Paul Horton is a history instructor in the University High School at the University of Chicago Lab Schools. This post explains the Obama administration’s love for charters and its disdain for public schools.
Martin Nesbitt is the President’s best friend, and close associate of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who provided much of the start-up capital for Parking Spot, a very successful off airport parking company that Mr. Nesbitt directed for several years before Ms. Pritzker sold the company. Nesbitt and Pritzker also are invested in the Noble Charter Schools chain in Chicago. In the last year, Mr. Nesbitt has created an investment firm called the Vistria Group that seeks, in part, to bundle capital for Charter School investment.
Mr. Nesbitt grew up in Columbus, Ohio and credits the discipline he acquired at the private Columbus Academy for helping him deal with the violence, drug use, and the social dislocation that surrounded him growing up in a tough neighborhood. He sees the Noble Charter Schools as a vehicle to instill discipline in inner city youth. Like the President, he grew up, for the most part without a present father. They both see themselves as self made men and view charter schools as a potential path to success for inner city youth. (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-21/business/ct-biz-0121-executive-profile-nesbitt-20130121_1_martin-nesbitt-michelle-obama-penny-pritzker)
Mr. Nesbitt and the President are basketball addicts. They play as much as they can and talk basketball incessantly. They, of course share this addiction with Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education and Craig Robinson, former Oregon State coach and Michelle Obama’s brother. Mr. Nesbitt sponsors and participates in three on three basketball tournaments all over the country.
During his first campaign, the President narrowed his friendship group, forcing long time friends Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi out of their social circles in response to attacks from the right concerning Mr. Ayers’s political past and from AIPAC on Professor Khalidi’s advocacy for Palestine and criticism of American Middle East Policy.
In Chicago, Mr. Nesbitt was the President of the Chicago Housing Authority in the late 90s where he worked with Rahm Emanuel and other power brokers to create public-private partnerships that created housing on Chicago’s south and west sides to replace the drug and crime ridden behemoth projects, the Robert Taylor Homes (see Gang Leader for a Day) and Cabrini Green.
The Commercial Club of Chicago worked with CHA to re envision the development of mid south and near west sides. A subcommittee created the “Renaissance 2010” plan that sought to create mixed income housing in these area that was open to former project residents who worked thirty hours a week. “The Renaissance 2010” plan resulted in heavy real estate investment in these areas and the creation of charter schools were seen as essential to attracting young urban professionals into these areas.
So the connection between real estate developers who speculate on land and building investment and the push for charter schools is very strong. Chicago real estate moguls lead by Bruce Rauner, the Republican nominee for Illinois governor, and the Crown family drive much of the Chicago push to close public schools to expand the charter sector. Indeed, the Commercial Club of Chicago, known as “the billionaires club” on the streets of Chicago, drives the Education policy of the mayor and funds, through connections with the Joyce Foundation (the Director of the Joyce Foundation sits on board of the Commercial Club) funds education “research” (non peer-reviewed) that is printed on the editorial pages of the Chicago Tribune to legitimate public school closings.
This pattern of connection between real estate developers, the creation of and public-private partnerships to build low density mixed income housing in impoverished neighborhoods, and the drive to close public schools and open charter schools has been chronicled in powerful detail by Education theorist and sociologist Pauline Lipman. I have addressed these issues in more detail in an Education Week piece, “Why Obama’s Education Policies will not Change and why ‘Change is Hard.'”
Mr. Nesbitt and Mayor Emanuel are the leading political actors who have orchestrated and executed public policy for the interests of the Commercial Club. Their chief supporters need the value of the land that they bought in gentrifying neighborhoods to increase. They see charter schools as a key magnet to attract middle class professionals back into neighborhoods within a three to four mile radius of downtown on the south and west sides.
The process appears to be working for developers on the near west side with the construction of a massive shopping mall, the sales of condos that were intended to be mixed income to middle and upper middle class white and black professionals, and the plans to build a new selective enrollment “Barack Obama High” smack dab in the middle of the former Cabrini Green.
The gentrification scheme of developers, however, is clearly not working in Bronzeville, on the near south side. According to a recent Harvard study that received some attention on NPR, real estate values in the mId south and Bronzeville areas on the south side is slowed by perceptions of violence. According to this study, white urban professionals are more likely to move into Latino areas like Humbolt Park and Pilsen.
To date, Mr. Nesbitt’s friends are scared to death about their investments in Chicago’s mid south and Bronzeville areas, explaining why this area has been targeted for several rounds of public school closings and charter school openings.
The take away from this piece is that many of the people who provided the funds to transform Mr. Obama into a viable national candidate after he passed the litmus test of Iowa are associated with the Commercial Club of Chicago were heavily invested in real estate speculation and building charter schools as a way to increase the value of property purchased by investors. All of this is couched in the language of making Chicago a global city and creating school choice for parents.
At the national level, Democrats for Education Reform stepped into the discussion over schools in exchange for raising money for Democratic campaigns that was needed to counteract the impact of the Citizens United decision.
The reason why those closest to the President are strong supporters of RTTT and charters is because they are connected to south and west side real estate investment in Chicago and bad press for public schools in the form of low test scores will create the pretext and legitimation for more investment and funding of charter schools that will lead to rising condo sales, condo values, and land values. Once values rise and more middle class professionals move into these areas, commercial shopping and retail investment will do its work to increase the value of real estate.
That the President’s best buddy, should attempt to capitalize on on charter school investment after playing a role in the shaping of the President’s education policy, is either the hallmark of a “free enterprise system” or more grease to the wheels of yet another episode of crony capitalism excreted by the proximity to power of buddies helping each other out.
I taught Mr. Nesbitt’s two oldest children and I have communicated my disappointments about the Obama administrations education policies to him.
I told Mr. Nesbitt several times that the Democratic party would pay a price for creating education policies that did not serve the interests of the majority of parents, students, teachers, and administrators.
He told me that “teachers do not deserve the amount of money that they make,” “that their salaries should be reduced,” and that they deserve no respect for sacrificing other career paths to answer the calling of teaching.
He seemed more concerned about reducing teacher’s salaries to create a profit margin for investors than about the impact the disruptive policies of school closings would have on human communities.
I recently sent him a note that explained to him that the majority of 3.7 million teachers in this country are very upset with policies that denigrate teachers, students, parents and communities for political gain.
For an administration that pretends to care about the disappearance of the middle class and rising income inequality, its lack of support for teachers and public schools is astounding. We have heard nothing from this administration when democratic state representatives all over the country threaten to steal pensions that were not adequately funded due to political incompetence and a willingness to pay political cronies rather than pension funds.
We now see an attack on due process for teachers gaining political support from both parties and the billionaires who will benefit from the destruction of public unions. The attack on due process rights for teacher unions will set precedents for attacks on due process rights for other unions.
Scarcely 12% of Americans belong to unions and real wages in the United States have declined as union membership has declined.
The curtain has been pulled back, and most Americans can see now who are pulling the levers. The Democratic Party no longer supports the working people of this country. it serves the commercial clubs in every major American city, Wall Street bundlers, and plutocrats all over the world.
Mr. Nesbitt, the 3.7 million teachers in this country will not be fooled by staged meetings between a few teachers in the White House, listening to a few BadAss Teachers at the DoEd, or calling for a congress of teachers. WE know that this is political posturing in advance of November elections.
Your administration has disrespected us, our communities, and our families. How stupid do you think we are? Your policies are an attack on our self-respect.
Unless you instruct Senators Harkins and Durbin to defund NLRB and RTTT, fire Arne Duncan, and begin pursuing a new path, very few of us will support you in November.
We know that your billionaire friends will profit from their investments only if you pursue policies that create more charter schools. We know that you and your friends are betting on Pearson and Microsoft stock.
Your blatant disrespect for students, teachers, parents, and school communities will cost you the upcoming election.
You are blinded by greed and ignorance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“How stupid do you think we are?”
on jugera …
Explanation please, Jon. on jugera???
Literally, “one will judge”.
More idiomatically, “we will see”, or even, “time will tell”.
In what language is this?
French, somewhat notable-notorious among math folk as it was famously used by Évariste Galois in his reply to Poisson’s critique of one of his proofs.
☞http://www2.ee.ufpe.br/codec/BITOFHISTORY.html
Hey, JA, Ok. You have proved yourself to have have a certain worthy skill with foreign idioms Upon self reflection, don’t you think a simple English translation would suffice? What added value did the original French idiom provide to the reader?
So that I could learn something new today. Asi es la vida, eh.
Duane, I am in awe of how you maintain your sense of humor. Really.
I didn’t get the feeling that charters are largely attended by the affluent families who are gentrifying the South and West Sides – am I wrong about that? I thought they mostly sent their kids to private schools like Lab, GEMS, Latin, Parker, etc. What charter schools are attracting affluent families in Chicago? Certainly not any of the big names like Noble or UNO – those are all “no excuses”, drill-and-kill factories (heavily minority) that no affluent folks would allow their darling snowflakes to set foot in. Does Chicago have an equivalent of Great Hearts that specifically caters to the affluent?
Charters are private, for-profit corporations. They attract the wealthy as investment opportunities, both directly as schools and as a means to increase the value of the nearby real estate that the wealthy own.
Much of the blame for the latter can be laid at the feet of our Federal Reserve, which has driven a real estate bubble through its QE program.
Outside of that, these people don’t give a $h!# about anyone.
I get the investment aspect of it and the real estate aspect (actually, several different real estate angles), but I really don’t see affluent white Chicagoans sending their kids to any of our charters unless there are more secretive ones which market to a more affluent clientele (which is entirely possible). But the charters I’m familiar with and all the ones I see advertised specifically target minorities and most are along the “no excuses” conformity lines of KIPP, Noble, etc.
For-profit charter schools are not permitted in Chicago, so we have the very lucrative non-profit charter chains instead, like Nobel, which gets millions from billionaire donors and hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from poor parents for fees they’ve been charged for their children’s behavioral infractions.
But Dienne is right. Some gentrifying areas like the GAP on the south side have few public schools left and they have been saturated by charters, but that’s not where the upper middle class families there are sending their kids. Those kids are going to magnet schools and private schools. It’s the same on the west side.
The plan is not working on the south side. Bronzeville has lost most of its public schools. The plan hoped to bring back upper middle class families from the south suburbs to Bronzeville.
Yes, and Bronzeville is saturated with charters and has a dearth of neighborhood public schools now.
The mayor, city planners and real estate developers probably thought Chicago’s south side, especially along the lakefront, could be entirely revitalized through the redevelopment that would have occurred with the Olympics, as it did in the East End of London. But when we didn’t get the Olympics, I don’t think they revised their plan, because they just continued to close neighborhood schools and foist charters on south side communities.
Why they would ever think that upper middle income suburban families would move back to the city to send their kids to military style charters is totally beyond my comprehension though.
(Just to clarify, unlike the south side, the west side still has many neighborhood schools, except for those that were among the 50 that were closed last year. New schools in gentrified areas there tend to be magnets –but that could certainly change.)
Why Feinberg’s kids will never go to KIPP.
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/08/why-feinbergs-kids-will-never-go-to-kipp.html
Wow! That’s all I can say!
Interesting political positioning:
“The Ohio Supreme Court is weighing arguments by charter schools that they are entitled to equipment bought by their management company with taxpayer dollars without having to pay for the property.
The case, to be heard Sept. 23, comes with a political twist: The Democratic candidate for attorney general is criticizing GOP incumbent Mike DeWine for dropping out of the case after strongly backing the schools’ arguments earlier.
Several charter schools formerly run by Akron-based White Hat Management say taxpayer dollars remain public when management companies use them for operating publicly funded charter schools.
White Hat says in almost all circumstances it owns the property because the public money it receives for operating schools becomes private when it takes control of it.”
So why did the Ohio AG drop the case after “strongly backing” the charter school’s position earlier?
Is it because it occurred to ed reformers in Ohio that most people in this state probably WON’T support turning over the public property they paid for to private companies?
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=151&sid=31271183&title=court-to-hear-dispute-on-charter-school-equipment
Oh yes, this is the one to watch in OH. David Brennan and minions (that would be the Republican Party) may have over-stepped this time. Or, one can hope!
Great essay and reporting! A couple of other notes to the Marty Nesbitt story. First, the affection of Barack and Michelle Obama and guys like Marty Nesbitt for charter schools is philosophical and not just commercial. Although Nesbitt is part of the group trying to profit from the RTTT stuff, he is also part of that odious generation of black leaders who were promoted after many of us won the civil rights struggles of 40 years ago. They were screened (by the likes of Penny Pritzker) for political correctness (neoliberal version) and then unleashed on the country. Barack and Michelle Obama are just two of hundreds — Ivy League, privileged by with a “story,” and profiting but also ideologically pushing these programs. The group includes Adrian Fenty, Corey Booker and dozens of others. While one generation sacrificed for equity and equality, another lined up to profit from it — both politically and financially.
Bill Ayers was not the only person whited out of the Obama history.
As we’ve shared before, the Chicago Teachers Union, more than any other group in Chicago, pushed to get Barack Obama the Senate nomination that poised him for the famous Democratic Convention speech. Men like Howard Heath (then vice president of the CTU) were “friends” with Obama during his days in Springfield. By the time the Obama “story” got to the front page of The New York Times during the summer of 2008, every mention of the Obama connection to the unions had been whited out of the official story, replaced by a bunch of silliness about Obama’s buddies from the old “New Left.” None of that crowd had the muscle the CTU did to force the issue of the Obama nomination for the Senate seat, but the story got out there and drowns out reality.
There is much more about the hypocrisy of this generation of privilege and power, but this is enough to supplement that great essay. Thanks…
It’s good the connection between real estate and charter schools is being made. I am in Los Angeles, the belly of the charter school beast. Eli Broad, one of the big players in school privatization, made his billions in real estate. It’s all about the real estate, not education.
Great essay, but four years too late. Any leverage on Obama evaporated with the election in 2012. Hillary’s on deck and unless the democrats get serious about rebelling, which means voting Green or even for Republicans who will stop CCSS, it’ll be another four years of empty threats and teary outrage.
The fact is that Bill Clinton and the DLC sold the sould of FDR’s legacy to Wall Street and the likes of the Pritzkers and Gateses 20 years ago. It’s time to rebuild the party, but that won’t happen until it’s been destroyed.
Obama is a “self-made man?”
That’s a hot one: with the exception of his TFA-style cup of coffee as a “community organizer,” a shallow but brilliant effort to brand himself in the eyes of the future voters he’d bamboozle, the man has never been anything but a political broker and Trojan Horse for the Overclass.
Mike,
I have it on good authority that that is how he views himself. Cornell West nailed Obama this weekend at Salon, an article that everybody should read.
The Cornell West article is here: http://tinyurl.com/nxcqhgc
Paul,
That would not surprise me at all, since he strikes me as – aside from being a Muslim Socialist Immigrant Reptilian Shape Shifter, of course – a deeply, almost scarily, cynical man. This is someone who from a young age has molded their entire existence to mirror those who could help him gain entree and advancement, while carefully cultivating an alluring but vacuous personal brand and narrative. It seems to be embedded in every cell of his body, just as Nixon’s insecurity and paranoia were embedded in his.
It’s an interesting character inversion from that other New Democrat, Bill Clinton, who seems to genuinely like the people he screwed over and wanted/needed to be loved by them. Obama, on the other hand, seems to dislike the people he betrays, and people in general for that matter, and doesn’t care what they think.
His only concern is the symbiotic relationship he’s developed with those members of the Overclass that “get” him, which not all do, some of which is clearly based on racial panic.
As for the Salon article, Cornell West has criticized Obama as a counterfeit before, and that’s a message people need to keep hearing. It was also good to see him criticize that other counterfeit, Al “The Wire” Sharpton.
philaken, Thanks for the link.
I completely agree with West’s take on the phony Obama, but this is the scariest thought of all to me:
Thomas Frank: “if things go the way they look like they’re going to go and Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee and then wins a second term, the next time there’ll be a chance for a liberal, progressive president is 2024.”
Cornell West: “It’d be about over then, brother. I think at that point—Hillary Clinton is an extension of Obama’s Wall Street presidency, drone presidency, national surveillance, national security presidency. She’d be more hawkish than he is, and yet she’s got that strange smile that somehow titillates liberals and neo-liberals and scares Republicans. But at that point it’s even too hard to contemplate.”
Yep. their plans have already been backfiring. First, in Daley’s reign, when labor unions became free fodder for neoliberal attacks, and city policies made it very evident that privatizing public services benefited no one more than profiteers and politicians themselves. Then again when Democrats failed to address inequity, poverty and jobs with livable wages, with the street violence that resulted, and the city lost the Olympic bid, which gentrification of the south side had depended on very heavily for propelling redevelopment.
You can bet that this former lifelong Democrat thinks very long and hard before voting for ANY and EVERY Democrat now, and I inform others every chance I get why Democrats no longer represent working people and minorities or deserve our votes.
In fact, in the last vote, when my ballot was flagged by a Democratic election judge because the voting machine indicated that my ballot was incomplete, since I failed to vote for a candidate for one major office. I told him that it was done intentionally, because there was no candidate running in opposition and I refused to vote for such a clout heavy Democrat ever again. This garnered a lot of laughter in the voting hall in agreement –even by the Democratic election judge himself– so divisive is the Democratic party today. I think this is especially true in Chicago, because after 80 years under Democratic rule, we know very well what kinds of corrupt crooks and liars these faux liberals have become.
It would seem that we are finally experiencing a dvdrgencre of race and class issues; with the latter emerging as the dominant variable in the Chicago/ Illinois educational scene. Horton has done a first rate job unraveling the political, cllass, economic and racial connections. The remaining question is the mechanism for resisting this blitzkrieg of privatizing public schools schools. The only mechanism of resistance is an alliance ofublic school workers and community people. We see this movement emerging and coalescing behind CTU president, Karen Lewis. Should the privaizers win the next mayoral election, the educational terrain in Chicago will be shared bydo ithe real estate interests in alliance with private schools. What remains of the public schools will be scattered eroding shells of buildings, with educators -what is left of them- providing highly compromised bandages of education to poor munoritu students who have been excluded from the private/public cheater schools. The future of public school education in Chicago resides with KRen Lewis.
The article in the Chicago Tribune cited by Paul Horton reminds us (once again) of the key ingredients needed to acquire a good education:
at least one parent or guardian who really values education and is willing to work hard to make sure his child gets it;
a student who values education and has the drive to work for it;
a school that has mainly grade-level or above students who don’t disrupt the education of others, small classes and experienced teachers who have the time to attend to the needs of the individual child.
President Obama has demonstrated through his writing and his choices for his own daughters that he understands these conditions. How very sad that he has ignored a great opportunity to improve the education for our nation’s children. For me, it’s been a terrible disappointment and one that took me completely by surprise.
Why has President Obama been instrumental in divesting in the education of (mainly) poor children of color? I don’t know but I suspect it had a lot to do with the billionaires who funded his campaigns.
The billionaires who funded the Obama campaigns (he got his state Senate seat redistricted to escape the ghetto and include the Gold Coast) had been sponsoring a generation of the Obama type since the 1980s. Barack Obama just worked is way to the top of the heap slickly, but he wasn’t alone in the scramble. It’s still going on. If you close your eyes and listen to the words of Adrian Fenty, Deval Patrick, Corey Booker, Michelle Obama and dozens of others with the same plutocracy-sponsored Ivy League pedigree and smug Horatio Alger narrative you’ll appreciate more the genius of the billionaires and those they hire to smugly operate their political operations. But one thing that differentiated Barack Obama from the rest was his writing(s). Anyone who read Dreams from My Father critically had to ask how Barack Obama got to the various “levels” in his rise to Harvard Law School (and who paid for those Ivy League stops). That, like so much else was left out of “Dreams.” And then there was “The Audacity of Hope.” Anyone who read that neoliberal mess knew before December 2008 that if we elected Barack Obama we were going to get lots of Arne Duncan type government — and not because they played basketball together safely in Hyde Park, Chicago.
The same guys (mostly, but Penny Pritzker was designated to be part of the club by her uncle Jay as the generational leaderships were passed along in that pioneering tax dodging family) who outlined the plans for neoliberalism as early as the 1970s were scouting for young men and women who filled the diversity slot and would be screened — over and over and over — to make sure they were reliable when they were placed into the leadership for the NAFTA, war, drone, etc. world.
For some reason, basketball has become some kind of fetish when people examine the Obama reality. Although now it looks like golf will replace it. Either way, one among many facts: Barack Obama never “edited” the Harvard Law Review. That would have required too much work. As would writing actual law review articles. Barack Obama became the first “president” of the law review board. That required as much work as his buddy Rahm Emanuel’s service on the Board of Directors of AIG as they plundered the economy prior to the 2008 and following collapse. But that, too, is another story for another time…
George, thank you for that “edited-Harvard-Law-Review” vs. “President-of-Law-Review-Board” nugget.
It’s so typical of the profound falsehood of the man, down to nitty gritty lies such as this.
Very, very interesting. This former south-sider and current friend of the LA-posting reader above, really, really appreciates this fascinating weave of UofC-ers, Labbies, civil rights and community politics, financiers and RE moguls, and neoliberal philosophizers. All under one giant squeeky basketball umbrella.
My daddy always said true scholarship and sports didn’t mix and while my UofC-common core-prepped (the post-secondary version)-Aristotle-admiring side never wanted to believe this, it may lie closer to reality than is healthy. Those guys should spend less time on their indoor basketball courts and more time in an outdoor litter-infested one.
Somehow, they have zero idea of what Community means. Or how to raise your mind from the confines of neighborhood without forsaking it.
Run Karen Run!!!
Axelrod has a story about how he first met Arne playing pick-up on campus! Run, Rabbitt, run!! (Updike).
Karen is doing a lot of listening and Rahm is pretending to listen.
Martin Nesbitt thinks that teachers don’t deserve the money they make? Has anyone asked Martin Nesbitt whether he deserves the money he makes? Oh, right, he’s a ‘self-made’ man, who’s too busy stepping on the backs of the working class and working poor to notice.
Please understand that any “Green” candidate is carrying marching orders from the United Nations. Bill Gates funds UNESCO. He signed an agreement with them in 2004, pledging to create a world-wide curriculum to disseminate the goals of UNESCO. He then went about funding the creation of the Common Core.
In 2009, he placed Gates people all over the Obama administration including as Chief of staff to Arne Duncan to get the ball rolling with RTTT. He supplied free consultants to states to help them fill out the applications for RTTT. The CC is a UN program. It is part of the “green” agenda. It is all about sustainable development, depopulation, redistribution of wealth, harmonization of all cultures and all religions in preparation for one world united under one government, no borders, no sovereign nations.
Until we stop worrying about Democrat or Republican and realize that is a false choice of little consequence, we will be stuck in the same paradigm for many more years. Third party greenies are not the solution.
The real power brokers have to be toppled. Right now they are riding high on fiat money. Re-instate the Glass Steagall Act which separates legitimate banking from speculation and insurance swap shenanigans and see who remains standing. Jamie Dimon, supposedly the smartest man in the room, might find himself sitting on a pile of ….nothing….that he previously called billions of dollars.
When the masters of Wall Street can no longer buy our presidents and our union leaders, perhaps we can exercise our voting rights with some expectation of a legitimate result.
You’re slipping, Dawn. You didn’t support your assertions with a list of scary quotations that are taken grossly out of context or are completely fictitious.
I have and I will continue to vote Green, after thoroughly researching each candidate, and I urge others to do so as well.
I would never, ever vote for any Tea Party or Libertarian candidates who, along with the Koch brothers, Glenn Beck and their “tin foil hat” followers, promote this Illuminati global conspiracy theory nonsense.
Exercise your critical thinking skills, folks! There is plenty of evidence of a neoliberal business plan to privatize public services, including education, to disempower labor unions, strip people of their pensions and Social Security, and condemn workers to unlivable incomes in minimum wage jobs, regardless of their level of education and experience.
Don’t scapegoat Jesuits et al. for our social, economic, educational and environmental ills, when it’s corporate billionaires, as well as the politicians and judges, from both major parties that they have bought and paid for, who are the ones that are culpable for this mess.
I do not support Tea Party or Libertarian candidates. I dislike the Koch Brothers and Glen Beck as much as you do. I am not giving billionaires a pass. They are culpable for this mess. If you read my posts, you know that I blame Jamie Dimon and all the Wall Street cheaters for destroying our economy. I want to reinstate the Glass Steagall Act to bring stability back to our economy.
Where we differ is our perception of the United Nations. I look at it as a pernicious institution that is out to establish a one world government with itself in charge. It is using the “green movement” to rally support for their plans. They couch everything in terms of sustainable development, recycling and bike paths so that it all sounds so innocuous and nice. The green party without knowing it is working for the enslavement of humanity. Limiting people’s use of fuel will cripple innovation and productivity. It is anti-human and destructive.
I know that most people associated with this movement are really wonderful people who love life and are generous people that just want to do something good for the earth. I get that. I am tying to wake them up because the billionaires who you have identified as your enemies are just using the green environmentalists for their own selfish purposes.
Al Gore will continue to fly around in his jet spewing pollution and wasting fuel to his hearts content while we will be limited to our specified “carbon footprint.” Don’t be stupid. Do not demand a carbon tax which will mean your own enslavement. You will not be allowed to fly anywhere. You will have to turn your thermostat down. You will have your vehicle miles traveled calculated and limited. Wake up. Green is mean.
Whether you like the Tea Party or not is inconsequential when you continue to spout the propaganda they created. Get a clue. Your tin foil hat is fashionable with people who are extremely delusional and acutely paranoid.
The Green party is clean.
Please provide examples of any quotation that was taken out of context or that you think is fictitious. I will be happy to provide context to anything you find confusing. Do not accuse me of writing fiction however. My posts are sincere, honest and factual. You may not appreciate the conclusions that I come to based on the facts, but the facts are still the facts.
See this thread. https://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/08/the-return-of-david-sirota-the-differences-between-warren-and-clinton/
Fake JFK quote. I asked you for a source. You posted a YouTube video of a highly edited JFK speech that didn’t include the fake quote.
This is what happens when you cut-and-paste without thinking or caring.
To be clear, I asked you for “a source for it that isn’t a web site that looks like a Dan Brown novel.” I have no doubt that you could provide a source in the form of a web site that looks like a Dan Brown novel, because you must have gotten the fake quote from a crackpot web site like that in the first place. What I mean to say is, don’t cut-and-paste a link to another crack-pot web site. There’s no shortage verified transcripts of Kennedy’s speeches or material written about Kennedy by real historians. If the only record of a significant quotation by a major historical figure is on a web site that rants about the “new world order,” it’s a good indication that it’s fake.
Apparently this “quote” first surfaced on a website called Save America Foundation in 2011. There is no corresponding actual transcript of these words or auditory rendition of Kennedy giving this particular speech 7 days before his assassination. However, as Fred Brownbill points out, the website relied on a statement of a man who worked in the Kennedy administration who said he heard JFK make this statement. I understand that is not corroboration enough to claim it as fact. So I concede that I posted this one thing this one time that I cannot verify as absolute fact. But I still maintain the gist of it, that Kennedy was clued into the fact that there are members of secret societies in high places in this country who have ill intentions toward us all.
Considering I have written over one hundred posts on dianeravitch.net, some quite lengthy, containing factual provable references, I think it is unfair for you to characterize me as someone who posts fictional unsubstantiated rants. And there are plenty of actual speeches given by George Bush Sr. in which he discusses the “new world order” so I don’t think that topic is controversial at all. It is well documented at this point.
Save America Foundation: https://www.saveamericafoundation.com/2011/11/27/jfk-quote/
Fred Brownbill March 23, 2014 at 6:20 am #
This quote may or may not have been said by JFK, although there is enough people who believe that it was said privately. Just because it was not said in the two speeches given that day in public does not mean it was not said or attributed to him. There is a statement from a man who worked in his administration who said the words came from JFK. Either way, the words have come true. The way the site is set up shows the post was posted by the SAF and it is kind of petty and pedantic to try and say we made up the comment or invented something that has been around for decades. I believe that the SAF has developed a huge following, in the tens of thousands because we have shown our credibility and we are not afraid to put out info that other sites do not want to put out because they are afraid of being politically correct.
Even though this speech does not use the exact words that I quoted and it was addressed to the American Newspaper Publishers Association about the Cold War, in it Kennedy states:
“The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society. We are as a people, inherently and historically, opposed to secret societies, secret oaths, and secret proceedings.”
He was not talking about communism. Communism is not a secret society. It doesn’t have a secret oath, or secret proceedings.
Skull and Bones is a secret society to which Prescott, G.Herbert Walker, and George Bush all belonged. It is documented in Anthony Sutton’s book, America’s Secret Establishment. If you want to read a scholarly work on who is actually running our country, I would highly recommend that book.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_skullbones11.htm
I would bet that most if not all of the other quotes in that same post of yours are either made-up or completely out of context. Quotations on the internet are like chain mail, even when they’re not pulled off Illuminati-obsessed web sites. You’re either the kind of person who’s concerned about whether what you paste is actually true or you’re not. You are clearly not the former.
“I would bet that most if not all of the other quotes in that same post of yours are either made-up or completely out of context.”
Take the trouble to look them up and prove they are false or back off. You are slandering me with no evidence.
The Illuminati exists. After the Jesuits had been kicked out of many European countries for interfering in politics, they went underground and became the Illuminati.
The U.S. espouses freedom of religion….so it has been a great playground for the resurgence of the Jesuits. It is politically incorrect to insult them or accuse them of meddling in politics. They are hiding in plain sight.
If the Jesuits are merely a gentle teaching order of the Roman Catholic Church, uninterested in meddling in politics, why are so many of our leaders Jesuit trained? Why is it so important for people to speak at Georgetown University when they are being vetted for high public office? Why is the CFR littered with Jesuits?
There’s no upside, Dawn. I called you on the first example I saw, a JFK quote that just screamed “fake.” You didn’t investigate it. You just pulled up a link to audio you probably hadn’t even listened to all the way through. Yet I wasted my time and did listen to it, all five minutes. Then I found the transcript of the actual speech. Then I found and listened to all twenty-something minutes of the actual speech. Then I responded to you by telling you all this and providing you with the link. You didn’t pay any more attention to what I told you than you paid to what you told me. You’ve demonstrated that you’re not someone who should be taken seriously, so I can’t throw good money after bad. Here is my counteroffer: Periodically, when the mood strikes me, I will call you on your batsh!t crazy, irresponsible, cut-and-paste bull$hit. You, in turn, can keep cutting and pasting and hearing whatever it is you hear when that happens. Deal?
Thank you, FLERP! I really appreciate your calling out all this nonsense. Keep staying on the case –who knows, maybe someday she will take off the tin foil hat. Hang in there!
So the tin foil hat remains firmly in place with Crazy Glue.
All of this is such hogwash. I received my doctoral training at a Jesuit university and I repeatedly witnessed their passion for education and for promoting social justice. Long before others recognized the implications, they warned that charters in the pipeline would ultimately result in the destruction of public education in this country. Though I am not a Catholic, I very appreciate all that I learned from Jesuits.
cx: Should have been, “I very much appreciate…”
No Deal, Flerp! Name calling is never an acceptable form of discourse.
I did follow up on your criticism of my post. I did concede that the one Kennedy quote that I used could not be corroborated except by hearsay which is not good enough.
But I still maintain that the thrust of the quote which is that Kennedy was aware that there are people in high places in this country that have bad intentions for the populace of the U.S. is true. This is evidenced in the speech which is his actual voice saying that “The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society. We are as a people, inherently and historically, opposed to secret societies, secret oaths, and secret proceedings.”
I am a voracious reader of books, not just posts on blogs. I read widely from varied sources, opposing perspectives, people from differing political and geographical backgrounds. I look for opposing arguments on every subject. I do not believe the first thing I read on any given subject. I do not get my information from You Tube videos (although I think they can be a useful tool to disseminate information widely to people who are not big readers.)
I cannot help the fact that my reading has led me to discover that there is a cabal, an inter-connected web of secret societies with secret oaths and secret proceedings that actually run things in this country. If you would like to remain in denial, I cannot help that.
Understand that your efforts to belittle me, make fun of me, and discourage me from posting what I consider to be important and helpful information are in vain.
I maintain that there are some people reading this blog who are actually open to researching the possibility that there is an unusual concentration of Jesuit trained people in the Obama administration. They might actually find it interesting to follow up on the fact that Obama’s community organizing days were filled with Jesuit priests and his organization was funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Joe Biden, John Brennan, Chuck Hagel…
Facts are facts. Let the chips fall where they may. Your insults do not deter me from my primary role which is to educate.
Don’t kid yourself, Dawn. As an Art teacher, your job may be to educate and you might do that well, with a good, trained, evaluative eye. In regard to this though, you are out of field, not exercising critical thinking skills, and are merely a proselytiser who relies on sources that are not credible and which consist of a lot of Tea Party propaganda.
I am not saying that every teacher at a Jesuit institution is a defender of the Pope. I am not saying that every student of a Jesuit institution has been indoctrinated to defend the Pope. However, I am saying that the Jesuit order was established for the purpose of defending the Pope after Luther began the Reformation and although it has been suppressed and kicked out of some counties at various points in history, some of its key members represent a very powerful political force here in America today.
Georgetown University is the oldest Jesuit school in the U.S. and its alumni have populated our government at a greater proportion than happenstance would warrant. Obama has been particularly adept at appointing them to his administration. Why?
Your reference to “social justice” proves my point. The UN pushes social justice all day long. Socialism, communism, one world government, tolerance and harmonization of all religions, call it whatever you want….the work of replacing real Christian doctrine with “humanism” is exactly the work of the Jesuits. I know you think this is a good thing. I do not.
Social justice was the mantra of Karl Marx. The ultimate implementation of “social justice” historically has been a nightmare of horrors.
For generations there has been an activist side to the idea of wealth redistribution. This popular front, with a web of splinter groups, organizations and fellow travelers, used “social justice” as the rallying cry for cultural transformation. In fact, this movement is very much alive today, and continues to use the term as an effective banner. These social justice flag wavers have been the most vocal preachers of Collectivism; the followers of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and dozens of other socialist and communist leaders.
Communists and social radicals have been, hands-down, the winners when it comes to employing this term. The Socialist International has always used it, as has Trotskyite organizations, Red factions, and a multitude of socialist political parties. It’s a favorite of the Green Party too, with little difference in meaning from that of its socialist sisters.
Yeah, it’s pure Tea Party hype to see social justice as a controversial issue, regardless of the fact that our country has had a long history of racial profiling, marginalizing minorities and treating many groups inequitably, including women.
I think you are way too far gone down the rabbit hole to be able to ever recover your common sense, let alone empathize with the many people who are disadvantaged.
It is precisely the disadvantaged that will be hurt the most by environmental policies such as a carbon tax.
It is not wise to make pronouncements about people until you have walked a mile in their shoes. I do not know why you think you have the right to judge me. You have no idea what I have encountered in my own life or my abilities to empathize with disadvantaged people.
The UN concept of social justice is not ultimately about race or gender. They use those talking points to get people on board. What they are really intending is mass depopulation (for the good of the planet, of course.) Just look at the people who stated the UN and UNESCO, a bunch of social Darwinists who believed in eugenics and the superiority of certain races. If people would just study history they could see what is being done by who is involved.
I have confidence that if you actually study up on the history of the UN and UNESCO, you too will be able to see the forest and the trees and understand that being green is not what you think.
I most certainly have studied this and I did not at all come to the same conclusions as you. You are seeing dead people who are not there, and you are not seeing the living.
I have no doubt that you are just the sort of outspoken, gullible person the Koch brothers are counting on to ensure that environmental protections are curtailed, so that they can continue to rape and pillage our planet with impunity. Whether you like the Koch brothers or not, you are promoting their deleterious self-serving agenda.
It’s ironic when those who are afraid of the UN, government and mind control are actually already being controlled by big business and don’t realize it. Here’s the Tin Foil Hat Song (There’s actually a Tin Foil Society, too.)
Let’s see, the Aspen Institute is an organization that received millions from Bill Gates to love the Common Core. You have definitely not researched this if you do not understand that the very people you are so worried about, the corporate money bags you are against, were and continue to be the funding arm of the environmental movement for their own eugenics purposes. Do not be fooled into carrying water for them.
The Aspen Institute Inc $5,189,948. The Aspen Institute has received more than $50 million from the Gates Foundation with about 10% being devoted to k-12 education.
On April 22, 1970, thousands of college students and curious onlookers turned out to participate in the widely publicized Earth Day festivities in dozens of major U.S. cities. Fold music, antinuclear slogans, “Love Your Mother Planet Earth” posters and college students were everywhere. On the surface it appeared to most observers that the nationwide rallies represented a grass roots movement to protest “the destruction of the environment”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Earth Day publicity stunt was part of a highly coordinated effort to create a climate of sympathy for Malthusian zero growth, where none yet existed in the United States.
Earth Day was partly bankrolled by a $200,000 personal grant from Robert O. Anderson, at the time the president of Atlantic Richfield Oil Corporation, the president of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and a personal protégé of University of Chicago zero-growth ideologue Robert Maynard Hutchins. Anderson and the Aspen Institute played a crucial role in the launching of a worldwide environmentalist movement, and Earth Day was a big step along the way.
Coincident with the Earth Day effort, The Progressive, a 70-year-old publication of the U.S. branch of the Fabian socialist movement of H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, and Julian and Aldous Huxley, devoted its entire issue to a special report on “The Crisis of Survival”. Among the environmentalist ideologues who contributed to this special issue were Ralph Nader and Paul Ehrlich. Denis Hayes, a Stanford University graduate who would later become the environmentalist-in-residence at the Worldwatch Institute, wrote the keynote article on Earth Day. He stated:
“April 22 is a tool — something that can be used to focus the attention of society on where we are heading. It’s a chance to start getting a handle on it all; a rejection of the silly idea that bigger is better, and faster is better, world without limits, amen.
“This has never been true. It presumes a mastery by Man over nature, and over Nature’s laws. Instead of seeking harmony, man has sought to subdue the whole world. The consequences of this are beginning to come home. And time is running out.”
In 1970, most Americans would have summarily rejected this pessimistic view. But, by the time the organizers of Earth Day 1970 were planning 20th anniversary celebrations of the event for 1990, the environmentalist hoax had been sold to the population of the United States. In the months before Earth Day 1990, every elementary and secondary school in the nation was provided with a special Earth Day preparation curriculum from the environmental Protection Agency. EPA spokesmen toured the nation. Television, magazines, and newspapers from the national to local level reported and editorialized on the event. State and town governments promoted it with public funds.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress.
The NY Times is proving my point. Obama is pursuing Eco-fascism in his own dictatorial style.
Thank God most teachers are genuine critical thinkers who have not fallen for the corporate indoctrination that so enthralls you. You are one very sick puppy.
We all love the earth, the forests, streams, oceans and unpolluted blue skies. I recycle and conserve energy. But I do not want my county planners to monitor and limit my carbon footprint. And I do not want to buy phony carbon offsets from Al Gore and David Blood.
I just refuse to be enslaved by the impending legislation that will result in loss of freedom for all of us (who are not plutocrats) to live, drive, and travel where we want. I am just asking people to understand who is behind this green curtain. I am asking teachers not to be the foot soldiers of this ill conceived movement in classrooms across America.
The corporations and foundations like Bill and Melinda Gates are funding the environmental movement, just like they are funding the Common Core. (The Common Core is the sustainable development brainwash necessary to begin in kindergarten to really cement the green movement into our society.) It is not a grass roots by the people for the people movement.
Well meaning people have been co-opted by global plutocrats to accomplish their agenda. I know you have good hearts and are trying to do the right thing for the planet and for future generations. But you are being used. I want you to consider that as a possibility.
Stop calling me names. Tun off your TV and think for yourself. Did you ever think perhaps sustainable development is the corporate indoctrination? What benefit do I derive from arguing against the green movement? I am called names, slandered, jeered at. For what? Am I related to the Koch brothers? Am I invested in Exxon stock?
Why do I spend one minute on this blog arguing with people who disagree with everything I am saying? I think teachers can be a tremendous force for good. I don’t want to see them on the wrong side.
Is it a possibility that I sincerely want to stop the agenda (Agenda 21, Sustainable Development, Smart Growth) to inventory and control every resource on the planet including people because that is a slippery slope that will lead to genocide when carried to its logical conclusion? I know it would take a huge change in your frame of reference and all sots of adjustments would have to be made in your thinking on other subjects as well so it is not easy to switch sides. But for the sake of humanity you need to.
I know you have the ability to think this through logically and research it and arrive at the truth of the situation.
Amidst the talk about the benefits that Kyoto Protocol is supposed to promote, it is perhaps forgotten especially amongst the greenies how Kyoto was born in the corridors of very big business. The name Enron has all but faded from our news pages since the company went down in flames in 2001 amidst charges of fraud, bribery, price fixing and graft. But without Enron there would have been no Kyoto Protocol.
About 20 years ago Enron was owner and operator of an interstate network of natural gas pipelines, and had transformed itself into a billion-dollar-a-day commodity trader, buying and selling contracts and their derivatives to deliver natural gas, electricity, internet bandwidth, whatever. The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to put a cap on how much pollutant the operator of a fossil-fueled plant was allowed to emit. In the early 1990s Enron had helped establish the market for, and became the major trader in, EPA’s $20 billion-per-year sulphur dioxide cap-and-trade program, the forerunner of today’s proposed carbon credit trade. This commodity exchange of emission allowances caused Enron’s stock to rapidly rise.
Then came the inevitable question, what next? How about a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program? The problem was that CO2 is not a pollutant, and therefore the EPA had no authority to cap its emission. Al Gore took office in 1993 and almost immediately became infatuated with the idea of an international environmental regulatory regime. He led a U.S. initiative to review new projects around the world and issue ‘credits’ of so many tons of annual CO2 emission reduction. Under law a tradeable system was required, which was exactly what Enron also wanted because they were already trading pollutant credits. Thence Enron vigorously lobbied Clinton and Congress, seeking EPA regulatory authority over CO2.
From 1994 to 1996, the Enron Foundation contributed nearly $1 million dollars – $990,000 – to the Nature Conservancy, whose Climate Change Project promotes global warming theories. Enron philanthropists lavished almost $1.5 million on environmental groups that support international energy controls to “reduce” global warming. Executives at Enron worked closely with the Clinton administration to help create a scaremongering climate science environment because the company believed the treaty could provide it with a monstrous financial windfall. The plan was that once the problem was in place the solution would be trotted out.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1813229/posts
You are a much sicker puppy than I imagined.
You have not refuted anything that I have posted.
Either Al Gore, Clinton, Enron, the Nature Conservancy, and the EPA colluded to rip us off or they didn’t. Provide some counter argument or the dates and historical evidence of collusion stands.
You have bought into every Tea Party conspiracy theory and you are not going to let anything that anyone says change your mind, so it’s not worth the time or energy to try.
Try me. I’m open to being persuaded by the power of your argument supported by actual facts including names, dates and events.
You’ve got nothing. You cannot refute the evidence so you try to taint the facts by associating them with the Tea Party. That is a diversion not a real response.
I have seen your “discussions” and you typically resort to these convoluted conspiracy theories. Huge waste of time for sensible people.
You always find the time to put me down.
Unlike you, some of us make time to support the earth.
We may not all agree on everything, but like I tell my students, this is America, so we have freedom of expression.
I also don’t like any type of name calling in the classroom. The person called the names might not mind, but other students might feel less safe.
I’m a little rigid with my rules. I tell my students, though, that I’m human and make mistakes everyday. The important thing though, is that we learn from the mistakes.
Those conspiracy theories come from the Koch brothers, the sons of Fred Koch, one of the founders of the radical right John Birch Society. They established the Tea Party in order to promote their ideology and increase profits for Koch Industries while damaging our environment. Others have already pointed this out a lot, yet this poster continues to spout conspiracy theories ad infinitum, thereby serving as a tool for these oligarchs. The pernicious aims of the Koch brothers result in deniers of global warming and decreased environmental protections for our earth, so anyone promoting this nonsense deserves to be called out on it.
On the one hand, critical thinking + democratization of information = a good thing.
But there is a dark side: the cocktail of alienation, distrust of institutions, and blurring of lines between cut-and-pasting and free expression.
Do a Google search on the core set of Dawn’s “radical ideas” and it leads you right into the fog: http://tinyurl.com/kc98hua
If you can’t even concede that reinstating the Glass Steagall Act is a good idea ….I am done talking.
I’m done talking, too, but that’s because one sensible thing is not enough for me.
Hi Diane–I thought you might enjoy this button that TSTA members wore in Austin on the day in 1986 when we all took a test to prove that our reading and math skills were adequate for the job. It was the beginning of the testing era in Texas, both for students and educators. I remember politicians earnestly assuring us that these tests would never be used to rank or compare schools. Hence, the button suggesting polygraphs for our Texas politicians. Best wishes for a successful recovery, Rick Strot
Richard Strot Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Baylor University Baylor Education in Costa Rica Director Southwest Region Director, Puppeteers of America 254-710-7040 (office) 254-717-0214 (mobile)
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.” John Dewey
“If you don’t run, you rust.” Tom Petty ________________________________________
There are conspiracy facts. Public officials, corporate CEOs, the United Nations and many NGOs are colluding to use the “green movement” to cause people to call for the economic collapse of their own country by creating carbon taxes and limits on carbon creation. I love my country. I want to prevent this from happening. I am a Democrat, teacher, union member, and a little old lady who has no ties to the Koch Brothers, John Birch Society or the Tea Party. It is laughable that you insist that I cannot possibly deny the existence of global warming because I have read about the “science” behind it and find it lacking. For one thing CO2 is not a pollutant.
I don’t have a TV. I read. May I suggest that you do some reading? Rosa Koire, another Democrat, wrote a book titled, Behind the Green Mask. Check it out. She doesn’t like the Koch Brothers either but she loves the earth and this country and wants to preserve it as the sovereign nation it is. She doesn’t want to live under the thumb of the United Nations. Do you?
People who insist that they are sensible because they don’t believe officials and bankers conspire behind our backs are naive — not sensible.
Here is a concise list of my radical ideas that you think I should be “called out” for:
Repeal NCLB and RTTT
Stop Common Core and return to state standards
Reinstate the Glass Steagall Act
Impeach Obama
Disband the United Nations including UNESCO
End Agenda 21
Disband the Department of Homeland Security
Repeal the Patriot Act and NDAA
End the Federal Reserve
Stop funding conflicts around the world
Repeal NAFTA and CAFTA and do not allow the TPP to go through
Call for a congressional investigation of tax exempt foundations
I am sure you can find something in that list to agree with. Be an activist. Do something for your country.
This is so all over the place that “sick puppy” is really a compliment. I’d be much more inclined to describe the “loose screws” of a mind that is somehow able to reconcile playing competing games on both sides of the fence.
These conspiracy theories are so extreme that even TE prides himself in not supporting them –and that is saying a hell of a lot. Don’t assume that your prolific gobbledygook can be construed as serving as a steward of our planet, or that other people are do nothings by comparison. Everyday, a lot of us actively work to protect the earth from corporate rapists and their nutjob supporters.