New York State Test Outrage

From Diane Ravitch:  Peter DeWitt Is Outraged by New York State Tests.

This is such a compelling letter–how can anyone claim that teachers are not dedicated?

I’m angry that I continue to have teachers step outside of the box…very brave teachers, and get pummeled because their children did not do well on state tests…that they were never supposed to do well on in the first place.

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Exactly.  The game has been exposed–kids were never supposed to pass these tests.  It was designed to fail them and their schools.

…just so some hedge fund manager, bankers, etc. could make a fast buck.

 

Forty Years of ALEC

They’re protesting ALEC in Chicago as I type…the tweets are keeping tabs on what is going on.  Badass Teachers Association is there.  Others have reported rough treatment by Chicago Police.

https://twitter.com/aaroncynic/status/365556308516151297/photo/1

Chicago Teachers Union

 

Loeb putting millions into charter schools

Sometimes I wish my hunches weren’t right, then I wouldn’t  have to see the workings of unethical toads like Daniel Loeb. (hat tip to Diane Ravitch).

Yep.  He’s a union buster.  And is putting millions towards destroying them and the public school system.

It’s clear to me with the new information that Loeb is a conservative who probably sees the movie industry as supporting liberals, and wants to destroy it.  He puts money into schools that seek to destroy the creative by micromanaging them,  so it’s not a big leap that he wants to destroy the creative in movies.   Just my guess.

Hedge funds create jobs?

Um – hmmm…

These are just my first thoughts after a quick read~~

The title of the piece is written in a condescending way.  ” Just STFU and do your movies.”   Insulting.

The author brings up the two flops that Loeb complained about–and as George had stated, Loeb picks two flops and ignores the profitable movies. You can’t possibly think that you’re going to have hit after hit? Seriously? If one never takes a chance and puts stuff out there that may or may not do well at the box office, according to the public’s whim, then we’ll have what happened to the music industry. With the exception of Adele and the former Amy Winehouse, I can’t think of any new music that is being played on the radio that is worth a crap.

From the article:

But to be clear, and with job-creating growth in mind, if hedge funds didn’t exist we’d have to invent them

Um.. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think hedge funds invested in the movie industry when it was created. Folks used this thing called “cash” to form the studios and then they had this great idea to make some films and then ask people to pay to see them. Hedge fund investors don’t invest until there is a business going already. And Hedge funds have been known to fail themselves.

I found a history of hedge funds in investopedia.

More from the article:

It’s not broadly understood this way, but hedge fund billionaire John Paulson not only saved jobs, but the billions he earned surely created new ones.

Seriously? Where are those jobs, because there are an awful lot of people out of work for all the jobs created by Hedge Funds. /snark

For taking these risks, hedge funds are not only masterful job creators, they’re also paradoxically masterful job savers for their intrepid style telling others where and where not to go with their capital.

I think I’m going to be sick.

Let me get this straight–they create jobs by telling investors not to invest in a company that might create 100 jobs because….Company A looks better than Company B because Company A is willing to go without a union shop and pay people minimum wage….am I correct…?

Or…how about this–if you follow the “short selling” link, you see this:

Selling short is the opposite of going long. That is, short sellers make money if the stock goes down in price.

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Read that again–short sellers make money if the stock goes down.  Now I’m wondering if Loeb is short selling….or if someone he knows is short selling Sony stock?  An associate?  A relative?  Since Loeb actually owns the stock, it doesn’t appear that he is short selling, since the broker technically owns the stock in a short sale.  Gah.  The whole thing sounds like a scam.

I used to invest in stock back in the day.  I took an investment class in college, and I did quite well investing in emerging telecommunications technology.    But this was at the beginning of the metamorphosis I was going through, and I began to question the whole scheme because of stuff like the above.  I knew that I could not invest in companies that did not use Fair Trade practices or those that ran sweat shops,  or companies like Monsanto, etc.  The decision came to stop investing after losing $4,000 in Lucent Technologies, which had “facts” and “figures” that made it appear to be a good investment.  Turns out that it was not. 

Telling Sony to spin off the entertainment portion of its business is not creating jobs. Sorry, try another line of defense of the doubletalk.

The history of pipeline spills

Really hard to deny the massive incidents when you see this.

You can’t even see Indiana from all the “incidents”.  Nor Illinois nor Ohio.  And Texas!  A state that size that is practically obliterated by the dots should be up in arms about this.    Some folks are wisening up, though–unfortunately, it’s after they become sick and unable to put up much of a fight.

I found this timeline on wikipedia.  It’s pretty hard to deny how dirty this business is and how careless they are.  Why should they care?  They have Congress bought off….

Not only that, here are nuclear and radiation accidents…

…makes you feel all warm and cozy, doesn’t it?  No?

Biotech food launches new website

Propaganda...gotta love it. Not.   Ninety-three percent of Americans want GMO labeling…why isn’t Congress doing what the American people want??  I mean, they keep stating “the American people want…” so they must be concerned with honoring our wishes….right?   /just a little sarcasm there, folks

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One really has to wonder if the folks at the FDA have too much time on their hands or have completely lost their minds when you read stories like this. 

I think we should all live in bubbles so there is no way that we could ever, ever, ever come in contact with salmonella or any other bad bug.  /snark

I want eggs by free range chickens, but I can’t always get them.    It makes sense that the nutrition is better with free range eggs–look at the variety in their diet.  Clearly, the FDA is infiltrated with Big Ag  corporations that want to squeeze out the organic farmer.

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Speaking of organic food–I am starting to see the fruits of my labor with the heirloom tomato, Cosmonaut Volkov.  I had one the other night with mayonnaise on it…and OMG, it was delicious!  It tasted like tomatoes used to taste like before the hybridized the taste out of them!  Oh, wow, it was just like they tasted back in the 60s.  I kid you not.

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More on the GMO war–of course, it always comes down to who is funding  it.   Gah, the “NO” list reads like a list of defense contractors.

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Organic food sales are increasing.  People are waking up to the poison in their food.  Good for them.

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Michael Pollan and Mark Hertsgaard on how sustainable farming practices can help with climate change.

PR Watch

…has a few links up:

ALEC anniversary being celebrated in Chicago.  A few folks thought they’d drop by….

MOVIE SCREENING: On Wednesday, August 7, at 6 p.m. Common Cause, the Center for Media and Democracy, and others will host a screening of the Bill Moyers documentary the “United States of ALEC” followed by a panel discussion. The screening will be held at the University Center, 525 South State Street in Chicago.

RALLY: At noon on Thursday, August 8, a coalition of groups, spearheaded by the Chicago Federation of Labor, is calling on people to gather outside the ALEC conference at the Palmer House Hotel, located at 17 East Monroe Street for a march and rally. You can tell them you are coming here.

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ALEC, Big Oil, and Big Ag…

 

ALEC and low wages…

 

Public Television pulls funding for documentary on the Kochs…because the Kochs are million dollar contributors.   Selling their soul doesn’t come cheap, you know…

 

 

Searching for Soul Food…

Michael Twitty has a link up to an article about the loss of soul food recipes…sadly, the history seems to be lost in Asheville.   I think the diet dictocrats that insisted margarine was “good” for us…have scared many people away from food with animal fat in it.  If you recall, the book Nourishing Traditions blows those myths away, along with the myth that raw milk is baaaad for you.  Just the opposite–the enzymes that are removed in the pasteurization process are beneficial.  Folks who have difficulty digesting milk products find that they have no difficulty with raw milk.  But if you want raw milk, you have to go about it in a clandestine way because the food nazis are out to make it illegal.

 

The Rhee Op-Ed you didn’t get to see…

John Merrow wrote an Op-Ed about Michelle Rhee that was rejected by three national newspapers…claiming that she was not national news.  Um-hmmm…

If you’re wondering why, please see previous blog on how much media has been controlled by Bill Gates and friends…