Talkin' About MORE: Hanging With Julie While Prepping for Fast

If this post suddenly trails off, you'll know it is due to weakness due to fasting. (I am dreaming of tonight's herring in cream sauce).

Tuesday, I spent a few hours with one of my favorite people, Julie Cavanagh, who is home recuperating from an operation. We rarely get together since she has such a busy life since Jack was born so I took advantage of her time off to get a much-needed dose of Julie rationality. I've been questioning my continuing commitment to UFT opposition politics and whether a continuing investment of time in trying to build MORE as a significant opposition caucus that can one day contend for power in the UFT is worth it, considering the realities. I put serious time and energy into the UFT 2016 elections and winning the high school seats was about the best outcome we could expect. Maybe that is enough for now. Maybe for the foreseeable future. I also have had issues with MORE itself over the years and still do but have tried to be a good soldier.

Talking to Julie is always illuminating and clarifying. We discussed some ideas for projects. The movie we initiated 2010-11 was one of our best experiences and how the movie had such an impact far beyond what we expected. She pointed to how well the process worked for the entire team. I would jump at a chance to do something with the same people. We all got together this summer for a soccer game and it was so much fun. There is nothing compelling on the table right now but maybe getting the gang together over some wine and beer will shake something loose. 

I do find myself less interested in going to meetings.  But then I also talked to James Eterno last night and we agree that union politics is in our DNA and hard to walk away from. My immediate project is occasionally putting out an issue of Education Notes at delegate assemblies with information I think people are interested in. Information that MORE doesn't address.

And then there are the other projects like the theater, robotics, gardening, traveling, some Rockaway based projects and exploring new areas of interest.

Will Joel Klein Return in Clinton Admin Through His Wife/ AFT Worried Joel Klein Was Helping Hillary Clinton's Campaign

On Aug 19, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Nikki Budzinski < > nbudzinski@hillaryclinton.com > wrote: > > > > Hi-I wanted to flag a panicked call I just received from AFT about Joel > Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Dept of Education. Is he joining > the campaign in any capacity? Reporters have been contacting AFT for > reaction. AFT has flagged this as a really big issue for them. I would > expect that Randi is going to reach out to John on this today. > > > > Anything additional you can share with me would be appreciated. Thanks. > > > > -- > > Nikki Budzinski > > Labor Outreach Director > > Hillary for America

[Joel Klein's wife] Nicole Seligman gained early acclaim as a lawyer with her representation of Lt. Col. Oliver North in a congressional hearing into the Iran-Contra scandal. She later acted as the legal adviser to President Bill Clinton when he testified before a grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and also helped defend him at his impeachment trial in the Senate. ... Variety

Did Randi's seat at Hillary's table manage to kill any Joel Klein involvement in the Hillary campaign? Let's give Randi a temporary star if she managed to thwart Uncle Joel's ambitions to get on the Clinton bandwagon. Now that doesn't mean that on Nov. 9 we hear that Klein has been added to the transition team on education.

Remember that Klein's wife Nicole Seligman is a major corporation and Clinton player. She left as head of Sony Corp back in Feb.

Seligman said in a statement that she was “excited and eager to explore new opportunities” and thanked Sony for a “deeply rewarding” run with the company.

Hmmm, I wonder whether those opportunities might be in a Clinton admin? Since she stepped down in March there is not much out there on her plans. Does being Klein's wife create a stir from Randi? I'm thinking not - so look for Joel to worm his way back in through the back door.

Don't be surprised at some point when we see Uncle Joel back in action in a Clinton admin, at which point we will take Randi's star back.

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The American Federation of Teachers made a "panicked" call to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in August 2015, to check on what it considered an alarming rumor, according to an email recently uncovered by WikiLeaks.

The union had heard that Joel Klein, the former New York City School chancellor, was working with the campaign. And it was not pleased.

"Is he joining the campaign in any capacity?" asked Nikki Budzinski, the Clinton campaign's labor outreach director. "AFT has flagged this as a really big issue for them. I would expect that Randi is going to reach out to John [Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman] on this today."

You can read the whole exchange here.

It turns out that no, Klein wasn't a campaign aide at the time, said AFT President Randi Weingarten, in a Monday interview.

And she was pretty relieved, she said.

"That's the kind of rumor we just wanted to track down," Weingarten said. "Joel may have been incredibly good in Bill Clinton's Justice Department but he has a toxic reputation when it comes to education." (Klein also served as an assistant attorney general for Clinton from 1997 to 2000.)

Klein and Weingarten had an especially difficult relationship during the more than half a dozen years he served as chancellor of New York City public schools, and she served as president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City teachers.

Klein does have some big fans in K-12 policy circles, especially among proponents of education "reform" who credit him with bringing about bold and much needed improvement to the city's schools through policies like a serious expansion of charters.

Wikileaks, a group that publishes communications it says point to government and corporate misconduct, recently hacked into emails sent to Podesta, going back to at least 2008.

While Fighting Trumpism, Maintain vigilance on Clintonism

I trust Glenn Greenwald commentaries. Here is an expose of the Clinton machine and their planted so-called "journalists." Let's not throw away democracy in the rush to trash everything Trump and excuse everything Clinton. Here Greenwald exposes the Clinton machine attampt to cast all the negatives in the wikileaks exposures as "fabricated" and Putin plots. As he points out, most likely beyond January the Clinton critics from the left will be branded as working with the right to discredit her. As usual, they will be left in a tough position.

Donald Trump, for reasons I’ve repeatedly pointed out, is an extremist, despicable, and dangerous candidate, and his almost-certain humiliating defeat is less than a month away. So I realize there is little appetite in certain circles for critiques of any of the tawdry and sometimes fraudulent journalistic claims and tactics being deployed to further that goal. In the face of an abusive, misogynistic, bigoted, scary, lawless authoritarian, what’s a little journalistic fraud or constant fearmongering about subversive Kremlin agents between friends if it helps to stop him?
But come January, Democrats will continue to be the dominant political faction in the U.S. — more so than ever — and the tactics they are now embracing will endure past the election, making them worthy of scrutiny. Those tactics now most prominently include dismissing away any facts or documents that reflect negatively on their leaders as fake, and strongly insinuating that anyone who questions or opposes those leaders is a stooge or agent of the Kremlin, tasked with a subversive and dangerously un-American mission on behalf of hostile actors in Moscow.

In the Democratic Echo Chamber, Inconvenient Truths Are Recast as Putin Plots

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/11/in-the-democratic-echo-chamber-inconvenient-truths-are-recast-as-putin-plots/

Weingarten to Clinton Campaign: we will go after NNU [nurses union] for endorsing Bernie and there high and mighty sanctimonious conduct...

Our UFT leaders tell us it is tricky going after CSA principals because they are another union. But when the National Nurses Union endorsement of Bernie pissed off the Clintons, Randi jumped in to offer to do a hit on the nurses union.

From:rweingar@aft.org To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2016-01-30 19:18 Subject: Re: D Taylor

He is angry- I think when we are there we do labor rally against trump -


On Saturday, January 30, 2016, Randi Weingarten, Office of the President > wrote: He is psst-but I don't believe it moves him to action. Congrats on the NYT And we will go after NNU and there high and mighty sanctimonious conduct... R 

Shakespeare, Richard III, the Rise of Hitler and Trumpism

In the early 1590s, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that addressed a problem: How could a great country wind up being governed by a sociopath?...
“Richard III,” which proved to be one of Shakespeare’s first great hits, explores how this loathsome, perverse monster actually attained the English throne. As the play conceives it, Richard’s villainy was readily apparent to everyone. There was no secret about his fathomless cynicism, cruelty and treacherousness, no glimpse of anything redeemable in him and no reason to believe that he could govern the country effectively....
Shakespeare brilliantly shows all of these types of enablers working together in the climactic scene of this ascent.

Richard III's remains were recently found under a parking lot in England

Sound familiar? Richard III had a twisted spine. Trump is just twisted.

Stephen Greenblatt delves into Shakespeare's Richard III in the NY Times Sunday Review: Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election.

Now I've become somewhat of a Shakespeare nut recently - last summer I read Richard Shapiro's "A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599" about the 4 plays Shakespeare wrote that year of strife in London. I went to abridged performances of all 4 plays at the Irondale Ensemble’s “1599” back in May.

Right now I'm reading James Shapiro's sequel -  Year of Lear - 1605 - central was the Gunpowder terrorist plot to blow up Parliament and the entire downtown London and kill much of the English ruling class and an estimated 30,000 people would have died in the subsequent firestorm. Yes, Virginia, terrorism is not a new thing - and this was religious terrorism by Catholics hoping to bring down the protestant leadership. ISIS in its various forms has been around since religion was invented thousands of years ago.


I saw Emily Carding's one woman one hour portrayal of Richard III at the NYC Fringe in August but didn't view Shakespeare's Richard III story in the context of the 2016 election.

Stephen Greenblatt does a great job in parsing "Richard III" in terms of the current election focusing on the stages, Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election.

In the early 1590s, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that addressed a problem: How could a great country wind up being governed by a sociopath?

The problem was not England’s, where a woman of exceptional intelligence and stamina had been on the throne for more than 30 years, but it had long preoccupied thoughtful people. Why, the Bible brooded, was the kingdom of Judah governed by a succession of disastrous kings? How could the greatest empire in the world, ancient Roman historians asked themselves, have fallen into the hands of a Caligula?

For his theatrical test case, Shakespeare chose an example closer to home: the brief, unhappy reign in 15th-century England of King Richard III. Richard, as Shakespeare conceived him, was inwardly tormented by insecurity and rage, the consequences of a miserable, unloved childhood and a twisted spine that made people recoil at the sight of him. Haunted by self-loathing and a sense of his own ugliness — he is repeatedly likened to a boar or rooting hog — he found refuge in a feeling of entitlement, blustering overconfidence, misogyny and a merciless penchant for bullying.

From this psychopathology, the play suggests, emerged the character’s weird, obsessive determination to reach a goal that looked impossibly far off, a position for which he had no reasonable expectation, no proper qualification and absolutely no aptitude.

“Richard III,” which proved to be one of Shakespeare’s first great hits, explores how this loathsome, perverse monster actually attained the English throne. As the play conceives it, Richard’s villainy was readily apparent to everyone. There was no secret about his fathomless cynicism, cruelty and treacherousness, no glimpse of anything redeemable in him and no reason to believe that he could govern the country effectively.

His success in obtaining the crown depended on a fatal conjunction of diverse but equally self-destructive responses from those around him. The play locates these responses in particular characters — Lady Anne, Lord Hastings, the Earl of Buckingham and so forth — but it also manages to suggest that these characters sketch a whole country’s collective failure. Taken together, they itemize a nation of enablers.

First, there are those who trust that everything will continue in a normal way, that promises will be kept, alliances honored and core institutions respected. Richard is so obviously and grotesquely unqualified for the supreme position of power that they dismiss him from their minds. Their focus is always on someone else, until it is too late. They do not realize quickly enough that what seemed impossible is actually happening. They have relied on a structure that proves unexpectedly fragile.

Second, there are those who cannot keep in focus that Richard is as bad as he seems to be. They see perfectly well that he has done this or that ghastly thing, but they have a strange penchant for forgetting, as if it were hard work to remember just how awful he is. They are drawn irresistibly to normalize what is not normal.

Third, there are those who feel frightened or impotent in the face of bullying and the menace of violence. “I’ll make a corpse of him that disobeys,” Richard threatens, and the opposition to his outrageous commands somehow shrivels away. It helps that he is an immensely wealthy and privileged man, accustomed to having his way, even when his way is in violation of every moral norm.

Fourth, there are those who persuade themselves that they can take advantage of Richard’s rise to power. They see perfectly well how destructive he is, but they are confident that they will stay safely ahead of the tide of evil or manage to seize some profit from it. These allies and followers help him ascend from step to step, collaborating in his dirty work and watching the casualties mount with cool indifference. They are, as Shakespeare imagines it, among the first to go under, once Richard has used them to obtain his end.

Fifth, and perhaps strangest of all, there are those who take vicarious pleasure in the release of pent-up aggression, in the black humor of it all, in the open speaking of the unspeakable. “Your eyes drop millstones when fools’ eyes fall tears,” Richard says to the murderers whom he has hired to kill his brother. “I like you, lads.” It is not necessary to look around to find people who embody this category of collaborators. They are we, the audience, charmed again and again by the villain’s jaunty outrageousness, by his indifference to the ordinary norms of human decency, by the lies that seem to be effective even though no one believes them, by the seductive power of sheer ugliness. Something in us enjoys every minute of his horrible ascent to power.

Shakespeare brilliantly shows all of these types of enablers working together in the climactic scene of this ascent. The scene — anomalously enough in a society that was a hereditary monarchy but oddly timely for ourselves — is an election. Unlike “Macbeth” (which introduced into the English language the word “assassination”), “Richard III” does not depict a violent seizure of power. Instead there is the soliciting of popular votes, complete with a fraudulent display of religious piety, the slandering of opponents and a grossly exaggerated threat to national security.

WHY an election? Shakespeare evidently wanted to emphasize the element of consent in Richard’s rise. He is not given a robust consent; only a municipal official and a few of the villain’s carefully planted henchmen shout their vote: “God save Richard, England’s royal king!”

But the others assembled in the crowd, whether from indifference or from fear or from the catastrophically mistaken belief that there is no real difference between Richard and the alternatives, are silent, “like dumb statues or breathing stones.” Not speaking out — simply not voting — is enough to bring the monster to power.

Shakespeare’s words have an uncanny ability to reach out beyond their original time and place and to speak directly to us. We have long looked to him, in times of perplexity and risk, for the most fundamental human truths. So it is now. Do not think it cannot happen, and do not stay silent or waste your vote.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Now where does Hitler come into this? I am not calling Trump Hitler, just talking about the process of Hitler's rise to power having some similarities among the enablers (though I wouldn't be surprised to see our home grown version of a brown shirt army arising after the election --- Hitler failed in his early attempts to take power and a street army helped intimidate people - just like the current Trump social media army is doing. I wrote about the Hitler story recently. As per my morning post --Thoughts on the post election: Repulicans Will Try to Impeach Hillary, Bernie Supporters Will pressure Hillary from the Left --- interesting post-election times to come.

My thoughts on the post election: Republicans Will Try to Impeach Hillary, Bernie Supporters Will pressure Hillary from the Left

As Hillary looks more likely to win, events are moving ahead to the 2020 election. The contenders on the Republican side will include a vast array, including the guy some consider a new star, Mike Pence - who frankly, scares me more than Trump. Actually, so do all the other Republicans.

Republican strategy since the Bill Clinton days has been to obstruct any Democratic president and that will continue for the next 4 years - even denying Hillary a supreme court nominee unless he/she resembles Scalia. They will walk away from this election feeling they would have won with just about anyone but Trump so they will feel pretty sure they will win in 2020 and Jimmy Carterize Hillary -- unless for some reason Hillary decides to be a 1-termer -- say for reasons of health. Or things get so bad ala Lyndon Johnson who alienated the left in the Dem Party and she can't run again because it would be so obvious she couldn't win. Like imagine Hillary embroils us in more wars.

One way to tie Hillary up would be for the House to impeach her and even though the Senate would not find her guilty, they could tie her up in knots like they did to Bill in the final years of his term. My guess is they would build toward this and wait until after the mid-term elections in 2018 when the party in power always loses seats and then go after her. The downside for them is that it might force her to announce she won't run in 2020 and open up the race to another Democrat, though I don't see any younger Bernies out there.

Trump gave us a hint in the debate at what is to come even if he doesn't win the election. The response from a significant portion of the public that Hillary belongs in jail means they can count on an excited base to support their actions.

As for the left, there is a loose and amorphous bunch of people and orgs that are voting for Hillary due to the Trump menace but their lack of love will harm her and they might even sit out the attack on her from the right. Or more likely will engage in their own attacks from the left.

The 2020 election campaign begins on November 9.

NY Mag: If Her Opponent Weren’t a Sexual Predator, Clinton’s Leaked Speeches Would Be Devastating

there’s the stuff that threatens to demobilize her leftwing skeptics. After securing the nomination, Clinton sought to make peace with the Sandernistas by moving in the socialist senator’s direction on health care and higher education. But policy concessions only matter if the voters you’re hoping to win over trust you to pursue those policies. And, after Sanders spent much of the primary raising doubts about the sincerity of Clinton’s positions on trade and financial regulation, a portion of his base still distrusts the Democratic nominee.... NY Mag

And so there was some reaction from the left Bernie people. Still, 

I think electing Hillary does give us a greater chance of building a progressive movement going forward!... J on FB 

One of the disturbing issues from the Clinton support camp is that fear of Trump must trump any negative stories about Hillary. I think that if Hillary had released her speeches initially - like a year and a half ago - everything would have blown over. She's just lucky Trump is so awful. The NY Mag piece delves into some of the issues raised in the wikileaks of some content from her speeches on Wall St. One of the disturbing things about Hillary is her persistent poor judgement. Like you knew you were going to run for president and every action would be scrutinized. So sure go and make a half a million on speeches to Wall St -- and this even after the Occupy movement. She just didn't see a Bernie coming.

David Sirota did a lot of tweeting during the debate, while not for Trump he held Hillary's feet to the fire.

David Sirota ‏@davidsirota 5h5 hours ago

David Sirota

Makes sense why Clinton refused to release the transcripts during the Democratic primary...

David Sirota added,

David Sirota @davidsirota

BREAKING: New docs show that amid climate crisis, Clinton assured Wall St of her support for expanding fracking http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/hillary-clinton-expresses-support-fracking-wikileaks-document-2428659 …

There were some comments on FB by some friends.

M:  you know what, I have a lot of friends on the left on fb- professors, writers, journalists, unionists, leftist organizations and every last one of them posts 5 anti-hillary articles for every 1 anti-trump. Its actually quite annoying and shows me why the left will remain on the fringes. A year ago did I think i would be left to defend Hillary on fb or over text, hell no, yeah i was a bernie supporter, but when a teacher, a union organizer, an American sees a threat we must do everything we possibly can do to stop that threat. Do you think any Hillary supporter has the blinders on? We all know just what type of political creature she is, neo-liberlism, corporate supporting, democrat at its worst. No one needs to read another article on what she says in her private emails or her speeches to know who she is or to be "devastated", but to dismiss this election is to fundamentally underestimate the power of the presidency and those appointments to SCOTUS.

J:  Can't vote for Trump, but hell if i can vote for someone who is now on the record saying she'll cut corporate taxes and raise the age for SS to pay or it.

JC:  I don't disagree. I will hold my nose and vote for HRC. But, still- facts. If Trump wasn't a monster, if she was running against nearly any other R, she would more than likely lose and this leak would have been a way bigger deal. (I would still have held my nose and voted for her against any R from the primary and I don't actually think the leaks from the transcripts are as bad as I thought they would be.... but there are things that are much worse-- Haiti and the Clinton Foundation, Honduras, Libya... the world is complicated... she is better than anyone for the system we have... but of course brother, we are ready for a different system entirely. How the %*+ that's going to happen I don't know, but hopefully this election is a gateway... I think electing Hillary does give us a greater chance of building a progressive movement going forward!) (I'll also remind you, you were arguing with me in the other direction about HRC not long ago fool😂!)

Here is full NY Mag piece 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/if-trump-werent-a-monster-clintons-speeches-would-matter.html?mid=facebook_nymag

A Chicago Teacher's Open Letter to Hillary Clinton on Upcoming Strike

You say to teachers, "I'm with you." I heard you speak at the AFT National Conference this summer where you promised us that you are on our side. Well, in Chicago we are under attack, an attack led by your party's out-of-favor embarrassment, Rahm Emanuel. As the chosen candidate of the Democratic Party, we ask that you intervene directly. If you ask teachers to say, "I'm with her" then you need to show us that you truly are with us in our time of dire need......

Thanks to Rahm Emanuel's increased attacks on neighborhood public schools like ours, we are living under truly abhorrent conditions for teachers and students alike. My school is a survivor of his vicious, racist school closings... Ms. Katie

Time for Hillary to put up some political capital on the Chicago Teacher strike coming up. Let's see her join Randi on the picket line -- but don't hold your breath.

I got to hang with Ms. Katie at the AFT convention. She is an amazing advocate and lays it out for Hillary:

Secretary Clinton, I invite you to come walk the picket line at my school should we go out on strike beginning on October 11th. Show us which side you are on. The wealthy bankers that profit off of Rahm Emanuel's privatization schemes or the families and teachers of Chicago? It's time for you step up and show what kind of president you will be.

 This strike will be squirm time for Randi and Hillary. But the last Chicago teacher strike came in the midst of the 2012 campaign in Obama's home town. Obama ignored it all as I predict Hillary will do too - unless things get real ugly and the strike is still on as election day approaches.

I'm reprinting her entire letter.

http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2016/10/an-open-letter-to-hillary-clinton-from.html

An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton, From a Chicago Teacher

Dear Madame Secretary,

I am writing to you today from Chicago on behalf of all the children, families, and staff in the middle of a massive manufactured crisis brewing in the Chicago Public Schools. A crisis in major part worsened by your friend, Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton-AP

I am a special education teacher at an elementary school on the far South Side of the city in a high-poverty African-American community. Thanks to Rahm Emanuel's increased attacks on neighborhood public schools like ours, we are living under truly abhorrent conditions for teachers and students alike. My school is a survivor of his vicious, racist school closings from 2013 where the school down the street was forced into ours creating chaos and disruption for all involved. We have been beaten down by at least five separate rounds of budget cuts over the past 2 years since, with yet another round of cuts on the way. These cuts have seen lost teaching positions causing large class sizes (41 kindergartners in one classroom!), split classrooms (more than one grade in a class), and the laying off of other vital staff members. We no longer have a Librarian. We lost a much-needed clerk. We lost our Climate and Culture Coordinator and our mentoring program. CPS even has stolen our social worker and psychologist for all but a day or two a week despite the high number of children who have experienced trauma and need therapeutic services.

And we are indeed experiencing trauma. We are a school located in the middle of a neighborhood facing massive spikes in violence, thanks to Rahm's racist policies causing a lack of housing, jobs, and opportunity. Just yesterday, I sat huddled in my classroom, protecting my students during a lockdown as violence swirled around us, leaving a man dead on our streets just down the block and 2 others injured. As I comforted my students, crying and scared in the dark, the obscenity of Rahm's call for teachers to sacrifice MORE tore through my thoughts. Children at my school are in mental health crisis. Yet Rahm and his unelected school board have cut the very healing services we need now more than ever. As teachers, how can we allow these horrid conditions to stand?

Not only has Rahm gone after neighborhood schools, particularly in Black communities, but now he and CPS are coming after our most vulnerable population: students with special needs. CPS has changed funding formulas and procedures to access vital special education services in an attempt to save money for their crisis off the backs of our most fragile learners. We have seen harmful disruption in special ed services, with massive lawsuits brewing. Teachers are being laid off, support personnel are being lost, busing and transportation is being cut, and CPS has created a mountain of bureaucracy designed to prevent access to services. We are at criminal levels of harm to students.

Would you allow your granddaughter to attend a school suffering these types of assaults?

You say, "Black Lives Matter." Well now is the time for you to show that the Black Lives of children, children with disabilities, children living in poverty here in Chicago...that those lives matter to you. That the lives of Black Educators who are being laid off or pushed out of teaching in droves matter to you.

You say to teachers, "I'm with you." I heard you speak at the AFT National Conference this summer where you promised us that you are on our side. Well, in Chicago we are under attack, an attack led by your party's out-of-favor embarrassment, Rahm Emanuel. As the chosen candidate of the Democratic Party, we ask that you intervene directly. If you ask teachers to say, "I'm with her" then you need to show us that you truly are with us in our time of dire need.

Teachers in Chicago are on the eve of the second teachers' strike in four years. Members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike because we see the unacceptable reality of underfunded, sabotaged schools every day. We are willing to stand up and fight for the schools our students deserve. While we deserve fair compensation and should not shoulder the burden of the elite's created fiscal crises, this strike is about so much more than our pay.

Secretary Clinton, I invite you to come walk the picket line at my school should we go out on strike beginning on October 11th. Show us which side you are on. The wealthy bankers that profit off of Rahm Emanuel's privatization schemes or the families and teachers of Chicago?

It's time for you step up and show what kind of president you will be.

Sincerely,
Katie Osgood
Special Education Teacher
CTU Delegate at a CPS Elementary School

Teachers and staff during the April 1st One Day Strike

MORE, PS 15K Supports Chicago Teachers Union

I assume the blogosphere is aware of the looming Chicago Teachers Union strike. James Eterno on the ICE blog:

For the second time in four years, the teacher in Chicago are being forced to walk off the job by Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. An overwhelming 95% of Chicago Teachers Union members who voted said yes to authorizing a strike. The date set by an almost unanimous House of Delegates is October 11. Members of the CTU are being told to expect a long strike this time around. Here is the CTU Thunderclap called Fair Contract Now.... CHICAGO TEACHERS SET OCTOBER 11 STRIKE DATE

MORE 2013 UFT presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh is the chapter leader. She's not in the photo because she was home recovering from an operation. Other chapters with MORE members are doing similar actions. MORE will be bringing a reso to the Ex Board and the DA.

morecaucusnyc

MORE Statement of Solidarity and Call to Action for the Chicago Teachers Union

MORE Statement of Solidarity and Call to Action for the Chicago Teachers Union

October 7, 2016 — Leave a comment

On September 28th, 95.6% of Chicago teachers voted to go on strike. They have been negotiating since 2014 for a just contract on top of non-negotiable items for the public schools and students they serve.

There are some striking similarities to NYC public schools, in the kind of attacks they have faced: disastrous budget cuts that have had effects on the equitable allocation of resources and professionals for mandated services in special education, libraries and other programs, such as arts and physical education. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under the advisory of Bruce Rauner, a venture capitalist who is leading the way for the charterization of Chicago’s schools, has withheld and cut funding to the public schools.

The Chicago Teachers’ Union want something very simple- the assurance that public school educators and students have what they need in order to have thriving public schools in Chicago. If an agreement cannot be made, teachers could go out on strike as soon as October 11. In 2012, Chicago teachers led the national educational justice movement when they went on a successful strike that gathered the help of communities and parents to fight for the schools that Chicago students deserve.

Now they need support from everywhere across the country!
Here are some of the core issues for CTU:
– No more budget cuts
– Restore the jobs lost (1,000 teachers laid off without recall rights)
– Keep salary steps and lanes
To learn more details, go to the Chicago Teachers Union site

ACTIONS WE CAN TAKE:

• Join the CTU Social Media THUNDERCLAP

• Sign on to this Solidarity Statement

• In addition to the above, to show our solidarity, organize folks to wear CTU red, make a banner in support of Chicago’s Teachers and Students, and take a photo to post on their social media pages.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Don’t forget MORE’s Facebook page and Twitter feed

• MORE is planning continued days of action every Friday, starting October 14th until the contract is settled! Make sure your school joins in.

• Come to the UFT Executive Board on Monday, October 17th, to pressure our union leadership to pass the resolution below for direct support for the CTU.

Taking these actions of solidarity is also an important opportunity to draw parallels to the $3.9 billion dollars owed to New York public schools, exposed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. NYC is under similar influences that are set on weakening our union and underfunding our schools. This is all done through top down decision making under mayoral control, Fair Student Funding and allowing for charter co-locations. We too must fight with the same principled positions and actions as the Chicago Teachers Union.
Draft Solidarity Resolution with the Chicago Teachers Union in their Struggle for the Schools that Chicago Students Deserve
MORE is suggesting the following draft resolution for the October 17th meeting of the UFT Executive Board – we hope that entire UFT will join in supporting it

WHEREAS the Chicago Teachers Union has been negotiating since 2014 for a just contract, and
WHEREAS Chicago students, teachers and parents have faced strikingly similar attacks as we have experienced in New York, including disastrous budget cuts, sweeping closings of schools that have dislocated teachers and students, and growing charter colocations, and
WHEREAS the multimillionaire Mayor Rahm Emanuel has threatened to eliminate city pension contributions for CTU members, which would effectively cut their pay by 7 percent, and the near-billionaire venture capitalist Governor Bruce Rauner has pushed through budget cuts that hamstring Chicago’s education system, and
WHEREAS in 2012, Chicago teachers led the national educational justice movement when they went on a successful strike and mobilized communities and parents to aid their fight for the schools that Chicago students deserve, and
WHEREAS by articulating the simple demand that educators and students get what they need in order to have thriving public schools in Chicago, CTU has also provided an example of how to fight for equitable funding for all, such as the two billion dollars owed New York City school students under the CFE settlement, and
WHEREAS on September 28th, 95.6% of Chicago teachers voted to authorize a strike, in response to Emanuel’s and Rauner’s refusal to provide additional funding to the schools, and
WHEREAS, CTU has released a report, titled “A Just Chicago: Fighting for the City Our Students Deserve”, which, as the union puts it “demonstrates that challenges in housing, employment, justice and health care relate directly to education; solutions require a narrowing of the opportunity gap brought on by poverty, racism and segregation,” making CTU’s fight for a contract a touchstone for a wider struggle against austerity and for economic and racial justice, therefore be it
RESOLVED that the UFT will encourage its members to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Chicago by all available means, including social media and by making donations to the CTU strike fund, and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT initiate a “Red Friday” action in our chapters where members wear CTU red in solidarity with Chicago teachers every Friday until the strike is over, and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT hold solidarity meetings in New York to organize supporters of the strike and mobilize further actions, and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT call upon and mobilize its retirees, who have always demonstrated great passion and energy in political campaigns in the past and present, to support CTU picket lines, and provide transportation costs for those retirees who answer the call, and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT will work with AFT leaders to ensure interest free loans to CTU members to alleviate financial hardship during the strike, and be it further
RESOLVED that, if needed, the UFT will provide significant financial assistance to ensure the successful operations of our sister union.

Has The WAVE Moved To The Right?

My column in this week's Rockaway's Wave

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2016-10-07/School_News/Has_The_Wave_Moved_To_The_Right.html

Oct. 7, 2016

Has The Wave Moved To The Right?

School Scope

By Norm Scott

A recent letter by Mike Scandiffio to The Wave, “Enough is Enough” asked “Could your paper get any more right wing?” Mike talked about the constant ferry whining, contempt for an ultra-liberal mayor, a lovefest with Republican State Assembly candidate Alan Zwirn, with a front page headline every time Alan farts. Mike points out the situation this nation was left in eight years ago with a looming 1930’s like great depression, two raging wars – with the war in Iraq based on lies , and a massive deficit instigated by the George Bush tax cuts which soon led to over 10 percent unemployment (it is now under five percent). Need I point out Bush was a Republican? Take a look at the value of your 401-k at the end of the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations (and even the first Bush admin in 1992) and also of the stock market and tell me what has worked better for business. Estimates are that if Trump wins the market will drop 12 percent and 3 million jobs will be lost. Republicans like Alan Zwirn should be pressed on the extent of his belief in fundamental Republican principles.

Rational people know that despite the often awful and corrupt government we often have, the alternatives are worse. Republicans are antiunion and anti-worker, believe in cutting taxes and government, and have absolute faith in the private, profit-making sector, which is often avaricious and corrupt and will do anything to make a buck even if on the backs of its workers and consumers. They rail about over-regulation, even cutting the FTC to the bone. Remember the scandals of the early 1900s when little was regulated and it took a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, to reign in the monopolies and strengthen regulations that often protect us. Are there areas when this goes too far? Sure. Let’s look at them and fix them instead of railing against all regulations. Like do we need any food and drug regulation or just leave things to private hands – like let’s raise the price of life-saving drugs enormously.

President Reagan termed government as the problem, not the solution, a concept revered by the current Republican Party. Ruth Graves addressed this issue in a Sept. 23 letter “We Need Government.” Let’s take basic Republican views local. Build it Back is a disaster with bad stories every week. Are there any successes? Or does the local press only report the disasters? Remember under the last year of Bloomberg not one dime was spent on Build it Back.

And the darn ferry. And the railway corridor. And the A-train. Every issue we hear complaints about government. We had 20 years of Republican mayors in Giuliani and Bloomberg. Constant complaints on how Rockaway was ignored by both of them and no ferry until we had a disaster four years ago and had no means of transportation for a long time. Yes, de Blasio took it away (while the Staten Island Ferry continues to be subsidized). But he is putting it back permanently – not only here but all over the city with a master plan to use our waterways and we will still be paying the normal transit fare. The mayor finally put skin in the game with a massive city subsidy to keep fares low. Instead we hear whining about the boats being too small or the wrong contractor, complaints that the ferry ride will be one hour, 10 minutes longer than the old ferry. I never saw the trip be less than an hour after the Brooklyn stop was added.

Don’t get me wrong. As a Bernie Sanders-type social democrat, I assail both parties. But we shouldn’t fall into the Republican trap that will leave us at the mercy of the privatizing of public services. Need I mention ad infinitum the growing charter school scandals, for which both parties are responsible?

More next time.

Mulgrew, UFT/Unity Help End Tyranny of Testing - Unity Leaflet, December 2015

I was doing some fall cleaning and came across this gem. Have you seen signs of the end of tyranny of testing?

Commentary - Mike Schirtzer: A View From the UFT Executive Board

Below, Mike Schirtzer reports on his reaction to his first two meetings as a member of the UFT Executive Board representing the high schools.
Mike is my 40-year old political son - which means that when he is 70 and wheeling me around at 100 we will still be handing out leaflets at the delegate assembly. He was one of the 7 MORE/NA candidates elected in the 2016 election, the first time since the 2004-07 term that non-Unity endorsed voices* are being heard. 

*New Action held up to 10 ExBd seats from 2007-2016 with Unity endorsement.

Over the 4 and a half years I've known Mike, we have kicked the importance of holding Exec Bd seats back and forth. When MORE was picking candidates I shared with him the 20 year history that the opposition has held seats on the board in the high school division and how little impact that has had.  

Holding Exec Board seats is not a game-changer. But it is an opportunity.
New Action held the seats from 1995-2004 before making a deal with Unity. That caused them to lose the seats to ICE/TJC from 2004-7 before they made a more entangling deal with Unity that allowed them to win Exec Bd seats.

The ICE experience with those seats from 2004-7 was instructive.  ICE and TJC, 3 seats each, did not work together and thus each group basically operated independently - one of the lessons as to why caucus coalitions don't always work out well. Basically, ICE's Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno consistently held Randi and Unity's feet to the fire. But the problem was that it was like the proverbial tree falling in the forest since few knew about the great work Jeff and James were doing. And ICE put a lot of energy into going to these meetings which may have distracted us from school-based organizing.

The MORE/New Action coalition is different with a much higher level of trust and cooperation. Which is why I won't comment now on New Action during the 2007-16 years on the EB with Unity support other than to say that by joining with MORE instead of Unity, they can now say their 2 members are on the board through the election of the rank and file without Unity support. Though I have viewed NA as non-militant incrementalists, my early sense now is that the 7 EB people are already working as a team and a touch of New Action caution mixed with the variety of places the 5 MORE people are coming from - a bit of the old ICE combined with the new MORE (Schirtzer, Arthur Goldstein and Marcus McCarthur, some NYCORE - Ashraya Gupta, a Teachers Unite alum (David Garcia Rosen) in addition to the independent voice of Arthur Goldstein. Add NA experienced Jonathan Halabi and Kuljit (KJ) S. Ahluwalia, there is a pretty nice blend.

At one point a year ago I urged Mike not to run and waste an evening every 2 weeks for 3 years schlepping over to 52 Broadway talking to a room full of Unity Caucus when he could better use his talents as an organizer for MORE.  No matter what he and others would do there, they would be the tree in the forest - Unless they did things in an organized manner and publicized widely what they were doing.

In his report, Mike fulfills his promise to not be a tree falling in the forest.

A View From a First-Timer on the UFT Executive Board
By Mike Schirtzer

My initial reactions after having participated in my first two meetings as an elected high school representative to the UFT Executive Board as a member of the MORE Caucus. 

UFT Members have not been informed on what was going on at  Executive Board meetings other than cursory minutes. We are trying to change that by posting detailed minutes and analysis on our blog, linking to it in our weekly updates and having a section of our newsletter dedicated to it. 

Issues that impact the day to day working conditions of UFT members and learning conditions for our students are not the focus of the agenda from Unity Caucus. The 7 of us from MORE/NA are all classroom teachers and will fight for these issues. MORE/NA is willing to engage in meetings with leadership to address abusive administrators, DOE meeting with chapter leaders on class-size, forcing Unity to discuss ATRs, paid parental leave and school funding are steps in the right direction. This is a 3 year term and we must do everything we can to best represent the working educators of the UFT. 

I approach my upcoming 3-year term with the attitude that we are not there to embarrass the leadership, but to challenge and find ways we can work together with the Unity Caucus' UFT officers to address issues of concern to the membership. But if we have to embarrass them to force them to act we will.

One thing we promise is that we will report honestly and openly so we provide the membership with insights on what has generally been a black box of mystery.

Setting the scene
There are 101 members of the UFT EB including the 12 officers. Other than the elected 7 high school MORE/New Action reps, the other 89 are all in Unity Caucus and who adhere to all decisions made by the leadership and vote as a block.

Many members of the UFT Executive Board – if not the majority – are not classroom teachers. There is a large group of retirees and many district reps and other UFT officials. Certainly few are in the classroom full-time. Thus they are not part of the daily routine that goes on in schools they supposedly represent. The 7 of us from MORE/NA are all classroom teachers and come face to face with the issues of concern to UFT members in our schools.

• There is a pre-meeting 10-minute opportunity for the general UFT membership to speak. The time is divided among all the speakers and you can only speak once a semester. At the first meeting 4 members of MORE shared the time for 2 minutes each to speak about working under abusive principals and the general lack of push-back from the union. There was no reaction from the Unity Caucus members.

• UFT Secretary Howard Schoor opens the meeting by reviewing the previous meeting minutes and approving them. Afterwards there’s a question period, followed by Mulgrew’s president report, followed by reports from the districts and then the business part of the meeting which includes discussing proposed resolutions. The official UFT resolutions have been passed by the 12-member AdCom which meets every Friday.

• UFT President Michael Mulgrew doesn’t show until his report and leaves soon after, thus missing a significant portion of the meeting. The Executive Board is supposed to be one of the highest bodies of our union, yet the president of our union sees fit leave after his brief report. The questions that Executive Board members ask and the open mic period for rank and file members does not seem to be of any concern for him.
Note: As per past Executive Board representatives from ICE/TJC : (MORE's predecessors) when Randi Weingarten was president she chaired the meeting and stayed the entire time.

• The only report of substance is from UFT Legislative Director Paul Egan who is a great speaker. Agree with him/Unity caucus or not, he brings a thorough report on the presidential election, endorsements, and justification of those endorsements. I only wish school based issues were taken on with as much vigor as Paul tackles politics. Most other reports from the districts, often by district reps, are about organizing for charities or UFT sponsored celebrations, not about the issues going on in the districts.

More thoughts on the 2 meetings I attended so far
• During the question period only the 7 members of MORE/NA asked questions on the following topics: Abusive Administrators, ATRs, School Funding, Paid Parental Leave, and Class-size are issues, Fair school funding, none of which were addressed in the reports by Unity Caucus members.

• At the first meeting, four rank and file speakers and one retiree, all associated with MORE, spoke about their terrible experiences in schools due to abusive administrators. One asked for district reps to be held accountable. We brought a resolution to Executive Board calling for removal of abusive administrators based on poor school surveys or a vote of no-confidence in the administration. I raised it and then MORE/NA Executive Board member Marcus McArthur further motivated it by sharing his own experience as a new teacher with a bad principal who openly attacked the chapter leader. Marcus' teaching career was almost ended barely before getting started. The resolutuon was tabled by Unity Caucus’ leader and Assistant Secretary Leroy Barr, but he agreed to meet with us to work on next steps for addressing this matter. We need to insure that UFT members have the organized defense they need. This meeting should be within the next 2 weeks, updates will follow.

• Class-size: MORE/NA High School Executive board member Arthur Goldstein reported there are many over-packed classes all over Francis Lewis High School where he is the chapter leader. He also stated there are similar conditions all over Queens high schools. UFT leadership agreed to set up a meeting with Arthur, Queens high school chapter leaders, and personnel from DOE to address this issue. Updates to follow.

• ATRs- Former Canarsie High School chapter leader and MORE/NA Ex Bd member Kuljit (KJ) S. Ahluwalia had first-hand experience with closing school policy and excessing when Canarsie High School was closed down. He has spoken at both meetings about the plight of ATRS. He as asked for data on the teachers currently still in the ATR pool (age, race, license) and what is being done to alleviate the problem. UFT Secretary Howie Schoor, President Mulgrew, and Amy Arundell all gave answers to KJ, not specifics, but generalities such as “ATRs are at the lowest since I been here”. Mulgrew and Arundell reiterated that sentiment.

• Funding- Jonathan Halabi, the only member from MORE/NA that was elected to the previous term, brought up a New Action initiated resolution that passed the Ex Bd a couple of years back calling for UFT to pressure DOE to end the practice of “charging” principals more for experienced teachers. This means that schools that have veteran staff are punished by having less funding for after school programs, less guidance counselors and packed classes. The principal must use those funds to “pay” the staff. 

I spoke to the funding issue as well by explaining that this is the situation in my school and it has a negative impact on our chapter. Mulgrew and Schoor both said they would keep pressure on DOE and bring it up at their next consultation meeting with Chancellor Farina. They did say that this is not a contractual bargaining matter, but Mulgrew admitted NYC is one of the few, if not the only school districts in the US, that still uses this system. Most school districts assign staff based on number of students, ei. 1 teacher for every 25 students, 1 guidance counselor for every 200 students, etc. I sent my principal’s full budget to Secretary Schoor and we are awaiting his response.

• Paid Family Leave- Ashraya Gupta MORE/NA UFT Ex Bd member brought up that Mulgrew has previously talked about UFT members getting paid parental leave. She spoke of our union, being mostly women, many of whom are primary-caregivers, and how it is unfair that we do not have this basic human right of paid parental leave yet. She asked what is our union’s position and progress on this matter. Schoor said the city’s non-unionized staff who receive this benefit had to give back money and days off, “the city will give us nothing for free”. Schoor did not articulate what our position is, yet the Delegate Assembly expressed we do not want any give backs.

The next EB meeting will be Monday Oct. 17, two days before the Delegate Assembly. Feel free to join us. If you wish to speak at the pre-meeting 10 minute time call Howard Schoor's office at the UFT 212-777-7500. Let us know if you are coming.

Arthur Goldstein has published minutes on his blog following each session which we have replicated on the MORE site. Arthur, me, and MORE/NA members will continue to report on these meetings and other contacts with the leadership.

Reports of the meetings can be found on MORE's site.

Sept. 19: https://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/09/20/uft-executive-board-919-report/

Sept 26 https://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/09/27/uft-executive-board-minutes-92616/

VA-CA Report: A Tour of the Finger Lakes with Road Scholar

Watkins Glen

It is not often that you can combine a vacation and an education. We returned last Friday from a wonderful week of traveling to the Finger Lakes region of New York. I want to write this up now because much of the trip will be gone from my brain soon. I had such a good time I never turned on my computer and didn't blog at all for the first time in a long time. Some people contacted me, worried about my health.

I bought one of these

For 4 of the past 5 years we have taken longer trips abroad in the fall - New Zealand (2011), Portugal (2013), Sicily (2014) and Japan (2015.) All have been tours - with OAT, Rick Steves and Road Scholar. We used to do these type of trips on our own - mostly planned and executed by my wife who finally got fed up at doing all the work. We also found that despite the restrictions of tours and the expense, we discovered that we have enjoyed sharing the experience with new people, often from all over the nation. Meeting them and learning about their lives enriched the trip.

Historic women at Women's Rights National Park

Well, this year we decided to stay local -- in NY State. For years my wife has been bugging me to go up to the finger lakes region of NY. I had an aversion to the finger lakes because we had very boring lessons about them in the 7th grade. But I decided to relent -- and we found a 5-day Roades Scholar tour. Our Portugal and Costa Rica trips had been with them (formerly Elder Hostel) and we found them very informative even if a little more rustic -- you won't be having scrumptious meals or super accommodations but you will get guides who are loaded with knowledge and love to share it.

The tour began Sunday night and dealt with the southern finger lakes around Corning NY. So we went up on Friday to explore the northern area on our own - a visit to Seneca Falls - the purported base for Bedford Falls in the movie  It's a Wonderful Life - and the inspiration for the bridge Jimmy Stewart jumped off - we went to the museum founded by the youngest daughter in the Capra movie -- Zuzu of the famous petals. We may go back in December for the 75th anniversary. Watch Frank Capra movies -- many relate to social justice. Then on to Skaneateles which if you remember was a Clinton vacation spot. Had my daily ice cream. On Sunday morning we went up to a garden called Sonnenberg Gardens - the summer home of a very rich couple - with spectacular gardens.

We got to the Watson Center at around 5PM to get ready for the first dinner and meeting with the group.

We had lectures on history, geology, history of aviation, history of glass, the local Iroquois nation - a confederation of democratic Indian tribes that gave power to women. A day at Corning glass works museum -- one of the best museums. Another day at the Glenn Curtiss museum -- look him up for a remarkable story. And the final morning at the Rockwell Museum. A boat ride on the lake.

My head is just loaded with "stuff."

What was most surprising to me was the political content of this trip as we discovered the historical significance of the area -- western NY between Pennsylvania and touching on the Rochester area on Lake Ontario, and how it relates to so much of what is going on today.

A quick political hit list:

• Seneca Falls - Birth of women's rights (1848) - National Park
• Elmira - first college in US to admit women
• Area was bed of anti-slavery and underground railroad
• Inspiration for Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" - one of my favorite movies that touches on so many social justice issues
• Home of historic aviator Glenn Curtiss who is ignored but did so much more than the Wright Brothers
• Corning glass - the impact on a corporate town
• Geology
• Watkins Glenn gorge
• Mark Twain spent enormous time there - wrote much of his stuff - his wife was from the area.

I could write pages on these issues but don't have the time right now.

This was the biggest tour we've been on -- over 30 people - all in our age group and from all over the nation - as far as Idaho. The guide for the week was local and so enthusiastic with sharing her knowledge. We were quartered at the Thomas Watson - the founder of IBM - conference center - you know that computer that won the Jeopardy tournament. No TV in the room - so we had to watch the debate in the few locations where there were TVs. We shared all meals except for 1 - all at the conference center so we ate together and got to know people. We especially bonded with an older couple from Indiana - he's a minister who plays in a classic rock band. He gave us his books of poetry. So interesting.

We were careful politically, assuming there were a batch of Trump supporters - in fact I believe I bonded pretty well with someone from Ohio who was either a supporter or leaning. Which goes to show you. (On our Sicily trip my best pal was a Tea Party guy and we had a blast arguing.) These people were more serious in this trip. But we saw indications of support for Hillary, especially from women.

Well, back to the hum-drum of retirement -- just kidding.