So many Trumpists have written in since the election, and I am grateful for their interest and also impressed by the sheer variety of their profanity. I never learned to swear that well because by the time my mother died, at 97, it was too late for me to learn. I gather from the letters that these people’s lives were devastated by the advent of gay marriage, political correctness, the threat of gun control and the arrogance of liberals, and now a champion rises from Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and East 56th Street, and God forbid that any dog should bark when he speaks or any pigeon drop white matter on his limousine.
What the letter-writers don’t grasp is that cursing is highly effective in person — someone kicks his car in rage, forgetting he’s wearing flip-flops, and flames pour from his mouth, and it’s impressive. But you see it in print, and it’s just ugly. It makes you pity the writer’s wife.
It’s not good form to curse at someone you’ve just defeated. That is why the president-elect made it clear he would not be waterboarding Hillary Clinton or sending her back to Mexico. He was gracious in victory and said the Clintons are “good people.” Several of his biggest applause lines seem to have been put back in the box. And his base is faced with the possibility that they may have elected a Manchurian. They know that he was a Democrat for most of his life and that the sight of Adam and Steve holding hands does not fill him with loathing. He is, after all, a New Yorker; he’s not from Tulsa. He likes drama. Maybe he’ll appoint his sister to the Supreme Court. Maybe he would rather row than wade. Maybe the Republicans will privatize the Pentagon, and maybe the Chinese will be the low bidder. Why not run the Marines like a business? Put the “deal” back into “idealism.”Garrison Keillor: Did God Intend Trump to Be President? | Diane Ravitch's blog:
Edd Doerr is the president of Americans for Religious Liberty and a strong proponent of separation of church and state . In this paper , he gives a brief overview of the history of this infra, explains why vouchers are a very bad idea, and reviews the 27 state referenda on vouchers or variant on public funds for religious schools. Since his paper was written in 2012, a proposal to amend the Flori
I planned to post this as a comment but it grew into a full-blown post. One of our daily readers, named Joe, voted for Bernie in the primaries but then supported Hillary in the general election. He wrote a comment a few hours ago urging other readers to stop criticizing and demonizing Hillary and to recognize the present danger to our nation. I responded to Joe as follows: Thanks, Joe. I too am t
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Trump plans tax cuts for everyone but the biggest cuts go to those in the 1%. To see the graphs, buy today’s WSJ. “Nearly half the benefits of the plan, and a higher proportion of savings, would go to the top 1% Steven Mnuchin, the likely next Treasury secretary, this week said rich U.S. taxpayers won’t get “an absolute tax cut” under President-elect Don
I don’t approve of stepping on the flag or burning it, but my understanding is that the Supreme Court ruled that burning the flag is a form of speech and is protected under the First Amendment. There are many things and many kinds of speech I don’t like, but the First Amendment protects the speech I don’t like, even the speech I hate. A history teacher in North Carolina tried to illustrate his le
Pete Tucker, D.C. journalist, says that the power behind the Trump candidacy were the infamous rightwing billionaire Koch brothers. If you need documentation, read Jane Mayer’s investigative book, Dark Money, which Tucker cites in his article. David Koch ran for vice-president on the Libertarian Party ticket. It received 1% of the vote. Since then, the Koch brothers have used their money to chang
Politico reports on vouchers this morning. Vouchers have never won a popular vote. Public opinion polls are mixed, but the response depends on how the question is worded. DeVos and her allies have found her way around the problem: go to the legislature and give strategically to key legislators. In other words, buy their support. It works. VOUCHERS HAVE BEEN A TOUGH SELL – AT LEAST WHEN PUT TO A V
Julie Vassilatos, an activist parent of children in the Chicago public schools, writes here about Betsy DeVos. She begins by offering a round up of some of the best posts about DeVos. We all must get up to speed on who she is. In addition to being a fervent advocate for vouchers and charters, she has given generously to anti-gay organizations and organizations that promote creationism. I am tryin
Peter Greene wrote this column a year ago, but it remains pertinent as ever. Reformers like to say that the student should have “a backpack full of cash” (there is a terrific new documentary with that title, exposing the harm that school choice does to children and public schools). Peter takes that canard on: One of the foundational assertions of the charter movement is that public school tax dol
Jeff Bryant sees Betsy DeVos as a continuation of the policies of Arne Duncan, which were a continuation of the policies of NCLB. Duncan started the mass school closings, teacher bashing, and privatization. DeVos will carry school choice to the next step by tying federal aid to vouchers, if she can. Jeff writes: As a recent article by L.S. Hall for Inside Philanthropy recounts, the DeVoses rank r
Donald Trump has boasted about saving 1,000 jobs that Carrier planned to send to Mexico. But Senator Bernie Sanders says the deal is a sham because Trump gave Carrier tax breaks instead of insisting it pay its taxes. Carrier is owned by United Rechnolgies, a major defense contractor. “In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly
The Education Commission of the States posted a lineup of the partisan divide among the states. Republicans have a commanding lead over Democrats. Of 50 states, 33 have Republican governors. Republicans control 66 partisan chambers, compared to 30 held by Democrats. Republicans pick up three legislative chambers. The Kentucky House, Iowa Senate and Minnesota Senate switched from Democratic to Rep
This segment on Democracy Now! is about 12 minutes of discussion involving me, Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and Democracy, and Tawanna Simpson of the Detroit Board of Education. The topic is Betsy DeVos. Please watch!
As noted on this blog , the leader of the El Camino Real Charter High School in Los Angeles used the school’s credit card to charge exorbitant personal expenses while moonlighting as a scout for a professional basketball team. First class air tickets, luxury hotels, fabulous meals. He repaid $6,000, which must have been a fraction of what he spent. And he agreed to resign, reluctantly. He leaves
Politico reports on the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee: FOXX IN THE HOUSE: Virginia Foxx wants to dismantle the Education Department and erase Barack Obama’s education legacy – and she’s poised to become one of the Hill’s power players with the authority to do that. The 73-year-old GOP lawmaker and former community college president is poised to assume the leadership of
For the past eight years, we collectively have had to figure out how to cope with lovers of privatization who claimed that they were reformers. They wanted to “save poor kids from failing schools” by opening privately managed charters
