My website is dianeravitch.com. I write about two interconnected topics: education and democracy. I am a historian of education.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog by Diane Ravitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at dianeravitch.net.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
GregB: HA! Why didn’t I think of that?
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Lloyd: Yes, I am referring to those millions of lazy people who suck off the teat of welfare.
But really, they/we are getting shafted at both ends, and in the middle, where health care is concerned. that is, FIRST, what hospital bill can be paid for in less than 100 years at $7.25 an hour (the side issue is the sucking money hole of insurance companies and health care costs)?
SECOND, they don’t want the government to provide health insurance. And don’t give me the intricate arguments that are really a GROSS DENIALS that they just don’t want to pay for it with taxes.
And THIRD, even if a middle-wage income is better, it wouldn’t suffice. . . but they don’t want to provide education either (another common good) so that “the people” can improve themselves, even to the point when they can work and get higher income, OR more importantly, can understand clearly when they are getting snookered, used, and shafted by the “elite.”
In any case, between wages, education, and the oligarchic takeover of government (e.g., Paul Ryan) NO health care for “the people.” The SILENT STATEMENT IS: Too bad for you and your offspring, you lazy, unlucky bxxxxxxs. Over 60 percent of taxes are paid by businesses anyway (on and on and on). (<–Remember the Texas congressman talking to students about vouchers: That one really stuck in my craw.)
BTW, do you think DeVos, Sessions, and Bannon are members of the elite?
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“do you think DeVos, Sessions, and Bannon are members of the elite?”
As long as their anointed serial-lying leader, who brags he doesn’t read books is the president of the Untied States and that malignant narcissist, that gets his intel from the Alt-Right lying, misinformation machine, keeps them in positions of power, they are members of the elite.
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Diane — I heard you speak at the NAEA event in NYC last week; thank you for being there. I am an Art teacher from Michigan. Have you been following this bill? https://legiscan.com/MI/bill/HB4163/2017
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One of the things I like about our community are the disagreements we sometimes have with like-minded people. We tend to argue on the edges of issues, sometimes on fundamental points, but we can see and respect each other’s points of views. The occasional right-wingers who chime in are a different breed. They revel in oversimplification and mischaracterization of facts and statistical data. I truly miss the days when we could have intellectual discussions with conservatives.
I write this because of an entry in Victor Klemperer’s diary of the Nazi years I just reread. Less than two weeks before the capitulation of Germany, he had a discussion with a Nazi sympathizer who also saw the end was near. She remarked, after all that had happened, that “Liberalism is to blame for everything bad.” After having been persecuted as a Jew and still survived, largely because his wife was Aryan, his response was something with which most of us can relate: “I must explain to her: A liberal is someone who stands by the sentence: In my father’s house there many rooms. A scholar who does not agree with that sentence is no scholar.”
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BTW, why the question? It’s obvious they are members of the oligarchy, but are all oligarchs equal and think the same way?
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I love you recommend. I copied it to my MUST QUOTE LIST, because so often, at Oped, there are right -wingers whole in a bubble, or have nothing better to do, then push their worldview. Usually the discussions there are wonderful, erudite and informed, so when one of these pathetic critters insists on derailing real conversation, I will use your quote.
You are terrific, Greg!
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Auto correct did it again. “I love your comment” is what I wrote.
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Here’s a contemporary horror story that Diane has touched on in the past. This time the dots take shape: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/right-wing-billionaires-have-project-going-rewrite-our-constitution-and-they-are
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Yes, this seems what is happening.
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A lot of assertions by this guy about how great test-based evaluations of teachers are: https://www.future-ed.org/to-help-teachers-improve-we-need-to-know-what-needs-improving/
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CHOICE
Choice is privilege, not a right. We do not get to choose who we are, what we look like, what gifts we may be given. We cannot choose the time in which we live, the fashions or economics of our era, the tools made available to us, the health we inherit. Although climate is amenable to choice, weather is not; we must take it as it comes. When we want to punish individuals, we render them bereft of choice that is otherwise accessible to ordinary living. We imprison them so that the normal exigencies of life over which they may have command are subject wholly to the command of others. Those who are graced with the greatest choices in life are those who are granted the requisite means to choose, whether through their own efforts or through those of others who have so empowered them.
In America we have not made education a matter of choice. Every child must undergo given years of schooling, be it public or private. It was not always so. There were times when slaves were forbidden to be educated, times when the poor were hardly educated, times when the mythologic one-room schoolhouse stood firm against the scourge of ignorance, and times when the ability to read was the ticket to advance. Nowadays we take schooling for granted. It is adjudged to be “free,” inasmuch as individuals are not charged directly for receiving it. It is the obligation of our communities to provide it, thus rendering it a public responsibility. As members of our communities we are taxed in order to provide the teachers, the materials, and the facilities to educate our children. The greater our incomes and the more valuable our properties the more we must contribute through state and local taxes. Those without property and with lower incomes are nonetheless granted access to the same education as the more privileged. This is the covenant of our public schools.
But now choice is being proposed as a right rather than a privilege. Like those who have the wherewithal to choose what kind of schooling their children may undergo, this proposition would have this privilege accessible to all, irrespective of their individual means to provide it. They want to take the cost that school systems determine necessary to educate a single child in a given public school and convert this into a payment that a family may choose to render to another school or mode of education. The recipients of this payment can be a private school, a charter school, a religious school, a for-profit school, a home school, or an online program of education. The quality of education offered is undetermined, lacking the oversight under which public schools must operate.
Historically, our covenant has stipulated that every child has a right to an education. At issue is who bears responsibility for funding that education. If individual parents bear this responsibility, then they have the right to choose whichever form of schooling they wish. But if the community bears that responsibility through taxing its inhabitants, then it also bears the responsibility to ensure that its tax dollars are wisely and justly spent. Public schools are overseen by locally elected officials who represent their communities. It is their obligation to represent the wishes of their constituents and to monitor the success of its schools in meeting those expectations. Although public schools may reflect the cultural and political traditions of their communities, they are not permitted to indoctrinate their students with political or religious persuasions. They must adhere to the division between church and state.
Those who support “choice” in public education tend to view public schooling as a government monopoly. It is a misuse of terms. According to the dictionary, a monopoly is “exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given market, or control that makes possible the fixing of prices or elimination of free competition.” Public schools are not exclusive; they are inclusive inasmuch as they accommodate all who wish to use their services. They do not eliminate competition from other forms of education. They are governed by those who use their services, not by some monolithic authority. Moreover, those who construe education as a “market” misconstrue its purpose and its function. Both the purpose and function of public schools is to educate its students, preparing them to undertake informed and productive lives. It is not “a gathering of people for buying and selling things,” as markets are defined. Knowledge is not a commodity and cannot be bought or sold in a school. It can be taught, it can be learned, and it is priceless.
Schooling is neither a business nor a religion. Its purpose is not to make a profit. It is a community service devoted to the success and welfare of its students. Its motive is not to inculcate a system of beliefs. It is designed to transmit knowledge and understanding wherever and whenever it may occur, whether in history, art, language, literature, mathematics, science, or technology.
In the United States education is “free” inasmuch as it is public, hence a gift of our communities. But it is not intended to be a treasury from which anyone may draw to fund extracurricular pursuits whose merit is unestablished, untested, and unmonitored by public oversight. Those who wish to decline our universal gift must fund their own pursuits. If they are dissatisfied with their public schools, then they must harangue and support them until their requirements are met.
Donald W. Thomas
schoolmastery@comcast.net
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Thank you, Donald Thomas… you are a Donald T, who has wisdom and compassion.
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Hi Diane: I thought you might be interested in running my Op Ed from today’s NJ Spotlight. http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/03/19/op-ed-the-legislative-importance-of-pushing-back-against-parcc/ Best regards, Sarah Blaine
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I have my signs from the Women’s March propped up against the wall in my garage. They sit there waiting for the next demonstration of our collective disbelief and outrage. One of them reads “Let us not grow weary.”
I’ve stood and marched with it since January. I made it with all the hope that I could muster back in the earliest days of this surreality.
But as my inboxes fill up daily with continued worser and worser (sic) news and endless petitions to sign and pleas for donations and calls to make, I fear I may be growing weary. As are so many others. But I want to fight against the weariness. I won’t give up.
Wondering what others may be doing to fight the battle fatigue when we’re only at day 60 something? It would be good to have a collective plan…
Oy
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fromwhereiteachblog Saw a nice interview on Democracynow.com u-tube with Ralph Nader who has a book out addressing your question. A great interview:
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I spent a weekend with Ralph Nader at a weekend activist retreat several years ago. He is inspiring in his energy and determination. His message is as on point as Bernie’s and he’s unwavering. Whatever your take is on his role in the election of 2000, his resume of extraordinary accomplishments is undeniable (Think: seat belts in your car, for example…) His simple idea of getting small but dedicated groups of citizens in every congressional district to stay focused on their representatives and meet with them regularly to share their views on issues, seems simple enough. He said it would take less than 1% of the population to get this work done. But it has to be targeted and sustaining.
And that’s the key. How do we sustain the energy? How to articulate the shared issues that cross party lines? And then stay energized. And not grow weary.
That is the question I posed above. How do we not grow weary? What are you doing to stay focused and energized and hopeful, despite the daily onslaught of badder and badder (sic) news?
Please share. We’re in this together.
thanks.
~Alice, from where i teach
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Well, the practical things that Nader suggests are related to three times representatives will be back hom in the next few months; and to either attend their town hall meetings or, if they don’t have any, to set up meetings ourselves in our communities and invite our representatives to be there–very public. This was basically about Trump’s awfulness and the Affordable Care Act; but it’s a good analogy of action for education. He also said that PHONE CALLS FROM CONSTITUENTS WORK for Congresspeople. That’s not the first time I’ve heard that.
The broader picture, however, is that I have been living on faith that such a crisis cannot last and that Trump’s house of cards would finally begin to crumble, from the inside–and I think it’s finally beginning to occur. Is R-Congress growing a spine? I think the lawyers are the heroes among us right now, and the judges–these people are really on the front lines. Who would watch a movie when this is going on?
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Tennessee is voting soon on a voucher proposal for Memphis. It is very restricted and will be “studied” for 5 years. No extra money is being appropriated, to my knowledge, for this Tennessee “experiment”. Proponents say we cannot wait a generation to find out what works in “failing schools”.
I s,ell a camel with his nose in the tent.
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Roy,
The first step is the camel’s nose under the tent.
Tennessee doesn’t need to study vouchers except to see where vouchers have been in place for 20-25 years, like Milwaukee, Cleveland, DC, Louisiana, Indiana. Fail, fail, fail.
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Learn about vouchers here.
https://greatschoolwars.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/brookings-study-voucher-students-in-louisiana-and-indiana-perform-worse-than-peers-in-public-schools/?preview_id=55211&preview_nonce=a36103bd30&post_format=standard&preview=true
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Britain may be dropping the U.S. as its model. Newest solution for improving learning…simply adopt Chinese textbooks. Who knew it could be so easy? https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/british-schools-hope-to-improve-performance-with-chinese-textbooks/520206/
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Here are two News Alerts today from Education Week:
RE: Unanimous Supreme Court Expands Scope of Special Education Rights
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2017/03/supreme_court_rules_for_studen.html?_ga=1.167739450.54640758.1455823591?cmp=soceml-twfdbltz-ewnow
RE: Live conversation with John B. King, Jr. today:
WATCH LIVE: A Conversation With John B. King Jr.
At 10:30 a.m. ET on Facebook Live, former U.S. Secretary of Education and current Education Trust President John B. King Jr. discusses the direction of federal education policy with Education Week Correspondent Kavitha Cardoza.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/edweek/posts/
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Diane: The below “Let me Finish” end of the Chris Matthews’ show is worth repeating here. I actually felt relief when I heard it.
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/chris-gorsuch-shouldn-t-be-confirmed-to-scotus-903331395579?cid=eml_mda_20170322
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Today, the “Supreme Court bolsters rights of learning-disabled students in ruling on Colorado case” which is contrary to prior rulings of Gorsuch, who had a lower standard for disabled students and ruled against them in 8 out of 10 cases.
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It amazes me how brazen billionaire influence peddlers have gotten: “Kochs to withhold millions for health care ‘yes’ votes”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/kochs-reserve-fund-health-care/index.html
There out to be a law! If influence peddling is not going to be regulated, then there should be a tax funded campaign financing coffer, with limits set on how much money each candidate can take from it AND spend on their election campaigns.
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Yes, and complain to George Soros!
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There’s “strange bedfellows” thing going on here too–with the Affordable Care Act. That is, the House apparently in influenced so much by the Koch brothers (from CNN article posted here today) that many don’t want to pass it; not because it’s not a good bill (it’s not) but because it doesn’t cut enough of the AFA provisions that the Koch brothers hate; and the Kochs are saying they won’t fund those who vote FOR it.
On the other side, those who are benefiting presently from the AFA don’t want the bill to pass either, but because they are happy with the way things are–just fix AFA, don’t destroy it.
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Why is it that Alt-Right voices only have George Soros to criticize but everyone left of far-right has a long list of meddling conservative and/or libertarian and/or extremist Christian billionaires to bash. In fact, there are so many it’s impossible to remember them all.
Trump
DeVox
Koch brothers
Walton family
Eli Broad …
Etc.
All the President’s Billionaires. Trump that is, the illegitimate president who stole the election with help from Russia, the FBI, the lying and misleading Alt-Right hate media machine, voter suppression tactics in some GOP dominated states, etc.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2016/12/09/all-the-presidents-billionaires-a-guide-to-trumps-gilded-inner-circle/#48d9a3ca4694
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Lloyd,
First comment – Trump is your President and he didn’t steal anything – Hillary lost the election, the worst campaigner for the office in history who believed she was OWED the job, and no evidence has been given by any of the investigations of your allegations. Your paranoic rants are humorous – thanks!
Yes there are many billionaires – and I apologize for not including the others from the left – Soros is the most well known
So the next time you hear Senator Bernie Sanders rail against the nefarious influence of “millionaires and billionaires,” it might be important to know that 39% of the nation’s wealthiest donors are backing Democrats more than Republicans. Even more interesting, the number of card carrying liberal titans is likely to increase dramatically, as billionaires from new industries, especially Silicon Valley, are unambiguously Democratic cheerleaders*.
This election cycle, as in past elections, the tech elite are almost exclusively backing liberals: Tesla’s Elon Musk donated to Hillary Clinton, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg gave handsomely to the San Francisco Democratic Party organization, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates gave to three Democratic congressmen.
Add the following billionaire contributors for various items:
Left-wing tech billionaires, the truly wretched of the earth, are up in arms over President Trump’s plan to keep America safe from Islamic terror.
Google billionaire Sergey Brin
Netflix billionaire boss Reed Hastings
.
Other tech billionaires Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Slack’s Canadian boss Stewart “Dharma” Butterfield and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff
Twitter’s billionaire CEO
Five top donors – Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Pierre Omidyar, Tom Steyer and George Soros’s own son, Jonathan – are major funders of the left. Together, they have contributed at least $2.7 billion since 2000 to groups pushing abortion, gun control, climate change alarmism and liberal candidates.
So again, there are enough billionaires out there to take over feeding Big Bird, Planned Parenthood, NPR Meals on Wheels etc…
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Jscheidell,
Public means public. Our arts and culture should not depend on the largesse and control of billionaires.
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No. You are WRONG! Trump is an illegitimate president. I did not vote for him. I refuse to accept him as my president. His values are garbage. In fact, I’d support the entire West Coast and Hawaii leaving the union and becoming a separate country. I’d even join the army of the West United States to fight for our freedom from this malignant narcissist and tyrant.
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Lloyd,
No, you are wrong – he is your LEGITIMATELY elected President wether you voted for him or not does not hold piss – and there are no factual basis for you to call him illegitimate other than your demonstrated abhorrence, detestation, execration, loathing – HATRED – which you use to protect your bubble world – the fantasy and fictional reality you want.
I would also support California dropping out of the union and Hawaii and you can take a one way ticket<of course you would be just like the Hollywoods we discussed earlier that promised to leave but somehow I guess they couldn’t find it in their bleeding hearts to do so>And take your bullets and guns down to the Mexican border and protect your new found country – the sooner the CALEXIT happens the Dems would really have a problem with the loss of votes and the electoral college votes – so you go ahead and leave – no one is stopping you – in fact be a leader and call for a state referendum to do so. Help the Republicans by doing so
Not only have you demonstrated PARANOIAC tendencies, but you now have a problem of DENAIL- your refusal to admit the truth or reality, and you seem to be using it as a defense mechanism in which you are in confrontation with – a personal problem – with reality and at the same time avoiding the reality by denying the existence Trump as president.
In Psychology Today I think I could find your picture at the head of this helpful article for you on HATRED. I abbreviated parts but left the link for you to read and get help.
According to Washington, D.C., clinical psychologist Dana Harron, the things people hate about others are the things that they fear within themselves. She suggests thinking about the targeted group or person as a movie screen onto which we project unwanted parts of the self. The idea is, “I’m not terrible; you are.”
This phenomenon is known as projection, a term coined by Freud to describe our tendency to reject what we don’t like about ourselves.
Lack of Self-compassion
The antidote to hate is compassion — for others as well as ourselves. Self-compassion means that we accept the whole self. “If we find part of ourselves unacceptable, we tend to attack others in order to defend against the threat,” says Reedy. “If we are okay with ourselves, we see others’ behaviors as ‘about them’ and can respond with compassion. If I kept hate in my heart for [another], I would have to hate myself as well. It is only when we learn to hold ourselves with compassion that we may be able to demonstrate it toward others.”
Psychologist Bernard Golden, author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work, believes that when hate involves participation in a group, it may help foster a sense of connection and camaraderie that fills a void in one’s identity. He describes hatred of individuals or groups as a way of distracting oneself from the more challenging and anxiety-provoking task of creating one’s own identity:
The answer to why we hate, according to Silvia Dutchevici, LCSW, president and founder of the Critical Therapy Center, lies not only in our psychological makeup or family history, but also in our cultural and political history. “We live in a war culture that promotes violence, in which competition is a way of life,” she says. “We fear connecting because it requires us to reveal something about ourselves. We are taught to hate the enemy — meaning anyone different than us — which leaves little room for vulnerability and an exploration of hate through empathic discourse and understanding. In our current society, one is more ready to fight than to resolve conflict. Peace is seldom the option.”
In other words, compassion towards others is the true context that heals.
So, tell me who is your president? You know the one you think that was legitimately elected that you have compassion for….
Almost forgot – The Psychology of Hate | Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/nurturing-self-compassion/201703/the-psychology-hate – 191k March 2017
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Jscheidell,
Sorry, I have to agree with Lloyd here. Trump is not my president. I have voted since 1960 and I am a patriotic American.
The evidence continues to pile up that Trump was elected by Putin and Assange.
Like Congressman John Lewis, I dispute the legitimacy of his presidency.
He is not my president. He is yours.
We need a special prosecutor to interview under oath the following: Paul Manafort (his former campaign manager who also worked for the anti-western, pro-Putin government of Ukraine); Carter Page, who was named as a member of Trump’s foreign policy team and has strong ties to Russia; Roger Stone, the master of dirty tricks, who communicated with Guccifer 2.0, the Russian government’s hacker, on Twitter and predicted the hacking of John Podesta’s emails; and Michael Flynn, who has Putin connections that are unclear. There may be more.
I have never in my life known of a presidential candidate with so many close aides connected to a foreign government. In this case, a government controlled by a brutal dictator whose critics are gunned down in the street (another was shot to death just 3 days ago on the streets in the capital of Ukraine).
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jscheidell,
Donald Trump has praised leaders who practice extrajudicial killing. Your talk of compassion here is absurd.
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I think Keith overman makes the case here
The Most Telling Thing About the FBI’s Probe into Trump | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann | GQ – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsheoKNDTHY
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Diane, I am not sure of the best way to share this article I saw online this morning, but wanted to get this to you. Thanks for all you do in keeping us informed! http://homenewshere.com/middlesex_east/article_fad7a910-0f12-11e7-9f58-638bb25cb384.html
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Thanks for the link!
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For a photograph of hatred, I suggest you look in your own bathroom mirror.
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Well Lloyd,
You avoided the question of who your President is –
Yawn
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Diane,
I ask you as well and the Senators as well, who is you legitimate president?
Philanthropy from the billionaires – they are part of the public – and there are many Americans who contribute time and donations to many issues they support to ensure the continuation of them – and some items which the government was never intended to be involved with are better served by the actual public not the government – IMHO
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From Jan 20, 2017 to the present, there is no legitimate president, in my opinion.
Putin chose Trump to bring chaos and disorder to our government. The plan is working.
I hope we have another election soon. I have never lived under an illegitimate president before.
The AP reported this morning that Paul Manafort offered his services as a lobbyist for Putin a decade ago. Or so MSNBC reported this morning. The NY Times said he was paid $12 million by the pro-Putin government of Ukraine. Manafort lives in Trump Tower. He was Trump’s campaign manager.
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He is the President, regardless of how he got to this position, and must be removed by legitimate means.
yes he is a lunatic. 60,000 psychiatrists have agreed
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump-vs-the-People–A-Ps-by-carol-wolman-MD-Climate_Corporations_Future_Insanity-170324-785.html
here is the article to understand his psychology and way of operating, based, of course, on publicly available material. I include a section at the end on how best to stop his march to unlimited power.
There is a “Goldwater” rule in the therapeutic community that one should not try to diagnose politicians. This was broken in January 2017 with an article reportedly backed by almost 60,000 psychologists, announcing that Trump suffers from “malignant narcissism”(egotism, selfishness), and is a danger to the American people. The authors felt that “Goldwater” was overridden by a duty to warn, under the Tarasoff rule, which sets aside confidentiality if the person presents a threat to others. https://blog.shanesnow.com/donald-trump-and-the-definition-of-insanity-82ab6db008c4#.1x1zpmxws
I cannot claim objectivity when, in fact, I’m furious with Trump, and frightened of the direction he is taking. I fear that he is working toward becoming a fascist dictator. And he is destroying any chance of a reasonable future for our children and grandchildren.
I believe that his apparent instability is very calculated. It gains attention, which his narcissistic personality craves, and which keeps his brand name selling, selling, selling. It also keeps everyone around him off balance, so that he can amass control. He even boasts about doing it. And it works for him.
Trump has, against all expectations, succeeded in become the President of the United States, which also makes him the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. It puts his finger on the nuclear button, so he can hold the whole world hostage. Is he satisfied? Will he settle down and serve the people?
Not so far. Now that Trump has been in office for 2 months, we can see that the psychologists were correct with their diagnosis of malignant narcissism. He is a threat to 99.9% of us. His presidency is ego-driven and megalomaniacal. His goal is personal power and profit rather than the welfare of the people who elected him.
During Trump’s short time in office, his family has cost Americans extraordinary amounts of money while Trump lines his own pocket. He refuses to divest from his businesses, which have gotten a boost since he’s taken office. This means Trump is literally pocketing profits made from taxpayer dollars. http://unityfeed.com/doc/10970/trump-busted?grp_id=0
He seems to believe he is above the law. He has fits when judges block his immigration policies, and when he can, fires anyone who thwarts him.
I believe Bernie Sanders has it right.
Trump’s goal, Sanders said to the Guardian, “is to end up as leader of a nation which has moved in a significant degree toward authoritarianism where the president of the United States has extraordinary powers, far more so than our constitution has provided for or the values of the American people support.” http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/10/bernie-sanders-has-plan-defeat-delusional-trump
Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century , which studies the rise to power of Hitler and others, says fascism happens quickly, within a year or two, once a megalomaniac gets into power. We only have a limited window of opportunity to stop Trump. http://www.alternet.org/activism/if-we-dont-act-now-fascism-will-be-our-doorstep-says-yale-historian
Trump is attempting to control the public’s perception of reality by accusing the most respected news sources of promulgating or distributing “fake news”. Of course, he is the master of this art. As in Orwell’s prophetic noel, 1984, he turns truth on its head and does his best to confuse everyone. A recent article by Todd Gitlin analyzes his modus operandi. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/03/17/management-unleashed-insanity
His proposal of a huge expansion of the military budget implies that he intends to conquer the world. “The world is in trouble, but we’re going to straighten it out, OK? That’s what I do – I fix things,” Trump said in a speech on 2/2/17.
He has no concern for the future, gutting all regulations that protect the environment. His Director of the Office of Management and Budget recently said “The EPA is a waste of money”.
Trump has grandchildren; will they thank him 50 years from now, when food is scarce and there are many more climate refugees? Or will they be billionaires living underground, eating hydroponic food? And how many of his beachfront hotels will be under water in 20 years when climate change has raised sea level to the point of flooding coastal cities? http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/07/donald-trump-maralago-climate-change
Perhaps he is like Louis XVI just before the French Revolution- “Apres moi, le deluge”.
We have let a megalomaniacal predator, a man who has appointed a Cabinet full of predators, take over our government. We are watching the Trump administration take a wrecking ball to everything we hold dear: the rule of law, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the health of our environment, our national parks, the US leadership among nations, tolerance of people who are different from us, and worst of all, the future of our children and grandchildren.
Yet almost half of the electorate voted for him, and his approval rating, though falling, is still 37%. https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-approval-rating-falls-201000802.html What is going on in this country?
Using professional diagnostic codes, this article will look at how Trump was able gain enough votes to win the Electoral College. (Of course, he had lots of help, from Republican state rules that disqualify voters of color, from GOP manipulation of voting machines, from the divided and corrupt Democratic Party). And he continues to have significant support.
First, let’s look at Trump from a medical point of view. In 2016, he produced a letter which may be fake from his “doctor of 35 years” (Dr. Bornstein, a gastroenterologist) stating that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” – statement no MD could make in good conscience.
He does not exercise, eats junk food, consumes diet coke all day, gets only 3-4 hours of sleep/night, and needs to lose at least 20 pounds. http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/politics/donald-trump-dr-oz-weight/index.htmlThis is not a healthy life style, even for a young person, and at 70, Trump is the oldest man ever to become president.
There have been questions raised about whether he has some brain dysfunction, because of some of his odd expressions, memory problems and impulsive behavior. His father died of Alzheimer’s. http://www.inquisitr.com/3048296/does-donald-trump-have-alzheimers-questions-about-gop-frontrunners-mental-fitness-arise/
Diet coke contains an artificial sweetener, aspartame, which metabolizes to the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and methanol. Excessive aspartic acid leads to neural degeneration, and over time, to Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer’s. Methanol is a deadly neurotoxin. What has diet coke done to Trump’s brain? http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/04/26/how-does-aspartame-damage-your-brain.aspx
There is also speculation that he has used amphetamine-like diet pills for years. His constant sniffing during the presidential debates raised the question of cocaine use. Trump firmly denies any illegal drug use. http://heavy.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-drugs-drug-use-sniffing-sniffles-cocaine-clinton-debate-test/
Psychiatrically, Trump fits into several categories under the general heading of Personality Disorders. The following are taken from the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual- ICD-10.
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jscheidell said “I would also support California dropping out of the union and Hawaii and you can take a one way ticket ”
Your Alt Right bias and ignorance is on display here. California is a republic. To leave the union, a majority of the legislature and/or the people that vote would have to vote to leave.
For instance, there are more than 5.2 million registered Republicans in California and almost 8 million Democrats. But there are another 4.9 million registered voters who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans. Most of those almost 5-million registered voters and independents like me.
The “Hollywoods” (actors, producers and directors) you talk about are a small number of people and many of them don’t even live in California. The film industry in the United States is often generally referred to as Hollywood, but today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, making the United States one of the most prolific producers of films in the world. Only The Walt Disney Company — which owns the Walt Disney Studios — is fully based in Southern California.
And while Sony Pictures Entertainment is headquartered in Culver City, California, its parent company, the Sony Corporation, is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Most shooting now takes place in California, New York, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina.
Hollywood, California, the city, covers 3.51 square miles and has almost 80,000 residents.
The population of California is almost 40 million people and the state covers 163,696 square miles.
California is much more than just Hollywood and a film industry that is scattered all over the country and the world. California has the nation’s largest Latino population.
California also has the highest child poverty rate in the country.
Before your kneejerk Alt-Right ignorance reacts and throws out the allegation that California is full of lazy deadbeats and welfare queens, know that about 81.8% of poor children in California live in families with at least one working adult. Three-fifths of poor children (60.8%) lived in families with at least one full-time worker, and an additional fifth (20.9%) had at least one adult in the family working part-time.
The poverty rate for Latino children (31.6%) was more than double that of Asian American (13.5%) and white (11.9%) children in California in 2014. The poverty rate among African American children was also high (19.0%). Children under 5 had somewhat higher poverty rates than older children (23.6% vs. 22.8%).
And California would do just fine on its own, because California’s economy is larger than all but five countries in the world, but could all those poor states that voted for the illegitimate, treasonous, corrupt, con-man, serial liar, malignant narcissist in the White House survive without California’s contributions to the federal government through taxes and other revenue?
In 2015, the IRS collected about $405,851,295,000 from Californians through income taxes, or a little more than $10,000 per person. That was almost $406-billion that Californans paid to support the federal budget.
The total collected from all states was $3,283,920,138,000 or almost $3.3 Trillion and California’s share of that IRS pie was the largest slice in the country. Texas was #2 with $279,904,425,000.
I think it’s safe to say that if California was allowed to leave the union peacefully, that new country would do just fine but a lot of poor states that voted for the Malignant Narcissist would suffer horribly from funds that support their social safety nets.
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I didn’t think to add that if California leaves the union, could the rest of the U.S. survive financially without California’s contributions to all of the other federal programs beyond the IRS.
All of California’s contributions to Medicare and Social Security through taxes paid for by individuals and businesses in California would stay in California.
Social Security is not funded by taxes collected by the IRS.
Who pays for FICA Tax?
FICA Tax is paid by both the employer and the employee. The 12.4% Social Security Tax and 2.90% Medicare Tax is shared equally between the employer and employee.
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Well said. His comment would not fly at OPED which is a news site, an does not favor those who attack people, instead of offering argument , which you did brilliantly.
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Lloyd,
My My My, it is your ignorance and alt left liberal nonsense statement in the first place for which I concurred Your words -” In fact, I’d support the entire West Coast and Hawaii leaving the union and becoming a separate country. I’d even join the army of the West United States to fight for our freedom from this malignant narcissist and tyrant.”
I believe you pompously said this on the 24th…..thanks again for your humor…
Oh and by the way have you heard about the state Oregon and how they plan on stopping climate change – they are investigating how to stop COW FARTS – yes, the mighty liberals need some big plugs…
Another interesting liberal left – not in this country yet, but in Italy they are looking to provide women workers 3 days off for their monthly visitor – I’m sure this would take off with the Women’s March here….
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jscheidell If Trump became president by illegitimate means, then he is no one’s president, and especially if those means were treasonous.
Also, I have no resentment for wealthy people in this or any other nation or culture. What I DO resent is their using their monetary power to bribe people out of their principles and to undermine the constitutional democratic/republican state. I also resent arrogance and the idea that having money equals some sort of excellence on principle. (If that were the case, the mob would be excellent.)
Further, regardless of one’s balance sheet, I think it destructive to view everything as if “all things public” were anathema to their moneyed interests and as if a thing’s worth were established only by its participation in a “market economy.” It’s nothing less than a capitalization of the human mind and spirit.
Confusion of these issues commonly leads to the building of all sorts of convenient straw-men: For instance: people who are not wealthy resent those who are . . . those who don’t want “choice” are backward and afraid of change . . . poor people who want a decent wage and health care are lazy and just want to drink from the public trough, . . blah blah blah.
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Mr. Yawn,
The United States does not have a legitimate president in the White House at this time, so I have no president. The malignant narcissist might be legally president, but he is allegedly illegitimate and in time the weight of his lies and evidence of his treason and crimes will bury him deep. Have you ever heard of guilt by association, and Trump is surrounded by a cabinet and staff loaded with scounderals and they are falling like dominoes as the gears of the U.S. justice system slowly grind away?
When Trump runs, if he succeeds in escaping the justice system in the U.S. in his own jet, he will land in Russia where Putin will protect him and offer him asylum. The U.S. will then confiscate all of Trump’s business holdings in the U.S. if there is anything of value there to collect after all of the debts owed to foreign banks in Russia and China is subtracted.
Right now the United States is being protected and led by the Justice System: state and federal courts and state attorney generals and Congress might join that leadership if enough Republican representatives in both Houses Congress refuse to support the con-man in the White House.
How many Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against repealing Obamacare?
McCain is already combating Trump on many issues and as public opinion continues to turn against Trump more Republicans will join him in the GOP resistance.
The U.S. Founding Fathers set up a system of checks and balances to protect the country against a serial lying con man like the malignant narcissist in the White House. That’s why the president of the United States is not a king, an emperor, or a dictator and the U.S. Constitution limits h8is power by dividing up the power between the Congress, the Courts and the White Hosue.
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LOL…love it.!
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Lloyd as noted in your last paragraph, the Founders set up a system of checks and balances – Trump is still in the chair – and the established Electoral College process legitimately and Constitutionally put him there.. And since you noted that the cks and balances ” protect the country against a serial lying con man like the malignant narcissist in the White House. “That’s why the president of the United States is not a king, an emperor, or a dictator and the U.S. Constitution limits h8is power by dividing up the power between the Congress, the Courts and the White Hosue.” So I note that since these are in place he therefore is not a king, or an emperor or dictator and that, as you so noted his powers are limited by the other divide.
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On pluderbund.com, Bill Phillis brings attention to an EXCELLENT story by a reporter from the Athens, OH Messenger about what Gov. Kasich should consider before proposing an idiotic “externship” requirement for Ohio teacher to be eligible for recertification: http://www.athensmessenger.com/spotlight/what-if-gov-kasich-were-to-intern-at-athens-city/article_b63525b1-19e1-5326-9437-f072b74dc4fa.html
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Lloyd,
Not one republican or democrat voted – the bill was pulled prior to hitting the floor for the vote since Ryan had done his counting of possible votes.
The republicans do have various splits regarding those items to be passed for the health reform – and in reality it should not have been the first item out the gate – but as it stands – the Dems still own an imploding dysfunctional Ocare. Im glad there are those who are happy with the insurance they have. But once it blows up or implodes – whatever adjective you use – then what? The issue was to avoid that conclusion and there would be more individuals with no care or insurance – other than to go to the emergency room – and then the cost would spike –
There are those in both parties who would like to destroy Trump – they fear the outsider, a non politician, and what he may do to their self interests – and Trump won’t be going to Russia – you always provide the cartoon –
And if CalExit – which would be an extreme action because of Constitutional and admin moves – the rest of the US would make basic economic partnerships – Water becomes their issue…..
The Golden State’s ranches and farms raked in $47 billion in crop cash receipts in 2015. It produces over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts, making California’s agriculture industry the largest in the nation.
There’s no clear path to supply the state’s 38 million people with drinking water. While much of California’s water comes from rain and snow that falls in the northern and eastern parts, the Colorado River also funnels water into drought-stricken western states including California. The we will hear the clamor from the libs in the major cities saying we are killing them because the colorado agreement was closed off –
While Southern California has invested more than $1 billion over the last decade to decrease its dependence on the Colorado, the state up and leaving the US would probably not bode well under the 94-year-old agreement between Colorado and its neighbors.
Robert Gehl reports Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote has now exceeded Donald Trump’s by more than 2 million, but that’s not the whole story.
That lead – 2 million – is less than the lead Clinton had over Trump in California alone.
In that state, Hillary got 7.8 million votes compared to Trump’s 4.1 million.
So without California, Trump would have handily won.
You would still get your Social Security .
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For those of us who wonder about people who identify strongly with the Republican party and stand by Trump, irregardless, I recommend the article below, which I think provides some good insights on the conservative mind-set and the GOP, aka “the party of schadenfreude” i.e., delighting in the suffering of others:
“Has the Trump Budget Blown Republicans’ Cover? Why do Republicans seem intent on hurting the most vulnerable among us?”
http://billmoyers.com/story/has-the-trump-budget-blown-republicans-cover/
By Neal Gabler, at the website of Bill Moyers. He concludes, “someone needs to keep asking them the fundamental question again and again and again: Why?”
Since so many conservatives who claim moral authority are Christians, yet act more like they pray to Ayn Rand, I think they also need to be asked, “What would Jesus do?”
The examples that Jesus set include not being judgemental about people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged, and demonstrating empathy and generosity towards all of humankind. That’s very different from the GOP’s anti-social posturing, austere policies and take-no-prisoners budget, cutting minimal safety nets for the poor, disabled and elderly, slashing EPA programs that protect the earth and our health, promoting labor laws that disempower unions and exploit workers, etc., all to benefit the rich, including lowering their taxes…
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from Wikipedia:
“The Thinning is a 2016 science fiction thriller web film set in a dystopian future in which population control is enforced through a school aptitude test. Those who fail it are executed. Two high school students learn, to their horror, the tests are rigged. They face many challenges and eventually make the ultimate sacrifice. ”
Official Movie Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FbQoI8P7c4
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Diane,
Could you supply factual information – not allegation, suppositions or innuendos in support for this comment or is this continuation of Putin fear mongering – “Putin chose Trump to bring chaos and disorder to our government. The plan is working.”
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Jscheidell,
I don’t think we will know for certain about the connections between the Trump campaign and Putin until there is an independent prosecutor. The possible manipulation of our national election by a foreign power is more serious than Watergate.
Meanwhile I urge you to watch Fareed Zakaria’s brilliant program on CNN about “The Most Powerful Man in the World.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/13/politics/fareed-zakaria-putin-clinton-trump/
I just watched it. It will be repeated.
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I think this is a direct link to the documentary you mentioned, Diane:
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Thank you for the link. I couldn’t find it.
Before anyone gets sentimental about Putin they should see this.
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Then the statement you made just continues to be a false innuendo or allegation until as you indicate – we get an independent investigation – until then more care in declarations
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Jscheidell,
In this country, we can express views even without a special prosecutor. Nicholas Kristoff quoted a Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian, who said “there a smell of treason in the air.” Send your complaints to Kristof and Beschloss.
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Jscheidell:
This is for you: the quote about the “smell of treason” came from Douglas Brinkley.
‘There’s a Smell of Treason in the Air’
Nicholas Kristof
MARCH 23, 2017
The greatest political scandal in American history was not Aaron Burr’s shooting of Alexander Hamilton, and perhaps wasn’t even Watergate. Rather it may have been Richard Nixon’s secret efforts in 1968 to sabotage a U.S. diplomatic effort to end the Vietnam War.
Nixon’s initiative, long rumored but confirmed only a few months ago, was meant to improve his election chances that year. After Nixon won, the war dragged on and cost thousands of additional American and Vietnamese lives; it’s hard to see his behavior as anything but treason.
Now the F.B.I. confirms that we have had an investigation underway for eight months into whether another presidential campaign colluded with a foreign power so as to win an election. To me, that, too, would amount to treason.
I’ve been speaking to intelligence experts, Americans and foreigners alike, and they mostly (but not entirely) believe there was Trump-Russia cooperation of some kind. But this is uncertain; it’s prudent to note that James Clapper, the intelligence director under Barack Obama, said that as of January he had seen no evidence of collusion but that he favors an investigation to get to the bottom of it.
I’m also told (not by a Democrat!) that there’s a persuasive piece of intelligence on ties between Russia and a member of the Trump team that isn’t yet public.
The most likely scenario for collusion seems fuzzier and less transactional than many Democrats anticipate. A bit of conjecture:
The Russians for years had influence over Donald Trump because of their investments with him, and he was by nature inclined to admire Vladimir Putin as a strongman ruler. Meanwhile, Trump had in his orbit a number of people with Moscow ties, including Paul Manafort, who practically bleeds borscht.
Paul Manafort at a campaign event for Donald Trump last June. Damon Winter/The New York Times
The Associated Press reports that Manafort had secretly worked for a Russian billionaire close to Putin, signing a $10-million-a-year contract in 2006 to promote the interests of the Putin government. The arrangement lasted at least until 2009.
As The A.P. puts it, Manafort offered to “influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government.” (Manafort told The A.P. that his work was being falsely portrayed as nefarious.)
This is guesswork, but it might have seemed natural for Trump aides to try to milk Russian contacts for useful information about the Clinton campaign. Likewise, the Russians despised Hillary Clinton and would have been interested in milking American contacts for information about how best to damage her chances.
At some point, I suspect, members of the Trump team gained knowledge of Russian hacking into Clinton emails, which would explain why Trump friend Roger Stone tweeted things like “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel.”
This kind of soft collusion, evolving over the course of the campaign without a clear quid pro quo, might also explain why there weren’t greater efforts to hide the Trump team’s ties to Russia, or to camouflage its softening of the Republican Party platform position toward Moscow.
One crucial unknown: Did Russia try to funnel money into Trump’s campaign coffers? In European elections, Russia has regularly tried to influence results by providing secret funds. I’m sure the F.B.I. is looking into whether there were suspicious financial transfers.
The contacts with Russia are by Trump’s aides, and the challenge will be to connect any collusion to the president himself. The White House is already distancing itself from Manafort, claiming that he played only a “very limited role” in the campaign — even though he was Trump’s campaign chairman!
Many Democrats are, I think, too focused on Jeff Sessions and have too transactional a view of what may have unfolded. Treason isn’t necessarily spelled out as a quid pro quo, and it wasn’t when Nixon tried to sink the Vietnam peace initiative in 1968.
In the past, as when foreign funds made their way into Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, Republicans showed intense interest in foreign interference in the political process. So it’s sad to see some Republicans (I mean you, Devin Nunes!) trying to hijack today’s House investigation to make it about leaks.
Really? Our country was attacked by Russia, and you’re obsessed with leaks? Do you honestly think that the culprit in Watergate wasn’t Nixon but the famed leaker Deep Throat? Republicans should replace Nunes as head of the House Intelligence Committee; he can’t simultaneously be Trump’s advocate and his investigator.
The fundamental question now isn’t about Trump’s lies, or intelligence leaks, or inadvertent collection of Trump communications. Rather, the crucial question is as monumental as it is simple: Was there treason?
We don’t know yet what unfolded, and raw intelligence is often wrong. But the issue cries out for a careful, public and bipartisan investigation by an independent commission.
“There’s a smell of treason in the air,” Douglas Brinkley, the historian, told The Washington Post. He’s right, and we must dispel that stench.
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Jscheidell, I’ve heard two conflicting stories about the Affordable Care Act “imploding.” One is that it’s not, and the other is that it is. You assume that it IS–so I wonder if you would supply your sources and/or evidence for such implosion? And can’t Congress set about fixing it’s problems without repealing/ replacing?
On a related matter, this morning on one of the talk shows a Republican Congressman said something close to: Surely we can do something in a bi-partisan way to fix health care “for the American people.” But then I remembered: This is what B. Obama called for again and again and didn’t even get a hearing from Congress where the Republicans there, led by Mitch McConnell, kept moving the goal posts. “Bi-partisan?” . . . if it bit them in the face. In Republican double-speak: it really means: My way or the highway.
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Catherine,
Affordable Care Act: imploding and beyond repair | TheHill
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/301988-affordable-care-act-imploding-and-beyond-repair – 162k
Obamacare Implosion Exposes Web of Lies and Deceit …
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/11/01/obamacare_implosion_exposes_web_of_lies_and_deceit_132214.html – 21k
ObamaCare’s Meltdown Has Arrived – WSJ
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamacares-meltdown-has-arrived-1475709560 –
Affordable Care Act: “Imploding and Beyond Repair” | Accuracy.Org
http://www.accuracy.org/release/affordable-care-act-imploding-and-beyond-repair/ – 168k –
Obamacare’s implosion – Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/30/obamacares-implosion/ – 128k
Fact Check: Trump, Clinton’s Claims on Obamacare – Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-trump-clinton-claim-obamacare-512605 – 267k
Oct 23, 2016
And I hope you remember the Architect of Ocare when he was caught on tape admitting that Obamacare doesn’t provide subsidies for federally-run insurance exchanges; it’s now the topic of a new case before the Supreme Court. New video surfaced in which Gruber said that “the stupidity of the American voter” made it important for him and Democrats to hide Obamacare’s true costs from the public. “That was really, really critical for the thing to pass,” said Gruber. “But I’d rather have this law than not.” In other words, the ends—imposing Obamacare upon the public—justified the means.
In fairness to Gruber, American voters are not the only people whose intelligence he questions; elsewhere in the discussion, he describes New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.) as someone who “as far as I can tell, doesn’t understand economics” and calls a staffer for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine)—presumably William Pewen—an “idiot.”
I did find VOX article claiming it wouldn’t implode but there where a number of “ifs”
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Jscheidell,
The Republicans have control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. Why did they fail to repeal and replace Obamacare?
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Ah, more ignorant assumption about Lloyd from jscheidell who said, “You will still get your Social Security”.
I worked from 15 to 30 before I became a public school teacher. During those years, I paid into Social Security through the FICA tax deducted from my paycheck.
Then at 30, I became a public school teacher for the next thirty and paid nothing into SS. Instead, I paid a bit more than 8-percent of my gross earnings into the California State Teachers Retirement System, CALSTRS. CALSTRS is my main source of income. SS makes up 0.3 percent of my monthly income.
Teachers are punished for being teachers when it comes to SS.
Because I was a teacher, the SS that I paid into and earned for the first 15 years of my working years in the private sector was cut in half from what I was eligible to collect from what I earned when I paid into Fica, from a bit more than $600 a month to $350 (only because I was a public school teacher), but that’s not what I get. I get $150 because a month the rest of that $350 goes to pay for the Medicare I don’t use. My medical provider is the VA that I earned due to a combat related disability and the fact that I was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
In addition, to head off any more presumed ignorant allegations from jscheidell that haven’t been expressed yet about Lloyd. Regarding unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs and are looking. I never collected unemployment. Not once. But I have a former friend I’ve known since we were ten-years-old who voted for Trump, and this former friend collected unemployment benefits by manipulating the system for about 20 years out of the 45 years he was of working age, but now that he has his SS (half of his income), he criticizes the social safety net system he milked for at least half of his working life.
And lest I forget, when I retired from teaching, I was punished again for daring to go into education. I retired after 30 years in the classroom with a 40-percent pay cut and no medical. Most teacher retirement plans do not include medical benefits. If I had not been eligible for the VA medical due to my military service to the United States, I would have gone without medical until I was eligible for medicare but the quality of care would not have been the same as what the VA provides.
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Lloyd,
“presumed ignorant allegations” I referenced “you” as in the total pop of California who would receive SS would get their money , sorry it was not clarified for your edification – including your 350$ or whatever – go count your bullets – and I proffered some general info on what would happen if CALEXIT took place…not all teachers are punished for being teachers in my state with SS – although the state taxes are one of the highest in the nation –
thank you for your service btw – and I hope they straighten out the service of the VA ASP for all vets.
The state I worked in had decent benefits – started paying into SS at 14 and while in college during summers I was a truck driver for United movers. I was in education for 36 years and after that I was a consulting counselor for the same district for 2 more – I get SS and medicare and I have dental which I pay for… Both my wife and I still pay for our SS out of our pensions – California doesn’t sound healthy for teachers by your account –
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It looks like the Russians have had enough of corruption. They protested in Moscow and many other cities today, where “thousands gathered for the biggest demonstration in five years against President Vladimir V. Putin.”
Protesters Gather in 99 Cities Across Russia; Top Putin Critic Is Arrested
I wonder if Putin saw this coming.
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Putin will control this. It will not be reported in the media. He controls TV and the press. No one will know it happened unless they were there.
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jscheidell: Thanks for copying the first few google links from a search named aca implosion (“cherry-picking” has become an art form). And I’m sure it’s a really good idea to listen to everything Ben Carson says, because he’s a doctor.
But sarcasm aside, below is copied from VOX. I think also that if the insurance companies like it, it’s probably bad for the American people. And they certainly don’t want us to look at so many other countries who cover all of their people.
Also, the attitude towards the ACA is similar to what Betsy is trying to do to public education. First, heave-ho with the propaganda–make it look as bad as you can; then starve the beast, so to speak (instead of trying to make it better), so that those who need it will finally look to vouchers and privatization to save them and take what they can get from the masters of the universe, which is usually the shaft. With a few adjustments, you can apply that same plan to what the Orwellian “Freedom Caucus” and Ayn Rand libertarians are trying to do to the ACA. Also, like Russia and their flooding the net with bots, they know about filling up google searches with partisan articles.
All below From a VOX article:
HEADLINE: The CBO’s other bombshell: the Affordable Care Act isn’t imploding
Trump can “fix” Obamacare by doing nothing.
Updated by Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesiasmatt@vox.com Mar 14, 2017, 11:30am EDT
“Beyond its eye-popping findings on higher premiums and large-scale coverage loss, the Congressional Budget Office’s official score of the American Health Care Act also quietly demolishes the central publicly stated rationale for repealing the Affordable Care Act. The key passage is a somewhat jargon-full sentence on the second page of the report that says, ‘In CBO and JCT’s assessment, however, the nongroup market would probably be stable in most areas under either current law or the legislation.’
“Since this is a score of a proposed bill, the rest of the discussion naturally focuses on the ‘legislation’ side of the ledger. But the assessment that markets will stabilize under current law is critical. President Trump’s central argument for repeal and replace is that the Affordable Care Act is ‘imploding,’ so some kind of radical change is necessary.”
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/13/14914596/ahca-cbo-premiums-age
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Catherine,
Not cherry picking and I believe I did reference the VOX article – and you asked me for the references for my opinion and I supplied them.
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jscheidell Well, it looks like the references you cited are full of misinformation and speculative party propaganda. If we pass them on as if they were factual, then we are at least a little “bent,” uncritical, and probably guilty of the same.
And you DID reference a VOX article, but dismissed it as being full of “ifs.” How grand of you. Oh . . .I forgot–all speculation has contingencies by its very nature. You just killed your cred as far as I am concerned.
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Catherine,
other than VOX what non misinformation and speculative party propaganda can you reference, and it was grand of me was it not…tried in a very tiny part to be somewhat non-bias to please the libs – so will you be able to find non-leftist, factual, non-biased references that have no ” bent”
When you ask someone for their references and they are given why malign the sender who gives an opinion and yet you offer nothing but crud
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Gulen Schools in the mix – http://www.moonofalabama.org
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jscheidell The VOX article was drawn from the CBO report and cited the page number. I’m sorry to offend, but I let the truth get ahead of my social awareness.
n
Lest I confuse further, in this case, the truth was that I felt offended by your disingenuous reply–and by your earlier red-flag-waving–(paraphrasing your earlier note) just wait and see–you’ll get yours when the ACA implodes. So I ask for your citations because I have heard both arguments, and you send one-sided reports and dissemble about a contrary VOX report. I don’t like it either, but it’s true. I’d rather be in a position to trust your notes. And I wanted to know what was actually the case–and now I do, so thank you.
Unfortunately, the ill-named “freedom” caucus (more double-speak) is probably, as we speak, setting up the conditions to make sure the AFA gets the worst press they can muster, and in systematic fashion; and to do everything they can as legislators to cripple it. It’s the same plan for education or anything public, for that matter.
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URGENT: ONLINE PRIVACY COULD END TOMORROW!
Email I received today from Freepress Action Fund:
House Republicans are wasting no time bringing their attack on online privacy to the floor for a vote. It’s scheduled to be debated as early as tonight.
Call your Congressional Representative now and demand that broadband-privacy protections remain in place.
If the House passes S.J. Res. 34, it will take only Trump’s signature to eliminate FCC rules adopted last year that prohibit phone and cable companies from selling your private data (such as your web-browsing history) to advertisers and other companies without your consent.
We’re working with nearly a dozen other organizations to make phones ring off the hook on Capitol Hill this morning. And we know that calls work. If we can make enough noise on this, we can stop this bill in its tracks.
Why is Congress so eager to sell out our privacy? This is a bill that benefits only large corporations like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon — and at our expense. It’s inexcusable for Congress to exploit our personal information like this.
Pick up the phone now and tell your Congressman to protect your online privacy.
Thanks for all that you do—
From the Free Press Action Fund team
freepress.net
P.S. Congress is supposed to be working for you, not corporations like Comcast. Pick up the phone now and urge your Congressman to stand up for your online privacy.
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Diane:
Hello. I am public school teacher in a suburban high school north of Syracuse, NY. I was wondering if you would be interested in following a collection of teacher voices that I have begun to curate on medium.com? The publication, called Teaching in Trump’s America, was started only 20 days ago, and submissions have been encouraging. Like you, I want to change the conversation on education by highlighting authentic teacher voices. As I am new to activism, I would appreciate your support. Here is the link: https://medium.com/teaching-in-trumps-america .
I appreciate your time and consideration,
Laura Brown
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Laura Brown,
Great idea!
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js wrote, “I hope they straighten out the service of the VA ASP for all vets.”
I hope they don’t mess with the VA. Support the VA properly. Fund the VA properly. Do not privatize the VA. I’ve been in the VA medical system for a decade now and have no complaints. In fact, after all the years I was on private or public sector employer medical plans, the VA is way better than anything I had before. I still don’t have dental. I’ve never had dental.
As for “California doesn’t sound healthy for teachers by your account” – that is a mixed bag. The state is doing what it can to keep the CalSTRS retirement system healthy unlike many states when it comes to public sector retirement plans, but the public schools in California are in a war with the corporate/religious education industry just like every state.
For instance, there are 1,222 private sector, opaque, often fraudulent, inferior and abusive, for-profit, autocratic, corporate charter schools in California (hopefully) teaching their 572,762 students.
The traditional, community-based public schools have 10,453 schools in 1,025 school districts teaching 6,226,737 students.
If you check the stats on those abusive and often fraudulent corporate charters, they don’t serve special education students, have no continuation or alternative schools, and that was supposed to be the original purpose for charters – to work with the most challenging students.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/ceffingertipfacts.asp
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js, you blather on. The checks and balances the Founding Fathers wrote into the U.S. Constitution are not a guarantee. They must be fought for.
Let’s not forget the sage advice from two Founding Fathers.
The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson
These wise men knew that the United States and it’s U.S. Constitution would be challenged by tyrants like the Malignant Narcissist Donald Trump.
We the citizens can not take the U.S. Constitution for granted. There are times when the majority of the people must stand up and protest and sometimes fight to preserve the republic.
The checks and balances only work when the elected representatives are doing their job and if they aren’t doing their job, the people must vote them out.
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Lloyd
As I ‘blather” on thanks for your regurgitation of Franklin – and Jefferson – it reminds me why I am confounded that the Democrats don’t understand how they have been shellacked in elections – since 2010, 2014, 2012 the dems have lost 1000’s of seats in local, state, and federal positions and this also includes the fact that the dems only control 5 yes 5 states in gov and state seats and there are only 17 democrat govenors. The party is still going over the data trying to figure out how and why this has happened.
So the American public has done exactly what you called for: “We the citizens can not take the U.S. Constitution for granted. There are times when the majority of the people must stand up and protest and sometimes fight to preserve the republic.”
And your last paragraph really points to the reason those cks and balances have worked: “The checks and balances only work when the elected representatives are doing their job and if they aren’t doing their job, the people must vote them out.
The Dems were not doing what the public sent them there to do. That Tree has strong roots and it looks like we are refreshing the system or as tTrump alludes to – Cleaning the swamp which will help continue our clean air and environment!
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I am interested in this ,too.
I taught from 1963 to 2000, 20 of those years full-time, and it was in 1998 when I experienced the war on teachers that has changed the workplace for your generation.
My author’s page is http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
and you can message me at that page with your email, and I will give you mine.
meanwhile, read my resume, and my essay Bamboozle Them http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
and Magic Elixir, http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
My series there about education tells much of what has happened in the 15,880 school systems.
Then read this about the PLOY used to end the teacher’s voice; http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html which I wrote in 2004, and put on Perdaily when Apple took down the iWeb site which hosted my own blog. It says it all about what happened to teachers across America, but it began when NYC lost its most experienced teachers, and its most vocal educators. Before Gates got to push his crap, we needed to go.
After all, my practice was studied for 2 years (and filmed by Harvard & Pew as the NYC cohort for the GENUINE RESEARCH into LEARNING/PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.
My work was one of six, of the 20,000 studied, which was chosen to tour the nation, and I was the NYS Educator of Excellence. SOOOOO how would they mandate that I replace what worked with that curricula nonsense.
I had to go, but THE STORY is in the details of how my civil rights could be utterly ignored, because it is the way it was done.
If teachers have no voice today, IT STARTED THERE IN THE LARGEST SCHOOL SYSTEM INTHE NATION, which was decimated
Then, the ploy was used in the 2nd largest system, LAUSD… http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
LAUSD’S TREACHEROUS ROAD FROM REED TO VERGARA- IT’S NEVER BEEN ABOUT STUDENTS, JUST MONEY http://www.perdaily.com/2015/10/charting-a-course-away-from-charters.html
The stories of those of us who went before you, are out there, by the hundred at this blog hosted by Karen Horwitz http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
wo wrote White Chalk Crime
and by Betsy Combier who hosted NYC Rubber Room Reporter and ATR CONNECT: and wrote about The “Gotcha Squad” and the New York City Rubber Rooms
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
So, I would be interested in hearing what is afoot in your neck of the woods.
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Loyd
Glad you r wel taken care in VA
Not all vets are
They need The improvements to their
Locals
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How do you know how many vets are not well taken care of by the system?
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Lloyd
I googled it for you,,,Dept of Vet affairs also indicate problems abound…
Opioids, other drugs vanish from VA hospitals – Portland Press Herald
http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/20/opioids-other-drugs-vanish-from-va-hospitals/ – 247k – Cached – Similar pages
Press Releases – US Department of Veterans Affairs
https://www.va.gov/oig/publications/press-releases.asp – 92k – Cached – Similar pages
Press Releases from the OIG and Other Law Enforcement Agencies. … Man sentenced to 21 months in prison for defrauding the VA of more than $100,000 …. Whistleblower’s Claims of Extensive, Persistent Problems in Veterans Health Care …
Problems Plague National VA Suicide Hotline Leaving Veterans …
https://chriscollins.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/problems-plague-national-va-suicide-hotline-leaving-veterans-without – 71k – Cached – Similar pages
Problems Plague National VA Suicide Hotline Leaving Veterans Without Help. Feb 17, 2016. Press Release. Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) today …
FLOOR STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON ONGOING …
https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-statements?ID=BDC037CF-9444-4363-87BF-AC247B533454 – 40k – Cached – Similar pages
Apr 7, 2016 … Home · Press · Floor Statements … Veterans find that VA staff don’t know about the Choice Card or how to authorize care through it. … “Instead of working to solve the problems at the VA head-on, the same bureaucrats who …
Concerns over surgical equipment remain at Ann Arbor VA
http://www.freep.com/story/news/2016/05/20/ann-arbor-veterans-administration/84662604/ – 115k – Cached – Similar pages
May 20, 2016 … Six months after first reports, Ann Arbor VA still having issues with … the facility, acknowledged for the Free Press that problems remain and that …
Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Health_Administration_scandal_of_2014 – 249k – Cached – Similar pages
The Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 is a reported pattern of negligence in the …. According to a 2010 VA memo, the problem of “gaming strategies” inside the VA to meet performance goals dates to at least 2008. ….. On a February 15, 2015 airing of Meet the Press, McDonald claimed that 60 U.S. Department …
FRA | Press Reports VA Suicide Hotline Still Has Problems
http://action.fra.org/latest-news/veterans-issues-news/press-reports-va-suicide-hotline-still-has-problems/ – 34k – Cached – Similar pages
3 days ago … Press Reports VA Suicide Hotline Still Has Problems The March 20, 2017 USA Today news story reported the Department of Veterans Affairs …
VA bad press overshadows our good work: Column – USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/05/19/veterans-affairs-va-scandal-volunteers-shinseki-column/9294647/ – 159k – Cached – Similar pages
May 19, 2014 … VA bad press overshadows our good work: Column. Katherine … The VA’s image problems have often overshadowed the good things we do.
VA Hospitals Scandal – News & Videos – CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/feature/va-hospitals-scandal/ – 183k – Cached – Similar pages
VA managers lied about problems, inspector says. During the probe in the wake of the VA hospital wait times scandal, an inspector general says his office was …
Report: VA falls short on commitment to female vets’ health care – NY …
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/report-va-falls-short-commitment-female-vets-health-care-article-1.1839590 – – Cached – Similar pages
Jun 22, 2014 … According to an Associated Press review of VA internal documents, … Yet enduring problems with the delivery of care for women veterans are …
Im sure you can find numbers – which is a worthless point to worry over, but the fact that the vets in numerous areas not getting the care they deserve and it seems a systemic issue
And this under a number of admins! Clinton and Obama
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Lloyd listen to your news –
Numbers? CNN abc, nbc cbs chris matthews you name it at some point they have run stories and even the dems in the congress have noted it as well as Obama.
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What’s happening the VA is the same crap that is happening to the community-based, democratic, transparent, non-profit public schools.
“Scamming US Veterans: Efforts to Privatize Veterans Administration’s Health System”
“Evidence suggests that a privatized system would make worse any problems veterans now face in getting care — and it is likely to cost more money.”
http://billmoyers.com/story/scamming-us-veterans-efforts-to-privatize-veterans-administrations-health-system/
It’s a fact that public schools that were built and paid for with public money have and are still being given to corporations that end up owning that property as if they paid for it when they did not pay a dime.
How much do you think the VA infrastructure is worth that Trump wants to give away to some corporation – all those hospitals and clincs that were built with public money over the last century or more – Trillions?
The VA currently has 168 VA Medical Centers and 1,053 outpatient sites.
https://www.va.gov/health/aboutvha.asp
I’m a woodworker. That’s my hobby. Last summer even with all my safety gear I ended up with a wood chip embedded in my left eye and there was a risk of losing vision in that eye. I couldn’t drive. My vision was blurred and the pain was intense.
I had a friend drive me to the VA hospital in Palo Alto California where the VA has a 24/7 emergency medical center. That hospital is huge. I didn’t have to wait long before I was seen by two doctors who then referred me to a specialist, a doctor on call from Stanford’s University Hospital. It seems where possible, the VA has partnered with many private sector and university hospitals to make sure most vets get the care they need.
In any huge system there is going to be problems, but my experience with the VA is that the problems are few compared to the private sector.
“Medical Errors Are Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.”
“People don’t just die from heart attacks and bacteria, they die from system-wide failings and poorly coordinated care,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “It’s medical care gone awry.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/medical-errors-are-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us
Turning the nation’s vets over to that private sector, for profit system is not the solution to any problems the VA medical system has. Thanks to the VA’s innovative computer information system.
From the Bill Moyers piece (line above): “The key point was that the VA system effectively tracks patients through their various contacts with doctors and other health care professionals.”
“This reduces the likelihood that they will get unneeded treatment, but more importantly, ensures that the patient’s doctors are aware of the other treatments their patient is receiving. A major problem for patients seeing multiple doctors is that none of them may have full knowledge of the set of conditions afflicting the patient or the drugs they might be taking. By keeping a central system and having a general practitioner assigned to oversee the patient’s care, the VA system minimizes this source of mistakes. In fact, this model is so successful that most providers have tried to move in the same direction in recent years.”
The VA also has the power to negotiate drug costs with the private sector, for profit drug industry.
Bill Moyers reports, “Nonetheless, as Alicia Mundy points out in a recent Washington Monthly piece, the VA system still did quite well by most measures. An analysis done for the VA in 2010 found that nearly all the studies comparing the quality of VA care with its counterparts in the private and public sector found that the VA provided care that was as good or better than what was available in its competitors.”
I do not want my medical care turned over to a private sector medical care system that is similar to the often fraudulent and inferior corporate charter school industry.
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The Democratic Party shares the blame with the GOP for where the U.S. is today, but the share of that blame leans heavily toward the GOP that has been bought by billionaires like the KOCH brothers, the Walton family and Betsy DeVos, etc.
The GOP has been bought and paid for to a lesser degree than the Democratic Party has.
The proof is in the 2016 election’s results: The Alt-Right media machine and its flood of fake news, voter suppression tactics in some GOP-dominated states, interference from Putin’s Russia, etc.
The evidence includes the GOP’s refusal to vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nomination almost one year before the election.
The evidence includes the GOP doing all it could to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. Cooperation with negotiation and revisions might have resulted in a better ACA that was same as the plan that a Republican Presidential candidate from a previous election said he wanted to implement.
“Partisan divisiveness, bitter congressional fights, grassroots campaigns and political intrigue have been ubiquitous characteristics of healthcare reform efforts.”
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/news-analysis/a-brief-history-on-the-road-to-healthcare-reform-from-truman-to-obama.html%20
The U.S. is the only country on the planet with an Electoral College system that allows the loser of the popular vote to win. The Electoral College exists because of a compromise during the Revolution to keep the slave owning states in the fight.
And a plan similar to the ACA was pushed by the GOP in 1993.
“Republican Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island was the point man. The bill he introduced, Health Equity and Access Reform Today, (yes, that spells HEART) had a list of 20 co-sponsors that was a who’s who of Republican leadership. There was Minority Leader Bob Dole, R- Kan., Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and many others. There also were two Democratic co-sponsors.
Among other features, the Chafee bill included:
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2013/nov/15/ellen-qualls/aca-gop-health-care-plan-1993/
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Lloyd
If, as some of the commentators on the Moyers article pointed out – Moyers a demo and liberal I noted – but that doesn’t diminish the source or issue – privatizing is not the answer then what is? Why didn’t Obama or Clinton or McCain come up with solutions as choices? No answers just excuses.
Wow – BTW Chucky “the Clown” Schumer must have had a mental masturbation moment in a public restaurant when he found out a couple there – at Sette Mezzo return…
He was dining with friends when he encountered Joseph A. Califano Jr. — the former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter and domestic policy adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson — and his wife, Hilary, who were having a quiet dinner.
Onlookers said Schumer was incensed that Hilary — the daughter of William S. Paley, the founder and chairman of CBS — had voted for Trump, even though her husband, Joseph, is a well-known Democrat.
Do Dems eat their own?
And then we have and watch another SNL – ooh no, this was not on SNL but
Then we have Maxine “Maxipad” Waters of California calling half the nation not Patriots – I watched but was more taken not by her humor but by the James Brown wig – look the same
I think part of the Dems problems reside in some of the leaders …. You can complain about ours but we also do the same for yours….
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Republicans in Congress just voted to repeal FCC privacy regulations, so that our web browsing history can be sold without our permission, because corporate marketing and profits TRUMP people and our right to privacy.
https://www.freepress.net/press-release/107924/house-republicans-vote-destroy-fccs-online-privacy-protections
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I don’t know why a class action group doesn’t come forward to say that each of us is able to SELL our own information–if the companies want to use it to resell it, then fine.
But they shouldn’t be able to have it for free just because it’s available to them. Under that kind of thinking, if I leave my car in my driveway, and someone comes along and takes it–then it’s okay because it was available to them. NADA
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There are always negative examples for any large sector and/or organization. It’s easy to cherry pick and focus on one to make it look bad.
http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/slideshow/biggest-healthcare-frauds-2015-running-list
http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/slideshow/biggest-healthcare-frauds-2016-running-list
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/22/1-billion-alleged-medicare-fraud-money-laundering-scheme-leads-to-florida-arrests.html
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-charges-against-301-individuals-approximately-900
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/19/pf/medicare-fraud-doctors/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_pharmaceutical_settlements
Like the study the Bill Moyers piece referred to: it’s worse in the private medical sector. The VA cannot be judged in isolation. All medical programs, profit, non-profit, and public must be compared equally. Then we learn which one had the best results.
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Lloyd sorry for a late reply,
My My My, it is your ignorance and alt left liberal nonsense statement in the first place for which I concurred Your words -” In fact, I’d support the entire West Coast and Hawaii leaving the union and becoming a separate country. I’d even join the army of the West United States to fight for our freedom from this malignant narcissist and tyrant.”
I believe you pompously said this on the 24th…..thanks again for your humor…
Oh and by the way have you heard about the state Oregon and how they plan on stopping climate change – they are investigating how to stop COW FARTS – yes, the mighty liberals need some big plugs…I would the guess that dinosaurs and their flatulence caused one of the ice ages?
Another interesting liberal left – not in this country yet, but in Italy they are looking to provide women workers 3 days off for their monthly visitor – I’m sure this will be enjoined in the next Womens’ March…
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Jsneidel
This is the space Diane Ravitch has created to offer our teachers, our parents of Ameica’s children and our ordinary folks a place to examine what is happening, and to figure out is possible.
There are many ‘blogs’ to satisfy the needs of ideologies to spout their angst and attack those they label as “leftists’ liberals, neocons… and well… the kinds of name calling they once did in the school yard.
I have stayed away from commenting when you throw your insults and assaults, which you must think are ‘arguments’ but are actually taunts to start a ‘fight.’
I know this so I just don’t bother https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/opinion/sunday/why-we-believe-obvious-untruths.html
and this (forgive the language in the title,I did not write it). https://theawl.com/none-of-us-will-change-our-minds-about-trump-or-any-other-fucking-thing-d82b97366dd9#.amf4ifc9r
But, you see, I write at a news-site, where conversations and discussions are encouraged and disagreement can get hot, but where ‘ad hominem attacks get one THROWN OFF.
CALLING LLOYD IGNORANT, and labeling his beliefs as “‘alt-left nonsense” , and alleging that he is “pompous”, HAVE NO PLACE IN an ARGUMENT. But then, you offer no real information or facts in your arguments, just opinion and allegations, and negations of what people believe.
Your arguments are attacks and your behavior here, suggest a great deal about YOUR character, but that last statement about “women workers” DEFINE YOU and lay bear your intentions.
Lloyd Lofthouse, won’t have to join the army… he IS a former marine who has fought for his country, and a teacher who has worked to help our young citizens to think and use their minds. He is neither ignorant nor pompous. Ironically, those words DEFINE YOU, along with misogynist and… well… words that I am not at liberty to use here.
I marvel that Lloyd bothers to argue with you,, as he grasps that you’ve in a bubble of alternative ‘facts.’
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Since Nixon and Reagan, the right has moved so far to the right that they moved into an uncharted territory where no one is allowed to be free and all the news is based on endless lies.
There is no Alt-Left.
What it means to be a progressive hasn’t changed in decades.
But the right has moved so far right, they left the U.S. Constitution and democracy behind to embrace the fascism of an autocratic state ruled by billionaires and not by voters and their elected representatives.
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This “freedom caucus” are anarchists, and they will destroy the GOP.
This is what happens in an echo chamber, when no one tells the bully that he is wrong.
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jscheidell is so deep in the slop of the Alt Right’s lying, misinformation machine, that “it” is out of touch with reality.
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Schnitzel can’t help himself. Wait, is Schnitzel a he? Anyway, Schnitzel is trapped in the same alternative universe echo chamber that Trump lives in. All they hear is misleading news full of conspiracy theories (that never happened) and/or alternative facts (lies).
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Bullies that think and look the same flock together.
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Yes Susan,
Originally when I logged onto this group it was a great discussion place for topics that delved into thoughtful cogent dialogue on ed topics. But the discourse went into the political arena and the enmity spewed due to the loss of Hillary and the arrival Trump became the dominant theme – and if I remember correctly Diane even at one point considered whether to continue with the topic.
Lloyd has, as well as others, spent an inordinate amount of time referring to the dictionary for adjectives to designate what everyone in the liberal bubble here feel towards Trump – and reference to Psychology Today and the use of couch book on personality disorders abounds.
What is interesting is the fact that Lloyd was first with name calling – I added some oppositional thought out which didn’t fit the bubble’s, or his, view – the blow back was like a tsunami, I understand that – I get asked for sources – they are unacceptable for personal reasons – bias, alt- right, you name it, fault could be found, but when I ask for the sources they used – crickets, but that is OK – attacked for opposing views – yet unacceptable is the fake news of the media.
Now I have a new moniker from “Lofty”. Mr. Schnitzel, I think this is the 3rd or 4th one…thanks Lloyd, your humor abounds.
The left has, for reasons the voting public understood, gone too far left – maybe that’s why the right looks so far away. The Dems might think about getting back more to a central point of view.The Freedom boys – I think there are about 40 of them in the Repub party, need to adjust as well.
It is funny when one points out the funny things the left does, the humor is lost on them. They can’t laugh at themselves. I mean seriously, the state of Oregon is looking to legislate cow farts….they cause global warming?
Wait, here is another miscreant governor trying to kill short lived pollutants – cow farts – the California gov Jerry Brown – I think it was back in Sept or October. I understand the move to regulate aerosols and refrigerant gases, but cow farts – how anyone thinks Brown 0r Oregon has any method to cut the farts by 40% is pure comic book funnies – the libs in the west have been smoking some of that weed. I can see the governor out there with giant corks pugging the cows up and then measuring the air – it has to be an air tight situation, no? I wonder if the milk production went down – titillating thought –
The news is based on endless lies? There are polls out that indicate which news outlets the voters most watched and believed in the stories. CNN was at the bottom. One interesting item I remember was that voters felt that the media supported Hillary to get elected than Trump and they skewed the facts — and many didn’t believe “fact checkers”
A news site that throws off those who attack – – fear of free speech?
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Jscheidell,
I was busy all day in Texas and missed your last comment.
Your use of scatological language is out of bounds. If you do it again, you will be removed. I have allowed you to dissent as much as you wish, but the vituperation and rhetoric are offensive to me. Please don’t say “he did it first.” That first grade talk. I don’t care who did it first.
As for politics, I disagree completely with you. Liberals are not leftists, nor have they drifted too far to extremes. Hillary was criticized by many on this blog because she wasn’t as far left as Bernie.
As for Trump, you know what I think. First I think he is astonishingly ignorant. I don’t think he was capable of explaining either Obamacare or Trumpcare. All he could say was that one was bad and the other was good. He is ignorant about foreign affairs. He is a pathological liar (Ted Cruz’s words). His refusal to divest himself of conflicts of interest is shocking and unprecedented. His installation of Jared and Ivanka as his chief advisors on everything is pathetic.
I await the investigation of his ties to Putin. I will not be surprised if it turns out that Putin made him president.
Remember I was a sub-cabinet official in the George H.W. Bush administration. I am no wild-eyed leftist.
As a patriot, I am deeply offended that the man in the White House is unethical, immoral, crude, bigoted, greedy, insecure, hungry for praise, a braggart, and a bully. I am embarrassed for my country.
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Schnitzel said, “The news is based on endless lies?”
The alt-right, alternative hate-media machine manufactures endless lies, but the traditional media doesn’t come anywhere close.
Bias is not the same as outright manufactured lies.
And how has bias been measured in media studies? Often by the number of quotes. For instance, if a news piece has 5 quotes from alleged liberal sources and only 1 quote from an alleged conservative source, then that piece is considered biased.
If someone that is interviewed lies to the reporter and the reporter and/or editors don’t discover the lie because of time constraints, workload, and pressure from deadlines, that doesn’t mean the media lied. It means the source that was interviewed lied.
The reason I call ignorant, biased, racist fools names is because they earned the right to be called names when they called others names first. Anyone that throws out the liberal tag as an obvious insult based on a manufactured stereotype threw out the first ad hominem attack.
In the Marines, I was trained to kill, not to sit back and let someone like Schnitzel an obvious bully and troll walk all over others who have been labeled liberals and insulted by using the liberal term.
This much I think Schnitzel. My opinion is that he/she is an ignorant and biased fool and not worth spit. Schnitzel can call me all kinds of names and all that will do is strengthen my opinion of him/her.
Thousands of psychiatrists have come forward with their verdict that Trump is a malignant narcissist.
“A group called Citizen Therapists Against Trumpism has even been created – which has thousands of members and has published a manifesto warning of Trump’s alleged psychosis.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/psychologists-warn-president-displays-classic-9724221
And Trump’s 5 biographers would agree.
“There are five people who’ve gone deeper on The Donald than anyone else alive. We (Politico) brought them together for the definitive conversation about who he really is.”
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-campaign-biography-psychology-history-barrett-hurt-dantiono-blair-obrien-213835
Wayne Barret (his book was first published in 1992)
Wayne Barrett is an investigative reporter who’s written about New York for more than four decades and did the first major pieces on Donald Trump in the 1970s. A senior editor at the Village Voice until 2010, he’s also written for The Daily Beast, New York magazine, The Nation, and NY Daily News. His books include City for Sale, Rudy!: An Investigative Biography, and Grand Illusion, which collectively covered the Koch through the Giuliani administrations. The New York Times called him “the master of chronicling the underbelly of New York City politics.”
Michael D’Antonio (first published September 2015)
As part of a team of journalists from Newsday, MICHAEL D’ANTONIO won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting before going on to write many acclaimed books, including biographies of Milton S. Hershey and Sir Thomas Lipton. His book, Mortal Sins, was praised by Booklist as “a landmark work of recent history [which] remains gripping and affecting to the last word.” He has also written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and Sports Illustrated.
Harry Hurt III (first published in 1993)
Harry Hurt III is an award-winning journalist and the author of six nonfiction books. He is the author of Hurt Yourself. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
Gwenda Blair (first published March 2005)
Gwenda Blair is the author of the bestselling Almost Golden: Jessica Savitch And The Selling of TV News, and she has written for Politico, The New York Times, New York, Newsweek, the New York Daily News, Esquire, Smart Money, The Village Voice, Chicago Magazine, and other newspapers and magazines. She lives in Chicago and teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism
Timothy L. O’Brien (first published October 2005)
O’Brien is the publisher and a member of the editorial board at Bloomberg View, a commentary site about business, politics, and foreign affairs. O’Brien was a reporter for the New York Times before becoming its Sunday Business editor in 2006. O’Brien has written two nonfiction books
“Tump Nation” is notable for its controversial claim that celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump was worth no more than $250 million (USD). Trump, who claimed at the time to be a billionaire and who has built a reputation upon his wealth, filed suit against O’Brien and Warner Books on January 23, 2006. On July 15, 2009, the suit was dismissed by a New Jersey judge. Trump appealed, but the dismissal was upheld by an appeals court on September 7, 2011″
Then there is the ghostwriter who wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump. Trump did not write the book. He paid someone to write it for him.
“I was shocked,” Schwartz told me. “Trump didn’t fit any model of human being I’d ever met. He was obsessed with publicity, and he didn’t care what you wrote.” He went on, “Trump only takes two positions. Either you’re a scummy loser, liar, whatever, or you’re the greatest. I became the greatest. He wanted to be seen as a tough guy, and he loved being on the cover.” Schwartz wrote him back, saying, “Of all the people I’ve written about over the years, you are certainly the best sport.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
Sincerely,
Lofty
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Hey my lofty friend,
Love your explanation of bias. Of course Scheidell cannot grasp the different between land, bias, spin a,d out right malicious fabrication. …lies.
If you read what I wrote, you will know that You do not have to say anything as to why you said what you did.
We who know and respect you, saw through his rhetoric.
He is tremendously dad… I mean bigly.
and you should watch the video on this page http://worldofwonder.net/quoteunquote-keith-olberman-says-trump/
or this one:
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Mr Scheidell:
I wrote this before I saw Diane’s remarks to you.
Your reply to me, today, is a respectful argument (for you) , otherwise I would not spend a second replying. It is however, a revelation. I read what you wrote..several times ( to extract the real meaning and intention — which I will address later in this LONG reply).
I recognize your innate intelligence, and the sincere attempt to explain to me, who you do not know ( I will address this later, too) but for now I want to continue to address your comment about FREEDOM OF Speech.
IT IS IRONIC THAT YOU POINT out this idea that ‘freedom of speech’ allows attacks.
“Such accusations and attacks on the writer do nothing but obscure truth,” says Rob Kall, the publisher at my site. and he Rob often defends the editors when they ‘flag’ “AD HOMINEM” attacks and that argument is advanced..
Free speech comes with EXPECTATIONS FOR BEHAVIOR Mr Scheidell; ARGUMENT is the meat of real discussion. Argument is not the same as fighting, and ‘fighting words’ that argue a point are different then ‘Ad Hominum’ attacks (directed at the writer, and do not address the actual text).
This is why, REAL news forums have RULES for discussion, and why ‘hate speech’ is not given as a freedom.
Rules are needed today , especially today when rudeness and incivility is fast becoming the norm
That is why really fine news-sites which examine the lies,—rather than repeating the memes,— are so rare and wonderful and I am so proud to be a ‘trusted voice,” at such a site… meaning that what I write has been vetted and is true. Yes, I get many arguments when I post, but ALL are respectful of ME, even if they object passionately to a premise in my post. TRUTH is Rob’s stated ’mission’ for the site. (FYI, he interviewed Dr. Ravitch and many of the most distinguished writers and academic thinkers today.)
You, sir, are free to say anything you wish — obviously, you do, as you made a comment about my writing at a news , site, lumping my site in with ALL THE NEWS SITES, which are filled with lies, ergo sum…so is my site. That iswhat YOU do sir, to discredit waht people say!
It appears, to me, that you expect what you say to be accepted as reality, because it is so meaningful to you.
I get it! I am not ‘making fun’ of you. For sometime now, I have read your comments here, Mr. Scheidell, and I have noticed that you GO AFTER THE PERSON for daring to say what they do, rather than to ARGUE in such a way as to disprove what they say. You don’t offer facts as to why they are wrong, you attack them … for example: for being in a ”A liberal bubble?”
You, sir, have such a plethora of labels to characterize those who function in the real world, and quite a vocabulary of adjectives… “miscreant” governor?
For a lifetime, I read the words of children, trying to extract meaning from their convoluted sentences.
I searched for what they were trying to ‘get across’, and helped them to say it clearly. In my last tenure, where I met over a hundred 13 year old kids each year, for 8 years, I helped them to say what they wanted to say . I never told them their work was ‘bad’ or ‘incorrect.’ I also children to read… to really extract meaning from text.
As a result, no matter what grade, my students were at the top of all reading tests… I showed them how MEANING lies in the whole thing, and that is why reading something completely – even when it is LONG— offers true meaning!
I guess it worked, as I was nominated by them consistently for Whose Who Among America’s teachers, and they now find me on facebook and linked in, to say that I taught them more about writing than any teacher. I was in 1998, the NY State “Educator of Excellence”.
SO, let me explain how I READ what YOU wrote!
For me, YOUR MEANING lay in the totality of of your comment —the whole things— not just the points you tried to make! YOUR REAL feelings are embedded in the whole TEXT… and your text to me, speaks clearly of what you see as a “tsunami of ’blow-back’!!!
Today’s ‘explanation of WHY you say what you do, shows not merely your incredible resentment, but, forgive me, offers a look at your own personal blindness, which I now realize, Diane NAILED!
YOU SAY; “It is funny when one points out the funny things the left does, THE HUMOR IS LOST ON THEM!”
Maybe, what you “point out”, isDEVOID OF HUMOR… to the READER, because it is NOT ACTUALLY AMUSING — but FILLED WITH IRONY— to those who ACTUALLY GET IT, , YOU KNOW—> recognize the meaning of your text.
You want ME to agree with YOU that what you label as ’liberal’ news is Fake.
Hey, sir, I am a student of the media since college, and I write about the media.
Not ALL news is Fake. REALITY EXISTS! I live in no bubble an although you know not a whit about me, you accused me of that!!!!!
Have your read Dan Rather lately?I wrote about his exceptional journalism recently. I met Dan, personally, for an interview, in another lifetime,, and I was taken by his recent analysis of Mr. Trump. Am I to discount him, too? Is he a ‘neocon’, a ‘liberal’ an ‘insider’, too?
I get at least a hundred news feeds daily, and have not watched tv news in years, except to get the weather, or local events.
I have accumulated a huge file on Mr. Trump filled with ACCURATE information about him, including a record of his actual lies, and his incredible dishonesty and incompetence. I have videos where his bizzare behavior nails who he is. BUT, notice I do not call him that “Miscreant, pervert President.” I leave vituperative to YOU!
I do not need a dictionary to discover ADJECTIVES to describe him, nor do I read ‘Psychology Today. I have the reports of distinguished psychiatrists and academic experts from across the world, who have published frightening analysis of his behavior.
I am astonished at what you believe to be true, and frightened that smart people can be taken in by utter falsehoods, and that it is THEY or point to those of us who have the real facts as the ones who are deceived. I feel sorry for all of those who do not realize who sits on the throne, a man who denies what is happening to our earth:
http://enenews.com/report-hundreds-of-millions-of-pacific-salmon-missing-presumed-dead-govt-issues-emergency-order-along-us-west-coast-japan-suffering-historic-collapse-fish-starving-to-death-all-forms-of
and is doing this https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/opinion/president-trump-risks-the-planet.html?emc=edit_th_20170329&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50637717
which is cutting jobs in the energy sector, so that China is getting the benefit.
and it scares me what is happening in the middle east now that this incompetent reality show host lets a man like Bannon tell him what to do, or a son-in-law, or Steve Miller, who, if you know him, would scare you too! We are being drawn into war, while folks like you point to Obama:
http://portside.org/2017-03-28/congress-missing-action-trump-escalates-war-syria-amid-russia-probe
and it makes me ill that while cutting meals on wheels, and funding for the arts and the EPA, is doing this https://thinkprogress.org/spicer-trump-feels-great-mar-a-lago-trips-7f8ba2297807
and do you really know him?
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/520821/how-the-apprentice-manufactured-trump/?utm_source=nl-video-series-atlantic-interviews-032917
Finally, I do not know Mr Lofthouse personally, but have been reading his comments here, and ALL his writing at his blogs. I consider myself a pretty smart old woman, but I recognize brilliance when it sits before me. I marveled for some time at RESTRAINT in replying to you.
His ‘blow-back” is his ironic manner in dealing with the incredible things that you declare as valid. FYI, If Mr. Lofthouse— who does not need a dictionary in order to describe reality — is ‘playing with your name, it comes after being subjected to your rants, and he is being kind!
Maybe, Mr Scheidell, this is NOT a place where your ‘style’ of rhetoric demands the attention and respect of the readers, many of whom are brilliant academics, accustomed to parsing texts and seeking truth.
Or, perhaps your world-view — that perspective that thrives in your own mind — seems out of touch with what appears before their eyes BECAUSE they read widely and are quite capable of knowing facts from the tsunami of lies that is drowning our citizens, and has caught you in a whirlpool.
One last thing… I took time out of a very busy day to answer you, because I recognized that you took time to write to me… even if it did not accomplish what you expected… a rational explanation.
Don’t be angry with me, if I remain uninterested in anything more you have to say.
I sincerely believe you are wasting your time here, unless your only purpose is to annoy, anger or upset people who are trying to figure out how to deal with what they know is only TOO REAL! You are just not prepared for disagreement of the kind you get at a site where very educated, people read.
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In case you missed this lovely lady in the Obama administration:
Evelyn Farkas. She went on MSNBC. She was in the Obama administration. What this woman did was unwittingly out the entire Obama administration’s surveillance of the Trump transition team, Trump campaign. She went on TV and basically admitted it and explained how she was behind it, how she was involved in it.
She admits that the Obama administration was in fact surveilling.
And even as they update the news, the New York Times — this is an interesting point — the New York, remember that January 20th story, where they talked, they had wiretaps and intercepts. This is where Evelyn Farkas comes into the picture. In any update they do, they never refer to that story, and that story used “wiretaps,” the words in the headline, used “intercepts,” it made it clear that they had all kinds of intelligence people leaking to them that there was really something going on here.
Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama administration official an Obama Pentagon Russian expert who told Mika Brzezinski on PMSNBC a couple of days ago that the Regime, the Obama Regime was indeed collecting intelligence on the Trump campaign!
And, she said, that they were unmasking the Trump people and leaking that info to the media. And that her only concern was that the administration and the Hill, Capitol Hill, would not be able to protect the sources and methods from the Trump people if the Trump people found out.
She may have outed herself as the source for all of this that ran on CNN and in the New York Times, and it’s clear why she did it.
She is a tunnel visioned ideologue.
She also said that’s why it was so important for the intelligence to be widely distributed, as it was. She left the Obama administration, left the Pentagon, in September 2015. Contrary to it meaning that she was out of the loop, it means that this intel collection against the Trump campaign had to be going on from the very earliest days.
And Evelyn Farkas said that the intelligence collection, the surveillance against the Trump campaign, since she left in September of 2015, and she knew about it and it had to be going on in the summer of 2015, which in and of itself is quite amazing, because scarcely anyone gave Trump a chance of getting the nomination.
Trump’s June 16th announcement, that’s where everybody was laughing themselves silly thinking he couldn’t possibly be serious. This is back in the day when people thought Trump was going to implode and crater with every public appearance. And that went on for the two months. They were not taking Trump seriously. That’s what’s amazing about this.
Now, Comey told us the Russians only wanted to see Hillary get defeated. That’s another thing. How’s that intel? But last week at that vaunted Capitol Hill hearing for the House Intelligence Committee, Comey admitted, the Russians wanted Hillary defeated. So why weren’t the Russians colluding with Jeb – everybody back then thought Jeb was going to be the nominee. Why would anybody be colluding with Trump?
And there was some attention being paid to Ted Cruz. But not Trump.
So why weren’t the Russians trying to engineer some deal with Jeb? Why wasn’t there any intel on that? Why weren’t the Russians trying to strike a deal with Cruz? Why isn’t there any intel on that? Why haven’t there been any leaks about that? ‘Cause nobody in 2015 thought that it was going to be the Trumpster.
It says March 2nd. It was on MSNBC Morning Joe, and they were discussing allegations that the Obama administration was conducting surveillance of the Trump transition team.
FARKAS: “I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill. It was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people: “Get as much information as you can. Get as much intelligence as you can before President Obama leaves the administration.” Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior people who left.
So it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy that the Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about the Trump staff dealing with Russians, that they would try to compromise those the sources and methods. Meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence.
So I became very worried because not enough was coming out into the open, and I knew that there was more. We have very good intelligence on Russia. So then I had talked to some of my former colleagues and I knew that they were trying to also help get information to the Hill. That’s why you have the leaking.”
She admits it
She admitted that they were collecting it, preserving it, and then urging people to get it out. In her words, get it to the Hill, meaning Democrats on the Hill, before the Obama administration left.
We were told there wasn’t any intelligence being gathered?
The New York Times with all those stories talking about intercepts and the one on January 20th talking about wiretaps, where were they getting all of this? Somebody had to be leaking it to them and somebody had to be collecting it. And this woman, Evelyn Farkas, just copped to it.
“So it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy that the Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about the Trump staff dealing with Russians, that they would try to compromise those the sources and methods. Meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence.
FARKAS: “So I became very worried because not enough was coming out into the open, and I knew that there was more. We have very good intelligence on Russia. So then I had talked to some of my former colleagues and I knew that they were trying to also help get information to the Hill. That’s why you have the leaking.”
This woman needs to be brought up and testify right now.
Do you know that this story, Evelyn Farkas appearance on MSNBC, has yet to be reported on CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post. It remains an unknown to Americans who only get their news from the Drive-By Media.
Evelyn Farkas did appear on MSNBC on March 2nd or March 3rd. It is March 28th this started going public. So three weeks, nobody, obviously nobody watches MSNBC. If it took three weeks for this statement of hers to go public? I mean, if anybody of any substance watches MSNBC, they would have spotted that the moment they heard it! Heck, the MSNBC people didn’t even realize what they had heard.
She needs to be subpoenaed to come and testify under oath to Congress – was the surveillance direct or incidental? The unmasking – illegal process unless warrant issued.
Could this be the “wire tapping” Trump tweeted?
U-Tube
Former Obama DoD Deputy Evelyn Farkas Slips Up – Reveals Spying And Leaking Trump Intel
iBankCoin.com
NEW
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Trump Tower has many occupants who belong to the Russian mafia. They were all being surveilled by the FBI because of connection to criminal activity.
Did you forget that Trump won? I doubt the legitimacy of his election but apparently he does too
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/4/1640085/-The-Trump-wiretap-story-is-more-important-that-you-realize?detail=email&link_id=2&can_id=47594dc7343bb19ac4f7621b50e457f8&source=email-angry-trump-removes-priebus-and-bannon-from-air-force-one-manifest&email_referrer=angry-trump-removes-priebus-and-bannon-from-air-force-one-manifest&email_subject=angry-trump-removes-priebus-and-bannon-from-air-force-one-manifestThe Trump wiretap story is more important than we realize
Here’s the thing: not even the President of the United States can do that. You need a court order to tap phones!!
Soon If Trump’s phone was tapped (and I’m quite sure it was, because Trump said so, and he never lies), then there must have been a court order. And that court order must have been based on a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. And it happened in October.
So, what reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing might have been raised in October, regarding Trump? You guessed it: Russian hacking of the election. Which in turn implies that the warrant was issued by the super-secret FISA court (well-known to almost never refuse a warrant request.)
And that means that the either the FBI, or the CIA, or the NSA, knows a lot about what was really going on.
And Trump knows they know, because he was briefed.
As for me I COULDN’T CARE LESS ABOUT WHO LEAKED WHAT.?
What you do not seem to grasp, Mr. Schiedell is that we who live in the real world are watching a lunatic end everything that made american great. Did you read what Diane said about him>
Every word is true.
http://portside.org/2016-12-31/never-normalize-why-trump’s-presidency-illegitimate-and-how-respond
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My guess is that the lines of Russian mobsters were tapped. Associates of Trump called them and they were picked up. Trump was not tapped, but the Russian mafia was, and several of them live in Trump Tower.
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Did you hear about Flynn?
Michael Flynn seeks immunity, says he has a ‘story to tell’
http://nypost.com/2017/03/30/mike-flynn-offers-to-testify-in-exchange-for-immunity-report/
If what he knows might end Trump, I wonder if Flynn has a team of former Delta Force bodyguards and is in hiding.
There is no reason to ask for immunity unless he was part of a conspiracy that might lead to allegations of treason by Trump and his people.
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Rachel Maddow had a clip of Flynn saying that Clinton’s associates had asked for immunity from prosecution. He said, the only reason to ask for immunity is if you are guilty.
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Trump threw him under the bus, and he ain’t gonna take it.
But while we are watching theTrump circus… HB610 is moving through Congress, and our war in Iraq is killing citizens…and..well this distraction is just hiding the slime!
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I know we’ve had our complaints about the Obama administration’s education policies, but it is truly amazing that in less than three months the current “administration” has had more scandals than the previous 8 years combined (which were none). What will we be saying in less than three months from now?
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I shudder to think. Here is part of a comment I posted at GBrandenbrugh’s site on his post about DESTROYING PUBLIC EDUCATION https://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/destroying-public-education/
“The institution of public schools that DeVos is busy dismantling is the only road to INCOME EQUALITY for ALL our citizens.
THIS IS WAR on our children, who are not children for long. They are the future citizens of our middle class.
In case you have not seen this astonishing (short) video which shows what Americans THINK is the middle class share of our GNP, and what it really is, do watch
If you think our middle class has been pushed over the poverty line already, then think what will happens if only those who can afford a good education… the scions of the wealthy — get to go to schools that teach the skills needed to do work in this century!
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AND HERE IS A BIT OF HUMOR or satire about the 24/7 noise from the corporate news media:
http://www.markfiore.com/january-march-2017/2017/3/29/head-exploding-news
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I have no doubts that Flynn is guilty, but will he take immunity and then take the blame so his master can stay in the White House and avoid impeachment for treason?
The Malignant Narcissist in the White House is a tricky one.
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Trump has a long history of nailing people to the road and letting trucks and cars roll over them repeatedly while he walks away without a scratch every time.
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Diane
Teacher from NC and our school is trying to get Science and SS (me) to get trained on a PBL Problem Based Learning and IPA Instructional Planning Approach from McCarthey Dressman Educational Foundation. Smells like more Reformist drivel. Have you heard about it them? Thanks
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Sherri,
Never heard of them. I looked at the website. I am not familiar with any of the names and the source of funding is not on the website. Seems to be tech-heavy.
I am not a fan of outsourcing instruction.
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Like every other “approach,” problem based learning is a tool that an experienced teacher can use to good effect. However, it is only one tool, and doesn’t always work. It depends on the class, the material, etc., just like nearly every other teaching technique. When it becomes a be-all-and-end-all fad (as it is for some people at the community college where I teach), it isn’t useful.
People who teach theories and not students shouldn’t be teaching.
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Jane, the best way to avoid fads in the classroom is to train and support teachers so they know how to use all the methods and tools available, and then trust the professionals to do their job. That’s what Finland does. Fads in teaching almost always come from the top down and are forced on teachers even against their will. This was my repeated experience during the 30 years I taught in a California public school district, and the teachers I worked with almost all protested and sometimes refused to focus only on these fads. I know because I was one of those protestors and rebels.
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Last night on ABC’s “Designated Survivor,” the admirable President, Tom Kirkman, spelled out a laundry list of priorities for his first hundred days, and — though brief — it included “public education.” I note this because it’s the first time in I don’t know how long that public ed (and “teacher unions”) hasn’t been panned in popular culture (“House of Cards” Season 1 comes immediately to mind, but there have been many other examples).
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If I’m reading this correctly, Connecticut is abandoning the use of test scores in teacher evaluations. (Am I reading this correctly?)
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If you haven’t read this yet from The New York Review of Books, I think you will enjoy it. Well written.
No One to Blame but Trump by Elizebeth Drew
Here’s Drew’s last sentence – “On the Senate floor the other day, a cluster of Republicans jocularly made a betting pool on the way in which they think Trump will be forced to leave office.”
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/04/05/no-one-to-blame-but-trump/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Hitlers%20rise&utm_content=NYR%20Hitlers%20rise+CID_7c2cd9b0f99bcfec5430c34a62a045a0&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=No%20One%20to%20Blame%20But%20Trump
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Thanks for sharing, Lloyd. There has been no more astute observer of American politics for the past 40+ years than Elizabeth Drew. Looking forward to reading.
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Nine year old handcuffed at New Orleans charter school: http://thelensnola.org/2017/04/06/state-education-officials-are-investigating-an-incident-in-which-a-9-year-old-was-handcuffed-at-school/
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LeBron James Foundation behind new public school in Akron, OH: http://www.ohio.com/news/local/lebron-james-family-foundation-proposes-a-new-public-school-for-akron-1.759816
Since this is all that has been made public, not sure what it really means.
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Secretary Duncan weighs in: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-chicago-schools-graduation-careers-perspec-0411-20170410-story.html
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You might not believe the Common Sense in this proposed bill in Ohio! I’m happy to report that one of the two co-sponsors is, while not my rep, close to my district.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2017/04/13/bill-would-kill-common-core-state-tests/100415010/
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Thanks for posting this, it is good news and hope it passes and shows other states this can be done.
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From his request for a military parade with tanks and missiles at his inauguration, to his authorization of “my military” to bomb Syria, to his asking England to let him ride in Queen Elizabeth’s golden carriage when he visits London, it’s very apparent that Trump truly thinks he is a king.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/ego-centric-trump-apparently-insisting-riding-queens-gold-carriage-during-buckingham
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Here are two posts about someone readers of the blog may want to know more about – Dana Woldow was a San Francisco parent who got involved in the school her sons attended when she became concerned about the food fed to children in school. The reporter Bettina Elias Seigel, whose story on lunch shaming was published in the NYT last week, was inspired by Woldow, who was her friend. Unfortunately, Woldow has died of ovarian cancer. Donations in her memory made be made to Meals on Wheels.
http://www.thelunchtray.com/memoriam-dana-woldow/
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dana-Woldow-SF-crusader-for-healthy-school-11074993.php
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The complicated Democratic party politics of education reform in California. Gavin Newsom may be a rare legitimate friend of public education. Hopefully the Ed Reform Dems will be unmasked.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/pro-charter-democrats-branded-as-trump-devos-allies-237257
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Diane, Do you know if there is anything out there, or in the works, which contests the propaganda being spread about the wonders of school choice, charters and vouchers in the PBS show, “School, Inc.”? It’s narrated by the late Andrew Coulson. He was a senior fellow at the CATO Institute, the libertarian think tank which was founded by Charles Koch, but as far as I could tell, that bias was not mentioned. It’s really infuriating to watch! I searched but I could not find anything countering it.
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No, I don’t think there will be a response until after the show appears. And it won’t get the airtime that Coulson’s show gets.
We have to pressure PBS for equal time, or at least to show the Stone Lantern film “Backpack Full of Cash,” which shows the horrors of corporate reform.
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Great points. I watched the airing of the second part of the three part propaganda series on TV tonight and it repeatedly made me want to scream!
With the loss of federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it should not be surprising if billionaires like Koch, DeVos, Gates, et al. capitalize on the opportunity to buy air time for influence peddling and broadcasting of alt-truths about their pet policies, passed off as if they are facts and news –like John Arnold.
I just found all three full episodes for free online here –although I’m not sure if they are full and free to viewers who do not have memberships to PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/show/school-inc/episodes/
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Chester Finn is not happy with the Maryland legislature on ESSA: https://edexcellence.net/articles/a-painful-essa-setback-in-maryland?utm_source=Fordham+Updates&utm_campaign=3ffc434a78-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d9e8246adf-3ffc434a78-71494877&mc_cid=3ffc434a78&mc_eid=50947fba94
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Five New Orleans schools survive charter takeover…for now: http://thelensnola.org/2017/04/19/exceed-withdraws-applications-to-charter-remaining-traditional-schools-in-new-orleans/
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Chester Finn suggests teacher salaries will increase 50% if tenure were to be eliminated (aka: what world is he living in?): https://edexcellence.net/articles/will-teacher-tenure-die
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He lives in an autocratic corporate world.
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How is National Teacher of the Year chosen? This year’s recipient is the first ever from a charter school…and Ed Reform media is trying to take advantage of that: https://www.the74million.org/article/74-interview-first-teacher-of-the-year-from-a-charter-school-talks-social-justice-trauma-and-accountability
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Secretary DeVos supports all schools “that put students first.” http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/04/i_support_all_schools_that_put.html#comments
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Ohio gives back $22 million of Fed’s $71 million for charter schools. Opponents of Sen. Sherrod Brown trying to figure out how to blame him (sarcasm alert): http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/04/ohio_will_forego_22m_o.html#incart_river_home
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The Hill gives forum for Collaborative for Student Success: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/education/329825-lets-see-whos-serious-about-improving-schools
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Common Core done? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/24/betsy-devos-common-core-no-longer-issue-schools/
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You may have seen Gerry Brooks’ vids on youtube before, but if you haven’t, I leave these two here for your edification (wrong time of year for the first one, but still worth the watch):
and
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Kasich effort to require teachers to job shadow is shot down: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/25/ohio-teachers-no-job-shadows/100883594/
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U.S. News and World Report believes Michelle Rhee is the best thing to ever happen for DC education: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-04-20/michelle-rhee-set-national-example-of-education-reform-in-washington-dc
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New Mexico paper publishes anti-Reform opinion piece: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/my-view-reform-movement-failing-students/article_f147ea42-ed32-5d98-8399-098e8e45afa0.html
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DeVos wanted Hanna Skandera as her second in command, but the nomination failed because of Skandera’s endorsement of the Common Core.
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If only she had donated $600 million to GOP causes and candidates, maybe that could have been overlooked.
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Diane, I heard you speak at TCU and I wish every teacher and politician and parent could hear you. Check out this report from the Dallas Morning News about how the important work of teachers writing curriculum was changed to something almost unrecognizable from the original draft. And, of course, the teachers are working for free because they love kids and learning.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/04/18/texas-undermining-language-arts-education
Thanks! Keep fighting the important fight!
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What ONE question would you ask a candidate who is running for your local school board?
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Where do you stand on the issue of charters? If they are for charters, they are on their way to supporting vouchers.
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Thanks, Diane! I will submit this question (as well as others I receive from your readers) to my local school board candidates. She’s not in my district, but if I could, I would vote for Lynn Davenport for Richardson ISD here in Texas. She has many years of classroom experience, has been following you for years, and is opposed to charters and the privatization movement. If you have time, please check her out and shout her out! I’ve encouraged her to reach out to you as well. Here is a link to her facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LD4RISD/
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Correction: I made an assumption and am unsure about her “years of classroom experience” as I stated below, but she IS a strong advocate for public schools.
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Please tell her to contact Carol Burris at Network for Public Education to ask about getting NPE endorsement
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Are you willing to defend your District’s students and employees against the existential threat of charter schools?
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Don’t bail on public schools, Hispanic leader urges Christians
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/5229913-155/dont-bail-on-public-schools-hispanic
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I just posted this.. https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/NO-FULL-DISCLOSURE-IN-KP-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Corporations_Employees_Failure_Media-Fake-News-170429-932.html#comment656427 go there and read the links in my second comment.
See how the plot and the ploy words in LA!
It’s the same all over and the media is in the pockets of the very people who are destroying our system o public education.
Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf
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Diane,
Thanks again for your input. Charters are a big deal here in our small Texas town.
Here are the questions I ultimately decided to send my local school board candidates:
In my desire to be an informed voter, I have a few questions for you regarding the positions you would take on the following issues if elected to the Board of Trustees:
1) What are your thoughts on charter schools?
2) What are your thoughts on the growing Opt-Out Movement in regard to high-stakes, standardized state tests?
3) Our schools serve a very high number of students of color as well as many students from a low socioeconomic background. What measures would you propose the district increase, decrease, discard, or adopt to help close the “achievement” and/or opportunity gap?
4) As a trustee, what is the most radical idea you would seriously entertain if it would improve our district?
5) If you had the opportunity to advise and influence Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos regarding public education, what would you say?
Thank you in advance for your reply. I wish you well in the upcoming election.
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Those are great questions but I would word one of them differently
Our schools serve a very high number of students of color as well as many students from a low socioeconomic background. What measures would you propose the district increase, decrease, discard, or adopt to help close the “achievement” and/or opportunity gap?
The achievement gap is an artifact of testing; privatizers harp on it because every district has gaps between haves and have-nots. They have no solutions but they hammer public schools with it.
Say instead, we have many children with high needs. What measures will you propose to help the schools help them?
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Hi Diane,
It’s AP exam time again. I’d like to call your attention to an article I just wrote in my blog at http://eduissues.com/2017/04/29/its-ap-exscam-time-again/ which details the flaws in this system and the cheating that ensues.
Thank you,
David Kristofferson, Ph.D.
htttp://eduissues.com
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Philadelphia principal largely cleared in standardized test cheating scandal: http://www.philly.com/philly/education/Another-Philly-principal-fired-for-cheating-ordered-reinstated-by-courts.html
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Anyone collecting feedback on the latest round of NYS tests?
Many concerns about Day 2 of math including very different versions of the tests and questions that represent the pre-updated standards rather than the revised standards…
Although these issues pale in comparison to the daily craziness emanating from D.C., it seems these smaller concerns should still be addressed and not ignored…
Oy
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Good news from Texas-VAM is dead!
http://www.atpe.org/en/News/ATPE-Blog/2017/May-2017-(1)/Breaking-News-ATPE-Settles-Lawsuit-Over-State-s
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Chester Finn speaks on the Trump Administration’s first 100 days with Education. It must be nice to have all the answers (especially while being safely removed from the implications of everything you promote): https://edexcellence.net/articles/education-changes-in-trumps-first-100-days
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I don’t know whether to thank you for posting this or not. Reading it literally made me feel sick and unclean. It is truly amazing that a man like this who has “spent” his life in education policy can think this and spew this garbage. He makes me so angry.
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Understandable. He is as smug and cocksure as any Ed Reformer I read from…and that’s saying something.
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Rare article from The74 that acknowledges questionable issues with regards to standardized tests (while leaning, of course, in favor of expanding tests to more private schools): https://www.the74million.org/article/to-test-or-not-to-test-as-tax-credit-scholarships-expand-questions-about-accountability-and-outcomes
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And here’s a choice advocate who thinks sounds a little off message with regards to test scores: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-do-school-choice-critics-elevate-test-scores-over-choice/article/2622124
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184 schools closed in Puerto Rico?!: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/puerto-rico-close-184-public-schools-amid-crisis-47229712
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The fact that Boston Consulting Group is advising Puerto Rico on the restructuring is not reassuring in any way.
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Here is the essential lowdown on the Puerto Rico bankruptcy. It’s a territory, not a state, so it has no representation in Congress like a real state does. Even the District of Columbia has an “observer” in the House who can make news and shame Congress into not overly harming the District.
So Congress chose to manipulate the island territory, giving and taking away tax incentives, most recently for the pharmaceutical companies to build factories on the island “to employ people.” Then, when Congress took away the incentives (we couldn’t afford them), thousands lost work and the treasury of the territory was hollowed out. Puerto Ricans of working age fled and came here (as citizens) to work.
For Puerto Rico, everything that Congress demands is an unfunded mandate. And, when Congress plays games with their economy, they have no recourse, save to play along. I believe they ought to have passed statehood. States can borrow money by floating state bonds. And states have two Senators and at least one representative in Congress.
And remember, all of the federal edicts about schools fall hard on Puerto Rico, including NCLB and, now Betsy Amway’s desire to privatize schools and make them all corporate-run so that religion may be taught in schools and the corporations that run the schools for profit do not have to answer to the needs of the local community.
Whenever I see a Puerto Rican, I tell her or him that passing a statehood plebiscite would end all of the unfair manipulations by Congress. Each one I have spoken to is now pro-statehood.
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Mark,
Puerto Rico’s debt crisis stems in large part–not entirely–from hedge funds buying up PR bonds at a deep discount and hoping to redeem them in full, even if that impoverishes the island.
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Diane, the purchase of a bond and the trade of a bond in and of itself does not constitute a debt crisis. And who actually owns those bonds also do not.
There are laws with respect to bonds and, to the extent that Puerto rico was obligated, those obligations were extended under the laws—written by Congress, because Puerto rico has no representation in that body. So if a territory is able to write bonds, that territory must do so under the laws of Congress. They cannot, like a state, make their own rules or laws for debt and, of course, because they are not a state, they do not have to have a balanced budget.
Hedge funds may have bonds that were extended by IBM and they may have purchased them “at a discount.” But this does not, somehow, constitute a borrowing crisis for IBM.
Because of our local issues here in my town, I have taken the time to study how municipal, state and federal bonds work. 100% of the bonds that Puerto Rico sells must be backed by the federal government, because it is a territory that cannot claim bankruptcy protection like a state. It may do so only with the permission of Congress.
I know they are about to be really hammered here with the investors paid before Puerto Rico is allowed to fund roads, schools, etc. This is much the same thing that happened to Greece during their financial crisis, with investors protected at the expense of the citizens of Greece. It is sad, inhuman and corrupt.
But, in the case of the territory of Puerto Rico, the blame falls squarely on Congress, which has manipulated that territory in a particularly pernicious manner.
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About Puerto Rico’s debt:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/business/dealbook/puerto-rico-creditors-hedge-funds.amp.html
http://prospect.org/article/how-hedge-funds-are-pillaging-puerto-rico
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Every plebiscite held on the question of Puerto Rico’s status has come up the same: 49% status quo, 49% statehood, 2% independence. However, none of these votes has eve held any mandate on the United States to take any action.
I find it highly dubious that, with the current targeted deportations of Latinos (which looks more each day like ethnic cleansing), Congress would be willing to entertain statehood for Puerto Rico.
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Anyone as irritated by the Booking.com advertisement that shows a kindergarten teacher only concerned about her vacation while her whole class goes wild? I just go nuts everytime I see it–it purveys an unfair and untrue attitude about 99% of America’s teachers!!!!!
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I loved those school breaks BECAUSE that time off allowed me to catch up on correcting student work and doing grades that I couldn’t keep up with after working 60 – 100 hours a week without any extra time off. The two weeks off around the New Year and the week around Easter were great because I caught up with all my correcting, grading and had spare time to plan new units. The summer break was really about 4 weeks because I taught summer school to keep earning enough money to pay the bills that never stopped. In the district where I taught, we were only paid for the months we were teaching and if we didn’t teach during the summer break, we didn’t get paid.
After dinner, I corrected student assignments until my vision blurred and I had to go to bed for my 5 to 6 hours of average sleep before the alarm went off and I was on the road headed back to my classroom. I arrived an hour or more early to get ready for the lessons I was going to teach that day. And I left school an hour or more after the final bell with a box full of work to correct at home until my brain buzzed out.
In districts that paid 12 months a year, the teachers didn’t earn more money. The annual salary was divided into 12 checks instead of 10, and teachers are not paid overtime no matter how many hours they work at school and at home.
Then there is the money that teachers pay for school supplies. I spent hundreds and sometimes more than a thousand a year.
“On average, most spent nearly $500 last year, and one in 10 spent $1,000 or more. All told, a total of $1.6 billion in school supply costs is shifted from parents — or, increasingly, from cash-strapped districts — onto teachers themselves.”
http://time.com/money/4392319/teachers-buying-school-supplies/
$1.6 billion annually adds up. In one decade that is $16 billion classroom teachers spend for needed classroom supplies that benefit students.
Two decades = $32 billion
I taught for three decades (1975 – 2005) and during those thirty years, America’s community-based, democratic, transparent, non-profit, traditional public school teachers spent $48 billion on classroom supplies.
Before any critic points out that teachers can deduct that money from their income tax, a few facts are worth mentioning. The IRS allows teachers to deduct $500 annually for the supplies they buy for their classroom. That is not $500 off the tax they owe. That is $500 off the total earnings they pay taxes on. If a teacher paid 15-percent of their gross earnings in taxes, that lowered their total tax bill by $75. Wow!
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Is U.S. News & World Report going off message? https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-05-08/dont-put-efficiency-in-schools-ahead-of-other-education-goals
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DeVos to speak at Bethune today: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/10/527640267/devos-commencement-speech-draws-protests
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Trying to decipher Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli’s open letter: https://edexcellence.net/articles/letter-to-a-middle-aged-rick-hess
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RealClearEducation goes off message: http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-beats-us-2017-5/#7-preschool-is-high-quality-and-universal-7
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Peter Cunningham very much on message (he’s rising on my list of Ed Reformers to fear): http://educationpost.org/some-advice-for-young-education-reformers/
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