustain the economic pattern that has, over the past 40 years, left the middle class with stagnant wages while the wealthy took for themselves increasingly larger shares of the profits created by the sweat of workers' brows.

For 40 years after the 1935 National Labor Relations Act facilitated unionization, income inequality declined and workers' wages rose in tandem with productivity. In the past 40 years, however, productivity continued to rise, but workers' wages no longer kept pace. CEOs took those gains for themselves, and income inequality skyrocketed to the level it was during robber baron days in 1929.

In addition, membership in unions, the vehicles that give workers the bargaining power necessary to secure their fair share of the profits from rising productivity, steadily declined over the past 40 years. Now, the percentage of organized workers is nearly as low as it was in 1929.

With laws forbidding fair share fees and other anti-union measures, Republicans stole economic mobility from workers.

And Americans aren't too happy about it. When GOP presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich gutted the collective bargaining rights of Ohio public sector workers in 2011, the citizens of that state smacked him down. They overturned the law in a referendum just months later - a ballot measure Kasich lost 61 to 39.

In addition, a Gallup poll release last month showed that Americans' approval of unions rose ten percentage points in the past six years. Now nearly 60 percent of Americans favor unions.

They want that bootstrap for their kids

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard heads one of the nation's most politically active and largest industrial unions.

Photo: Duke Scoppa marches up Fifth Ave with his son during the Labor Parade, September 10, 2011, in New York. AP/Mary Altaffer

Pope Francis at White House: Fight climate change, aid immigrants

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:01:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - During the first full day of his visit here, Pope Francis repeated his call for action to combat climate change and for measures to assist immigrants coming to the U.S. in search of a better life.

Tomorrow the Pontiff speaks to a joint session of Congress, facing representatives and senators diametrically opposed to many of his views.

This morning, speaking from a White House porch to a huge, ecstatic, cheering crowd, Francis did not mince words in his rebuke of deniers of climate change. He said that the warming planet "demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition" of what awaits today's children in the future.

He was also blunt in criticizing those who are seeking to marginalize and demonize immigrants. The Pope introduced himself as the son of the kind of "immigrant family" on which America was built. He said, the richest, most developed countries have an obligation "to protect the vulnerable in our world."

Furthermore, Francis urged the U.S. to continue rebuilding its ties with Cuba.

Standing at Francis' side, President Obama said, "Holy Father, we are grateful for your invaluable support of our new beginning with the Cuban people, which holds out the promise of better relations between our countries, greater cooperation across our hemisphere, and a better life for the Cuban people."

Obama said the Pope has displayed "unique qualities" of a leader "whose moral authority comes not just through words but also through deeds."

After a 40 minute private meeting with the president, Francis climbed into the Popemobile, a white Jeep with open sides and a high, protective plexiglas arch under which he stands. He was driven at a very slow pace to his next stop so that he could acknowledge the crowd of some 25,000 people who thronged the sidewalks, many calling out "Papa! Papa!" He often stopped to bless small children handed to him by a security agent.

A five year old girl, Sofi Cruz, was stopped by security guards when she broke through the crowd trying to reach the Pope, but he insisted she be let through. She had traveled to Washington with group from Los Angeles, Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, an immigrant advocacy group based in Los Angeles.

Sofi handed Francis a note, which, according to The Guardian newspaper, said in part: "Pope Francis, I want to tell you that my heart is sad and I would like to ask you to speak with the president and the congress in legalizing my parents because every day I am scared that one day they will take them away from me.

"I believe I have the right to live with my parents. I have the right to be happy. My dad works very hard in a factory galvanizing pieces of metal.

"All immigrants just like my dad need this country. They deserve to live with dignity."

At the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Francis canonized Junipero Serra, an 18th century missionary. It was the first ever canonization to take place on U.S. soil. Some Catholic activists had criticized the canonization, saying that Serra had treated Native Americans brutally. Vatican spokespersons insisted that the Pope's action was meant to demonstrate the long history of Hispanics in the U.S.

Speaking to a group of bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Pope Francis addressed church leaders who have been vociferous in their opposition to marriage equality, gay rights, women's right to choose, and to other movements of inclusion. He said, "harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a pastor," and he encouraged the bishops to speak with anyone, no matter their views.

He added that church leaders should "focus less on defending church teaching and more on compassion."

Last week, John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University here, said that although many church leaders do not agree with Pope Francis on many issues, "there is no doubt that the Pope has made millions of people to once again "feel proud to be a Catholic."

Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP

Walker killed his own campaign with attacks on workers

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:04:00 +0000

Labor and many of its allies wasted no time yesterday saying that the announcement by Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that he was pulling out of the race for president shows the folly of trying to build a political career by attacking workers rights.

"As he limps out of the race at zero percent in the national polls," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, "Scott Walker was a one-trick labor bashing pony and the novelty seems to have worn off even among Republican primary voters. And not even the Koch brothers could save him from his money problems. But really, what was Walker running on to begin with? All Walker had to show for stripping away thousands of Wisconsin workers' collective bargaining rights was turning one of the best state jobs records into one of the worst in the Midwest, while the Badger state led the nation in families falling out of the middle class. Governor Walker has the reverse-Midas touch. Everything he touches economically turns to dairy cow flop. Let Walker's early collapse be a lesson to the other Republicans who might be considering taking up the Right-to-Work (For 3 percent Less) mantle. Assaulting the labor movement isn't just a loser economically, it's a loser politically, with polls showing that nearly 60 percent of Americans and a greater majority of millennials, regardless of political affiliation, support unions. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Scott."

"You can't build a campaign by tearing working people down and attacking their aspirations for a better life," said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. "Real change starts with bringing people together to find a common ground and boost everyone's American Dream. Not to divide and conquer or make a reputation by stripping workers rights, as Walker so often boasted."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made news when Walker first announced when he, Trumka, reacted with the terse declaration that "Scott Walker is a national disgrace."

"Scott Walker is still a disgrace," Trumka said yesterday, "just no longer a national one."

Photo: March 10, 2012, tens of thousands march to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Recall Walker demo in Madison, Wisconsin. PW.

CBCF National Town Hall focuses on Black Lives Matter movement

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 14:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- D.C.'s Convention Center was the site for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 45th Annual Legislative Conference where the development of the #BlackLivesMatter movement was given intense attention from many different perspectives. More than 70 education, health, civic engagement and economic empowerment sessions under the theme, "With Liberty and Justice for All?" filled September 16-20 during the day as concerts, receptions and networking gatherings filled the evenings.

Thursday's first event was the National Town Hall: "Black Lives Matter-Ending Racial Profiling, Police Brutality and Mass Incarceration." Roland Martin, Managing Editor of TVOne NewsOne Now moderated a panel which included Congressional Representatives Elijah Cummings, Sheila Jackson Lee, Hakeem Jeffries, and G. K. Butterfield. Others on the panel included Alicia Garza, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network (#BLM); Alphonso Mayfield, president of the SEIU Florida Public Service Union; and Val Demings, former police chief of Orlando, Fla., the first woman to hold the position.

Roland Martin reminded the audience that while 24 criminal justice reform bills have been passed since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., no action has yet been taken by the prosecutor in Cleveland one year after Tamir Rice was gunned down. Ms. Garza underscored that the criminal justice system as currently instituted "is not broken; it is designed to work just as it does work." And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries from Brooklyn, N.Y. declared, "Black men are viewed as economic commodities. Democrats and Republicans built a prison industrial complex and then filled it through mass incarceration."

The People's World was represented at the conference by participants from DC, Daytona Beach, St. Louis and Baltimore.

We learned that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has met with #BLM about strengthening accountability mechanisms within police departments, but that the DOJ has put on record that their mandates at a local level are "too high."

As an example of this, despite the April killing of Baltimorean Freddie Gray while in police custody, the DOJ is not able to mandate any police accountability measures in Baltimore, only to suggest them. One redress to this situation, suggested at the Town Hall, is for an awakened community and Chamber of Commerce to involve local police departments in awakening community responsibility in law enforcement. Val Demings, former police chief in Orlando, Florida stated, "The police are as much a part of the community as your neighbors are."

Elijah Cummings praised Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore's elected prosecutor for her bravery in pursuing legal remedies in the Freddie Gray police murder trials. "We want to be sure that the wheels of justice turn and are not stopped," he said.

Moderator Roland Martin encouraged voting as the answer to racism in the criminal 'injustice' system, since so many District Attorneys are elected. "Having a Black DA matters, but that doesn't happen if Black folks don't vote." Martin said that as a result of a new DA in one district, there have been more innocent African Americans freed in one year than in the 20 previous years.

Alicia Garza said that it is a requirement for activists to fight for "the right of Black people to live in our full dignity and our full humanity," at every level, including in federal, state and local government. In terms of police departments, she said that Black and progressive police are fighting police injustice from within, attempting to change a culture of racism and 'police loyalty' and replace it with police integrity.

What was clear from the panel discussion was that the Congressional Black Caucus strongly supports the Black Lives Matter Network in the work it is doing. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee stated, "I'm proud that we the CBC have had the wisdom to follow Black Lives Matter. It engenders a diverse, generational movement. As we do the policy, I believe Black Lives Matter can be the catalyst-like the movement that brought about voting and civil rights legislation in the '60s."

During Q & A, the first question to the panel at the Town Hall was that Black on Black violence had not been addressed. Garza's answer was that people will reach for power, whether it be against their neighbor or against the real forces keeping them down. Other panelists answered that white on white crime is also greater than interracial violent crimes.

Collective bargaining, stated one member of the audience, can act as a bar to getting police accountability. Mayfield of the SEIU offered that contract negotiations are with City governments and thus can be influenced by citizens. He countered other panelists, declaring that police can be suspended without pay for misconduct under some contracts.

Other questions resulted in the panel talking about widening the struggle to include the right to a good education and creating the labor force to fill the 1.4 new technical jobs that will be needed in the next five years.

Congressman Cummings brought applause and laughter from the crowd when he showed us the power of one person. He announced that Representative Darryl Issa (whose conflicts with Cummings are well publicized) has become a co-sponsor to the federal 'ban the box' bill which will require federal and federally contracted employers to stop discriminating by labeling felons on applications.

Photo: AP

Another delay in justice for Tamir Rice

Fri, 18 Sep 2015 15:50:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - The effort to force the arrests of two Cleveland police officers involved in the November 22, 2014, death of Tamir Rice hit a stumbling block when an Ohio magistrate allowed Judge Ronald Adrine 20 additional days to file a brief in an appeals case. Adrine's lawyers missed their deadline to respond to an appeal by private citizens seeking to force Judge Adrine to issue arrest warrants.

The case was set in motion in June when a group of eight Cleveland clergy and community activists, sometimes referred to as the "Cleveland Eight," filed affidavits in a city court alleging that Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback are responsible for the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. A long established yet rarely used Ohio law allows any private citizen who has knowledge of a crime to file an affidavit with a judge to cause an arrest.

Just two days after the Cleveland Eight filed affidavits, Judge Ronald Adrine issued a 10-page opinion calling a now infamous park surveillance video of the murder "notorious and hard to watch" and a piece of evidence that left the court "thunderstruck by how quickly [the 12-second event] turned deadly." Adrine then described the shooting in detail before finding probable cause to charge Officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide, and dereliction of duty. The court also found probable cause to charge Officer Frank Garmback with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.

But Adrine characterized his opinion as "advisory" and declined to issue any arrest warrants. Instead, he forwarded his findings to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty to for further handling.

The Cleveland Eight appealed Adrine's ruling, arguing that state law leaves no room for judges to issue advisory opinions and that the officers must be arrested. It is now up to Ohio's Eighth District Court of Appeals to decide.

Lawyers for Judge Adrine missed a filing deadline to respond to the Eight's claims and instead requested 20 more days. The request for more time was itself three days late.

The Cleveland Eight are litigating their case pro se - without any lawyer - and were quick to oppose Adrine's request for more time. A pleading filed by the Eight the next morning stated, "a law firm that advertises a litigation team with experience in over 450 appeals filed an untimely request for a 20-day extension of time to file a brief to respond to pro se appellants on a matter of pure statutory interpretation. The reason given? They had other cases to work on."

The Cleveland Eight's pleading described the request for more time as "pretextual," an indication that Adrine and his lawyers may be buying time in order to avoid publicly humiliating Prosecutor McGinty, who has failed to force an arrest or secure an indictment.

Despite the swift opposition from the Eight, Magistrate Ute Lindenmaier Vilfroy granted Adrine and his lawyers 20 more days to file their brief.

Rachelle Smith, one of the Eight, expressed her frustration. "Individuals who can help move us toward an equal and just justice system are simply 'too busy' to bother - too busy appealing on behalf of private interests and financial gain to prioritize the death of a 12-year-old boy."

According to Smith, the legal action is "not about us," but rather, one part of a "multifaceted approach" to bring about justice for Tamir Rice. She feels that Adrine has a clear legal duty to issue warrants for the officers' arrests and that Cleveland's taxpayers should not be paying the salary of officers who should be arraigned for felonies.

Adrine now has until October 5 to respond to the Cleveland Eight's arguments.

Photo: Samaria Rice center, the mother of Tamir Rice, and others march in Pennsylvania Avenue toward Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 13, 2014, during the Justice for All rally. More than 10,000 protesters converged on Washington in an effort to bring attention to the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. | Jose Luis Magana/AP

Today in history: Reagan advances “Star Wars” in space

Fri, 18 Sep 2015 11:13:00 +0000

On this date 30 years ago in 1985, President Ronald Reagan stated that the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), intended only to destroy weapons, would not be part of negotiations on reducing offensive nuclear weapons in the upcoming talks with the Soviets in Geneva. The Soviets responded by stating that the U.S.was militarizing space.

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the U.S. from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons, both submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The system, which was to combine ground-based units and orbital deployment platforms, was first publicly announced by Reagan in 1983. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which held that no power would use nuclear weapons knowing that the response would be mutual annihilation.

A vocal critic of MAD, Reagan used SDI as part of his defense policy to end MAD as a nuclear deterrence strategy, as well as to neutralize Soviet nuclear defenses.

The ambitious initiative was widely criticized as being unrealistic, even unscientific, as well as for threatening to destabilize MAD and re-ignite an offensive arms race. SDI was derided in the mainstream media as "Star Wars," after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas. In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that a global shield such as "Star Wars" was not only impossible with existing technology, but that ten more years of research was needed to learn whether it might ever be feasible.

Reagan's March 23, 1983 "Star Wars" speech,coupled with his"Evil Empire" speech two weeks earlier, ushered in the final major escalation in Cold War rhetoric prior to a thawing of relations in the later 1980s.

The concept for the space-based portion of Reagan's new defense policy was to use lasers to shoot down incoming Soviet ICBMs armed with nuclear warheads. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Bethe went to Livermore in February 1983 for a two-day briefing on the X-ray laser and came away profoundly skeptical of its potential for national defense.

Frances Fitzgerald hypothesized that Reagan may have been inspired to create SDI by a fictional secret weapon, a ray that can paralyze electrical currents, in Murder in the Air, a movie he made in 1940.

As SDI was being floated during the years 1983-85, the Soviets not only recognized the program as a threat to the physical security of the Soviet Union, but also as an opportunity to weaken NATO. They saw that by advocating space-based missile defenses, the U.S.would make nuclear war inevitable, and that this strategy would introduce a wedge between the U.S. and its NATO allies concerned over European security and economic interests.

In 1986 the scientist Carl Sagan summarized what he heard Soviet commentators saying about SDI: On one hand, it was designed to start an economic war through a defensive arms race to further cripple the Soviet economy with extra military spending, and on the other, it served as a disguise for a United States intent on initiating a first strike on the Soviet Union.

Another criticism of SDI was that it would require the U.S. to modify previously ratified treaties. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 required that"States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner." The U.S. would thus be forbidden from pre-positioning in Earth orbit any devices powered by nuclear weapons and any devices capable of "mass destruction."SDI's space-stationed nuclear-pumped X-ray laser concept would have violated this treaty.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty required that"Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

Around the world, people living in every kind of social system viewed Reagan's "Star Wars" strategy as a barbaric escalation and provocation.

Adapted from Wikipedia and other sources.

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

Trump: Climate change is “not a big problem at all”

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:16:00 +0000

Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, said climate change is not a problem when he was interviewed on national television Thursday, the morning after he participated in the second GOP presidential campaign debate.

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Trump declared: "I consider climate change to be not one of our big problems. I consider it to be not a big problem at all. I think it's the weather, I think it's weather changes. It could be some man-made something, but you know, if you look at China, they're doing nothing about it. Other countries, they're doing nothing about it. It's a big planet."

Only after three hours of tedious braggadocio and avoidance of any issues important to working people last night did the GOP candidates very reluctantly answer a few questions on climate change. Those questions came into CNN from people using social media.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who has repeatedly denied that human activity causes climate change, declared, "We're not going to destroy our economy the way the left-wing government we're under wants us to do."

Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, after saying that humans have nothing to do with climate change and bragging that his state's approach is to drastically step up the use of nuclear power said, "We shouldn't be destroying our economy in order to chase some wild left-wing idea that somehow us, by ourselves, are going to fix the climate."

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Minnesota said that current policies to address climate change will kill manufacturing jobs.

Carly Fiorina drew applause when she took on Trump over disparaging remarks he had made about her appearance but the exchange between them quickly degenerated into a contest over who had made more personal wealth faster than whom. (Fiorina ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground but not before she destroyed 30,000 jobs and lined her pockets with a golden parachute worth $40 million while Trump bankrupted four casinos in Atlantic City but not before destroying thousands of jobs and lining his pockets with millions of dollars taken from people who had invested in his failing ventures.)

The philosophy that accumulation of personal wealth is the main indicator of success in life seemed to permeate the entire Republican field. While not a single candidate mentioned the wealth gap or the need to raise wages or income after more than 30 years of stagnation they all backed the idea that government should get out of the way of billionaires seeking to pile up additional wealth.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who said last night that President Obama was a socialist who backed wealth redistribution, is the same governor that took one billion dollars from Wisconsin education and transferred it into the pockets of billionaires building a sports stadium in Milwaukee. One of those billionaires, John Hammes, is in charge of Walker's campaign finance operation.

Trump repeated his absurd call for the deportation of 11 million immigrants and the construction of a wall to "keep out criminals coming in from Mexico" with none of the other candidates, including Jeb Bush, challenging him on this.

At times the discussion was almost surreal with Trump trumpeting, for example, various conspiracy theories about how childhood vaccinations cause autism. He described an employee who "went to have the vaccination and came back with what was a beautiful baby going in that now got a high fever, got very sick, and is now autistic."

Fiorina, so willing to challenge Trump on his ability to efficiently pile up millions of dollars, had nothing to say about Trump playing doctor or medical expert. All she could say about vaccination was that they "should be up to the parents."

The only flickers of anything approaching reality or common sense came from Rand Paul and John Kasich. Paul criticized the war on drugs and the criminal justice system and policies of mass incarceration. He said, at one point, that people of privilege, like Jeb Bush, could afford to admit having smoked pot but that it is the poor, especially African Americans living in inner city's who end up in jail. He also condemned the placement of U.S. troops in Iraq and military intervention, generally.

Paul and Kasich both said that it didn't make sense that all the other GOP candidates were pledging to tear up the Iran nuclear agreement on day one. "Wouldn't you want to see if it works first?" Paul asked.

Photo: Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. | Andrew Harnik/AP

Support pours in for teen suspended over clock

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 14:59:00 +0000

IRVING, Texas (AP) - Encouragement poured in from across the nation for a 14-year-old Muslim boy whose homemade electronic clock led to his detention and suspension from school, with President Obama, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and a NASA scientist among those offering support.

As word spread that Ahmed Mohamed had been placed in handcuffs after coming to class with the clock that officials at his suburban Dallas school thought resembled a bomb, the teen became a star on social media, with #IStandWithAhmed tweeted more than one million times by Wednesday night. Many also took to social media to criticize police and officials at MacArthur High School, suspecting them of overreacting because of the boy's religion. Officials say the boy's religion was not a factor.

In a tweet, Obama called Ahmed's clock "cool" and said more kids should be inspired like him to enjoy science, because "it's what makes America great."

Ahmed was invited to participate in an astronomy night the White House is organizing sometime next month with premier scientists.

In a post to his site, Zuckerberg said, "Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause."

"Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you," Zuckerberg posted. "Keep building."

Bobak Ferdowsi, a science planner engineer on NASA's Cassini space probe to Saturn, joined in. In a tweet, Ferdowsi said, "I can't imagine I'd be working (at) NASA today if anything like this had ever happened to me." He later tweeted, "Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always use smart, curious, and creative people."

Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant, said at a press conference in front of his family's home that he was moved by the support for his son. He said Ahmed is an electronics whiz who repairs the family's clocks and phones.

"I am grateful to the United States of America," he said, attributing the widespread support to "something that was touching the heart for everybody."

Ahmed was pulled from class Monday and taken to a detention center after showing the digital clock to teachers at his school in Irving.

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said the clock looked "suspicious in nature," but said there was no evidence the boy meant to cause alarm at school. Boyd considers the case closed.

He said the reaction to the clock "would have been the same regardless" of Ahmed's religion. "We live in an age where you can't take things like that to school."

Ahmed was still suspended by school officials. He said Wednesday that his family is looking for a new school for him after he was placed in handcuffs.

"I built the clock to impress my teacher, but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her. So it was really sad she took the wrong impression of it," Ahmed said at the press conference.

School district spokeswoman Lesley Weaver declined to confirm the suspension, citing privacy laws. Weaver insisted school officials were concerned with student safety and not the boy's faith.

Police have an "outstanding relationship" with the Muslim community in Irving, Boyd said, adding that he planned to meet the boy's father to address any concerns.

This spring, the city council endorsed one of several bills under discussion in the Texas Legislature that would forbid judges from rulings based on "foreign laws" - legislation opponents view as unnecessary and driven by anti-Muslim sentiment.

Photo: AP

Washington D.C.: Days of Action against Cuba blockade

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 14:15:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- "Our job is to speak for ourselves, Cuba will speak for itself." So began orientation for the day of advocacy on Capitol Hill. Nalda Vigezzi, a social services worker from Boston and a leader in National Network on Cuba, instructed us on some of the ways the Cuba-America relationship has changed since December 17, 2014 when Presidents Raul Castro and Barak Obama shocked the world, pronouncing an end to the 54 year stalemate between the two nations.

Our mission this year was to meet with freshman Representatives and Senators who may not yet be fixed in their beliefs and are interested in some education on the Cuban blockade, how it works against business, health and even against the U.S. political position on the world stage.

IFCO/Pastors for Peace and the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity for the Peoples as well as the Institute for Policy Studies and the National Network on Cuba arranged for and planned a full schedule, including visiting Congress members and Senators and an all day conference.

To prepare for these meetings, we learned that according to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Republicans favor scrapping the embargo; that Cuba's biotech industry is booming and it is one of the "Big Three" biotech giants in the global south, along with Brazil and India. We learned about the almost $50 million per year wasted for Radio and TV Marti and USAID regime change programs in Cuba. We cringed to learn about the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 which declared the U.S. Attorney General has discretional authority to adjust the status of Cubans who are in the U.S. This Act does not say such status adjustment must be automatically used in the case of every Cuban present in U.S. territory but over the years the stipulations have been applied in an automatic manner.

Representative Jim McGovern, D- Mass., a long time supporter of open relations with Cuba came to the orientation to voice his support for open trade and travel, saying, "Congress should free up all the tools so that Cuban society can grow and then see what the Cubans make of their country. We ought to treat Cuba as we treat every other country and then I think Cuba's future is bright." He reinforced that the U.S. improved its position with every Western Hemisphere nation when Obama decided to 'turn a new leaf' with Cuba. It represents an acknowledgement by the government that "Cuba is not in our front yard or back yard, because it is not our yard!" During the Q&A a woman who was born in Cuba but raised in the U.S. spoke about the fierce desire for sovereignty which all Cubans share.

We had information packets prepared for each Congressperson. They included an article entitled, "US/Cuba Relations, the Trouble with Normal," by Jose Pertierra, printed July 15, 2015. The article clarifies that "it is not normal to maintain a multimillion dollar budget to Fund Radio and TV Marti as propaganda instruments. It is not normal for the U.S. to imprison without due process or civil rights dozens of persons in Guantanamo, as well as torturing them.... It is not normal that Washington earmarks a $30 million budget for fiscal year 2016 for a project whose declared purpose is to remove the government of Cuba from power."

Those who support HR 684 - Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015 and HR 3238 - The Cuba Trade Act of 2015 turn out to be a complex and interesting group. Congressman Ralph Abraham , R - La., is already co-sponsoring The Cuba Trade Act of 2015. His legislative director Ted Verill told us that Louisiana could sell every grain of rice to Cuba with mutual benefit. Rice spoilage is exponential over time and currently Cuba gets its rice from Vietnam, with many days delay as the rice travels across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal. However, Representative Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-Fla., a member of the Progressive Caucus is wary of supporting either bill because of the "human rights questions" that she feels Cuba has not resolved. And for our other demands: stopping USAID regime change funding and returning Guantanamo to the Cubans, we found no political will in the aides that we visited.

After the visits, my group retired to a nearby watering hole to discuss the day. We were disappointed with the slow pace of Congress in facing the reality of a sovereign Cuba, but we concluded that we'd had a powerful advocacy day in which we tried to educate and influence foreign policy aides. The combination of our experience, (most of us had travelled to Cuba more than once), and our political analysis may not have dramatically reversed our leaders' positions, but we challenged them with facts, our intellect and our deep understanding that Cuba is a world citizen. The U.S. could profit in many ways from open relations and sharing of resources.

In January 2015, Professor John M. Kirk of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, wrote to the Norwegian Nobel Committee indicating he was "delighted to nominate the Cuban medical internationalism program for the Nobel Peace Prize."

Please add your name to this petition and circulate it to all your friends, colleagues and contacts: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51018/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17248

Photo: International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity for the Peoples

"Forward Through Ferguson": Report uncovers roots of racial inequality

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 15:26:00 +0000

St. LOUIS - Earlier this week the Ferguson Commission released its long-awaited report titled Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equality. The 198 page report, which details the roots and reality of racial inequality in the greater St. Louis region, is a balanced, objective analysis of the consequences of racism in the region - a must read for anyone sincerely interested in the "underlying issues brought to light by the events in Ferguson."

Undoubtedly, "St. Louis does not have a proud history" regarding race relations and racism, the report says, and is "still suffering the consequences of decisions made by our predecessors." Early on, the report makes a distinction between "racial inequality in our region" and "individual racism," and indicates that there is no desire to point fingers or call "individual people racist."

Rather, the report adds, "What we are pointing out is that the data suggests, time and again, that our institutions and existing systems are not equal, and this has racial repercussions. [And] Black people in the region feel those repercussions [disproportionately] when it comes to law enforcement, the justice system, housing, health, education, and income."

The Commission also points out that this report is a "people's report," that it is "directed to the average citizen whose daily lives are affected by the issues we explored, and whose lives will be impacted by the calls to action we make." Additionally, the report was written "to speak to an audience of average citizens - not lawyers, legislatures, academics, politicians, or policy wonks."

Further, the report should be considered "A Living Document," as the Commission intends that it and its findings "stay alive...grow and evolve based on your engagement with it."

The report outlines a number of "signature priorities," including:

- Justice for All: The Commission identified priority calls to action for police reform, court reform, and consolidation of police departments and municipal courts, which include the need to address use of force, police training, civilian review, and response to demonstration, as well as sentencing practices, protection of constitutional rights and conflicts of interests in municipal and county courts.

- Youth at the Center: In the area of child well-being, the calls to action address supporting the whole child, ending hunger for children and families, reforming school discipline, and leveraging the influence of schools to improve childhood health, as well as early childhood education, education innovation and school accreditation.

- Opportunity to thrive: The report also has a focus on creating equity in opportunity to thrive, so that all the region's residents have a fair shot at achieving the American dream. The calls to action in this area address economic mobility, expanding Medicaid, employment, financial empowerment, housing and transportation.

Of special note is the report's emphasis on the interconnectedness of over-lapping, mutually reinforcing issues being addressed. The report isn't solely focused on racial disparities within law enforcement. Its canvass is much broader, and in that regard much more nuanced and complete.

The Commission, founded by executive order of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, was born out of the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson in August of last year and the resulting protests, police and national guard response.

As should be obvious, the report does not attempt to specifically address - or argue the validity of officer Darren Wilson's actions - which resulted in the death of Brown. The report does, however, clearly argue that the "Relationship between law enforcement and the community become[s] strained when force is - or is perceived to be - used to resolve a situation that could have been resolved through alternate means..."

Further, the report adds, "Policies and training on use of force should authorize only minimal amount of force necessary to protect citizen and officer safety, that is proportional to the incident, that brings an unlawful situation safely and effectively under control, and that preserves the constitutional and human rights of all citizens. The use of force toward the lethal end of the continuum should be used only in the rarest, most dangerous of situations."

The report calls for the following when deadly force is used:

- That the Attorney General serve as the special prosecutor in all cases of police use of force resulting in death.

- That the Missouri Highway Patrol shall be the default agency assigned to create a task force with the requisite training and expertise responsible for leading the criminal investigation in all cases of police use of force resulting death.

- That a the Use of Force Statute for Fleeting Subjects be updated to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tennessee v. Garner, which states that a law enforcement officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless "the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others."

- That a Use of Force Database be created by the state of Missouri and be made publicly available in order to improve department operations, state policy, and keep the public informed of instances of use of force.

- That the Use of Force Policies and Trainings be revised to authorize only the minimal amount of force necessary.

The report also argues for the creation of civilian review boards at the municipal and county level, as well as the development of a comprehensive demonstration response plan, and the elimination of incarceration for minor offenses, as well as the establishment of alternative sentencing options, among other calls to action.

While the reports focus is the on the reality of racial inequality, especially as regards law enforcement, it also addresses the need to promote officer wellness, indicating "that a police officer's work environment, which includes exposure to potentially traumatic experiences, coupled with a police environment that values stoicism and self-reliance, can prove detrimental to an officer's mental health," and can contribute to "high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide and depression, and an impaired ability to effectively enforce the law and interact with community members."

Undoubtedly, the report's implications are far-reaching with the potential to dramatically alter community / police relations for the better. Additionally, the report offers a way forward that does not attempt to place blame and / or identify guilt. Rather, the reports goal seems to be directed towards a path of healing, reconciliation and the development of policies and procedures that address the needs of all interested parties - the community and the police - and to the prevention of future conflict.

The Ferguson Commission should be commended for its diligent, thoughtful and forward looking work. It is now the responsibility of community, police and political leaders to identify the means by-which the Commissions finding can be discussed publicly and implemented.

Photo: Commissioners Rasheen Aldridge, an activist, and Kevin Ahlbrand, a detective sergeant with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, talk about their experiences joining the commission and working together towards positive change in the St. Louis region. Forward Through Ferguson report website.

Jeb's tax plan would still let hedge fund managers pig out

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 15:12:00 +0000

The American people are fed up with Wall Street and the right wing can't ignore it. The 99 percent are furious about paying higher tax rates than the billionaires.

At Wednesday's Republican debate, look for Jeb Bush to try to ride that wave of anger with a startling proposal to raise taxes for hedge fund managers.

Bush's tax proposal, according to New York Times finance columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, would raise the tax rates that the hedge fund managers pay on the money they "earn." Right now that rate is only 15 percent, compared to the 25 percent the average American pays and the 39 percent that highest incomes are supposed to be taxed at. Eliminating this hedge fund privilege in the tax code would raise $17 billion that could go a long way to funding education, child care or heck, just reducing taxes on the rest of us.

So why aren't the hedge hogs squealing about the $17 billion dip into their trough?

The answer is that they've read the whole plan, and so should we. While it's the headliner, actually the tax increase on hedge hogs is only a relatively small aspect of Bush's plan. Don't expect to hear too much about the rest. It's like one of those giant "loss leader" sales to lure you into the store. You feel like you got over with 10 cent bananas, but by the time you paid an extra 50 cents on 20 other items, you come out behind. In the case of Bush's loss leader, the rest of his plan drops corporate tax rates from 35 to 20 percent and reduces the individual rate on billionaires to 28 from about 39 percent. The hedge fund guys will come out just fine.

In fact, Jeb himself would pay nearly a million dollars a year less in taxes, according to an estimate by Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post.

Photo: Jeb Bush. | John Minchillo/AP