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Everything Texas Doesn't Want to Teach You |
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Wednesday, 19 September 2018 08:20 |
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Milbank writes: "I tip my 10-gallon hat to the Texas school board, which just voted to 'streamline' the public-school curriculum in a way that will surely Make America Great Again."
A classroom. (photo: Nicholas Fevelo/NY Daily News)
Everything Texas Doesn't Want to Teach You
By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
19 September 18
 tip my 10-gallon hat to the Texas school board, which just voted to “streamline” the public-school curriculum in a way that will surely Make America Great Again.
The board, on which Republicans have a two-thirds majority, agreed with recommendations that it is “not necessary” for students to learn about Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller or the father of modern conservatism, Barry Goldwater, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Betty Friedan were also deemed “not necessary” by a working group, which undertook an intriguing ranking of historical figures: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln fell short of perfect scores, but “local members of the Texas legislature” scored a perfect 20 of 20, as did “military and first responders.”
The board decided to save 40 minutes of third-graders’ time by sparing them a lesson on how government services are paid for. But it did preserve the one teaching that “Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict.”
My favorite: the decision to strike from the fourth-grade curriculum a lesson about “holding public officials to their word.” (Killing this topic, deemed “not being grade appropriate,” should save kids 30 minutes, the board estimates.)
Some will take this as evidence that politicians should not write lesson plans. But I think Texas has done a great service. Indeed, if we are to survive the current era without succumbing to terminal cases of cognitive dissonance, we must eliminate all lessons, at all grade levels, on “holding public officials to their word.” (For maximum relief, it would also help to strike all lessons involving “math” or “economics.”)
Abandoning the obsolete teaching that public officials should be held accountable would make us all feel better about current affairs. Applying the veil of ignorance to our eyes, we would no longer be troubled to discover that:
Despite President Trump’s promise that the $1.5 trillion tax cut would not benefit rich people, the rich can now write off 100 percent of their multimillion-dollar corporate jet purchases — double their previous benefit, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Despite Trump’s promise that corporations would devote their vast tax savings to job creation and raises for their workers, executives are instead using the windfall primarily on stock buybacks that benefit themselves and their shareholders. A Goldman Sachs report finds that repurchases of company stock (which push up share values) were up nearly 50 percent, to $384 billion, in the first half of 2018, eclipsing capital expenditures.
Despite the Trump administration’s promise that, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin put it, “not only will this tax plan pay for itself, but it will pay down debt,” the Congressional Budget Office reports that the government had a deficit of $895 billion over the past 11 months — up 33 percent from a year earlier — as corporate tax receipts plunged 30 percent. As The Post’s Damian Paletta and Erica Werner observed, the last time unemployment was at the current 3.9 percent, in 2000, the government ran a surplus.
Despite Trump’s promise to eliminate the debt, it has grown from $19.9 trillion to $21.5 trillion, with trillions more set to be added by the tax cuts (House Republicans just proposed another $650 billion cut) and higher spending despite a strong economy.
Despite Trump’s drain-the-swamp promises, FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long is the latest person in his orbit to earn the attention of federal prosecutors — this time an inspector general’s referral over his use of taxpayer funds to commute home to North Carolina. Three Trump Cabinet officials were forced out over similar travel-related issues. Five former Trump advisers already have federal convictions for a range of wrongdoing.
Despite Trump’s assurance a month ago that Paul Manafort “happens to be a very good person” in part because he “refused to ‘break’?” under pressure from prosecutors, the former Trump campaign chairman has admitted that over a decade he laundered more than $30 million, cheated the United States of $15 million in taxes, secretly lobbied for a repressive government in Ukraine (attempting to enlist “Obama Jews” and Israeli officials to pressure the administration) and tampered with witnesses.
Now Trump has escalated a trade war with China, adding tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports and drawing fast retaliation. Higher prices on consumer goods will follow.
But Trump’s millionaire commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, announced on CNBC that “nobody’s going to actually notice it.” Ross, who probably won’t notice the price increases personally, previously held up a can of Campbell’s soup on TV and said nobody “in the world is going to be bothered” by increased steel prices.
I won’t be bothered, because I’ve learned my lesson: Holding public officials to their word is no longer on the books.
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The Seas Are Trying to Tell Us Something |
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Wednesday, 19 September 2018 08:20 |
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Ramos writes: "Our feverish oceans are spitting out hurricanes. They are spewing invasive seaweed onto our beaches. Beneath the water, the coral is turning pale. Something is wrong, very wrong."
A beach covered with brown sargassum seaweed. (photo: Richard Charan)
The Seas Are Trying to Tell Us Something
By Jorge Ramos, Splinter News
19 September 18
 ur feverish oceans are spitting out hurricanes. They are spewing invasive seaweed onto our beaches. Beneath the water, the coral is turning pale. Something is wrong, very wrong. And the seas are trying to tell us something.
Two or three times a year my family and I travel to a wonderful area here between Cancún and Tulúm, in the state of Quintana Roo. It’s my favorite beach; the sand is smooth and white, the waters a deep turquoise. Every time I’m here, I get the sensation that I’m in the best place in the world. But during the last few visits I’ve seen a drastic change: The beach is often covered with brown sargassum seaweed.
In one of the two hotels where I usually stay, I can always hear the sound of the waves early in the morning. Except on this visit, because the sea was drowned out by the sound of a tractor removing seaweed from the beach. I usually jog alone along the beach in the morning, but when I opened the door and headed toward the water, there was a very long strip of sargassum running along the shore, about 10 feet wide. Tons more floated on the water, rocked by the waves as it moved toward the shore.
The tractor driver had a mammoth and impossible task. Every load of seaweed he moved was like removing a grain of sugar from a sugar bowl. An army of workers stood nearby in the knee-deep water, fishing out the seaweed with nets before it could reach the beach. Others were erasing the tractor’s tracks with a broom.
This cosmetic surgery takes place every day all along this coast, and it’s been happening for years. The first signs that the seaweed was a threat to the beaches and, thus, to tourism appeared in 2011; the invasion intensified around 2015. Officials kept saying it was an atypical phenomenon, but these days there can be no doubt that nature here has undergone a dramatic change.
In 2013, scientists from Texas A&M University at Galveston launched the Sargassum Early Advisory System, one of the best tracking systems in the Gulf of Mexico (you can see it here: www.seas-forecast.com). Just as it does in the Caribbean, millions of tons of sargassum wash up on the Texas coast every year. Unfortunately, the SEAS system provides only an eight-day forecast.
Where does the seaweed come from, and why is it such a problem these days? An early hypothesis pointed to large beds of macroalgae in the Sargasso Sea, which is within the Atlantic, near the Bermuda Triangle, and characterized by the proliferation of this seaweed. Changes in atmospheric pressure, sea currents and winds push the sargassum south, then the tides push it toward the beaches.
Now some scientists believe that a new Sargasso Sea is forming between the coasts of Africa and Brazil, and that much of the algae landing on the beaches in the Dominican Republic and on Caribbean islands comes from there.
Why is this happening now? Global warning, undoubtedly, fosters the growth of algae in the ocean. Sargassum can double in size every 18 days, and a warm sea is a perfect breeding ground. However, scientists still lack an explanation as to why so much of it is invading formerly pristine beaches.
Officials in Mexico have proposed building a 4.9-mile plastic barrier between Punta Nizuc and Punta Cancún to prevent sargassum from landing on those Mexican beaches. Vessels would then collect it. Other beaches are just burying it, even though it might affect the quality of the sand and lead to more erosion.
Meanwhile, my favorite beach is not the same. But I keep coming back, because of my nostalgia rather than because its former beauty has remained.
PS: On my flight from Cancún back to Miami, I spotted islands of sargassum, spreading out menacingly across the ocean like an oil spill. After landing I saw the front page of the Miami Herald, which featured a terrifying story about the “red tide” (another algae, K. brevis, which darkens the sea and has killed thousands of fish along Florida’s coasts). The seas are truly trying to tell us something.
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The President* Just Declassified Intelligence Materials to Please the Fox News Crowd |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>
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Tuesday, 18 September 2018 12:35 |
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Pierce writes: "This probably won't end well for America."
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. (photo: Bill Clark/Getty Image)
The President* Just Declassified Intelligence Materials to Please the Fox News Crowd
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
18 September 18
This probably won't end well for America.
may have mentioned on occasion here in the shebeen that one of the most unnerving things about the reign of El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago is that it's making me trust the high priesthood of the intelligence community more than my experience tells me is a smart thing to do.
My entire adult life has been spent watching America's spooks screw up in spectacular ways all over the world with millions of innocent people being put at risk. I was born a week after the Shah of Iran slapped into prison Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically elected president who'd been deposed by Operation Ajax, a CIA-backed coup that had been dialed up at the request of western oil interests. I watched with grisly fascination the Church committee hearings and read the Pike report. I thought the whole FISA court business was a tepid response to the horrors therein.
But even at my most skeptical, I never believed that a president* of the United States would declassify intelligence material in order to assure the Fox News Channel would have programming options for the next year. Also, of course, as a distraction to help save his own ass.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Trump decided to declassify text messages about the Russia inquiry from a handful of law enforcement officials, summaries of interviews in the case and documents related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide investigated for his links to Russia. For months, Mr. Trump and some of his most fervent congressional supporters have clamored for the material’s release against the protests of the intelligence and law enforcement communities.
The move is all but certain to further deteriorate Mr. Trump’s relationship with law enforcement officials. As part of their monthslong attacks on the Russia investigation, the president and his allies have accused law enforcement officials of improperly obtaining a secret warrant to wiretap the campaign adviser, Carter Page. Little evidence has emerged to back the Republicans’ assertions, and Democrats have accused them in return of politicizing a legitimate inquiry with major national security implications.
Make no mistake. The material being released is cherry-picked in order to keep the rubes riled and to throw sand in the gears of the ongoing investigations. (The release also may be timed to take some of the heat off Brett Kavanaugh, but I think that's a minor consideration. This is about the president*'s chestnuts being in the fire.) It is a release tailored to fit the specifications of the increasingly febrile presidential base. I'm surprised they didn't have Sean Hannity or Alex Jones do the vetting.
Former and current F.B.I. officials have expressed concern that the Republican efforts to out the materials could have long-lasting consequences, making it harder to recruit informants willing to help with investigations who are the lifeblood of law enforcement. But without the president’s backing, the protracted fight over the materials has left the Justice Department and F.B.I. with little recourse to protect the materials from being made public.
Good. The president* is at war with his intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. That always works well for the country as a whole.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and one of the president’s most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill, praised Mr. Trump’s decision in a statement and said it came in the face of “unnecessary delays, redactions and refusals.”
“These documents will reveal to the American people some of the systemic corruption and bias that took place at the highest levels of the D.O.J. and F.B.I., including using the tools of our intelligence community for partisan political ends,” Mr. Gaetz said.
See? Congressman Gaetz, who is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, already knows what's in there. He's been inventing the stuff in his head for two years and now he will have The Proof. And, make no mistake. This is a thoroughgoing operation aimed at bringing down the entire Legion Of Supervillains that has been spoon-fed through their radios, their favorite TV news programs, and over the Intertoobz, to various audiences of angry shut-ins since January of 2017.
In addition to parts of the application, Mr. Trump also ordered the director of national intelligence and law enforcement officials to declassify F.B.I. interviews about the case with Bruce G. Ohr, a Justice Department official who has been caught up in Mr. Trump’s attacks on national security officials. Mr. Ohr, a veteran prosecutor who fought Russian organized crime for years, met repeatedly with a British spy who specialized in Russia, Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of explosive, unverified claims about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Steele was also an F.B.I. informant, but agents ended that relationship in late 2016 because he had spoken to journalists about the work he did for the bureau. Mr. Steele investigated ties between Mr. Trump and Russia for the same research firm, Fusion GPS, where Mr. Ohr’s wife was a contractor.
To be sure, the president* needs the rubes aflame more now than he ever has before. Michael Flynn will be sentenced this week. Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are doing their Righteous Brothers karaoke act for the special counsel's office. An electoral catastrophe is looming in November, and his Supreme Court nominee, the only real bona fides he has with the Bible-bangers, is in serious trouble. His administration* is in the trash compactor and he knows it. So it's time to feed the loyal fans some Top Secret Stuff about the Deep State that they can chaw over at the cafes and diners in Zitoville, Ohio. It's time to give Hannity some Hot Stuff he can toss around with Sheryl Atkinson, Tomi Lauren, and other veteran gumshoes. And Robert Mueller, with no expression on his face, reaches across his desk for another document.
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Rapists Have No Place on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh's Accuser Must Be Heard |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11993"><span class="small">Jill Filipovic, Guardian UK</span></a>
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Tuesday, 18 September 2018 12:35 |
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Filipovic writes: "This is crucial moment for both parties to stop the administration from ruining what makes our democracy so admirable: fair, predictable and transparent processes."
Brett Kavanaugh: a quandary for Republicans. (photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters)
Rapists Have No Place on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh's Accuser Must Be Heard
By Jill Filipovic, Guardian UK
18 September 18
This is crucial moment for both parties to stop the administration from ruining what makes our democracy so admirable: fair, predictable and transparent processes
 hat’s next for Brett Kavanaugh? The US supreme court nominee’s path to the bench has been stalled by accusations that he tried to rape a girl when they were both in high school; that girl, now a professor in her 50s, initially tried to tell her story anonymously, but put her name to the charges when it became clear she was going to be outed anyway. Senate Republicans faced a quandary on Monday: reopen the Kavanaugh hearings and allow the woman to testify, potentially torpedoing his nomination and convincing more moderate Republicans to vote against him; pull his nomination entirely and start over with someone new, running the risk that they lose the Senate to Democrats in the coming months and see any far-right nomination rendered impossible; or push Kavanaugh’s nomination forward and inevitably see significant blowback at the polls in November.
The Republican party doesn’t have a lot of good options. But they did the right thing and announced on Monday that they will reopen the hearings so that Kavanaugh and his accuser can testify before the judiciary committee next Monday.
Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who wrote the initial letter to her congresswoman and California senator Dianne Feinstein alleging Kavanaugh assaulted her when she was a teenager, says she is willing to testify about her experience. Kavanaugh has offered a full denial, saying: “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes – to her or to anyone.”
It is in the best interests of this process to fully air the accusations, with both Ford and Kavanaugh under oath. He is, after all, vying for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, and so far, his confirmation process has been remarkably opaque and disturbingly superficial. Unlike supreme court justice Elena Kagan, who worked for the Clinton administration and released all of her White House communications during her confirmation process, Kavanaugh has not allowed a full look into his time working in the Bush White House. He was appointed by a president who may yet be indicted himself and who continues to preside over the country under a cloud of suspicion, deception and criminality. And now, he stands accused of attempted rape.
The Trump administration has already undermined American confidence in so many of our institutions, and they seem to be gunning for democracy itself. The Kavanaugh hearings are a crucial moment for members of both parties to put a stop to this administration’s habit of running roughshod over the very thing that makes our democracy admirable and functional (if occasionally maddening): fair, predictable and transparent processes.
No one who has committed an act of violence against women should be in a position to make decisions about women’s lives – even if they were a reckless teenager when they attacked a woman; even if they’re very sorry; even if they are good people in myriad other ways. The promise of rehabilitation is always on the table, and people who do terrible things must always have the option of paying for their crimes, atoning fully and reintegrating into society.
But Brett Kavanaugh isn’t a criminal who has done his time and simply wants to be able to support himself. He’s trying to sit on the highest court in the land. And it’s not asking too much to say that there should be a hard rule for judges: no rapists (or attempted rapists) allowed.
As it stands, we of course don’t know if Kavanaugh is guilty of what Ford says he did. Testimony from both of them will not bring about perfect clarity either. And if this were a criminal case, Kavanaugh would almost certainly walk away being declared not guilty – if charges were brought at all. There simply isn’t much in the way of evidence beyond Ford’s word.
But this isn’t a criminal case, and what’s at stake isn’t the deprivation of Kavanaugh’s life or liberty, but the privilege to hold one of the most important positions in the nation, for which good character and fair treatment of others is necessary. Kavanaugh has trotted out a slew of people attesting to his good character, making it clear that he and his Republican supporters believe who he is as a person is directly relevant to his fitness as a supreme court justice. Ford’s story, if true, would make him flat-out unfit to serve.
Which is why it must be heard, and why senators who believe she’s credible will then have an obligation to vote against Kavanaugh. This is more akin to a very important job interview than a criminal case. Ford’s testimony does not have to prove Kavanaugh guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; it just has to be credible and convincing enough to sway lawmakers.
That is precisely what terrifies Republicans. But they have a duty to do this the right way – their office demands it, voters demand it, and the American democratic process requires it.
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he list of Trump-era jeremiads keeps growing: “
