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Despite a Handshake and a Promise, Still NO Gates Foundation REPLY to #EducatingGatesRally Demands

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Highlighting Members' Needs's avatarTeachers' Letters to Bill Gates

Gates Divest from Corporate EdReform

Photo Courtesy of Alex Garland Photography, used with permission.

Dear Bill and Melinda,

In the summer of 2011 the seeds of this protest were planted when I read Bruce Levine’s book “Get Up, Stand Up:  Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite”.  Bruce Levine and I talked on the phone and exchanged emails that summer.  He spoke and wrote about the need to take our grassroots’ protest to the corporate elite vs the politicians — because that is where the real power seat is held.

Yet that July, I found myself taking the message to the politicians instead at the Save Our Schools March in DC, where I was fortunate to meet educator/activist/author Anthony Cody, Jonathan Kozol, Diane Ravitch, and so many of my activist friends.  During that meeting the plans for this protest were hatched.  We convened again in DC the following year.  It…

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Cooper Harris

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I was watching CNN’s coverage of the hearing for Justin Ross Harris, the Georgia father who left his child, Cooper, in a car during a hot Georgia day, claiming he “forgot” his child.

The hearing barely began and this guy’s actions revealed a depraved person.

As police officer Stoddard described Ross’ actions–he was more worried about how this death affected him, instead of how his poor child suffered. Same reaction in the courtroom that day–he sat emotionless as the police officer described Cooper’s condition upon arrival.  Nothing from this guy…until a witness began describing Justin’s reactions that day–which I’m leaning towards as staged–especially after learning that both Justin and his wife were doing internet searches on kids left in hot cars.

When I was watching Alex Hall testify, I was struck by his lack of emotion, also.  I mean, this is the son of your buddy, wouldn’t that make you cry that this poor child suffered and  is now dead?

I have not been for the death penalty for a long time, but this case is making me reexamine that–as they described poor Cooper with his eyes and mouth open and claw marks down his face as he evidently was suffering and unable to escape that oven–I want Justin and his wife to suffer as Cooper did.  I know I’m just being emotional right now, but God, I want them to be locked in a car with no ability to escape and suffer as he did.

I cannot even wrap my brain around such depravity.

Why not give the child up for adoption if you no longer wanted to parent him?  No, these narcissist sociopaths could not allow that…they wanted the life insurance money.

 

 

Hillary Warren…

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…er, I mean, Hillary Clinton has once again morphed like a chameleon to put on the false face of concern over the general American public….what an opportunist.  Pfft.

…cause, you know, she was poor once, too. /snarky to the extreme

My post on the case against Hillary as President here.  In the non-ad, McCain says that she “gets attention when she arrives”  Really? That’s a qualification for running the most powerful country in the world?  Because I could gain attention when I arrive, too, by tripping down the steps.  *snort*

And the comments about her flying all over the world?  What’s up with that??  Yeah, I’d take trips all over the world if I could charge it off to the American taxpayer.  (Not really, I have more ethics and scruples than that.)  But one has to wonder what exactly she was doing on those trips…because they never really quite get around to telling us that, do they?

And if Henry Kissinger gave me “very high marks”, I’d want a recount. He doesn’t hold humanity in high regards.

Finally, in the end, when President Obama is slobbering over her, I begin to wonder if this isn’t as much a political ad for Israel’s chosen candidate as it is America’s….

Hillary and Bill Clinton with Eli Broad, who wants to destroy public education.  Note pictures of Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee with the Broads.  Poor impoverished Hillary Clinton…she must have had to use the drapes, a la Gone with the Wind, to make her dress…../snarky, for sure

$31 million.  Pocket change, apparently, for Hillary Clinton (along with $200k speaking fees).

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren, among others, came out against the Keystone XL.  You won’t hear that from Hillary, as you see in my other posts on her–she is all for it.

The Third Way, Clinton Democrats….not to be confused with real Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton, Rose Law Firm, Bill Clinton, and Monsanto.  This, alone, should be reason enough not to vote her into office.

Finally, a recording of Hillary Clinton laughing about how a rapist she represented as a lawyer was not convicted…and she knew it and was laughing about the lie detector test that he passed.  Note also her description of someone on the “wrong side of the tracks”…clearly a poor/racial prejudice.

She got a rapist off with time served…two months.  For raping a 12 year old girl.  And bragged and laughed about it.

 

 

 

The ingenuity of organic farmers

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So…one of the members of the organic farmers group posted about an onslaught of bugs eating his plants–he petitioned for help.

The suggestions made me smile at their ingenuity:

–one suggested using grass clippings for the bugs to munch on so they would leave the good plants alone.

–adopt a lizard.

–put up birdhouses in the surrounding area (great idea!)

–spray a mixture of honey/sugar and lard/oil over the ground near the plants to attract wasps, hornets, and ants that are predators.

–another suggestion was leaving rotting vegetation around (straw, hay, grass clippings, wood chips) so the bugs would eat that instead, and if all else fails with an infestation…get out the dustbuster. Haha.

Finally, a member commented that one of the “pests” –-a pill bug — ate heavy metals….so there you go–nature taking care of the bad stuff.  Another mentioned that they are great soil builders, so you really want them around–you just need to provide something else, like the rotting vegetation, for them to munch on.  They prefer it over the new plants.

Just thought I’d pass this along for anyone else wanting to get away from the toxic chemical solution–

The toxic waterways

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I had heard this report was out but hadn’t seen it until now–about our toxic waterways.  Indiana, unfortunately, heads the list for toxic load.  It’s worse than I first read about–the number now is 17 million pounds of toxins into our waterways.  43 million pounds released into the Ohio river, THE most toxic river.  Good Grief.

And Joe Donnelly, Dan Coats, and Jackie Walorski, paid by their bosses (in the form of campaign $$, and God knows what else), are fighting for the industries’ right to poison us.    Some of them are so bold to say they’re fighting for us and our families….seriously.  17 million pounds of toxins.  Whom is irresponsible, Mr. Coats?

NY Times has a page up on fines and violations…and how nobody takes responsibility.

The Sierra Club’s take on the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mis-Management, including a dog boiled alive by hot water discharge, and a coal industry lobbyist being appointed to…wait for it…the IDEM–for prosecuting the polluters.  If this wasn’t so serious, I would be laughing my arse off.

 

 

Teachers, the wage gap, and the nearly homeless

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Diane Ravitch has a blog up on one of the teachers involved in the Vergara case.  Ms. McLaughlin had replied to the “witch hunt” charges that she was a bad teacher…made by a student who also said there were five bad teachers and only one during her education–the one that wanted revenge apparently for being let go.

As I read the comments, the one by Chi-Town Res made me cry:

Yeah, and just wait until he hits retirement age and realizes that teachers with no union protections like me are exploited terribly. We are very low paid (and often hourly workers), don’t make enough money to get by on, let alone to save, have no pensions and are expected to live on about $900 per month from Social Security when we retire.

I could go live in a ghetto, since I will officially retire next month, because I can’t afford to continue living where I’ve been (renting) for the past 15 years, but I have no money to move. (Yes, homeownership was never an option for me.) Anyway, that’s the kind of income that even poor people in the ghettos can’t survive on in my area.

The reality is that I’m in arrears on my rent due to a further decline in my already low income and a high increase in my rent. I have applied to many places but I’ve been unable to find additional work. SS won’t actually start paying me until mid-September, my job put limits on our income and wouldn’t give me work for July, and I don’t qualify for unemployment compensation. I won’t get paid my measly wage again until the end of August. My landlord will not wait to be paid, and anyway I won’t get paid enough money then to cover back rent. I’ve been fighting becoming homeless for about three years now but, at this point, I have no more resources or anyone to turn to for help, and absolutely no one cares. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will lose everything I own and be put out on the street and homeless before the fall. The only thing that could save my life now would be winning the lottery, but that is an intolerable hope.

The truth is that I could never afford to really stop working either, but SS has a limit on the amount of income I can earn. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one fully appreciates the “I’m living on a fixed income” cries, because the elderly are not revered in our society. No wonder the suicide rate for seniors is high.

As problematic as unions can be, not valuing the protections that unions provide workers is extremely short sighted.

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Also noted in the comments was that one of the plaintiff’s lawyers was Ted Olson, who ended the vote recount and handed George W. Bush the presidency, against the American public’s wishes.  Blood is on his hands, as well, for the wars and the economic mess Bush left us in.

Be sure to click on the link for Diane’s original post on Ms. McLaughlin.  Really stunning to see how she is “witch-hunted” by those with their own agendas.  She seems to be an outstanding person with true caring about her students, as a good teacher needs to be.

From the link:

“Indeed, this whole Vergara trial was like something out of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” in China during the 1960′s. For those not acquainted with this, here’s primer: zealous students, under party leaders’ directions, would persecute their teachers. Kids would get their jollies as they put their teachers on a stage, put dunce caps on them, then screamed at them while forcing their teachers to bow their heads, kneel down, and confess their “crimes” and on and on…

These kids—appointed and empowered as “Red Guards” by Mao’s henchmen— would parade their former teachers through the streets…

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Diane has also put up a link to a short film clip on the red army of children that illustrates the terrible time.

(A side note~I got this weird message that Diane Ravitch’s site was “untrusted”.  Say what??  It’s on a wordpress platform…why would I get that message?  Is someone trying to interfere with the traffic to her site??)

 

Progress

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So…you all might recall I blogged about the vulnerability of the Irish to heavy metal poisoning due to a genetic factor…

…my other sister dropped a bombshell last week at the funeral dinner–she had her daughter tested because of health issues…and….drum roll please….she has the double gene responsible for the inability to detox heavy metals.

I knew it….but I couldn’t convince my siblings that because we were Irish, we were more susceptible.

They had a hard time believing that my stupid amalgams had made me so ill.  My sis was a dental hygienist in another life, so she was brainwashed into believing that stuff was perfectly safe.  She was exposed to it eight hours a day, five days a week.  I won’t go into her health issues, but there’s plenty to point towards mercury poisoning.

And yet, it’s still hard for her to wrap her brain around–because she just noticed the red spots on my arms–that have been there for over ten years–probably closer to fifteen years.  She thinks that’s a sign of allergies.  Yes and no.  Allergies are worse with mercury poisoning and many on the support group have some sort of skin issue like mine.

I explained to my sister (she lives out of state, so I don’t get to see her that often), that my red spots got much worse when I worked at the state mental hospital that was located near a cement plant that burns hazardous waste.  I found out a couple years ago that it was spewing mercury into the air.  This just clicked for me that my red spots got worse when I worked there, and then started to disappear when I moved out of town after losing my house.  The thing is–when I chelate, the red spots itch like crazy and become an angry red.  And when they do go away, there is a pink scar left on my forearm.

I’ve passed another milestone that indicates I am progressing, however slowly–my long time readers might recall I mentioned warts on my thumb and middle finger.  The warts on my thumb began to disappear a year or two into chelation.  The middle finger, however, was still there.  Until now.

It was getting itchy and red during chelation, but still remained until this week–where the body finally dealt with it and tada! I no longer have the wart.  Incredible how the body is such a miracle.  I knew that viruses cause warts, so I was waiting for the immune system to take care of it.  Doctors, of course, want to just remove the warts without thinking about why the wart is there and if there is something gone wrong with the immune system…?

So…yeah…a little progress, but a giant leap as far as I’m concerned.

And knowing that I was right all along about the Irish genetics is just wonderful.  Validated.

Now if they’ll only listen to me about Dr. Cutler’s protocol and start chelation before things get really bad…

…and following a grain free organic diet…but yeah, that’s probably not going to happen–lots of resistance, but I can hope, can’t I?

 

 

Local Tourist

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A few years ago, when there was terrible flooding in Nashville, the coverage by the major networks was nearly absent. You don’t suppose it had anything to do with Nashville being a progressive city in the South? Nah….they wouldn’t practically ignore flooding because of it goes against their owners’ worldview, would they…? /just a little snarky

Glenn Simmons's avatarLiving In The Spiral

20140627_203417[1]
With a few stops along the way, I have lived in three places in my life. All tourist towns. I grew up in and my home is Pensacola Florida. I lived for a few years during high school in Saratoga Springs, NY and for the past 16 years I’ve lived in Nashville TN. So I have always hoped to never be a tourist and still don’t. I’ve always been drawn to being a traveler but never a tourist.
20140627_202607[1]
Recently my wife and I went out to eat and decided to ride downtown just to see first hand the explosion of Nashville. We see the growth in other ways and my job reminds me often how many folks are moving to Nashville, but to see downtown was amazing. A friend is a pedi cab driver and he toured us around to places we’d heard of but hadn’t seen. The new Hatch…

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