Fwd: Health care disaster continues

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: John Hemington

As we are dragged kicking and screaming into the frightening new era of Trumplandia, it is worth reexamining one of the issues which is most important to most Americans.  As most of you are aware, I am no fan of either Barak Obama or his namesake health abomination the Affordable Care Act.  Don't get me wrong, the ACA has, in fact, helped many Americans who would otherwise not have been able to get any health insurance at all.  That is, however, a very sad commentary given the kind of efficient, effective and affordable health care all Americans should be entitled to receive.  As it is, even with the ACA the U.S. has the least efficient, least effective and most expensive health care system of any developed nation in the world – and this is not an accident.  Obama and his New Democrat cohorts deliberately crafted the ACA (actually it was crafted by lobbyists from the pharmaceutical and insurance oligopolies and simply implemented by the New Democrats) to benefit their moneyed paymasters; and sold as the most wondrous thing since Wonder Bread (another not very good idea).  I know that I'm preaching to the choir on this, but it cannot be overstated – we deserve better, and we must demand better. 

There is no better time to stand up and demand what should have been done long ago than when things appear to be at their bleakest.  Many of us are depressed (though not defeated) by the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency.  But, think about it, is the prospect of a Trump presidency really all that much worse than what we have had forty years or so?  It could be but for the first time in a while people who have been seduced by lesser evil Democratic Party scare tactics may be willing to get off the fence, stand up and fight for something important.  And yes, I realize that the issues included in the "identity politics" milieu are important; but also important (and in some ways more so) are issues of endless war, health care for all, control of the financial overlords, corporate money in politics, elimination of austerity politics, meaningful jobs for the poor and working classes paying living wages, global warming and environmental destruction and a host of others the New Democrats have chosen tot to address with any real gusto or ignore completely.  This is a process which is designed and intended to keep Americans separated and effectively at war with one another.  It is the essential construct of neoliberalism and it has worked far better than even the most hard-core neoliberal could have imagined.

Like the Republican Party the Democratic Party has no present intention of addressing any of these core issues.  We are, and have been for many years like it or not, been embroiled in an ever escalating class war and the plutocrats and their political minions have so disarmed the rest of us with ceaseless propaganda and endless new techno-toys intended to keep us helplessly indulged in a mindless frenzy of consumerism.  They tell us that only their "experts" can understand, explain and establish government policy.  They tells us the federal government out of money and being hopelessly constrained by unpayable debt – but it is never a problem when the funding of endless war or the bailing out of the financial system to the tune of 29 trillion dollars is concerned.  The money is always available for corporate needs, but when peoples' needs are mentioned the cupboard is bare and austerity is the stock answer.  This is why we have no government provided health care for all.

I believe strongly that one of our most important tasks is to share as widely as possible the reality behind the neoliberal myths which have been promulgated via state and think tank propaganda and political lies ever since Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan assumed power in Great Britain and the United States in the 1980s.  We are most certainly engaged in a class war and for the moment only the ruling class is engaged.  It is time that the rest of us began our offensive against our rulers.  But in order to effectively organize ourselves, I believe that we must first come to understand the myths we have been sold and why they are destructive lies which have kept us separated for so long. 

Socialists, Progressives, Liberals and those on the political left cannot effectively engage, nor can we ever win this class war on our own – and we have a long history of fighting one another.  We must somehow learn to engage with those on the right side of the political spectrum, remembering that they are just as splintered and confused as are we.  We have to stop being enemies and become allies wherever possible.  And, yes, there are some on both sides we will never be able to reach.  That is just the way things are and won't be changed no matter what we or they do.  But that should not dissuade us from the task at hand.  When I speak of education I certainly do not mean "smart" liberals talking down to "dumb deplorables" as the New Democrats seem prone to do.  I mean listening exchanging views and ideas, explaining differences and hearing others' experiences and what they have learned from years of systemic abuse and neglect.  This can be much more important and more powerful than anything we might have to offer from our life experiences.

I started this by talking about health care because I believe that it is an issue we can all discuss and share experiences and ideas.  It is a problem for all of us who do not dwell in the gated compounds of the 1%.  I also believe that the reality behind fiat money, debt and credit are subjects which must be brought into the open if we are to have any change to break through to the other side with social solutions.  As long as a majority of Americans continue to buy into the myth of the national debt as a constraining inhibitor limiting their and their children's opportunities there will be no opportunity to convince them of the benefits of collective action and governmental social programs.  In short we need two-way teaching and we need it now.  I am not at all certain how best to accomplish this, but I think that some significant collective effort must be put forth to find out.  Absent that we will continue to get kicked to the side of the road by our "betters" in the plutocracy.

John

Links

• Lower Life Expectancy: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpWmZwZjZPYUhoaFZ2NW9FQS1jMVVvb0cxWGdz
• Debate over healthcare omits the elephant in the room. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpYnVDT3BxZUhReGtmdjJlUG9GcHpabC1QdU1v
• Trump promises to reduce drug costs. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpRWxRMnVRRmthN2VNWEw5TmNiRkhSTWZaWG9Z

Fwd: SAR19: Pre-Summit | Volunteers | Workshops | Registration

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From: Summit Against Racism <summitagainstracism@gmail.com>

Schedule is LIVE + Pre-Summit Town Hall Reminder + Online Registration View this email in your browser Seeking Volunteers for the Summit We need volunteers for Friday evening (1/20) and Saturday (1/21). Roles include registration, taking notes during workshops, food, set-up, and clean-up. Volunteer to sign up here.  Volunteer orientation is 1/19, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Schedule for the Summit is Posted on Our Website View SAR19 Schedule Join us for a  Pre-Summit Town Hall in Partnership with Union Project Tuesday 1/17 5:30 p.m. - 8:30pm at Union Project, 801 N. Negley 15206 Register for Pre-Summit Here Workshops are Posted on our Website.  Decide What to Attend Before You Arrive Read About Our Workshops Here Online Registration Closes Thursday 1/19 | *NEW* Half-Day Rate | Online registration will close on Thursday, January 19th, at  11:59 pm. However, registration will still be available in person from  8:00 am to 2:00 pm on the day of the event, Saturday, January 21st.  Can't attend the full Summit? We are offering a special half-day rate of $20 that does not include lunch. Register Online HERE Copyright © 2017 Summit Against Racism, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you attended the Summit Against Racism either this year or years prior. We are just getting our contact list together so if you don't wish to be on this list please find the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email. This intends to be a relatively low volume email list with announcements about local organizing around police brutality and the annual summit against racism. Our mailing address is: Summit Against Racism P. O. Box 4783 Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Fwd: [New post] The Racists Roots and Racist Indoctrination of School Choice

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From: gadflyonthewallblog <comment-reply@wordpress.com>

stevenmsinger posted: " "Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination." -President John F. Kennedy "Injustice anywhere is a threat to jus" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on gadflyonthewallblog The Racists Roots and Racist Indoctrination of School Choice by stevenmsinger "Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination." -President John F. Kennedy "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Billionaires and far right policymakers are pushing for school choice. I say they're pushing for it because voters always turn it down. Every single referendum held on school choice in the United States has been defeated despite billions of dollars in spending to convince people to vote for it. But advocates aren't discouraged that the public isn't on their side. They have money, and in America that translates to speech. The Donald Trump administration is dedicated to making our public schools accept this policy whether people want it or not. But don't think that's some huge change in policy. The previous administration championed a lighter version of these market-driven plans. The main difference goes like this: Democrats are for charter schools and tax credits for private and parochial schools. Republicans are for anything that calls itself a school getting your tax dollars – charter schools, private schools, religious schools – if some charlatan opens a stand on the side of the road with the word "school"in the title, they get tax dollars. In all this rush to give away federal and state money, no political party really champions traditional public schools. Ninety percent of children attend them. In opinion polls, a majority of Americans like their local community schools. But like most things Americans want, politics goes the other way. Universal healthcare? Have Romneycare. Universal background checks on all gun sales? Nah. That sort of thing. However, what often gets lost in the rush of politicians cashing in on this policy is its racist roots. You read that right. School choice was invented as a mechanism of white flight. Before the federal government forced schools to desegregate, no one was all that interested in having an alternative to traditional public schools. But once whites got wind that the Supreme Court might make their kids go to school with black kids, lots of white parents started clamoring for "choice." It was intended as a way to get around Brown vs. Board. In 1953, a year before that landmark decision, many white southerners felt it was vitally important to continue a segregated education. They deeply desired to continue having "separate but equal" schools for the races, yet the US Supreme Court seemed ready to strike that down. Enter Georgia's Gov. Herman Talmadge who created what became known as the "private-school plan." Talmadge proposed an amendment to the Georgia Constitution to empower the general assembly to privatize the state's public education system. "We can maintain separate schools regardless of the US Supreme Court by reverting to a private system, subsidizing the child rather than the political subdivision," Talmadge said. The plan goes like this. If the Supreme Court mandates desegregation (as it did), the state would close the schools and issue vouchers allowing students to enroll in segregated private schools. Fortunately, Talmadge's plan was never implemented in Georgia. But it became the model for segregationists everywhere. In Prince Edward County, Virginia, the plan actually came to fruition – sort of. Two years before the 1959 federal desegregation deadline, local newspaper publisher J. Barrye Wall explained what county leaders were planning: "We are working [on] a scheme in which we will abandon public schools, sell the buildings to our corporation, reopen as privately operated schools with tuition grants from [Virginia] and P.E. county as the basic financial program," he wrote. "Those wishing to go to integrated schools can take their tuition grants and operate their own schools. To hell with 'em." Ultimately the county refused to sell the public school buildings. However, public education in Prince Edward County was nevertheless abandoned for five years, from 1959 to 1964. During that time, taxpayer dollars were funneled to the segregated white academies, which were housed in privately owned facilities such as churches and the local Moose Lodge. The federal government struck down the program as a misuse of taxpayer funds after only a year, but even so whites benefited and blacks lost. Since there were no local taxes collected to operate public schools during those years, whites could invest in private schools for their children, while blacks in the county were left to fend for themselves. Since they were unable and unwilling to finance their own private, segregated schools, many black children were simply shut out of school for multiple years. In other states, segregationists enacted "freedom of choice" plans that allowed white students to transfer out of desegregated schools. Any black students that tried to do the same had to clear numerous administrative hurdles. Moreover, entering formerly all-white schools would subject them to harassment from teachers and students. Anything to keep the races apart in the classroom – and usually the entire building. Eventually, segregationists began to realize that separate black and white schools would no longer be tolerated by the courts, so they had to devise other means to eliminate these "undesirables." Attorney David Mays, who advised high-ranking Virginia politicians on school strategy, reasoned: "Negroes could be let in [to white schools] and then chased out by setting high academic standards they could not maintain, by hazing if necessary, by economic pressures in some cases, etc. This should leave few Negroes in the white schools. The federal courts can easily force Negroes into our white schools, but they can't possibly administer them and listen to the merits of thousands of bellyaches." Mays turned out to be somewhat prescient. Though desegregation efforts largely succeeded at first, in the last 20-30 years whites accomplished through housing and neighborhood segregation what they couldn't legally enforce through outright school segregation. District lines were drawn to minimize the number of blacks at predominantly white schools and vice versa. Moreover, since funding was often tied to local property taxes, whites could legally ensure black schools got less resources than white schools. And with standardized tests constantly showing students at these schools as failing, policymakers could just blame the school instead of what they'd done to set the school up for failure. Today racist policies undermine much of the structure of our public schools. We should acknowledge this and work to peel it back. We need to ensure all schools are equitably funded, that class sizes are under control, that all students get a broad curriculum and the services they need. But in the absence of a new, robust desegregation policy, our schools will always be in danger of racist programs that can easily select which students to benefit and which to ignore. Instead of doing this hard work, we're engaged in resurrecting the school choice policies of the deep South and universalizing them across the country. School vouchers are extremely similar to Talmadge's private school plan. The main difference is that vouchers don't close public schools outright, they simply allow them to be defunded and ignored. With universal school vouchers, public schools often become the de facto holding area for whichever group of children the private schools refuse to accept or who can't afford private school tuition even with the vouchers. Charter schools are built on the Prince Edward County model. They're administered as private institutions yet claim to be somehow public. As a result, they're allowed to bypass many of the rules that protect students at public schools from discrimination and fraud. In effect, they're largely unregulated. In the modern age, that means they can be incredibly substandard for long periods of time and no one knows or intervenes. The kinds of scandals perpetrated at some charter schools are simply not possible at traditional public schools. Some charters close without notice, have facilities used as nightclubs, involve taxpayer funds used for non-school purposes such as apartments for mistresses, the purchase of yachts, etc. In both cases, charters and voucher schools often cater to mostly one race rather than another. That increases segregation at both these facilities and traditional public schools. But voucher schools can go a step further. They can even put racism on the curriculum. Supporting the racial order is often what's actually being taught at private and religious schools. They are infamous for revisionist history and denying climate science. What's less well-known is how they often try to normalize racist attitudes. The American Christian Education (ACE) group provides fundamentalist school curriculum to thousands of religious schools throughout the country. Included in this curriculum is the A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press textbooks.  A Beka publishers, in particular, reported that about 9,000 schools nationwide purchase their textbooks. These books include the following gobsmackers: "[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians." —United States History for Christian Schools, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001 "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ." —America: Land That I Love, Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994 "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well." —United States History for Christian Schools, 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991 "To help them endure the difficulties of slavery, God gave Christian slaves the ability to combine the African heritage of song with the dignity of Christian praise.  Through the Negro spiritual, the slaves developed the patience to wait on the Lord and discovered that the truest freedom is from the bondage of sin. By first giving them their spiritual freedom, God prepared the slaves for their coming physical freedom. " -Michael R. Lowman, George Thompson, and Kurt Grussendorf, United States History:  Heritage of Freedom, 2nd ed. (Pensacola, FL: A Beka Book, 1996), p. 219. "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel…Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government." —Old World History and Geography in Christian Perspective, 3rd ed., A Beka Book, 2004 Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists." —Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998 Brown v. Board of Education is described as social activism by the Supreme Court: "While the end was a noble one - ending discrimination in schools - the means were troublesome... liberals were not willing to wait for a political solution." -Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998 - 1999 (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1998), p. 34 These are claims that are uncritically being taught to children at many voucher schools. If this were happening only at private schools, it would be troubling that racists were indoctrinating their children in the same hatred and bigotry of their parents. However, that we're actually using public money - and planning to expand the amount of public money - to increase the racism and prejudice of the next generation is beyond troubling! It's infuriating! School choice does not enhance civil rights. It is inimical to them. It is part of a blatant policy to make America racist again. We cannot allow the Trump administration and any neoliberal Democrats who quietly support his ends to undo all the progress we've made in the last 60 years. The bottom line is this – voters don't want school choice. It does nothing to better childrens' educations. It is a product of segregation and racism and even in its modern guise it continues to foster segregation and racism. If we care about civil rights, social equality and democratic rule, school choice is something that should be relegated to the dust heap of history. It's time to move forward, not look back fondly on the Confederacy, Jim Crow and segregationism. stevenmsinger | January 15, 2017 at 3:37 pm | Tags: A Beka publishers, American Christian Education, Bob Jones University Press, charter schools, children, Donald Trump, Dr. Martin Luther King, education, Politics, president kennedy, racism, School Choice, school vouchers, Students, teaching, transparency, white flight | Categories: #BlackLivesMatter, Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Budget, Campaign Donations, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Corporate Education "Reform", Donald Trump, Education, Obama, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Republican, School Choice, School Funding, school segregation, school vouchers, Schools, segregation, Social Justice, Standardized Testing, Supreme Court, Teachers, White Privilege | URL: http://wp.me/p4QD1W-23e Comment    See all comments    Like Trouble clicking? 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Welcome to attend this evening, mindfulness training

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard King

***   ***   ***

An Invitation to Attend a Mindfulness Training Workshop for Parents, Students and Staff

Thursday, January 12th, 6:15pm - 7:30 pm

St. Edmund's Academy Auditorium

5705 Darlington Rd, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15217

St. Edmund's Academy PTA will present a workshop introducing mindfulness training exercises for parents and children.  Mindfulness exercises reduce stress and support academic success.  Mindfulness practices are life skills that promote health, wellness, resilience, emotional stability and habit change.  Because these exercises build self awareness, calm, and impulse control, they can also help cultivate resilient individuals, families, and communities as they improve self management and communication skills.  

Managing stress is a life skill.  We'll review what stress is and some techniques for managing stress.  We'll practice belly breathing, the awareness response, mindful breathing, and body scan exercises as ways to activate a physiological state called "the relaxation response."  One goal of the workshop is to support parents and students in developing a personal routine daily practice.  Health and emotional wellness both benefit with daily mindfulness routines.  Practicing these mental hygiene skills may be as important as daily hygiene, physical exercise, or the use of seat belts.  Hopefully these wellness skills will become family traditions that will last a lifetime. 

Please rsvp to Dr. Richard King at kinggaines@comcast.net with "Workshop" in the subject line.

Fwd: BGC needs help with worksite placements for 150 amazing seniors-Friday meeting

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From: <RFlanag@aol.com>
Date: Jan 10, 2017 4:08 PM
Subject: BGC needs help with worksite placements for 150 amazing seniors-Friday meeting

Hello Local Business Owners and Partners,

Local young adults need you to help them become the workforce of tomorrow!

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation is seeking businesses and partners that are willing to host high school interns who are participating in our College and Career Readiness Program. This is an exciting opportunity to play an active and supportive role in shaping the career of a young adult in our city. 

We have 150+ 12th graders in our program from all over the city. These students have a very diverse range of career interests. Our hope is to recruit a similarly diverse range of employers so that each student can participate in an internship that helps them develop their career interests.

BGC has funding from the 3 Rivers WIB to pay these students while they participate in an internship with your company.

Please join us for a College and Career Readiness Program Internship Meeting to learn more about what it takes to host a 12^th grader intern and to get to know our staff and program participants.

When: Friday, January 13th, 2017

Time: 8:30 AM

Where: The Children's Home of Pittsburgh, 5324 Penn Avenue

Please RSVP to Rick Flanagan, Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation if you plan to attend by calling 412-353-9594 or by completing and returning the attached

FAX BACK FORM to 412-441-6918.

Attached is a letter that has more details about this program and how to get involved.

Fwd: Fast and furious

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From: John Hemington

I realize that these missives have been coming fast and furiously, but the attached article by Jonathan Rosenblum in Tikkun is an important contribution to our understanding of what needs to be done in the era of Trump and Republican dominance.  It also exposes the futility of depending upon the tired nostrums of the neoliberal New Democrats for band-aid solutions.  It is certainly not the whole answer; and it is clear that labor unions in the form we have come to know them will never return to the positions of power within the economy which they once occupied.  This is not because of a particular fault with the idea of organizing, but the changing nature of manufacturing in the era of technological mechanization and robotics.  Indeed, what Rosenblum suggests is a powerful merger of the organizing impetus with a view toward expanding to a more global arrangement of continuing to defend what they now have while at the same time expanding alliances with other groups seeking to change the direction of neoliberal destruction of common needs.  If there is any real hope in the coming years, it will take this type unionizing effort and cooperation among divergent groups seeking not just inwardly focused goals, but goals shared among the larger sphere of communities in need.

John

•  Article, Unions in the Trump Era, PDF

Fwd: Looking at 2017 . . . and beyond

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

Attached is a 2017 New Year's prospective by James Howard Kunstler.  For those of you who are not familiar with Kunstler he is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger.  He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere, a history of American suburbia and urban development, The Long Emergency, and most recently, Too Much Magic.  Kunstler is an interesting character on the American scene and can probably best be characterized as a progressive-libertarian to the extent that any characterization is possible.  Whatever else one may say Kunstler is always provocative, opinionated and, more often than not, pretty much on point with his assessments.

I send this article along with a couple of caveats:  (1) it is rather long – 16 pages but well worth the time and effort; (2) it almost certainly contains viewpoints that will offend some of you; and (3) he does not, in my opinion, have a good understanding of sovereign money, credit and debt as I note where it occurs in the piece.  This, however, is the norm in American society as most of us still believe that the country operates on a gold standard (at least in principle) and as far as the Congress and the President are concerned so do they – at least insofar as they are willing to let on to the public.  But whenever more funds are needed for the military or for corporate/financial subsidy there is never a problem.  What it means, however, is that some of the dire predictions about the U.S. not being able to pay its debts or that the interest on the debt will become a crushing burden is simply a delusional fiction used to justify devastating austerity policies intended to crush federal social safety nets and justify their privatization. 

What should be clear to most, but it is always ignored, is that the enormous increase in the national debt over the past 40 years should have, according to the debt alarmists, caused the U.S. to have fallen into a Zimbabwean-type hyper-inflation and nothing could be further from the truth.  This should be particularly obvious given the massive multi-trillion dollar spending required to sustain our endless wars in the Middle East and elsewhere and the $29 trillion allocated to bailout the banks and insurance companies following the 2008 financial crisis.  Having said this much of what Kunstler suggests might happen in the new year is highly probable and should be taken seriously. 

Also attached in support of Kunstler's concerns is today post from Wall Street on Parade dealing with the risk of the U.S. money center banks to European banks through derivative holdings which should be taken very seriously given the extreme weakness of numerous European banks particularly in Italy, Germany and France.

With that, welcome to the Orwellian world of 2017!

John

Links (to a number of articles from the past year)

• In 2017, the wheels finally come off - article
• Wall Street Banks have $2T European Exposure - article - PDF