One must search to find brights spots in last night’s election, like the victory of Tom Torlakson in California and the defeat of the anti-teacher constitutional amendment in Missouri.
Bruce Rauner, the charter-smitten billionaire, was elected Governor in Illinois. Early in his campaign, he proposed lowering the minimum wage. Scott Walker was re-elected Governor of Wisconsin. Rick Scott was re-elected in Florida. There were many more such victories for people who hold the public sector in contempt and believe in Social Darwinism. It was a bad night for those who hope for a larger vision of the common good, some vision grander than each one on his own.
American history and politics are cyclical. It may require the excesses of this time to bring a turn of the wheel. It’s always darkest just before dawn.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From what I am seeing reported this morning, the horrible results of this particular come from a concerted effort on the part of many, in a lot of different places, to do everything they can to restrict voting (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/04/us-voting-rights-election-day?CMP=ema_565). You add on the horrible results of Citizens United… Lots of campaign money and caged voters = a Republican victory.
LikeLike
The irony in Illinois is that we had a ballot measure to increase the minimum wage to $10, which got a strong majority. Now, of course, most people who voted for Rauner probably voted against the minimum wage increase, but a substantial portion voted for both Rauner and the minimum wage increase. Do people really not see the irony of wanting a minimum wage increase yet voting for the guy who wants to *decrease* it?
But since you were looking for bright spots, at least Paul Vallas won’t be our lieutenant governor!
LikeLike
Quinn chose Vallas as a rear guard action to stop the flow of deformer cash into the race by taking the issue of school deform off the table. That part worked, but Quinn still lost, though for other reasons.
LikeLike
Well, perhaps someday the Dimocrats will realize that, when presented with a (non) choice between real and faux Republicans, voters will choose the real thing.
Cue the downbeat for the emerging Electronic Dark Ages…
LikeLike
EXACTLY,
When the head spokesperson for The USDOR and the President himself have the same Educational policy as Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Rick Scott, Scitt a Walker, Rick Synder and John Kasich, why the cause is lost.
The blame here lies with the President.
LikeLike
Well put Michael.
LikeLike
This is really horrible, horrific. The crazy party, the far right wing dingbat GOP won big time. The only things the Dems will learn from this debacle is to become more right wing and more conservative. They will double down on a failed policy. There’s not much you can do when we have a country full of Fox News viewers and hate wing radio listeners. Scott Walker and Rick Scott and Kasich are reelected? GOOD GRIEF WITH WAILS AND SHRIEKS TO THE HEAVENS!!!!! There is no hope so long as Americans keep reelecting these ghoulish fascistic thugs who are rabidly anti-union, anti-environmental concerns, anti-choice and anti-the social safety net..
LikeLike
Your passionate hate for those you disagree with only adds to the perceived hatred you have.
You are free to disagree with people but why are your information sources the only true and virtuous ones? Dr Goebbels would agree with you.
The Unions draw your opponents dislike because the ALWAYS support your point of view (even though many of their constituents do not.)
They are not anti-environment, they want clean water and food, and fresh air to breath, they do not want Washington DC telling them what is right in their community any more than any other anti-fascist would.
Anti-choice? SO you support choosing Charter Schools? Oh you mean paying for abortions with Public Funds which you have to accept inspire of your religious beliefs.
Anti-social safety net? No one is opposed to helping those who want to get out of the net as soon as they can instead of using like a hammock.
C’mon Joe, two people can have different opinions or points of view and yet still be right. Isn’t diversity much more preferable to only one way of looking at everything disregarding anyone else who doesn’t agree with you?
LikeLike
“They are not anti-environment, they want clean water and food, and fresh air to breath”
Can you support that assertion? What legislation has the GOP ever supported that would provide for “clean water and food and fresh air to breath [sic]”?
“Anti-choice? SO you support choosing Charter Schools?”
C’mon, don’t be disingenuous. You know perfectly well what choice is being referred to – the choice over one’s own body. Or do you support the big, bad gubmint dictating the most intimate of all choices?
LikeLike
Dienne,
Richard Nixon established the EPA. (You did say ever and when have they ever said they don’t want fresh air and water?)
Choice, no I don’t support Charter Schools.
Choice, what you do with your body is your choice, but don’t expect me to agree to giving you my money to do it. I guess paying for something against my religion is not an abridgment of my religious belief?
My reply to Joe was to point out that to have a truly diverse and civil society you can’t hate (and demonize) people who disagree with you if you want to reach common ground.
I also apologize for the grammar/typos in my reply to Joe.
LikeLike
Yes, Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air and Water Acts, and signed legislation creating the EPA and OSHSA. That there were mass movements at the time demanding those reforms, and putting millions of people in the streets, disappears from your narrative.
And Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, freed the slaves, so therefore recent Republican efforts to create an updated Poll Tax are nothing more than evidence of the “hatred” opponents feel for Republicans?
Wow. If you attended public schools, perhaps they really did fail in helping teach you how to reason.
LikeLike
“If you attended public schools, perhaps they really did fail in helping teach you how to reason.”
Michael, do you expect every individual to learn and remember every single fact they were taught? That was a cheap shot! In fact, there is no way to prove that a teacher in the public schools didn’t teach an incredible lesson that included many important historical facts, but no teacher can control the process of memory retention that takes place when a child or adult sleeps and the brain scans short term memory, decides what is important enough to transfer to long term memory and then deletes the rest.
In addition, if a child doesn’t pay attention in class, is distracted by other things in their personal life—for instance, a crush on a girl sitting in the next row who is wearing a short skirt and she has great legs, and/or comes from a dysfunctional home or has serious learning disabilities. Hunger and proper nutrition also plays a roll in a child’s ability to learn what was taught. In fact, too much sugar in the diet has been found to mess with memory function too.
This dirty, low-level, flawed criticism by critics of the public schools is one of their propaganda tricks to fool as many ignorant people as possible.
And let’s not forget President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, who was the first real progressive who made a difference for the other 99% of American citizens. But the progressive era started by a GOP president, included both parties—sometimes in opposition with their own party—and that list included several presidents all the way to LBJ.
There was also Taft (GOP), Wilson (Democrat), FDR (Democrat), Truman (Democracy), JFK (Democrat, LBJ (Democrat) and even Nixon (GOP) who failed at getting a national health care program through Congress. But Nixon wasn’t the first who failed at a national health care program. There was also Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, and Clinton.
LikeLike
In fact, Michael, studies have also proven that we have the ability to edit our memories, add memories of events we were never part of—and this happens awake and/or asleep.
I suggest you start by reading Oliver Sacks to discover how the brain works, and stop blaming teachers for adults or children who can’t remember a footnote in U.S. history or the name of a state capital, etc.—-years after a teacher probably taught that in a lesson.
Are you one of those extremely rare individuals who remembers what you ate for lunch twenty two years ago on a specific day and time. There may be less than a dozen of these people in the world.
The rest of have to live with the fact that we can’t remember everything we were taught or experienced in our lives.
LikeLike
You had to go back to 1970 to find something the Republicans have done for the environment? ‘Nuff said.
LikeLike
Oh, for God’s sake, Lloyd, tune up,your sarcasm meter.
LikeLike
Lloyd and Michael: You both have too much time on your hands.
Both of you could not be more aligned in your politics and protection over public education, and here you are bickering over pickles and sauerkraut. You guys have so much in common, you may as well be twins.
Really guys. . . . ! Stop cutting atoms with a serrated knife and go back to getting our your machetes to clear a path in this dangerous reform jungle. . . . .
You are both people I admire and defer to in my thinking and conversations. . . . .
Recognize who the real impediments and enemies are. . . . .
If you don’t stop this, I’m calling both your parents in for a conference with the teacher. . . . . and you will not get any stickers for the next two weeks.
I’m not kidding.
LikeLike
Robert,
My parents have both been dead for decades. You willing to call them back from the ashes?
LikeLike
Mine too, Lloyd. I miss them on some level.
Lloyd, please read between the lines . . . . . . draw some inferences from tone and style. You’re a writer . . . . .
I can’t possibly assume you took my reconciliatory actions as literal?
Lloyd, I’m afraid if there is any more insolence, I will be calling you down to the principal’s office . . . . 🙂
Lighten up, Lloyd (but not too much!). . . . You, Fiorillo, and I are all on the same side.
Yes, it’s true! Fancy that . . . . .
LikeLike
For some inexplicable reason, I can read between the lines in books and film but not in person. In person and/or conversation (on-line or by voice), I work mostly on a literal level—I wonder if that has to do with the fact that I live in the West in a culture that is more literal than figurative.
LikeLike
Quite possibly, when you are dealing with things on a personal level or with things about which you have a personal connection, you are unable to set aside those things in order to read between the lines. (?) It is a different part of our brains, governed by emotions and other complicated things, that makes us dwell in the personal realm.
LikeLike
I think you are on to something.
LikeLike
Lloyd, that is very introspective of you. I am too paranoid to think that ANYONE is perfectly pure and literal in their intended message.
My paranoia, unwittingly fostered by my dad, has really helped me in life, but it is known to occasionally backfire.
At any rate, don’t let people get to you like that, especially allies.
Now if you want to throw some poison darts at life size posters of Bill Gates, Weingarten, Eli Broad, the Kochs, Obama, Duncan, Rhee, Bloomberg, Klein, and Scott Walker, than I’ll bring the wine and you bring the pigs in a blanket.
Anyone else? It’s pot luck . . . . . Let’s have an anti-oligarch party. . . . . . . . . A spread, music, beverages. . .. .
LikeLike
Poison darts don’t have the range. How far can you throw a dart?
The current Marine Corps issue sniper rifle is designed to hit a target more than a mile away. :o)
My parents never voted. I grew up with a dad who said it was a waste of time, because all politicians were crooks.
LikeLike
Keep resting your hopes in politicians and you will be let down over and over again. You know that definition of insanity right? The Republicans whom are no better than the Democrats won because people are fed up with the dismal failures of this current administration which are too great in number to mention here but I will entertain you a bit. 1) The massive spying on its citizenry without warrants. 2) Letting the IRS run around acting like the Third Reich. 3) An economy in the tank despite the fudged numbers coming out of Washington. 4) Middle class incomes down to the lowest point in decades and the same for first time home ownership. 5) A new tax in the form of mandatory health insurance requirements which is basically a windfall for the insurance companies. 6) The destruction of Public Education as we know it. 7) Endless wars which are killing our national debt. 8) An immigration problem which is imploding. 9) College costs nearing the costs of new homes. 10) A lack of high paying jobs because corporations are given the green light to outsource at will. 11) Tax inequalities; especially when a teacher pays more taxes than a billion dollar corporation. I can keep going but my fingers are tired. The Republicans will not fix these issues either wake up and vote green. But hey look on the bright side at least gays can get married. Although I don’t see how that will take us out of the cluster**** we are currently in.
LikeLike
Absolutely correct.
So now what do we do “Ollie”?
LikeLike
At least Paul Vallas went down with Pat Quinn.
LikeLike
Thank you Diane for this perfect summary of where we are. And, for all your work keeping us connected. Those connections are what will give us the strength to keep facing forward. Life is the issue…our children (and the children of all species) This morning I remembered the line from a Edna S. Vincent Millay poem “I shall die, but that is all I shall do for death.” Here is the poem (formatting off)
Conscientious Objector
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I hear the clatter on the barn-floor. He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning. But I will not hold the bridle while he clinches the girth. And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.
Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran. With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where the black boy hides in the swamp. I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.
I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends nor of my enemies either. Though he promise me much, I will not map him the route to any man’s door. Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I should deliver men to Death? Brother, the password and the plans of our city are safe with me; never through me Shall you be overcome.
LikeLike
TAGO!, Joan, thanks!!!!
LikeLike
News commentator in California:
“The Doctors spent enough money to defeat a proposition.”
Sad but true.
LikeLike
I will hold onto your image of a cyclical approach to history and hope that another Roosevelt–Teddy or Franklin–will come along soon and says what needs to be said. Dark times indeed.
LikeLike
oops: “and *say* what needs to be said…”
LikeLike
Out here on the left coast, most local and state races turned out OK, though since we do vote by mail in WA and OR, some results will take a bit longer to find out. Here in Western WA, even a dead Democratic candidate is doing better ballot-wise than a living GOP candidate, so interpret that as you may. (And RIP Rep Freeman – he was a good guy, who died way too early of colon cancer.)
So far, Ed Deform preschool is winning, but we’ll see how the later ballots went.
Special congrats to Utah for unleashing a lunatic on the whole country. Mia Love is a hypocritical fruitcake – student loans for me but not for thee…
Perhaps OR, WA, and British Columbia should reconsider Cascadia once more. 🙂
(I say we invite CA as well. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/Let-s-consider-United-State-of-Washington-1155008.php)
LikeLike
Democrats will learn nothing from this. I think they should head out on another tour where they blame working people for income inequality. That was an awesome campaign strategy!
The Obama Administration were offering stern lectures to working people on how they were poorly-skilled and lazy, and that’s why their incomes have been declining or stagnant for 15 years.
The Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Labor came to Cleveland to tell working people if they retrain they could make the princely sum of 12 dollars an hour. People who work in manufacturing, unskilled, general labor, already make 12 dollars an hour. The Obama people are actually promoting DRIVING DOWN wages in these places.
Out of touch doesn’t begin to describe it. They should set up a consultation with an actual working person. Ask them about “the skills gap”. Ask them what they were making in 1998 and what they’re making now, whether they took additional training or not. A lot of them make LESS then they did 15 years ago, and they retrain and retrain and retrain. It doesn’t make a bit of difference,
LikeLike
The Damocrats are really to blame, not the voters. When the DNC puts forth candidates that are Neoliberal and strike down good candidates like Teachout in NY and Rich in Florida, bad things are going to happen. Even if Crist was elected, he would run his Education Department with Jeb Bush people.
Obama did very little for the economy in his first term, and people who originally voted for him went with the Tea Party during the first mid-term elections. According to many politico talking heads, the majority of Dams didn’t run on the economic issues, yet the economy was still the number one concern of the majority of voters.
I am glad Diane has faith, but with a Republican controlled government watch what will happen to education, unions, social security, etc. And the funny thing is, it will closely resemble the Obama agenda, but now there will be no Democratic representatives to speak and vote against it. And for the Damocrats like Cuomo–he and the Republicans will make good on their promise against public education and public school teachers. And who was his biggest supporter behind the scenes? Weingarten and Mulgrew!!
This election will go down in history not as a Republican win, but why the Democrats lost!!
The biggest winners tonight were the Koch Bros. They can now control every piece of legislation. And the biggest loser–public education.
LikeLike
Hawaii voters defeated Amendment 4 by 55% to 45%. It would have allowed diversion of public funds to faith-based private pre-K schools and away from public schools. That makes 28 state referenda throughout the US in which voters rejected diversion of public funds to special interest private schools by substantial margins. Teachers and ARL opposed the amendment. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
LikeLike
It may have been lost in the maelstrom of Republican victories but the results in Richmond, California, where a progressive slate of Green candidates beat back the multimillion dollar efforts of Chevron to unseat them is worthy of our attention. Thank you to Bernie Sanders for travelling to Richmond and stirring up support for these good folks!
LikeLike
I think President Sanders sounds pretty darn good, IMHO.
LikeLike
Maybe Governor Brown in California will lead the nation and take Arne Duncan and the DOE to court for using unconstitutional methods to force the CCSS on the states with blackmail and bribery tactics.
LikeLike
Lloyd…our good Ca. Guv Brown, with his Jesuit training, will stay focused on reversing Vergara…not on pie in the sky. We are VERY lucky to have him, despite that I do agree with my respected colleague in Brooklyn who views us on the Left Coast as quite unhinged.
But we are not nearly as crazy and wicked as the new woman senator who took Harkin’s seat. Good luck to her state with her whacko views…she is a Palin clone.
Michael Furillo is correct that we are, as a nation, headed in to the DARK AGES. We will most probably have a Rep Prez in 2016, and HE will add to the already biased activist SCOTUS. This pall will hang heavy on America for scores of years…long after you and I are gone.
There really is not a two party system left in America. And voting Green may salve the conscience, but it will not change the direction and the course of history. With the rapidly global warming, and the warnings this week that we are at the final tipping point, it seems inevitable that the planet will die, and far faster in the hands of all these ignorant, crazed, and greedy folks in the Tea Party and on Wall Street.
LikeLike
Agree.
LikeLike
I disagree that voting Green won’t do anything. If enough people voted Green, the Democrats would be forced to move left – not right. They are betraying their base, thinking us liberals are quick to forgive and will stick with them no matter what. I’m well beyond that. They can move to the left, or they’ve lost me to Green.
LikeLike
You read the science news about the tipping point. I fell like you, that this is all moot, because the humanity on this planet is about to face the inadvertent consequences of burning fossil fuel and cutting down the forests. The melting of the permafrost will release methane which is worse than CO2 and that IS the tipping point. The climate change that has arrived is going to be catastrophic, and the effects on water supplies will change everything. Cities are running out of water, and farmed land is going arid… California will be hit very hard.
Other coastal cities and islands will be inundated, and violent storms will cause untold damage. Populations are growing and the pressure on resources is enormous.
Education is an issue that will fall as the weather crisis take center stage, even as the warmongers in Congress think they now have the stage to put boots on the ground and enter another conflict.
My head is spinning after this election… I need vacation from what I know… the observable reality shows that democracy as we once knew it, is over, not just public education
LikeLike
“. . . it seems inevitable that the planet will die. . . ”
No, Ellen, the planet is not going to die until the sun decides so. Ol Ma Nature will take care of these silly Homo Sapiens in the fashion she sees fit and that will be that.
LikeLike
In fact, I read this paper that predicted if humanity vanished tomorrow, the earth would heal itself in about 10,000 years and leave little or no sign that humans had ever been here.
LikeLike
I think this all the time, but years ago, I read an Analog piece by Jerry Pournelle, which talked about runaway greenhouse and they tipping point.
The factors for this tipping point are very close, if not upon us.
1- the permafrost melt will put huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere and THAT gas is worse than CO2. Already huge pits releasing methane have appeared.
2- with the enormous loss of white ice, and the huge new areas of darkened seas, the reflection process has been altered irreversibly.
3- The population of the is planet is rising, and they are not only cutting down the remaining forests, exposing land to hear absorption, they want the stuff we have, stuff that runs on carbon fuel.
I think a run-away greenhouse is a possibility, and that this little planet’s temperature may rise to the point where no life beyond the simplest bacteria will exist.
Hope I am wrong… but with the UN ‘experts’ saying that we can survive a 2 degree rise, then all is lost… to the liars.
LikeLike
There’s a film called “Snowpiercer”, that deals with what could happen when humans mess with the environment. It’s on DVD. It was released in June to 356 theaters at its widest release and then went to DVD.
The film earned about $4.5 million in the United States but more than $82 million outside of the U.S.
If you see the film, the reason why it was all but suppressed/ignored in the U.S. is obvious. Billionaires like the Koch brothers were guaranteed not to like the message in this disturbing SF film.
Genre listed on Box Office Mojo is Global Warming and Post-Apocalypse
On Rotten Tomatoes, 164 media critics gave it a 95% rating, while the audience score of 38.9K ratings was 76%
The Boston Globe critic said in this pull quote:
“The film takes place entirely on a train, but not one that’s bound for glory. It’s 17 years after scientists tried to control global warming and failed miserably, plunging the planet into a new Ice Age. The remains of humanity have taken refuge on the title conveyance, a seemingly endless bullet-train, built by an enigmatic industrial Noah named Wilford, that annually circumnavigates the globe. The rich folk live at the front in swank compartments with excellent catering. The poor folks live in squalor at the rear.
“The poor folks have had enough.”
LikeLike
Thanks. I love Sci-fi of the genre ‘if this goes on.’
I think mankind might survive for a while, in enclaves (much like the ones in “Niven and Pournelle’s “Lucifer’s Hammer,” but if the tipping point to run-away greenhouse really is reached, no life till survive, and mankind will have to find a new planet… which despite sci-fi movies about ‘wormholes’, is unlikely given the distances and the time needed to find and settle a new world.
If space travel ever succeeds, then it will be necessary for the travelers to take one’s world with them. They can never return, as the time element will make it impossible… and because the likelihood of settling in an environment which is totally unfamiliar to the human body — which has adapted to the internal flora of earth– is nil.
Read too much sic-fi growing up.
Speaking of Niven and Pournelle and travel in space, … have you ever read “The Mote in God’s Eye?” it is a good one!
LikeLike
Air breathing life forms are not the only life forms on this earth. Life will survive somewhere even if in the deepest depths of the ocean, and then nature will adapt and once again flourish. The solar system and earth still have billions of years left. Humans might be gone one day, but something else will eventually replace them even if it takes a few billion years to adjust from the damages caused by mankind.
The event that destroyed the dinosaurs did not end all life on the planet, and the dinosaurs ruled over the earth much longer than humans have.
LikeLike
Love your positive attitude. I am not a pessimist, just a realist. Yes, the universe will go on, but it seems such a shame that humans who have such great potential, who can imagine and create new ideas and concepts, who have the capacity for love and kindness, could disappear.
LikeLike
I walked to town Friday morning to see “Interstellar”. The theme has to do with how humanity might survive if we destroy the environment of the earth that we depend on.
The theme was the same for” Snowpiercer”, but “Interstellar” is a film that is much more logical and scientific in its approach, and that theme matches what Elon Musk is doing with Space X.
Musk thinks that mankind, to survive, must not rely on just the earth and his end goal is to colonize the other planets and moon in our solar system. The Chinese seem to be on a similar path but for different reasons.
If mankind survives at least another 50 years without destroying civilization, technology and science, the odds are high that China and/or Musk will achieve their goals and insure the survival of the human race even if we lose the earth.
I think it would help if we could end this insanity with the NCLB, Race to the Top and CCSS and get back to the job of educating our youth instead of testing them to death with an end goal to make a profit.
If the United States loses its way, and China doesn’t—and as long as the CCP stays in power I don’t think that will happen—then humans still have a chance to survive, but the odds are that those who survive will be highly intelligent and disciplined Han Chinese with a cultural foundation based on authoritarian Legalism, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, and not the Greek ideals of democracy, Christianity or Islam.
Maybe in a few centuries, the first humans to make contact with an alien species from another star, will be Han Chinese if the U.S. and Musk fail and the CCP does not.
LikeLike
Ohio’s election has brought on the possibility of this insanity.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/11/09/bill-seeks-more-charter-school-transparency-and-accountability/
It isn’t what it appears at first to be.
LikeLike
Snowpiercer was initially released overseas and didn’t have a big rollout in U.S. theaters because of the producers’ assessment of the economics of the film, not because it was suppressed by the Koch brothers. (It also did a pretty good business on iTunes.) Global warming, like other post-capitalist disaster scenarios, sells pretty well in Hollywood.
LikeLike
Maybe I can stream it from Netflix.
LikeLike
You can also stream it through Amazon’s instant video.
LikeLike
Thank Lloyd. I have never streamed anything form Amazon. I am still very old tech….but learning.
LikeLike
The light of dawn will be feeble if it shows up at all if we can’t drink the water and breathe the air. With the dominance of money well established, any swing the pendulum might have left in it will be restrained such that it might only swing again once humans are out of the picture due to the various stupidities of all. I would very much love to be wrong about this, but…
LikeLike
I am so appalled at the election of these terrible governors and the lass of the senate to the republicans. I fear for more poverty and more terrible decisions for schools. I am on the verge of tears, but after working the elections, I am too tired to cry. The reasona people blurted out about their voting decisions had nothing to do with the issues. They were straight Rs in many cases. The vocal people had racist things to say.
Living in a part of the US where I had to listen to ads from McConnell, Kasich, and Boehner that were made up of lies and paid for by Koch Brothers simply made me sick. I am astonished that so many people are sucked in to believing pure lies.
Sad. Very sad.
LikeLike
My heart weeps for the future of a nation where citizens make decisions with knee jerks instead of intellect. In the new world order, “I teach, therefore I am not.” eb, you are not alone!
LikeLike
The things Mitch McConnell stands for and the damage he wishes to do to insurance, medicare, social security, the environment and other progressive issues is daunting. I fear for the young and the old and the sick.
LikeLike
WE GOTTA ELECT BERNIE SANDERS AND LIZ WARREN!
The truth has to triumph!
LikeLike
The blame is on an ignorant citizenry and a media which is a propaganda machine like none in the history of mankind. The media tells us what will make us happy, and they lie. It tells us what we should eat and it kills us. It tells us that climate change is not real, when it ‘balances’ real facts with the opinions of GOP deniers, and it told the people who to elect.
I want to cry for America.
LikeLike
YES!!!
LikeLike
All I can say is that it’s a great day for America!
LikeLike
Great day for America? Oh right, if you are one of the Koch brothers or the Waltons. Joni Ernst (GOP) is on her way to the senate and she’s a certified far right wing nut job. Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for Senate in Iowa, is prepared to shoot it out with the federal government, if necessary. Speaking at a National Rifle Association event in 2012, Ernst said that she carries a gun around to protect herself from government intrusion upon her rights. “I do believe in the right to carry,” Ernst said, “and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family — whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.” This vile gun nut is now a senator. YEEEEECH!
LikeLike
“This vile gun nut. . .”
This second amendment gun owning free thinker thinks that your caricature is a tad far fetched. Granted it appears that Joni has no clue of who/what the government entails but the “gun” part isn’t responsible for her beliefs/thoughts/statements.
LikeLike
Diane–You are so right. Congratulations to Tom Torlakson & California voters. As an Ill-Annoysian, of course I’m sad & disgusted–as I’d posted on Fred Klonsky’s blog, I felt like I was going to get a flu shot (& I must mention that I have a high tolerance for physical pain–not so much for that which is emotional) rather than vote. That having been said, we must continue to work, and work harder, starting with our unions (I’m sorry to have to say this, but I do place a very large part of the blame for the election outcomes on our state union leadership–as I’m sure is the same in NY & many other places.) As our rank-&-file are NOT the leaders, we must work from within to change that, & elect new leaders, just as the CTU was able to do. (& Jesse Sharkey will carry on for Karen Lewis in every sense of the words “true leader”–all of those elected on the CORE slate ARE the leaders we ALL need).
Again–you & Karen get better, & we union members will continue to do our part to make sure that victories such as Tom Torlakson’s continue to happen all over the country.
Yes, WE can, yes we DID & yes–we WILL.
LikeLike
Diane wrote, in part: “Rick Scott was re-elected in Florida. There were many more such victories for people who hold the public sector in contempt and believe in Social Darwinism. It was a bad night for those who hope for a larger vision of the common good, some vision grander than each one on his own.”
For an examination of the term “Social Darwinism,” see the Wikipedia article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism. Even a cursory reading of that article will show that “Social Darwinism” has meant many different, over the years, to many advocates of various social models, social schemes and political movements. Nowadays it has no reliable meaning, and for this reason it must be shunned.
“Social Darwinism” is in the same league with “survival of the fittest,” which uninformed persons invariably associate with Darwin, though it was coined by Herbert Spencer and Darwin had nothing to do with it. Moreover, the modern meanings of “fit” and “fitness,” in the realm of biology (rather than the realm of sloganeering) revolve around differential reproductive success — not mere survival or the possession of some discernible physical trait. The slogan “survival of the fittest” should be tossed onto the scrap heap of pseudoscientific lingo, along with “Social Darwinism.”
LikeLike
Correction to my previous post:
Where I wrote “has meant many different,” read it as:
“has meant many different things,”
LikeLike
Bill…read Richard Dawkins book written in 1972 before he became famous as an atheist, and when he was a professor of Sociology,
The Selfish Gene. He was completely correct in his analysis of those who wage war, and those who bind up wounds. Very different gene structures, explaining survival of the fittest. Sadly, in conclusion, he points out the the warrior genes supercede the teacher/healer genes.
LikeLike
Gosh… its writing like this which brings me to this teacher’s room….so smart.
LikeLike
“The slogan ‘survival of the fittest’ should be tossed onto the scrap heap of pseudoscientific lingo”, along with educational standards and standardized testing and the ‘measurement’ of the teaching and learning process.”
LikeLike
As a teacher in Illinois, I am appalled that Bruce Rauner is our next governor. But honestly, all the worst attacks on education, on unions, on our pensions in IL happened under Democrats like Quinn and Rahm (and Mike Madigan-Speaker of the Illinois House). Quinn lost because he rightfully lost his base. He claimed to be a progressive Dem and then proceeded to kowtow to rich, corporate interests consistently against the interests of working people. Perhaps the Dems will take a lesson from this beating and remember who they once were.
Personally, I think it’s time we reject both corporate parties and push for a true progressive party that fights for working people. But ultimately, I don’t put much hope in electoral politics to change the neoliberal assault on our lives. Change will not come through elections under our current system, but by a groundswell of people united in social movements which force change. It was a bad election, but the potential for growth of social movements remains. Onward we march…
LikeLike
I agree, Katie.
Regardless of the party in power, it is up to the people to effect change.
Yes, onward!
LikeLike
Jerry Brown, 76 years old, is not a perfect politician. Still, when the governor of the nation’s largest state, a democrat, gets 58 percent of the vote…..at a time when he is fighting a court fight to try and overturn the decision regarding tenure, and is in a state where billionaires lost a thirty million dollar election to Torlakson……..it should have been noted by the media. Republicans can win elections with no significant support from teachers….indeed, bashing teachers is almost a civic duty for their party. Democrats cannot do that and win. Jerry Brown stood out last night for two reasons…..he stands for things democrats should stand for, and he got a lot of votes on a night when very few democrats did.
LikeLike
The LA Times article today written by Howard Blume which is an analysis of the election is so insipid and lacks so much fact that it is not worth reading.
Jerry Brown has been amazing as he quietly went about keeping Ca. from drowning in debt left over from Arnold the Austrian, and now we even will have a rainy day fund. I love Jerry Brown…counter to some remarks I made here about 6 months ago. I was wrong then…but he hung in and did a great job in most instances. Delighted that he has 4 more years.
LikeLike
Oh, I just love certified far right wing nut jobs. I am one. Haha
LikeLike
And I’m so far left I’m right!!
LikeLike
I still think it’s the people, even if most of them are ignoramuses, that will change our society, but first they will have to feel pain even more than they do now. . . .
I cringe to see what this means for young adults who want home ownership, who want to attain at least a masters degree, and for all adults who have serious medical issues and need care.
I dont’ know, either, what it means to people who have worked all their lives and participated in pension systems or to people who depend on mass transit, roads, bridges, public water, sewage, and public schools.
NOT TO MENTION SOCIAL SECURITY. . . . . . What does it mean in that arena?
Will we turn into Ecuador and Mexico, where the oligarchs control the government, and most oligarchs are big conglomerates selling goods and services and controlling the media.
Will we turn into Guatemala or Honduras, where the rich care less about the poor and where the middle class are outliers . . . and where gang violence is rampant and ignored by corrupt police forces and courts.
The democrats and GOP are both rotten for the most part.
We will have to grow up faster and sooner.
We have legalized gay marriage and pot.
Why can’t we legalize fiscal justice and equitable distribution of wealth to a dignified extent?
What will it take?
The ignorant natives are going to be the same ones turning restless. . . . I would not want o be in their path when it intensifies . . ..
LikeLike
Yay for Joni Ernst. Smart woman!
LikeLike
And she’s not barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen???????
LikeLike
Not the best place to troll Anne.
Moderates are the key to getting the government to work again. While being as liberal a person as you might find, I believe the extremism and the polarization of the two main parties will continue to prevent anything from getting done. Finding people of good character and integrity who are willing to compromise seems to be the only way to move this country forward. These crazy swings from one side to another only move half the country at a time.
We need leaders who can inspire and lead the whole country. We get that you like Joni, but she doesn’t represent everyone in Iowa, nor will she represent the interests of nearly half the electorate. She will only represent those who elected her, a minority of the voting age population.
She and her liberal counterparts are simply going to guarantee continued inaction by Congress on important issues. Adding to the polarization makes that a certainty.
Sad.
LikeLike
Anne…you must be an fool. Joni Ernest is an ignoramus and a Right Wing dangerous person. Her acceptance speech was like something out of 1984, or the Animal Farm. I know she can shoot me with her little pistol which she brags she carries everywhere. Do you too carry a little hidden pistol, Anne?
LikeLike
Rockhound, I don’t really know one bit of information about Ernst. And, if she is truly liberal as you say, I would not support her, by any means.
And, I agree we need to have leaders who will WORK together. All comes down to compromise. We need more women and people of color in the Republican party. ( I am not a feminist, by any means.) I’m tired of the race card being played. The dems polarized this country by pulling it. It gets very tiring, and most of the time, I found the dems to be the racist ones.
Great, strong leaders is what we need. Trey Gowdy, Rick Perry… people who are not afraid to stand up and say no. Oh, just to go back to Reagan days. That was one inspirational man of character, honesty and integrity. We need more like him.
LikeLike
What a boatload of revisionist history. Nothing ever trickled down to many people who lived through the Reagan era, especially those of us stuck in minimum wage jobs. As a result, we are now getting less than $1000 per month in Social Security to live on in retirement. That won’t even pay the rent in cities like mine. The leaders you just elected think that is too much money, too, and want to take it away. May you reap what you sow.
LikeLike
Joni is far from liberal…she mouths the Tea Party line about family values, and wants everyone to carry guns. So go right ahead Anne and support her.
You say you “really don’t know one bit of information about her” yet you feel free to cheer her on a few comments above your silly uninformed comments about Gowdy and Perry and Reagan. You don’t have anything of value to say. Doubt that you even graduated from high school.
LikeLike
“Oh, just to go back to Reagan days.”
And now you’re wanting senility to be in charge of this country again.
Insanity thy name is Anne.
“That was one inspirational man of character, honesty and integrity. ”
Can you say Iran/Contra, Anne???
I for the life of me cannot comprehend these love affairs with good orators like Uncle Ronnie and the Obomber.
LikeLike
https://screen.yahoo.com/president-reagan-mastermind-000000075.html
LikeLike
Who honestly thinks the U.S. has ever left the Reagan years behind.
Reagan’s economic policies have been haunting the United States and destroying democracy for decades, because the GOP continues to push Reaganonomics with the fervor of an ISIS fundamentalist warrior of Allah.
All one need do—if they still have a mind of their own and think independently of bias—is look at the growth of the federal deficit to discover the truth that reveals the flawed and failing economic polices of President Ronald Reagan.
Make sure to look at the greatest growth of the federal national debt with when the GOP controlled both House of Congress and had a GOP president in the White House.
The problem here is to the far right tea party mindset, fats aren’t important when it comes to the truth. What trumps facts, is biased thinking that ignored the facts and favors blind obedience to a political and/or religious agenda that cares nothign for the truth based on facts.
And—anyone who still doubts this—please, make sure to look at how much the interest on the federal debt added to the total. Those numbers are in the interest only column. I think it is arguable that the presidents who added the most to the national debt also added the most to the interest on the national debt.
Only a simple minded fool without critical thinking skills could possibly think that we start over every time a new president is elected and that president should be blamed for the national debt—this, in fact, is what the GOP relies on, a list of voters who are easily fooled because of their biases, who have no critical thinking skills. The national debt accumulates from previous administrations. Look at the red GOP columns.
Name the preisdents who added more than a Trillion Dollars to the National Debt.
I’ll do it for you:
Reagan
G. H. W. Bush
G. W. Bush
And of course Obama, but the truth is that Obama is one of the stingiest presidents in U.S. history when it comes to adding new spending programs. Instead, most of the debt added during Obama’s administration came from spending programs started by previous presidents.
LikeLike
Although I do agree with one of Unca Ronnie’s statements:
“Trust but verify.”
LikeLike
Well here in massachusetts with Baker in and James peyser as his transition chair…..we most certainly will not be moving in the right direction…..
LikeLike
Bring on the impeachment!
LikeLike
I’ve had enough of you liberals. Not to mention the rudeness. Bye
LikeLike
Bye, it’s not been swell to know ya…
LikeLike
And, I am a retired teacher. Graduated college!! How ’bout that! All you all do is make negative liberal comments. That’s why you’re soon to be history. See ya’
LikeLike
In Néw York, Cuomo won with the backing of hedge funders for charter schools and the real estate industry. He will be tough on teachers (who needs teachers?) and tenants. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/11/8556164/ed-reformers-and-real-estate-win-big-senate-election
LikeLike
You’re soon to be history with the fantastic election of Republicans! The American people have spoken. Now we can finally bring back our great country. See ya’
LikeLike
Anne,
Look at the election history of the United States. Power shifts back and forth.
And if we look carefully at the shifts, we discover quickly that the public quickly tires of the far right when they take control of Congress and even faster when they take control of both the White House and Congress.
In fact, the best results seem to always happen when we have both powers balanced against each other instead of one dominating both the Congress and the White House. A balance often means that each side checks the excesses of the other side and the only way anything worth getting done is through compromise.
What I find interesting repeatedly with anyone on the far right that throws the “liberal” term around like so much pollen is that they seldom if ever engage in a discussion and/or argument with facts.
It usually goes like this:
The logical, critical thinker—mostly progressives—will use facts, critical thinking and problems solving suggestions to support their position. The far right extremist—usually a supporter of tea party thinking—will come back and call them a liberal as if that is all that is required to win the argument, and offer no valid, reputable facts to support their claims.
There’s a reason why the electorate always sends the Republicans back to the woodshed.
Since 1900, the Democrats have had full control of the U.S. government for 32 years and the Republicans for 23 years. Democrats had control of both the House and the Senate for 22 years during Republican presidencies. The Republicans had control of both House and Senate for 10 years during Democratic presidencies.
What this tells us is that the voters don’t trust the GOP very long to control both Houses of Congress and the White House at the same time. If we learn from history, we can predict, with pretty good accuracy, the future.
Gloat while you can—a clear sign of immaturity and lack of critical thinking from a base of knowledge. The GOP has at best, maybe 8 years to keep control of Both Houses of Congress, but probably only one or two until the next election.
History shows us clearly that the majority of voters in the U.S. can’t stand the GOP controlling both the White House and Congress for long.
By the end of Reagan’s presidency, the GOP lost both Houses of Congress to a Democratic majority. During the G. H. W. Bush presidency, the GOP never had the majority in both Houses of Congress. In addition, by the end of G. W. Bush’s presidency, the GOP lost both Houses of Congress to the Democrats.
In addition, the current GOP majority doesn’t have enough votes in both Houses of Congress to override a presidential veto if Obama has a backbone.
It required a two/thirds majority to overcome a veto. Without cooperation from Obama and/or Democratic representatives in both Houses of Congress, the GOP is not going to accomplish much. The only thing the will accomplish will be a lot of media propaganda to keep folks like you stirred up, because with the majority comes the power to appoint committee chairman in both House of Congress who may then start all kinds of investigations that usually go nowhere because they area almost always without merit.
For the next two years, we probably will see less legislate progress and cooperation in Washington D.C. than the last six years. By the time 2016 roles around for the next presidential election, I predict that there will be enough voters—who are sick and tired of the GOP—to destroy their majority in one or both Houses of Congress even if a GOP president is elected.
By the way, I am not a registered Democrat or Republican. I’m an independent voter who identifies himself more as a Teddy Roosevelt Progressive without the war mongering.
LikeLike
Love your description which defines liars: “The logical, critical thinker—mostly progressives—will use facts, critical thinking and problems solving suggestions to support their position. The far right extremist—usually a supporter of tea party thinking—will come back and call them a liberal as if that is all that is required to win the argument, and offer no valid, reputable facts to support their claims.”
LikeLike
I am a progressive with some conservative personal values. I don’t like the term “liberal” either. But using that term sets the ultra-conservatives’ heads reeling… And… It worked…hence these pitiful and dangerous results. There were some real Cretins elected. One guy wants to punish women who run for office without permission from their husbands. Really????
LikeLike
What’s interesting is just how many Americans probably fit the liberal definition.
According to various Gallup polls, 23% of Americans are liberal, 34% are moderate, and 38% are conservative.
Then this survey by Gallop breaks down the three categories among Democrats, Independents and Republicans, and what we discover is that even in the Republican Party there are Americans that think of themselves as liberals (5%), moderate (23%) and conservative (70%).
Even Democrats identify themselves and conservative (19%), Moderate (36%) and liberal (43%).
The tea party faction in the GOP appears to be its own group that defines everyone else who doesn’t think like them as liberal regardless of how individuals think of themselves. It doesn’t take much critical thinking to get at the truth when it comes to the tea party. Most of the tea party is white mean and they are racists. The tea party excuse for its existence is that they are against big government spending and too much taxation, but they only came into existence as a group thanks to funding by the Koch brothers and the moment Obama was elected president. The deficit spending the tea party claims they are against was there with Reagan and both Bush’s but never a whisper was heard from the far right until Obama, who is really only guilty of inheriting a mess those three Republicans created.
For instance, G. W. Bush adds $6.64 Trillion to the deficit—DOUBLE it in eight years thanks to tax reductions for the wealthy and starting two wars—with no complains from the right and all Obama had to do was get elected and he was guilty of deficit spending with the sudden birth of the tea party, and before he was even sworn in as president Rush Limbaugh said on the air that he wanted Obama to fail.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/166787/liberal-self-identification-edges-new-high-2013.aspx
LikeLike
I agree, Lloyd,. I worked the polls on Tuesday. So did my husband and son. Different precincts …And we all saw the same thing. Scared older people, coming in and voting straight R. I think we had 3 people under 20 and not even 20 people between 20 and 40. So most were in their 60s through 90s. They were vocal and they were not charitable types. They made remarks about the “takers” on the river in Cincinnati, the Mexicans, and the liberals. There was no discussion of character, issues, or ant of the completely negative things Kasich and Busted and DeWine have done in Ohio. However, there weren’t any good contenders. And, Koch money spent a ton on last minute ads to smear everyone on the Democrat side and present a false view of the apple pie and Chevrolet Republicans. Citizens United will never be overturned with the newly elected hot headed creeps that have taken over because …all I can conceives that Dems thought no one was dumb enough to vote for those that already had trampled on everyone. Well, they were dumb enough or ignorant of the facts.
The facts don’t matter to these people. But the rhetoric and the nostalgia of being a part of the picket fenced 50s and the disgust with the hippie 60s and, of course, the pro gun toting crew and the Creation Museum folks who think that Billy had a pet dinosaur 6000 years ago…And they must have bought into Kasich’ s Little Johnny garbage. I just feel so sad that people choose to be ignorant, think that education should be some narrow view of the world and that their undereducated pastor has the right to tell them how to vote, even though they are tax-exempt … I won’t prattle on.
But I didn’t hear one person talking about the bad stuff done to the environment or the way Kasich’ s Jobs Ohio is a farce or how Kasich favor private and unregulated charters in Ohio or how privatizing prisons has created lax oversight and maggots in their food. No one was talking about cracking in our beautiful parks.
All the negative ads dis was to attack Obama using false information. He could do 1000 wonderful things and 2 negative … And guess which gets noticed.
Funny thing …in every race in every county there was basically a 62%-38% vote. Straight tickets. No thinking. Pathetic.
LikeLike
Lloyd, I totally understand about the balance of power. What do you think we’ve had for the last 6 years? There are over 300 pieces of legislation on Harry Reid’s desk right now. Every time the Republicans try to do something, he and the Democrats shut it down. He tried to blame it on the Republicans. There has been zero cooperation, and the American people are tired of it. The people have spoken. Check out all the red states. It hasn’t been like that in many years. If we had not had such a dictator in power, this would never have happened. There were no checks and balances. And, I don’t appreciate the “immaturity” words. Again, if you don’t agree, you’ll just be rude.
The Republicans will pull on the purse strings to limit the dictator’s power.
Thing is… I’m just an ordinary person talking in ordinary terms that many people can relate to, and some of you think you are so brilliant and well-spoken, you look down on others. Well, keep it up. I won’t be following you. I know enough about what’s going on to have some very critical thinking opinions. I’m practical, conservative… that’s the way my dad raised me. I want the government out of our business in every way. We don’t need the federal government running our lives. I want my grandchildren to live in our great republic where they still have their freedoms. And, hopefully, they will fight to the end to keep them. Enough said.
Susan Schwartz… same to you. See ya’
LikeLike
Anne,
You say, “Every time the Republicans try to do something, he and the Democrats shut it down. He tried to blame it on the Republicans.”
Are you a parrot?
That’s exactly the propaganda the GOP and/or tea party/liberation/fundamentalist Christians—the axis of evil—have been spinning through the media for decades.
Why not put up a summary of the bills that the GOP tried to get through Congress, and we can then debate each issue one at a time to see if they actually had any merit that the majority of Americans would support.
For instance, Abortion—When we look at what America thinks about abortion and birth control, about 25% of Americans consistently think that it should not be permitted compared to 70%, on average, who think it should be either available under stricter limits or generally available.
What is the GOP’s agenda for abortion and birth control? You can read all about that issue and what the GOP wants to do here and it is not even close to what 70% think:
http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Republican_Party_Abortion.htm
What does this prove? The GOP agenda on many hot button issues is usually out of balance with the rest of the United States—-and their only defense is an attack on the word “liberal” with this hogwash: The liberal media is brainwashing those Americans and (unspoken but obvious), we have to do their thinking for them when they don’t agree with us.
And this is exactly what the Founding Fathers warned us about more than two centuries ago. A Democracy will murder itself when a minority decides they have to make all the decisions for the majority when that minority is in charge.
LikeLike
I love this last line: “A Democracy will murder itself when a minority decides they have to make all the decisions for the majority when that minority is in charge.”
LikeLike
I must say that the majority is not made up of those with most money, but those with money are seeking to control everything … because they can buy influence, buy elections, and buy off politicians.
LikeLike
Enough trolling from the right wing nut job already. Come back to gloat again when the conservatives you elected, who along with their billionaire sponsors that have let it be known they think pensions, Social Security and other safety nets for seniors are welfare, get their hands on yours…
LikeLike
Since you no longer read the really brilliant thinkers here, like Lloyd and Duane to mention only 2 of many that I admire (although I have only been reading here for a short time, then you won’t read my reply to this sentence that you wrote:
“Thing is… I’m just an ordinary person talking in ordinary terms that many people can relate to, and some of you think you are so brilliant and well-spoken, you look down on others. Well, keep it up. I won’t be following you. ”
Well my dear, there are people here whose brilliance astonishes and delighted me, although I never look down at “ordinary” people (your expression not mine). I am often astonished at the easy way ordinary thinkers and extraordinary ones they are bamboozled and confused by the lies. It makes it hard to communicate with people who as Thomas Pain noted cannot be reasoned , and are in that way like the dead… no matter how ‘smart’ they are.
Thus, when I read not merely the erudition and use of language, but the insight of some of the people here I am thrilled. I do not fell as if they look down on me, and I am quite ordinary… no Ph’d, no books…a ‘mere’ teacher.
Anne, I am sure that by now these brilliant people grasp their own mental agility and capacity, as I do know my own, at age 73.
Ironically, it appears, from your words –which are an incredible reverse prejudice of sorts — that you seem to ‘look down’ on them.
As for me, who spent 10 months a year for 8 years with over 130 thirteen year old emergent learners–many of whom were ordinary, and many of whom were extraordinary– I can tell you that those who were open to ideas, who pursued truth always thrived in my school where genuine communication was the objective; (we called it “accountable talk” a phrase Harvard introduced when they came to my practice as the cohort.)
Accountable talk relies on prior knowledge… facts and information to inform opinions … especially hypothesis and predictions.
A young brilliant man who was my humanities colleague, coined the phrase, “wide-awakeness,” to add to our jargon, because the kids who were really, really listening — those who were wide a wake and paying attention to FACTS and information — were the first to APPLY what they knew, to a new situation. Using what you know, depends, of course on knowing something is true.
No kids whom I spent a year with was “ordinary” if he/she recognized truth and were able to use real knowledge to inform their choices.
Here in America, too many people I know… “ordinary” (normal thinkers) and brilliant (extraordinary thinkers) are bamboozled and do not even know it.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
They are so in love with the voice in their own head, that they stifle truth when it rears its head and contradicts their dearly held beliefs. The people who seem to upset you, are voices that I have just begun to hear, and for the life of me, I cannot grasp what the heck you are thinking.
LikeLike
Susan,
Yours was a lovely and brilliant post!
Clear, pure, lucid, and strong! I learned from it alot!
LikeLike
Look, all you “erudite” people. Fact is, this president helped BUILD the Republican party as seen by the results of the election. Republicans are on the rise and on the move. Millions of voices have made their voices heard. Again, the people have spoken. My mother used to have an old expression. It was, “Oh, that’s just sour grapes.” Seems that there are people on here who have sour grapes, that is, they can’t accept the fact that there is now going to be some real change in America, sour grapes because the dictator and his cronies have lost the election.
You can now discontinue your discussion with me. I don’t follow/listen to beliefs of those who live and breathe Socialism. You all just keep to your little selves and keep lying to yourselves about what has just changed in our country. Wake up. It’s here. And, thank God for it… oh, excuse me… I guess you all don’t use that word.
I’m off of here.
LikeLike
Hope you enjoy living out your golden years in poverty and homelessness, after the GOP steals your pension or Social Security and Medicare, since that would be “Socialism” and against your self-centered ideology.
Diane very aptly described the matter above; the extreme right is all about “each one on his own.” Ignore the religious reference, folks. They do not believe in equity and greed is good to them. This is the church of Gordon Gekko, another billionaire progeny of Reagan’s “Voodoo Economics” and a primary role model for today’s neoliberal venture capitalists, who reside in the right wing of both political parties.
Good riddance, misanthrope!
LikeLike
When I listen to Jon Stewart or Bill Maher describe the things that some of the winners in this election said about anything, especially climate change… I cry for the future.
LikeLike
Everyone– all you ‘socialists’ — say ‘so long,” to Anne.
‘Baruch Hashem’, which is my way of saying, “Thank God,” that I don’t have to hear anymore about a dictator and his cronies, or be insulted by this person.
One feels sorry for her, but not as sorry as I feel for our country which is producing such clueless people.
LikeLike
Regarding this Anne, who could be an extremist far-right troll:
I wonder what, who or how she defines a socialist and/or liberal?
I have found through experience that anyone on the very far extreme right—about 5% of the population—usually considers anyone to their left socialist and/or liberal. That means about 95% of the country including other members of the GOP. You either agree with that far right extreme 100% or you are labeled a socialist/liberal with very little understanding from members of that 5% what those terms really mean.
It is people who think like this that give power to movements like the KKK or McCarthyism, and as they create a totalitarian, authoritarian state to force their thinking on everyone else by any means, they also shout loud and clear that they are doing it in the name of freedom and democracy.
LikeLike
Lloyd, spoil sport, man troll. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no clue what I’m like. I can play that game, too. Enough of you.
LikeLike
Scott Walker and John Kasich should not be a bright spot in anyone’s book.
LikeLike
For someone who keeps saying you’re never coming back, you sure return a lot.
A troll is someone who remains anonymous and hides behind that invisibility shield as they sling mud and gloat.
Every president I DID NOT vote for, along with almsot half the voters in the US who votes for the same candidate I voted for, meant we had to wait until those presidents were gone. That list includes Reagan and the two Bushes.
Since the end of World War II, the US has had 12 presidents and three of them are responsible for more than half of the federal national debt—that includes the annual interest on the almost $9 Trillion those three GOP presidents are responsible for.
The current national debt is $17.9 Trillion (more than $6 Trillion of that comes from the interest on the debt), and Obama may be one of the stingiest present in history for starting NEW spending programs. The truth is that the nearly 18 percent spike in spending in fiscal 2009 — for which the president is sometimes blamed entirely — was mostly due to appropriations and policies that were already in place when Obama took office.
That includes spending for the bank bailout legislation approved by President Bush. Annual increases in amounts actually spent since fiscal 2009 have been relatively modest. In fact, spending for the first seven months of the current fiscal year is running slightly below the same period last year, and below projections.
Since fiscal 2009, however, it cannot be denied that spending has increased only modestly. Total federal outlays actually went down 1.7 percent in fiscal 2010, for example, then rose a little more than 4 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Spending was projected by CBO to rise less than 1 percent in fiscal 2012. In fact, CBO reported on May 7 in its most recent monthly budget report that spending for the first seven months of the current fiscal year was 3.4 percent below the same period a year ago.
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/obamas-spending-inferno-or-not/
Obama doesn’t deserve full “blame” for the debt growth on his watch, since about two-thirds of the annual deficit during his term has been from entitlements and interest. Entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare, are less susceptible to a president’s policy preferences than discretionary spending that Congress must approve on an annual basis. Entitlements are also more heavily driven by demographic factors, such as the aging of the population, which is also out of any president’s control.
http://www.politifact.com/new-hampshire/statements/2013/nov/01/kelly-ayotte/ayotte-counts-amount-debt-accrued-presidents-bush-/
“It took two parties to get us into debt. It’s going to take two parties to get us out of debt.” Obama’s actual share of what has been added to the debt due to spending programs Obama approved adds up to about $1.65 Trillion. G. W. Bush’s share is $4.9 Trillion.
What Obama does deserve blame for is what is happening to the public schools, and, for sure, the GOP probably applauds that Machiavellian rank and yank destruction.
What’s interesting is that FDR, a Democratic President, had an overwhelming Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress while he was in the White House, and FDR vetoed more bills submitted to him by that Democratic House and Senate than any president in history—a total of 372 vetoes (about 25% of the total of all the vetoes from 44 presidents). Only 9 of those vetoes was overturned by the Congress.
LikeLike
You’re the one who started the mud-slinging. I would never have done that. If you are going to be rude to me, then I will return it.
LikeLike
The problem is, you are a know- it- all, and anyone who disagrees with you is slapped down.
LikeLike
Anne, You are not slapped down… you are dead wrong with your assertions,and when contradicted you get pissed. This is not a bloggers social network, where opinion’s fly. This is a very reasoned teacher’s room, here the authentic educators, academics and genuine PROFESSIONAL teachers who have experienced the reality explain why TRUTH of what is happening. If you dislike people who will not be dissuaded by ignorance and misinformation then this is not a place for you!
You are in the wrong place to put forth the narrative that you have learned from… wherever.
Why bother? If you see rudeness in the replies you get to your nonsense, and your Great NEED is to ‘fight,’ then your behavior stands for who you are… go fight at some social network blog, where people with nothing more to do with their time yatter, yatter ,yatter.
You cannot win by attacking Diane because anyone and everyone who reads or writes here KNOWS she speaks truth.
LikeLike
I like and respect Diane. That’s why I’ve followed her for some time. I do NOT like people like you who enjoy attacking people just because you think you know the “truth.” Your opinion is only your opinion. It’s like a–holes: everybody has one. Anyone who disagrees with you is looked down upon. I pity your family. Just leave me alone, and go find someone else to put down.
LikeLike
Hee, hee. You disagree with what has occurred, and tell me it is in my head and to leave you alone… No problem… you are not alone in your confusion, by the way.
LikeLike