Leo Casey explains here that there really is “class warfare” in the U.S. today.
It is not the 1% that is attacking unions and working Americans.
It is the 1% of the 1%.
Nine of the ten richest Americans–all billionaires–are united in opposition to rights for working people.
They don’t want working people to have an assured pension.
They don’t want teachers to have any job security.
They want to roll back the New Deal.
They want capital to be unfettered.
They want teachers to have no rights at all.
They want to open up public education for entrepreneurs and profiteers.
They want privatization of public education.
But do not despair.
Armed with knowledge, we can beat them where it counts: at the polls.
FYI, this Casey post is a year-and-a-half old.
Irrelevant if it’s still true, which it is.
And??? Better late than never in getting information out in the public realm.
Excuse me, “FLERP”; does the fact that it was originally written 18 months ago mean something? If so, what?
Are you insinuating that his points aren’t valid because they were written in the fall of 2011?
Or, are you just opposed to people knowing these facts, and thus looking for any “reason” to criticize the fact that someone is informing us about them?
Just pointing it out in case Diane wasn’t aware.
Right on Pugent sound! Sure sounds like a lame apologist for those greedy billionaires and their list of victims they’d love to destroy, while destroying what’s left of the middle class!
It’s still happening, so it’s relevant to put out there again.
FLERP, oh my don’t look at Moby Dick, it’s 157 years old!
FLERP!
FYI, I often post articles that are old but still relevant. This one gets more relevant by the day.
“In an unguarded moment, Warren Buffet bluntly communicated the reality that we now face. ‘There’s class warfare, all right,’ Buffett said, ‘but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.’”
Wow.
What exactly does this fool think he is “winning”? And who is his opponent? Anyone who is not a part of “his” class?
And good for Larry Ellison for staying out of the battle against those who are not in “his” class.
Unfortunately Buffet is no fool. If there are any fools in this scenario, it is we citizens, voters, and taxpayers.
And thanks for sharing this.
Beautifully put!!!!!!!!
I know you say not to despair. But given that Obama was supposed to represent the democratic shift in policy in the US [in comparison to Bush], how can one not despair?
They don’t want working people to have an assured pension.
Call the pension what it is, delayed compensation.
Yes, they want you to give it to the finance sector so that they can eventually steal it from you legally after buying off with the proceeds from your money the politicians to make new laws that will benefit them. It’s called Oligarchic Fascism.
Exactly right. This is a KEY POINT.
“Pension” means Delayed Compensation; the money you’re receiving after retirement, from your pension, isn’t a “Going Away Gift” or a “Special Bonus” or a “Retirement Reward”, or anything like that.
The money from your pension was EARNED DURING YOUR WORKING YEARS! Over the 25 or 30 or 40 years of your employment, part of what you earned, each and every working day, went into a fund that guaranteed you’ll have enough money to live in your older age, after decades of working when you were younger.
Unfortunately most people don’t have pensions today. And when they retire, there’s nothing for them beyond Social Security. And so, those who receive pensions—often public sector employees—become easy targets of hatred and resentment, with conservative politicians fully pressing the buttons to enrage voters about the “unfairness” of such payments.
But, a large reason for this is that most people see “Pensions” as similar to a “Lifetime Christmas Bonus”—which they, as taxpayers, have to be responsible for paying.
For the record, I’m not a public employee and I don’t have any sort of pension coming when I retire. Neither does my spouse or any other family member or close friend.
I just believe in fairness and decency. When you agree to work somewhere, for decades, you are entitled to what was promised, in writing. End of story.
“When you agree to work somewhere, for decades, you are entitled to what was promised, in writing. End of story.”
That’s not the end of the story, though. Are future employees entitled to what was promised to current employees? That’s generally the question raised by pension reform legislation. And should the pension benefits of current employees be retroactively enhanced beyond what was originally promised? They have been in many states, repeatedly and without much news coverage.
FLERP! – I’d suggest you hang around Fred Klonsky’s blog a bit. He’s made it perfectly clear that the issue is current retirees and their pensions. All the pension “reform” measures will affect current retirees, including the one in Illinois which will force retirees to chose between health care and COLA.
This was a comment on the original article in 2011.
” I just finished reading Mr. Brill’s book, which I enjoyed, but I was stunned when I realized he did not mean “class warfare” in the sense of one class of people against the other. If anything was clearly demonstrated in his book, it was the fact that all his heroes are rich guys who are waging war against (mostly) working class teachers. The reform movement is a movement of the rich against the working class for control of the schools. (I read recently that one of our billionaires admitted this and bragged, “And my side is winning!”) Also, I don’t think Brill noticed that all his heroes share one thing in common: they are not teachers. In fact it is understood in the book that all those bright Yale and Harvard people would not themselves teach. Well, there you have it, one of the biggest problems in American education: Teaching children under 18 is considered “women’s work” and not suitable for the middle and upper classes. Not many things hurt our children more than this pernicious attitude, so aptly (although unknowingly) described by Mr. Brill.
The status quo in education is schooling by zip code: separate and unequal schools for rich and poor. Teachers and other child advocates have been fighting for equity in education for years. Just providing infant, toddler and preschool would be a huge step forward. I hope talented journalists like Mr. Brill join teachers in destroying the real status quo in education. We can do it!” Linda Johnson, Sept 16, 2011
I started reading this and thinking “This sounds familiar!” Thanks for giving me credit.
Unless forced to make concessions by an informed and mobilized working class, it’s axiomatic that the Overclass will attack Labor. It’s part of what they do, and often how they joined that exclusive club in the first place.
It’s also why perceptive members of that class have supported Obama: they rightly saw that he was the perfect Trojan Horse to fracture the Democratic Party and destroy what remains of its loyalty to the New Deal and GreatSociety.
I agree with everything the writer says except that they are not the 1% but .000003%. 9 divided into 300,000,000 is just that. The top is not 1% but 1/10 of 1/10 of 1%.
I went to Brill’s speech here when he was last in L.A. and some of my friends also went. I have never heard such foolish purposeful lies. In question and answer I asked a question and he froze with having to deal with reality. He freaked out and his cronies freaked out. They uncut my question from the video. When it came to the book signing I had to go to the bathroom and two people followed me in and asked me to immediately leave. I just laughed as I knew what that meant. I drove home laughing all the way knowing that I hit him where it hurt and he could not deal with someone who knew what was going on. My friends who were still there watched what I did turn into something they could not control at his book signing. He could not stand their questions and friends watched him literally run out the door. Other friends were in the parking lot and watched him run to the limo and the limo burn rubber out of the parking lot to get away. Brill, did you have a good time? I am so glad to give you one.
This shows you who he and they really are and that they cannot take the heat in public with knowledgeable questions to their phony ideology. Brill is not used to being confronted no matter how much money he has and powerful he thinks he is. This is how to take them down. Make it so if they want to show up in public they have to answer real questions. They are afraid. What do you think would happen to Gates and the “Broadfather” if they had to answer real questions one on one in public? They would choke and stop going out in public is what would happen. That is why they prefer to work in a controlled environment, controlled by them that is.
“I agree with everything the writer says except that they are not the 1% but .000003%. 9 divided into 300,000,000 is just that. The top is not 1% but 1/10 of 1/10 of 1%.”
Yes. The “1 percent” slogan always annoys me for that reason. It’s snappier than your formulation, but it promotes a profound underappreciation for how wealth is actually distributed.
Oh, and you, after your defense of the billionaire boys club and their list of intended destruction of the working class, are now going to try to redeem what’s left of credibility by admitting an obvious fact?
Nice try, no banana!
Please don’t leave us hanging. What was the question you asked?
I love it, George. Why Socrates was judicially murdered. He asked the right questions. Keep on keeping on.
Agree, Harlan, and many a public school teacher has been murdered judicially (metaphorically speaking) for asking the right questions about many of the current educational malpractices.
“Armed with knowledge, we can beat them where it counts: at the polls.”
I want to believe you, Diane, but this only works if there are candidates available who haven’t been bought off by the corporate reformers.
Which of the two realistic candidates was that in the last presidential election, Diane?
Right again! I was an avid supporter of Obama for the last two presidential elections…since no more elections are in his future, his
true allegiance is no longer hidden…cut SS, Medicare, medicaid, not one iota about the monstrous defense budget, tax loopholes for the billionaires, etc. Not a mystery who runs his show, and it isn’t the people who hoped he was what he gave beautiful speeches about.
The Greeks knew ALL about such double talk and called the pseudo
concerned sophists what they were and are today…demagogues.
I am bitter about Obama’s desire to take money from the poorest of the country and give tax breaks to the wealthy and corporates who often pay zero in taxes…regardless of the fake Fox news clowns
protestations to the opposite of the truth!
His agenda was quite clear if one looked at the reality of his actions and not the rhetoric of his campaign.
I haven’t a shred of sympathy for your bitterness. Anyone who was paying attention should have known who he was, at least by the second run. Well, better late than not at all. Support the Tea Party.
Oh HU,
I would rather support a crusade to put pants on dogs, than EVER support that corporate, racist group of mini-thinkers; the tea bag party…Just because I am disenchanted with the two parties, I would hardly dive into the scary, nonsensical
baggers!
The Tea Party, an astroturf group founded and funded by billionaires. No thanks, Harlan.
Obama is a fraud.
Ron P., the last Presidential election offered no choice on election issues. There was very little difference between Obama and Romney on education.
But it is a different story in state and local races. Friends of public education (enrolling 90% of students) can organize, mobilize, and change the results. Wherever teachers are treated shabbily, wherever schools are being privatized, we can stop it by electing a governor and legislators who support public education.
If we do that often enough and create a national force, the candidates in 2016 will pay attention.
Good point, Diane. If voters demonstrate they are disenfranchised by the neo-liberal agenda at the local level, across the country, maybe Democrats will put up Elizabeth Warren as the presidential candidate in 2016, I think things would change dramatically in support of public education and the 99% if she was our president. (Hillary is a different story. She was on the Walton’s board years ago and I think she might just stick to Bill’s neo-liberal agenda.)
I would beg to differ with you Diane, but, of course, we’ll never know because too many fools voted for Obama. Romney at least cared about the country as a whole, and I have faith would have appointed someone as education secretary with some common sense in his head rather than grandiose plans fueled by the “stimulus” money we borrow from China, the interest on which funds their military. Seriously. My turn to be bitter. How CAN one have confidence in teachers if they “think” so poorly.
“How CAN one have confidence in teachers if they “think” so poorly. (sic)?
I tend to agree with you on this one Harlan as too many teachers have “gone along to get along” “thinking” that NCLB and RaTT would eventually just go away (not realizing the harm they had been doing to students through these educational malpractices and to keep their jobs) like the many insane directives from before. The teachers didn’t “think” enough to realize that the oligarchs mean business this time with the NCLB and RaTT. By the way the same oligarchs who founded and funded the Tea Partie (sic).
Diane, I agree.
Brill is a shill and propagandist for the billionaires who hate unions. He gets paid to demonize unions and traditional public schools. The billionaire Pete Peterson has waged a decades long war against Social Security, he has thrown millions of dollars demonizing, sliming and demeaning SS. These people have more money than some small countries and yet they resent the paltry benefits that working class people have. Wow, a billionaire gets to point the accusing finger at those supposedly “overcompensated” teachers with their supposedly “over-rich” pensions! The teacher is some how greedy and selfish while the Waltons (who earn more in an hour than the average teacher earns in a year) are just plain folks, from one of their cavernous estates.
I wish you would print this illuminating list of truths once a week. We need to see it that often as the media spews out their endless obfuscations of these revealing facts. The war on terror should be a war on corporatism, that’s the REAL enemy of our democracy, and if they continue to win, we will live in a serf/lord, feudal existence that will rival the dark ages!
You want to talk about wealth in this country? See Robert Reich’s video’s at:
http://robertreich.org/post/42309110588
The man is a Titan, A Zeus, a god for the middle class . . . .
Watch the video; see what I mean.
A midget.
To quote our own luminous Diane Ravitch:
“Ah, Harlan, our designated grinch!”
The “midget” served as Secretary of Labor Under Bill Clinton. Not bad for a “midget”. What Federal cabinet position were you appointed to back then, Harlan?
If you still want to stick with the midget metaphor, I can remember the animation “Mighty Mouse” . . . . So often did he save the day.
HU,
From Wiki: “Reich was born with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, also known as Fairbanks disease, and as a result is 4 feet 10.5 inches (148.6 cm) tall. He has at times frankly discussed this fact about himself, often with a twist of humor. He once appeared with the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) Conan O’Brien in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. [and] Midget (from midge, a sand fly[2]) is a term that is widely considered pejorative[3][1][4][5] for a person of unusually short stature, often one with the medical condition dwarfism,[4] particularly proportionate dwarfism.[6][7] When applied as an adjective, it can also refer to anything of much smaller than normal size, as a synonym for “miniature,”[8] or to sports leagues, such as hockey, for young players.”
Duane,
It was unkind and uncalled for, but this is the maturity level I guess we can come to expect. . . .
I was referring to Harlan’s “midget” remark . . . . not you, Duane.
Right, Robert, It should not be surprising that this kind of cruel and immature name calling (which also happens to be inaccurate) came from the bitter HU, who wants a turn each day to bash teachers here, especially those who voted for Obama, and claim they “think” poorly.
Mary is also right. HU’s pretzel logic supports a party bankrolled by the billionaire Koch Brothers, who will do virtually anything to prevent increased taxes for the 1% and to end environmental pollution regulations –hence the Tea Party platform to abolish the EPA. Don’t buy these Koch products: http://kochwatch.org/?q=node/28
And, BTW, Robert, Google him (aka John Harlan Underhill). He taught at a private school.
Other Spaces,
HU is who he is.
I appreciate his comments because he challenges me and cracks me up, maybe except for his name calling from time to time. He intends to be serious, of that I have no doubt.
But how anyone can take him seriously nearly all the time would be hysterical to me, totally laughable. He’s on the wrong blog. I see some things about corrupt government the way he does, but the Tea Party repulses me. I am a Western European style democrat. . .. a fish out of water here.
I still can’t find on the net that he taught in private schools all his career.
What I find a mystery is how he, a francophile and lover of the French language, can love the language but be so diametrically opposed to the average, general French or even leftist American mindset.
Harlan? Voudriez vous faire un commentaire de ca? j’attende votre lettre. Je suis desolee pour mon orthographie, c’est horrible, j’admite . . . c’est un dommage que votre point de vue toujours pareil comme le lupe blanc . . . Peut etre que vous n’avez pas le blog tres correct pour exprimer votre system de croir. C’est possible, n’est pas?
Robert, Check this out, which indicates HU taught from 1971 – 2004 at Greenhills School, a private (or “independent”) school in Ann Arbor, MI: http://www.yatedo.com/p/Harlan+Underhill/normal/e5d10e0f7c4d0a2f0022245f29c64bba
He said previously on this blog that he taught at a charter for two years, which I’m guessing is where he’s at now.
Ah-HA! The Underhill mystery has been solved.
HU taught at a very lovely private school that attracts, according to its literature, “the most qualified students”, yet they can all come from any background. ANY!
He was there for 33 years, so he must have been a good enough teacher. I wonder if he were put into a low income, high needs, immigrant population in a public setting with far fewer resources, would he still be a sought-after teacher?
Something tells me that low income children from troubled homes did not make up the vast majority population at Greenhills School in Michigan.
I don’t meant at all to imply that we public school teachers and systems can’t do anything significatn, important, and wonderful with such children. My district accomplishes big miracles through a work ethic and excellent teaching and training. I am fortunate.
Btut I still want to know if Harlan is receiving Social Security. . . . it is an FDR vestige (I adore almost everything FDR did for this nation) that arose out of socialist democratic principals, and would it not be gut busting and hilarious of Mr. Underhill were receiving such (in his mind) commie payments. . . . ????
Harlan, are you listening?
Too bad Harlan is so articulate and so cocooned all there years to realize that the private tuition intimate, artisanal school he taught at does not represent middle America, and increasingly so as almost a quarter of our children scandalously live in poverty.
Monsieur Grinch, please respond with one of your stuffy, self centered pontifications. . . . I don’t own a television and am starved for some sit-coms . . .
If there’s anything you should not be stingy with, Harlan, it’s your ridiculousness. Please be at least that considerate to always share it.
Robert, Did you notice that students have to test in to be accepted at Greenhills high school? So even kids on scholarship are going to be top achievers there.
Kids having to be tested to attend Harlan’s former school?
Well, SUE-PRIZE, SUE-PRIZE!
It must be delightful to teach a population of children who are mainly well behaved, test well, and whose parents are of the upper middle and upper class.
What a crappy, slummy job, but I guess someone has to suffer, put up with luxury scholastic conditions, and teach in such a difficult environment . . . .
Harlan, ya little butler-teacher, you. I am sure you must have relished many aspects of your job. One day, I’d like to live in Harlan’s world. It would be so much less moral, but SO much easier on the brain.
Perhaps the good news about Harlan’s school is that the parents don’t need to be able to afford a house in Scarsdale or New Trier Township to send their child to a strong school.
No doubt it is a great joy to teach a classroom of well behaved students. It is probably an even greater joy to be a student in a classroom filled with well behaved students.
TE: Ann Arbor is not exactly a low income urban area with high poverty. It’s a sophisticated college town: http://www.city-data.com/city/Ann-Arbor-Michigan.html
And since when are we at a loss for strong private schools? Many good private schools also provide scholarships for low income kids, including parochial schools, though they don’t all require that students pass entrance exams.
Cosmic,
I certainly agree that Ann Arbor is a sophisticated college town, though I only know it by reputation. I am not sure why that is relevant, however.
You didn’t notice the income and racial data? It’s not hugely diverse and education and post-secondary teaching are the top industries and jobs there. It’s a top school and it’s very likely that a good number of college administrators and professors are sending their kids to that kind of private school. See U of MI income data here: http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-michigan-ann-arbor Do you have private schools in your area that you can afford to send your kids to?
I am fairly familiar with salaries at u of M (and out of state tuition as well, nearly as high as NYU), but I am still unclear about the point you are making with this information.
Well then you are way more informed than I, because I had no idea that there were ANY adjunct professors who were paid over $500K per year anywhere, or that there were lecturers who earned salaries in the $600 – $800K range, especially at state schools.
With such high university salaries and a median household income of around $50k in that town, the Greenhills School tuition is pretty steep for locals, at $20K, so I would think that it’s very competitive to become one of the 18% of students that test into Greenhills on scholarship.
Cosmic,
I am not sure where you are getting those salary numbers. I understand that lecturers in economics get around $80,000 for a nine month contract. No doubt tenure stream faculty are paid a good deal more.
I have no doubt that private school scholarships are very competitive and that buying into Ann Arbor public schools is expensive as well. The median home price in Ann Arbor is reported as about $250,000. In New Trier it is $801,000. In my little town the median home price is listed at $150,000
TE: Those U of MI salaries are listed on this link that I previously provided for you and they were obtained through the FOIA: http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-michigan-ann-arbor
I’ve been apartment hunting a lot recently and discovered that there are some apartments in New Trier Township that are actually quite reasonably priced, so it could be worthwhile to be a renter in order to get your kids into New Trier.
Your looking at the law school folks. I doubt they are lecturers in the traditional sense, more likely folks who are paid for a course or two and the salaries are blown up to a full load equivalent.
Yes, those are outrageously high salaries, let alone for part timers. It looks like things have since changed somewhat though. That top $805K lecturer’s salary was cut by nearly half, but I think the $400K range is still very high. http://www.umsalary.info/
Another website indicates Ann Arbor is “one of the best 25 places to live for the rich and single.”
Another site says,
“Ann Arbor is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 92.99% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs” and “71.13% of the adults in Ann Arbor have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD,” compared to the national average of 21.84%.
Sounds like an interesting place for intellectuals to live. (I’ve known colleagues who’ve moved there precisely because of that.)
No doubt Ann Arbor is a fine place to live, and even though the median home price there is 50% higher than the median home price in my town, I could probably live there if I could find employment. I am still trying to figure out why all of this is important to the discussion.
From the huffingtonpost.com: “While nearly 15 million Americans still can’t find jobs due to the 2008 Wall Street-created crash, the top hedge manager, David Tepper, earned $1,057,692 an HOUR in 2012 — that’s as much as the average American family makes in 21 years!” and “Together the top ten hedge fund managers waltzed off with $10.1 billion in 2012, which is more than enough to hire 250,000 entry level teachers or 196,000 new registered nurses.” And yet demagogues like Brill and Chris Christie tell us that unions are the problem, teacher benefits are the problem, teacher pensions are the big problem not the hedge fund greedsters of wall Street. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/americas-new-math-1-wall-_b_3134022.html
Hey, boyo, when does the revolution start?
Hopefully sooner than later, you going to join us?
Hey, Harlan, would you care to disclose to any of us here if you are receiving a public pension from your years as a teacher in what I believe to be (I could be wrong) a public school system?
Are you receiving social security or are planning to file for it when you become of age?
For all your non-collectivist thinking, we’re merely curious . . .
BEAUTIFULLY put !!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so not the problem!
The unber rich don’t want to share any of their toys. Ted Turner’s 28 homes across the globe are NOT enough for him.
But he’s earned it through government policies that afford him massive tax breaks, in part. We teachers, on the other hand, consume tax dollars, or so the narrative goes.
Yet we produce a very important “product”, and the value of our product is commensurate with whatever little remaining benefits we have in good faith bargained for.
I know that seems very immoral to the Tea Party, the governments in Columbia, Chile, Mexico, Uganda, China, etc. , but here in the United Statesm most of us still believe in the common good, and no one acts within it or upon it in isolation.
Just ask the French, the vast majority of them.
FYI: about those pensions. In Illinois (& I don’t know how it is in other states), teachers can only collect their teacher pensions, and NOT social security. (Even if you worked enough quarters to qualify…nope!) Additionally, many people think that we receive free health insurance for life…that the state (taxpayers) pay for it. WRONG again–we PAY for our insurance.
Totally unlike retired legislators’ pensions and benefits.
Here is a link about social security coverage and state employees: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10051.pdf
Thanks for that link, TE!
In MO I will not be able to touch any of the SS of which I put into from age 16-38. I would be double dipping. Eff that law.
Casey left the Bush family off the list of wealthy edu-scammers.
Love the rousing exchanges; gives hope that we are not as a nation going down the rabbit hole of vapid, lemming like dupes that believe the hype of the media (owned by, is
it now FOUR corporations???) or, turned glazed, “I don’t really give a rip about that” eyes when the topic of who has power in this country, and who pays off the lobbyist lead congress! Guess HU needs to do a little research on his tea bag founder; the koch boys. Now, who should feel a bit dull witted? It’s all a kabuki dance for the country who still thinks it’s a country NOT run by the international corporations, military/industrial complex and money grubbing politicians. ’12 was no choice at all! The rhetoric coming from Romney/Ryan and the fans of Ayn Rand were frightening, the likes of which I have never heard before! Look up the Webster’s definition of “Fascism” and weep. Last time I heard, Webster wasn’t a conspiracy nut, but its a great smear to anyone who can connect the dots to what we are fast approaching!
I am glad to provide you French style socialists—comme Prime Minister Hollonde, who just tried to put the top tax rate on France’s richest up to 75% (and drove out, among others, Gerard Depardieu), but failed to get a French court to sustain it—avec quelques grandes rires. Les jours de printemps son toujours tel tres triste. I love la langue Francais, but not the country’s economic policies.
I love Greek, and Greeks too, but that country’s public sector was too big for its private sector, it ran up debts, concealed the debts, and then the Euro zone countries wouldn’t bail it out without serious “austerity” in the public sector. I don’t question anyone’s love of kids or the heroic work you are doing for the least privileged in the country. My beef is that you think that exempts you from economic laws. You think all that needs to be done is tax the rich more and the financial problems of public education will be solved. Except for this insane capitulation to NCLB, RTTT, and CCSC, MAINLY the problem is over-spending at the national and the state level.
Someone said that the defined contribution vs. defined benefit pension issue was a red herring. Not so. With defined benefit pensions the politicians can postpone full funding. Someone already said that. With defined contribution they cannot. Someone here even proposed giving teachers all their compensation up front so they could invest in their own retirement plans. It’s worth a thought.
I think you and the politicians have hoped all along you could get away with hiding the unfunded liabilities. But what I see happening is the consequences of wasteful public spending coming to fruition and yet teachers in the public school systems mostly I suppose still support the mind-set (Obama) which wants to borrow the country into the kind of situations we see in France, in Portugal, in Spain, and in Greece. It just sort of seems like a contradiction to me, to continue supporting a demagogue when he is even directly kicking the legs out from under your jobs with the CCSS, which can’t help but produce more failing schools and school closures. You are playing into the arms of the people you hate.
Privatization will continue most likely, although you are all, under Diane’s leadership, fighting it, and when the system is mostly privatized Obama won’t save you. I think you will have lost control of a really good deal by overrreaching and intransigence, just as the President currently is doing on gun control, the air traffic slow down, the screw ups in intelligence which are becoming clearer (Susan Collins calls it “stovepiping” of intelligence within FBI, CIA, and DHS) that permitted the Boston Bombing, in fact on everything he is doing.
In a sense, I’m just trying to be a mirror to reality. I know, you make up your excuses that the Tea Party is racist, facist, pigs like Romney, Ryan, & Rand. That is really ludicrous. They are not. They are mostly farmers and auto mechanics in my neck of the woods. They are not the hideous monsters you want to make of them. They are probably more like your grandparents than anything else. But socialists they are not.
Harlan,
Thank you for your acknowledegment of those of us who teach low income populations.
FYI, we do not feel rever Obama, and those of us in public education see him for the fraud he truly is. He is also a product of private schooling, once a youth “of color”, one of only two in an all white prestigious school in Honolulu. He has always lived in both worlds, which on some levels must not have been so smooth and must ahve shaped him to be the opportuniet he is today. His policies on war, on drones, on killing american citizens on or off our soil without due process, his gravy train band wagon of the common core, his token raise in taxes from 35 to 39 percent. . . the list can go on and on. He makes Bush Junior look like a socialist, if you will permit this overly simplistic metaphor.
Obama is the enemy of equality in education, as is his secretary of education. They both are nothing more than privatizing profiteers, and they have no interest in funding education to properly serve diverse populations.
Whereas I have mixed feelings about the CCSS, I know they are no the panacea for fixing a system that is not largely broken.
I do agree with you that government mispends money, but that’s only because of corruption, not an inherent, intrinsic trait of big goverment. There are other modern governments that have plenty of nationalization in their infrastructure, and while there are serious slumps in their economies, their skies are by no means falling. They still maintain healthcare and education very well without putting it in the hands of privatizers, save for maybe England.
Trust me Harlan, there are rarely any teachers or educators today that think Obama and company will come in and save us . . . or anyone else for that matter.
Obama is in business for Obama.
I will always hate my enemies who oppress and oppose me. But I will despise far more the bloke who pretends to be my ally, attempts to fool many into thinking the same, and then turns around and behaves JUST like the enemy. At least with the former, you know exactly what you’re getting!
And BTW, Harlan, I still want to know if you are receiving SS or plan on filing for it at your age.
Just curious.
HU,
Forgive the typos. . . . it’s what happens after you put in a typical 14 hour day at work in a public school with a low income population. The first line was meant as “We do not feel reverent toward Obama . . . ”
Sorry for the other errors. . . So eager yet exhausted to comment on this blog.
HU’s “mirror to reality” is like those at the carnival which distort the truth. Some farmers and auto mechanics may be hoodwinked by the policies promoted by the Tea Party, which serve the interests of the billionaire Koch brothers who bankroll the party, but my grandparents never would have been suckered in by them. It’s one thing when a party manages to get its constituents to support policies that are not in their own best interests because those constituents lack education and don’t know better. It’s something else when the constituents are highly educated and put their own best interests aside in service of corporate masters and then claim that’s best for all. They are probably either delusional or members of the elite themselves (or wannabes).
The perfect definition and all the information one needs to know who are the puppet
masters of this screeching “ground roots” movement…to be specific: the Koch Brothers!
Hello Dolly,
You’re back where you belong!
I can’t figure out HU because he is articulate. But how he does not connect the dots of who supports the Tea Party and what is on their “other” agendas is baffling.
I agree that government at this point serves virtually no working class person. Government has become a butler to the rich and corporations. Yet, it’s the latter that back the Tea Party and are heavily connected with it.
HU should be careful choosing his friends. … he ought to vet them more carefully.
The Tea Party wants all the rights of individualism and none of the responsibilities of the collective good. They don’t even acknowledge that there is a collective good.
I still want to know if HU collects SS . . . .
I have heard the Koch brothers mentioned before, but I don’t know who they are, or even IF they are supporting the “tea party.” I have wondered who is paying for the “tea party” web sites. Someone on this blog has quoted from some portions of the so called “tea party” platform, but I haven’t searched that out yet to see if there even is one. I am fundamentally skeptical of Robert Rendo’s claim that President Obama has lost the support of public school teachers. I just cannot imagine that any of you anti-corporateists would be caught dead supporting anything in public policy other than that which the President and the Democrats support, from the President’s recently presented budget, to the gun legislation which the Senate rejected, to his pro-abortion speech to Planned Parenthood just today, and his reluctance to call the Boston Bombings terrorism, let alone what it appears to be “Islamic Terrorism.” If ANY of you public school teachers were the least middle of the road on ANY issue, I could discuss with you what is going on, but as long as you ALL affect the angry worker persona, and talk about “corporate masters” and the Koch Brothers as if they were minions of the devil, and talk about me as if I’m deceived by them, as if I’m one of the capitalist lackeys, as the local communists use to call them back in the fifties, I don’t see how you think any of the rest of citizenry can take you seriously. Do you really think you are going to get control of business in the USA? Do you really think that by rallies, demonstrations, and national movements you are going to accomplish the kind of revolution that has failed EVERYWHERE it has been tried, from the USSR to Cuba, to Venezuela, to Argentina, to Greece, to Portugal, to Spain, and to France? I think it is really a sad, sad, sad day that old fashioned, conservative Americans have had to resort to destruction of the public school systems to get you workers of the world out of control of the education of this country. But you couldn’t see America in any other way than as an evil, corporate, capitalist, plutocratic oligarchy, and you helped elect a President with the apparent same world view, in spite of accepting money from hedge fund managers, Hollywood moguls, and the likes of Warren Buffet and James Immelt who wanted favors from the government. YOu seem to think that because you are collectivists, that that isn’t as one sided as the supposed hyper individualist followers of Ayn Rand. For you all it has always been war against the greedy capitalists. Well, you got your war. This working group in Michigan is surely not in the best interests of the students generally, and now that the State Superintendent has taken it public, and declared vouchers are off the table, but what choice to leave us country hicks with your left over from the twenties and thirties red flannel rhetoric? Just because Pete Seeger can sing well, and wears a red tie, and is solid with “the people” doesn’t mean he has any more sense politically and economically than George Carlin did. Let me say again, no penny comes into the pocket of government that isn’t earned by farmers and automechanics in the private sector. If you abuse private sector workers as deluded dolts, you lose support, and furthermore do not understand with whom you are really dealing. You don’t try to meet my arguments, but you do stalk me on line and try to discredit the arguments by discrediting me—that pure Axelrod. You argue like fundamentalists, except Marx is your God and Das Kapital your holy book. Wake up and think about the money. Who is going to pay off that public debt? And how? Simple questions. Answer them rather that wasting your breath in snide, personal attacks. Even on such a simple matter as defined contribution pensions vs. defined benefit pensions, I see nothing in reasoned response, just rhetorical ostracisation. Granted, this blog is supposed to be in support of the public school view. But, think a bit.
If there is anyone here who needs to think it’s someone who touts the Tea Party on virtually a daily basis and admittedly knows nothing about its platform or its source of funding:
“The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html
Thank you, Dolly, for your link to this Frank Rich article in the NYTimes from August 2010, which refers to protest events that seem to me to be almost a century ago. Beck and Palin are so passe.
To me the most significant thing the article says is that many of the “Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama.” That’s a significant validation of tea party sentiment, even from a well-known flaming radical liberal smear artist and snarker such as Frank Rich, who couldn’t get published anywhere else but in that liberal rag, the NYTimes. He was an interesting drama critic, but he is a wild as the bloggers on Nation of Change or the writers for the Nation.
His main point, however, is that the tea party folk don’t reject the Koch’s money when, in his view the Koch Brothers are promoting: “a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.” From your point of view it may seem to a “fringe” agenda, but many of the positions taken by the Koch brothers, even as portrayed by Rich, don’t sound all that unreasonable to me. So I guess if you want to tar and feather me for ignorance of the Koch brothers program, you might just as well go ahead your high-tech lynching here for actually finding some of their positions worthwhile.
I was amused by Rich’s attempt to make the Koch’s unacceptable to his liberal audience by a revelation such as this: “As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business.” Well, for ME, I believe that man made global warming is a hoax created by politically minded pseudo-scientists in order to buttress a socialist/communist effort to extract money from the United States for the United Nations. There hasn’t been any global warming in ten years, though that in itself does not refute the man-made global warming claim. But it certainly doesn’t support it. Global warming something only believed by public school first grade teachers with nothing of substance to teach that day. Gotta fill those long hours. Why not with celebrations of Earth Day?
And again, this too is amusing, from a speech by the Koch brothers father in 1963, a speech which in Mr. Rich’s blind mind is supposed to discredit his sons by showing just how whacko their father was:
“In a recorded 1963 speech that survives in a University of Michigan archive, he can be heard warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.” That rant could be delivered as is at any Tea Party rally today.”
I agree. It has in fact come true, with Obama’s election and reelection, and his stocking his administration with fellow travelers of the most mendacious sort. The Boston Marathon Bombing suggests that Obama’s administration is even MORE incompetent than the Russian Ex-Communists, who at least knew that the older brother and his mother were potential Radical Islamic terrorists. Fred Koch’s prescience was extraordinary. He taught his sons well. I am afraid you here are the ones whose allegiances need an expose, and expose of your deliberate ignorance of the principles of honest government in the interests of freedom.
Now, I can see that my saying such things will hardly increase my credibility on this blog. I assume that I am talking to the current underground Communist Party of the USA, but, Dolly, your helping me to understand what the Kochs are up to doesn’t shake my confidence in my own convictions. Rather it makes me say, Thank God for patriots like the Kochs for their support of the true grass roots of this country (called astroturf by its detractors). It is finally becoming clear to me what the public school teachers in general, and perhaps even an occasional smugly hyper-pious Independent School Teacher, are all about.
You don’t believe in private property. You are the genuine thing, a socialist/communist. Deny it if you can.
And when you get tired of trying to snark me to death, and of trying to guilt me to death by association, and to dig into my past to try to damage me (you show your true nature that way), MAYBE you’ll condescend to discuss rationally the fundamentals of self-government in this country. So far, I see you all as creatures of words and slogans merely, not realities. You probably claim to believe in reason as well as virtue, but so far I haven’t seen it.
Harlan, Googling is not stalking. It is researching information that is publicly available on the Internet. Nothing less should be expected of educators, who are well aware of the importance of identifying and considering sources of information.
You should try Googling, too, such as in regard to the political party that you espouse but about which you concede that you know rather little. Maybe with more information, someday you will come to be “middle of the road on ANY issue” and learn how to communicate with the public school teachers you so look down on and rail against today. If this rant is the best you’ve got, then the public school teachers have you whipped hands-down, because your perceptions are way off base. (For example, I’ve been observing on this blog for a year and have yet to see the throngs of Obama supporters you imagine are here),
From another Veteran Independent School Teacher
Harlan,
The Tea Party has been bank rolled by people and organizations whose ultimate oritentation is to partner with very big government and gain as much fiscal privilege and advantage over the average person or outfit that the smaller fish in the Tea Party end up supporting the bigger fish, who in turn ultimately consume them.
Yet people who are quick to criticize the Tea Party should also realize that most Democrats and nearly all Republicans have turned against the average person here also. There are few people with integrity who will really advocate for the ordinary family living, working and voting in the States. . . . both parties have been seduced by camapign financing, and believe me, as an independent who has always voted Democrat, the donkeys are just as bad as the elephants.
About Obama: Harlan, you are really are OUT of the public education loop!!!!! Most public school teachers loathe Obama and his cabana boy Arne Duncan because we see clearly what they are trying to do to public education and how they are intentionally destroying it as a public trust.
With regard to your Randian view of the world: If you don’t think we have an unfair system of taxation here and that our democratizing wars and tax breaks for the rich and corporations are adding and causing inequality, then you are as ignorant as you are articulate, an unusual but certainly not unheard of combination in a person considered, by American standards, to be educated.
Instead of keeping all the money in our private citizen’s hands, we should be trying to reform our government so that tax dollars are spent to ensure fiscal equality and financial opportunity, and that does indeed involve a certain healthy level of redistribution of wealth. A chunk of my federal tax dollar goes to FEMA, which has paid for many southern and midwestern hurrican and tornado relief programs for a lot of people who I have nothing to do with. Yet, I am happy and proud to have my tax dollar go collectively towards others in their time of need.
We educators have not caused any of this mess, and our salaries and pensions do not contribute to the debt. If you want to talk about debt, look at the 32 trillion dollars kept in offshore tax havens American companies enjoy under tha current law, look at Facebook’s obcene $400 million dollar tax refund this year, look at the cost of military presence in Afghanistan, Iraq, and what will probably next be Syria, as Congress keeps on going to war in the name of fueling the military industrial complex.
Harlan, I have to realize that you have taught in the private sector for all your career. it makes perfect sense why you think as you do. Your former school, which is a lovely facility, does not reflect the reality of most people because most people can’t afford such a tuition. Public education is supposed to level the playing field, but as it stands, most of it is funded by home owner property taxes, a financing paradigm that is in dire need of reform.
I also have to accept that you will never be able to validly critique a system that you had nothing to do with as a service provider.
And I’d still relish knowing if you collect or will collect Social Security, third request pending . . . .
Thanks for responding, Robert, although with irrelevancies. My fundamental question you do not answer. Do you believe in private property?
I own and enjoy private property (twice, and I’m going on my third time) and I’m a civil servant.
There is NO dichotomy here, Harlan. The rise of unions that gave rise to the middle class faciliated most middle and working class families to secure home ownership and cars. This post war boom and phenomenon in the fifties lasted more than 35 years. And the need to sustain a middle class never becomes outdated; in fact a large middle class that is held in part by generated wealth trickling down form the public and private sectors is indeed, always will be, proof that a society is living out a true democracy.
Those ingredients and their proportions in the USA have radically and adversely changed, thanks to the Democrats and GOP . . .
As far as “irrelevancies” go, I’d lke to believe I comprehended your notes under this article correctly and am responding only relevantly. I wonder what other readers think of my response’s relevance.
Now that I have answered your question and in the parlance of gentlmanly exchange, please, in my fourth request, answer mine:
Are you or are you not receiving Social Security or are you or are you not planning on filing for it?
Why wasn’t it mentioned that 8 out of the 10 richest are, like Warren Buffett, Obama supporting Democrats?