Fwd: Guess who was against the Department of Education in 1979

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February 8, 2017 View this email in your browser I didn't want to embarrass him, so I kept quiet when a conservative writer tweeted today that if Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos manages to expand school choice, that alone will mean she's done more than any Secretary for at least the past 40 years. (The Department of Education was created 38 years ago.) But that's an easy mistake to make: everyone assumes that what they see around them is indispensable, we couldn't live without it, and has presumably been around forever. For that matter, I'm sure most people don't realize the National Endowment for the Arts has been around for only about 50 years. Since we all know there'd be no art without it, that thing must go back centuries! Interestingly enough, when the creation of the Department of Education was being debated in 1979, guess who opposed it? The American Federation of Teachers. They said it would just add another layer of bureaucracy, and that more bureaucracy wasn't going to solve anything. Probably the most sensible thing anyone in the American Federation of Teachers has ever said. Today, of course, an institution that was once considered debatable, and that a major teachers' union opposed, has become a fixture of American life whose possible absence fills leftists' heads with apocalyptic visions. Yet, meanwhile, here's reality: Whatever the merits or demerits of Betsy DeVos -- and we'll be discussing that on the Tom Woods Show in the coming days -- I feel certain that appointing another time-serving drone wasn't going to do anything about the above. Of course, if it's a real education you want, and not the p.c. charade you were forced to endure in school, I have just the thing -- even if you're short on time: http://www.LibertyClassroom.com Tom Woods Share Tweet Forward to Friend Copyright © 2017 Tom Woods, All rights reserved.

Did they go blind? Yes.

Fwd: Faux news, Endless War and Unstoppable Climate Change

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From: John Hemington

Trump aside (I know that's really not possible) there are soooo many issues left over from the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations which have not been addressed – and are not likely to be in the Bannon administration.  However, these are clearly far too important for us to forget, shrug our shoulders and say "Oh well, maybe another day."  Three of the most important are endless war, climate change and the  almost unregulated financialization of the world by the neoliberal elite.  And, while we may worry about having to fight through the Trump administration to address these issues, keep in mind that they were never on the radar of the neoliberal New Democrats in the previous administration.  Ergo, a big part of the battle will have to be not letting those self-same New Democrat elitists take over any progressive movement that is organized to address these issues.  It will be a long, difficult dangerous and dirty fight to bring these to the fore, but it is one we cannot abandon just because Trump/Bannon would like to distract us 'alternative facts' and monstrous appointments. 

Attached are three interesting and somewhat related articles; and, for those of you not terrified of clicking on links, an excellent interview with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder with Glen Greenwald of The Intercept. 

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/jeremy_scahill_on_donald_trump_and_the_military-industrial_complex_20170202

John

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpUHVtMDBEQnF3NlNGWGlnelNzSTNyRmZLZzFV

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpeG4zUkxrSjdMdHdBSTFJcDJTc184VHJ5cHlJ

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpTjRiMWJUOVVLMkFHZlFIVVF3aURDbEYtR2hr

Fwd: [Art-All-Night] Call for Volunteers

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From: Art All Night <info@artallnight.org>

Greetings Art All Nighters,

Art All Night is embarking on it's 20th year of celebrating art, music, and performance in a free, non-juried, non-censored show!

It will be held at the end of April in a location to be determined. Art All Night needs one thing in order to be successful: a planning team of dedicated people to take on the responsibilities required for show preparation.

Art All Night Planning Members:

• meet Wednesdays from now until the end of April.
• meet Saturdays in April to prepare a warehouse.
• take on decision-making roles for certain aspects of the show.
• are not alone-- members support one another and each have a voice.
• work outside of meetings to fulfill responsibilities.
  

Being part of the team takes work, but it is also genuinely rewarding and fun. If you are curious about learning more, come to the kick-off meeting:

First Planning Meeting
when: 7 pm on Wednesday, February 8
where: Stephen Foster Community Center
286 Main Street, Pittsburgh 15201

If the planning team is not for you, know that you are still needed! Over 250 volunteers help out during the event. Volunteer sign up information will be sent out in early April.

Any questions or comments? We would like to hear from you. Please email info@artallnight.org or visit www.artallnight.org.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ArtAllNight
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/artallnight

Fwd: TAKE ACTION: Protect Clean Water

Tell Legislators: Increase Budget for Safe Drinking Water StateImpact Reports: "The EPA says Pennsylvania's drinking water program failed to meet the federal requirements for conducting inspections of water systems, and that DEP's lack of staffing has caused the number of unaddressed Safe Drinking Water Act violations to nearly double in the past five years, from 4,298 to 7,922." Now is the time to increase funding for water pollution programs in the 2017-18 budget. For too long, Pennsylvania has under-invested in the Commonwealth's water systems, infrastructure and personnel to enforce clean water laws. Lead remains a persistent and dangerous problem in many of our water systems. Many of our streams can't support fish. Culm piles leach pollution into our waterways. The Susquehanna River is still polluted from runoff. Poison has leached into our drinking water from military bases. And Pennsylvania is only one of two states that don't build water wells to national standards. This is a bipartisan issue. We all want, need and have a right to clean drinking water, whether we live in a city or on a farm. Contact your legislator and urge them to start the long process of cleaning up Pennsylvania's waterways and securing clean drinking water for all by increasing investment in DEP's water programs. CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR #StandWithPennFuture Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Contact Us PennFuture 610 North Third Street Harrisburg, PA 17101 717.214.2970 www.pennfuture.org

Fwd: Really worth reading - parts 1 and 2 (updated)

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From: John Hemington

Attached are a pair of posts in single document by Ian Welsh.  They are, in my opinion, excellent and really worth reading for anyone who is interested in see real and meaningful change in this system.  Trump is clearly the problem of the moment, but he is not the only problem.  The Democratic Party, as now constructed and ruled by the neoliberal New Democrats in the DNC, is, in many ways, almost worse since they tend to disarm and coop committed liberals into believing that they stand for change – they don't, except on the fringes.  On the issues of concern to the elites and the plutocrats and the neocon militants, they are deeply in bed with them.  Do read these pieces, they are important.

John

 Link

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Update

In some ways the two attached articles are a direct follow-up from the Ian Welsh posts above – the first directly references that post. If you haven’t taken the time to read the Welsh posts I urge you to do so, and then read these. The times upcoming are going to be tremendously difficult for most of us and we’ll need clear and effective strategies for determining how to best proceed.

John

Links

• Should Ds let corporate Ds lead and be the face of resistance
• Unrest is the only growth industry left

Fwd: NDPA 2017 Conf - Gateway Clipper Opening Reception

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From: "National Drowning Prevention Alliance" <noreply@ndpa.org>
Date: Feb 1, 2017 10:34 AM
Subject: NDPA 2017 Conf - Gateway Clipper Opening Reception
To: <mark@rauterkus.com>
Cc:

NDPA Opening Night  Networking Reception  Tuesday, April 11, 2017 | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm  Join the NDPA for our Educational Conference's Opening Night Reception. This year our opening night networking reception will be a 2-hour cruise through Pittsburgh's three rivers (the Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Allegheny). This very unique cruise will take our networking to the water. Take in Pittsburgh's beautiful city skyline at night, see local sites and landmarks, all while meeting other professionals, reconnecting with friends, making new connections, and extending your network. Lifejackets will be available or you can bring your own!   *No additional cost (Included in Registration Price). *Not included in Student Registration NDPA Safe Debate Series   Join the NDPA as we launch a new collaborative debate series. The NDPA "Safe Debate Series" is a forum where participants can discuss controversial topics in the drowning prevention community. We deal with the death of children and adults by drowning. As such, this subject matter is emotionally charged and incites passionate advocates. Often, this passion has polarized our community which ultimately harms the cause overall. The NDPA conference is place for all of these advocates to meet, collaborate and unite to stop drowning. The "Safe Debate" will be hosted by a moderator and all questions will be vetted prior to the debate. Participating parties will have ample opportunity to prepare. The moderator will take questions from the audience, allow time for each opinion to be heard. Attendees will leave the debate feeling fully educated and informed on all facets of the topic discussed. There are no "winners or losers" in the "Safe Debate." The goal is to foster collaboration and to further discussion surrounding the topic in a formal and safe environment where all opinions are encouraged. Ground rules will be detailed to participants prior to the session and explained by the moderator at the beginning of the session. This year's topic will be Infant and Toddler Swimming and Rescue Training. Breakout Session:  ABC's to Water Safety Event Planning Michelle Long and Lela Hinds-Peterson, Mesa Fire and Medical Department This program is for new and existing  program coordinators who are looking to improve their  drowning prevention events. Skills taught include A-Awareness of community resources; B-Budgetary restraints and how to work around them; C-Challenges when planning and executing events and D- development to continue positive outcomes with your programs. Michele holds a B.S. in Public Relations/Marketing from Northern Arizona University. Her background with corporate marketing has been successfully adapted in to developing numerous volunteer and educational programs that have received national recognition for the Department. She is the Mesa Fire and Medical Department's division director for the Fire and Life Safety Education division. She serves on advisory boards for the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and Vice President of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona. Lela Hinds Peterson is from San Diego, California and moved to Mesa, Arizona after being recruited to do research for Phoenix Children's Hospital's Neurology department. She completed her Masters Degree in Business Leadership/Disaster Preparedness and Crisis Management from Grand Canyon University. Lela has been working for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department since April 2014, coordinating the Drowning Prevention Programs and School Program that reaches over 35,000 students in K-6th grades. UNITED, we can PREVENT the Tragedy of Drowning! Conference Registration To register for the conference, click here! Questions Please send conference questions or comments to: conference@ndpa.org Please send NDPA Membership questions to: membership@ndpa.org **Do Not Respond to this E-Mail** Host Hotel  Omni William Penn Hotel Airport Information Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) Rental Car Information From Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)

National Drowning Prevention Alliance, 114 Zink Hall, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1190 Maple Street, Indiana, PA 15705 SafeUnsubscribe™ mark@RAUTERKUS.COM Forward this email | Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by noreply@ndpa.org in collaboration with Try it free today

Shock Event -- via Facebook and sourced to BC Prof

This was sent to be my one of my most thoughtful friends (of long standing)

Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College:

"I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today.
What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event."
Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order.

When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like.
I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.

If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event.

A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.

If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.

Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."

COPY AND PASTE. DON"T "SHARE"

EO = executive orders

Hockey anyone? How about a chance to win Penguins tickets too.

See http://play.cloh.org/2017/01/31/nhl-nhlpa-gets-into-stem-with-goals-program/

There is a new course, Hockey Goals - Future Scholar. Check it out.

Fwd: Defanged by Privilege

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From: John Hemington

I have held off sending these pieces for a bit in order to rethink my own prejudices.  I held off because I believe that some of the comments contained therein will likely offend some of you reading them.  However, on reflection, I believe that they are correct and must be considered if we are to be honest with ourselves.  It particularly concerns the Women's March in Washington as a demonstration organized by and focused on privileged whites frightened by Donald Trump but not terribly concerned with those not similarly privileged.

I have to say at the outset that I was personally thrilled and impressed by the turnout of millions of people in hundreds of sister marches throughout the country and the world.  It was an impressive show of unity and strength when really needed.  But I was also concerned that it might end up being nothing more than a "feel-good" event out of which little or nothing comes.  Behind this concern lies my fear that it was really orchestrated and controlled by operatives of the elitist side of the Democratic Party – the New Democrats – in order to galvanize support for their continued domination of the Party.  Given the list of official speakers this certainly appears to be the case.  Each one I saw was a long-term Clintonista New Democrat.

If this is correct it is highly likely that most of the energy will be diverted from change into focusing on further demonizing Donald Trump and, down the road, re-electing the same old crowd of New Democrats that brought us Donald Trump in the first place by failing to fight for policies to end the economic starvation of poor, middle and working class Americans while serving up trillions for international corporatists, Wall Street financial gangs and the military-intelligence elite and their corporate suppliers ensuring that endless illegal and self-defeating wars of choice will continue without pause.

Yes, the Trump administration will be awful and millions will suffer as a result.  Things worldwide will certainly get worse, but the solution is not simply to return the Democrats who created the conditions which led to Trump's victory back to power.  If the recent marches cannot be used as a springboard to overthrow the power structure now controlling the Democratic Party – that is, if we allow those same people to control and direct the outrage – we will see Trump succeed into a second term.  Or should the Republican oligarchy tire of as they may well do, a second term of Mike Pence and company.

As one of the articles suggests, the New Democrats despise and fear the progressive left and will do just about anything to prevent them from making inroads into control of the Party.  We cannot, we must not allow this to happen by aligning with the New Democrats to shift the focus away from the failure of their neoliberal/neocon fantasies which have brought us to this terrible time in history.  We cannot allow them to divert our attention to whether Russia might have hacked the election and inciting anger at those who supported Trump instead of to those New Democrats who created the conditions which encouraged former Democrats in the "flyover" regions of the country to vote for Trump.

In short, we must do everything within our power to retake control of the Democratic Party from those who serve only the financial and corporate elite while pretending to work for all Americans by pushing "identity politics" while ignoring the very real and serious needs of most of us.  Be assured that the New Democrats and their privileged spokes people will speak words which sound as if they care – as did Barak Obama – but most will be lies and distortions.  Their policies over the past forty years are what define them and they have almost uniformly awful for most Americans who were not among the privileged.

And I speak as one who is privileged.  I do not have to worry about where my next meal will come from.  I do not worry about whether I can afford to pay the rent to keep myself housed.  I am not struggling with unpayable student debt.  I don't have to worry about being shot and killed while "driving as black."  I don't have to be particularly concerned that any illness will bankrupt me or my family.  I don't have to worry that my job will be eliminated and my family will lose everything.  I don't have to worry about living in desperation in a slum where the laws are enforced only against those who live there and not against the slum lords who fail to maintain their properties.  I do not have to worry about being deported because I lack citizenship papers.

But I am not without cares and concerns.  I care that our government has chosen to ignore the plight of those who do find themselves in these plights.  I am concerned that our government has for forty or so years continually cut back on the social safety-net programs instituted in the New Deal to protect those who, through no fault of their own, fall through the cracks of an increasingly neoliberalized market economy which glamorizes success and demonizes failure.  I am concerned that we have bought into the myth that the government doesn't have enough money to provide the necessary social and medical services which every other advanced economy provides its citizens; but always has a magic pot from which to pull dollars to bail out billionaire financial titans and fight endless costly wars as well as provide arms to the rest of the world.  And I care that we remain, as a society, as racist today as almost at any time in the past – we simply disguise it from ourselves more effectively.

Please read the attached articles and give some thought to your own privilege.  Think about what might have been had the New Democrats not commandeered the Democratic Party during the Clinton presidency; and consider how we might work to take the Party back.  Otherwise, there may not be much hope for the future.  There is a class war being waged and it is being waged against all Americans who are not among the privileged elite.  The goal of this class war is to insure that we, its victims, continue to blame one another and never look to the real source of our problems.

I'm sorry for the length of this but not for the content.

John

 Links

• On Hatred in our Divided Nation - PDF article
• Western Press Incorrectly Deplicts Putin - PDF article
• Game Over for Dems - PDF article