Whenever Trump goes into a major rant and incites a culture war, he is changing the subject from something he doesn’t want to talk about.
This is what the current attack on athletes is really about.
He had to change the subject.
He has succeeded.
Stop talking about the knee and the flag.
Talk about the subject Trump wants to avoid.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump tweets 20 words and we spend days parsing them. we would be better off to ignore his tweets as they only serve to distract us from real issues. Plus, as Mr. Bannon claims, “keep them talking about race and we win.”
LikeLike
Interesting that the Russian ads on Facebook promoted Black Lives Matter to white Rural and suburban voters
LikeLike
It would not be out of the realm of possibility for the KGB/FSS to have the expertise to do the targeting. You would not question the CIA’s capability to do the same. On the other hand, it is far more likely that they had a sophisticated political organization directing them. Far more concerning to Kushner and Trump than the emails.
LikeLike
I haven’t seen the ads but it sounds more like a scare tactic than a promotion, since due to Trump’s racism and xenophobia, his meme “Make America Great Again” appeals to many in that white rural and suburban demographic because they think it’s a dog whistle which really means “Make America White Again.”
We have to remember that Colin Powell taught Hillary about using private email because he did it when he was Secretary of State and how to do that wasn’t public knowledge then. However, this matter has been at the forefront for quite some time now, and “Lock Her Up” due to the emails was a rallying call of Trump’s campaign –and continues to be since he hasn’t stopped campaigning– so Kushner should have known better. This is the same guy who tried to set up a back channel with the Russians…
That whole family seems to be an example of crooks and liars who are not particularly bright. Maybe that’s what happens to the silver spoon crowd when their primary aim in life is just to acquire increasingly more money and power.
LikeLike
Mueller must be getting really close, and Trump and whoever is left of his advisors know it.
LikeLike
Am I being to harsh ?
https://youtu.be/snuvlXq17Io
LikeLike
Guess I was, the You tube of Mussolini’s execution would not post
LikeLike
I take that back
LikeLike
WOW that puts to shame what happened in Libya and Iraq!
LikeLike
No, not being too harsh. One of the few things these days that makes me smile. But Mussolini (who our Dear Leader has studied and mimics all the time) was more of a statesman than what we have now.
LikeLike
I will say something about the “knee” and Trump’s rant.
Do we respect our country right or wrong as happened in “Germany pre-WWII? Or do we respect and fight for the things we espouse as free Americans and which have made us the envy of the world?
Sometimes this is not as simple as it sounds to be sure. Vietnam by Ken Burns now shows this but I personally believe that we fight for the great things which we espouse and which we have way too often forgotten,.Our country right or wrong is usually in my judgement a false ethic Ethnic cleansing of our Native Americans, slavery by the blacks along with Jim Crow, lynchings et al .show us what our country has stood for in the past and I might add, I am not too happy with some things happening to our freedoms now.
Why do people kneel as the National Anthem is being played? To stand up, kneel for the things which we as a nation say we espouse but which were and are denied? The flag. the national anthem are but symbols, they are not the U. S. itself. Have the kneelers paid their taxes, done other things which have made our country better? These are the question which each kneeler must decide for themselves. It is easy to judge them but do we really know and know what each kneeler has experienced which leads them to their actions?
Has Trump really done the things which bring us together?
LikeLike
Athletes at every “level” of sport (elementary through professional) who “take a knee” at a public event are helping undermine white supremacy. The flag and national anthem continually reinforce a racist status quo. The public protests Dianne seems to regard as trivial are in fact very historically significant and unprecedented.
LikeLike
Social issues are often used as wedge issues to avoid uncomfortable domestic and international economic issues. I agree with Diane, and think it was very insightful to note that kneeling during a song is of less significance than, well, most things crossing the desk in the Oval Office. As a former amateur athlete and a lifelong sports fan, I recognize sports as hobbies that teach important social skills to people of all ages, but still just hobbies.
LikeLike
“The public protests Dianne seems to regard as trivial are in fact very historically significant and unprecedented.”
Huh? Where’d you get that idea? The Diane who I have come to know and love, albeit from afar, values peaceful public protests and sees human rights as a very worthy cause.
This gesture by the athletes, however, is not unprecedented. Many of us can recall the fists raised by black athletes during the awards ceremony at the 1968 Olympics, which was also a protest calling for human rights from a country that has not treated all citizens equally well. Not long afterwards, many people starting protesting like that for their rights.
For example, I remember black students standing with fists raised on my college campus protesting because they wanted the addition of Black Studies, since for decades, textbooks and courses had been primarily about white men at most K-16 schools. People felt we had to protest like that in the 60s and 70s in order for historically marginalized groups to be addressed and included in education, such as with the addition of Women’s Studies.
LikeLike
I cannot access the Washington Post. I did hear LeBron James speak to the issues that the players are drawing attention to and these are not trivial. But Diane is correct that Trump has a well-established pattern of capturing media attention for any matter that will distract attention from investigative reports circulating in the media, the Mueller investigation, Facebook’s cooperation in Russian attempts to undermine our elections. His rant about the players was timed and stage managed to distract attention and arouse fans who are willing hide their racism behind howls they are being patriotic.
LikeLike
Laura, the article in the Wash Post was about Jared Kushner using his private email server, as Trump attacked Hillary for.
Now we know that not only Jared Kushner, but also Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon, Reince Preibus and other WH staff used a private email server.
LikeLike
Thanks. In addition to that, his rant distracted attention from the North Korean threats, DACA, 3 million plus US Citizens stranded in Puerto Rico, the absence of a credible health care law, the absurd draft of the tax overhaul, the placing of pollution kings in charge of the environment, and the rest of the list.
LikeLike
Totally agree but what he said is what he believes
LikeLike
Dear Diane,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST. Needed to be said OUTLOUD!
DISTRACTION IS ONE OF THE PLOYS used re: PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES. Trump has played the DISTRACTION GAME HIS ENTIRE LIFE. Distract! Distract! Distract! Blame others! Blame others! Blame others is another GAME of DISTRACTION. Lie! Lie! LIE at ALL COST is another one. Of course, there’s this too, Bully! Bully! Bully!
The one thing Trump can’t do is tell the truth. He’s covered in sl—. The sad part is that there are citizens who vote who have bought into the DISTRACTIONS and getting all worked up over the WRONG things. And Trump has remained true to self and has done what he has ALWAYS DONE…CON JOB!
LikeLike
I favor no longer playing the national anthem at any sporting event; it’s largely empty ceremony, much like religious services where few attendees actually pay attention. I also don’t think that kids should be coerced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. An inherent part of the right to free speech is the right to NOT speak. Unlike most readers of this blog, I feel blessed to live in America because I know a lot about U.S. History and about how dismal most other places are by comparison; I don’t need rote ceremonies to reinforce my gratitude for being here.
Athletes have a right to stand, sit, or kneel during the national anthem. But imagine that a few dozen players kneeled to protest abortion. How many people now celebrating the players would respect their principled stand opposing a left-wing dogma?
LikeLike
No one would care. We would respect their right to quietly — without a word – kneel if they felt that they could protest abortion that way.
That’s what you right wingers don’t understand. You like having one rule for other people while you want your own right wing jerks to be able to break any laws they want to.
How about that email? You already said it was fine for Colin Powell and Karl Rove to use private servers. You said it was fine that they deleted MILLIONS of e-mails! You said it was fine when Comey looked at just 1% of the e-mails Powell and Rice had on private servers and found classified e-mails. You said there was no need to worry about whether the other 99% of the emails that they refused to turn over had classified information because they were Republicans and above the law.
And of course, now you say that Trump and Kushner can use a private server all they want. It’s up to them.
Right wingers don’t worry about looking like hypocrites when they demand that their enemies be “locked up” for the transgressions that they reward their own family and friends for doing. They lack the moral center that would let that bother them.
Rules are for punishing your enemies and for breaking when it gets you what you want. If you are a right winger.
LikeLike
You are clearly deep in the left-wing bubble, not even remotely familiar with opposing views. Caricaturing is much easier than logical reasoning. Here’s a sampling of politicians I have voted for in general elections: Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Obama, Wellstone. Please name any Republicans you have ever voted for. I’m a moderate independent; you are obviously on the far Left like almost all commenters here.
No way would your ideological soulmates in the news media, academia, and Hollywood respect a public display of opposition to abortion; they would mercilessly ridicule any athletes who took that politically incorrect position. It’s your far Left side that is doing all the shouting down of speakers on college campuses, cheering on Antifa violence, and excusing the blatant anti-Semitism and anti-white racism of BLM. And you’re deflecting what very likely was criminal activity on the part of Hillary Clinton. There’s plenty of hypocrisy across the political spectrum, which is why I don’t hero-worship Obama, Hillary, Trump, or any other politician.
LikeLike
I doubt you voted for any of those candidates given your nasty view of so-called “left-wing” people.
You didn’t like it that I said it was okay for a football player to be anti-abortion. In fact there ARE many football players who are anti-abortion.
There are MANY football players who kneel in prayer DURING a game as if the Lord Almighty preferred that their team scored a touchdown instead of the other team.
The only person who got in trouble was the Muslim athlete who did it!
You don’t see scores of “left wing people” demanding that all those athletes stop praying after scoring a touchdown.
That’s because, unlike you, we aren’t total hypocrites. We aren’t looking to be nasty because we don’t like that the people expressing a view are different than us.
Hypocrisy.
LikeLike
Bill Clinton, Gore, and even Obama weren’t far Left politicians, and I can easily prove that I voted for them by consulting with co-workers who heard my opinions on them and their ooponents. I have problems with ideologues on the far Right and the far Left (of which you are a part).You are very badly informed in general; that comes from not reading anything which doesn’t confirm your existing extreme views. People who oppose abortion are incessantly mocked as religious fanatics, theocrats, woman haters, and worse. If you read outside the left-wing bubble, you would know that.
Please tell us even one non-liberal/Leftist you have ever voted for. Then tell us which publications you ever read that aren’t dogmatically left-wing.
LikeLike
“People who oppose abortion are incessantly mocked as religious fanatics, theocrats, woman haters, and worse.”
You live in a different reality than I do.
“incessantly mocked”?? Um, the people who oppose abortion have completely taken over all three branches of government.
Talk about feeling “victimized” — your posts remind me of Trump.
I’m sorry you feel so victimized by that left wing cabal you see everywhere ruining your right to fight for what you believe in, like kneeling in prayer after scoring a touchdown.
But I won’t enable your misperception by indulging your fantasy of victimhood.
LikeLike
“What non-liberal/Lleftist have you ever voted for?”
Which liberals/lefties are there to vote for? As you correctly point out, neither Clinton, Gore, HRC, nor Obama are liberals/lefties. This whole bs about the Democratic Party being a hotbed of lefties is a RWNJ lie. We just spent 8 years listening to garbage about our centrist/moderate president being a Marxist. Not just a Marxist, but a racist jihadi Kenyan, Nazi, Commie Marxist. And middle America ate it up because we’re a country of ignoramuses. Or did Obama just have range?
Please resume your anti-liberal tirade. yawn
LikeLike
Yes we truly are a shining city on a hill . Or is that a pile of garbage that we could elect a fascistic demagogue. Who is still supported 39% of the public .A character out of the Batman series.
“It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.”
That description by a life long Republican . Back in 2011. But if you think NYCPSP is a lefty , you have defined our problem. There is no left in this country as evidenced by the 1.06 % of the votes that went to Stein . Also defined by those traditional Republicans you said you may have voted for Clinton, Obama .
LikeLike
Buy the way you are right about the pledge and the anthem .
LikeLike
BY (help )
LikeLike
Joel,
Why did Jill Stein go to Moscow to the same dinner as Mike Flynn and sit at Putin’s head table? Putin is no lefty. He is a fascist and a murderer.
LikeLike
Joel.
This article was written five years ago. Before the current craziness. Please read:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/04/26/vladimirs-tale/
LikeLike
dianeravitch
Ask Chris Hedges, he had a very good piece this week . Part of which explained the connection of the American Left and RT network. . Flynn was a National security figure, right out of the highest position in Military intelligence. A man with an ax to grind with Obama and Clinton . Stein a private Citizen running for President with absolutely zero chance of winning .
A huuugge !!! difference.
By the way this is the first Hedges piece I could bring myself to read ,since the election . I used to read him regularly. Remember I took Chomsky’s advice . By the way where was your interview with him aired.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-silencing-of-dissent/
LikeLike
dianeravitch
I do not deny Russia’s role in the election , nor Putin’s deplorable character . Questioning our movement of NATO eastward and excusing Putin are two different things. The biggest impediment to impeaching Trump is the pile of dead bodies in Moscow..
LikeLike
Well said. I couldn’t have said it better myself
LikeLike
Trump is a bag of phlegm . . . . all spit and and a lot of venom . . . .
LikeLike
Too kind .
LikeLike
Read this New York Times story: Six high ranking members of Trump admin used private emails:
At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts
Ivanka, Jared, Reince Preibus, Bannon, Gary Cohn, zstephen Miller
LikeLike
Lock em up
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny to be on the other foot, yes, but also exposes how pathetically ridiculous the email witch hunt was for Clinton.
LikeLike
Panel IV. How Technology Can Create More Choice
Chair: Paul E. Peterson, Harvard University
Presenter:
Michael Horn, Christensen Institute
Discussants:
Diane Tavenner, Summit Public Schools
Steven Klinsky, Modern States Education Alliance
Susan Patrick, iNACOL
11:45 AM: Lunch
12:00 PM: Choice and Progress: The Newark Story
Keynote Address: Superintendent Chris Cerf, New Jersey Dept. of Education
130 public school districts have adopted the Summit/Facebook education program.
Those public school districts should be asking themselves why they’re excluded from elite ed reform panels on education.
You’re not “partnering” with ed reform if they deliberately and carefully exclude public schools from these meetings.
Public schools spend BILLIONS of dollars on ed tech.
Ask yourselves why the ed tech industry treats public schools with such contempt. You are their biggest customers. Why are their biggest customers excluded from these elite planning sessions?
Stop buying Chromebooks and Apple products. See if that gets their attention. I bet you’ll be invited to the next Harvard conference.
LikeLike
I do so wish the media would lay off hair-splitting the tweets. It’s like he’s tossing them bones to fill up their 24-hr news cycle. Of course that pattern was already firmly established, they kiddie-cut everything remotely sensational. Wouldn’t it be cool if they just summarized, & spent the extra hours on world events & interesting features? (Hey the BBC does that).
Tough to get worked up over a few dozen emails issued from private servers. Trumpeting that from the roofs is the same kind of tactical error as Trump’s continual re-hashing of the campaign.
Trump is essentially a promoter, like a Don King. His outrageous statements remind me of the bragadoccio & insults Cassius Clay would issue in the windup for a big match. Everything is framed as a two-sided contest w/provocative adverts geared to keep all eyes on the spectacle, & lots of dodging & faking to psych out the opponent. Great paradigm for boxing matches… Anathema for intl diplomacy.
LikeLike
My wish of the day: that Donald Trump would hold a Town Hall in which he explains the Graham-Cassidy Healthcare plan.
LikeLike
Diane, he couldn’t explain anything like that. All he would (and could) say is that it was “the best plan ever, the most popular, the biggliest!”
LikeLike
Nah, he would say again that Obamacare is a disaster!! A disaster!!
LikeLike
Well, that’s all too true, Diane.
I cannot understand why he still has a 35-39% approval rating. Are there really that many either naive and gullible, racist, or wealthy and greedy people in this country?
That does not bode well for our future.
LikeLike
Dale Hansen, a sports anchor in Dallas, never shies away from controversial issues. Here’s his take on the anthem “issue”:
Here’s one he did a few years ago on gay rights:
LikeLike
Thanks, Greg. I love Dale Hansen.
LikeLike