Thursday, October 29, 2015

TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW-TESTING IN SCHOOLS IS NOT THE ANSWER

President Obama and his Sec. of Education Arnie Duncan have decided that the testing  programs they foisted on our kids as been a total failure.. Gee and it only took them 8 years to figure this out.  Their answer might surprise you  They now want to limit testing taking to 2% of school time.

Couple that with their Common Core nationwide program has shown to be a hindrance to education.  Not only have test scores fallen in recent years they thoroughly complicate a teachers job.

The truth of the matter is that their programs have nothing to do with the knowledge departed to our kids but to the destruction of the public school system.  Replacing public schools with Charter that was supposed to solve all our school problems.  It was evident from the inception of this program during Duncan's reign of the Chicago school system..I clearly remember the first act in Chicago was the firing of the entire staff at an under performing school .  They rehired a few of the old teachers and lots of the labor crew  cooks , janitors and other blue collar workers as they could find no one to do the job with the wages they were offering.

The proof is in the pudding , Charter schools didn't solve a thing except to aid in the destruction of teacher unions.  Testing has proven to be ineffective in raising scores (no surprise to me) so their answer is to limit the time spent on testing. Why can't these folks admit they don't have a clue as to what they are doing.  Their stand on education hasn't worked why not just give it up and put control back to the teacher in the classroom.  They know how to do their jobs and they have enough to contend with classroom of kids many of whom don't give a ship about learning.

The many changes in education over the years has turned out a generation of kids who are not well trained. The basic skills of reading and math have seemed to disappear from their abilities .  That generation is now a lost cause but we can sure bring the system back to usefulness with a few simple changes. Ask any teacher and they will tell you what has to be done..http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/28/test-o28.html

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH UNION LEADSHIP

Story after story of late has shown union leadership betraying their membership by pushing the ratification of contracts distasteful to the membership.  In most cases the contracts commit the workers to less benefits and lower  wages for all in the end.

On top of that you have union leadership endorsing political candidates that are not the choice of the membership.  While a large number of the members favor Bernie Sanders because of his stand on labor issues the leadership goes with Hillary (just another part of the corporate takeover of our country) causing an uneasy membership..One wonders just how long the troops are going to put up with this nonsense.

In case after case union leadership has sold out to management and their membership gets shafted.  Teachers unions are a prime example many of them have destroyed the teachers in contracts that ripped benefits from the troops.

Another show of just how corrupt our current system is Trumpka head of the AFL/CIO warnp;uuyed local leaders they have no right to endorse a presidential candidate , and they call this democracy?

Many locals have ignored the leadership and are endorsing Bernie and a large majority of the membership are backing Bernie do to a simple analysis of Hillary's labor policy.  Turmoil of this sort along with bargaining contracts that are detrimental to the membership cannot go on much longer till the membership revolts and throws the bums out.  None to soon for my money..


Sunday, October 25, 2015

THE MATH BEHIND BERNIE SANDERS MEDICARE FOR ALL

To hear the republicans scream about his plan bankrupting America anybody who can do simple math should look at the numbers laid out in this piece.  THE HEALTH CARE MATH THAT NO BODY CAN SEEM TO DO. 

The republicans seem unable to do even simple math but the article linked above is pretty straight forward and lays out exactly how it will be paid for.  If you have had any major surgery lately you know how much it costs and you also know if you are on Medicare that they pay about 80% or most bills and the providers almost all except the Medicare payment as full payment .  Which of course means that private insurance pays the full boat.  Although that isn't true is some cases.

To honestly evaluate this program you have to isolate it by itself not throw in other costs from Bernie's other plans.  Most critics simply add on these non medical costs to confuse you and cause you to believe it won't work.

Never mentioned till now a major part of paying for this scheme is the money your employers pays toward your health care (which is really part of your total compensation package) added to the savings his plan contains every red cent of cost is covered with some left over to boot.

So to simply say that his plan would give everybody full coverage for life takes one big burden  off an individual as he knows he is covered for life.

The economic burden taken off the back of the average citizen is so huge (stolen from Mr. Trump)
it would cause a giant stimuli to our economy exactly what we need .

Friday, October 23, 2015

THREE STRIKES AND YOUR OUT BEN CARSON

Ben Carson wins my prize for the lousiest campaign web site.  It says dam little and what it does say is down right scary.

1.For this one idea alone you should throw him in the waste can.  He proposes eliminating  Medicare and Medical and replacing them with Health Savings plans.  Anybody who has had to use an Emergency room lately will tell you that for even something simple it would take two years of Carson's plan to cover just that simple procedure. He proposes for the federal government to give everybody $2000 each year to establish a plan.  With half the workers in the country making 33K or less this idea would put millions at risk if they couldn't afford to buy other health insurance. Here's a story detailing his plan  .  This plan even has conservative thinkers worried as this along with SS are the third rail of politics.

2.  He would monitor all Liberal Colleges for teaching things he doesn't believe in and remove funding to those who hold opposite views.  I don't know what to call this line of thinking , either think like I want you to teach or loose your funding. Notice please he is only going to monitor Liveral institutions never mind the mind boggling bullshit put out by conservative institutions.  Not sure where he draws the line but surely he would be all for religious colleges putting out their religious propaganda.

3. Perhaps scariest of all he believes God wanted him to run.  Well shit this could get interesting I wonder how God thinks about keeping Gitmo open, or blowing up this country or that,, or using drones to kill folks without trial , For my money keep God in his churches and out of our govenment and keep folks like Carson in his pulpit on Saturday as he goes to church.

These are just three things that jump out at you when you look at his positions.  You can go to his web site and pretend your reading his plan but you get nothing but little (damned little) bits and dabs of where he is but no real plans to consider.

In fact you can lump all the republican candidates together in their views on programs of great concern for most Americans.  They (Trump is an exception) to wanting to privatize SS, and Medicare and Medical , privatize all retirement plans , blow the crap out of anybody that looks cross eyed
 at us.






Friday, October 16, 2015

WHY IS OUR MEDIA DUMBING US DOWN-COMPLETE DISRESPECT FOR IT'S VIEWERS

I pay a small fortune for the media I get and I think I am getting screwed royally.  With 200+ satellite channels it never ceases to amaze me that on most night the past few months we are lucky to get one show we actually watch.  On top of that I have two internet services one a DSL line that delivers just 1 meg download speed which a lot of the time won't stream  a standard resolution film, and just forget High DEF. So to stream movies I went to Hughes Satellite service and even then to be able to watch essentially a movie a night you have to go to their highest service which rips $100 bucks/month .  On top of that we have two Kindles that we burn up bucks every month to  read at night that replaces somewhat the TV shows we don't get.

You may think we are just too picky on what we will watch and that may be true .  If I liked reality shows I might do better but I don't.  Often we resort to watching what an old dear friend calls the Chipmunk channels..Man I know everything I ever wanted to know about ALASKA STATE TROOPERS.  Enough vet shows to pass the veterinarian boards.

With 100 or so movie channels you would think even if by accident there would be at least one movie a night that we could watch, but no, hardly ever.  To counter there lack of shows to watch we also subscribe to Netflix , Acorn and Amazon movies , most times we come up with something to watch.

The latest Democratic debate clearly shows we are being led by the nose by our news media.  Even though all the polls showed Sanders clearly the winner all MSM declared Clinton the winner. Anybody who actually watched the debate knows Sanders clearly won.  Clinton did OK but she paled in comparison with Sanders. In most case Bernie was ahead by a ton in all of them except for a rigged CNN poll days after show Hillary ahead in NH , but don't believe them he is still clearly in the lead.

I wish I could say that the debate is the only thing they misled us on but that just isn't so.  For instance they are still blaming Russia for the downing of MH17 while the US still won't let loose of their intelligence, gee I wonder why that is?  The builder of the missile BUK ( a Russian co.) acknowledges that it was one of their earlier missiles that has been out of the Russian list of weapons for a very long time.  All existing evidence from unbiased sources say that the Ukraine forces were responsible.  The latest Dutch report doesn't name a culprit but identifies the missile as Russian.  When  you read that the Ukraine's had control of what info was included in the report shows me that you can't believe a word in it.

Before that it is common knowledge that the US engineered the coup in Ukraine and installed puppets in line with our policies.  We blamed it all on  Russia , over and over again, but once again available evidence indicates we were behind the whole deal.

When none of the above would stick to Russia we conned the EU into applying sanctions on Russia and at the same time engineered with Saudi a wild drop in oil prices intended to bring Russia to the economic edge.  In a set of brilliant move Putin along with the Chinese set out to build a whole new economic system cutting out the IMF completely.  At the same time made deals with China  and other Bric nations to build huge projects that will bring all kinds of benefits to those involved , essentially cutting us off from a large chunk of trade.

Considering all the above it would appear it is time to collectively hurt those that are lying to us and the only way to do that is to change the channel which I have done.  If enough of us would do just that they would change their game.
 


Thursday, October 15, 2015

A CONSPIRACY OR PROPAGANDA AS USUAL

For my money it is way past propaganda , if it had been propaganda at least some would have had a different take on the debates. In yesterday's post the links showed polls showing that Sanders clearly won the debate by huge margins. The very next day almost every news source proclaimed loudly that Clinton won by wide margins.  If you were ever in doubt you are being fed bullshit by the press today you should have no doubt that you are being lied too by our press.

Sure I'm a Sanders supporter but I can still be objective analyzing a debate.  It was clear that Sanders offered the voter the most of programs they want.  While Hillary did OK , she didn't wow anybody.
The second tier did not do anything that should move them up  in the voters minds.  So it will boil down to Sanders and Clinton.  One good thing about MSM propaganda it will help keep Biden out of the race. If the Biden camp believes the press they will see no reason to jump in.

What does all this mean to you?  You will have to develop other news sources (I have for a very long time) and there are lots of choices you just have to pick and choose who you will believe .  This is complicated because not all sights will think the same on different subject.

There is so much evidence out there that we are being led by a nose ring by our media.  They lied to us about the whole mess in Ukraine blaming it on Russia when in fact it started with a Coup of the elected government which turned out to be a disaster.  Story after story told the tale of Russian aggression in Ukraine which remains today uproven. On top of that add the fairy tale that it was Russia that shot down MH17 when in fact it was Ukraine itself that did the deed.

The end result of our actions are being seen today and they are not to our benefit.  Russia and China and other have formed a whole new economic system that will replace the IMF crooks by their own systems.  They have also signed pacts for economic development that are huge and if completed will make the countries involved become more powerful.

Meantime our press tells us lie after lie in such big doses that you may find it difficult to believe the stuff I write.  So if that is the case I simply plead you go look for yourself.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

REVOLUTION OR A MOVEMENT?

Call it what you may but you have to admit something unusual is going on.  Last night I think Bernie Sanders showed why he is leading a movement or maybe call it a revolution .  It doesn't matter what you call it the size of his crowds tell you all you need to know.  Sanders at ever  event spends about an hour laying out his program and it has set fire the young voters of this country..  He strokes their justifiable concern about their future and offers solutions that are paid for through his programs.  That tells me all I need to know , Bernie's followers are here to stay no matter who enters the race.

Most polls after the debate show Sanders with a commanding lead in every poll some by 50% the only surprise in the polls were the few who had Webb coming in in second place which to me throws their polling to suspect something not as real as the truth.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE POLLS   HERE   HERE   HERE   HERE

The margin of  Sanders victory is in the words of TRUMP is HUGE!  In short Bernie kicked Hillary's ass on the issues.   Clinton is her very annoying performance  (according to me) reminds me of a Bobble Head Doll.  Watch her in the next debate as she stands there listening to somebody else's comments bobbing her head in the affirmative to every point.  Many of which she has discounted in other venues.  Her reluctance to take on the bankers and even suggested that during the housing crisis she went as Senator of New York  she went to Wall Street and asked them to stop their criminal actions which of course we know they ignored.  If that is the kind of action she will take against a crooked banking system what good could she possible do?

So for me the stage is set for a huge Sanders victory leading to the nomination.  Can he win the election in November?  My money says he can.  It will be interesting to see who ends up with the Republican nomination , my belief is that Sanders can beat any one of the 16 prospective candidates.

For my money a Sanders win is the only chance this country has of returning to a middle class recovery all others will just make it worse.

My take on the debate has Sanders widely in the lead, with Hillary a distant second with O'Malloy
in third.  Chafee and Webb are out of the game as far as I am concerned.  A Bernie Hillary duel will be  interesting when Hillary realizes she is loosing big time she will turn to her natural style NASTY, which will be the end of her.

Sanders for President , YOU BET!
   

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

WE ARE ENTERING THE END TIMES!

Not the religious end times , I speak of the financial end times.  You would never know it if the MSM is your only source of news, according to them everything is A OK.  Well it's not and there seems to be no way out of this mess.

Large injections of fed money supposedly to cover derivative trades gone wrong.  The  major institutions are in hock for trillions of dollars of derivative bets that market swings of late has wrecked havoc with hedge funds, pension funds and other who use derivatives to cover their commodity holdings.  No body actually seems to know how big that time bomb actually is some claim it could be as high as a quadrillion bucks a number I can't comprehend.

Everywhere you look everything is headed for the bottom all commodities are tanking causing huge economic problems for all exporters of commodities who depend on high prices to finance their budgets.  Many of them are in serious trouble as their incomes fall from Saudi Arabia to Russia , Venezuela, Brazil and many others are scrambling to cover their bills.  Even cash laden Saudi is having to liquidate holding to cover their debts, therefore causing large movements of monies to cover which of course causes others holding debt to suffer too.

In every corner of the globe governments, businesses, institutions and people are all hurting.  Yet the financial press most of us see claim otherwise.  A simple fact remains 'YOU CAN'T BLOW BUBBLES FOREVER" Yet they try. We have watched the past few decades to bubbles being blown in tech stocks, real estate, and now the general market is ready to explode.  Some hot shots are saying the market is oversold and now is the time to buy, bullshit, it will blow up and soon.

Some analysts believe their is no way out the collapse this time. is unstoppable.  The EU is in shambles and running at depression levels of everything from unemployment , bankrupt banks and governments , people out of work with little prospects of finding work anytime soon.  With most countries implementing austerity programs to bolster their economies what in fact they are doing is making things much worse.

A  quick look at SHADOW STATS shows you unemployment steady at about 23% since 2009 ,GDP instead of a plus is actually running at a minus a couple of %.  Most perplexing of all inflation is running between 8 to 10% not a minus for sure.  You of course know this is you are the grocery shopper in your house .  While commodity prices are taking the stuff we require on a daily basis have been going up and up for years.

With commodity prices in the tank across thew board , company after company is shutting down because with commodity prices beneath the cost of production they are left with little choice.  As these companies shut down thousands of workers are on the street adding to the employment woes.

Without a doubt we are in a Global Depression , never mind calling it a recession, it is much, much worse than the MSM is  portraying .  Until the nations of the world take a clue from the last recovery from depression which involved huge inflows into infrastructure remake we will continue to go down, and down.













































Monday, October 5, 2015

UP YOUR TPP

After five long years of negotiations in a secret closet the still mostly secret agreement is now waiting for congress to give it a simple up or down vote.  We know very little about it and supposedly neither does congress they are being asked to vote for this black sheep of a deal.  12 nations haggled back and forth for a long 5 years and finally came just recently to a signed deal,

Because we know little of what is being given away in this deal we only have to look at how the last few trade deals turned out.  Starting with NAFTA , then Gatt with the WTO on top of all that, with a few other trade deals on the side have resulted in 100's if thousands of good blue collar jobs leaving the country some of them being replaced by low wage service jobs. One just has to look a declining middle class too understand the impact of these deals.

Even our remaining industries are being devastated by countries like China dumping goods on our markets to steal manufacturers share of the product to close shop because of the below cost of production of our products.

We have to wait and see what we are being asked to give up and by the time we find out it will be too late to stop the deal from being approved.

We will have to depend on folks like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to shed light on this horrible agreement.  It's simple enough for you to figure out by asking a simple question,  "How have the recent trade agreements worked out for American workers?"  Because this one has been negotiated in secret should tell how it will affect us.  Demand your congressman votes NO on this piece of crap.