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“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).
Any white cop will tell you it does. You can’t predict how a Black will act, they’re just weird, so you must detain him first to protect your own safety… and only then, determine if they’ve ever committed a crime…
And no, you don’t have to do that to white people they tell you….
This brought to mind something quite weird…
Have you ever seen a Black guy walk through an all white neighborhood? All the white people stare at him… No one says “hey, yo, what’s up bro? How you feelin’ today?” The phones ring behind closed curtains as old lady calls old lady… “Better be careful out there, there’s a black guy loose”… It’s like: put one black guy on the street and everyone gets panicky…
This is fact. You don’t see that in all-black neighborhoods… When a lone white guy walks down Spruce Street in Wilmington, everyone out on their stoops, calls out to him… Kids run up, “hey, Mister.” Old folks holler from their porches… “Hot enough for you out there?” Black men on the corner all say, “hey, what’s happenin’, bro?”… The atmosphere is a community oriented around love and they open up their hearts (providing you aren’t police)… But it is fact: when a white guy walks down a Black neighborhood street, everyone doesn’t assume he is there to commit crime… But that is EXACTLY what goes on in white neighborhoods…..
Why is that? Why do whites as a rule get all uppity around blacks, but blacks don’t around whites?
The phenomena which is very prevalent, gives credence to all those cops killing black men because of their skin color… Their fear of the black man is innate. That “I’d better shoot first or he’ll kill me” attitude causes all of them to respond to fear in a crises and not with ones head…
And this is embarrassing for most white people to acknowledge but they do admit it. They may not have racist bone in their body, but they KNOW, their community is very scared of black people… Whereas black communities will invite white strangers into to a home BBQ if one is going on… ( especially if they bring booze).
And if you come from that mentality of instinctive fear, you are going to make the assumption that guy is going to kill you first and ask questions later; “Ka Pow”… no questions needed now…
How do you diffuse this?
I believe you can ratchet things downward by asking someone to explain how a gene affecting pigment in your skin makes anyone more dangerous than someone lacking that gene…
I think if we all apply science to this problem and realize that it is just a gene that makes skin dark; no gene is going to make someone kill you first before you have time to assess the threat… any more than the lack of that pigment gene is going to make them kill you first… Pigment has nothing to do with wanting to kill, it’s there to protect skin from excessive sun… Otherwise white people would be locking up freckled Irish, out of fear over what might happen… “THEY HAVE DARK SPOTS ON THEIR SKIN!!! ”
Our race problem is strictly based on myths we carry from our childhoods. Like Black people are dangerous; … Or white people are always nice to each other and always respect authority… of course neither are true… What is true is that most people do respect authority out of self preservation; a learned trait it comes from their experience in life, not a pigmentizing gene.
When we collectively come to the realization that race is arbitrarily decided by skin color, (it could be eye color, or foot size) then we will have overcome its influence… I know such success is kind of hard to accomplish when you have one major party’s Presidential candidate saying the exact opposite…
But if you were a white cop, and upon walking up to a car see it’s a black person and right then, take a deep breath and pretend its a white person like your Uncle Joe, then the tension with which you approach that car, is the same as if you approached some white old man with freckles… The person in that car, who’s apprehensive and afraid you are going to go berserk as in those videos, all because he was driving while black, relaxes and diffuses as well for he looks at you as a black cop, same skin color as him…
If every cop did this exercise upon approaching a suspect or someone pulled over, we just might get along a little better…
Research has proven that blacks do get treated more meanly than any other race… We have that data… They are indeed roughed up a lot more than any other race…
The severity seems to be white peoples’ fault; those same white people who freak out every time a black person strolls through their neighborhood and whisper: “what’s he doing here?”
The great leaders of our past have taken on the great enemies of our past…. Remember it takes great courage to stand up to ones enemies. It takes even greater courage to stand up to ones friends..
We have only one candidate running for president today, who has enough compassion for everyday Americans, that will take on the powerful arrayed against us…. and we have one running for school board….
As we approach the new year, the clowns will begin dropping out and all begin to take a serious view over who can be our next president. By now a normal trend; it happens every four years.
The reason we have to put up with the clowns is because across all of America, there is gross disenchantment over the way things are. A gross enchantment so huge, that unifies both the extreme right and extreme left into a larger classification.
These two opposite sides actually have a common denominator. Both sides are both unhappy how the needs of real human beings are being trumped by those whom they have elected and trusted to serve them.
On the right it is the tea party types who are erroneously easy to dismiss as primitive forms of intelligence. On the left is its those who exhale in triplicate just to hear themselves breathe, usually with complaints regarding how good programs are not good enough to their liking.
Or so each are characterized by the other side’s talk radio hosts…..
But in reality, both have a deep love of the America they grew up under and see it slipping away by the minute. Both share the same vision that America needs to be great again, but simply differ on the approaches required to achieve that aim which can be characterized as such. The left believes we need to change somethings in our system of governing; the right believes we have to change individual people one by one.
The common enemy in both parties surprisingly is the bloc of moderates spanning both parties who compromise too freely against their parties values and who seem too prone to cater to business at the expense of individual constituent’s wishes and demands. Rather bizarrely, we three parties, if you include this business class in the middle of both and only when two of the three agree, does anything get accomplished.
In Delaware this is played out in the opt out movement where the Governor (business party) used his veto and the head of the House of Representatives (business party) shows no sign of bringing it up to be overturned.. Enough votes (Dems and Repubs) are present to do so, just little procedural matter is all that is now boxing up the two wings wishes…’
Nationally the same scenario is being played out in that all the candidates are the same except one. Only one candidate of either party is taking on corporate America. All the rest are fortressed and supported by Corporate America marking all the differences actually existing between them as petty and insignificant when compared to the pressing needs at hand.
No matter who is elected, we can have no real change over the next four years unless that one who is different and from Vermont, wins.
So despite all the banter our main stream media is giving us, (whose staff is primarily and pathetically reduced to snooping on Twitter and putting that up as “real news”), the real question emerging as voters begin to look seriously, needs to be: who will actually make that change that benefits me?
Only one. Right now only one candidate’s platform can make the huge changes required to wean America off its penchant for developing profits, and turn America back to work on developing its people. Which is what the extremes of both right and left believe need to be done.
Because behind all the arguments about trade, abortions, shootings, and economics, the real solution to making your life better, is to put more money into your pocket as well as the pockets of the rest of the 99%.,…
Because you really aren’t politically free, unless you are also economically free. For unless you can quit that job you don’t like, can’t stand, or hate, and quickly find another one, you are not free. If you have no choice but to work at that crumby job, you simply do not taste freedom.
Only one candidate’s platform will change that now; it requires raising taxes on the one percent.
According to Fortune estimates, on this planet global households together have amassed over $250 trillion in assets. The one percent now owns 50% of that which translates into their ownership of $125 trillion in net worth. If this net worth were conservatively earning 7% per year in interest ($17.5 trillion), and the capital gains tax were raised to 50% marginal levels only on this select group, it would pump a lost $8.5 trillion back into the economy per year.
This is money that could be spent on combating global warming. This is money that could be spent on making normal citizens earn more. This is money that could be spent on ending hunger world wide. This is money that could rejuvenate cities providing great future for ones youth. This is money that could be spent on education.
And this money is absolutely free.
For the $7.5 trillion taxed and reinvested through governments around the world will offer (at minimum) a 2:1 rate of investment, meaning that the $7.5 trillion taxed and spent will generate a yield a $15 trillion return on that investment. Which since the wealthy own one half of all wealth, this means they get to re-pocket $7.5 trillion which they just gave up. And if investment returns are higher, by ratios of 3, 4, 5, even 10, they make out big time. Win, win, win.
Right now, only one person says he will do this.
Compared to this sea change, none of the other little things matter. If that yearly $7.5 trillion dollars through increased economic activity, is averaged out to all the 7.5 billion of this planets dwellers (of course it won’t be), it actually gives every single person a $1000 dollar increase of money they get to keep… They will see it in two ways; one they will see part of it in expenses going down and part of it in salaries going up.
Only one person across both parties fields has the wisdom take on Wall Street now knowing that it gets more expensive to do so by each hour. OUT of all the candidates on both parties… ONLY ONE is not beholden to the interests of the top 1%.
You need to send him money, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat. Both party’s networks are thoroughly tainted by corporate money. But one person isn’t…
In 2002 we gave the top one percent a loan from the American people which was to make us all wealthier over time. They got their money, and kept it; we were polite and nice about asking for restitution. Apparently enough time has gone by, they think it is theres. Meaning, it’s now past time we called back our loan which we originally gave to the top 1% via the Bush Tax Cuts. …
If you are not a parent with children in school, you don’t know much about Opt-Out. If you are a parent with children in school, you are very much aware about Opt-Out….
Essentially what is now called crony capitalism simply took over American education during the recession when money was very tight. They immediately tried to classify all children into little corporate boxes which they designed to provide a continuous incoming revenue stream (for themselves)…
Parents knew that children should be learning more about what’s important in life and less about how to act like corporate schill, and so parents looked for a way to stop it. Since all the corporate actions depended on having this one single test show beyond doubt that American children were more stupid they they really were, parents realized that if they could disable the credibility of these test results through not testing their children, then and only then would their requests have merit on boards overseeing education now staffed with crony capitalists. Crony capitalists are those who preach the benefits of capitalism, but get their money from governmental handouts because of who they know in government.
The only way parents would get their wishes heard (they rightly concluded), was to refuse the test which if done on a massive scale would render the published results untrustworthy, costing Capitalists lots of money, and therefore to the crony capitalists, the act of fulfilling the parents’ demands would appear the cheaper option.
And at this point this article is going to leave the topic of education. Because I want to talk about the bigger issue at play here and it basically involves the future of every Americans’ economic freedom.
Throughout out years of history there is something uniquely America about the way we opt out. Back when Britain’s Parliament decided that the Thirteen Colonies must pay some of their costly governance (Stamp Act), most Americans chose to opt out. When the Brits relented and said, “ok, since you don’t drink very much tea, we’ll drop our tax on everything else”, the Americans opted out of drinking tea.
America was founded on opting out…
When the Pullman company said “no” to workers asking for a livable wage, workers opted out of working until those demands were met. Not willing to succumb to that loss of profits, the Pullman company reverted to violence to force people to work, and when that didn’t work, they convinced President Cleveland to force them back with a decree and he did. They returned to work disappointed but the strike movement was born and would soon sweep across almost every industry.
It had to, because Opting Out is the only power (other than anarchy)people really have when things are stacked against them. Although our nation is often deemed a representative democracy, under the surface enough representatives kow-tow to powerful interests, so the will of the powerful becomes the law of the land.
And that shuts the major door which working people have to implement their requests. As long as democracy continues as “majority rules”, you really don’t need “opt out” … Instead, you opt not to return an official you despise and replace him with one more inclined to follow your wishes.
Now with Citizens United in play we are not even in the same world politically, as we were only one year into the Iraqi War (2004) .. As plainly seen by today’s Republican Party, very strange people as candidates are propped up by hidden money and it appears that with so much money, even without popular support weird candidates could still win.
So in those times when government and your bosses business are allied against YOU, you have to take non-governmental action to express your sentiments in a costly enough ways, so you too become part of the discussion….
Talk is cheap; money isn’t.
So if they don’t talk to you sincerely about your money, you hit them in their money…. You opt out of working for them. “Nope, not taking this today”
As Americans we tend by our altruistic nature to put other people’s interests above ours. Not all of us, but most of us really do feel that way. It is why the rest of the world likes us. But the time to worry over your bosses profits before raising the prices for your services, has probably past…. Statistics show so much money in the top 1% came from YOU, because our Republican Congress this past decade let them run their hands through money which should have been yours. You are working far shy of your income potential just because they are paying you much less for your services than they could easily afford. External factors have all been ruled out. The reason you are not seeing your income grow, is because THEY don’t want you to see your income grow.
The simplest way to get more money in today’s world, is to opt out of working for that boss, either permanently or on a strike. Every billionaire sports franchise has suffered a player strike in this century. The owners first balk at not meeting players demands, and the players opt out of playing in their events.
No one can argue that NHL, NFL, MLB, or the NBA employees are impoverished. Players strike because the owners’ profits comes solely from their labor and as profits rise, they certainly are entitled and deserve a cut in on the action. So do those who make cars. So do those who work for airlines. So do those who cook your fast food. So do those who teach.
Strikes are simply about “cuts and percentages of profit”… as in do we cut you in on our huge profit, or on the other side, do we cut you out of your huge profits until you let us in on the action?
Today corporate overreach is so big, it is eating our public schools. Most likely that means it already owns your life…pinched between your bills and your bosses demands. But don’t you really deserve better? Don’t you wish you were paid more for the amount of work you do? Why should you roll-over and resign yourself simply to settling for basic survival, instead of really enjoying your short time on this planet? Don’t the rules businesses use against each other, apply to you too? And the sad answer is that up to now, you DO settle for subsistence because you have been trained “not to rock the boat” or you’ll lose your job. Your obligatory duty has been to keep the charade of normality continuing at your bosses pleasure, an action which plays directly into the hands of the 1%.
“Look at these fools, performing at the highest productivity America has ever seen and doing it for peanuts, while I’m beach-partying.”
For just a little bit more each week, you too could be partying… Which is why I think that the opt out movement is going national here in the US… jumping the confines of education to spread through out the workplace.
It is already prevalent among the millionaires. They’ve been opting out of taxes for years now. They opt out of regulations they don’t like implemented to protect the health of citizens. They opt out of zonings they don’t like. They opt out of environmental regulations. They opt out of following OSHA requirements. They have been opting out a long time, which is why they are so afraid you will too. They know its effectability.
Today, at no harm to your kid, you can opt him out of testing knowing full well that only then will changes get made. Once you succeed, apply that philosophy to the rest of your life… HB 50 is nothing less than preserving YOUR right as an American Citizen, to opt out. Imagine if asking for higher wages put you in jail. It may one day. It has in corporate-run societies of the past. But it will not happen here if your government preserves your basic American Right…. to opt out.
It is rather interesting that in our spirited Republican campaign we get very little substance. Despite the discussion that Fox would outdo CNBC, most of what was asked of candidates simply didn’t concern me… I speak for the silent America.
Here is what should be asked. There is not a right or wrong answer yet. They haven’t yet been tried. But our nation is facing some consequential changes and many of us would like to know what our potential leaders would do to face them.
Granted there are both Republican and Democratic responses to these questions. But America is being denied any discussion upon them… and has its attention diverted to personalities I think, for the sole purpose to keep these burning questions buried, hidden, and never shown the light of day….
- How would you fix education in America. What is your plan and how long do you think it will take before it begins to work?
- Why are all the benefits of our work going to a few people?
- How do we restore democracy?
- How do we return jobs to America from overseas without cutting wages to levels seen in countries like the Philippines or China?
- How do we stop global warming?
- Businesses hire when demand increases, How do we increase demand?
- What is government’s role in a democracy when it comes to markets?
- How do we reduce our prison population?
- Who are the largest donors to your campaign and what do they want in return?
- How do we prevent gerrymandering?
- Estimates for peak oil range from its already happened to at the very latest 2060. What is your plan to deal with the end of oil?
- Black people are 4 times more likely to be killed in police custody than white. What do we as a country need to be doing about this?
- How do we return the middle class?
- How do we create a better Internet?
- Why are we outsourcing public schools?
- What do we do about “too big to fail” banks?
- How do we get the influence of big money out of our elections?
- Big or little. What is the perfect size for government in a dollar figure. How big should it be in $$$$?
There may be more questions that are pertinent. These are a start… Now as Delawareans there is little you can do to affect the national outcome… But just take these questions to our state races and begin asking them there. Ask our future governor; ask our future Senator, ask our future Congressperson. Print and take this along. If someone else asks a question you were intending, just switch and ask another off this list..
And because you held your representative accountable, we then begin to get the government we deserve.
One parting shot.
In past elections, question like this were asked by our media all the time. They are purposefully or extremely negligent not to ask them now.
On today, September 17th, it was refreshing to get a synopsis of where things stand… As soldiers our concentration is on the battle at hand. But wars are won with many battles, some are wins, and others not… But as a soldier you provide opposition to slow the advance in front of you from going forward, and by doing so you allow other battles not to have their reinforcements and their victories help count on your side….
The issue with the Smarter Balanced Assessments and Common Core is not really the difficulty of the subject or test. Standards are relative.. Getting an A+ at Del Tech is not the same as getting one at Harvard… Both have their uses but it is impossible to say both are equal. Same with the Smarter Balanced Scores versus the old tests… They are lower, because as in giving your kids a Harvard Graded test, they are purposefully made to be difficult so one must expect and understand the lower scores.
The sole problem with Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Assessment is the accountability piece. Firing teachers because they don’t hit above 75% proficient… when with the old tests they DID hit 75% proficient. Closing schools because they average below 30% proficient when with the old tests, the did over 55% proficient….
The accountability piece… That is the problem with Common Core. That is the problem with the Smarter Balanced Assessments.
And here is how the “accountability piece” is failing….
The administration initially took a hard line on evaluations, asking states to roll them out over a specific time period and to include state test scores as part of the mix.
But now, via citizen pushback, we have some states wavered not to phase the accountability piece in until 2017-2018. Long after Arne Duncun and his boss have exited government… Little doubt the new guy will be willing to take on such a political liability by continuing this very unpopular piece in his first years.
On top of that 12 states including Delaware, have until the 2016-2017 year to hold off the accountability piece…Many of them already have evaluation systems in place but need time to link them to tests aligned with the common core or use them for personnel decisions, like hiring and firing…
Complicating matters: Neither of the bills to revise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act making their way through Congress right now would continue to require states to develop teacher-evaluation systems that rely on student test scores.
It is quite unclear how a new president will be able to cajole and enforce the previous president’s insistence that there be a the link between teacher firing and test scores.
Bottom line it this: the hard line on tying evaluations and accountability is softening. Though originally draconian, Illinois had to wait a year for its waiver over timeline issues, Washington State had its waiver pulled because of a rebellion against tying scores to personnel issues; since then, the Duncun caliphate has backed down thorough the issuance of extensions and waivers to result in a patchwork of splotchy timelines that now individual states must follow… Delaware will have to fire teachers before PA, MD, or NJ for example… Which if they wait long enough, may NEVER have to fire teachers based on test scores…..
States going forward, such as Massachusetts well known for the quality of its education long before Common Core, have given their districts much more time to acquire a method of using two forms of evaluations for holding students accountable, not just the tests. This has taken extra time. What’s more, the state gave districts even more extra time to pinpoint measures for another component of the evaluations—educator impact,
Corporate proponents still supporting the linking of test scores to genocide of teachers are hoping this connection continues through inertia even though its been dropped from the ESEA legislation in Congress…
They have their work cut out for them if they wish it to be so….
We are opting out of state mandated tests.
We are served up a spectacle of Presidential debaters living in bubbles saying nothing of substance.
Our media ignores the one person who is mouthing things of substance; basically the problems 99% of us face in balancing our paycheck against our expenses…. One is too low, the other is too high… They should be reversed.
Our Arctic Ice Cap is dangerously low, our entire global climate is reeling.
A seven billion person planet freaks out and cannot handle a meager 1 million refugees from just 0.3% of its land mass.
The globe has never been richer…. EVER…. yet 99% of its people live in poverty.
Our own children are pawns in a grand scheme to eliminate public education and fix it so investors get rich off it.
Our corporate media simply doesn’t tell the truth anymore. One has to turn to comedians to get real information.
A raspy brash loudmouth Jew with crazy hair calls out an Evangelist University of higher learning for not following the very laws laid down by Jesus Christ. An act very similar to that of another Jew a little under 2000 years ago who also challenged the religious authorities of HIS time.
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That was today. Meanwhile almost 50 million of our country lives in poverty, often while working too jobs… and everyone shrugs and thinks that’s ok. The only thing worth discussing is Planned Parenthood and punishing Iran.
Is this really America then? Are we no longer the land of opportunity emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty’s bottom?
Something has got to give, right?
It starts with you…. when you get mad enough to do something… that’s when it changes…
You can… if you think about it…. start by going to Dover … 12:30 pm…. to protest the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Because it is all connected… it is all about big money doing what it wants over your objections… It’s all about getting you out of their way….
- Write a Refuse The Test letter to your child’s school advising them your child will not take the Smarter Balanced Assessment during this school year and you expect your child to have an education while other students are testing and hand it to the administrator of the school first thing in the morning
- Attend a press conference outside Legislative Hall in Dover at 12:30 pm and go to the State Board of Education meeting at 1pm and give public comment about your opposition to Regulation 103
- Talk with other parents at your child’s school about opt-out if they are not aware of it
- Wear a red shirt as a symbol of protest for Parent Strike
- Drop off flyers everywhere you go with a print-out of these bullet points
- Paint REFUSE THE TEST on your car (with temporary paint)
- Paint REFUSE THE TEST on Gov. Markell’s car (with non-removable paint)
- Use stealth guerrilla tactics: Put sticky notes everywhere (bathroom stalls, school supplies, in cereal and toy aisles at stores, anywhere you can think of) with REFUSE THE TEST written on it
- Thank your child’s teacher for all they do and that you are willing to fight for them
- Help a parent write a REFUSE THE TEST letter
- On the night before, use sidewalk chalk on pathways parents use to walk their children to school
- Whatever you can think of to legally spread the message
This link takes you to STARTCLASS’s rankings of Delaware’s Schools… it is the Harvard program designed to rank all schools in the country.
Those of us who know the school profiles inside and out, will see exactly what is being done. A select list of criteria mostly in this case the former DCAS scores, is used solely.
And of course, based on it, charters are ranked at the top… There is no mention of African heritage percentages or any other minorities for that matter. Low income is never glossed…
This is a preview of what the rating system will be about.
Image a parent stuck at what is a failing school (listed here) filled with great teachers, great staff, and is building students daily, who constantly tries to pull their kid out into an inferior school based on these ratings?…
This appears to be nothing but an advertisement for charter schools… And the data is not true… Imagine if you are an Afro American scientist moving into Delaware looking at these top schools thinking you’ll put your kids into them… and find,,, though you kids are smart at home… for some reason…. they can’t get accepted in these chalky white institutions…….
kavips 
