When Stephen Colbert interviewed Campbell Brown, he asked her who was funding her activities against unions and teacher tenure. She said she couldn’t reveal their names because she had to protect them, presumably against the few dozen moms protesting outside Colbert’s studio with hand-lettered signs.
Mother Crusader found through her diligent research skills that Campbell Brown is aligned with some “vulture” capitalists, and it might be better for her cause to keep their identities secret.
Darcie Cimarusti (Mother Crusader) writes this:
“I’ve already taken a look at the Board of Directors of Brown’s new outfit, Partners for Educational Justice, which brings together reformy heavyweights from groups like StudentsFirstNY, DFER and NYCAN, and all the money, power, and influence behind those groups.
“But I’m embarrassed to say, I missed a HUGE piece of the puzzle.
“In my last post I described Brown’s husband, Dan Senor, as a board member for StudentsFirstNY and a former advisor for Mitt Romney. But I missed two gigantic parts of his backstory.
“Senor first came to prominence as a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, gaining a reputation as “the spinmeister responsible for selling the early years of the occupation … as a rosy time—even as bombs exploded daily and sectarian violence ripped apart the country.”[1]
“After leaving the Bush administration, Senor—who is the spouse of former CNN anchorwoman Campbell Brown—became a guest commentator on foreign policy issues for Fox News and a private equity executive. He co-founded the investment firm Rosemont Capital LLC[2] before joining Elliott Management, the hedge fund firm owned by Paul Singer, a billionaire Wall Street investor who has given millions to Republican political campaigns and neoconservative advocacy groups.[3] (emphasis mine)
“So Brown’s husband is a wartime spinmeister, education reformer, AND a Wall Street hedge fund guy? How did I miss that?!?
“And who is Paul SInger, the guy who was able to lure Senor away from the investment firm he co-founded?”
And Mother Crusader continues:
“Singer is the big power broker in the Republican financial world,” says one operative who knows him. “He’s involved with almost everything.” Fortune described him as “a passionate defender of the 1%.” In practical terms, notes one conservative donor, “if you write checks as big as Singer’s, you can be close to anyone.” (emphasis mine)
“Check out how Singer makes his money.
“Mr. Singer is perhaps best known for the fight he put up — and the money he made — in his battle over Peruvian debt. In 1996, he paid $11.4 million for $20 million worth of discounted, government-backed Peruvian bank debt. Then, rather than joining with 180 other Peruvian creditors who agreed to a plan using bonds to forgive some of the impoverished country’s debt, Mr. Singer held out for bigger payments.
“He battled in the courts. At one point he hired an Albany lobbying firm and got New York State to change an obscure law to strengthen his position. When the dust had settled, Mr. Singer ended up getting $58 million for his Peruvian investment.
Groups advocating debt relief — and higher-profile people like Bono — criticize such transactions, maintaining that they force poor countries to divert money from social and economic programs in order to pay back investors. The International Monetary Fund, where a top official once labeled Mr. Singer’s firm a “vulture company,” issued a report recently saying that such funds present a “major challenge” to the success of debt-relief programs in poor countries. (emphasis mine)
Excuse me, but HOLY S%&*!!
“Reading about Singer’s practices in poor, distressed countries around the world is horrific. This is from truthout and Democracy Now!.
“You know, right now what’s happening in this particular case is now these vulture funds have been equipped with an instrument that’s going to force poor countries, like the Ivory Coast and Zambia, into submission. So it’s a very powerful precedent that will be impacting the one-out-of-five people that live in extreme poverty around the world.
……
“AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk, Eric LeCompte, very quickly, in 30 seconds, about Paul Singer, who is the head of the parent company of NML?
“ERIC LECOMPTE: So, essentially, he’s the person that’s developed this predatory behavior, that goes after assets in poor countries that essentially belong to vulnerable communities. He’s the person that leads several firms that are these predatory hedge funds which engage in this exploitative, extreme behavior. And he’s popularized, essentially, this kind of investor action around the world. And right now the World Bank notes that there are about a hundred companies that follow, essentially, the leadership that Paul Singer has laid out in terms of this behavior.
“AMY GOODMAN: And his significance in national politics? Five seconds.
“ERIC LECOMPTE: Yeah, he’s the number one donor to the GOP. (emphasis mine)
Senor and Singer are some seriously scary dudes.”
There is simply no way they are going to be intimidated by a small clutch of protesters milling around outside Colbert’s studio, but that was one hell of an act Brown put on! Singer, and presumably Brown’s husband, take on entire countries for heaven’s sake!”
The profiteers think Campbell Brown will be a useful tool. I think she might become one for us.
True! Many of my 9th grade debaters could hold their own in a debate better than Campbell Brown did with Colbert.
Quite. She’s a new PR poster girl the reforming machine wants to promote as a ‘Canny Barbie’ doll speaking like a sock-puppet.
Superb investigation.
And we must keep at it.
The more the curtain can be pulled back on these organizations, the more specious and unseemly they become to the general public.
Public education is so immediate and personal to us all, that these far away interests and Wall Street addresses are just icky to most people. This is where average Americans might blanch at what is happening to their kids’ schools and have a visceral reaction of disgust that moves to action.
This site and the tireless work of many bloggers have done the work that used to be done by investigative reporters. This is the new reality. Armed with this information, we need to go to our local districts to explain to our neighbors who is pulling the strings in education.
THEIR OWN KIDS do not go to our schools–But THEIR MONEY seeks to affect OUR KIDS and OUR LIVES and OUR KIDS’ FUTURES.
Yuck.
And it’s the Yuck Factor that needs to be hammered away every time Campbell Brown–or whatever Front Organization with the Homily Name–seeks to influence our lives.
Bravo Mother Crusader, Mercedes Schneider, EduShyster, David Sirota, Jeff Bryant and all the rest of you doing the hard ground work.
It is paying off.
Yes, they deserve our praise and support. Conversely, we have Oprah Winfrey, Amanda Ripley, Jonathan Alter, Joe Klein. Any other nominees?
Add Chris Cerf to the list.
Wow, this is a lot of attention, respect, and seriousness given to a parrot.
They elect parrots, don’t they?
I remember one named Georgie!
And another named Obomber!
And before them Uncle Ronnie and Billy the Clintone Deaf!
A parrot with a large platform.
It’s just amazing how these avaricious super rich gazillionaire vampires are so offended at tenure, seniority and LIFO. And how dare those greedy teachers have Cadillac pensions and Rolls Royce health care benefits..the nerve of those greedy teachers. Never fear, Paul Singer, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Mike Dell, Carl Icahn, Jeff Bezos, Michael Robertson, Mike Bloomberg and the Walton clan are here to rescue us from those greedy too rich teachers.
It would be productive for all readers of Diane’s blog to visit: http://www.insidephilanthropy.com There you will find THREE PAGES of charter school donors. How discouraging to realize the huge amounts given to selective and unaccountable school ventures, rewarding the hustlers. These charlatans already drain tax resources allocated by citizens for their public schools. Time for public exposure for these meddling Medicis!
Foreign involvement seems to involve diseases in poor countries appearing where we have laboratories in place. Ironically enough the “Ebola” out break now in Africa is in a location where we were “experimenting” with Tulane University and Ft. Dietrich, always wondered if Ebola actually was produced in nature, but now the genie is out of the bottle from the work that we are doing in poor countries, that seem to have commodities that interest us. The web mentioned of the oligarchs is quite out of the control of people and governments. Campbell Brown is a formidable opponent and to stop these entities may require a complete financial melt down, which should arrive shortly. Demonstrations are an anachronism.
We should also keep in mind Campbell Brown’s employers and associates such as Charlie Rose, and Gail King (of Oprah fame), and CBS News. These folks all live on a tight little island of prosperity while the rest of the nation and the world struggles.
The online stories of this far Right couple are many, and easily located, and their thousands of images fill the screen. It is of interest how they met and married, she the 37 year old. career directed Catholic woman ,and he already a vulture capitalist in the making and a Republican insider, Jewish guy of 34, now an oft seen commentator on Fox News..
Who says there is no more romance? This power couple plays for their own Game of Thrones.
BTW….her donors include some prominent and well respected Dems. Strangest of bedfellows.
Time for Darcie to make an appearance on Colbert’s show.
This is pretty funny:
“Eighty teachers and guidance counselors at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro recently made history when they joined a union — but not the one you might think.
They did not join the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which represents 110,000 public school educators across the commonwealth. Nor did they join the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers, which has 25,000 members.
No, they joined Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester, a 4,000-member union of mostly truck and bus drivers and warehouse workers.
The AMSA vote was certified July 16 by the state Department of Labor Relations.
In so doing, the AMSA teachers became the first charter school teachers in the country to join the Teamsters. And they were only the third charter school in Massachusetts whose educators have voted to join a union.
In a press release from the union, two teachers explained why they chose to join the Teamsters. Like most charter schools, AMSA hires teachers to one-year contracts and does not offer seniority. The school did not, until now, have to wrestle with the union to fire employees.
“A lot of key people, award-winning teachers, were let go. That decision cannot be made in five minutes in a back room so someone else can get the job. We need a process so that everyone can feel more protected,” said Lino Alvarez, a computer science and Web design teacher at AMSA. ”
Maybe Stephen Colbert can interview them 🙂
It’s not as weird as it sounds. There are defense lawyers in Chicago who belong to the United Auto Workers, for example.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20140803/COLUMN73/308039953?utm_content=bufferaa751&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
VERY important research. Thank you!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Singer sounds like a character right out of Vargas Llosa.. perhaps he lurks near the night highways of the Andes with the “pishtacos” [half-gringo ghouls] who “needed human fat to make church bells sing more sweetly and tractors run more smoothly, and now, lately, to give the government to pay off the foreign debt”
How do we get Darcie’s findings to Stephen Colbert? Did he know Brown’s background before he invited her on his show? Would he give equal time to the education Truthtellers?
These puppeteer deformers need to have the curtain pulled back so the greater public can see what is happening to our country and its precious public education system.
Mercedes Schneider just posted an in-depth expose of fellow Louisianan Campbell Brown’s background, connections and motivations.
A MUST-READ:
What Campbell said what the research shows. Poor Campbell…who’s on deck when she crashes?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/08/03/fact-checking-campbell-brown-what-she-said-what-research-really-shows/
Linda, thank you so much for sharing my op-ed here on Diane’s page. I appreciate the support!
Singer is the same man who forced the country of Argentina into default this week.
And in fact, there was a piece about Singer on John Oliver’s HBO show this very evening.
The early 20th century robber barons were small potatoes compared to these homegrown global swindlers who shamefully exploit the most vulnerable populations on our planet. And yet, how many people here have fallen for the homey “Our corporation is part of your family” type commercials pitched by Wal-Mart and other conglomerates?
I have long seen one of my primary jobs as a teacher to be helping students to become educated consumers of information. That involves teaching students to consider the source of information, examining various types of media for bias and hidden or overt agendas, looking for commonalities, such as buzz words and talking points expressed by others promoting the same thing, and determining what those carrying the message are trying to sell. Often, It involves comparing and contrasting different kinds of articles, periodicals, books, web pages, movies and TV shows. Daniel Willingham et al. are wrong: critical thinking can be taught. “Reformers” just don’t want teachers to teach that, because then students become insightful, skeptical and self-determined, and they prefer to think for themselves, instead of being sheeple who obey without questioning.
Teach it anyways. Students NEED to learn this, at the developmental level they are at, and they just might take it home to their families. I know I did, when I first learned about what commercials are in school (I wondered why I had never learned it at home.) My family adjusted to my new found propensity to mute the sound on commercials –which I have done ever since, because ads can too easily influence through words and music. It’s best to teach this as objectively as possible. (And when they are older, teach them to make a conscious decision about whether or not they want to answer the phone and the doorbell that minute, instead of responding immediately like Pavlov’s dogs.)
So, overall & long term, what’s their angle? Where are they looking to make money?
Not only has Paul Singer played a role in the Peruvian default in the past, but is currently the major force behind forcing a default for Argentina.
See the following HuffPost story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/paul-singer-argentina_n_5637491.html
Or listen to the report on NPR a couple of days ago:
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/31/336905893/in-debt-duel-it-was-argentina-v-paul-singer
Any way one looks at this, the “vulture” part of capitalism is at work around the globe, not only in terms of destroying public education in the U.S.
Excellent research by Mother Crusader. In addition, not only has Paul Singer played a role in the Peruvian default in the past, but he is masterminding the forcing of a default for Argentina at this very moment.
See the following HuffPost story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/paul-singer-argentina_n_5637491.html
Or listen to the report on NPR a couple of days ago:
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/31/336905893/in-debt-duel-it-was-argentina-v-paul-singer
Any way one looks at this, the “vulture” part of hedge fund capitalism is at work around the globe, and not simply in terms of attacking/destroying public education in the U.S. Enough is enough!!
It looks to me like the Koch Brothers have co-opted her – or out-right bought her.
Sent from my iPad
How ironic that Campbell Brown, a founder of Parents Transparency Project, should fear transparency.
Does she even listen to what comes out of her own mouth?
😒
I just saw Campbell Brown interviewed on Fox News’ “Journal Editorial Report.” This is the first interview for me. The host asked her if she won the case, what is the next step. She said “that’s on the legislature” and continued to talk about how bad tenure is and how this needs to sweep the country.
So, they want to get rid of the system, but have no idea of what they want to do to replace it. At least the people against ObamaCare have an alternative. At least people who were against the Iraq war had alternative solutions. This lady had no solution at all.
Isn’t prostitution illegal in most of the country? I live in one of the few places in Nevada where it is legal, the brothels do not want illegal competition.
Slate picks up on this as Argentina defaults and as Mother Crusader rightly points out Mr. Singer as at the heart of it all…
http://tinyurl.com/ptj824j
Imagine what kind of person marries someone like that…
I second Darcie on Colbert. And the Marlboro charter teachers.
Of course people Already know that Paul Singer was big in Detroit indebtedness, and most recently, caused the default of a Argentinian loan, which caused the stock market to crash over 300 points.
Sad that googling is now considered diligent research by an NYU historian
Read more closely. She is reporting the research of Darcie who does her homework. Googling brought down the superstar, “DR.” Carter, something a search firm, paid $23,000, couldn’t manage but a few moms could and did. Your comment is idiotic.
Although the generic Google may not appear to have as vast a database as college libraries do, Google also has Google Scholar and Google Books. This means that lay people can access a lot of scholarly sources through Google and, if they find limited versions of what they want to access, they can go to the library to access full text versions or they can pay for full texts online, just like libraries pay for that.
Any reasonably informed person has known exactly what Dan Señor background contained. Pretty much the same for Singer. They are not criminals hiding anything. They simply take a position different than yours. And yes, they are wealthy, certainly Singer is…again not a crime.
“And yes, they are wealthy, certainly Singer is…again not a crime.”
—————–
Actually, that depends on how they got wealthy.
Also, you can become wealthy through blatantly immoral, yet technically “legal” means and actions, and destroy the lives of millions of innocent people in the process… The fact that someone who does all this and get away with it simply because they were careful to say within legal boundaries… that’s doesn’t make it right.
When Ms. Brown tries to hide her associations with people who became wealthy this way—including her sleazeball husband—that is something that should be and is being exposed. Thank God we have the internet.
This is particularly true when the innocent group Brown, her husband, and her allies target are teachers—folks who work at a difficult, thankless, and demanding job, and do so for minimal compensation. When you factor in the unpaid hours and the education level and expertise required, this is a sorely under-compensated career.
Brown and her allies are attempting is de-professionalization—the downgrading of teaching from a profession—like that of doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.—and turn it into a low-paid, poorly-trained service job akin to fast food, retail, office temping, etc. The overall goal of all this is for them to profit from the privatization and takeover of the trillion-dollar institution of public education.
Once these forces have taken over, education for the middle and working classes will be done on the cheap, with the barest semblance of an education provided, with barely-trained, short-term “teachers”, who because they no longer have a collective voice, and are all isolated, weak free agents, they then will be paid as little as possible, and abused and fired at will whenever those in charge feel the need.
The quality of the education provided will drop like rock.
The destruction of teachers’ unions—a big part of what Brown’s organization and lawsuit are all about— is a necessary step towards these goals.
Another reason to be severely disappointed in today’s so-called journalists, Amy Goodman excepted. The very fact that Brown is HIDING her donors, protecting them from something, should be headline news across the country.
Peter Singer has most recently been in the news for his role in Argentina defaulting on its international debt rather than paying Singer 100% of the value of the speculative junk bonds he holds.
Watching the interview again, I just caught something telling. In the middle of the interview, Brown makes a quite damning contradiction. I call attention to her use of the pronouns “we” and “our”.
Watch the interview again at, paying attention to the following:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/08/campbell-brown-lame.html
Pay attention to these two snippets:
(NOTE: CAPITALS for “WE” in the first, and for “OUR” in the second clip, … are mine, JACK)
—————————————————————————————-
00:55 – 01:05
CAMPBELL BROWN: “First, let me just correct something you said. WE (Parents for Educational Justice) are not filing this lawsuit. Seven parents who have kids in public schools in New York state are bringing this lawsuit.”
—————————————————————————————-
Now, here come Brown’s slip-up
—————————————————————————————-
03:47 – 03:52
CAMPBELL BROWN: “Can I just mention some of OUR plaintiffs are out here tonight, too (she gestures to the audience). They’re very happy to be here.”
—————————————————————————————-
Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on here, Campbell. Three minutes ago, you said that “we”— your group “Parents for Educational Justice”— were not filing the lawsuit, as in that it’s not “our” lawsuit, it’s the plaintiff parents’ lawsuit, and that you’re just giving them a little help. Suddenly, you’re referring to those same plaintiff parents as “our plaintiffs.”
Woopsie-daisy!
Again, notice Brown doesn’t say “the” plaintiffs, as in “the plaintiffs to whom our group is lending support.” She says, “our.” If only Colbert had been quick enough to catch her on that.
Campbell Brown was hoping for a heart-warming, Oprah-show-like cut-away to those minority children plaintiffs sitting in the audience.
No such luck.
However, her attempt to effect that cut-away backfired on Brown as she let loose with the slip-up just described.
Wow, watch this video of billionaire “corporate reformer” Reed Hastings, who openly professes the corporate reformers’ goal of eliminating all democratic control of public schools—via democratically-elected school boards—-and replacing it with private control by him and his allies, where he freely admits there will be so much better off when these private entities provide ZERO transparency to the public, ZERO accountability to the public, etc.—- just give us all the control, leave us alone and trust us, folks….and education will then be so much better… like it is in say, New Orleans… NOT!
Another MUST-WATCH:
Make complaints to Starbucks and MSNBC about Morning Joe promoting Campbell’s mission to destroy local public schools for the purpose of turning each school over to her husband’s hedge fund friends.