Category Archives: communications/media

Brainless model stands up to Terry Richardson

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Well, this was heartening when I read it…a young woman is not taken in by Terry Richardson’s manipulation, bullying, and exploitation.

I admire her, as many young women are unsure of themselves, which Richardson exploits.  I can feel it in my bones that the young women are most likely the victims of prior molestation or products of a home life that devalued them.  It’s hard to think you have the right to set boundaries when your boundaries were violated by someone you trusted…whether that be in a sexual way or in violation of your sense of self–your own autonomy.

…and the question is:  how many women have to be allegedly assaulted by this guy before authorities nab him?

My former post here.

 

A personal experience: the blast in East Harlem NY

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Raginghorse blog has a personal story up on the blast yesterday in New York.  Understandably, the first concern is what happened and how to take care of the kids if something bad is going down.  (Think an online educator is going to do that…?/snark)

I think it illustrates the need to not taking anything for granted.  You never know what the new day will hold.  Living in the moment…

 

Fact-Checking Eva Moskowitz; Dangerous Bipartisan collusion

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Diane Ravitch has posted this on Eva Moskowitz’s loose version of the facts.

Moskowitz’s Success Academy 4 has almost none of the highest special needs students as compared to nearby Harlem public schools. In a school with nearly 500 students, Success Academy 4 has zero, or one, such students, while the average Harlem public school includes 14.1 percent such students. With little sense of irony or embarrassment, Moskowitz has attacked Bill de Blasio for preventing the school’s expansion inside PS 149. Her school’s expansion would have come at the cost of space for students with disabilities. The school has already lost “a fully equipped music room … A state-mandated SAVE room … A computer lab… Individual rooms for occupational and physical therapy … and the English Language Learners (ELL) classroom,” due to earlier Success Academy expansions in the same building.

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Moskowitz made a number of other claims during her Morning Joe appearance. She said “we are self-sustaining on the public dollar alone.” In fact, Success Academyspends $2,072 more per student than schools serving similar populations. This additional funding comes from donations by the very same hedge fund moguls who have donated over $400,000 to Governor Cuomo’s re-election campaign (charter supporters in the financial and real estate sector have contributed some $800,000 to Governor Cuomo’s campaign).

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Jan Resseger posts about the dangerous bipartisan conventional *cough* wisdom.

As early as 1989, President George H.W. Bush, responding to fears that the United States was becoming uncompetitive,  launched a movement based on standards, assessments, and accountability by convening an education summit of the nation’s governors, chaired by Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, to agree on national education goals. Through the 1990s states began to embrace test-based accountability. Then in 2001, when Congress—under President George W. Bush—reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, with a new name, “No Child Left Behind,” the federal government mandated test-and-punish.

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Once again, the Bushes and Clintons responsible for so much destruction and misery.

Today, DN hosted a debate between public schools and charters.  The car salesman, er I mean, charter school proponent, Steve Barr,of Green Dot, who was behind the fiasco of Los Angeles schools, Parent Revolution, and  Brian Jones , a public school teacher now pursuing a doctorate.

Barr did the usual charter proponent schtick:  he tried to once again pull the wool over the public’s eye and say that charter schools were public schools; he refused to answer direct questions (because he knew it would make charters look bad); and repeatedly stated he was a “progressive”.  Yeah, right.  Just like Bill Clinton is a progressive.  Wink, wink. Nod, nod.

He was pushing the “progressive” schtick a little too much in hopes that would make opponents back down, I guess, because he’s a “good guy”.  Pffft.  He also lied about charters NOT being about profit.  Thankfully, he got called on that….but some key points were not countered by Amy or Juan.  I was disappointed in that.

Finally, Reclaim Reform has a post up on Diane and the FUD, or Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt propaganda campaign to destroy public education.  This is one of the psychological techniques used in communications that turned my stomach and why I would never be in PR.  Fear, sex, anger, and love are the top communications techniques to persuade people….keep that in mind, folks, whenever you view any type of media: spoken word, radio, TV, internet, printed, etc.

Related to this, the local school administration said this on the radio: “A teacher can ask the student how many nickels equal a quarter…but if they go to a computer, it can be illustrated how many nickels equal a quarter, and then a dollar, and so on…” (may not be verbatim, but close).  What I heard from that is two things:  1) teachers are boring, so we have to have computer animation; and 2) another way to slip online/computer learning as a replacement of live, human beings.  I personally would have illustrated how many nickels equal a quarter by bringing out five nickels.  I would always use visual cues to help kids understand.  This is especially important for dyslexics, of which I am one.

And a question that keeps rolling around in my head is…why are these people called philanthropists?  Isn’t philanthropy giving money away, not expecting anything in return?  ‘Cause the Broads, Clintons, Bushes, Gates, and billionaires boys clubs absolutely expect to gain from their so-called philanthropy. Absolutely.  So I don’t see that this is philanthropy, but should be called “investment”…

 

Another model comes forward on Terry Richardson

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Another model has come forward on being allegedly sexually assaulted by sleazebag photographer Terry Richardson. My prior post on him here.

This report explains one of the manipulative techniques of Richardson–calling the girl a prude and telling her she needs to loosen up.   I’m glad to see a couple of models formerly photographed by Richardson are taking positive action against this predator.

And the question of the hour is…why do people, especially celebrities, who have a lot going for them, are intelligent and compassionate,  associate themselves with this manipulative exploitative creep?

He is a dark one.   He is beneath contempt.  Associating with him and promoting him is feeding the dark side, in my opinion. It’s saying that his behavior is acceptable…it’s okay.  And it’s not.

It’s a crazy experience to celebrate the female body as beautiful, and then degrade her because she’s a woman.  Crazy.

So much of what is wrong in the world today is by the degradation of women.  Wars, violence, greed,  all thrive because the feminine–the softness, compassion, empathy, nurturing, and nature–is not respected.  Not given equal weight.  Not honored.

For example, the Earth, which is feminine, is stripped of oil and then left polluted and scarred…not unlike sexual violence.  Wars are the same.

We all can be violent or compassionate.  We can feed the dark or light.  It’s our choice, our free will.

Mohawk became ill after fed jail meal

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Warrior Publications has this up on a Mohawk warrior who became ill after being fed a meal while being held in jail.

He became violently ill, but did not receive medical attention.

Shawn Brant is asking that the tape of the day he became ill not be erased. There’s no mention of any remaining food being tested, so I’m guessing that is not being done.

It doesn’t appear that the police are going to own this, based on the comments of the representative.  We’ll see…

Chicago Teachers Under Fire

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Ken Previtti has this up on the bullying of Chicago Teachers….a modern day twist of McCarthyism, where if you don’t tow the line, you’re blacklisted via losing certification.

Democracy, meet dictatorship.

This is unconscionable.    The teachers refuse to subject the kids to it. The parents don’t want it. And the kids certainly don’t benefit from it.  As Ken states, the only people that benefit are the education profiteer$ who sell the test prep, the tests, scoring the tests, and anything else they can think of to profit.

Are the parents not taxpayers? Are the teachers not taxpayers? And the public taxpayer who does not want CCSS?  Again I ask, if the taxpayers don’t want this…then why are their wishes being ignored?

Meanwhile, in Indiana, they are going to push online learning to make up for all the snow days we had this winter….nice way to shoehorn the kids into online learning…

…and get rid of teachers altogether.

My environmental journey

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The critics of environmentalists claim that we’re phonies…okay, well, here is my journey…

…my advocating for the environment has been a slow evolving process that includes my experience with mercury poisoning, growing awareness of what we’re doing to the atmosphere, and a spiritual component of realizing everything is connected.

Here are some of the things I do:

–use cloth bags when going to the grocery.  I might use plastic for meat, but I re-use those bags, too, bringing them to the grocery along with the cloth bags.  If you use the cloth bags for meat, be sure to launder them before using again, to avoid contamination.

–avoid plastic packaging. …well, plastic *everything*.   This has been much easier following the GAPS diet because you don’t eat the processed food in packaging, but real food.  If I am given an option, I will buy something in glass packaging before plastic.

—re-use the glass containers for drinking glasses, food storage, plants, etc. I try to avoid ziploc bags when possible.

—don’t purchase synthetic materials like nylon and other materials requiring petroleum.  The list I think is a catch-all, because I think some of the things listed are made with petroleum if plastic or manufactured cloth such as nylon, so some of the products listed could be okay if not using those materials.  Here’s a website on organic cotton, fyi.

–When I had my home, I made a conscious decision not to pave the driveway–it was gravel.  I didn’t spray for weeds, either.  I let my grass grow to 3 inches so that the roots could grow deeply enough to avoid having to water the lawn, especially during the dry time in July–this also helped keep the weeds down. Meanwhile, my neighbors practically shaved the grass off and…wait for it…had to waste precious water to keep the grass from dying in July.    I let a patch of ground that was the former owner’s garden, grow its natural way, without my interference.  Yeah, I was the neighborhood hippie…

—use baking soda, borax, and vinegar for cleaning.  A formula I found in a natural health mag goes like this:  Bathroom cleaner:  6 T vinegar, 2 T borax mixed with a cup– of warm water.  Put this in a 1 qt. spray bottle and fill the rest with water.  Works great, especially if used every day.

—I would like to use non-toxic natural cleaners for laundry, dish washing, etc., but with my finances, this isn’t doable right now. Oh, and fyi, avoid dishwashers–the detergent used in them is highly toxic.

—ride a bike or walk when going somewhere.  This was easier for me when I lived in Fort Wayne, where everything was within walking distance.  I could get to the downtown in 45 minutes to an hour.  There is something to be said for walking or riding–you are much more connected to what is going on around you.  You hear the birds sing.  Feel the breeze.  Hear the ripple of water along the river…driving a vehicle cuts you off from so much, besides polluting.

—use flannel cloths instead of toilet paper and re-wash them.  I know, I know, some of you are going “ick” right now.  No. 1 is fine…No. 2 still requires paper. So there.

—cloth pads instead of chemically manufactured pads.

—use less.  I just use less.  This was part of the learning process of being poor–you just learn how to manage on less.  Not easy, for sure.  I became much more adept at planning meals and using food up before it went to waste.  I didn’t buy as much at the grocery until I needed it.  This is easier if the grocery is within walking distance….which is becoming harder as the independents are being forced out while big box stores are situated out in no-man’s-land, forcing people to drive there.

—garden organically, using compost from kitchen waste, and if you’re really adventurous, pee and poo.   This is not for sissies…so come with your brain in active mode and your determination to get away from petroleum and chemicals.  You will succeed, but you can’t give up when challenged.  Nature does challenge you, but also gives such splendid rewards. 😉

This is an ongoing process, for sure.  I didn’t just wake up one day and start doing all of this.  It was a gradual endeavor with every new discovery of my own contribution to pollution.

So…there you have it…my efforts towards helping instead of hurting the environment.

I think if we all took those first steps, and built on that, we would greatly reduce our dependency on petroleum.  Everything helps and every bit matters.

 

 

 

Moskowitz using the kids for her personal gain

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David Sirota has this up on Eva Moskowitz, queen of charters in NY.  She closed the schools to bus children to her rally.  Unfreakingbelievable.  Can you imagine anyone in public education being allowed to do that?? They would be fired.

Next, we have this from Fred Klonsky on the close ties of pro-charter education profiteers and our elected representatives.  Sleazy opportunists.

One notorious group, “Democrats for Education Reform” (DFER), is a front for financiers that seek to spread charter schools in Chicago, even at the expense of neighborhood public schools. DFER has given extensive support to Christian Mitchell, placing him on their “Hot List of 2012” and naming him their “Reformer of the Month” for January 2014, in which they solicited political contributions on his behalf.

Rep. Mitchell has also accepted over $100,000 in political contributions from “Stand for Children,” an organization that wants to defund public education through voucher programs and other failed policies that only hurt Chicago students.

Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 neighborhood schools which put more than 80,000 children at risk. The closings are the largest in U.S. history. Rep. Mitchell showed little support to his constituents as they protested the drastic action. Instead, he has loudly supported private charter expansion, which research shows have little accountability and a questionable academic success rate.

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In more education news, Fred Klonsky has this up about DFER and David Axelrod.

Julian Vasquez Helig, PhD, has a great summary of the billionaires’ club influence on public education and charters here.

Diane Ravitch features a poem by a teacher who couldn’t take any more.

Their innocence plundered their self now askew,
They hardened completely while no one even knew.

Their spirits were taken their childhood replaced
A new breed of children – a much meaner race.

Now where are those sadists who made up such rules
to torture young children with cruel cunning ruse?

They’re safe in their castles no thoughts of that time,
When children were maimed by their heinous crime

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