I’ve dragged my feet looking this up, and it was as depressing as I thought…
Not only did they cut food stamps again in the Un-Depression, the heartless creeps gave the corporate interests lots of goodies. I really don’t know how these people sleep at night. But then again, when you have no conscience, your guilt doesn’t keep you awake…
I was thinking about my post on food stamps, and thought I’d add a little depth to the folks behind the faces–
I mentioned in this post about the man getting only $16 a month in food stamps. He’s in a wheelchair, not too much older than me. He was a fire fighter, once, and then was paralyzed in a hunting accident.
Another lady limps with one leg as she had a stroke. Her left arm is basically useless–some mobility to it but not much. She, too, isn’t too much older than me. She had been married once and had children from that union. She had once suggested that her husband look into a security business. He did. He now lives quite well while she lives in poverty with a small income from disability.
An older African American gentleman once played in a jazz band in Chicago during the 50s and 60s (and probably longer, but that’s what I heard about). He had his picture in the paper once. Now he lives in public housing, unable to afford a better place.
A younger gal is a student nurse who somehow ended up here from Hawaii. She’s in public housing and on food stamps until she gets her degree.
Another gal my age used to work for a national grocery chain. She stood on concrete floors for eight hours every day for years…..it took a toll on her back and knees and now she is on disability and food stamps.
I just wanted to put a face on the folks on food stamps so people understand.
You never know the story until you walk a mile in their shoes…
…in this case, the big bad teacher’s unions. They are portrayed as taking away the civil rights of children…by billionaires who are paying their parents less than livable wages…so they can have even bigger bank accounts and totally take over public education.
Meanwhile,Diane has this up on the Schools as Soap Operas, brought to you by corporate profiteers.
Additionally, Reclaim Reform has this up on the hypocrites of reform. Pretty sobering.
But wait…here is some good news–Pittsburgh schools cancel contract with Teach for America. Yay!
Well, those of us following the Education fiasco already knew this, but perhaps the doubters will finally realize the school profiteers have wanted to close public schools all along.
“For the next several years, 5% of public schools must be named as failing – even if those schools weren’t failing by current standards. With few exceptions, schools that failed for three years would be required to close or be operated by an independent private charter management company with a minimum five-year contract. Local school boards would have little authority over this company for five years. For Milwaukee, this change would apply to schools that failed for just one year.”
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Well, I’m glad that these folks have come out against the XL Pipeline.
This is, essentially, a rebellion by 22 progressive congressional Democrats against the Clinton-Obama effort to provide a market for the Kochs’ oil. The letter was actually written by Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and co-signed by senators Barbara Boxer, Ed Markey, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, and Elizabeth Warren; and Representatives John Conyers, Jr., Barbara Lee, Raúl M. Grijalva, Rush Holt, Louise M. Slaughter, Jerrold Nadler, Judy Chu, Peter DeFazio, Anna G. Eshoo, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, Alan Lowenthal, Mark Pocan, and Steve Cohen.
Note how deeply involved Hillary Clinton is in XL– how Paul Elliott, a former staff member, is a lobbyist for TransCanada, along with David Goldwyn.
Secretary Clinton’s State Department allowed the environmental impact statement on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline to be performed by a petroleum industry contractor that was chosen by the company that was proposing to build and own the pipeline, TransCanada. That contractor had no climatologist, and the resulting report failed even at its basic job of estimating the number of degrees by which the Earth’s climate would be additionally heated if the pipeline is built and operated. Its report ignored that question and instead evaluated the impact that climate change would have on the pipeline, which was estimated to be none.
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Be sure to click on this link about the March, 2013, XL Pipeline “environmental report” as a hoax.
[…] Therefore, the reason no calculation was done of the XL pipeline’s global-warming impact appears to be that no one who was involved in the study had any climatological expertise or interest.
[…]
But be that as it may: it is by now clear that the State Department’s Draft “Environmental Impact Statement” on XL is neither by the State Department, nor does it address the pipeline’s impact on global warming, nor was anyone who had expertise on global warming even involved in its preparation. The report is thus a triple-hoax, so that to call it fraudulent would put the matter mildly.
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Note that the Obama Administration is trying to force the EU to purchase the Koch Brothers’ dirty oil. Unreal.
Additionally, I don’t see it mentioned in the article, but I have a huge concern about the petcoke byproduct of this dirty oil that will make its way to Whiting, Indiana. This is devastating to our environment and the people breathing this toxic garbage. It seems to me that Indiana has become the garbage can of the Kochs and others who have nowhere else to dump this stuff. Like I said before, they should start dumping this stuff on the Koch’s lawn, and see how long it takes them to change their minds about the petcoke (haha, I first typed “petchoke”…really, more accurately describes its affects on the lungs of people).
I had to watch this video (top) twice because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing–from a distance, it looks like a couple talking…he even has his arm around her like a good friend, and then *boom* he starts to haul her off. She showed no weapon, was not yelling or otherwise threatening anyone…I was just stunned.
Even more stunning? How everyone else just allowed it to happen. She had every right to be there and Harper and his goons had no right to interfere with that.
In the second video, she is saying that she wasn’t even tweeting–that she did not have her phone. So they’re lying on top of taking away her rights?
Tweeting is not a threat. Freedom of Speech is not a threat.
Seriously, these folks are running schools by script. Unbelievable. (from Diane Ravitch’s blog)
As Diane says, it’s dangerous to speak out….but this has been going on in the private sector for quite some time–somehow, one’s right to Freedom of Speech stops at the corporate door.
So now it has reached the Education doors….and that is why Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, et al, have tried to destroy teacher’s unions. It’s much harder to fire a teacher who speaks out against corruption when that teacher belongs to a strong union that stands behind her or him. That’s kind of the bully playbook—separate people into aloneness, and attack. It’s much easier to take one down than a group.
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More on Education--this post is just sickening. Depressing as hell that Pearson has now monopolized the United States Education system.
This post from Mom of Five is alarming:
My daughter’s principal just informed me that she doubts any California district will ever order a textbook again: Everything bought in the future will be digital. Her school has pretty much phased out textbooks already and at my mom’s high school the district just got rid of over 4,000 books from the library. Even though the high school has just been built (3 weeks ago) I find it sad that the library is very small. Instead, there are numerous “student lounges” where kids go to hang out.
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Really disturbing. Of course, the technology terrorists will wrap this in a “progress” blanket to quash any objections to it. We’ve been sold this line of garbage that anything new in technology is automatically a good thing and means we are “progressing”. What does that mean, exactly? They don’t really say. All it is is something “new”. They know that marketers put “new” and “improved” on can labels so that consumers will buy it…doesn’t matter that it’s the same stuff as before and “improved” is a subjective word.
And if you notice the comment of teachingeconomist, the resident troll, he uses the word “nostalgic” as a code word for “you’re so far behind the times clinging to the past…” to shut people up…
I see farther down the comments that Mom of Five had the same sentiment:
Momoffive
Oh yeah, I forgot the best part…she let me know that the reason I’m having a problem with all this is because “us older parents” have a difficult time with change and moving into the global 21st century.”
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Diane has probably blogged on this, but with all the information out there, I have trouble keeping up–Valerie Strauss (God love her) has this up on the Bush connection to this education fiasco.
More here from an old post at dailykos. I think I may have posted this before–but doesn’t hurt to repost…easier to keep up with the octopus of education $$.
Diane Ravitch has a great blog up today on one family’s monopoly on charters in Minnesota and the resulting segregation.
A great comment by Reteach for America explains just how charters actually give parents less choice…and less power…when it comes to their child’s education:
Charter schools have no civic responsibility.
[…]
Many parents don’t realize this lack of democratic representation or really any say whatsoever in their children’s school is a serious issue until they have a concern about the charter and the charter tells them they are welcome to shop for another school. When they turn to the district for help, they’re often told the same thing. You don’t like McDonalds? Go to Burger King.
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So, imagine that your town no longer has independent restaurants, but only McDonald’s, Burger King, or any other national chain….you dislike the fast food and wish for a home-cooked meal that fits your diet…none of these chains have decent food, so you no longer have a choice. You either eat the stuff that resembles food, or you stay home. They don’t care about you, as an individual, but only YOU as a collective group to profit off of…
….this is essentially what charters like the ones in Minnesota are doing. McSchools.
Indignant Teacher has a story up on the ridiculous test, test, test, mentality of the Department of Education…which turns to cruelty when a child who is dying and a child with only a brain stem must.be.tested. Good God.
Apparently, my communication through her that he was in hospice wasn’t enough: they required a letter from the hospice company to say that he was dying. Every day that she comes to visit, she is required to do paperwork to document his “progress.” Seriously? Why is Ethan Rediske not meeting his 6th-grade hospital homebound curriculum requirements? BECAUSE HE IS IN A MORPHINE COMA. We expect him to go any day. He is tenaciously clinging to life.
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This just makes me angry. How utterly insane and cold and unfeeling to put this additional burden upon this mother whom is going through the most horrible thing a mother should ever have to endure–the death of her child.
Warrior Publications has this up on a report of yet another pipeline rupture that was buried since 2009. Accidentally, of course…/snark
Nathan Lemphers says “it’s hard to guess intentions” as to why this report was buried….
…yeah, I’m not buying it, either, that it was an “oversight” that the damning report was never to see sunlight. There are too many incidents of the oil industry interfering with freedom of the press and freedom of speech for it to be unintentional.
Let’s not forget the Arkansas oil spill that we wouldn’t have heard about, if it were up to the mainstream media. Or the massive devastation of the Gulf that BP tried to hide (and unfortunately, did a pretty good job of interfering with photographers and having dead dolphins carted away before they could document them.)
The tide was turned against the Vietnam war through the media…once one sees how devastating it is, it makes it harder to look the other way.
…and so it is with the devastating effects of the energy companies on the environment….hard to look the other way once one sees how devastating it is to the Earth and to the wildlife.
Neil Young’s song and the accompanying video haunt me–it shows in stark contrast how beautiful this Earth truly is until the oil and gas companies move in…
Ed Shultz (MSNBC) has now two nights in a row yelled into the screen about how we should be in favor of the XL pipeline for *cough* safety reasons. Um-hmmm…
You know, I might have believed him if he wasn’t leaving out one important factor of tar sands: pet coke. Pet coke being the highly toxic byproduct of tar sands….which they want to dump in my already toxic state…
He is adamant that the “oil is going to come out, anyway” so it might as well be us, because if China or anyone else does it, well, it’s just not going to be as environmentally friendly.
I say let them. It will be blood on their hands, not ours.
Better yet, leave the oil in the Earth where it belongs. As the Sierra Club stated, if the XL is not built, then there is high probability that the tar sands will remain in the Earth.
Additionally, I thought it was disingenuous of Ed Shultz not to mention the Mi’kmaq or other First Nations of Canada whom have rights to the lands that are being destroyed.
Not a peep. That speaks volumes!
And it also speaks to why MSNBC and Ed Shultz are still trying to convince people, almost on a daily basis, that Hillary Clinton is the front runner for the 2016 presidential race. Hillary Clinton is all for the XL.
Lastly, Ed and his backers would still like to downplay how devastating XL would be on the environment.
He says we “have to” have XL in order to turn on our lights…and other scare tactics.
I don’t think we have *even* begun to truly use our brain cells to discover sustainable ways of creating energy.
…and Ed, we can always light a candle instead of cursing the dark…
Eagle 