Classrooms

Having spent the past three years working as a substitute teacher, I have learned some important lessons I want to pass on to my friends who have never worked in the classroom. First off, I work in a district that is above average in teacher education and student performance. I work only grades 6 thru 12 and in seven different schools. This means 49 different classes and that I may hit the same class once every two months. During any two month period I am likely to encounter one class with a disruptive student. Normally I am aware of this student before class even starts. He and it is almost always a he, enters talking loudly and often times pushing other students around. When class starts he is the last to sit down and only after I go over to him and request that he takes his seat. After attendance he will say he doesn’t have his book and wants to go to the locker and get it. I allow that and he takes ten minutes when it should only take two. He sits down and opens a pack of gum and then goes up to the front of the room to throw away the rapper. Then he gets up to sharpen his pencil which he grinds down to a stub. Next he has to go to the bathroom and once again this takes much longer than necessary. Each time he gets up and goes down the aisle he pushes someone’s papers or book on the floor or hits someone on the arm and each time this solicits a snicker or laugh from the other students. Finally he remains in his seat and begins to talk in a loud voice to his neighbors sometimes yelling across the room to another student. After two attempts to get him to stop talking, I ask him to go out into the hall which he immediately does since that is what he wanted from the start. In a short while the assistant principal knocks on the door and says he talked to the student and he will be OK. As he leaves he says, you know he can’t learn anything out in the hall. Other teachers have told me that if this happens too often the principal will wonder if you are unable to control your classroom. Now all of this is not a serious problem for me since it only happens four or so times per year, but for a regular teacher it is a daily occurrence since they have this class every day. The school could choose to expel this student but that would mean the loss of $12,000. They might choose to suspend the student for a day or two but that is frowned upon because it exposes a more serious problem and this is the real downside to the whole affair and why it is avoided at all cost. In my district about 12% of students are black but 50% of those suspended are black. There is a lot of pressure on districts to correct this imbalance and the way the high schools deal with it is to have a special room where these students are sent and there is a teacher in there who deals with them on a one to one basis. Even speaking of this problem in terms of race is risking being called racist so the subject is not brought up. The pressure to keep these students in school is based on the fact that students who drop out at age 16 are more likely to end up in prison than those who stay in school until age 18. The bottom line is that high schools spend $12,000 per year per student to baby sit them until they are 18. Many of these students get diplomas and have the skills of 4th graders. They have been pushed through from elementary school, slowly getting further and further behind and disliking school more and more as the years go by. While this is a problem in my district, if you go up to St. Paul it is much more serious to the point where a teacher’s personal safety is at risk. This is a mess!

Pol Correct

Definition: Race-norming is the practice of adjusting scores on a standardized test by using separate curves for different racial groups The idea of race norming started with the federal government in the early 1980’s and was made illegal by the Civil Rights Act of 1991. This act introduced the idea of Disparate Impact. This says that while a test does not appear to discriminate the fact that there are disproportionately fewer minorities is proof of discrimination. In other words race norming was distasteful this new concept is palatable. The most well-known examples of race norming are the police and fire departments in big cities across the country but the process was carried out in other departments. A test is given to applicants for these jobs and Blacks and Hispanics did not perform well enough to qualify and thus special test were made up for these groups so that they could qualify. In order to make up for inequities, governments often change the rules. In Minnesota the high school graduation rates for minorities is disturbingly low and steps were taken to correct this situation. One of the requirements to graduate was passing a math test and this was a serious stumbling block to many minority students, so instead of making up a new test for this group the decision was made, to allow a waiver for those who failed the test three times to graduate. Sometimes the best way to illustrate the absurdity of such behavior is to take some more extreme examples. It is well known that tall men and attractive women have an advantage in the job market. 80% of male CEO’s are over 6 feet tall. Is that just a coincidence? When hiring two equally qualified men should preference be given to the shorter candidate to a make up for this past bias? How about selecting women who are less attractive? What about overweight people? The majority of managers have good communication skills. Should an effort be made to promote more with poor communication skills? These are ridiculous concepts but where does this practice begin and end and who decides? They may follow the path that politically corrected speech has taken. Everyone knows some examples and here are a couple: A school in Seattle renamed its Easter eggs 'spring spheres' to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter. "A UK council has banned the term 'brainstorming' – and replaced it with 'thought showers', as local lawmakers thought the term may offend epileptics."

Flyover

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th and on August 31st Bush made his now infamous flyover New Orleans. Many in the press and later Bush himself said this was the worst mistake of his 8 years as president. He was on vacation and cut his vacation two days short in order to make the flight. His office said he did not want to land as it would create too many problems for the already overtaxed authorities. Senator Obama at the time roundly criticized Bush for his flyover. When this same Obama was asked why he waited so long to visit the flood area, 10 days, his office said: The president "wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts," the White House announced. In another couple of days this will be forgotten and it will hardly be considered a miscue let alone the biggest mistake of his presidency.

Joe 6 pack

People are asking themselves why is it that Trump has such large enthusiastic crowds but is doing so poorly in the polls. My father was a milk man and I was raised in blue collar neighborhood. During my work career I was a plant manager in four different states and got to know the factory workers on a personal basis. I owned a working man’s neighborhood bar for many years and saw the average Joe at his worst and at his best. I feel I can speak with some authority based on life experiences about the plight of the working stiff. Many of these men believed that George Wallace was right when he said there is not a dime worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats. They felt that politicians may be honest when they are first elected but soon become part of the establishment and lose their moral compass. Many of these men quit voting years ago and if some pollster calls them they are likely to just hang up or worse give the person a piece of their mind and then hand up. In addition many polls only call people who have a voting record. Perhaps Trump knows this and realizes that if the people vote with the same enthusiasm that they show at his rallies he will win. It is possible or maybe even likely. Maybe Joe 6 pack is about to make a difference.

Clinton judge

On Friday a federal judge ruled that Hillary Clinton must answer questions under oath regarding her email set up. Some were surprised that a judge appointed by President Clinton would rule this way until they read the fine print. The judge said the questions must be submitted by October 14 and said she must answer the questions within 30 days which takes it past the election. There seems to be no end to the Clinton saga and Americas seem not to care choosing to believe that it is all just a right wing conspiracy.

Media

The Media is a business and thus relies on ratings to survive. People in the media often complain when office seekers fail to talk about policy and therein lies a conundrum. They understand that the public is more interested in personal easy to comprehend problems than in boring position papers. It is well known that very few people read the home page of presidential candidates where they lay out their positions on various topics. There are many examples to prove this and the most recent was Trump’s speech on Thursday. He spoke for 75 minutes explaining his thoughts on the economy, taxes, immigration, ISIS and veterans affairs. Then he said the following: “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words, or you say the wrong thing,” Trump said. “I have done that. And believe it or not, I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.” This was covered over and over in the press and very little was said about the rest of his speech. When Hillary Clinton testified before congress for many hours the thing that was reported most often was when she said, “what difference does it make”? No one remembers what else she said.

Share

Hillary Clinton has taken up the Bernie Sanders plea to take income from the rich and spread it around to help the poor. Her plan is not to give the money to the poor but for her, meaning the government, to decide how it is spent. Just how much she will have to spend depends on how high she wants to raise the upper tax rates. A quick review of income from the latest data of 2013 shows the following: In 2013, 138.3 million taxpayers reported earning $9.03 trillion in adjusted gross income and paid $1.23 trillion in income taxes. The top one percent earned 20% of the 9 trillion total or 1.8 trillion. They currently pay 40% of all taxes leaving them with 1.08 trillion. If we take the rest of their money and give it to the 99% each working taxpayer would get $7,000. While most people would be uncomfortable using legal means to take money out of someone’s pocket and putting it in their pocket, they are OK with the government doing this. If the government wants to send me money, I will take it but like most Americans, I would rather earn my own way and thus the emphasis should be on jobs not on income redistribution. The problem is that while government is good at redistribution it is not good at creating jobs.

Oversight

The FBI has turned over notes from the interview with Hillary Clinton to a congressional investigating committee but much of the information is redacted as being too sensitive to release. One of the responsibilities of congress is oversight of the executive branch. Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation A congressional source confirmed to Fox News that the House Government Oversight Committee had received a heavily redacted FBI summary of Hillary Clinton’s session last month with FBI agents who interviewed her about her use of private server for government business. Apparently the government has decided it is the FBI’s responsibility to oversee the executive branch which is like the fox guarding the hen house since the FBI works for the executive branch otherwise known as the White House. While this kind of mischief is common practice in Washington it has been taken to new heights by the Clintons and is one of the reasons why many people believe that Clinton cannot be trusted.

Story telling

Now that Trump is emphasizing the blue collar worker it has brought to my attention the education gap, the fact that 30% are college educated and 70% are not. For those of you who are old enough to remember Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton, think of those two guys as representing the working man. Ralph was a bus driver and Ed worked in the sewer and both struggled every day to make ends meet. They were the kind of guys who paid their bills, paid their taxes and chocked up when the National Anthem was played. The people in the media are in the 30% group and view these regular guys with a ton of misconceptions. They see them as racist homophobes who are not too bright or as they say euphemistically, “low information people”. These regular guys are the people who fight our wars, who follow the rules and strive to provide their kids with a better life and these are the people who have been left behind by leaders who promise every four years to help. The news people have inadvertently confirmed the suspicions of the working class that candidates for president can’t be trusted. The press often says there is a difference between the primaries and general election. The phrase they use is, moving to the center. In plain language this means to say one thing to one group and another thing to another group. It is not unreasonable to consider this lying and many people do. To top it off when they get elected there is a third story.

TPP

The TPP is in the news since Clinton was for it when she was Secretary of State but is now against it. Trump has been opposed to it all along and most people are not happy with it. It is a trade agreement between 12 countries including the United States and most notably absent China. Some sources say that it will eliminate some 18,000 trade barriers which sound good but the problem is how it was negotiated. One huge rap against TPP is that the Obama administration negotiated it in secret, but with input from hundreds of corporations who ultimately would benefit from it. There are so many opinions that it is difficult to decide whether it is good or bad. Most agree it will be good for employers but not for employees and thus unions are strongly opposed to TPP. The same situation arose when NAFTA was signed 23 years ago. One thing for sure is that jobs for working people have not benefited since NAFTA became law.

Clinton charity

When Mitt Romney released his tax returns it showed $14 million in income and $4 of that went to charity. He was not praised for his charitable contribution but criticized because most of it went to the Mormon Church of which he was an elder member. This week Clinton released her tax return showing $10.6 million in income and one million going to charity. The charity is the Clinton Foundation and has been the subject of numerous allegations of unethical business practices. No smoking gun has ever been found but controversy swirls around the whole thing. Not much in the news about this since the Clinton Global Initiative has overshadowed the whole affair and that charity may be under investigation at this time or it may not be depending on which source you quote. The Clintons are interesting people.

Elite

Signs of progress are appearing in the disdain the eastern elites have for the working man. He used to be described as a dumb red neck with a pack of Marlboros in his flannel shirt pocket, a rifle in the back window of his pick-up and a big belt buckle holding in his beer belly. This group is now referred to as the low information voter. Things are definitely looking up!

Justice

The Department of Justice is headed by the Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The FBI headed by James Comey reports to Lynch and of course Lynch reports to Obama who wants Clinton to win the presidency. The Obama administration rejected requests from three FBI field offices that wanted to open public corruption probes of the Clinton Foundation, according to a report that added to headaches for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Alerted by banks to suspicious transactions, the FBI wanted to investigate conflicts of interest involving foreign donors to the foundation while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state. But the Justice Department put the kibosh on it, CNN reported.

Stupid

I have talked in the past about how politicians use the teenage defense. This is where the kid says mom everyone is doing it. No matter the blunder if you can find someone in the other party that is doing the same thing then it’s OK. This theory is about to be tested big time as hackers start to reveal what were thought to be private comments. They have been hacking Democrats but soon it will be the Republicans turn. Here is a tongue in cheek example that may not be too far from the truth. In a hacked email Hilary says, the American people are stupid so just tell them what they want to hear. Next Trump is revealed to say, Voters don’t know anything so they must be led by the hand by someone like me. There would be a new uproar for about a day and then each side would say the other side is doing the same thing and it will all die out. Maybe we are stupid! To quote that famous philosopher Forrest Gump, stupid is as stupid does.

Baltimore

The Baltimore Police Department is under investigation for treating minorities differently than others. It is interesting in that this particular department has more minorities at every level from the beat cop up through middle management and at the highest levels. So is this unfair treatment of minorities a racial thing or is some other factor involved. In response to the latter, consider the statistics that show a disproportionate number of minorities are arrested and charged with various crimes. Just how can this happen? Take any big city and you will find that most of the crime occurs in minority neighborhoods and thus police patrol those areas more often and in greater numbers. The expected result is that more stops and arrest are made in those areas.

Solar subsidies

When I graduated from High School, it was my plan to go into the Air Force and go to college on the GI Bill but unfortunately the Bill was discontinued. When I asked how this was possible the Sargent told me, son the government giveth and government taketh away and this was a lesson I never forgot. Last fall I wrote about a case in Nevada saying, The government has a program which provides incentives for people to place solar panels on the roofs of their homes and in the low usage times the home owner can sell the excess energy back to the power company. Now the people who purchase these panels are in the upper income groups while lower income people cannot afford the investment in panels. The result is that lower income people are subsidizing the higher income people and this is basically a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The black caucus has brought this to the attention of congress but the environmentalist lobby has thwarted any action to remedy this situation. They cannot discontinue the subsidies to those who purchase solar panels because most people would not buy them without government financial assistance. Here is a news item from today. For years, Nevada taxpayers have spent millions subsidizing homeowners who install rooftop solar panels – but that’s about to end. In a controversial decision, the state is phasing out that subsidy over the next 12 years, a move being met with protests, lawsuits and even a failed bid to put the issue before voters. Last week, Nevada's Supreme Court ruled that a referendum from solar activists challenging the decision would not be allowed on the November ballot.

Tale of Two Cities

Almost 200 years ago Charles Dickens wrote his famous novel, “The Tale of Two Cities”. Among other things it emphasized the gap between the rich and the poor. Fast forward to today and we still have the gap. While it is more acute in third world countries the people in the US can feel it. The 30% of Americans who are college educated can see a bright future for them and their children while the remaining 70% see their lives in a continual downward spiral and the same for their children. We are confronted with a tale of two societies. The college educated people are looking forward to a continuation of what has been going on for several decades and will likely vote for the establishment candidate, Hilary Clinton. The others will look to Trump hoping against hope that he will change things. The in crowd in Washington is pulling out all stops to discredit Trump and he is doing his share to help them. The future for the blue collar working class is in their hands. If they are fed up enough to come out and vote, they can risk a Trump victory and whatever that brings. Many will be willing to do this since they see little hope that the establishment will risk losing their power to help them and they can see a slim possibility that Trump just might bring on some changes in the form of good paying jobs that will brighten their futures. It looks like the very poor and the well-off will vote for Hilary and the low to middle income group will look to Trump to bring them some relief.

Government spending

During President Obama’s first year in office the 900 billion dollar stimulus was passed to help the low and middle income people. When President Obama signed his economic stimulus plan into law on February 17, 2009, he promised it, “includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis, and “as a whole this plan will help poor and working Americans”. Hilary Clinton is now proposing a similar plan. Hillary Clinton is finally outlining the details of her plan to create jobs, and if you feel like you’ve heard it before, you have. The Democratic presidential nominee claims that during her first 100 days in office, she’ll introduce and sign into law “the biggest infrastructure and jobs program that we’ve had since World War II.” That was also true of the huge stimulus program that President Obama signed into law in 2009, during his own first 100 days in office. Recall the shovel ready jobs that never appeared. Since the promised benefits to the working people did not materialize the government said in a fallback position that it prevented a depression. No way to prove that but the working class is still in a rut. While this was going on the Federal Reserve was buying up assets to keep the economy from going into a deeper recession. At the start the Fed owned 700 billion and by the end of stimulus one, two and three they owned over 4 trillion. Most feel that this was the likely reason the economy recovered but even then it took years and there is still some doubt as to how strong things are with GDP at 1.1% so far this year.

Status quo

Come this November, the establishment will breathe a collective sigh of relief as Clinton moves into the White House and the power structure of big government, big business and big labor once again controls the country. The college educated, the middle managers, the professional like doctors, lawyers and engineers, the business executives, along with the wall street crowd and the wealthy will continue to see their standard of living rise while the blue collar folks will remain on the downward slide they have been on for 30 years. The brief hope they saw in Trump was dashed by his own ineptitude. The self-inflicted wounds caused by his lack of political correctness proved to be his undoing. Others like Kasich, Rubio or Jeb could have beaten Hilary but they too would have just continued the past. Hilary, the ultimate insider, was chosen over the outsider that the low and middle income groups thought might make a difference. No one will ever know if Trump could have changed things but there was at least a chance and now that is gone.

Minority jobs

While the Obama years have not helped the blacks as their wages have stagnated and their unemployment rate is twice that of white, they will continue to support democrats because they receive 42% of government assistance programs even though they represent only 12% of the population. They are twice as likely to receive social security disability benefits and 4 times more likely to receive SSI benefits. These are social security checks sent to low income people to help pay for medical expenses. The black participation rate was followed by Hispanics at 36.4 percent, Asians or Pacific Islanders at 17.8 percent, and non-Hispanic whites at 13.2 percent. The basis for these distortions is the fact that blacks and Hispanics have lower paying jobs or no jobs and so the solution to this problem is not sending them more government checks but getting them good paying jobs. The labor participation rate has declined and thus more people are relying on government checks. Here is one example: In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government. Blacks represent 23% of these recipients when they are 12% of the population.