tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post5935788525392563090..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Bump and GradgrindKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-56148493717796336492014-09-12T09:04:31.321-04:002014-09-12T09:04:31.321-04:00Re: Polls
The corporate news media spews propagan...Re: Polls<br /><br />The corporate news media spews propaganda to their audience, then polls that same audience to see how effective their propaganda campaigns have been. Of course their audience would seem to support going after ISIS after all the fear mongering and hype, but to translate that to the rest of the public is absurd. It also ignores how these bombing campaigns MUSHROOM. <br /><br />Personally, I think Obama has lost his mind. Bombing Syria without its consent? That's an Act of War and Russia will not stand for it. Obama is trying to add a notch to his belt, his very own war: WWIII. annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-29148118304760027392014-09-12T07:50:15.846-04:002014-09-12T07:50:15.846-04:00Is change on the horizon? Or, will it be the conti...Is change on the horizon? Or, will it be the continued surrender to today's delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear?<br /><br />Dani Rodrik asks, “How do politicians who are unresponsive to the interests of the vast majority of their constituents get elected and, more important, re-elected, while doing the bidding mostly of the wealthiest individuals?”<br /><br />“A politician who represents the interests primarily of economic elites has to find other means of appealing to the masses. Such an alternative is provided by the politics of nationalism, sectarianism, and identity – a politics based on cultural values and symbolism rather than bread-and-butter interests. When politics is waged on these grounds, elections are won by those who are most successful at “priming” our latent cultural and psychological markers, not those who best represent our interests.”<br /><br />https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dani-rodrik-says-that-widening-inequality-drives-economic-elites-toward-sectarian-politics<br /><br />Case in point, Karen, in her response today to Krugman: <br /><br />“Is the timing of the latest outbreak of war fever a coincidence, or what? Look over there, proles, ISIS is coming!! Pay no attention to Big Oil, Halliburton, the antisocial financiers pulling all the political strings behind the fascist curtain. We're told to be afraid of the atrocities over there in hopes that we'll ignore the real terror over here: the clear and present danger of plutocrats gone wild.”<br /><br />Glen Ford, “Obama has put both Wall Street and U.S. imperial power on new and more aggressive tracks – just as he hired himself out to do.”<br /><br />http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/why-barack-obama-more-effective-evil<br /><br />“From this country’s earliest tycoons to the latest batch of family capitalists, Steve Fraser finds one overwhelming, unifying trait: a deep-seated belief, in a country that worships self- or family-made money, that the more billions you have, the more you should be listened to. In his upcoming book, The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, Fraser explores how, in our second (even more) gilded age, others with little money also came to believe that, rather than resist it.” - Tom Engelhardt, “Steve Fraser, The Return of the Titans,” <br /><br />http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175893/Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-67423570524627187802014-09-12T01:00:17.623-04:002014-09-12T01:00:17.623-04:00I saw your comment in the Times, Fred; it was pick...I saw your comment in the Times, Fred; it was picking up votes. The comments almost universally up to that point are in agreement with Charles Blow, although the Rimabots are there, as usual, pretending the WH has nothing to do with the dark side.<br /><br />The comments at Sardonicky and other favored sites are also near unanimous in decrying Peace Prize Obama’s partiality to arms in the air, if not boots on the ground. And yet we’re going to war again. How come?<br /><br />The polls at the trashy sites like Fox, MSNBC, CBS and CNN tell us most of the country is behind Obama’s move back into Iraq and now Syria too. Those polls are probably accurate, although it took much lying propaganda and fear mongering to bring the country that loses so many wars around to being gung-ho for one more war.<br /><br />Iraq–––Sheep. Afghanistan––Sheep. 2008––Sheep. TARP and the other giveaways to banks and corporations––Sheep. The wipe out of OWS––Sheep. The mortgage fallout––Sheep. NSA revelations––Sheep. Surveillance everywhere––Sheep. Income disparity––Sheep. Carbon madness––Sheep. Syria––Sheep.<br /><br />The activists are few; the sheep are many. Apathy is what Arne and his predecessors have been striving for for ages: Mission Accomplished. <br /><br />The US populace is easily amused and distracted. It has lost its capacity to think for itself. No matter how much it’s prodded, it is incapable of revulsion and revolt.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-34722396515159938912014-09-11T15:37:47.502-04:002014-09-11T15:37:47.502-04:00@Denis Neville:
Thanks for the quotations from An...@Denis Neville:<br /><br />Thanks for the quotations from Andrew Bacevich and Susan Sontag.<br /><br />@Jay - Ottawa:<br /><br />I think that your suggestion of an educational "Jubilee Year" for American high school students, where "The only task for the students in that jubilee year is to read outside of class, come to class to think out loud about the assigned subject, and then to go and read some more" is outstanding, as also is your tentative topic list. (I would, however, suggest that the junior year might be preferred over the sophomore one, for reasons of better academic and emotional maturity). There's no doubt that many students graduate from American high schools without the competencies to be engaged citizens of a properly-functioning democratic republic, let alone truly good human beings. Of course, you realize that many of the powers-that-be wouldn't want either of those things to occur, as they run counter to the current operation of our economy and politics.<br /><br />My comment at the NYT on Charles Blow's "The Cost of War" column:<br /><br />"It's difficult for the country to avoid a manipulated path to war when there is so much profit to be made in military conflict... when politicians' greatest fear is being labeled weak... when the mass-media mostly serves not as critic of but as partner in fear-mongering and nationalistic/exceptionalist chest-beating... and when too many citizens have the critical thinking abilities of a chamber pot, and almost seem to enjoy getting figuratively dumped into, periodically."Fred Drumlevitchhttp://www.freddrumlevitch.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-79323503101304999462014-09-11T13:37:50.676-04:002014-09-11T13:37:50.676-04:00@ Jay - Ottawa
On not doing stupid stuff...
And...@ Jay - Ottawa <br /><br />On not doing stupid stuff...<br /><br />Andrew Bacevich:<br /><br />“Destroying what Obama calls the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant won’t create an effective and legitimate Iraqi state. It won’t restore the possibility of a democratic Egypt. It won’t dissuade Saudi Arabia from funding jihadists. It won’t pull Libya back from the brink of anarchy. It won’t end the Syrian civil war. It won’t bring peace and harmony to Somalia and Yemen. It won’t persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms in Afghanistan. It won’t end the perpetual crisis of Pakistan. It certainly won’t resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<br /><br />All the military power in the world won’t solve those problems. Obama knows that. Yet he is allowing himself to be drawn back into the very war that he once correctly denounced as stupid and unnecessary — mostly because he and his advisers don’t know what else to do. Bombing has become his administration’s default option.<br /><br />Rudderless and without a compass, the American ship of state continues to drift, guns blazing.”<br /><br />http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/09/10/obama-is-picking-his-targets-while-missing-the-point/<br /><br />“We don’t get it. We truly can’t imagine what it was like. We can’t imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is—and how normal it becomes. Can’t understand, can’t imagine. That’s what every soldier, and every journalist and aid worker and independent observer who has put in time under fire and had the luck to elude the death that struck down others nearby, stubbornly feels. And they are right.”<br /><br />“Is there an antidote to the perennial seductiveness of war? And is this a question a woman is more likely to pose than a man?” asked Susan Sontag, “Looking at War,” The New Yorker, <br /><br />http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/09/looking-at-warDenis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-91788849803563028002014-09-11T11:13:09.055-04:002014-09-11T11:13:09.055-04:00“Here we go again.”
The article by Charles Blow o...“Here we go again.”<br /><br />The article by Charles Blow on Obama’s stupids in reaction to ISIS is worth a read, as is Karen’s say now moving up to third place in the comments.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/opinion/charles-blow-the-cost-of-war.html?emc=edit_th_Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-66448446583951988082014-09-11T06:40:31.416-04:002014-09-11T06:40:31.416-04:00Arne Duncan announced recently a new focus on spec...Arne Duncan announced recently a new focus on special education: <br /><br />“President Obama has said that we are stronger when America fields a full team. Unfortunately, too many of the 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities in this country leave high school without the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in a 21st century global economy. While the vast majority of students in special education do not have significant cognitive impairments that prohibit them from learning rigorous academic content, fewer than 10 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Too often, students’ educational opportunities are limited by low expectations. We must do better. That’s why the Department is changing the way it holds states accountable for the education of students with disabilities. We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to a robust curriculum, they excel.”<br /><br />So shift from monitoring state compliance with the Individual’s with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), examining procedural compliance, to looking at “outcomes” for 6.5 million students with disabilities, using Results-Driven Accountability - including participation in state curriculum assessments and data on reading and mathematics achievement for disabled students using the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Duncan will require proof from the states that kids with special needs are actually making academic progress. Tests will supply the proof. States that don’t comply with the new guidelines might lose federal funding.<br /><br />Special ed kids competing and being successful in a 21st century, global economy?<br /><br />More testing will help special education students?<br /><br />“We don't need IEPs-- we need expectations and demands. We don't need student support and special education programs-- we need more testing. We don't need consideration for the individual child's needs-- we just need to demand that the child get up to speed, learn things, and most of all TAKE THE DAMN TESTS. Because then, and only then, will we be able to make all student disabilities simply disappear.” - Peter Greene, Curmudgucation<br /><br />Has never-been-a-teacher Arne Duncan ever taught children with disabilities?<br /><br />Duncan’s DOE’s 11.5 billion dollar commitment to special education in the country? With 6.5 million special education students eligible for services that amounts to an underwhelming $1,769 per student nationwide. The Council of Exceptional Children notes that in 40 years the federal government has never fulfilled its promise to fully fund IDEA.<br /><br />There is a reason they are special education children, and that’s because they have a disability. That’s why they take special ed classes. Duncan’s solution? Make it harder for them to succeed? By raising expectations they will suddenly lose their disability and compete successfully in the 21st century global economy?<br /><br />Reply from a veteran special education teacher: <br /><br />“This is why so many special education teachers are quitting. I have taught students with severe intellectual and multiple disabilities for 20 years. I have always given my students opportunities to access a variety of challenging educational and life skill activities, but in reality some days I am just glad to see one of my student smile, hold their head up or reach out to grasp an object with their hand. I would challenge him to come spend a day in my classroom and then tell me that my students are just faking their level of abilities and that all they need are more challenging curriculum and testing. It is time for teachers to stand up for themselves and their students and say “let people who have actually taught students with disabilities make the laws that effect their education.”Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-28739136896708255732014-09-11T01:20:59.879-04:002014-09-11T01:20:59.879-04:00I have a dream. I hope it isn’t crazier than the ...I have a dream. I hope it isn’t crazier than the Arne Duncan nightmare of stuffing students with information, its retention to be measured in tests.<br /><br />What if these tired kids might be given a Jubilee Year, say, in the sophomore year of high school? A year without written homework, without tests, without grades. <br /><br />Along with the research about teens’ sleeping needs, let’s schedule the first class in that year no earlier than 10:00AM. The only task for the students in that jubilee year is to read outside of class, come to class to think out loud about the assigned subject, and then to go and read some more.<br /><br />Read what? For the sake of discussion, how about starting here?<br /><br />http://www.amazon.com/review/RUEP1T1AWYVJU/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RUEP1T1AWYVJU<br /><br />…. “The Syntopicon (volumes 2-3 of the set) is an index of 100 fundamental concepts that built the Euromerican mind and cultural vision. To give you an idea, here is a sample of the Great Ideas: Art, Beauty, Cause, Chance, Democracy, Desire, Emotion, Eternity, Family, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Immortality, Infinity, Justice, Labor, Language, Life and Death, Love, Mathematics, Matter, Memory, Oligarchy, Progress, Prophecy, Quantity, Religion, Rhetoric, Sin, Soul, State, Time, Truth. War and Peace, Wisdom.... you get the idea: Big Ideas.” ….<br /><br />Are big, boundless ideas too much for sophomores? (I put this question to anyone but the educationist administrator class.) Students might read up on a big idea alone or with a group and pursue it further by reading segments of classic works that form The Great Books Series. Discussions would follow in a classroom setting. Perhaps an essay or two during the year.<br /><br />The federal government will be told to shift a big percentage of funds budgeted for computers to the purchase of old sets of the Great Books and other classics for school libraries, assuming there are still libraries and librarians in high schools.<br /><br />Teachers would NOT come from the regular staff but from capable community volunteers for a class or two per year. The logistics of lining up discussion leaders from the community will be the only task we ask of the administrators. Others (not the educationist administrators) will pick the candidates to be asked to volunteer as a teacher for a topic within their expertise. In time, there will be a repertoire of knowledgeable volunteer/expert/thinkers to choose from. <br /><br />What kind of volunteers? Aim high. Ask a Zephyr Teachout –– or some other available law professor –– to talk about Corruption or the Law, if that’s the topic students choose to think about for a while. Get a retired history professor to come in to guide a student discussion about, say, the attractive but suspect idea of Progress. Then a mathematician talking about mind-blowing concepts in his or her field, not formulas. A biologist talking about anything in his subject. Etc., etc. We mean to encourage the discussion of ideas, meaty subjects to lead students to think for themselves, alright, but in a more informed way thanks to their reading. I’m striving for the spirit of a storied French salon during the Age of the Enlightenment.<br /><br />The above may be too idealistic, too old fashioned, too Western and too dependent on the old –– but not altogether discredited –– dead white males curriculum. So, adjust it. Now that we’ve been educated for decades by feminist scholars, we can add to the old canon those great books written by women. And then from authors from Latin America, Africa and the Far East.<br /><br />To sleep, to dream, perhaps to think more deeply. That’s the challenge. And especially to read well about a few timeless topics during one whole jubilee year for which there is no test.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-48320814783241066622014-09-10T23:43:54.337-04:002014-09-10T23:43:54.337-04:00I just sent in the following comment to the articl...I just sent in the following comment to the article 'Legacy of war"in the nytimes and already have l7 recommendations.<br /><br />"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein<br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-19217299185441401512014-09-10T19:55:33.764-04:002014-09-10T19:55:33.764-04:00"a dog-whistle to the racists and the plutocr..."a dog-whistle to the racists and the plutocrats out there watching in TV land that these kids who have already showed up have to be further prodded, poked and guilt-tripped into working hard!"<br /><br />I agree with everything you say here - but I fail to see the flaw in this. The truth is, the kids DO have to work hard - HARDER - than others. And unless they do, they have almost no hope.<br /><br />Back to my agreements with you: I am part of a work that delivers some important experiences common to every kid in white suburban America but denied to almost every inner city minority kid. The work is transformative - and a significant percentage of them will escape the ghetto in which they have been imprisoned. <br /><br />I joined this work because I *totally* agree with what you are saying - and this is one way that a few of us have found to do something about it.<br /><br />(Other concerned folks: be creative!)Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505526012134089666noreply@blogger.com