WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Time Magazine

There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in the past year. A torrent of hate and violence against people of Asian descent around the U.S. began last spring, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Community leaders say the bigotry was spurred by the rhetoric of former President Trump, who referred to the coronavirus as the “China virus.”Amid the current upsurge in attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and in reaction to the growing national movement against anti-Asian hate crimes, former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee seized the moment to post this dismissive, mocking tweet about people of Chinese ancestry in America. 

Mike Huckabee

“I’ve decided to ‘identify’ as Chinese,” Huckabee tweeted Saturday. “Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my ‘values’ and I’ll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games,” he added, in a reference to criticism against Georgia for its new law making it more difficult to vote. -- Huffington

 Congresswoman Ilhan Omar 

“It’s been really horrendous to watch the defense put George Floyd on trial instead of the former police officer who’s charged with his murder.” -- Guardian 

Former House Speaker, John Boehner

“P.S.: Ted Cruz, go fuck yourself!” -- Leaked audiobook

 Rebecca Solnit

My hope for a post-pandemic world is that the old excuses for doing nothing about climate – that it is impossible to change the status quo and too expensive to do so – have been stripped away. In response to the pandemic, we in the US have spent trillions of dollars and changed how we live and work. We need the will to do the same for the climate crisis.  -- Guardian

Sen. Bernie Sanders

“I have no problem with going to West Virginia, and I think we need a grassroots movement that makes it clear to Joe Manchin and everybody else in the United States Senate, including Republicans, that the progressive agenda is what the American people want." -- MSNBC

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

CPS student, Tamara Reed

“I dreaded going to school. I cried every night." -- Chicago Tribune

Lori Lightfoot

 “This tragedy happened because of incompetency at the highest levels. Who are we as a city if we accept this as just another scandal du jour at CPS?” -- Politico

Study

This household-based survey suggests that the number of excess deaths related to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is more than 70 times the official estimate. -- New England Journal of Medicine

John Boehner

“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party." -- Politico

Rudy Giuliani

Trump could have shot Comey and still couldn't be indicted. “If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day. "Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.” -- Huffington

Natasha Korecki on cost of IL gov's race

"How many Hulu ads can you buy?" -- Illinois Playbook

Chicago Public Schools has failed to protect students from sexual abuse and assault, a Tribune investigation has found. Reporters identified hundreds of cases in the last decade, attacks that left students feeling betrayed and wounded. https://t.co/396Q42bApm https://t.co/NDiwoWVtip

— Juan Perez Jr. (@PerezJr) June 1, 2018

The rabid ferrets

Obama is trying desperately to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff by putting more Medicare and Social Security cuts on the table and letting all but all but the super-rich off the tax hook. Boehner tried to cover his ass with House Republican loonies by coming up with a ludicrous "Plan B." But as Krugman writes in a great NYT piece, Obama was once again "saved from himself by the rabid ferrets." 

Hopefully the union leadership of the We Are One Coalition will be saved from themselves by pension-grabbing ferrets, Quinn and Madigan.

What's That Smell?

Finally, as we head into this wet, cold, Chicago weekend, I'm wondering what that foul odor is, emanating from Byrd-Bennet's supposedly independent Commission on School Utilization? Is it the already-composed (decomposing) secret list of "underutilized" schools to be closed in black and Latino Communities and handed over to charter operators? Or is it Frank Clark's consulting deal with the Civic Consulting Alliance?  Or both?

Post Sandy Hook: Did GOP win the election after all?

Beautiful speech, then more concessions on health care, taxes.

If you thought that the reaction to the Sandy Hook school shootings would provide impetus for more mental heath care resources, think again.

Following the Pres. Obama's beautiful speech in Newton, he went and met with Boehner and offered the Republicans a deal sweetener on the mythical "fiscal cliff" that would cut $400 billion from federal health care programs, including those for mental health. Obama also agreed to cut $122 billion more in cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefits by using a different formula for measuring inflation. Obama is reportedly also retreating on the level of a tax increase for the wealthy,  permanently extending Bush-era tax cuts for those making below $400,000 (rather than $200,000) meaning that only the top tax bracket, 35 percent, would increase to 39.6 percent. 

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is urging  renewed attention to the issue. “Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services in the U.S.,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, as both state and federal budget cuts have mounted nationwide, both inpatient and community services for children and adults living with serious mental illness have been downsized or eliminated. We must fix that.

Maybe Republicans won the election after all.

Forget all the 'fiscal cliff' drama. The deal has already been cut.

Honeywell CEO David Cote OK's the deal

Why am I so sure that the deal has already been done on the so-called fiscal cliff?

Because, according to this report in the NYT, the big boys have already given Obama and Boehner their blessings to increase taxes on the wealthiest 4% of Americans in exchange for cuts in so-called entitlements, ie. medicare benefits and social sec. By the big boys, I mean the real power in the country, including CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, Dow, Morgan Stanley, G.E. and the rest.

“We recognize that part of the solution has to be tax increases,” David M. Cote, chief executive of Honeywell, said on a conference call with reporters. “That’s the only thing that allows a reasonable compromise to be reached.”

According to the Times, on Wednesday, several hedge fund managers, including Daniel Och, the billionaire founder of Och-Ziff Capital Management, met with Valerie Jarrett  and members of the White House economic team.

What’s more, the political symbolism of some of the wealthiest Americans’ saying they support higher taxes on the rich takes a bit of the sting out of the idea of raising rates, for both Democrats and Republicans.

The fact that the the majority of voters overwhelmingly voted against austerity measures and cuts in supports for the neediest among us, means little to the leaders of both parties when compared with the voices of these corporate power houses.

Parents, teachers and students occupying Piccolo

Saying no to privatization

Photos by A. Klonsky

The halls and classrooms of Brian Piccolo Elementary School on North Keeler are now home to dozens of parents, students and activists armed with a message.

"We want to hear from the mayor," said Latoya Walls, Piccolo parent. "Hear us. We are taxpayers. We have a right. We have a say so. These are our kids." -- ABC Channel 7

Protesters are occupying the school in protest of the Board of Education’s plans to fire all the teachers and turn the school over to a private company. The Board plans to vote on Wednesday to turnaround Piccolo and hand over management of the school to AUSL, Academy for Urban School Leadership, a privately connected firm with ties to City Hall.

To support the parents of Piccolo, go to Piccolo School, 1040 N. Keeler. Bring friends, food, blankets, and water. Support Our Schools, Don’t Close Them!

In Ohio, it's Obama school construction vs. 'Boehnernomics'

Obama spoke at the Fort Hayes Art and Academic High School, which has recently received federal funding for renovations.

“There are construction projects like this all over the country just waiting to get started,” Mr. Obama said. “So my question to Congress is, ‘What on earth are you waiting for?’ ”

The crowd of more than 3,000 people at the school acted like they were at a campaign event, too. They chanted: “Pass this bill! Pass this bill! Pass this bill!” -- NYT

White House officials said the $25 billion, if approved by lawmakers, would help at least 35,000 public schools.The investment would make rural schools a priority, as well as schools financed through the Bureau of Indian Education. The money, White House officials said, could be used for a tasks such as repairs or technology upgrades.

Here'a the Republican's "Boehnernomics" alternative.

Duncan's Law

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. -- NYT

All of Duncan's Race-To-The-Top stimulus money handouts, his speaking tours with Newt Gingrich, his embrace of T-Party govs like Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels, none of that could buy him the credibility with Congress he needed for re-authorization of No Child Left Behind.

Duncan & Spellings

NCLB is a law that even he now calls a “slow-motion train wreck.” But Duncan has been a vocal supporter of the test-and-punish law since the Bush days, when he, as Chicago schools CEO, journeyed to D.C. to buddy up with then Ed Sec. Spellings. Remember, it was Spellings who declared the law, "99.9% pure" while Duncan cheered her on.

Now embarrassed by the 2014 proficiency mandate and his own projected 82%  national school failure rate, Duncan is taking the law into his own hands. About 38,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools fell short of their test-score targets under the federal law last year, and Duncan has predicted that number would rise to 80,000 this year. That doesn't provide Obama with much of a record to run on in 2012 -- does it?

While maintaining the worst aspects of the law's of test-and-punish provisions and using them to promote massive school closings, teacher firings, and conversion to privately-run charter schools, Duncan is offering waivers to the states based on Jeb Bush's Florida model, which even brother George wouldn't tolerate. While Jeb was governor, many of the state's A or B schools were considered "failing" by NCLB standards. 

Now, instead of junking the Bush-era law Duncan is encouraging every state to apply for a waiver which he personally could approve-- or not. The Duncan waivers would come only if he deemed that a state was following the "reform" guidelines prescribed under Race To The Top, ie. school closings, mass teacher firings, and more charter schools.

The problem for Duncan is that without any more stim money in his pocket and with massive cuts in the education budget anticipated in the wake of the Obama/Boehner debt deal, he has no juice. NCLB is a dead law walking and Duncan's own future is very much in doubt. He has already lost most of his base of support on the left and now the right is opening up on him.

From the Times:

“It sounds like they’re trying to do a backdoor Round 3 of Race to the Top, and that’s astonishing,” said Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. He called Duncan’s plan “a dramatically broad reading of executive authority.”  

Unfortunately, the real victims of all this top-down educational tyranny will be the cash-starved schools themselves operating under confusing federal mandates and a rudderless Dept. of Education.

Pres. Obama, it's time to dump both NCLB and Arne Duncan. 2012 is drawing near.

It's time to hit the streets to save our schools

No more golfing with Boehner!

Thousands will rally today at noon in front of congressional offices. Make the call Wednesday for the National Call-in Day.Then it's on to Washington for the Save Our Schools March on July 30th.

We're demanding an end to the holding of the country hostage by Republican loonies whose only concern is cutting taxes for their wealthy patrons. If they win, it's likely to be the end of the road for public education, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Turn out today at noon. Find your representative's office here. Download signs here. Better yet, make your own!

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Sound familiar?

Lucas watched angrily. Before the election she had worked hard trying to persuade friends to back the Liberal Democrats. At 26, still paying off student debt, unable to get onto the housing ladder, she had thought the Lib Dems offered hope.  (U.K. Guardian, "Riots, fire, anger at tuition fees protest – and a defining political moment")

"Parent Trigger" triggers parent revolt

"They told me the petition was to beautify the school," said Karla Garcia, whose two children attend McKinley. "They are misinforming the parents, so I revoked my signature."  (L.A. Times)

Boehner says no deal

While expressing an interest in "common ground," Boehner refused to entertain the idea of compromise. "I reject the word," he said. (60 Minutes)

Duncan likes T-bagger Kline but Kline won't play nice

T-Party fave and new House Ed Committee Chairman John Kline, finds lots of areas of agreement with Arne Duncan. No surprise there. But John still won't play ball with Arne. He says Duncan's "Blueprint" for the rewrite of NCLB has been dumped in the circular file. He also threatens to hold hearings on how Mr. Duncan decided to give chunks of the $4 billion in Race To The Top $$$ to some states and not to others. 

“I’d like to have somebody come explain to me how that worked, because there are a lot of questions out there.” (NYT)

Nixon's genetic theories

“Bill Rogers has got — to his credit it’s a decent feeling — but somewhat sort of a blind spot on the black thing because he’s been in New York,” Nixon said. “He says well, ‘They are coming along, and that after all they are going to strengthen our country in the end because they are strong physically and some of them are smart.’ So forth and so on.

“My own view is I think he’s right if you’re talking in terms of 500 years,” he said. “I think it’s wrong if you’re talking in terms of 50 years. What has to happen is they have to be, frankly, inbred. And, you just, that’s the only thing that’s going to do it, Rose.” (Nixon Tapes, NYT)