Category Archives: ethics and morals

More letters to Bill and Melinda Gates **edited

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This has got to be one of the most profound letters I’ve read to date.  It is truly a great assessment of the misinformation campaign being run by the Gates Foundation and the others profiting off of our children.    No educators were included in creating Common Core!!   Red flags right there.   Be sure to follow the link that begins “entire body of social science…”  –it leads to a Washington Post article by Valerie Strauss.  In it there is a link to a  protest letter signed by educators and other professionals against Common Core—lots of good information there.

Megalomaniacal Gates seems to think that every child should be manipulated towards a career in the technology field….everyone should be just like himself…?  Probably thinks he’s the new Messiah, too.  God help us.

 

**edited to clarify

Tasers used by bullies

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Every time I think we can’t get much worse in the have-we-sunk-this-low department, I’m yet again stunned by acts of cruelty.

Even worse is the attitude that he should have “just left” his job.  In this economy?  Are you kidding?

The bigger question is why did this happen in the first place and why didn’t management do something to stop it…you know, by firing the ones doing it?

Well….if management was participating by filming the tazing and providing the tasers, then we know the answer to that.

Here again is another example of why our kids are bullying each other….they see adults acting like this and think it is acceptable.

New York State Test Outrage

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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.

 

The Monuments Men

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…is being brought to the big screen this December.

Here is a page that briefly explains who they were and what they did.

I was happy to discover they did not neglect Capt. Rose Valland.  When they called the operation  “Monuments Men”  , the name implies that there were only men helping the effort.  As with most of history, women’s contributions are ignored or downplayed, and unfortunately, that seems to have been the case for Rose, as well.  She died without acknowledgement of her enormous contribution to the success of the operation.  Why is that?

Why did I have to learn in college that if it were not for women gathering nuts, berries, and seeds, human beings would not have survived….because men were not that good at hunting, because at that time, there were no tools? I should have learned this in the history classes I took in elementary, middle, and high school.  Nope. 

Why are women’s contributions to history and to sustaining civilization not seen as important or consequential?  It would take nothing away from men’s contributions….so I’m at a loss to explain it.

More on my blog here.

Forty Years of ALEC

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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

 

Speaking Truth to Weiner

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I saw this a few days ago and wanted to get it posted.

Let’s pick this story, as reported, apart, shall we?

As someone says in the comments, this wasn’t a “heckler” this was someone speaking the truth.  She is a voter, she has every right to call him on his criminal behavior.

“You’ve got little kids here”  Is he kidding me?  He puts his penis out in cyberspace, and he’s now worried about cuss words in front of kids?!

And then…the word that will piss off even the most even-tempered woman who is speaking her mind….he tells her to “relax”.    Grrrr.

Then he accuses her of putting on “a show”….degrading her opinion as less than valid.  She’s just out for attention instead of speaking out publicly.  Where else would she be able to voice her opinion to his face?  In some structured town hall meeting?  I think not. 

See…politicians just can’t handle all that freedom.

Anyway, back to the Weiner saga,  this part of the story was disturbing:

“Oh, take is easy. Lighten up. You put your show on. Why don’t you beat it? Beat it!” Mr. Weiner shot back, strutting in front of his sign-holding volunteers.

“Beat it?” Ms. Borock, incredulous, said back.

Several men to the side yelled encouragements for Mr. Weiner.

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This just sent chills down my spine.    Several men to the side yelled encouragement for Mr. Weiner.   Kind of like a verbal gang assault.   Bullying, anyone?  And they wonder why kids bully?

And then Weiner just dismisses her after she tells him that she voted for him.  Just plain dismisses her instead of humbling himself and apologizing for his behavior.

But one would have to admit to himself that his behavior was unacceptable and even criminal.

I still don’t believe Weiner has done that:

Not long after, Mr. Weiner seemed to revel in the sparks. “I love how crazy I make some people,” he said, grinning.

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He still thinks it’s a joke.

 

Hedge Funds sucking public schools dry

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Well, now, there is much more to the story than just the unethical toad Daniel Loeb’s millions towards charter schools.    The creeps on Wall Street see a gold mine in Charters….they can’t lose.  And it’s not just unethical investors in the U.S., but foreign investors looking to make a fast buck off of American children. and get a green card to the U.S.

Why does it not surprise me that Bill Clinton allowed this to happen by signing into law effing tax breaks for these monstrosities??  Good God, how does this creep get away with soo much?  Is there no one who will stand up to him and HIllary?  WTH?!

What’s that giant sucking sound…?

It’s millionaire bankers, hedge fund managers, the Walton family, and foreign investors draining our public schools dry.

 

 

 

Loeb putting millions into charter schools

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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?

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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.