This morning's Sun-Times has columnist Mark Brown imploring Univ. of Chicago students to "Let Loathsome Lewandowski Speak", as if they had any official say in the matter.
“Nothing about a firm commitment to free expression obliges us open our doors to (much less to provide platforms for) those who incite hatred and violence against refugees, immigrants, and minorities—that is, against our students, teachers, co-workers and neighbors.” -- Letter from coalition to IOP Director David Axelrod.
DeVos protest in D.C.
A coalition of organizations, which includes groups such as UofC Resists and Graduate Students United, protesting former Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski’s scheduled visit tomorrow, asked the school’s Institute of Politics, run by Democratic Party operative David Axelrod, to withdraw its invitation to Lewandowski and to “stop providing a platform to surrogates of the Trump administration” -- a reference in part to last month’s visit by Trump press secretary Sean Spicer.
Axelrod claims he welcomes "peaceful protest" but refuses to "shut down" Lewandowski, implying that Trump's guy is just another campus walk-on and that violence-prone students are trying to deprive him of his free speech.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Lewandowski is a highly-paid provocateur who, along with the likes of racist creep Milo Yiannopoulos, are speaking everywhere, raking in big bucks in campus speaking fees and attracting massive militant protests whenever they appear.
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| Anti-DeVos protests in Alaska |
That's exactly what students everywhere ought to be doing. It's their most fundamental constitutional right and duty as citizens to speak out against racism and injustice. There's never been a more important time in history to exercise that right.
Along with Brown, it's powerhouse liberal Democrats like Axelrod, AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten and former Obama schools chief Arne Duncan, who are directing their main blows leftward, as they did throughout the presidential campaign, and doing their best to discredit the so-far peaceful anti-Trump protests.
It's what they do. It's what they did in response to the youth movement around the Bernie Sanders campaign and the Black Lives Matter. It keeps them respectable in the eyes of their patrons. It's also among the things that cost them the election -- by alienating lots of young activist voters -- and could do the same in 2018 and 2020.
Weingarten ran with a fake news story and condemned protesters opposed to Betsy DeVos' visit to a D.C. middle school. She falsely claimed that the demonstrators had "almost knocked down" DeVos as she tried to enter the school. But a CNN video debunked her claim.
Duncan joined in the condemnation and praised DeVos for her photo-op visits to the very schools she claims she wants to privatize and Christianize.Just heard a protester blocked & almost knocked Secy @BetsyDeVos down at Jefferson.We don't condone such acts.We want her to go to pub schls— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) February 10, 2017
Agree or disagree w @BetsyDeVos on any issue, but let's all agree she really needs to be in public schools. Please let her in.— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) February 10, 2017
No, it's not a matter of agreement or disagreement on "any issue". Trump and appointees from DeVos to Sessions, to Pudzer, along with Alt-right and white supremacist allies are perpetrating a racist, neo-fascist coup and total takeover of government. They should be resisted at every turn.
It's right to rebel against injustice.
Does the meaningless chatter from DNC insiders (which, of course, led to who we now have in the WH)never end? Ironically, it was really amusing to see Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi out in DC holding candles & speaking out
ReplyDelete(in the kind of Kumbaya way they've ridiculed the Sanders supporters & others for--&, no, I don't think of us as "Kumbaya" type folks)against the immigration ban.
So out of place.
Better yet, they should take a trip out to Standing Rock.
And, again (or should I say "still?") Randi & Arne are on the wrong side of the situation. Can't we ever be rid of Arne?!
The chatter exposes the dissonance within the reformy crowd. It was Arne & DFER that began with the premise that DoEd was already overreaching with regulations, protections & civil rights. They limited oversight to test scores that were useful only when they saw a growth opportunity in a charter chain.
ReplyDeleteDevos is there to further diminish the public’s faith in the agency. She’s there to identify those lifelong employees who are most committed to enforcement & making their lives a living hell until they quit. She’s there to dismantle the very principles and culture of the agency. She’s not there to do the bidding of or to collaborate with the public.
Here's a deeper look at insiders failure of the insiders:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/02/republicans-must-own-trump-reformers.html
Second paragraph right on point, jc. Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, she's checking out the real estate, since she has no clue as to what public schools look like on the inside and...hmmm...how can she transform the interiors to best suit the charters that will one day occupy those classrooms & common areas?
DeleteOops--& one more thing--look to the DNC to make one more huge goof.
DeleteAfter pushing Bernie Sanders' agenda & using him as a spokesperson, they'll go right ahead & elect Tom Perez(after insisting that they need a full-time chairman, & Ellison answering that by stating he'd resign his position to serve, they just HAD to go dig up someone else)as DNC Chairman, snubbing the excellent, best candidate Keith Ellison, who has the capacity to restore faith (esp. from the young voters,inasmuch as Bernie's been touting him)in the party.
To quote a famous song, "When will they ever learn?"
(&--BTW--I will be more than glad to be proven wrong on this one.
But--afraid not.)
I hope you are wrong, retiredbutmissthekids.
DeleteThe racist DeVos cartoon says it all. https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2017/02/15/the-racist-cartoon-of-betsy-devos/ h/t Fred Klonsky
ReplyDeleteFake cabinet appointed by a fake president. Fake fake fake fake. I wish.
ReplyDeleteAxelrod and Duncan are people who have already peaked. Like you said, they are trying to placate their new bosses.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Dem politicians realize that the people are sick of business as usual. The Clintons leaving the White House "dead broke" and now worth 100 million. Washington politicians who are exempt from insider trading. Listening to lobbyists over voters. Or maybe they do realize, but they just want to keep riding the gravy train.
P.S. Axelrod is neo-liberal, not liberal.