Category Archives: whistleblowers

Well, this is not good…healthcare worker tests positive **edited

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…for Ebola.  Note how they immediately blame the healthcare worker for “breach in protocol”…without confirming what happened.

With what has happened with this hospital from the get-go, I’m not too confident with their assessment.

They sent Duncan home when he had a 103 degree fever…because he didn’t have health insurance.

#%&*!

This is the problem with for-profit medicine….thank you, President Nixon…and with hospitals run by CEOs instead of doctors.  Yes, young ones, doctors used to be in charge of running hospitals, before medicine became profit-driven.  Doctors used to run hospitals as they should be run–with compassion and an understanding of health issues.

They shove poor patients out the door before they are truly well enough to be dismissed, and here is the prime example of why this practice should be illegal….and why medicine needs to go back to how it was before Nixon thought HMO’s would be a great idea.

**edited to add:  I also question their blaming the victim for not following protocol, because as is reported, she was taking her temps twice a day.  She was being vigilant…so why would she break protocol when she obviously was aware of the risk and was monitoring herself?

AFT making deals with Weingarten’s consent **edited

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Mercedes Schneider has another great post up on the deals being made by Randi Weingarten.

I tried to reblog it, but i think with all the comments and permalinks in the box, it crashed.

Anyway, here is the comment I posted in the reblog:

I’ve had this blog up on my queue to read when I got a chance, and something can be said for patience and delay…sometimes the rewards are astounding…as the comments here.

When you start messing with knowledgeable teachers, you better bring your best game…cause you’re messing with the best.

From Allyson:
Allyson permalink

Question: what makes you think you can have access to my children’s data without my consent? My kids’ school does not act for me in this capacity-no permission from me!
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From Dave:

Dave permalink

Hi Dan,
I’m an actual classroom teacher here working in the trenches. Nice to meet you. First, congrats on your business. I’m sure it is going to make you boatloads of money in the years to come, mainly from grants from the Gates Foundation among other. Rupert Murdoch will no doubt want to buy you out at some point, but that could be very profitable for you, too.

As a practicing teacher, I must say on behalf of those who feel as I do (and we are legion), that we have had quite enough of the promise of tech companies reforming education and making our lives and our teaching easier. You don’t. Mostly, we view you and your dime-a-dozen tech companies as leeches who are just hanging on to suck whatever profit you can out of our already stretched too thin school (and state) budgets. We’d really appreciate it if you put your considerable intellectual talents to better use, say, by joining NASA or helping find a cure for cancer. Honestly, we got this. We are going to teach the heck out of our kids every year, and we don’t need any further technology updates to do it.

You are right, however, and parents should realize this: an INCREDIBLE amount of precious learning time is flushed down the toilet because of computers, SMART Boards that don’t function correctly, software that freezes and hard drives that lock up, lost or missing passwords–the list goes on and on. Give me a black board, a piece of chalk, books and paper and I’ll turn ANYONE’s kid into a college-bound student. So will three million other educators … as long as you and other techies stay the heck out of our way. See, it’s our administration that’s the problem. They fall for the snake oil that you peddle, and they keep buying more (my district just sunk a 100 grand into a I-Ready, which now has my fifth graders matching letters to letter sounds like four year olds because of the score they got on the diagnostic. Crimony, what a mess! And now my students’ morale is low.

Just please, Dan, get out of the business and save teachers the headache, and the inevitable battle that we’re going to wage and win against you like we did against inBloom.
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And finally from Lloyd:
Lloyd Lofthouse permalink

Dan Carroll:

Pardon my language, … but it isn’t important if you do or don’t.

Before I went to college on the GI Bill, and then was a public school teacher for thirty years (1975-2005), I served in the U.S. Marines and fought in Vietnam. Before that, I was born to poverty with parents who both dropped out of high school at the age of 14. My dad actually spent time in jail as a teen for breaking and entering, and my older brother about 15 years in prison for a host of crimes.

Growing up in poverty and then ending up teaching children who lived in poverty taught me one thing. It isn’t the material that’s going to teach these kids. It’s the teacher, and a well trained teacher can teach without materiel from someone in the private sector offering material that will make that company a profit and/or pay the CEO a hefty annual salary.

In fact, the worst possible material was always the “crap” that was forced on teachers by administrators who had been convinced by someone working for a corporation that it would make a difference—and none of that junk ever did make a difference. I talk from experience.

So, cut the crap, Mr. Carroll. You aren’t doing teachers a favor by offering them “what you think” is access to materials that will help them do their job while possibly gathering cradle to grave informatory on children to sell to the highest corporate bidder or making a profit for some hi-tech company that sells tablets or laptops or software.

Will you deny that you plan to, or have an agenda, or have goals to gather information on children and sell it? If you answer is no, then please put that in writing and sign it with a promise that you will voluntarily go to prison for ten years or longer if you ever break that pledge. In addition, I want to pick the same prisons my brother served in. No white-collar criminal country club.

A dedicated teacher can teach without material, because they will create their own like I did in my early years in the classroom when there wasn’t enough textbooks to go around, And guess what, with teacher created material, many of the children I worked with soared and continued to do well year after year. And most of the material I used for thirty years was generated by me.In fact, most of the dedicated teachers I know seldom used the “crap” that came from people who thought they knew what teachers needed to do their job.

Why is it that teacher generated material works best? Easy answer: because the teacher who works with these at-risk kids usually knows what works best for their student population— that is, when the teacher can engage the students that often resist learning what’s taught.

Of course, I used the stories in the literature textbooks, but most of the support material in those textbooks wasn’t suitable for the students I worked with. To be frank, I didn’t like most of the “crappy” lesson in those textbooks that others felt would help me do a better job as a teacher.

This is where I want you to really pay attention. This is what teachers NEED most:

FIRST: A national early childhood education program—-that is part of the public schools and not run by a private sector corporation out to make a profit or pay some CEO a six figure, or higher, annual salary—-that’s available to every family and/or child as early as age 2 and specifically for children who live in poverty.

There’s a reason why the country needs a non-corporate, quality early childhood education program, and it is the fact that almost 24% of children in America grow up in poverty [more than any developed country]—-for that reason, teachers don’t need some “ignorant fool” [emphasis mine] to offer them material “that will help them do their job,” because material isn’t going to motivate a child who comes from a dysfunctional home or who is hungry or who lives in a community that’s ravaged by drugs and/or street gang violence similar to the schools where I taught for thirty years.

SECOND: New teachers starting out should be offered the best training possible and that’s a full time, paid, year-long residency with a master teacher in that master teacher’s classroom—this is the program that trained me as a teacher, and it made all the difference—and this program must include at least one full-year of follow up support after those young teachers have a classroom of their own.
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You can read Dan Carroll’s mindless comments at the blog.
I had experience with the *cough* smartboards where you really could not draw on them as you would a chalk board. Besides subjecting the kids to more electro-magnetics, it is a “shiny object” to entertain, with little value in educating children.

Like Dave in the comments,  says– give me chalk and chalkboard. The only electricity required is the electrical current running in the brain. 🙂

**edited to correct “Dave” from Dan. Meh. Must have been a “mercury” day.

First Nations protesting Red Chris mining

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Powerful video here.  I just don’t understand why he didn’t want to talk to them nor drink the water…/snarky to the extreme

What price for food that is edible or water that does not contain heavy metals?  What price for healthy bodies from unpolluted air, water, and soil?

What price for life?

 

Buying our destiny…

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…or selling our destiny…depending on your point of view.  Naomi Klein was on DN! today, talking about climate change and our need to change the things we value in order to save the planet.

Perhaps it would be better stated to save ourselves…the planet will survive, i.e., after the humans and animals and plant life are dead from toxicity, the planet will re-emerge clean…like a phoenix rising up from the ashes.

Klein makes a point that the Green movement has been co-opted by the very targets they were fighting against.  Sadly, she states that The Nature Conservancy has been drilling.  Incredible!  Back in the day, it was one of the organizations I donated to.  That and Sierra Club, but when I found that Sierra was “partnering” with Clorox bleach…yeah, I stopped supporting them even before my life took its downturn.

She mentions the indigenous taking on the big corporations –asserting land rights.  You might recall about a year ago, with the natives of Canada protesting fracking exploration on their lands–

My posts on the events:

October 20th.   October 22nd.   November 4.   November 8.  November 24.   December 1.   December 15.

Klein asserts that those who stand to lose the most from the change in what we value–solar over oil, coal, and nuclear energy–are fighting a dirty war with the help of politicians and others who are bought and paid for.

They don’t care what ill health effects are created by the toxic environment.  It’s just mindboggling how they think that their pollution is not going to affect them–do they think they live in a bubble, immune from what happens around them?

An example–the pollen counts have been high here lately, so I haven’t been outside to jog.  I went yesterday morning, and then had problems with deep coughing.  I haven’t really had that deep coughing in awhile.  There has to be a connection.  Not only to the “normal” pollution, but from chemtrails, aka bioengineering–as I saw several trails in the sky to the East of me.  They have been spraying them above the clouds so it’s harder to see them, but they’re there.

I saw these from twenty miles away, Sunday:

chemtrails.9.14.2014

Just recently, Joe Donnelly, Dan Coats, and Jackie Walorski, Indiana politicians, have come out against EPA regulations.  The local radio station is airing commercials (surely paid for by those in the industry) stating that the EPA is a threat.  I kid you not.

Joe Donnelly here and here.

Dan Coats here–from an “EPA abuse” website, most likely being supported by the coal industry;  and here and here–this extension period was needed so they could flood the airwaves with the commercials I’m now hearing….

Notice the “job-killing” tactic–classic playbook.  Why doesn’t Sen. Coats tout renewable energy jobs that would be created if we stopped supporting the dirty coal industry?

Jackie Walorski here:  jackiewalorski.com/walorski-farm-bureau-take-aim-epa/

And here–a big thank you from the Farm Bureau. Pfft.

Note the scare tactics of “big government” and “regulating every faucet”….

Farmers need to realize their part in polluting the water.  And they need to be given some incentive for going organic, and not using chemicals in food production.  Where is the money for that?

Our water flows into the Ohio, which flows into the Mississippi, which flows into the Gulf.  It has been noted that Indiana is one of the biggest polluters (17 million pounds of toxins into our waterways EVERY YEAR), and the coral and sea life are dying because of it.

All the while, mercury in Indiana waterways is ABOVE the standards set from the USGS website.

28

 Mercury contamination in water and fish throughout Indiana has routinely exceeded levels recommended to protect people and wildlife. About 1 in 8 fish samples tested statewide had mercury that exceeded the recommended safety limit for human consumption. The causes include mercury in the rain and mercury going down the drain, according to a recently released federal study.The most significant source of mercury to Indiana watersheds is fallout from the air. Much of the mercury in the air comes from human activity. In Indiana, coal-burning power plants emit more mercury to the air each year than any other human activity. In urban areas, wastewater discharge contributes a substantial portion of mercury to waterways.

ALEC and Fossil Fuels

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PRWatch has this up on ALEC continuing its dirty campaigns against everything that is logical.

From the piece:

ALEC is even going after people who want to generate solar power for their homes. The boom in home solar energy generation—there has been a 60 percent increase in domestic solar installations in the past year—is a threat to ALEC’s dirty energy producing members, so they have a bill to amend so-called net metering laws that allow homeowners to sell excess electricity back to the grid. It is the ability to do this that makes solar an increasingly affordable possibility for homeowners. ALEC’s bill would charge homeowners additional fees, with ALEC environment task force director John Eick telling The Guardian that these users are “free riders on the system.”

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You know, it’s one thing to try to promote your heavy-metal containing pollution, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to try to prevent people from taking a proactive stance against your dirty fuel.  Unreal.

Solar energy has sooo many benefits–one of which is independence from the greedy energy producers whom have stripped our lands of trees, poisoned our water and soil, and then not paid for the land use nor taxes on top of that.

Sixty percent increase in solar energy use…just in the last year…this is a *huge* threat to them.

Mike Pence, doing ALEC’s bidding, along with the coal industry.

Not long ago, Indiana ranked in the top five for low cost of electricity. Now, thanks to an onslaught of regulations from Washington, Indiana ranks somewhere firmly in the middle of the pack.

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Reading between the lines, this is as much an admission of guilt for polluting our air, water, and soil with heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic) from coal. They were getting away with it until regulations prevented the free-for-all.

I keep thinking about that 17 million pounds of toxins put into our waterways every single year…and BP dumping mercury into Lake Michigan every single year, courtesy of Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mis-Management….and the lack of action when the toxic spill floated down the Ohio…

 

 

 

A Jewish voice on Gaza

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DN! interviewed Henry Siegman, a rabbi that represents strong Jewish organizations and what he had to say regarding the bombing of Gaza will blow you away.

For one thing, he doesn’t believe Hamas is any more a terrorist organization than Israeli fighters were when they fought to take the land away from the Palestinians to form their own state.  They killed innocents to take the land away.

And now they want to deny the Palestinians that same right to a land they can call their own without interference by Israel.

While I’m watching this segment, I’m thinking of my continuing studies on religions–just for the record–every single major religion:  Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, has blood on their hands for killing innocents.

“Kill them all, and let God sort them out…”  seems to be a common theme throughout history.

Only, “do unto others as you wish to be done to you” doesn’t quite fit into that thinking.

Self-defense, in my view, is the only legitimate excuse for killing another.  And that is only after all other avenues have been taken–such as diplomacy.  Or poking the stick to keep one at arm’s length.   Trying self-defense without intent to kill (like martial arts).

But diplomacy is becoming a lost art.  It’s easy to just drop a bomb and believe that will end it, but in reality, it just creates more problems.  Peace isn’t easy–compromise and humility are key factors in creating and sustaining Peace.  Being humble isn’t valued in this society–it’s seen as weakness or worse–low self-esteem, when in reality, it is a recognition that we are part of Creation, and even though we are all important in that we bring our own uniqueness to the world, we are also a small part of that world and it takes all of us to make the world go ’round.

 

More on ALEC

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Reading the post from Diane Ravitch the other day, this caught my eye:

The “Property Insurance Claims Act,” on which both the Civil Justice and Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Forces will vote, tilts the playing field in favor of property insurance companies. It would benefit those companies that are represented by the ALEC member Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA). The bill would restrict the time frame for the insured to bring a claim, require the insured to submit to mandatory appraisal, and cut back existing law protecting property owners in many states. PCIAA’s vice president of state government relations, Joe Woods, is the private sector co-chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee of the Commerce task force, which will vote on the bill first. – See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187796/alec-agenda-dallas-evisceration-medicaid-school-privatization-and-expansion-gas#sthash.yQQZCEtA.dpuf
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The thing is…they are already doing this.  Like everyone else (that is greedy), they want to up your premiums…and then not pay when there is a claim.
When I still had my house, there was an issue with brand new eaves troughs I had installed by a so-called professional.  They ended up putting water into the house instead of taking it away.  But it was so gradual (and being mercury poisoned, not as “with it” as I would normally be), the damage wasn’t discovered until I noticed mold on several pairs of shoes, a book bag I used in college, and other stuff in a dark closet.
The insurance company refused to pay for the damage, even though the whole house had spots of mold, along with the attic.  The “inspector” they sent used a penlight…read that again: a penlight…to “inspect” the attic.  After which he proclaimed that he “didn’t see anything”.  Lied through his mossy green teeth…
I knew they were lying, but like I said, I was pretty toxic at the time and didn’t have the wherewithal to even think about how to fight back.  Nor could I trust any lawyer in my town, which my ex’s family owned.
I had been with this insurance company for decades, so I trusted them.  They had an A-1 rating by the insurance rating company…
None of that mattered when the fit hit the shan.
So…yeah…this may be news to y’all, but isn’t to me.
It’s a different world, folks.  They take your money and then refuse to pay a legitimate claim….after years of paying premiums.
Now ALEC will make sure they pay even fewer claims.
…because they want it all.
The Koch brothers and their ilk want it all.

More on Gaza and what it’s like to be Palestinian

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DN! has another good piece on life in Gaza….if you can call it that. Existence is more apt a word…

Israel targeted yet another hospital…and yet another playground with children.

I just can’t wrap my brain around anyone justifying this–only a mentally ill person would rationalize killing children and innocent people whom have nothing to do with Hamas.

And the cruel mind games Israel is playing—calling people and telling them to leave because they are about to be bombed…when there is clearly nowhere else to go.  As the piece illustrates–a man who left to go to “safety” was bombed there, too.  Where are they to go?

Another segment the other day said that Israel is also playing mind games by calling people up and telling them they are in their crosshairs.  And there are drones overhead all the time….even when there was supposedly a cease-fire that Israel claimed to uphold.  Who would trust someone like that?

DN also had this up yesterday of a Palestinian’s account of his own personal tragedy.  It’s hard to watch–he clearly is heartbroken over losing so many members of his family.

Again, Israel has a lot of fire power because of the United States giving them billions every single year.  I do not support my tax dollars going towards killing innocent people…innocent children playing on a playground…people in hospitals that have already been greatly harmed…

~~~More of this segment also explores the overreach of the NSA, CIA, et al, and how the Fourth Amendment is ignored.  Brian Ross has stated that he now begins telephone conversations with “I’m an American citizen, are you?”  because he says they are not supposed to be listening in on American citizens’ conversations.  This is a protective measure.  It is incredible how paranoia has become so extreme that journalists now feel like criminals and have to act like they’re mafia or something in order to develop contacts and be able to investigate the very people who are trying to usurp the press’ ability to investigate them.

Meanwhile, the petition for Freedom of the Press and Whistleblowers has now reached over 100,000 like-minded folks who believe in the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment which a healthy democracy needs to survive.

First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – See more at: http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1/amendment.html#sthash.8k4V7g5s.dpuf
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Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. – See more at: http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment4/amendment.html#sthash.Ihw0OGGC.dpuf
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Michael Hastings interview

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I found this really interesting interview with Michael Hastings–note how the Gen. Kimmitt, who is now a private defense contractor, is blowing smoke about how “great” Iraq was, post-war—lying through his mossy green teeth about the situation.

I thought this was particularly relevant given the present situation in Iraq and the Middle East:

It shows how Michael was telling the truth as a journalist and how his slamming the lame “journalists” who just accepted whatever was fed to them about the wars. Piers Morgan’s actions here show that.

I agree with Michael’s statement that there were many reasons besides sex that should have forced the general to resign.  I really don’t give a crap if he had an affair–that’s between him and his wife–I care more about him lying to the White House, and the mischaracterization of Iraq before the war (their society was much more diverse than was portrayed).

Petition for Whistleblowers and Freedom of the Press

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The Progressive has this release:

Thursday, July 10, 2014<br>
CONTACT: Nikolina Lazic, <a href=”mailto:nikolina@prwatch.org“>nikolina@prwatch.org</a>

TAKE A STAND NOW FOR A FREE PRESS
Tell President Obama America’s Best Reporters Should Be on the Beat, Not in Jail

The U.S. government is insisting that award-wining New York Times “national security” reporter James Risen reveal a confidential source — or go to jail. Risen says he won’t capitulate.

Now you can let this journalist and top government officials know that you’re in solidarity with his brave stand for a free press. Sign the petition “We Support James Risen Because We Support a Free Press at: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9775&tag=CMD20140508&track=CMD20140508.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation has called the government’s effort to force Risen to reveal a source “one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades.”

So much is at stake: for whistleblowers, freedom of the press and the public’s right to know. And for democracy.

That’s why our team at The Progressive/Center for Media and Democracy is joining forces with RootsAction, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Nation magazine to insist on protection for the confidentiality of journalists’ sources.

Amplify our combined voices. Click here to sign the petition to President Obama and Attorney General Holder: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9775&tag=CMD20140508&track=CMD20140508.

Thank you for taking action!

— The team and CMD and The Progressive

———-

CONTACT:

The Progressive, Inc.
Publisher of The Progressive magazine
PRWatch.org, ALECexposed.org, Progressive.org,
SourceWatch.org, and PublicSchoolShakedown.org
409 East Main Street, Suite 100
Madison, Wisconsin 53703-4929
Phone: (608) 257-4626

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Your ability to know what is going on in the world depends on the press being able to gather information without threat of jail.

A democracy cannot survive without the press revealing the facts that politicians and government officials would rather you not know.  The press has the right to keep their sources secret….especially in this age of no privacy, as we saw with the previous story on Brian Williams.  The ability to obtain information from sources without them being compromised is already in jeopardy without the threat of jail for reporters who managed to keep their sources secret from the NSA/CIA spying.