A 3 minute news segment on the NY lawsuit against Value-Added Modeling

gfbrandenburg's avatarGFBrandenburg's Blog

Even-handed video from Al-Jazeera interviewing some of the people involved in the anti-Value-Added-Model lawsuit against Value-Added Model evalutations of teachers in New York state.

You may have heard of the lawsuit – it was filed by elementary teacher Sherri Lederman and her lawyer, who is also her husband.

Parents, students, and administrators had nothing but glowing praise for teacher Lederman. In fact, Sherri’s principal is quoted as saying,

“any computer program claiming Lederman ‘ineffective’ is fundamentally flawed.”

Lederman herself states,

“The model doesn’t work. It’s misrepresenting an entire profession.”

Statistician Aaron Pallas of Columbia University states,

“In Sherri’s case, she went from a 14 out of 20, which was fully in the effective range, to 1 out of 20 [the very next year], ineffective, and we look at that and say, ‘How can this be? Can a teacher’s performance really have changed that dramatically from one year to the next?’

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Water licence for northeast B.C. fracking operation cancelled

This is wonderful news for the First Nations.

Zig Zag's avatarWarrior Publications

An aerial view of a Nexen well in northeast B.C. A water license for one of its fracking operations near Fort Nelson has been cancelled. Photograph by: Dave Olecko/Vancouver Sun. An aerial view of a Nexen well in northeast B.C. A water license for one of its fracking operations near Fort Nelson has been cancelled.
Photograph by: Dave Olecko/Vancouver Sun.

Fort Nelson First Nation wins important ruling against Nexen

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Hungry school children, Rahm, hunger strikers, and so-called compromise

Who in their right mind would want another Katrina to destroy an entire city?? What a psychopath. Probably a eugenicist, too.

Ken Previti's avatarReclaim Reform

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) is playing a very sick power game. He claims to offer a public high school at Dyett for a year, but not the one the community wants and needs. His PR department has presented this to the media as a  so-called compromise.

The corporate media controlled by the billionaires’ private club, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, will support the so-called compromise. This has been Rahm’s usual method-of-operation for years. Corporate media in Chicago, especially the Tribune News Media Services which includes WGN radio and television, is controlled and extreme. One of its editors recently wrote of her desires was to see a Katrina type of storm that would destroy Chicago ,except her exclusive area, and leave a wake of bodies floating outside her window.

Rahm Dyett Edict.002

Go to #FightForDyett and #WeAreDyett to understand that people have resorted to a hunger strike, intentional starvation…

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The Class Wars in living color

If anyone is still in denial that there is a class war going on….the following items will show it.

First, we have a black man beaten savagely by a rent-a-cop…for being poor and having the freaking gall to shop at Whole Foods. (He was probably trying to buy a chocolate bar. ) /snark

Once again, we have a media trying to characterize this as a race thing.  IT IS NOT.  Poor people on food stamps are treated like dirt.    Never mind that those who criticize food stamp recipients are the same folks that waste enough food to feed a family of four.

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An eye witness to the attack, Zoe Marks, on visit from Edinburgh, Scotland where she lectures at the University of Edinburgh, gave an eyewitness account of the assault on her Facebook, posting graphic images of the victim. She told the Oakland Tribune that she saw the argument between the cashier and the victim as he was trying to use an EBT card (a food stamp card that works like a debit card), but said that the victim wasn’t “shouting,” nor was her “violent or disruptive.” In fact, Marks said the man wasn’t a threat to anyone and that she felt “safe” until the armed security guard came and “attacked him.”

In a Facebook status Marks described the “violent assault,” saying the guard “slammed” the victim against “concrete pillars.” He also allegedly put the man in a chokehold and “suffocated” him before throwing him on the ground unconscious.

Then the guard reportedly locked the man out of the store despite the fact that he was unconscious.

She said none of the employees called the paramedics, instead they called for backup.  

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People may have a misperception about employees of organic grocery stores…I know that I did before working for one. At one time, perhaps in the late 60s–early 70s, they were more mom-and-pop and as part of that culture, they were following the golden rule.  But today’s corporate-run national stores?  Nope.

They do not pay livable wages.  They treat the employees like cattle.  In the store that I worked in, they quickly made the progressive employees targets to the point they quit.  They made the cashiers stand for eight hour days.  We are the only country that does this.  Oh, and by the way, the rumor mill has it that one chain has marked produce “organic” when it is conventionally grown.  They would purposely put organic and conventional close to one another (without touching is the rule)…and I’m sure it was to cover their rear ends if they ever got caught.  They could always say that the clueless employees put the wrong produce in the wrong section….yada yada yada.

One particular incident was really upsetting.  An older woman working as a cashier wasn’t feeling well.  (They don’t care about that, either) And she asked to have a chair so she could sit while checking out customer’s groceries.  The twenty-something managers on duty refused.  She ended up going to the hospital.  She was having a heart attack while working in the store.  The management changed their tune towards her after that.  (Why she would want to continue working there is beyond me.)  But it wasn’t altruistic — it was because they didn’t want to get sued.  She had an open and shut case.

So…yeah..it doesn’t surprise me that this poor guy was treated so badly.  Imagine that…trying to eat organic food while poor.  Why, the audacity!!

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Next, we have a video of a 61-year-old man singing for his supper, so to speak:

And here’s another one of the same encounter:

The first view gives a better shot of the Suit trying to get in on the “action”.   You can just feel that he wants to do something to this guy.

I kept thinking while watching this video that the patrons at the eatery seem to be entertained by his act, albeit awful singing.  They weren’t upset about it…so who called the police?  The Suits.  Classist jerks.

So…we have poor black and poor white men being violently manhandled…not because they were threatening people or harming people…but because they were poor.

You know what’s really disturbing about the man singing?  That those taking the videos did not DO SOMETHING.  They just sat and watched as this man was taken away!

California fighting against SB277 with petition drive

People are going door-to-door getting signatures to repeal the give-up-your-rights-to-your-body law, otherwise known as SB277.  Good for them.

With the billions that the Big Pharma Gestapo has at their disposal, they can wage a hard campaign, much as the food companies did against the public being informed about GMO’s.

But I think people are finally starting to wake up to the fairy tale of vaccinations and are asking questions.  Even if people are for vaccination, the fact that the government can force one to take something into their bodies whether they want to or not should make everyone sit up and take notice.

More evidence that diet can beat cancer…

I found this video on the body fighting off cancer.  You can’t argue with these images.  Notice how much younger the man looks just after three months of Gerson therapy!!  This does not mean I follow or endorse Gerson or that I am a calcified medical professional who steadfastly refuses to acknowledge what is right in front of their faces.  Therefore, you should do your own research and make choices that are best for you.  Be well.