John Oliver is one of our very best political commentators, and he does it with humor, intelligence, and graphics.
Watch this stunning program about state legislatures and ALEC, the most malignant of organizations attacking public schools, unions, teachers, environmental regulation, gun control, and everything else that makes sense in the twenty-first century.
Only the MALIGNATE with a chance of making money by lying about our public schools (real TREASURES) do this kind of thing. Right on, Diane. They are indeed MALIGNANT.
Bill Moyers has covered the Koch brothers and ALEC several times. Here’s one of them. If you Google, “Koch brothers Bill Moyers” you will find the links
“Five Myths About the Koch Brothers — And Why It Matters To Set Them Straight
“Democratic reformers need to know exactly what they are up against — now and likely for years to come.”
ALEC is the Koch Brothers opaque and secretive third party with a goal to take over the leadership of both major political parties and dominate school board, city mayors, the states, and the White House, both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court.
They are also dangerously close to achieving their goal to rewrite the Constitution. Bill Moyers wrote about that too. – dated June 20, 2017
“This year’s legislative season saw a strong push in the states from right-wing groups, bankrolled by the Koch brothers and other ultra-conservative billionaires, hoping to convene a national constitutional convention in order to inject rigid fiscal constraints into our country’s founding document.”
http://billmoyers.com/story/koch-convention-rewrite-constitution-runs-roadblocks/
And here’s a YouTube video claiming that Alex Jones is paid by the Koch brothers
The Koch Brothers and ALEC are behind most of the legislation against anything for the common good and for exploitation of our common assets. I didn’t realize there was such disparity about how state legislatures operate. Citizens need to become more informed as it is time for us to clean house and get rid of some of the “dead wood” Koch Brothers’ pawns in state legislatures that introduce laws to benefit corporations and the 1%.
I don’t understand is analogy with Jazz. Negative humor, perhaps.
He was playing with a Miles Davis quote that says (I’m paraphrasing) that jazz is not about the notes you play, it’s about the notes you don’t play.
First part: Like Jazz, it’s about what they are not playing. Jazz is an improvisational art in which players lay down a melody and then wander off from it while maintaining a few points of reference–tempo, chord changes, baseline, whatever. He’s suggesting that Congress is doodling instead of making music.
Second part: Jazz was the most popular music in America (after hymns) in the early 20th century, but with the advent of bebop, and especially of so-called hard bop, which emphasized improvisational virtuosity, it lost its audience, as classical music did in the 20th century with its move away from tonality. He’s suggesting that no one thinks well of Congress anymore. And, indeed, for the past 10 years or so, it has had historically low approval ratings.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Frustratingly , while years and year have gone by with so few grasping how dangerous the current test-score school privatizing game has been — and is — no matter how often it is explained, many I know who never hear me WILL hear John Oliver. So: THANK YOU John Oliver!