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Trump Teeters Towards Meltdown | Progressive Activist Calendar April 13-23, 2018

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Things are breaking fast this morning as I’m writing this post. So I’m only going to leave this plan of action here, in the likely event President Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as is widely expected.

March for Truth—an organization that is working with dozens of advocacy groups to organize rapid response protests has partnered with MoveOn.org, Public Citizen, Indivisible and many others to prepare emergency ‘Nobody is Above the Law’ rallies that will happen directly following the firing of the special counsel should it occur. There are already events in 800+ cities and communities scheduled across the country—more than 300,000 people are prepared to take to the streets.

By firing Mueller or Rosenstein, the president would trigger a full-fledged constitutional crisis by asserting that he is above the law. The hours following the firing will determine whether he is proved right.   [Read more…]

Indiana’s Destroy-Public-Education Leader is Going National (Again)

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Harris propagates the Koch-DeVos school privatization agenda

Last week, a press release from The Mind Trust announced that founder and CEO, David Harris was leaving. Writing for Chalkbeat, Dillon Peers McCoy reported:

“Now, Harris is moving on from the city he helped shape to the national stage, although he still plans to live in Indianapolis. The national group is in the early stages of development, said Harris, who declined to provide more details about his co-founders or their plans. A release from The Mind Trust said the new organization aims to “help cities around the country build the right conditions for education change.”

This is at least the third attempt Harris has made to take his brand to a national scale.   [Read more…]

DeVos Damages to Detroit Schools: A Crime in Progress

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The destroy public education (DPE) movement’s most egregious outcome may be in Detroit and it is being driven by a virulent Christian ideology.

In 2001, Dick and Betsy DeVos answered questions for the Gathering. Dick DeVos opined that church has retreated from its central role in communities and has been replaced by the public school. He said it is our hope “churches will get more and more active and engaged in education.” Betsy noted “half of our giving is towards education.”   [Read more…]

The Koch Brothers Network’s State of the Union

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This past weekend the network of conservative plutocrats also known as the Koch Network met in Indian Wells, just a few hours northeast of San Diego. The area is a playground for the wealthy, and about as safe as it gets for those plotting to destroy democracy: 95.2% white, with 65.1% of residents (second highest in California) registered as Republicans.

It was their biggest conclave ever, going back to 2003 when the Koch brothers began convening like-minded donors twice annually. Their plans for the 2018 election cycle include spending close to $400 million to influence the mid-term elections, using the administration’s tax reform bill as bait. The group spent $250 million on politics in the 2016 elections, so it’s evident they are worrying about what’s coming in November.   [Read more…]

The Mind Trust Attack of Public Education is Led by Democrats

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The Mind Trust is the proto-type urban school privatizing design. Working locally, it uses a combination of national money and local money to control teacher professional development, create political hegemony and accelerate charter school growth. The destroy public education (DPE) movement has identified The Mind Trust as a model for the nation.

A Little History

In 1999, Bart Peterson became the first Democrat to win the Indianapolis mayor’s race since 1967. Peterson campaigned on the promise to bring charter schools to Indianapolis. He claimed, “We are simply in an age where cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all, 1950s style education just doesn’t work for a lot of kids. The evidence is the dropout rate. The evidence is the number of at-risk kids who are failing at school.”

The new mayor joined with Republican state senator Teresa Lubbers to finally achieve her almost decade long effort of passing a charter school law in Indiana. In the new charter school law, Lubbers provided for the mayor of Indianapolis to be a charter school authorizer. Then Democratic governor, Frank O’Bannon, signed the legislation into law.   [Read more…]

Don’t Be Distracted by a Word: The Issue Is Racism – Progressive Activist Calendar – January 12 -22, 2018

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It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin, No Name in the Street

Donald Trump could seek asylum in Moscow tomorrow, and the programs built on the legacy of hate that he embodies would continue to advance.

There is a connection between the City of El Cajon’s schemes to starve out the homeless, County DA Summer Stephan’s blind eye toward law enforcement officers malfeasance, the resurrection of the war on crime nationally, and a ‘whites first’ immigration policy.   [Read more…]

Rep. Duncan Hunter Lets Loose in TV Interview – Progressive Activist Calendar, January 6-16, 2018

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Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Thursday morning interview with Good Morning San Diego on KUSI was amazing. The Indivisible Team San Diego had a field day with his comments, issuing a press release so good that I’m borrowing heavily from it for the intro to today’s column.

When a suspect complains about prosecutorial prejudice while the investigation is still ongoing, it’s a sign bad things are coming, like indictments or even jail time. And that’s exactly what the East County Congressman did, blaming individuals in the Department of Justice for intentionally delaying the resolution of their criminal investigation into misuse of his campaign funds.

The Congressman blamed the career ambitions of federal investigators who, he said, seek fame, and aim to do maximum damage to his campaign by dragging out the investigation into the 2018 election year.   [Read more…]

Destroy Public Education (DPE); It’s a Billionaire Fueled Agenda

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Three researchers from Indiana coined the terminology Destroy Public Education (DPE). They refuse to call it reform which is a positive sounding term that obfuscates the damage being done. America’s public education system is an unmitigated success story, yet, DPE forces say we need to change its governance and monetize it.

We are discussing the education system that put a man on the moon, developed the greatest economy the world has ever seen and wiped out small pox. It is the system that embraces all comers and resists all forms of discrimination. In the 1980’s, it was laying the foundation for the digital revolution when it came under spurious attack.

Not only are great resources being squandered on DPE efforts but the teaching profession is being diminished. Organizations like Relay Graduate School and the New Teachers Project are put forward as having more expertise in teacher education than our great public universities. That would be amusing if wealthy elites were not paying to have these posers taken seriously.   [Read more…]

Taxing Our Democracy: The GOP Plan is Part of a Larger Assault on Democratic Institutions

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Back during the halcyon days of the Obama administration, political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University published a seminal study on American democracy that illustrated that:

Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.

This threat to our democracy was the product of the fact that, according to Gilens and Page, “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”   [Read more…]

Thoughts on the 43rd Anniversary of Richard Nixon’s Resignation

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At 9:01 pm on August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon went on TV to announce his resignation. Facing impeachment for his involvement in the complex series of events usually described as the Watergate scandal, he’d concluded that it was time to go.

I lived in Washington DC at the time. There was a late night party of sorts in the street outside the White House, with news crews filming young people spraying cheap champagne. A month later President Gerald Ford ended his own political career by issuing a  “full, free, and absolute pardon,” eliminating any possibility of an indictment, trial, or legal sanctions.

People tend to forget the long and complex the process the nation went through before we were “free” of an administration that had gone awry. There were lots of days with explosive revelations many of us thought would certainly bring the 37th Presidency to an end. There were the nationally televised press conferences we feared would end with a declaration of martial law and a national roundup of dissidents. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t easy.   [Read more…]

Fight Back: An Ecopsychological Understanding of Depression

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 One human language is much too small
to convey the ever unfolding meanings at play in the world.

I am an environmental activist. I have depression. To be an activist with depression places me squarely in an irreconcilable dilemma: The destruction of the natural world creates stress which exacerbates depression. Cessation of the destruction of the natural world would alleviate the stress I feel and, therefore, alleviate the depression. However, acting to stop the destruction of the natural world exposes me to a great deal of stress which, again, exacerbates depression.

Either, the destruction persists, I am exposed to stress, and I remain depressed. Or, I join those resisting the destruction, I am exposed to stress, and I remain depressed.

Depressed if I do, depressed if I don’t. So, I fight back.   [Read more…]

May Day in San Diego: Remembering Who Brought You the 8-Hour Day, Resisting Trump, & Fighting for a Just Future

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9:00 AM to 2:00 PM Teach-in, Rally and March at San Diego City College
3:00 PM Rally at the Federal Building
4:00 PM March to Chicano Park followed by Rally in Chicano Park

Let’s stand together as a community this May 1st, educate, organize, agitate, and just say no to a future based on hate, division, inequality, and a reckless disregard for the future. In the words of the old labor slogan, we believe that “an injury to one is an injury to all” and that the beloved community we serve is worth fighting for with all we’ve got.

Let’s come out this May Day and make our voices heard like never before.   [Read more…]

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