Category Archives: NAFTA/free trade

Poverty and Education; Gates and Broad

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The thing that gets pushed aside with “school reformers” is the link between poverty and lower grades.  I never fully understood this country’s contempt for the poor until now.   You truly have to experience it as a poor person to understand.  You’re worse than criminals because at least criminals get three hots and a cot.  What does Congress do?  Cut funding to the Housing and Urban Development and cut food stamps.

And I found this excellent post by Joanne Barkan  on the fallacy of “school reform” by Gates, Broad, et al.  It is sickening how Gates has manipulated data, ignored poverty, and is stealthily racist when you view the public schools that closed being heavily minority.  Gates shoveled millions upon millions towards this boondoggle when instead he could have paid taxes so that those schools would be well-funded and able to have smaller class size so that teachers could help those that had more difficulty learning, or it could have helped the poor kids get nutritious meals cooked from scratch….the simple solutions that would have the greatest impact.

From the website:

In November 2008, Bill and Melinda gathered about one hundred prominent figures in education at their home outside Seattle to announce that the small schools project hadn’t produced strong results. They didn’t mention that, instead, it had produced many gut-wrenching sagas of school disruption, conflict, students and teachers jumping ship en masse, and plummeting attendance, test scores, and graduation rates. No matter, the power couple had a new plan: performance-based teacher pay, data collection, national standards and tests, and school “turnaround” (the term of art for firing the staff of a low-performing school and hiring a new one, replacing the school with a charter, or shutting down the school and sending the kids elsewhere).

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Sickening, isn’t it??

 

More:

States were desperate for funds (in the end, thirty-four applied in the two rounds of the contest).

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Enter the Gates Foundation. It reviewed the prospects for reform in every state, picked fifteen favorites, and, in July 2009, offered each up to $250,000 to hire consultants to write the application. Gates even prepared a list of recommended consulting firms.

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That pretty much says it right there.  States were desperate for funds –they had little choice.

In the same article, the Post broke the news that Bill Gates had “secretly bankrolled” Learn-NY, a group campaigning to overturn a term-limit law so that Michael Bloomberg could run for a third term as New York City mayor. Bloomberg’s main argument for deserving another term was that his education reform agenda (identical to the Gates-Broad agenda) was transforming city schools for the better. Gates put $4 million of his personal money into Learn-NY.

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And this should be great cause of concern:

On October 7 and 8, 2010, the Columbia Journalism Review ran a two-part investigation by Robert Fortner into “the implications of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s increasingly large and complex web of media partnerships.” The report focused on the foundation’s grants to the PBS Newshour, ABC News, and the British newspaper the Guardian for reporting on global health.

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Both Gates and Broad funded “NBC News Education Nation,” a week of public events and programming on education reform that began on September 27, 2010. The programs aired on NBC News shows such as “Nightly News” and “Today” and on the MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo TV networks.

[…]

Gates and Broad also sponsored the documentary film Waiting for Superman

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As a vehicle for their partnership, the foundation and Viacom (with some additional funds from the AT&T Foundation) set up a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization called the Get Schooled Foundation.

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There is a reason that Ronald Reagan’s and Bill Clinton’s FCC* allowed more consolidation of the media–the press has always been part of the Fourth Estate that kept Congress and the President in check.  If the media was weakened with consolidation, it concentrated ownership which in turn shut off different opinions, viewpoints, and independent voices.  It also stifled competition between media….ironic coming from people who often bring up “encouraging competition”  as a reason for allowing bank deregulation, relaxing EPA rules, and repealing or relaxing antitrust regulation.

The corporate takeover of public schools got a foothold because the media was not doing its job of investigating what was going on and who was behind it….because they were being bankrolled by those very people they should have been investigating.

*The Federal Communications Commission is staffed by presidential appointees.  The American public owns the airwaves, but those rights are being taken away from them by media consolidation.

The link between poverty and how well a child does in school broaches the subject of healthcare.   Children who live in poor areas are more likely to be exposed to toxic environments.  Heavy metals seriously impact one’s ability to learn, one’s ability to remember, and one’s ability towards impulse control–all of these impact a child’s education.  In addition, as anyone who has read this blog knows, ADD is a problem when heavy metals are involved–totally frustrating a child who may get distracted and lose focus during the teacher’s instruction, missing important information.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Badasses

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Diane Ravitch has a blog on the Badass Teachers Association:

 

 

 

 

I didn’t know what they meant when I searched for G4s –it came up a security agency and had many links including Israel.  However, when I searched for Gates and prisons, voila.

So I’m trying to wrap my brain around this, because Gates had invested in Monsanto, which purchased Blackwater/Xe…

…..so I’ve read several different sites that claim Monsanto did NOT buy Blackwater.  Stay tuned…jury is still out.

Whether Monsanto owns Blackwater or not, it is still a reprehensible corporation, and owning prisons?

Yeah…this would not have been possible if we didn’t have state governments privatizing state services like prisons…

Do you get the theme here?  Privatizing schools, privatizing prisons, cornering the biotech market and bullying farmers….

I found this on Cascade Investment, which is owned by Gates and family. More stuff here

The Uniparty

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One of the commenters here called the absence of real oppositional parties the “Uniparty”. …yep.

See…the Dems really believe in the Fourth Amendment and the rights of the American public to be let alone…

bwhahahahaha *snort*  bwahahahaha…

Don’t blame me.  I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.  The first time in all the years that I had been voting that I wrote a candidate’s name on the ballet.  Of course, now Indiana has changed to the computerized system so a voter wouldn’t be able to just write in a candidate.   Supposedly, they have paper ballots at each voting station, but this voter was not told there were paper ballots available, not even when I voted early, nor were there any paper ballots visible so that one could ask for it.

They changed the law so that one had to have 2% of the general votes cast for the Secretary of State in the previous election.  Note the deadlines were repeatedly pushed back in order to diminish the ability to gather signatures during summer events where crowds gather…

I found this page absolutely fascinating.  I had no idea that we had other candidates to choose from, as the write in candidates were not on the electronic ballot.  And being without access to media (no TV antenna in the community room at the time), nor did I have more than an hour per time from the library’s internet computers…so information was limited, as are most poor.  And I would venture a guess that even with cable TV, many middle class were also ignorant of this–funny how the nooz just doesn’t seem to get around to covering important issues like this….they’d rather scare you into getting a vaccine that will likely cause as much harm to your body as any good or tell you not to take Vitamin E because some bogus *study* says it’s bad for you…pfft.

Detroit, Broke City

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(I didn’t get much sleep last night, and my ADD is always worse when I’m tired, so forgive any faux pas.)

I’m flipping through the channels this morning and land on CNBC with Dan Gilbert, the grand pooh bah wizard of rejuvenating Detroit.  I only caught the last part of his schpiel, but what I was hearing made me sick.  He spoke of bringing in “interns”.  Interns? Yep, he’s bringing in young minds that can be manipulated into believing what they’re doing is innovative and exciting and the right thing to do….

…I find it more than mildly curious that 50-somethings are by appearances being ignored.

And it’s disturbing how the article below reads that the sharks are circling to see how much they can get away with–everyone is watching to see who wins the “tug of war” between the unions and the moneyed interests.

From the NYTimes article:

….Detroit officials have proposed paying off small fractions of what the city owes, they have indicated they intend to treat investors holding general obligation bonds as having no higher priority for payment than, for instance, city workers — a notion that conflicts with the conventions of the market…

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An obligation is an obligation.  I don’t know why the city would be any less obligated to the workers who labored and were made a promise than to bond holders who were also made promises but did nothing to earn that but sit on their butts?  In my view, EVERYBODY should be made to give a little.  Everybody loses a little bit for the good of the whole.

Now I know folks will be saying that “investors won’t invest if they aren’t getting top dollar…”  I don’t believe that if they are still making money for doing nothing that they are going to pass on that opportunity.  Investing is a risk….why shouldn’t the investors share in the losses as well as the gains?

(Ironically, or not, I’m playing David Crosby’s “Hero”  )

My other blogs on Detroit here and here . Note the link to Dan Gilbert profiteering off of the carcass of Detroit.

Background on the “Emergency Manager”

 

Walmart: Always low wages…Always

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…was on a sign protesting their continued more-for-us-less-for-you campaign.  Thankfully, they were unsuccessful in their bullying tactics.

From the first link:

“From day one, we have said this legislation is arbitrary, discriminatory, and discourages investment in D.C.,” Alex Barron, a general manager for Wal-Mart whose region includes D.C., writes in a company statement. “It means most shopping dollars will stay in the suburbs, unemployment will remain in the double-digits in some neighborhoods and underserved communities will continue to have disproportionate access to affordable groceries.”

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I followed the last link to this:

The company’s hardball tactics come out of a well-worn playbook that involves successfully using Wal-Mart’s leverage in the form of jobs and low-priced goods to fend off legislation and regulation that could cut into its profits and set precedent in other potential markets. In the Wilson Building, elected officials have found their reliable liberal, pro-union political sentiments in conflict with their desire to bring amenities to underserved neighborhoods.

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I just can’t understand the thinking that losing Wal-Mart is a bad thing?  Good Riddance to a big box store that pays poor wages, encourages employees to apply for food stamps, guts entire towns that were once full of independent small business owners, and imports cheap plastic crap from China, where again, people are paid low wages (which I know are beginning to rise, but still…).

 

$382 million withheld from affordable housing funds

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A lawsuit has been filed alleging that millions of dollars have been withheld from affordable housing funds.

More from Housing Authorities around the country:

New York.  Okay, I’m a little confused, because the folks in Fort Wayne were having budget cuts even before sequestration….some forty percent was reported.  It was supposed to be nationwide, so I’m wondering why NY wasn’t cut previously?

Seattle, Washington.  This report is more in line with what Fort Wayne is going through–they have had to close the Section 8 (Voucher) program many times because they are just flooded every time they open it up.  They have had as many as 4,000 people on the waiting list (If I recall correctly, that was for both  Voucher and Public Housing).

From the report:

At the same time, the waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers remains closed, and the agency is unable to issue new vouchers at all. Nearly all vouchers are in use (99.6 percent), and the 1,552 households still on the waiting list remain stuck there. Total waiting lists exceed 25,000, and 884 new households were added in January alone. At a time when need is growing dramatically, the Seattle Housing Authority is unable to expand to meet that need.

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Here’s a good article from The Nation on the stupidity and callousness of cutting a housing budget when there is so much need.

From the article:

Although housing assistance takes only one penny of every federal budget dollar, right-wing ideologues since at least the Reagan years have long used “deficit reduction” as a pretext for achieving their dream of eliminating government housing aid. Reagan infamously slashed the housing budget at a time of recession and the emergence of modern homelessness, while the deficit exploded. There’s no question that when it comes to housing assistance, the Reagan legacy lives on. This year the Cato Institute outlined a plan to tackle the budget deficit that would, among other things, “terminate” the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And Reagan’s Tea Party descendants in Congress promise further chops of the budget ax for housing and other safety net programs.

If you read on down, it mentions the Trust Fund created in 2008….but yeah, no funding.  Cruelty by dangling a carrot to the caged rabbit.
3.5 million homeless Americans….

Moyers on ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on Bill Moyers covering the dirty dealings of American Legislative Exchange Council.  It states that this was all over the nation on PBS stations this weekend.  If it was on my local station, I saw no advertisement of it, so I missed it.  (Boy, do I miss FW, which has such a kick butt public radio station, and three PBS stations, as well. )

Luckily, there is a link here to watch the show online. Also, there is a link for finding out which of your own state’s representatives belong to ALEC.  I found a couple of surprises, there, such as Win Moses, who was the former mayor of Fort Wayne, and John Gregg, the guy who just ran for governor.  Mike Pence was not listed, but yeah, he seems to be doing their bidding:

mikepence.com/newsletter/pence-hires-atkins-policy-director

See…this exposure of ALEC is a double-edged sword–you’re getting the word out and people are paying attention, but they (ALEC)  will find ways around it by people who are off in the wings, such as Atkins.

Another freaking trade agreement that benefits corporations, not people….

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Yep.

The U.S. has already had a taste of this type of policy under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). In 2005, the Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade sued the U.S. the U.S. government for banning imports of beef and live Canadian cattle after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada. In the end, the U.S. prevailed, but not until it had spent millions to defend itself in court.   Mexico wasn’t so fortunate when three companies (Corn Products International, ADM/Tate & Lyle and Cargill) sued the Mexican government for preventing imports of high fructose corn syrup. Mexico lost all three cases, and was forced to pay out a total of $169.18 million to the three firms.

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The Obama Administration is trusting corporations like Dow AgroSciences, Cargill and DuPont, and trade groups like the Pork Producers Council and Tobacco Associates, Inc., to write food safety policies. In all, more than 600 corporations have been given access to drafts of various chapters of the TPP. Requests for the same level of access, from members of Congress and from the public, have been denied.

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This has serious implications towards the fight against GMO’s, as the article states.  It’s hard enough fighting against the ag bullies like Monsanto….it will be even harder with an agreement like this in place.  The whole “fast track” process usurps the democratic process of allowing the American public and its elected representatives an opportunity to know what is going on and the opportunity to vote against it.

Truly, if you’re doing something that is positive, you’re not going to try to hide it.  They’re like little kids who poop their pants and then go hide somewhere hoping not to be discovered….but the smell gives them away…

*whew*  Do you smell something?

 

 

Helping ourselves

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commondreams has this up.  Be sure to look at all the videos–well worth the time.

The idea is so simple it’s like “duh!”

I have a quibble, though, with Klein saying that it’s up to the Left to “seize the moment”.  There are those who are NOT in the Tea Party on the Right who also need and want to find a solution to the crashes around us.  I say this because the Left has not been of the same mind — I was shot down on a progressive website when I advocated buying American so we could put people back to work.  I knew that Washington wasn’t going to get off its collective duff and do anything about the job loss.  (NAFTA being a good example of monumental job loss.)

I just don’t think people have been given the skills or knowledge to feel confident enough to take over a business if the owners want to sell out.  I think it may be a case of learned helplessness?  Not believing in yourself can be such a huge obstacle that one stops before even getting started.

Perhaps the “teach-ins” of 2013 should be “Business 101:  how to own a business without going belly-up nor bankrupting the environment on your way to the bank…”

The Native Americans learned this a loooong time ago–nature was not a second thought.  They did not separate their actions from nature.

It’s still so incredibly stupid that business has ignored the laws of nature, as if we could exist without clean water, clean air and chemical free food…

Well…exist is probably a bad word choice…since we are existing right now…perhaps thriving  is the better word.  All one has to do is look at folks’ skin and see that we are not thriving, but existing.  The skin is such a barometer of what’s going on in the insides…not doing too well by that account.

Anyway, Washington isn’t going to help us…most likely profiting off of NAFTA…so, it’s up to us if we want to save ourselves.

 

 

 

 

Enbridge pipeline

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I don’t know why this story wasn’t carried by the mainstream media, leaving Hoosiers in the dark about this monster….on second thought, they did.  Unfortunately, this was in the Indianapolis market, but even with cable TV, was out of range for their broadcast area.

And if anyone needs a little reminder of why the conservatives love Hillary Clinton….(you’re asking what?? You’ll notice, as I have, that they will alternatively trash her and then say “she’s not so bad…”.  )  And why they luvs them some Bill, too.  Teflon. Clinton.  From the president who brought us NAFTA, gutting the financial industry protections that were put into place after the Great Depression, the misspent Haiti disaster funds….and on….