Yes, Bloomberg's Campaign DID Go There Regarding Sanders and His Writings

from years ago.  To call Sanders a weirdo and even a pervert would be letting him off too easily:

O’Brien took something of a devil may care approach, diving into Sander’s past writings from the 1970s.

“We have a candidate who has risen in the polls because of this track record,” O’Brien said. “Bernie has loopy stuff in his background, saying women get cancer from having too many orgasms or toddlers should run around naked and touch each other’s genitals to insulate themselves from porn?”

Speaking for a nation of New Day viewers, Camerota exclaimed “What?!”

O’Brien was undeterred, asking why this “loony side of Bernie” has not yet surfaced. Well, here it is, in all its super weird splendor.

Sanders was and still is a crackpot. There is no getting around it.

link

More of Sanders' crackpottery can be found in the mentioned Mother Jones piece.

Democrats had better be scared of this ratfucker and deny him the nomination before it is too late.

The biggest problem here is there were and are too many candidates running.  ALL should have withdrawn the minute Joe Biden threw his hat into the ring.

We wouldn't have this problem if it weren't for these people having NO chance at all being the president cluttering the field.

I am talking to you Bloomberg, Steyer, Klobuchar, Warren, and Buttigieg.

And of course Sanders.

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts Aren't Needed Anymore

when you have presidential candidates willing to roast a Johnny-come-lately trying to buy his way to the presidency:

Highlights of Yesterday's Democratic National Convention

Everybody was talking about Obama's 50-minute speech, but like him as a president in general, I have never been impressed. Obama is not an orator but a lecturer, and his speechwriting skills leave a lot to be desired.

Truly, Michael Bloomberg should have edited Obama's speech. Bloomberg's speech was short and to the point. It was an absolute epic takedown of Donald Trump while at the same time a clear endorsement of Hillary Clinton. It took him 11 minutes to say what took 50 goddamned minutes for Obama to say, and it was far more effective.

Obama's speech:



Obama forgot to remember that this is supposed to be a support speech for Hillary Clinton,not an acceptance speech or a State of the Union speech.

Contrast that longwinded gasbag's verbal diarrhea to Michael Bloomberg's speech, by far the best of both conventions:




VP Joe Biden did well last night. I would rank his speech third behind Bloomberg and Bill Clinton for the best speech of the convention:



Lowlight was the Bernie or Bush idiots booing Leon Panetta:




HRC running mate Tim Kaine's speech:

Best Speech of Either Convention

Not a fan of Michael Bloomberg because he shit all over teachers as mayor of NYC, but I am grateful he didn't run third party. He would have been a real threat. He gave what I think is easily the best speech of either convention when he absolutely slammed Donald Trump:

Not All Billionaires Are Equal

Look at the absolute obscene wealth of Michael Bloomberg, who was a piece of shit as mayor of New York when he shit all over teachers rendering him unqualified for anything, as compared to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton:

Michael Bloomberg: $36.5 billion
Donald Trump: $4.5 billion
Hillary Clinton: $30 million (est)

Even if all of that wealth is on paper, and it usually is, it is still an outrage somebody like this even HAS that much in the first place. This is more than the GNP of some countries.

We NEED to return the tax rates back to Eisenhower era rates.

These people with way too much money and too much time on their hands are dangerous.

Bloomberg is still making threats he is going to run third party:

Bloomberg would run as a moderate promising to bring compromise and business savvy to an election characterized by highly charged disputes and political partisanship.

Bloomberg is seen as a pragmatist and fiscal conservative who has taken liberal positions on issues like gun control and the environment.

His is a fake Democrat like Andrew Cuomo. He was a total piece of shit as dictator of NYC.

Since Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic Party nominee and in all likelihood president, I think Bloomberg is just talking out of his ass.

Sanders would quit the race than see this piece of shit running for president.

People like Bloomberg are the reason people are so pissed off.

The Education Wars: Do New York Teachers, Students, and Parents

live in a police state? It sure seems like it. From the Norm's Notes blog:

Last Thursday afternoon, January 21, on E. 79 St., across from the mayor’s mansion, parents, students and teachers peacefully protested against the Bloomberg Administration’s proposals to force mass closings of public schools and their takeover by charter schools. They were exercising their constitutional right under the First Amendment to publicly demand that these policies that undermine the public school system and deprive their children of an adequate education be stopped.

Meanwhile, a reporter on the scene caught on videotape the actions of police who were taking photographs of the protesters from the roof and inside a private school across the street. In 1985, the federal court ruled that it is illegal and a violation of civil rights for the New York City police to take photos of protesters, unless they have cause to believe that a crime may be committed. The city signed a consent agreement that year, restricting police surveillance according to these rules, called the Handschu Guidelines. In the case of this peaceful protest, there was no such cause. The video is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNRt-5OZ68

The protesters are asking for a full explanation as to why the pictures were taken and how the police plan to use the photos. The protestors also want to know whether any videotaping of them was done. Finally, they are considering filing a complaint with Judge Charles S. Haight Jr., the federal judge who has continuing jurisdiction over the enforcement of the Handschu Guidelines.

More

The press conference asking some questions:

Part 1

Part 2


Teachers and those concerned about education really have NO rights.



Meanwhile, BloomKlein are doing a great job with the city's schools--NOT. From the NY Teachers.net board:

We all know BloomKlein does what it wants and feels no need to
justify anything.

I worked in a large (1600 kids in an 800 capacity building) middle
school. We always did ok, stayed off SURR and out of corrective
action till 2001. Then we were in corrective action. Large classes
were our biggest problem- I had 36 kids on year, 38 in another. The
principal was old school and knew little about instruction but
picked admins who did. The school was always quiet and under
control. Most of the teachers were good. You never saw kids in the
hallway, excessive rowdiness, graffiti.

Long story short, we were "restructured" on a whim in 2004. We were
not SURR. Ironically, class size became even bigger because
classrooms became offices. We did ok at my school but the two new
schools were an unmitigaged disaster- kids having sex in stairwells
(not from my school) vandalizing, one kid took a crap in the
hallway. The kids who went through those two new schools got
totally screwed because the admins and teachers could not control
the building. These things did not happen when we were one large
school. I would imagine that it was also cheaper to run a large
school with one principal and 3-4 APs vs. 3 principals and 5-6 APs.
After five years, one of the schools is STILL a mess and the other
is better, but only marginally. Turnover in both schools is very
high and those teachers regularly seek jobs with us (and kudos to
my principal who will take experienced teachers- a few are
returnees from pre-restructure.)

As others have said, Bloomberg wants to put charters in. That's the
rumor in my school now, that we will get rid of our 5th grade and
allow a charter. He also needs to place his Principal Academy
people. Two of the four principals who have gone through the other
schools in my building are/were from the PA and both are abysmal.

The Education Wars: The Sidewalks of New York

We certainly can't have the peasants spoil the view:

The protesters want to march back and forth along both sides of 79th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, in single file, on Jan. 21, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mr. Bloomberg lives on the north side of the street. While the New York City police have frequently turned down permits to protest on the north side, in 2003, they allowed a group protesting the closure of firehouses to march on both sides.

The plaintiffs decided to press the issue as a civil rights matter. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District, argues that just as protesters are able to march outside Gracie Mansion, where mayors normally live, so too should they be able to protest outside Mr. Bloomberg’s house, where he conducts political activities like receptions and fund-raisers.

On Tuesday, the Police Department offered a compromise: the protest could proceed on the south side of 79th street, Ms. Cavanagh said. The plaintiffs turned down the offer, saying the city should not be able to pick who protests on the north side.

The Education Wars: BloomKlein

A rally against Bloomberg's disastrous stewardship of NYC schools is scheduled for January 21, 2010. Will there actually be a good turnout, or will this event be a bust, with too many people being apathetic about the assault going on in public education at large?

Details:

So many people involved in education as parents and teachers and even students have been so outraged at the actions of BloomKlein and the Tweed Toadies, their anger has barely been contained. In recent weeks an outlet for these passions has opened up with the idea that a rally at Bloomberg's residence on Thursday afternoon from 4-6:30 pm would be an excellent way to

a) demonstrate to the city and the nation that there is a growing resistance to the education deform movement, with a focus on the school closings and the charter school invasion of public school spaces and

b) give participants a sense of unity and purpose for future struggles by having one big party in the streets near Bloomberg's residence.

The Education Wars II

It's hunting season, and Mayor/Dictator Michael Bloomberg of New York is waging open season on teachers:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced some controversial proposals for education reform Wednesday while addressing the Center for American Progress in the nation's capital.
Speaking beside U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the mayor announced that the city will begin immediately using student test scores to help decide whether a teacher gets tenure.

The state recently passed a law banning the use of student test scores in tenure decisions.

Bloomberg said a close reading of the law shows that the city can use the test scores for teachers up for tenure this year. He said he has asked Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to begin using the test scores in that decision-making process.

"We should use all means that we have to evaluate who the better teachers are, promote them, pay them more if we can," said the mayor. "And, at the same time, those that aren't up to standards, give them the remedial work that will make them integral teachers, and after all that, they can't cut the mustard, then I'm sorry, they just can't work in our school system.

More revolving door shit, and the kids will be screwed over. Test scores don't mean crap. The kids don't even take the tests seriously to begin with.

Worse still, Bloomberg wants to give principals even more power to boot teachers they don't happen to like.

More about Bloomberg's latest scheme:

The tenure law, passed last year after heavy lobbying from the city and state teachers unions, bars the use of student test scores as a factor in teacher tenure decisions.

But the mayor pointed out this morning that the rules apply only to teachers who began work after July 2008. Teachers up for tenure this year were hired in 2007 and so are not subject to the provisions, Bloomberg argued. If legislators allow the law to expire on schedule this June, then it will never have applied to any teacher.

Right now, 1,200 teachers are receiving regular paychecks and benefits even though they don’t hold full-time positions in the city schools. Bloomberg is proposing to make it easier to move those teachers off the payroll.

Bloomberg also targeted the “rubber rooms,” which hold teachers accused of offenses ranging from incompetence to abuse. A backlog of accused teachers means the rubber room is clogged with people waiting for a verdict on whether they can go back into the classroom.

Bloomberg said that his proposals should not come as a surprise to the union.

“I didn’t consult with them, but they certainly know my views that we should use all means that we have to evaluate who the better teachers are, promote them, and pay them more if we can,” Bloomberg said.

Of course he didn't consult with the union. Who needs them anyway?

Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg

of New York has been nothing but a disaster, especially when it comes to the school system in that city, he will probably get himself re-elected.

Money buys everything, it seems, except a conscience.

The Education Wars

It's back to the past with Las Vegas schools, as the district's are becoming more and more segregated.

Same is true up north.
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You better believe Arne Duncan is an embarrassment, but unfortunately what he espouses is the future of public education, which is going down a shithole by design:

Duncan also ignored the fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of students discharged from our high schools each year, who disappear from the rolls without ever being counted as dropouts.

In the class of 2007, the latest figures available, more than 21 percent of those who had entered high school four years earlier were discharged, about 20,000 in all. The discharge rate for first year high school students has doubled since the year 2000. Yet not one of these students was counted as a drop-out. Since a report on this disturbing phenomenon was released in April, co-authored by Jennifer Jennings and me, the DOE has ceased releasing discharge figures.

Duncan's praise for the questionable accomplishments of our Republican mayor have now been plastered all over Bloomberg's campaign literature, sent multiple times to every household in the city. Over the course of his campaign, Bloomberg has already spent more than $37 million of his personal fortune on his re-election, on the road to spending $100 million -- breaking all previous records, including his own.

The NYC school district, called the "board of education," is the worst, most corrupt school district in the entire country. When you have the likes of Arne Duncan singing its praises, you KNOW public education is in deep doo-doo.

Nobody should even entertain the thought of being a public school teacher.
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A mind-boggling stupid superintendent, which is typically par for the course, tries to backtrack after insulting the hell out of his district's teachers:

In a letter to staff released Tuesday afternoon, Johnson wrote: "The past and current research shows that the teacher in the classroom is the single most important factor in the education of a student."

In a phone interview this evening, Johnson said "teachers are doing great.

"How are we doing as a system to help teachers to be able to understand this challenge and improve their skill set to be able to do that? We're not doing so great," he said.

The letter was a departure from the grant proposal, released last week, which on page 10 listed only 30 percent of teachers as being effective.

The district defined an effective teacher as one whose students improved academically by an average of 1.3 years during the course of a school year, which Johnson acknowledged today as a lofty goal. The 30 percent figure was reached by calculating the performance of math and language arts teachers using their students' FCAT scores.

That figure was chosen because it would allow a student who is a year behind to catch up over three years, said Marc Baron, chief of performance accountability. The point of the Gates grant is to improve teaching overall, which will ultimately result in better student performance.

Teachers are not currently evaluated based on that measure and had not been told that it was a goal.

"I cannot tell you the hundreds of emails I have received from people who are just plain angry," said Robert Dow, president of the teachers union.

Johnson is only sorry he got caught.
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The Call for "Unity"

is a load of bullshit. However, if Michael Bloomberg actually runs as an independent, expect him to take millions of Democratic votes, far more votes than Nader ever did.

As for Obama, he's no more than a ringer for the GOP. Totally vapid, downright stupid if you ask me, our version of George W. Bush but without Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to pull the strings.

It is less the fact Obama is black than his utter stupidity and his ego too monstrous to see his stupidity that he is totally unelectable and would lose all fifty states (perhaps carrying D.C.) in the general election.

No matter who the Republicans field, and it'll probably be media darling John McCain, it will be a historic blowout for the Republicans.

With regard to unity, the current situation isn't the fault of both Democrats and Republicans, it is the fault of REPUBLICANS ONLY that the political environment has been so poisoned.

The groundwork was laid in the 1950s with the likes of Buckley and Friedman, stopped somewhat in the 1960s with the Goldwater debacle, gradually took hold during the Reagan years (but still stopped with a Democratic majority in at least one house), and reached its peak during the so-called Newt Revolution of 1994. The environment has since been totally polluted with this right-wing filth.

And a moron like Obama wants to work with these bastards who have raped the American people and the Democratic Party for close to 15 years? Are you fucking kidding me?

THAT'S why I am convinced this airhead is nothing but a ringer for the GOP. THAT'S why, if he were to be the nominee, I would NOT vote for him under any circumstances. I am not going to condone this rigging.

John Edwards sees the problem although WSWS hates hits guts, believing as they do he's a hypocrite because he's rich and the fact he represented a red state until 2005 (and his voting record is more conservative than his current stands). Regardless of the WSWS's shortsightedness, Edwards is the one true threat to the political status quo.

Presidential Notes III.

I hope Michael Bloomberg will keep his word and not run for president.
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