Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and getting ready for a hellacious week.  Tomorrow I will be collecting the data for and writing the Monthly Report for March.  Wednesday I have to pack and run errands.  Thursday I leave to get my volunteer training.  Friday I return and unpack.  Saturday I have a meeting that cannot be postponed.  On a scale of one to ten, ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: A few months ago, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and Marlene Seltzer, the chief executive of Jobs for the Future, published an article in Politico titled “Closing the Skills Gap.” They began portentously: “Today, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed. Yet, at the same time, 4 million jobs sit unfilled” — supposedly demonstrating “the gulf between the skills job seekers currently have and the skills employers need.”

Actually, in an ever-changing economy there are always some positions unfilled even while some workers are unemployed, and the current ratio of vacancies to unemployed workers is far below normal. Meanwhile, multiple careful studies have found no support for claims that inadequate worker skills explain high unemployment.

But the belief that America suffers from a severe “skills gap” is one of those things that everyone important knows must be true, because everyone they know says it’s true. It’s a prime example of a zombie idea — an idea that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die.

And it does a lot of harm. Before we get there, however, what do we actually know about skills and jobs?

Click through to see how Paul Krugman debunks this Republican lie. What we have is a Republican gap: the separation Republicans cause between where we are and a more healthy economy.

From Alternet: Equal Opportunity is an American Mandate

In the 1954 Supreme Court decision  Brown vs. the Board of Education, Chief Justice Earl Warren said that education "is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms." Equally eminent future Justice Thurgood Marshall insisted on "the right of every American to an equal start in life."

But now, as  The Economist points out, "Whereas most OECD countries spend more on the education of poor children than rich ones, in America the opposite is true." Poverty, of course, is of all colors, but it’s disproportionately black. The  Civil Rights Project at UCLA shows that "segregated schools are systematically linked to unequal educational opportunities," while the Economic Policy Institute tells us that "African American students are more isolated than they were 40 years ago."  New York City is the best example of that.

Charters and vouchers are the ‘choice’ of the free market. But the  National Education Policy Center notes that "Charter schools…can shape their student enrollment in surprising ways," through practices that often exclude "students with special needs, those with low test scores, English learners, or students in poverty." Stanford’s updated  CREDO study found that  fewer special education students and fewer English language learners are served in charters than in traditional public schools.

This is one of four Arguments on why we must save public education from the Republican onslaught. Click through for the other three.

From Crooks and Liars: I’ve had a lot of good teachers in my life, but there have been a few really great ones who will always stand out. They were the teachers who took the extra steps and showed just how much they cared about their students. At Red Bank High School in Tennessee, Jennifer Mitts was that kind of teacher.

When one of her students got sick, she drove the student to the ER. When that student couldn’t pay her bill, Mitts took care of it herself. Instead of a pat on the back, however, she was forced to resign.

According to the [Republican] school board, Mitts had done similar things in the past and was asked to stop. She had also received several other infractions, though the school wasn’t clear on what those were.

The school board also says that Mitts was only suspended but willingly resigned. Mitts says she was forced to resign.

Leave it to Republicans to fire a grade A teacher for doing right. What vile TEAbuggery!!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow and feel sufficiently recovered from my volunteer work to function.  At Thursday’s meeting my guys were planning their annual banquet.  I had arranged to bring in a woman from another local organization, who is working on a pamphlet to assist prisoners prepare to meet the parole board, into our meeting in the prison.  She had no experience in that area, so I took her into a side-room to meet with around thirty of the men who have appeared before the board.  It was a tough facilitating job, because a couple of my guys, who felt they had been treated unfairly (and one had been), wanted to dominate the session with complaints.  However valid, that did not relate to her project.   I managed to make that point (several times) and keep it on track, for the most part.  The woman came away satisfied that she had gleaned the raw material she needs. One critically important thing to do before the board is to be real.  As always, I was proud of my guys.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy:

I have a hard time watching this and not getting terribly angry. Those 123 young women and 23 men who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, deserve to be remembered. But we're watching it happen all over again in developing countries that supply Walmart, Gap, and other marketing and retail giants.

Sorry/not sorry, I’m mad as hell, and I wish we could live in a world where we didn’t have to take this anymore.

Warning: some violent images.

It's hard to add anything to this, except that the Republican Party is fighting to prevent such legislation.

Daily KosConnecticut has become the first state to pass legislation raising its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The bill was passed with strong margins in the state Senate and House and Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to sign it Thursday evening

Here's good news for a change. Kudos to CT!!

From Bill Moyers: Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child’s first five years. Thirty-five percent were married to, or in a relationship with, the child’s father for that entire time.

In the article, the author debunks ten of Republicans' favorite lies about poverty. Click through for the other nine.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow and feeling quite tired after research and running errands, but not too much so to give a Republican a parade.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: George Carlin (R.I.P.) was famous for being hilarious but also for being in-your-face honest about the state of humanity and the planet. His version of the lyrics for "America the Beautiful" are pretty halting.

Sadly, this is way too true.

From Daily Kos: Pretty much any traditional media outlet has been starting every discussion about the upcoming election as a done deal:  the House will remain in Rethuglican’s greedy, dangerous, corporate-owned claws and the Senate may be lost to these miscreants as well, because that’s just what happens in an election year after the opposition party has won the White House.

Bull shit.

Plain and simple.  And, yes, this is a rant.

Click through for a most excellent rant. Amen!!

From NY Times: The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency’s once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that — if approved by Congress — would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to senior administration officials.

Under the proposal, they said, the N.S.A. would end its systematic collection of data about Americans’ calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.

People are far too quick to blame Obama for doing his duty by enforcing the secret law Congress passed, which is his job as chief executive. He has wanted too long, however, to do the right thing. Now I bet the very members of Congress, who have publically blamed Obama for spying on Americans, will sabotage the proposed measures to end that practice.

Cartoon:

A national shame and tragedy.