Justin Hamilton, who recently stepped down as Arne Duncan’s press secretary, has accepted an executive position at Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify. This division, headed by Joel Klein, sells technology to the schools.
This is funny, because last May I had a Twitter debate with Justin about the role of entrepreneurs in education. I didn’t see much good coming from injecting the profit motive into schooling, and Justin disagreed. He landed in the right place for him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DISGUSTING!!!
mb mbutz24@aol.com
The injection of the profit motive into education, is indeed, a new phenomenon, and an unwelcome one. All the good private schools are “non-profit” corporations, no matter how much they sock away in their “fund balance.” When a portion of funds collected must go to shareholders, that must inevitably reduce the proportion of funds spent on the services to the students. What then has produced such a backlash against the public school approach to organizing education? It was a parallel skimming off of public funds into teacher Cadillac health care plans and defined benefit pension plans that the school districts did not have the revenues to pay after the depression hit in 2007. Public schools are indeed not supposed to be profit oriented, but their difficulties arise from the same sort of diversion of revenues to non-student-service purposes. It’s “bad business” in both cases.
I agree that defined benefit plans are a bit of a ruse, but this isn’t specific to education and teachers. Not to mention medicare, medicaid, and social security. If the benefits received don’t match the benefits paid in by cohorts grouped in a specific time frame, it is bad business, fuzzy math, intellectual sloppiness, generational theft, morally challenged.
wrong.
Sir there is no “parallel” here. When you use the term “Cadillac” it is obvious that you are one of those that have been duped by the corporate demonization of teachers while the “non-profit” corporation CEO collects his million dollar salary for providing health care.
I was with you for the first couple of sentences.
Cadillac health plan? More like a well-used Hyundai from where I’m standing, although that’s better than nothing.
Cadillac health care plans? Really Harlan? Based on your experience with what? I have no Cadillac health care plan. And yes, I do know what one looks like because I had one when I was a software engineer. I don’t have one now. In fact, my wife and I had so many medical expenses (not paid by my “Cadillac” teacher health care plan) one year that we owed zero federal taxes. I know you enjoy putting inflammatory (and bogus) statements here Harlan. Just calling you on it this time.
Harlan, how can someone so articulate be so ignorant?
It’s not so much “Cadillac Health Plans” as “Cadillac Subscription and Medical Fees”. Our health plan is not great (like the politician’s) and not bad. It’s good. It keeps up with the ridiculous medical costs that are foisted on the American people.
The Depression after 2007? I thought it was a recession brought about by the people that are still in office (who are being manipulated by the criminals who put them there).
Please give me an example of an “acceptable” health care plan.
So called non-profit institutions channel the funds that would go to investors or shareholders into the pockets of their obscenely compensated executives. Average salary for a Los Angeles CMO ‘CEO’ is a quarter million a year, while their actual educators make a pittance in comparison to their public counterparts. So instead of ‘skimming,’ to lift a phrase from our kooky Rand-acolyte above, those running schools under the guise of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC), are scooping the lion’s share of funds that should be used in the classroom instead. Moreover, the craftiest of the charter/voucher “entrepreneurs” supplement their salaries by leasing properties they own, like Oakland’s Ben Chavis. Many also arrange for contracts with companies that they own secret interests in or will go to work for afterwards.
The only way to remove these vectors of greed-fueled self interest is to keep our schools public in every sense. The only “bad business” is to let business interests have any control over the public commons.
If you are elected to office in the US Gov’t you and your family will enjoy the Maserati health plan.
Really, we are going to start subsidizing Apple with federal education dollars? I am all for more technology in education, but who is going to pay for this technology? At my school, we have a teacher who is paid a $100.00 stipend to maintain our already outdated computer lab. As far as the Cadillac health care, a family in my district pays $1500.00 a month towards their benefits. Why don’t we get rid of the testing companies and take that 1 billion dollar a year industry’s money to fund education?
The costs of buying and (more so) maintaining current, up to date technology hardware and software are considerable. I think people need to come to grips with the fact that providing quality education for our next generation(s) is going to cost money. Especially nowadays.
Concerning education Obama and Duncan are as one with Murdoch.
“He landed in the right place for him.”
And you have landed in the right place for you and for us Diane.
Diane and fellow fighters for public schools and teachers:
I would deeply appreciate ideas, productive actions, etc. that participants of this
blog are aware of that have stymied the politically powerful from destroying metropolitan
public school(s), I will present this as an American Tragedy, whose actors, including the
covert power players who hide and work through puppets, i.e. Michelle Rhee, and those in powerful positions within the affected districts and are responsible for implementation of the businessman/Superintendent’s destructive edicts, and pose no scruples to the unjust methods used to accomplish this draconian, obfuscated agenda against faculty members.
A businessman, with no educational background, is
named the Superintendent of the city schools. Immediately he arbitrarily installs his “The Business Plan.” that will henceforth direct all school actions. A major tenet is:
of this plan, as he often tells his faculty members, is the replacement of older teachers
with “Baby” ones, or Teach For America, with other educators who have limited
experience. The basis for this drastic change was posited on one driving factor: Saving Money. We all know the results! Older teachers, regardless of years of successful
accomplishments, total dedication to their profession, all superb attributes have no affect in their career’s demise.
Money rules as the supreme decider. In order to execute this draconian, educationally
destructive edict; cruel, baseless, false accusations are hurled at countless numbers of the targeted victims. Facts are sneered at, or totally fabricated ones are used to achieve the obvious ends. EEOC lawsuits of age, race, retaliation are filed by hundreds of destroyed teachers. The process, normally has a start to finish duration of 18 months to reach a decision. The EEOC, due to the vast number of individual and group charges brought to them, and later, the justice department, instigate a “Pattern
and Practice” investigation. Time dribbles on to a year, two years, three years with
no decision. The banished teachers loose homes, all their savings, to say nothing of the drastic affects upon the health. Suspicions, as would be the case with such unusual, inexplicable delays, begin to produce inquiries. Fears arise that due to the unscrupulous tactics used against targeted teachers, instigated by the businessman, Superintendent, who now has been placed in a powerful Congressional spot; that he might be using his powerful position to interfere in the Washington, EEOC/Justice investigation and consequent verdict. These fears, though knowledgeable sources prove true. The former Superintendent IS pushing hard for a verdict of “No cause,” despite the mountain of evidence against such a frivolous claim! The other three possible verdicts were: 1. An inability to discern which party is right; 2. A verdict that there is probable cause of the charges being correct; 3.That there is vast evidence that the charges are correct and the actions of the district are so egregious the the federal agency will join in the suing teachers’ defense. The verdict that the Superintendent is trying to force is the most inane finding of no proof of any of the charges. To the affected, and those in fear of being treated in a similar, unjust manner in the future, as well as the destructive affect of the needless loss of expertise in the teacher corp; all combine to produce deepening academic devastation in the the district that is both profound and needless!
Truly an American Tragedy that is being perpetrated across our nation! Please, please give advice and/or actual actions taken by teachers who have found, through no fault of their own, this total destruction of their careers, finances and often health. Give also poignant thought to the students whose education has been and is being destroyed. Your thoughts will be deeply appreciated, and, as the apt quote so presciently states,
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”
This is a nationwide game going on. To get rid of high time high pay teachers ready to have lifetime benefits they falsely charge them and then do not allow “Due Process.” I had this issue audited by the State of California in 1997. This audit is Oct. 1997, 96121 for teachers being falsely accused of child abuse for whistleblowing. It is now worse than it was in 1995-97. If you have been falsely accused contact lenny@perdaily.com.
It would become a true literary “tragedy” if we could show that the otherwise exemplary teachers, skilled, noble, intelligent made a signal mistake (called a hamartia) early in their careers and accepted a patently greedy defined-benefit pension plan that any sensible person would have known would bankrupt a district, but in order to go along to get along with the union contract, they accepted it in a kind of innocence thinking in a modern hubris that they deserved that over-expensive treatment because they were in “public service.” THAT’s what a true tragedy is. And the country is now participating in an even bigger tragedy in permitting a charlatan and crook to remain in office as president and doing so out of the highest and noblest motives, to end cultural segregation in its politics. We all hoped he would be a GREAT president, even those of us who voted against him. Now we see he is an elitist, venal, perpetually lying playboy failure, and the grief is immense. There is true tragedy proceeding in America, but what you want to write is melodrama, which ain’t art.
I’ll tell you what, Harlan. Pensions and healthcare plans do not bankrupt school districts. If you choose to connect the dots, paying for Afghanistan and Iraq costs 2.1 million per minute on average, paying for Mitt Romney’s offshore tax havens, paying for the oppression of only being able to purchase drugs in Medicare from uber-expensive American Pharmaceutical companies, paying for Facebook’s $400 million dollar tax rebate and its zero tax payment to the government this past fiscal year as a corporation, paying to bail out Wall Street for economic crimes they perpertrated and were NEVER arrested for or brought to trial, paying for Pearson’s 1.2 billion dollar profits last year as a result the test obsessed culture created by this reform movement, paying for private health insurance to fatten the pockets of its upper executives rather than providing a citizen’s single payer system, paying for Obama’s $186,000 per year retirement for the rest of his life, paying for the less-than 15% tax rate reserved for hedge fund managers while the rest of us pay 28 to 33%. . . . well, paying for all of these economically fascist arrangements is what bankrupts school districts. Teacher costs are nothing compared to the big picture.
As an American public nationally board certified school teacher and as someone who has strong ties to France and Italy, I am compelled to say that we would be fortunate as a culture and society to adopt even half the social safety nets Western and Northern Europe have created over the last 100 years. Presently, we are in the top quartile for infant mortality, child poverty, and incarceration. Why not put your lens on those issues rather than criticize teachers for fighting for basic quality of life rights?
And you demonize us teachers because we’ve dared to negotiate for health care and pensions? In 1977, 24% of the private and public employee sector combined was unionized. Today, it’s less than 7%. Even with all the problems Europe is facing now, we are light years behind in the United States because we have been brainwashed into thinking that individualism trumps collectivism.
Yet, it was the collectivist unions that created and sustained much of the middle class and prevented the roaring 20’s from cementing the American population into a caste sytem similar to present day Mexico.
Harlan, out of respect for this blog and Diane’s ettiquette sensibility, I am refraining from using more colorful language about your ability to think before you write.
I’d like to propose that you leave the galaxy you’re in now, and just try coming back down to earth. Even with global warming, it’s not so bad here with the rest of us.
That’s my good little European Communist. You won the darn election for etiquette’s sake. I’m just riding the punctured boat down the flume with the rest of you, only yelling maniacally “You made the holes yourselves..” You’re yelling “The business bastards made the holes.” It’s still going to sink. There is never going to be a second Revolution. I support the counterrevolution, but more am enjoying the spectacle of the left fighting itself. The states are out of money! The Feds are 17 trillion in debt. The bourgeoise are still in control. It’s 1848 all over again, not 1917. The country is not with you. Obama has no clothes, and slowly even you are coming to see it. Diane’s last book will be on why the anti reform movement failed. It the money, stupid. It’s all gone. Obama WASTED it, and now public education is paying the price. His lies are transparent, and when he crashes he’ll take public anything down with him. What is sardonically funny to me is to see he whom you thought would be your greatest champion knifing you in the back with a sharpened golf club and destroying what used to be a pretty good social institution, and still is among the middle class, until you Howard Zinns got hold of it and could no longer discern what was even in your own best interests. Ted Kennedy did this to you. How’s that hope and change working for you Comrade?
He is not a playboy but almost everything else you stated. He has sold out the mass of the American public and certainly “Real Democrats” who believe in the rights of the general public and their health, safety and education for the future. Obama is a corporatist privatizer and always has been when you take a close look at his history. This is very unfortunate. Even I bought that touchy-feely stuff for awhile and then who he really was became too apparent.
Your logic seems to have difficulties in several areas: 1. Where did you ascertain that this phantom teacher made a “signal mistake” in the dark, gloomy past? Such a fiction is a flimsy rationale to denigrate this imaginary educator. 2. Your making the teacher(s)
culpable by “accepted a patently greedy defined-benefit pension plan that any sensible person would have KNOW would bankrupt a district…” is once more a conjured, baseless rationale to put teachers in a culpable, morale stance. One can invent any absurd story, based on a pr-conceived motive, which this illogical fantasy so aptly reflects! I feel this is just another covert attack on both teachers and their right to have just benefits, especially in light of their near universal low pay. My American tragedy IS based in the real world, and real world experience of countless teachers. Then,
your polemic takes equal, baseless aim at our President! He is guilty of being a “venal perpetually lying playboy failure…?” Seems you have angst against teachers having average health care benefits (much less than the Congress and those working for the major corporations, let alone their truly “greedy CEOs! You also
aim your groundless attacks on President O’bama. Might these
two targets be people and/or groups that you dislike for invalid reasons, just as invalid as calling the President a “playboy” or teachers greedy for agreeing to decent health care. Your reasons show through your bitter attacks and add nothing to the reasoned discussions we so desperately need.
The fundamental debate in all of this, in my view, is twofold:
1) Whether the system that’s being attacked (public schools throughout the US) is truly one that’s broken and does not serve the best interests of the children and young adults or not.
2) Whether the system that’s being proposed as a replacement (charter/privatized schools) is superior to the public school model or not.
I’ve seen, first hand, how the statistics were manipulated with NYC’s State Test scores, sometime back. We ranked dead last in the state. It ended up being disclosed (days later on a back page of the papers) that we were the only city that included special education kids in the averages. Without that group, we ranked 3rd in the state.
Is it possible that similarly rigged studies and comparisons have been and are continuing to be slanted, through the media, as gospel truth to the citizens of our nation?
If you haven’t read another blog of Diane’s; The NY Times recently reported on a new study that highlights charter schools in NYC as outperforming public schools. Below is a link to an article that refutes that study. The author has a very detailed study of his own and is no dummy. Do you think his work will get the same kind of press that the first one did? If not…then what would that tell you?
http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/what-does-the-new-york-city-charter-school-study-from-credo-really-tell-us/
I will post another analysis tomorrow debunking the charter study.
Injecting a profit motive into public education opens up opportunities for communications/tech/yellow-journalism monopolies to create and fill positions for former or soon to be policy makers. Guess you could call them the investors, innovators and job-creators.
Quid pro quo.
Right in the middle of our NYC school bus strike, that started because King Bloomberg wants to give contracts to the lowest bidders and have them reject the Drivers and matrons union employee protection provision, (that means that they are hired from a list of seniority highest to lowest and hire those lowest seniority and lowest paid) so that he can save money to put in the classroom (so he claims) we found out that he gave a 10 MILLION dollar NO BID contract to Joel klein for a program to TRACK student test scores!! Hmmm! 1. How does that put money in the classroom ? 2. We already list student test scores on ARIS another multi million dollar project that is really not all that usefull to parents!
This is all about directing money and power to their friends and themselves with no concern for anyone or anything else.
I agree, but that’s what the Detroit school board was all about too. Two devils fighting for control of the same trash heap. No angels. They all moved beyond Eight Mile. Exported from Detroit.
That is exactly the MO of the corporate CEO’s that we have seen rip off even the poorest in our nation. People’s example: Enron. The
truly evil actors who destroyed sections of our society, intentionally in their ravenous greed, covered by the highest levels of D.C.
“leader.ship.” Who profited? The very bankers and money changers who perpetrated this disaster that ended up being a massive transfer AGAIN from the bottom 98% to the top 1 or 2% NO ONE even got so much as the cost of a traffic ticket for the worst, white collar crime in the last 80 years! Since they all skated free, expect to see this who charade revisit what’s left to be pillaged.
Excellent example of where the disappearing, educational monies go!
In the dark past, I saw the first of such peanut shell games in Ohio. The governor wanted a state income tax. He promised oaths that would make a Baptist cry, that this tax would never, ever, ever go above 5%, and it would be for education. Ah, the Trojan Horse appears on the scene to stymie any detractors. What citizen could be against such a noble recipient? The state tax won by a landslide, bit alas the monies gathered were not given to public schools EXCEPT for a mere pittance of the state tax funds. Rather the tax collected went into the GENERAL fund and the education part was miniscule! How many scams have been perpetrated by such bait and switch sophistry?
Robert Wilmers ( M&T Bank ( millionaire +) is “talking ” to DR. Pamela Brown, Superintendent of Buffalo, NY schools about using TFA teachers to save money . She was hired from a short list of candidates provided by “Say Yes to Education” ( where many TFA alums work).
If Cuomo runs for President next time, please “fugedda bout ‘im). Arne may be his VP choice…same feathers.
We are in “deep doo” in NY.
Two rules to uncover rot: 1. Follow the money, and 2. Take the microcosm of NY, any major city for that matter, and superimpose the macrocosm, well worn tactics that lead to the same debacle! TFA is the theater of the absurd, brought to the easily swayed public by the hidden, corporations that feed off the misery of these naive “candidates” who are serfs to the cloaked, groups that hide behind their paper thin, bogus caring and kill two birds with this insidious stone. They destroy degreed educators, especially ones that are termed “older” and worse, the TFA’ers with 3-5 WEEKS of “prep”
time would be hard pressed to “teach” at a dog school. Victims:
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. “nough said!
We have already introduced the profit plan…its called the CCSS. Who profited? The industry that sells education to the government. Standardized test makers, text book publishers….
E-X-A-C-T-L-Y!!
Who says our government isn’t for sale??? They are a bunch of crooks. Where do you think Duncan will get his next job?
I like the idea that he’d be Cuomo’s running mate. Unfortunately, even the Democrat Party is that suicidal. The conservatives could use an opposing ticket like that. They might be able to win. Naaaah. How about a Biden-Emmanual ticket? Or a Hilary-Obama ticket. I mean Michelle. What’s your preference Dee?
None of the above. How about you? I’d like to vote, “None of the above.” The public needs a new party that might actually do something for the people instead of their cronies.
I agree, DeeDee. None of the above. The Democrats are unified, but utterly corrupt. The Republicans are divided, and half corrupt. It’s going to be a painful two decades.
The Democrats through the DNC and the DFER have sold out to the right wing for ‘A Few Dollars More.” If the Democrats do not immediately start to support the regular citizens we need to form a new party to take over to represent the citizens not both only representing the corporations and the wealthiest individuals who own those corporations and run them and the government in our new “Fascist Amerika.”
I have no problem with unlimited difference of opinions; that’s what democracy thrives on. But I DO have a problem with insults, name calling and thoughts only based on
degrading those don’t agree with you. Just look at the cable news “discussions” and see where going down that path leads! That’s not freedom of expression, it’s a perversion of that term. I would hate to see this website become a victim of such verbal barbarity. It accomplishes nothing to the dialogue.
Barbarity is not realizing what is really going on because of ideology. This is not the real Democratic party of the old days. This party does not care about the common person anymore. This is an education blog. Barack and Michelle made their living in Chicago privatizing schools. Do you contest that fact? If so, you are not dealing with reality. I have been doing school fraud research for over 20 years and have found billions stolen. I am the only person to ever have LAUSD audited by the State of California and got the children of this state $1.5 billion extra for textbooks and instructional materials and supplies through the legislation known as Schiff-Bustamente. This legislation was introduced by an article in the L.A. Times known as “In a Book Bind” which showed that for 10 years LAUSD budgeted and did not spend $250,000,000/year. I know what I am talking about. I follow facts. The Democrats factually have been working with the Republicans to privatize and corporatize public education with the help of Obama and Duncan. As a matter of fact I have the letter Duncan wrote to the California Legislature in which he stated that those who were running Chicago before Daley took over in 1995 had run the district into $1.8 billion in debt which they had to clean up. Fact, I have the budget from 1994 and there was a surplus. Duncan wrote this letter while superintendent of Chicago. He wrote it to promote mayoral control. He lied and is now Secretary of Education. You should have seen Duncan run when I confronted him on leaving the Pico Rivera location after 10 minutes after they asked us to bring as many people as possible. After I confronted him 1/2 of the people left the auditorium in disgust. Are these the people you want to support????? Do you all deal in facts or fantasy? I deal in facts and in the policies which politicians push in spite of their rhetoric, do you?
George: I’m not sure who you’re talking to but I applaud you. You’re reporting on what I’ve both suspected and seen for decades.
I’ve been saying this in other posts, but I have to repeat it: we must find a way to get this information through to the mainstream.
Obama was never on the side of public education. He never made us any promises. Unfortunately, he was our only choice over Romney. That could have all been scripted, too.
We call it a Kabuki Dance. What you see is not what it is. Study Asian Culture. Sit down and watch one of the historic Korean Dramas like “The Iron Empress” or “Emperor of the Sea” and you will see the Kabuki Dance and complicated twisted politics. I have found after many years in politics and with old timers that most people run from reality as it is too twisted. In education this is even more so.
It was warfare with Democrats in Sacramento as a Democrat to have LAUSD audited by the California State Auditor. I had to have help from Republicans to have LAUSD audited in 1997 for “Falsely Charging Teachers with Child Abuse for Whistle Blowing.” This problem is worse now than in 1997.
To solve any problem you must face the problem no matter what it is to find a solution with a proper “Outcome.” I come from the aerospace industry and started on the SR-71. Do you want to fly in a plane where people did not have to face reality when things were not working? Read Kelly Johnson’s book and you will see what it takes to really do things properly. If education worked on facing the real problems and who the problems are the mess would not be what it now has become. For instance, in the last 10 years at LAUSD students not coming to school everyday has gone from 14,500 or 2% to last year 112,000 or 17%. It just happens that Democrats run L.A., California and the Presidency and Senate if the U.S. Does anyone seem to care? And this cost LAUSD in lost revenue over $1.15 billion/year.
Too much spin. Not enough substance. Like cotton candy. I haven’t trusted either party in decades.
There has not been a democratic president since Carter who cares a bit about the regular citizen. Clinton signed away everything for the corporatizers and privatizers. 1994 he signed the NAFTA and WTO, which is the end of jobs and offshoring. In 1996 he signs the 1996 Telecommunications Act which ended the “Free Press.” In 1999-2000 he signed the Banking Deregulation Acts which ended the stability of the banking system and all have seen the results. If you are not at the very top of the income bracket you lost and not a Republican or Democratic president has done a thing about it as they are both owned lock, stock and barrel by the corporatists. Therefore, by defination, we are now a fascist country. Just look up the classic defination of this word and look at what it meant in the 20’s and 30’s in Italy under Mussolini.
George, I read through your posts on this subject and whole-heatedly agree with your facts and the bad players that are the totality of what our government is comprised of. I’m confused, as was “Gitapik” as to who you were having problems with in this chain of commentators, too. Would love you to clarify. It is a monstrous thing to feel snookered
again with O’bama! Although Duncan has, from the get go been a stooge and lacking
any intellect OR he hides it quite well. One problem we have is not just the ignorance of the public, but the actual apathy when bribes, kick backs are shown by the major networks to be happening across the board. This morning, for instance, I was having
my daily dose of coffee, when I happened upon a former parent of a DPS school which has been riddled by the same kind of false statements about the older faculty that is being replaced with younger, CHEAPER teachers. I mentioned to this wonderful parent the fact that the CBS website had featured an administrator who was on administrative leave for being investigated for kick backs and bribes in his job with the DPS school system. He was taken aback, but not as much as when the lady across from him, broke in and said, “So what’s the problem? As long as the kids get their computers, who cares about such (trivial) things?” We both just
stared and the parent said, “If nothing else, it runs up costs…and is illegal.” This lady,
a nurse, said, “Oh, that happens ALL the time with doctors I work with.” And, we wonder WHY health care and educational costs are sky rocketing?? What a sad statement about the vapid public!
Thank you for your reply. I have a lot of experience with this fraud and abuse. When I first started it was sickening. Now it is warfare against the destroyers of our society. Society begins with the parents and then the schools. We have over 5,000 identified 150 I.Q. in LAUSD and they have been becoming the leaders of the gangs instead of us helping them go to the best schools.
The attitude you describe concerning people who say “So what” to fraud is disconcerting. Fraud means corruption. Corruption is total loss. At LAUSD there is a $27 billion construction bond program. I can show you over 1/2 of that money disappearing into the contractors pockets with the help of the so called Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Do you really think that they can do everything they claim to do when spending more than 2X the amount stated for construction? Of all this money why is it that the public only gets the use of 1/2 of their money for 30 years? This is unacceptable as are their insane so called education programs.
Wake up people and start to follow the Chicago Model. Karen Lewis and her cohorts know what they are fighting and know that it is warfare forced on them. We did not want to be attacked in WWII. Once attacked we had to respond in kind. This is the same situation. Study your history. I suggest all read “Hapsburgs to Hitler” which is the story of how to make a western country fascist for over 90 years. This is the plan in place here now.
Thank you, George! I have been studying this progress to a corporate state for several decades. When I make a rational comment on anything as obvious as the assassination, or rather the coup de ta of JFK, I consistently get that knee jerk response and put down of, “Oh, you’re one of those “conspiracy nuts.” This country has been so artfully brainwashed about the supposed fantasy that there has NEVER been a conspiracy, and if anyone should give facts to that lie, they should be treated with derision and/or contempt, as the media has so engrained in the public’s psyche. Because of this, we, as a nation, have left the field of reality and given our intelligence over to the elite who will tell us, not the truth, but what benefits them. Truly, the theater of the absurd!
Mary, I understand just what you mean. I have seen a lot of change in the understanding of real conspiracies, RICO, that are played for large yields for them. MLK, JFK, RFK, Vietnam, Iraq, DOD fraud, banking fraud, 911 and now education all stink. For it not to be a conspiracy it had to be a succession of accidents in the proper order every time. Want to run the probability on that one? Now think of the rewards if you are one of the plotters or their friends. Why do we have the Federal RICO or racketeering and organized crime act because people do not do conspiracies for money and/or power? When there are more rewards, more will be put into the action to obtain it. This is why Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act which eliminated the “Free Press.” No reporting, didn’t happen. I have had too many reporters tell me “I can’t do that story or I will never work again.” One of them recently lost his job over just this, only not in education. He told us, it happened to him. This is the real world and rightfully people do not like to deal with these dirty truths. The problem is that unless you do you can never solve the problem. If you do not study history you are bound to repeat it. This is where we still are unfortunately in reality not ideology.
ALL so sadly true, and never ever was justice done to the perpetrators of these murders and crimes! What lesson does that show the corporate NWO and others
“fellow rulers?” Once, back in the ’70’s, I was at a party where a former, green beret
attended. Being a curious type, I was intrigued to talk to him about his security level,
knowledge he had gained from his experiences, etc. He was then, retired from the GB’s
but was a consultant for the DOD, his specialty being knives. After chatting with him about Viet Nam, his training, I asked him what security clearance he had attained. He was the epitome of a sardonic personality, who seemed removed in all ways from society. He told me it was far above “Top Secret” to which I said that level was far from the highest, which gained some credibility with him. I told him I had so many events in the past I would love to know the reality about. He asked what, in particular. I said the JFK assassination. He asked if I believed the Warren Commission, which I took as a bit of a put down, and I told him I didn’t. He asked me who did I think was at the “top of the pyramid” in the plot…the Cubans, rogue CIA, etc. I opted for the CIA option, then he pressed and asked me WHO was at the top of the crime…I couldn’t hazard a guess.
Then he told me what is now available in several revelatory books on the subject; LBJ.
I never will forget that discussion and when these books came out, I read them ASAP and the proof of his statement is hard to deny. One such book is, “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and why it matters.” Well worth anyone’s investment of time.
If read, it will open one’s eyes to the world we live in and show beyond a doubt that to accept contrived reasons for such events or others that you so accurately listed, is the path to a society we all would never want to live in.
Thank You Mary for having the guts to look into reality even as ugly as it commonly is. I have personally worked on top classified projects and even illegal ones in the past. When people think there is not a conspiracy on things of this magnitude they are seriously fooling themselves. Big things do not happen by accident.
Concerning 9-11 think about this: How is it that one small airplane with a golf guy in it does not respond and they activate fighter jets for it which are armed immediately. Now on 9-11 4 large airliners are off the grid for 1.5 hours and nothing happens except things like the day before insider trading, not using the military radar to know what is happening, not activating fighters which are armed, the destruction of the FAA tapes immediately and on and on. Remember Andrews is where the president flys out of, are they really trying to tell us that they did not have any fighter jets there for protection? And when they do launch them they send them over the Atlantic which is exactly where they were not. Accident, I do not think so or the fact that Putin called Bush personally about one week before 9-11 and told him this was going to happen and Bush said to go away to Putin. Accident? I don’t think so. Education is the same thing.
You bring up crucial points that should be asked by everyone who realizes that “W’s, Cheneys, Rumsfield, Rice’s, 9/11 version of reality is farcical from every aspect of that horrible day; topped off with the white washed “commission” who “W” and his cronies fought tooth and nail to avoid; then, just as in the Warren Commission, had their many “magic bullet” explanations to a list of absurdities that foreign, professional groups, as well as national ones have demanded truthful answers to. But as the “Plans for a New American Century document of the neocons, prefaced their agenda goals with, the proviso that none of them: attacking Iraq, Iran, and draconian plans for the USA, could be attempted without, as they so delicately put it, “A New Pearl Harbor!” If people think this is “conspiracy absurdities,” they should google that very document and read WHO wrote it and just what they want to achieve. But sadly, the doubters won’t because, I think the undeniable reality, were they to see it for themselves, would be too shattering to contemplate…better to just ignorantly sneer at those who ask perfectly sound questions and READ creditable books that dispel the specious explanations we, as a nation have been feed. Ignorance might be bliss, but not when such things as 9/11, and being lied into a false and unnecessary war are concerned. To me, that is treasonous and NO ONE was even fired or investigated…instead “W” gave one of the crew a National Award of Freedom! Appalling arrogance!
With his intellectual prowess (cough, cough) that he has displayed, I would hate to see him in anything other than a commissioner to find
snipe infestations! At least in that role, his ability to wreck havoc would be vastly limited and the “snipe problem” could justify his
attitude for finding bogus answers to unknown problems!
I never voted for the “New World Order” and I was appalled when three of our Presidents got on national TV to announce it. Talk about brazen…
To me, the way the NWO’s leaders no longer feel it necessary to dress up their participation in a one world order, agenda, such as David Rockefeller’s bragging about his total efforts to achieve that dreadful goal, ought to alarm the citizenry and motivate them to check into just what the NWO would mean to the them, let alone the USA! The information is there, IF one cares enough to check…
Brazenness and arrogance are the factors which usually historically bring down empires. They always feel that they can do anything they want to as it is divine providence or something for them to do it because they are special and know best for the rest of us. This is total corruption.
Nationalism is becoming something of the past. I am not sure if that’s a good or bad thing? As an elder American citizen, it is a huge paradigm for me to accept. I realize the world and our country is changing, but I don’t have to like it. In fact, why are my principles expendable and the new ones are deemed remarkable? Change is hard, but giving up basic beliefs is even harder. I am outraged at the dismal mess in DC (Definitely Corrupt!) and worry for the next generations to come. But, hope springs eternal. It will all work out somehow, someway, someday. Our leaders have utterly failed us in many ways. Is it reversable?
It is reversable, but it will not be easy with the amount of controlled press and money behind the destruction. If the people get lit up like they did in the 60’s for civil rights and then the end of the Vietnam War anything is possible. I just watched some of the MLK movie done in 1970 and except for one showing one night has not really been seen again. It was very inspirational to see what they overcame back then concerning segregation. This can be done but only by using facts and pointing out carefully with full documentation and proper communication. If you can imagine it and it is potentially possible, as this is, it can be done. This is why I have a massive data base of documents to use at any time and carry my laptop with a lot of the information in it when I go out. When people see the data and facts and where it comes from they are impressed. No one should be impressed if you make statements and cannot back them up. In the legal world that is called “heresay” and has almost no legal relevance.
The profitization of public education on the backs of students, parents & teachers is obscene to the spirit of the human being business we call Education. Families raise the children, educators prepare them for the free world as American citizens armed with knowledge and compassion to contribute to the good of this planet. No matter how critical the corporate deformers think testing should be to the rest of us, WE educators have something they do not…experience. The business model just doesn’t work quite the way they think it should in education. We aren’t manufacturing widgets, cookies or engine parts that are built through exact science and physics…all ingredients are the same in measure and substance to the finished product that rolls out on the assembly line after rejects are tossed out for scrap materials. We are grooming human beings who are uniquely individual and diverse in their abilities, culture & wiring. Last time I looked out into my classroom, there weren’t any robots looking back at me. It may feel right to test the living hell out of kids for the sake of using the latest data analysis and pretend it’s important to the artful task of teaching, but coming from a Southern farm growing up, I may know a thing or two about how to produce a fine, marketable outcome. “You can’t fatten a pig by weighing it!” Testing is NOT teaching. The results can redirect teaching, suggest new methods, offer ideas and determine that more time is needed for a child to learn the material, but excessive amounts of testing will not create a learned student. It is a waste of time beyond the basic measurement of how “fattened” s/he is with the knowledge needed to become a great American citizen. That time is better used to connect, welcome an abiding relationship and create a more humane environment in which a child can truly learn and grow into the kind of citizen we all want going out into the world. Quit the bickering, ignore the foul pundits who seem to think it’s okay to make blood money from their pitiful displays of greed and start speaking out against it all. This meek & mild approach to our work has to end. Some will be sacrificed, but that’s what happens in great battles. We have all the good stuff on our side. Without an uprising and demanding of the right change, we will continue to suffer. The administration has been put in the middle of this tirade, forced to succumb to irrational mandates funded by philanthropists and govt interventions that do not work and from the top down, the teachers carry all that angst, frustration and fear into the classrooms where it is dumped onto the hearts and minds of students. Make no mistake about this truth folks…the conditions of education are the conditions in your childrens’ classrooms. Always has been, always will be. It’s a human being business and no amount of infiltration of corporate shenanigans will ever change that. Don’t mess with human nature, big boys. You will never be greater than that reality. I am one “Edgy-cator” these days!
The hypocrite rarely falls far from the Golden Tree of Profit for which he lusts. These people have one thing in common: greed.
Pathetic but exactly what I would expect of anyone affiliated with Good Ole Arne Duncan.
Is this legal? I need to check but I thought government employees were restricted from taking a job with a company they have been working with (conflict of interest) for a defined period of time.
This is in reply to Mr. Underhill’s name calling attack on Mr. Rendo. I am appalled that the interesting dialogue we have on this educational blog would have a writer throw
epithets at another person who expressed their ideas of how our country could observe how other nations achieve a more humane society. To call someone a communist and “comrade” is disgraceful and a perfect example of how the GOP has reduced public debate to a junior high, food fight. I would hope that this kind of verbiage would not find an accepting spot in this blog! We ALL have a right to our opinion and the respect of fellow writers without these senseless, labels that reflect little regard for others views!
Mary,
I don’t approve of Harlan Underhill’s name-calling. He called me a “red-diaper baby” the other day, meant to insult me and my parents. I leave him undisturbed as a monument to free speech. If he gets too vituperative, however, I will block him.
Thank you, Diane! I am just so sick of hearing “political/issue” discussions on the networks and cable news shows that are vapid, nasty, shouting matches that only serve to dissolve intelligent, thoughtful discourse that we desperately need. We all are knowledgeable and can learn from one another without this soiling our precious blog that doesn’t run roughshod over those of different persuasions.
He’s an intelligent man. I agree with some of his points and not with others that he puts out there.
What else is new…lol.
But the name calling is the beginning of the end when it comes to establishing a meaningful dialogue. Sometimes that’s the desired effect.
But for that unnecessary baggage, I actually think it’s important to have his slant on these blogs. Preaching to the choir will only get you so far. If we’re going to make an effective point, it has to be in the face of those who would argue it.