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A Message from Robert Reich to Bernie Supporters

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2016 //
46

This notice came from Robert Reich at MoveOn.com:

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

Last week, as Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, he called on Bernie Sanders supporters to back his candidacy.1 It’s tempting to laugh, but it’s actually a smart strategy—and it could even win Trump the White House.

While Bernie supporters won’t move to Trump en masse, if enough Bernie voters just stay home, it’s enough to give Trump an edge—and the presidency.

Hillary Clinton, who made history on Thursday night, has embraced a number of Bernie’s policies that would make a big difference for millions of people—including a bold, new, affordable higher education proposal, which Bernie himself endorsed.2 But Clinton has about a third of Bernie supporters left to try to win over.3 And Bernie supporters have voted less frequently in the past than other 2016 voters.4 These voters could decide the election.

That’s why MoveOn has such an important role to play this election cycle.

As the biggest independent progressive group that supported Bernie Sanders, MoveOn is uniquely poised to help turn out those of his supporters who are most likely to stay home in November. Will you chip in $5 a month to help make sure progressive voters in swing states turn out to defeat Trump?

National polls conducted since Trump’s acceptance speech are downright terrifying: Trump has taken the lead in many of them.5 These polls and the election data show that—if the election were today—chances are that he would be our 45th president.6

Will you join me in supporting MoveOn’s all-out, highly strategic campaign to engage progressives in this election—and defeat Donald Trump? Your ongoing support will help make this campaign possible through Election Day.

Click here to chip in $5 a month.

Or, if you can’t make a monthly donation, click here.

Here’s what your donation will support:

Savvy social media to cut through lies and educate voters about the high stakes of this election—complete with rapid-response videos that will be seen and shared tens of millions of times and reach an audience roughly the size of a cable news program.

Door-to-door volunteer canvasses in 10 key states, using the proven model MoveOn tested recently in Ohio—because there is no better alternative than human connection as an antidote to hatred and fear.

MoveOn spokespeople and MoveOn members on TV—to help create a breakthrough, alternative narrative about what makes America truly great.

Will you help MoveOn ensure that every progressive voter in a swing state who’s considering staying home or voting third party this fall knows just how dangerous Donald Trump is by chipping in $5 a month right now?

Yes, I’ll chip in monthly to help stop Donald Trump.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

Sources:

1. “Full text: Donald Trump 2016 RNC draft speech transcript,” Politico, July 21, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4849?t=23&akid=167182.27327500.mM8rDh

2. “Hillary Clinton Embraces Ideas From Bernie Sanders’s College Tuition Plan,” The New York Times, July 6, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4911?t=25&akid=167182.27327500.mM8rDh

3. “Why Clinton Might Have A Tough Time Flipping The Sanders Holdouts,” FiveThirtyEight, July 25, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4850?t=27&akid=167182.27327500.mM8rDh

4. Ibid.

5. “2016 General Election: Trump vs. Clinton,” The Huffington Post, accessed July 30, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4738?t=29&akid=167182.27327500.mM8rDh

6. “Who will win the presidency?” FiveThirtyEight, accessed July 30, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4828?t=31&akid=167182.27327500.mM8rDh

Want to support MoveOn’s work? As the biggest independent progressive group that supported Bernie Sanders, MoveOn is uniquely poised to help turn out those of his supporters who are most likely to stay home in November. Can you chip in $5 a month to help us work from now through Election Day to make sure progressive voters turn out to defeat Donald Trump?

Yes, I’ll chip in monthly.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Categories Trump

The Day Donald Trump Was Principal-for-a-Day in a NYC Public School

By dianeravitch
August 12, 2016 //
24

Many have wondered whether Donald Trump has ever set foot in a public school. He has said during the campaign that he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES” charter schools. In that sense, he is allied with Peter Cunningham of Education Post, Campbell Brown of The 74, the billionaire Waltons, the billionaire Gates, the billionaire Eli Broad, and every Republican governor.

It is unknown whether he has ever visited a charter school.

But there is documentary proof that he did visit a New York City public school 19 years ago, when he participated in a program called “Principal for a Day,” sponsored by a civic group called PENCIL.

Trump visited PS 70, and his idea of generosity was to hold a lottery for 300 students in fifth grade, with only 15 winners, who would get free Nike sneakers at the Nike store in Trump Tower. Here is the contemporary account of his visit by the New York Times. The chess team was trying to raise money to go to an out-of-town tournament, and the fabulously wealthy Trump chipped in a measly $200.

When he learned later that many children were upset because they lost the lottery, he increased the number of free sneakers.

The New York Times reported:


“For his first act as Principal for a Day at Public School 70 in the Bronx, Donald J. Trump — the Trump of the high-rolling hotels and chandelier-encrusted casinos — gave a speech to an auditorium full of fifth graders.

Make the speech inspiring, he was asked, something to encourage a group of children whose universe is one of New York City’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods and whose school is so impoverished that it has been scratching and scrimping for enough money to take its championship chess team to the national competition in Tennessee this spring.

Mr. Trump glided to the microphone.

”First of all, who likes Nike sneakers?” he asked. All 300 fifth graders raised their hands. Mr. Trump leaned in to drop the bombshell. ”If everybody puts their name on a piece of paper right now, I will pick 15 people and I’ll take you to the new Nike store that I just opened at Trump Tower.”

The fifth graders erupted in frenzied excitement at the promise of a trip to what Mr. Trump described as the ”inner city called 57th and Fifth.” But a little while later, 11-year-old Andres Rodriguez had a question.

”Why,” asked Andres, whose father is dead and whose mother cannot work because of a bad leg, ”did you offer us sneakers if you could give us scholarships?”

It was a split second that split the distance wide open between the world of P.S. 70 and the celebrity constellation of Mr. Trump, who did not go to public school and whose children do not either.”

Categories Trump

The Washington Post Interviews Donald Trump

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2016 //
33

The best way to understand Donald Trump is to watch, listen, or read what he says. He says a lot, but very little is about policies or issues.

This interview in The Washington Post illuminates his thinking.

Categories Trump

Sheila Kennedy: Pence Shows His True Colors

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2016 //
29

Sheila Kennedy, professor of law at Indiana University, writes here about Mike Pence and his lapdog change of stripes since becoming Donald Trump’s veep candidate.

Pence drops his support for free trade and nuzzles Donald’s ear.

She writes:

Pence has always had close ties to ALEC and the Koch Brothers. Other positions he has taken since joining the Trump ticket, however, represent a dramatic change from previous postures. For example, Mr. Conspicuous Piety seems positively eager to support a twice-divorced, foul-mouthed, belligerent buffoon who models behaviors inconsistent with both the culture-war positions for which the Governor was previously known and the civility he actually practiced.

(Speaking of civility: For sheer chutzpah, its hard to top Pence’s recent criticism of Democrats for “name calling.” Psychiatrists have a word for that: projection.)

Categories ALEC, Indiana, Trump

Harold Meyerson: The Most Thoughtful Article You Will Read About the 2016 Election

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2016 //
47

Harold Meyerson is the editor of The American Prospect. He has written the most thoughtful article I have read about the election. He takes a long view, putting the election into a social and economic framework.

He calls the 2016 election “the post-middle-class election,” and ties its themes to the collapse of the middle class and the engorgement of the 1%. This situation created both an opening for Bernie Sanders but also for the rage of the white working-class, which responded to Trump’s white nationalist appeal.

He attended both conventions.

Here are his commentaries.

Democrats Night #1: The splits in the Sanders revolution; what happens to revolutions when they win some power and compromise; situating Bernie in the American socialist continuum: http://prospect.org/article/sighted-and-blinkered

Democrats Night #3: Mommy party vs. daddy party; what’s distinctive about an Obama speech – and presidency; Democrats find a way to attack Trump the autocrat: http://prospect.org/article/obama-confronts-trumps-shaky-grasp-democracy

Republicans Night #2: Cultural rage; GOP combats crime wave of 1988: http://prospect.org/article/trump-show-trapped-time

Republicans Night #4: Trump’s anti-democratic ethos; his debt to Roger Ailes: http://prospect.org/article/trumps-dystopia

Categories Democrats, Economy, Republicans, Sanders, Trump

Inside the Meandering Mind of Donald Trump

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2016 //
29

Here is a fascinating interview of Donald Trump by George Stephanopoulos. The Washington Post called it his “best/worst” interview. I think it shows him thinking out loud.

And if you read this article about Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, you will have a better understanding of Trump’s thinking about Russia and Ukraine. Manafort advised the anti-Western government and party in Ukraine. He also did big business deals with Russian oligarchs. This is a world that few of us are acquainted with.

Categories Accountability, Trump

Conservative Blogger Calls on Republican Leaders to Dump the Trump

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2016 //
57

Jennifer Rubin is the Washington Post’s designated conservative blogger. Her blog is called “Right Turn.”

She posted a scathing commentary yesterday that expressed her complete disgust with the GOP’s standard-bearer. Republican leaders ran for cover or went silent after Trump’s belittling of the Khan family, the Muslim parents who lost their son in combat in Iraq. His contemptuous comments sounded a lot like his outrageous statement during the campaign that John McCain was no hero, after serving years in a brutal prisoner-of-war camp, because he got caught. Trump, who never served in the military, said that heroes don’t get caught. Apparently, he also thinks that heroes don’t get killed in action saving others.

This is what Jennifer Rubin wrote about this vulgar, ignorant, narcissist and his enablers:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and vice-presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana (R) knew what they were getting into when they climbed aboard the Donald Trump bandwagon. They had watched him insult minorities, POWs, the disabled and women. They had seen for themselves how utterly ignorant he was about basic policy concepts. They knew he lied about big and small things (e.g., falsely saying he opposed the Iraq War, reneging on charity pledges until shamed by The Post). They knew he’d stiffed and swindled Trump U students. They never should have backed him; they were abetting a vile individual attaining the country’s most powerful office, for which he was patently unfit. Pence went a step further in agreeing to be his running mate, and now travels around the country cheerleading for Trump.

Now Trump demeans two Gold Star parents. When slammed, he does not apologize or retract the remarks. He insists he has read the Constitution but then claims Gold Star father Khizr Khan has “no right” to criticize him. In a pathetic statement trying to paper over his egregious remarks, he does not apologize to the Khans nor retract his insults. The world-class narcissist claims to be worthy of the same sympathy (I sacrificed too!) as the parents who lost their son. (As an aside, it would a spectacular instance of political karma if after smearing all Muslims and attacking their patriotism, Trump would see two patriotic Muslim parents hammer the final nails in his campaign coffin.)

What does Pence, father of Marine 2nd Lt. Michael J. Pence, do? He directs the press wanting comment to Trump. Really, that’s it? One wonders how 2nd Lt. Pence — and all the other Americans risking their lives — feel about that. Pence’s silence and continued presence on the ticket suggest he considers Trump within the bounds of normal political discourse. If Pence had a modicum of dignity or decency, he would tell the American people, “I made a terrible mistake. Mr Trump is so morally bankrupt and of such shabby character that I could not possibly serve with him.” Failing to do so, the same should be said of Pence.

In his interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump also revealed he did not know Russia had invaded Ukraine. (Putin’s “not gonna go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down.”) When George Stephanopoulos told him it already had, he repeated the Kremlin’s talking point that the people of Crimea wanted Russia to invade.

Here’s what happened after Khizr Khan’s Democratic convention speech.

The offices of Ryan and McConnell wouldn’t comment on Trump’s slur against Ghazala Khan or ludicrous claim he’s “sacrificed” just as the Khans have. Their spokesmen would only repeat the bosses’ prior remarks on Trump’s Muslim stances. That’s not the point. They know this but they are abdicating moral leadership because they cannot possibly justify their support of Trump. In their silence, they condone Trump and stand with him. They should be standing with the Khans. Do these congressional “leaders” actually have nothing to say about the cruel attack on two parents who now go to other military funerals to honor their son? Republicans’ refusal to un-endorse Trump puts their own character and judgment in doubt. It is fair to say that the Republicans who cheer him on — not Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who refused to — are signing their own political death warrants.

It’s not just cruelty toward the Khans — although this alone should be grounds for banishment from public life. Just this week Trump said he wanted to do violence to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and lied that he turned down a meeting with the Koch brothers (two real billionaires whose wealth and charitable generosity dwarf Trump’s and who have refused to back him). In fact, the Koch brothers should get brownie points for refusing to meet with Trump.

Trump continues to insist he’s been a business success and charitable marvel, but he won’t release his tax returns, strongly suggesting he is lying about both. The Koch brothers, “the owners of Koch Industries, one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, have kicked in an estimated $1.5 billion or so to an array of causes and institutions most liberals love: public television, medical research, higher education, environmental stewardship, criminal justice reform and the arts.” Where is the evidence Trump has done even a fraction of that? Where are the hospitals, the civic institutions, the science labs, the schools, the homeless shelters and soup kitchens he’s paid for? He either doesn’t have substantial sums to give or he’s a selfish cheapskate.

Trump’s penchant for lying (e.g., that he had a “relationship with Putin” which on Sunday he denied; that the NFL sent him a letter begging him to change the debate schedule), his abject lack of human empathy and his stunning ignorance now put his protectors, such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, and his endorsers, such as Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), in a tough spot entirely of their own making. Republicans who fell in line behind Trump cannot escape the moral stench he emits. He disrespects parents of a fallen warrior; they do as well with their silence. He attacks other Americans, lies habitually and embodies none of the qualities we expect of elected leaders; they demonstrate moral and political cowardice in refusing to condemn him.

It’s no longer sufficient for Republicans to rebuke Trump’s loony positions or foul statements. There are too many of both. The problem is not one of policy but of the nominee himself. Republicans must rebuke Trump himself and cease supporting him. Silence is consent. And consent is disqualifying for high office.

UPDATE: McConnell put out a statement that entirely ignored Trump and his reprehensible remarks directed at the Gold Star family.. “Captain Khan was an American hero, and like all Americans, I’m grateful for the sacrifices that selfless young men like Capt. Khan and their families have made in the war on terror,” McConnell said. “All Americans should value the patriotic service of the patriots who volunteer to selflessly defend us in the armed services.” It’s totally, embarrassingly insufficient.

Categories Trump

Trump Doesn’t Know that Russia Occupies Part of Ukraine

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2016 //
31

In an article about Republicans who were offended by Trump’s latest gaffe (criticizing the Khans), an even more astonishing bit of Trump ignorance popped up:

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who urged Republicans to walk away from Trump after the [Judge] Curiel episode, said the Republican nominee’s attack on the Khans is unprecedented.

“This is going to a place where we’ve never gone before, to push back against the families of the fallen. There used to be some things that were sacred in American politics — that you don’t do — like criticizing the parents of a fallen soldier, even if they criticize you,” Graham said. “If you’re going to be leader of the free world, you have to be able to accept criticism. Mr. Trump can’t.”

Mike Coffman, a veteran and Republican congressman from Colorado who has not endorsed his party’s nominee, said in a statement: “Having served in Iraq, I’m deeply offended when Donald Trump fails to honor the sacrifices of all of our brave soldiers who were lost in that war.”

A campaign spokeswoman for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is locked in a tight re-election battle and has only tepidly supported Trump, said Portman does not agree with the Republican nominee and called Khan a hero.

This was not the first time Trump has made controversial comments about the U.S. military.

Trump said that the nation’s armed forces are a “disaster” during a debate, in response to a question about military spending. He said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former prisoner of war, was not a war hero because he was captured. And he has been attacking retired Marine Gen. John Allen, who spoke at the Democratic convention, for failing to defeat the Islamic State.

Trump also drew criticism Sunday when he appeared to be unfamiliar with Russia’s actions regarding Ukraine and its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“He’s not going into Ukraine, okay,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week” of Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. “He’s not gonna go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down.”

Trump then appeared to contradict himself when George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week,” responded that “he’s already there, isn’t he?”

“Okay, well, he’s there in a certain way,” Mr. Trump replied.

Trump’s comments were notable following his urging of the Russian government to meddle in the presidential election by finding tens of thousands of Clinton’s emails. U.S. officials said there is strong evidence Russia was involved in a hack of emails and voice mails at the Democratic National Committee.

In a statement, Jake Sullivan, the chief policy adviser for Clinton’s campaign, said that “this is scary stuff.”

“What is he talking about?” Sullivan wrote. “Russia is already in Ukraine. Does he not know that? What else doesn’t he know?”

Categories Trump

Trump Slammed for Mocking Parents of Fallen Soldier, Ghazala Khan Responds to Trump

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2016 //
50

At the Democratic National Convention, the Muslim parents of a soldier who died in the Iraq War spoke about their son’s heroism and said that they are “patriotic Muslim Americans.” Khizr Khan waved a copy of the Constitution and asked whether Donald Trump had ever read it. He asked what had Trump ever sacrificed for his country.

Trump responded with a series of derisive comments about the Khans, suggesting that Hillary Clinton had written Khan’s remarks and wondering why his wife Ghazala was silent (she was interviewed on MSNBC the next night by Lawrence O’Donnell).

Republicans were embarrassed, and Democrats were outraged by his comments.

Ghazala Khan responded in the Washington Post to Trump’s mockery about her silence. Her article is eloquent and poignant. She couldn’t speak because she has difficulty speaking about the son she lost. She can barely manage to look at his photograph. Too much sadness, too much pain. Any mother who ever lost a child, as I did many years ago, can empathize with Mrs. Khan. Some pain is too deep to talk about. Trump can’t understand that.

When Trump was asked by George Stephanopoulos what he had sacrificed for his country, he said that he has created thousands of jobs. That was his sacrifice.

“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve done― I’ve had― I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”

“Those are sacrifices?” Stephanopoulos interjected.

“Oh sure, I think they’re sacrifices,” Trump said, going on to tout his work to help build the Vietnam War memorial in Manhattan and raising money for veterans’ charities.

Categories Trump

Susan Ochshorn: Hillary and “Family Values”

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2016 //
39

Susan Ochshorn is an advocate for early childhood education and a deep-blue progressive.

In this article, she explores how she reacts to Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

In her own decision-making, Ochshorn ordered a copy of Hillary’s book It Takes a Village. She liked what she read.

She writes:

The book is a love letter to America’s children. At Yale, Clinton had gotten permission to study child development, adding a year to her legal studies. She wondered about the kids she saw in New Haven, worrying about their journeys to adulthood. She reveled in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which transformed our attitudes about human ability and potential.

Clinton also weighed in on the nascent findings of neuroscience. Long before adverse childhood experiences entered the lexicon, and @acestoohigh became a Twitter handle, she understood the impact of toxic stress. “Some communities are so besieged by issues of survival that children’s needs get pushed aside,” she wrote. We get a glimpse of the young social justice warrior, side-by-side with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund.

Her framework is pure Urie Bronfenbrenner. A child psychologist, he emigrated from Russia in 1923, making his way to Ithaca, New York, and a distinguished career at Cornell. This scientist understood the need for interdependence; he knew that children, and their parents, don’t develop in isolation. First and foremost, he believed, every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her—the core of his elegant bio-ecological theory, which undergirds America’s bare-bones social policy, including Head Start, which he helped to design, community schools, and Promise Neighborhoods.

It Takes a Village is also personal. Clinton talks about the embarrassed silence that greeted her at her law firm when she became pregnant in 1979. She captures the transformation that Chelsea’s birth wrought, the quotidian details of early parenthood, including the horror she felt as her baby started foaming at the nose during a bungled breast-feeding session. She beautifully renders that sense of helplessness, and the aspirations for her infant, so deeply shared by all American parents.

I was captivated. But the interplay of my own nature and nurture complicated matters. In the New York primary, I voted for Sanders and split the delegates, my schizophrenia rearing its ugly head.

I’m a Brooklyn girl, an alumna of the high school that spawned Bernie Sanders. In the 1968 race between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, my father cast his vote for Dick Gregory, an African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party. I’m also the daughter of a second-wave feminist, a member of Women’s Strike for Peace, who clawed her way to a solid career in mid-life.

I’ve been tangled up in blue, of the progressive hue.

Clinton is the smartest, sanest, and most competent one in this horrifying political nightmare. The media coverage of her has been seriously gendered. Why has no one given her credit for venturing forth into the maelstrom of health care reform? And yes, I long to see the ultimate glass ceiling broken. Yet, as a public servant, Clinton has adopted policies, or supported those of her husband, that have been seriously at odds with my core values—and in some cases, her own. Like mass incarceration and welfare reform, each of which had a devastating impact on black women, children, and men.

Early this year, in a conversation with Alicia Garza, one of the founders of Black Lives Matters, New Yorker editor David Remnick summed up Clinton’s stance in a meeting she’d had with movement representatives. “You’re interested in changing hearts,” he recounted her saying, “I’m interested, as a politician, in changing laws.” Garza’s vote would go elsewhere. “We’re always in a dialectical relationship between changing culture, or changing hearts or changing policy,” she said.

Clinton needs to be nimble, to move among the different elements of the dialectic, her heart open, policy responsive, and ear to the ground on the seismic cultural changes of our time. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and their supporters have pushed her along, and they’ll continue to do so. So will the “mothers of the movement,” those of slain black men, who have been given pride of place at the Democratic convention. Not to mention Michelle Obama, who stole the show with her spirited validation of her husband’s former opponent.

The choice is between someone we hope will show her true self: Hillary Clinton–and someone whose true self is abhorrent to all progressive values.

Let Hillary be Hillary.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Clinton, Trump
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