Category: US Politics

When Brandon Straka founded the WalkAway movement in May, hardly anyone imagined that several hundred thousand longtime Democrats could turn against the party of their family and friends.  Although it’s a big, difficult decision, many Walkaways made videos aggressively explaining their decisions. They often conclude: “I’ll never vote Democrat the rest of my life.”

What made these people walk away with such passion?  Certainly, Trump’s success and charisma explain a lot.  The “lying media” are also a major factor.  One woman attended a crowded Trump rally.  When she reached home a half-hour later, CNN was showing a half-empty stadium where she had been standing.  She knew that the place had been jammed.  At that moment, she walked away from CNN.

Perhaps the most important factor is that leaders on the left, for many decades, became increasingly socialist/communist in their perspectives.  The rank and file are more sophisticated now and realize that their party bosses walked away from them long ago. 

So here’s the picture that Straka has brought into focus.  Namely, lots of people are mad as hell and determined not to take it anymore.

We need this exact same spirit in K-12.  You’re mad as hell and refuse to continue the same destructive relationship.  You know what the schools are doing to children: keeping them ignorant and illiterate.  You hate this.  You don’t want it being done in your name.  Or with your taxes.

So walk away. 

Democrats, heretofore passive, are showing you how to do it.  Just do it.  The liberal leaders at the top of the Education Establishment are exactly the same people whom working-class Democrats have learned to scorn.  (Indeed, studying K-12 education is a great way to understand the warped politics of the party.  Same people, same goals, same collectivist thinking.)

You’ve heard the rumors, or you have seen the results yourself.  Kids can’t read, not fluently.  Incoherent Common Core homework makes them cry.  Students don’t know the simplest things about geography, history, science, or anything else.  Jay Leno, Jesse Watters, Mark Dice, and now Jimmy Kimmel have shown this over and over.

The incompetent, ideological extremists perpetuating this educational malpractice should be rejected or at least rebuked.  What’s a simple way to do that?  You don’t need to send them a card.  Just walk away…if not physically, at least emotionally.

Parents with kids in a public school have to deal with teachers and school officials.  But you can withhold support; you can show disdain for programs you don’t like.  Let the Education Establishment know that you don’t approve of their dumbing-down strategies.  You would like to see children educated at the highest level that each one can handle.  The main thing is to stop tolerating what you sincerely feel is unacceptable.  (Some people say homeschooling is the only option.  I argue that being an informed, demanding parent contributes greatly.)

Teachers in particular know the dark secrets about ideological maneuvering  and financial chicanery.  The result is that textbooks and methods that didn’t work 25 and 50 years ago are still used today and still don’t work.  The dysfunctional gimmicks that made New Math useless can still be found in Common Core Math.  Someone is making more money.  But the students are losing.  Don’t support what you wouldn’t want for your own kids.

According to one of the popular sophistries of the past 75 years, if you criticize public schools, the professors will say you are “opposed to public education.”  You may have to spell it out.  You’re not at all opposed to public education.  You’re opposed to ineffective, screwed up education that keeps many children as ignorant and illiterate in the 10th grade as they were in the 4th grade.

The point is not to give support to something not worth supporting.  Our Education Establishment has grown increasingly wacky and reckless over the past 90 years.  The country had near universal literacy in 1915, then Progressives started to take over.  By 1955, a book titled Why Johnny Can’t Read became a huge bestseller.  Apparently, millions of people knew ”Johnny” personally.  Many social critics wrote books with titles such as Quackery in the Public Schools and Educational Wastelands: The Retreat from Learning in Our Public Schools.  Sixty years later, the steady decline slithers on.  Prof. Patrick Deneen at Notre Dame recently accused our public schools of creating “cultural illiteracy” intentionally.

Now is a good time for everyone to start being judgmental.

Walk away from dangerous, chaotic schools.  Walk away from sight-words and the functional illiteracy they cause.  Walk away from  Common Core nonsense that makes little children cry.  Walk away from dysfunctional theories and methods that never seem to work as promised.  Walk away from imperious superintendents who tell the parents what they can have, not what they need. 

Walk away from elaborately engineered pedagogy that diminishes children.  Walk away from Constructivism, which dictates that children must figure out everything for themselves while teachers stand idly by.  Walk away from Self-Esteem, a cute little sophistry that basically freezes every class at the level of the slower students.  Walk away from Multiculturalism, which dictates that American children have to know more about foreign rivers than about American rivers.  Walk away from all the clever gimmicks that undercut real education and replace it with “progressive” – actually regressive – folderol.

In particular, walk away from so-called educators who see education as indoctrination, not enlightenment.  That is John Dewey’s malignant legacy.  We need to walk away from all that.

Bruce Deitrick Price’s new book is Saving K-12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them?  He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org.

When Brandon Straka founded the WalkAway movement in May, hardly anyone imagined that several hundred thousand longtime Democrats could turn against the party of their family and friends.  Although it’s a big, difficult decision, many Walkaways made videos aggressively explaining their decisions. They often conclude: “I’ll never vote Democrat the rest of my life.”

What made these people walk away with such passion?  Certainly, Trump’s success and charisma explain a lot.  The “lying media” are also a major factor.  One woman attended a crowded Trump rally.  When she reached home a half-hour later, CNN was showing a half-empty stadium where she had been standing.  She knew that the place had been jammed.  At that moment, she walked away from CNN.

Perhaps the most important factor is that leaders on the left, for many decades, became increasingly socialist/communist in their perspectives.  The rank and file are more sophisticated now and realize that their party bosses walked away from them long ago. 

So here’s the picture that Straka has brought into focus.  Namely, lots of people are mad as hell and determined not to take it anymore.

We need this exact same spirit in K-12.  You’re mad as hell and refuse to continue the same destructive relationship.  You know what the schools are doing to children: keeping them ignorant and illiterate.  You hate this.  You don’t want it being done in your name.  Or with your taxes.

So walk away. 

Democrats, heretofore passive, are showing you how to do it.  Just do it.  The liberal leaders at the top of the Education Establishment are exactly the same people whom working-class Democrats have learned to scorn.  (Indeed, studying K-12 education is a great way to understand the warped politics of the party.  Same people, same goals, same collectivist thinking.)

You’ve heard the rumors, or you have seen the results yourself.  Kids can’t read, not fluently.  Incoherent Common Core homework makes them cry.  Students don’t know the simplest things about geography, history, science, or anything else.  Jay Leno, Jesse Watters, Mark Dice, and now Jimmy Kimmel have shown this over and over.

The incompetent, ideological extremists perpetuating this educational malpractice should be rejected or at least rebuked.  What’s a simple way to do that?  You don’t need to send them a card.  Just walk away…if not physically, at least emotionally.

Parents with kids in a public school have to deal with teachers and school officials.  But you can withhold support; you can show disdain for programs you don’t like.  Let the Education Establishment know that you don’t approve of their dumbing-down strategies.  You would like to see children educated at the highest level that each one can handle.  The main thing is to stop tolerating what you sincerely feel is unacceptable.  (Some people say homeschooling is the only option.  I argue that being an informed, demanding parent contributes greatly.)

Teachers in particular know the dark secrets about ideological maneuvering  and financial chicanery.  The result is that textbooks and methods that didn’t work 25 and 50 years ago are still used today and still don’t work.  The dysfunctional gimmicks that made New Math useless can still be found in Common Core Math.  Someone is making more money.  But the students are losing.  Don’t support what you wouldn’t want for your own kids.

According to one of the popular sophistries of the past 75 years, if you criticize public schools, the professors will say you are “opposed to public education.”  You may have to spell it out.  You’re not at all opposed to public education.  You’re opposed to ineffective, screwed up education that keeps many children as ignorant and illiterate in the 10th grade as they were in the 4th grade.

The point is not to give support to something not worth supporting.  Our Education Establishment has grown increasingly wacky and reckless over the past 90 years.  The country had near universal literacy in 1915, then Progressives started to take over.  By 1955, a book titled Why Johnny Can’t Read became a huge bestseller.  Apparently, millions of people knew ”Johnny” personally.  Many social critics wrote books with titles such as Quackery in the Public Schools and Educational Wastelands: The Retreat from Learning in Our Public Schools.  Sixty years later, the steady decline slithers on.  Prof. Patrick Deneen at Notre Dame recently accused our public schools of creating “cultural illiteracy” intentionally.

Now is a good time for everyone to start being judgmental.

Walk away from dangerous, chaotic schools.  Walk away from sight-words and the functional illiteracy they cause.  Walk away from  Common Core nonsense that makes little children cry.  Walk away from dysfunctional theories and methods that never seem to work as promised.  Walk away from imperious superintendents who tell the parents what they can have, not what they need. 

Walk away from elaborately engineered pedagogy that diminishes children.  Walk away from Constructivism, which dictates that children must figure out everything for themselves while teachers stand idly by.  Walk away from Self-Esteem, a cute little sophistry that basically freezes every class at the level of the slower students.  Walk away from Multiculturalism, which dictates that American children have to know more about foreign rivers than about American rivers.  Walk away from all the clever gimmicks that undercut real education and replace it with “progressive” – actually regressive – folderol.

In particular, walk away from so-called educators who see education as indoctrination, not enlightenment.  That is John Dewey’s malignant legacy.  We need to walk away from all that.

Bruce Deitrick Price’s new book is Saving K-12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them?  He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org.

That would certainly go for the not just the first caravan headed our way, but the chain reaction of the second, third and more groups following. According to the Daily Mail:

The second migrant caravan, believed to be armed with bombs and guns, crossed into Mexico on Monday despite a huge police presence.

Hundreds of migrants following in the footsteps of the first caravan heading to the U.S. border crossed a river from Guatemala.

…and…

The second group back at the Guatemalan frontier has been more unruly than the first that crossed. Guatemala’s Interior Ministry said Guatemalan police officers were injured when the migrant group broke through border barriers on Guatemala’s side of the bridge.

Mexico authorities said migrants attacked its agents with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks when they broke through a gate on the Mexican end but were pushed back, and some allegedly carried guns and firebombs.

There was also this:

The standoff at the riverbank followed a more violent confrontation that occurred on the bridge over the river Sunday night, when migrants threw rocks and used sticks against Mexico police. One migrant died from a head wound during the clash, but the cause was unclear.

The first migrant caravan isn’t without reports of violence, either. According to Breitbart Texas, they’ve already begun using their guns:

Mexican authorities arrested two Hondurans who allegedly shot at federal police officers escorting the migrant caravan across the southern state of Chiapas. The attack follows shortly after government warnings about Molotov cocktail attacks around a second caravan near the border with Guatemala.

The attack took place near Ignacio Zaragoza, Chiapas, when members of Mexico’s Federal Police were escorting the migrant caravan as part of “Operativo Caminante” or “Operation Walker” across the southern border state. According to Mexico’s Interior Secretariat, two men identified only as 22-year-old “Jerson” and 17-year-old “Carlos” spotted the group of police officers guarding the caravan and began firing at them.

The attackers’ pistol jammed, allowing police officers to arrest them without any injuries. Federal authorities seized a .380 caliber Glock with nine rounds still in the magazine.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Border Patrol has warned Texas landowners at the international line to prepare for armed conflict from the caravan:

The U.S. Border Patrol this week reportedly told Texas landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border to prepare for a possible influx of “armed civilians” on their property as the migrant caravan moves closer to the U.S., a report said.

The Associated Press reported that these civilians say they intend to support the National Guard and Border Patrol to prevent the illegal migrants from crossing into the U.S.

It’s an astonishing departure from the picture the mainstream press has been painting for us about the supposedly harmlessness of the migrant caravans, and it’s completely in line with the warnings President Trump has made about the possibility of criminals within the caravan ranks. If that’s not reason to distrust the mainstream press’s “narrative” reporting, what is?

Image credit: Fox News screengrab

ZIP |
November 1, 2018 8:30 am

Shares of leftwing cereal maker Kellogg Co. fell by more than 7 percent Wednesday after the company said it expects profits to be flat for the year, a retreat from its earlier projection of 5 to 7 percent growth.

Kellogg’s stock was down as much as 9.6 percent in morning trading but recovered some of the early losses as the broader market moved higher.

The company said its profits were hit by investment in single-serve packages of its snacks like Pringles. The company is spending money in an attempt to grow its snacks as sales of its breakfast cereal products continue to decline.

As Breitbart has reported, Kellogg is effectively controlled by a leftwing foundation:

Every time an American family picks up a box of Kellogg’s cereal at the grocery store, it is contributing to the wealthy radical leftwing foundation that agitates for open borders, supports George Soros’s Open Society Insitute, and other leftwing causes.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is the largest shareholder of the Kellogg Company. According to its 2016 tax filing, the Kellogg Foundation’s trust owns approximately $5.2 billion of stock in the company, about 20 percent of the company’s equity. The other large holders are mostly passive investors such as mutual funds and their ownership is a fraction of the foundation’s. That means that the foundation effectively controls the famous cereal company…

Last year, the Kellogg Company called for a blacklist of Breitbart, saying that the news organization did not reflect its values. This prompted a #dumpkellogg’s boycott in response that AdWeek described as inflicting huge damage to the company’s reputation.

It is not just cereal purchases that contribute to the leftwing causes championed by the Kellogg Foundation. Purchases of Pringles, Pop Tarts, Cheez-Its, Keebler and Famous Amos cookies, Eggo waffles, and Morningstar Farms veggie burgers all help fund the Kellogg Foundation’s political activism.

The foundation has donated millions to the Mexican nationalist organization, La Raza — the group founded to “reclaim” the southwestern United States for Mexico. In 2015, the foundation gave $2,400,000 to the National Council of La Raza, Breitbart reported.
Kellogg executives say they are investing in marketing the snack products with the goal of boosting sales. The sell-off in the stock may indicate that investors doubt this strategy will pay off. Sales of its snacks, the company’s biggest unit, fell 3.5 percent in the most recent quarter.

Sales of Kellogg’s U.S. breakfast foods dropped 1.3 percent during the third quarter.  A recall of 1.3 million cases of Honey Smacks cereal, which were potentially tainted with salmonella, dented sales during the quarter.

Kellogg wants to increase prices but faces consumer resistance to paying more for the same products. To outwit consumers, Kellogg “said companies have to get creative with pricing, using new package sizes and new flavors to justify price increases,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The days of straight list price increases are gone. It would lead to a decrease in consumer demand,” Mr. Cahillane told the Journal.

 

 

Imagine the horror: you’re a 12-year old kid preparing to buddy up with a fellow player on Fortnite in an attempt to defeat 98 other players and win the battle royale when you discover that she’s not what she seems…

You thought the cowgirl with an absurd pickaxe and a submachine gun was a kid of about your own age. But in fact, it’s some creepy old guy who just wants to lecture you on climate change instead of destroying opponents, building bases, and showing off their dance moves.

This is not a fictional scenario. This actually happened and the creepy old guy is actually boasting about it. (h/t Eric Worrall)

After hearing an 11 year-old’s Fortnite video got more views than a climate change lecture, Henri Drake had an idea.

A red haired cowgirl grabs a submachine gun from a building and as she runs away from the oncoming storm, the player in control starts talking about the impact CFC emissions have on global warming.

“We basically have since banned those materials… but we found out last year that the concentration of these gases in the atmosphere is increasing again.”

The cowgirl is Henri Drake, a casual gamer and climate scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the game is Fortnite, a crazy popular multiplayer shooter game.

It’s a strange mix, but by creating the ClimateFortnite Twitch channel Henri is hoping to use the games popularity to explain global warming and climate policy to a wider audience.

He’s not going it alone, there’s other scientists either playing with him or just hanging around to answer the questions thrown out by viewers. Scientists like Chris, a masters student at Boston University, who is on hand to field a question about the Paris climate agreement thrown out at the start of one game.

It gets worse:

It’s a strange mix, but the ClimateFortnite Twitch channel Henri created is using the game’s popularity to teach people about global warming and climate policy.

He streams video of him playing the game with other climate scientists and they all take turns answering questions from the audience.

When a question about the Paris climate agreement comes up you hear Chris’s voice over the mic, a masters student from Boston University. He starts explaining who could fill the void if the US pulls out of the Paris agreement as the team skydives out of the Battle Bus, the way every Fortnite game starts.

Chris names several countries while landing in Pleasant Park, “China is obviously a large emitter,” before Henri interrupts to direct the team: “Let’s go north-east side.”

Chris continues as the team meets up, “Because [China is] such a large impact on the global economy and global emissions they’re someone to watch.”

“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man”, said the Jesuits.

But even Ignatius Loyola at his most fanatical would have stopped short of propagandising kids during a game of Fortnite.