One of our readers asserted that it was unfair to raise taxes on billionaires and alluded to the famous saying by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller. Only he put it this way:
First they came for the billionaires. Then they came for the millionaires. Then they came for those with $100,000 a year. Then they came for you. And private property was no longer permitted. That’s what socialists want. No private property for anyone. That used to be called slavery, to the state this time.
Thus, we must object to taxing the billionaires, because taxation inevitably leads to socialism! Never mind that taxation pays for the military, the police, highways, bridges, tunnels, parks, schools, medical and scientific research, and other public functions.
So…
This is what Pastor Niemöller actually wrote:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
The reader, a contrarian, is neither a socialist, nor a trade unionist, nor a Jew. He typically defends Trump and all his actions.
Our blog poet, SomeDAM Poet, responded with this poem:
First they came for Gates
First they came for Gates
And I did not speak out
About the taxing rates
Cuz Gates was just a lout
Then they came for those
Who have a hundred mill
And I did not oppose
Cuz they were simply swill
Then they came for those
Who have 100k
And I did not impose
No chance, no how, no way
Then they came for me
Who hasn’t got a cent
And I was glad, you see
Cuz jail means food and rent
My Favorite morning news summary is Fast Forward, written by Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe.
I skip the local sports report, but love her tips from the Old Farmers’ Almanac, and her commentaries on national politics.
I often quote her column. You can sign up here.
Peter Greene recognizes the RAND Institution’s adroit use of the Reformy vocabulary in its latest report.
Almost all your favorite jargon and buzzwords are found there, he says.
Check it out and see if they overlooked any of your favorite buzzwords.
RAND Corporation, with its vision to be “the world’s most trusted source for policy ideas and analysis.” regularly contributes to the total thinky tank output of material that wants to be viewed as “a report” or “research” or “a study” or “a paper,” but is more like an op-ed or blog post that has put on a tie and juiced up its vocabulary.
This week they cranked out a new one entitled “Reimagining the Workforce Development and Employment System for the 21st Century and Beyond.” Its scope is fuzzy and wide, like a wooly mammoth that has overindulged in pizza and beer, and while it doesn’t lay all the blame there, it does take some shots at K-12 education, and in doing so manages to tick off plenty of the boxes on the Reformster Talking Points Bingo Card.
Authors with no actual background in education? Check, check, and check. (For bonus points, two of the three are economists.)
Bloodless gobbledeegook? By the truckload. For instance, the authors note that during childhood “people make decisions about schooling and other aspects of human capital acquisition.” Yes, I often think back fondly to when I sat down with my children to discuss their human capital acquisition. Them was the days.
21st century skills? Yep. Employers are “struggling to find workers with 21st century skills that go beyond routine cognitive skills and stock academic knowledge to capture competencies in such areas as information synthesis, creativity, problem-solving, communication and teamwork.” Wait– those are 21st century skills? Really? Communication?? Because it makes me wonder how humanity survived all the previous centuries. On the other hand, I know feel like my colleagues, my college teacher program, and I were all forward-looking savants, given the fact that we were talking about all these things well before Y2K was a bug in a shortsighted programmer’s eye.
Schools haven’t changed in the last [fill in your favorite time frame here]? Yep. What the reportish thing calls “the current approach” is characterized as “a linear pipeline from kindergarten through 12th grade education to possibly college and then a job” and it hasn’t changed, despite “technological change, globalization, and important demographic changes.”
Half-baked ideas they read about somewhere? Sure. Hey, isn’t gamification a thing? Wouldn’t schools better if they did that?
Pitch for personalized learning that goes on forever? Yep. The need to keep training throughout “lifecourse” is necessary because employers need workers to acquire new skills, though not necessarily through any fancy college-type stuff. Quick micro-credentials (yes, check that box off, too) that you can shop for yourself online– that’s the ticket.
Peter concludes:
It’s a discouraging read, but since it advocates for vouchers and choice, it will be lapped up by Certain People. There really isn’t anything new here, but an outfit like RAND can put the old wine in fancy new skins. Well, maybe not wine. More like koolaid.
How about a really innovative idea? Like, for instance, starting babies in college, then moving them into kindergarten at puberty.
Jennifer Berkshire presents here a podcast in which she interviews Quinn Strassel, the Ann Arbor high school teacher who wrote the musical “Betsy DeVos: The Musical.”
The podcast includes both an interview and some of the songs.
The DeVos-funded Mackinac Center, funded by DeVos, did not like the musical!
Suffice it to say that DeVos has been a one-woman wrecking crew in Michigan who is now doing her best to dumb down the entire nation with her wacky, failed ideas about vouchers and charters.
I can’t wait until the show reaches Broadway or off-Broadway or off-off-Broadway.
Quinn, save a pair of tickets for me!
Teresa Hanafin writes “Fast Forward” for the Boston Globe, where this appeared. I love her writing.
Trump has no public events on his schedule today, probably clearing the decks so he and his toadies can figure out how to explain away a troubling revelation by The Washington Post: This summer, during communications with a foreign leader — one US official said it was a phone call — Trump made a promise to that foreign leader that was so disturbing that an official in the US intelligence community filed a formal whistleblower report with the community’s inspector general.
That inspector general, Michael Atkinson, concluded that the report was credible and Trump’s conversation was a matter of “urgent concern,” a level of threat that requires intelligence officials to notify Congress — specifically, the oversight committees — within seven days.
Atkinson turned the complaint over to his boss, the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, who read the details and then refused to turn them over to Congress — apparently deciding that breaking the law to protect Dear Leader was far more important than protecting the country.
Atkinson, the IG, is testifying this morning before the House Intelligence Committee in a classified session closed to the public.
This is hardly the first time that the largemouth bass in the Oval Office has endangered national security. As recently as last October, he was using an unsecured iPhone to chit-chat with Lord knows who, calls that the Chinese and Russians eavesdropped on, freaking out intelligence officials who kept telling Trump to please knock it off.
And you may recall when the blunderbuss told two top Russian officials in the Oval Office about a top-secret intelligence operation in Syria, compromising the Israeli spy involved. And CNN reported that US intelligence officials were so worried about Trump’s loose lips that they yanked a valuable, high-level US spy out of Moscow.
And just yesterday, he screwed up again, revealing that the replacement steel fence being erected at the Mexican border is wired with sensors to detect climbers. That prompted Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, acting head of the Army Corps, to basically tell Trump to zip it: “Sir, there could be some merit in not discussing that.”
Trump also claimed that the wall was so hot, making it impossible to climb, that you could “fry an egg” on it. He then went over and touched the wall, signing it with a Sharpie. Nothing went up in smoke.
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo is a true believer in corporate reform. She wants to fixlow test scores by opening charter schools and hiring TFA teachers to staff them and the public schools.
Governor Raimondo was previously an investment banker.
Bob Shepherd, expert teacher, curriculum writer, assessment developer, and author, has an offer for Governor Raimondo:
Dear Governor Raimondo: I can do TFA one better and supply teachers from among the Florida redneck community with only 3 hours’ training and no education whatsoever. Only $10,000 apiece finder’s fee. Call me. –Bob Shepherd, CEO of Bob’s Real Good Florida Schools
I bet he is willing to negotiate the finders’ fee.
Quinn Strassel, a drama teacher at Ann Arbor Community High School has written a music about Betsy DeVos, the arch-for of America’s public schools. The Michigan media took note.
Strassel recruited Diane Hill, his former Ypsilanti High School drama teacher, to take on the role of Betsy DeVos, while he played husband Dick DeVos and brother Erik Prince.
The cast also included some of Strassel’s former students and fellow school teachers and staff.
As the fictitious storyline in the play goes, DeVos makes an appearance at a Grand Rapids charter school, “Future Business Leaders of Tomorrow Academy,” and enlists the help of six students of color in putting on a musical. She promises to personally give them $200,000 to renovate the school theater if they do a good job.
As the musical progresses, things go wrong and DeVos upsets and frightens the children. Guns enter the picture, one student is worried a family member may be deported, and another student has his brains scrambled by “Neurocleanse,” a mockery of the real-life Neurocore, a DeVos-backed, brain-performance company.
Another student complains about his family falling victim to a “pyramid scheme” run by Amway Corp., a DeVos company.
My friend Jennifer Berkshire wrote to tell me about Quinn’s terrific show.
She wrote:
The teacher who wrote the musical is amazing – his name is Quinn Strassel and he teaches drama at Ann Arbor Community High School. The part of Betsy was played by his former theater teacher at Ypsilanti High School, Diane Hill. That acclaimed theater program no longer exists, by the way, a casualty of Michigan’s schools of choice policy that has devastated schools in working class communities like Ypsilanti.
Here’s a bit about him and the show.
The writer, director, and producer Quinn Strassel wrote:
I believe comedy can be a path to change.
As a teacher, I’ve watched as Betsy DeVos has led a movement to defund and dismantle public schools in Michigan. It has been heartbreaking and devastating to witness.
I can’t outspend Betsy but I’m fighting back with what I’ve got: comedy, music, love, support from my community, and years of experience teaching and directing theatre.
I spent this past summer writing “Betsy Devos! The Musical!”
The show is completely ridiculous (with songs like “Jesus Wants Me to be Rich” and “The Best Kind of Teacher is a Teacher with a Gun”). But I’m proud of what it’s become. I think it has substance and heart.
I would like to share this show with you and as many of your friends as you can bring along for the ride. I want us to laugh and to celebrate public schools. I want to win hearts and change lives. https://www.gofundme.com/f/staged-reading-for-betsy-devos-the-musical
Please watch the link to the show, help fund it, and reach out to Quinn Strassel about staging a production in your community.
Art and humor will save us! And this show has both.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s dog resigned.
https://link.newyorker.com/view/5be9de332ddf9c72dc2a1b9aapeei.12g7/5c26ca6e
Since that infamous event on November 8, 2016, when the U.S. government was taken over by the loony and cruel Rightwing, I have said that two things would help us through the next four years: Art and humor. They would enable us to see the world as it is and as it should be and to dream of a better future.
No one has been a more reliable source of humor than Randy Rainbow.
Watch this short video to learn more about him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 