First, the bad news. Blessings to you, Diane, for healing. Take care of yourself–your body is telling you to take it easy. Believe me, I understand better than most. Having said that, your contributions to fighting the good fight are truly inspiring…you are needed as never before….but it can wait until you are rested.
This from Seattle Education. Pretty depressing that Wall $t. has turned its eye$ toward$ the school$….how much can we wring out of them?
The sidebar says it all:
This is a pretty good report of the events surrounding the recent clash with the armed forces and the First Nations of Canada.
From the post:
It is of particular importance to note that – according to Augustine – the Warrior Society and the RCMP had even negotiated for the possibility that an ISL security guard would want to come and pray at the sacred fire. The guards could come and pray any time they wanted, but neither they, nor anyone else, was permitted to bring weapons of any kind to the sacred fire.
“[ISL] already knew,” says Augustine. “When we negotiated the first time, when an ISL worker comes out to the sacred fire – because they were welcome, anytime they were welcome – as long as they don’t have any weapons. [But] they could come and pray with us anytime they want. And that was part of the negotiations. They could come out at any time and pray with us, or go out the back way and shift change then.”
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I think it’s important, too, to note the First Nations people welcoming the guards into camp–as long as they were not armed. And praying together? What a wonderful way to seek spiritual guidance together—to seek that which feeds the Light. I don’t believe that God would sanction polluting the Earth….and causing all the misery to humans, animals, plants, the soil, and the water that fracking does.
If you recall the previous videos on the confrontation, the female Warrior was clearly upset at them offering tobacco. Now we see the story behind that–they offered tobacco the night before as a symbol of wanting peace for everyone. Then the very next morning,they show up with guns drawn–even when they knew the indigenous were unarmed and seeking a peaceful way to get SWN off their land.
Here is a look at Chief Arren Sock presenting their demands to the public/press:
I think what is hard for white folks to understand is that the indigenous society is not based on hierarchical status. Until recently, I didn’t understand all of what that means, myself, because it’s so ingrained that *somebody* MUST be in charge. The Chief system was something imposed upon the indigenous by the Europeans–they required someone to be spokesperson and to call all the shots. The people were offended by this because their society was not set up that way. As Chief Sock states in this video, he does not speak for the others. He doesn’t tell the other indigenous what to do —they act on their own autonomy. They see this as each person acting according to what the Creator wishes for them to do, as far as my understanding.
A couple of tweets here and here on it. The last pic with the story behind the brave Warrior standing between a pregnant woman and this armed guard…who’s the terrorist, again…?
Another tweet here on once again labeling environmentalists as terrorists. If you recall, when I worked for the state health dept., one of the training sessions I had included Dept. of Hysterical Security. They did an exercise where environmentalists were going to use bio warfare by injecting food borne pathogens into food at a fair booth. The whole scenario was outlandish and reminded me of the story of Chicken Little who ran around crazy exclaiming that the sky was falling because an acorn dropped on his head. It makes a broad sweeping generalization about a group that is generally peaceful with a few idiots who resort to violence as a means to an end. Unfortunately, they not only achieve their goal, but they also persuade others NOT to join the movement because they don’t condone that behavior and because, as said previously, they don’t want to be labeled as troublemakers. **not to mention that some of those causing trouble could be agent provocateurs who are not actually environmentalists, but paid disruptors from the outside posing as environmentalists.
Some good news here. Glad to see someone has some sense and vision to look beyond today and the $$$ short term gain. Just say NO to the money, honey.
This post may be too graphic for some–fair warning:
DN featured Oliver Stone speaking on John F. Kennedy’s murder. (Stone is also doing a piece on Martin Luther King, Jr.)
In addition. REELZ is running a documentary on it, too. They put forth the theory that it was actually an FBI agent George Hickey that fatally shot Kennedy. He supposedly stood up in the car with the safety off and the car lurched, causing him to lose his balance. I believe they said 12-15 witnesses had seen an agent with a rifle in a car behind the president. Stone, however, places the fatal shot coming from the front of President Kennedy’s car. Stone served in Vietnam and bases that on what he witnessed in the war–a shot came from the front, which is why Kennedy’s head bounces back from the force of it. Stone brings up the inability of the FBI and others to replicate the bullets. CBS also did a piece on it and also could not replicate three rapid fire shots from that type of weapon.
Stone also brings up another important point: Kennedy had fired Allen Dulles. I was unaware of that–and then he was the head of the Warren Commission?? Good Grief no wonder the investigation was so warped. Hmmm…
The REELZ documentary makes the point that the WWII rifle used by Oswald was a full metal jacket– a bullet that would make a clean pass through a person’s body. However, the bullet that killed the president was a different bullet that exploded upon impact–it is designed to cause as much damage as possible. They noted several fragments in Kennedy’s brain.
The interference by the Secret Service, CIA, as well as other agencies is a red flag. The physician who was to perform the autopsy in Dallas insisted that the body stay there until it was performed, but the Secret Service would not allow it. The physician protested that this was state law– in order to protect the chain of control (I think that’s the right term). They basically told him they were in charge and he best get out of the way. So they took the body and when the autopsy was performed in D.C., they were contaminating the area with wall-to-wall agents and interfering with the physical evidence and the autopsy itself. Red flags all over the place.
Stone brought up some great points when asked if Kennedy was a warmonger–he was instead an advocate of Peace. He didn’t feel the need to bomb the hell out of another country to prove himself being “tough on war” or that the U.S. was superior in weaponry. He makes the case that Kennedy, had he lived, would have stopped the Cold War. While Stone is speaking about that, I think of the much ballyhooed Reagan by the conservatives and how Reagan stopped the Cold war. Pfft. The Soviet Union was impoverished and could not continue the arms race. Reagan was a war hawk. He wasn’t into Peace. He thought of anyone seeking peace as a Commie Hippie. I can only wonder at the number of people whom have been turned away from seeking peace just so they wouldn’t be called a Commie. I know that I wouldn’t want to be labeled a Communist (or terrorist). (Same with environmentalists –those that would support it but don’t publicly because of fear of being labeled troublemakers?) People don’t realize that those names are thrown out to do exactly that–make something out to be the opposite of what it is so that people will find it distasteful. When Martin Luther King, Jr. started speaking out against the Vietnam War, and advocating for the poor, he, too, was labeled a Communist.
(Side note–It’s tough to see the footage of Walter Cronkite announces President Kennedy’s death. Still brings tears.)
The question that needs to be asked is: who stood to gain from it?? Follow the money…and those deadset against Kennedy’s seeking peace instead of war…
Here is an account by Carl Oglesby in the book “From Camelot to Kent State” — a good book on the personal history accounts of the 60s:
I was ten years older than the SDS kids. I was running the technical publications dept. at Bendix Aerospace Systems Division of the Bendix Corporation in Ann Arbor: per defense work, rockets and missiles and electronic subsystems, some moon stuff, some supersecret Vietnam stuff.
[…]
The reaction to the Kennedy assassination really blasted me loose. I was at work, of course, like most everybody else. It was Friday, a half hour or forty-five minutes or so after the guy was announced dead, I wondered down to the personnel office to talk to my pal, the personnel manager, Tony, and I said, “Tony, we should take the flag down.”
He didn’t want to do it. He said, “Well, when we get word. When we’re told by corporate headquarters to put the flag at half-staff.” And we got into a big argument in the hallway about that, about whether or not we needed to hear from corporate headquarters about putting the flag down. Did the flag belong to corporate headquarters? Was that what that was about? That Bendix owned the flag? Did it own the country? Big fight.
Then I went up to Mahogany row, a couple of floors up, to check out with some guys I knew up there, who I thought would be more reasonable, and in this one office they had the Scotch out. The ripple of excitement, the thrill that ran through the Bendix Systems Division when the word came of Kennedy’s death, and with it the implicit word that now we got Johnson. It was like—I don’t know how to describe it. It was almost a physical tremor.
Before, there was gloom, because for one thing Kennedy had canceled out a big contract we had. We were building something called the Eagle missile that was supposed to go on a certain airplane. Well, the airplane didn’t exist, and it wasn’t going to exist, either. So Kennedy logically figured out why build the missile? But this didn’t seem reasonable to “corporate headquarters.” which was real pissed at having lost the Eagle missile system. Well, that was the mood people were in.
The next minute Kennedy gets popped. A minute after that, the Scotch is out, because the contracts are coming back. And they did! By God, they did. I couldn’t shrug that off.
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Assailed Teacher has this excellent blog on how a professional teacher makes teaching look easy….but wait….not so.
Checking in with the First Nations protestors in Canada….
SWN refuses to acknowledge they are trespassing on First Nations land and continue to use that land for fracking, despite the protests. My understanding is that they have started a fire blockade today at noon.
Someone posted a link to this video that captures in pictures when words fail…
…at 1:25 and 1:38, look at the concentration of teargas on ONE individual!!
….at 1:56,and the next photo should have the caption underneath with one word: COURAGE
…at 2:12 full disclosure: both sides had dogs. Gotta love their sense of humor.
…at 2:19…<sigh>….really? Is this man armed? He appears to be unarmed and of smaller stature than the SWN security officer.
Another video here on the mistreatment of the protestors taken in:
Michael Reynolds reports that the earthships flower in Malawi is complete, and now they are moving forward towards a community center.
NEW DONATION GOAL FOR MALAWI PROJECT: $60,000
For materials needed for the local people to continue building the Kapita Earthship Community Center after the EB crew and volunteers leave on October 20th.~~~~~~~~~
I’m so glad that they were able to realize their goal and help these folks in a sustainable fashion. Yay!
Here’s to helping one another instead of, you know, torturing and killing….
…is what doctors affirm when they get their degrees. But the Bush/Cheney Administration demanded physicians and other medical professionals to abandon that rule and devise ways of torturing people. Some of these people were innocents who ended up at Guantanamo because their accuser was paid some cold, hard cash….
My understanding is that if a member of the military is required to do something that is against their ethics, they have the right to respectfully refuse the order.
Just imagine if they had….
Some physicians do care, however, and marched on Washington….
I wonder if they had closed their offices for a day in protest…or God forbid, if they refused to implant a new heart in the Dark One Cheney in protest…
Think the NSA is bad? How about the Gates Foundation?? Sends chills down your spine how this non-government corporation has so much free access to personal data. The next question is: for what purpose? Sheila Resseger posted this letter to Secretary Duncan. Thank YOU, Senator Markey, for asking these important questions. Tim Furman posted this link for a gathering in Chicago on student privacy.
Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal, along with other *cough* news rags, allegedly stole private information via cell phones to use against the owner. Keep in mind that Coulson was directly linked to the British Prime Minister. And the Gates Foundation is sponsoring “news” stories running in The Guardian.
Diane has a link up to this excellent post that just hits the nail on the head—how does one stack the deck so there is as little opposition as possible….? One holds meetings at times that almost guarantee low attendance by those involved–teachers, parents who work and parents with little ones ( they won’t bring little ones to the meetings and single parents will have difficulty getting sitters,too.)
The post features this video (under immature link):
Really eye-opening, eh? Is it fair to characterize Deasy as a bully and an idiot? From this episode, he seems to be a control freak running amok whom is more interested in feeding his ego than actual concern for the children. He claims she is being disrespectful to the kids, while he is showing disrespect for their teacher. Blessings to you, Patrena Shankling. Nobody should have to be treated in such an abusive manner—and what you experienced was classic verbal abuse where it doesn’t matter what you say, the abuser will escalate his tirade.
More on Deasy here.
Speaking of abuse, Diane posted this on a child psychotherapist’s assessment of the testing, testing, testing of our children and how demoralizing it is to them. Six years old!
And JCGrim posts a comment on how the abuse gets worse—Good God:
School leaders say La Vergne High has a split lunch period, half academic intervention to help students who may be struggling in a subject and half lunch.
“They are not segregating them in the traditional sense. If the kids’ scores are low in certain areas, they are getting help in that area. If you want to label that segregation, then that’s not the correct way to label it,” said Rutherford County Schools spokesman James Evans.
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Well, you know, they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Whether the segregation is intentional or not, it is still segregation. And what is wrong with you that you can’t even give the kids a break from learning for a half-hour? The brain needs a break, for crying out loud! Let the kids be kids and socialize without being overshadowed!
Diane posts here on Mark Naison. He describes how and why he became an activist. **edited to add link. Oops.
From his post:
Teachers everywhere were being driven out of their jobs and stripped of their autonomy and creativity. Children everywhere were being deluged with tests, and subjected to a one size fits all curriculum that, in all too many instances, smothered their unique talents and aptitudes.
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(sorry for the large text) — as I’m reading this, I’m reminded of something a nun said at a parents’ meeting once: we all have gifts to bring to the world–we have the jocks and beauty queens, but we need the nerds, the clowns, the creative, the stoic, etc. — those that are not necessarily celebrated in popular media, but whose gifts would surely be missed had they not graced the world. Even those who are mentally challenged bring something to the world.
Naison is understandably upset with the Administration for the education policies. However, I have seen a change in President Obama in the past, oh, year or year-and-a-half, in that he seems to be breaking away from the Clinton -thinking. My hope is that the more President Obama sees the damage that is happening to the children and public education as a whole, he will rethink the policies and replace Arne Duncan. We can hope….
Diane also posts the links to the Daily Show appearance. When she stated that Jon was upset about Common Core and how his staff was personally experiencing what we’ve been blasting about, I was upset that he doesn’t talk about it on air! Arrrgh! A missed opportunity to help the public understand why we are so upset and how our children are being psychologically abused!
(A side note~ I admire Jon for adopting the pit bull, but still would not recommend them. They have been bred to be fighters, and as such, their powerful jaws make it impossible to separate them from anything they’ve sunk their teeth into—there are stories of pit bulls who would not release even when someone was beating on them to get them off of another dog/human being. )
Diane has a link to Mercedes Schneider’s debunking the Louisiana “miracle”. This is why one needs to ask how statistics were compiled and what methodology they used. The lies will be exposed when these questions are answered.
Diane and Michelle Rhee will debate Feb. 6. Rhee made increasing demands which seem to speak of the lack of substance to her arguments.
Finally, in my own little corner of the world– a quiz on Indiana politics and ruining public education by devious means.
Note in the comments that charter school proponents are now trying to market charter schools as “community schools” to make destroying public schools more palatable.
This comment just makes me want to cry because it’s so true:
Carol Ring
Indiana gets national recognition once again!
We are ‘leaders’ in many areas…eighth most polluted air in the nation, broken infrastructure, roads with cracks and potholes, 47th in the nation for adults with college degrees, most polluted rivers in the U.S., underfunding of public schools [so more money can go to charter schools], eighth most overweight population in the nation and our recent achievement in outstanding ‘education reform’ is an increased number of vouchers and charter school expansion!
Add to this list of achievements the desire of our GOP controlled Congress and Tea Partier Governor Pence to dilute Superintendent Glitz’s responsibilities simply because she understands the needs of children and teachers.
It sometimes feels overwhelming.
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God help Indiana.
CNN has aired the Orca documentary Blackfish–specifically the captive Tillikum that killed trainer Dawn Brancheau. Not only did he kill her, but another trainer twenty years before, and there was a dead man found on Tillikum’s back, mysteriously appearing one morning. As the researcher states during the documentary, orcas are not known to attack human beings while they are free–it’s only in captivity that they have attacked humans. My recent post on OSHA (or Sea World) refusing to release information on their protocol.
Before, when I commented on the Blackfish doc, I remarked how the “whale song” made me cry. I didn’t understand why at the time….but now I am wondering that this whale’s cry is from being separated from its family and/or a mother whale being separated from her child….knowing that these mother whales cry as a human mother would after having her child taken away….it makes sense.
I posted a link on the Fu Manchu blog on an organization fighting to stop holding whales captive. It’s a brutal, selfish practice and it needs to stop.
At the closing scene of Blackfish, they show the orcas swimming freely as they were meant to, and how spirited they were–their dorsal fins are proudly straight–not flopped over like Tillikum’s. It is awesome to watch them. As I watch that segment, it occurs to me that perhaps if they took Tillikum back to the Washington State area where they captured him, perhaps he could find his family and rejoin them? I know that sounds like a long stretch, because he has been in captivity so long, but I would think that his mother would recognize him. It would be worth it giving it a shot. He deserves that.
Rachel Maddow has an issue with Rand Paul claiming someone else’s writing is his own….and how he pretends “it’s no big deal”.
If you recall the post on only the crooks get jobs.…there seems to be a pattern here, eh?
But, no, we’re not done…I was watching the Ed Show on MSNBC, and he was stating that Bill O’Reilly has made the claim he knows why Jesus died–because he went after the tax collectors. Ed said it was because he was sent here to die for us so that we could have everlasting life. He also said something about the moneychangers being thrown out because they were in the Temple.
Hmmm….I remember making the statement on a comment on crooks and liars regarding this subject.(tried to find it,but it’s not on the website).
It’s been probably a year since I made the comment, and some of you might remember it–someone on the blog had made a crack about Jesus not caring about the poor, etc. To which I replied that Jesus fed the poor with loaves and fishes, he touched those with leprosy (which was like AIDS in those days), and he threw the moneychangers (bankers) out of the Temple when the religious leaders had allowed them to set up shop there. I said that was probably the real reason Jesus was murdered–he made the religious leaders look bad (and pissed off the bankers by interfering with their business).
I haven’t read O’Reilly’s book. I don’t know the exact quote or context of it ….but it would piss me off to know this creep has a book out there, making $$$, while he stole an idea from someone else.
Oh….and O’Reilly claims that Jesus told him to write the book.
Um-hmmm….if Jesus had really told him that, he would have told O’Reilly to pay for the costs of printing it and hand out copies for free.
Never ceases to amaze me when people try to make money off of Jesus….I can’t imagine he would have healed someone and then said “That’ll be $100.”
Eagle 