A Long Day's Journey Into Night

I have six class meetings in each class, one JV wrestling tournament, a batch of comments and one school duty before I can collapse into March break.  I have twelve test essays to grade and twelve take home essays that I have to turn around in two days.  I have to finish an evaluation of a fourth year faculty member and start hiring at least three new faculty for my department in that time span, too.  I have been tasked with helping to create an end of winter event for the faculty at large.

I am currently stuck in the library doing duty when there are no kids here.  #efficiency

I would like a nap...

This Begs The Question

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-tops-iran-most-disliked-nation-us-221433020.html

Only 11% of Americans have a favorable opinion of North Korea.

That means 30 million Americans have a favorable opinion of North Korea.  How is THAT possible?  I mean Iran at 13% I can sort of understand, because Iranians as a people can be nice, and there are plenty of Iranian-Americans around.

But who likes the world's worst country?

Almost Feel Sorry For McConnell

Almost.

When these guys are your enemy, maybe you're not the worst person in the world after all.

Sooner Than I Thought

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/25-killed-in-kiev-clashes

I thought Yanukovych would wait until after the Olympics to start killing people.  And what's odd is that he apparently got pressure to do so from Putin.

Maybe Putin is worried that the men's hockey team will lose and he's already looking for a distraction.  I'm actually serious.  Within Russia, the success of these games is about the hockey team.

I've become more and more tolerant of the idea of secession, and think it could be a viable solution in Ukraine.  In fact, if Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana want to give it another go, I won't squawk.

A Thaw

It's supposed to be above freezing tomorrow.  Maybe some rain.

Now that we've moved on from the incessant snow, I'm looking forward to the flooding.

Florida

The second prominent "Stand Your Ground" case has ended.  Michael Dunn was convicted of three counts of attempted murder for the people he shot.  But for some reason, the jury couldn't convict him on the murder of Jordan Davis.

Davis and his friends were in a parking lot, listening to obnoxiously loud music.  Dunn asked them to turn it down.  They turned it up.  Dunn unloaded his 9MM into the car.  Davis died.

Dunn tried to say he was "threatened" by the loud music and thought he saw a shotgun in the car.

In some ways, it doesn't matter.  Dunn will be behind bars for the rest of his life in all likelihood, as he 47 years old and facing 60 years in prison.

But as so many others agree, I think the important words are those of Ta Nahesi-Coates:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/black-boy-interrupted/283881/

Four Days Of Snow

All the shoveling and I've thrown my back into spasm.

I have a ton of grading to do, but I can't really sit in a chair.

FML

In Unions Their Is Strength

The news from Chattanooga - that workers declined to join the UAW at a Volkswagen plant - is really discouraging.

Volkswagen was very open to the workers joining a union, because it would allow them to set up a works council, like they do in Germany and everywhere else they build VWs.  Basically, a works council allows blue and white collar workers at the plant to determine benefits, work hours, vacation policy and work conditions in a collaborative effort.  This is common business practice in Germany, where it goes under the name neo-corporatism.

But then the GOP in Tennessee basically started threatening both VW and the workers.  Basically, the "anti-tax party" was going to raise taxes on Volkswagen if they had a union represent their workers.

Again, you can see the real agenda here.  The GOP didn't care that VW was eager to work with the UAW; the needs and wants of Volkswagen were immaterial.

What really mattered was that workers should not unionize.  That trumped their antipathy to taxes and their supposed "pro-business" ideology.  In fact, their desire to prevent unions would have extended to actively trying to hurt Chattanooga and its workers.

There is no other word for this than class warfare.

But it is also incredibly sad that workers gave in to these threats.  Of course, being compared to Detroit was the kicker because you know what sort of people live in Detroit. And the reason automakers left Detroit was because they could exploit cheaper labor elsewhere.  But VW wanted the union!

Jay Gould, titan and scumbag of he Gilded Age, famously said, "I can hire half the working class to kill the other half."

Today, the GOP used threats and intimidation to prevent workers from having a voice in their plant.  This should forever cement their place as the party of the 1%.  But just as the workers in Chattanooga only understood "Detroit" and its blackness and bleakness, so, too, will the average American's understanding of this dynamic be hopelessly muddied by race, relative privilege and "both sides do it."

We get, I suppose, the government we deserve.

Happy Valentines Day, I Guess

I leave with a musical medley.

Where Is My Pitchfork?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/poor-stop-whining-says-luxury-160846180.html?vp=1

Shorter version: "Shut up you proles!  At least you aren't one of the poorly paid serfs to whom I've outsourced your job!"

Marx was wrong about communism.  It doesn't work, it's not a natural result of the dialectic struggle between capital and labor.

But he was possibly right about capitalism.

Let's take this as an example.  The UAW and Volkswagen are nearing a deal that would introduce the sort of neo-corporatist collaboration that has been so successful in Germany.  It would bring the workers into the decision making process and allow for a more harmonious and productive workplace.  Germany, the fourth largest economy in the world, practices this way of doing business.  It allowed them to sail through the recent depression/recession relatively unscathed.

But the Party of Money and their out-of-touch billionaire backers are trying to do everything they can to make sure that A) Americans don't get any health insurance that isn't tied to their employer's beneficence (better make sure you don't have a distressed baby) B) American workers are not able to earn better wages through collective bargaining C) any effort to ameliorate the condition of the working poor through social programs, food stamps, health insurance subsidies or education grants are to be gutted.

The more these privileged idiots keep spouting off, the angrier most Americans will become.  While the Tea Party has tapped into some populist anger by railing against "big government", the fact is that they are really tapping into racial panic as much as economic distress.

This economic issue is real and measurable.

I honestly believe that 2014 and 2016 can be shaped by this populist economic anger if it's properly messaged and massaged.  Whoever winds up running as the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat in West By God Virginia needs to talk about how the people who polluted Charleston escaped scot-free.  Whoever runs in South Dakota and Montana needs to talk about how the Keystone pipeline was bought and sold by wealthy oilmen who will pollute the aquifer.

And everyone should run against the 1%.

It does appear that this is the strategy, given the focus on the minimum wage and economic inequality, but Elizabeth Warren isn't the darling of the Left because she's a dynamic speaker.  Bernie Sanders isn't thinking about a presidential run in 2016, because of the tremendous appeal of a Jewish, Christian-Socialist agenda.

If Hillary is to be the nominee, she needs to get in front of this populist energy.  The Clintonistas are justifiable suspect on economic equity, so she needs to show more Warren and less Rubin.

Aquabuddha Strikes Again

I don't know what to make of Rand Paul.

Some of the more gullible like to note his strong positions against NSA spying.  OK, he's right.  But you can't ignore the totality of the man's positions, many of which are deeply retrograde.

But he's a Republican, so paleolithic positions on abortions or civil rights are to be expected.

No, I'm talking about Paul the person.

This new allegation of stealing other people's work suggests an intellectual laziness that would not be out of place in a high school senior who has just signed his letter of intent to commit to the Alabama football program.  He still has to "do the work" but he's not really invested in doing the work.  So a little cutting, a little pasting and voila!  You have your term paper lawsuit.

Maybe it's just the extreme polarization speaking, but it really is harder and harder to understand the basic motivations of the arch conservatives that make up our Congress.  Not Boehner or McConnell, I "get" them.  They play power politics as cynically as anyone else.

But what's weird is that the true believers don't seem to understand what they believe.

Lesson Or Lessen?

Last Saturday, arguably our best wrestler was disqualified and thrown out of our tournament on a poor judgment call by the referee.  Basically, he was being crossfaced by his opponent, when his opponent forced his wrist into our kid's mouth, leaving teeth impressions on the top and bottom of his wrist.

The referees ruled that it was a bite, which is "flagrant misconduct" and brings an automatic disqualification.  As a consequence, he could no longer compete in the tournament.  He went from being on his way to the finals (it was a semifinal match) to being completely removed from the tournament, his team points removed and his medal taken away.

There is also a league rule that he can't compete in the following competition, which happens to be the New England tournament.  We appealed, and significantly, the opposing coach whose wrestler was "bitten" supported our appeal.  He noted that his wrestler did not think our kid bit him and the coach was in a position to see what happened and did not see any evidence of biting.

The appeal was denied today.

Basically this very good kid - who would've finished second in the league at worst - who had his season ended on a controversial judgment call.

And while I'm disgusted with the referees, I understand that refs make mistakes.  Heat of the moment, long day and all that.

But the appeal was sent to a committee of athletic directors who turned it down under the cold light of deliberation.  These people are supposed to be educators.  Instead, they behaved like rule-bound bureaucrats.

So today, when I address the team, I am going to have to talk about how rules/laws are not the same as justice.  That this poor kid - who has handled it with more dignity and restraint than I would have (or have) - was screwed because last year the tournament (which he would have won) was snowed out and this year he was DQ'ed on a bad judgment call.

This is, perhaps, a good lesson for kids to learn.  Sometimes injustice happens, and sometimes it happens to good people.  If we are to prepare them for the world, they should know that.

But as an educator, what a crappy thing to have to tell a roomful of kids.

What Do These Things Have In Common?

Say it now and say it loud, I'm white as mayonnaise and I'm proud.

Here's a take on the current continued control of the GOP by the Tea Party.

On efforts supported constituencies that Republican operatives say the party must perform better with, conservatives not only block them, they sometimes dismiss the very notion that they're necessary. Bills like the Paycheck Fairness Act, which beefs up legal protections for women who face pay discrimination in the workplace, are stymied by Republican opposition. A Fox News host argued that many women who were paid less than men earned "exactly what they're worth." GOP leaders have also refused to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which appeals to supporters of gay rights, a burgeoning constituency across the country. ENDA passed the Senate recently and Boehner wasted no time before signaling that it was deadin the House.

Even initiatives that have enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support in the past, like the Voting Rights Act, are now toxic on the right. Conservatives oppose fixing the part of the historic law that was struck down by the Supreme Court, designed to preemptively snuff out voter discrimination in the state and local governments where it's likeliest to occur. Lawmakers recently introduced bipartisan legislation to rewrite and reform that provision, but Republican leaders have refused to sign on, amid opposition from conservatives who say the idea violates states rights and should be left alone.

Hmm, women...Hispanics...blacks...

But the important thing is not to call the Tea Party racists because white people are the real victims of racism, like that nice George Zimmerman.  And the real people suffering persecution are those poor billionaires suffering from the modern day krystalnacht or having to support other people's distressed babies.

And what's incredibly depressing is that they are likely to pick up seats in Senate and maybe even the House next November, despite being the retrograde face of America's long history of bigotry.

Shirley Temple

A few weeks ago, I saw a Buzzfeed piece, "10 People You Didn't Know Were Still Alive," headed by Shirley Temple Black.

Maybe there's a Buzzfeed Curse?

I remember back in the days of five channels that there would often be Shirley Temple movies on TV.  I mean, if your TV is black and white anyway....

They were curious movies, relics from a very different time.  I'm not sure I could sit through 15 minutes of one today.

But when you compare her life with the myriad of child stars from later eras who have become burned out, wasted shells of people, she gets my profound respect.  For the few times when a child star manages to become a functioning adult, one wonders if they shared some template with Temple Black.

So kudos to her and her remarkable life.

Even if she was a Reagan Republican...

Awesome

Reprinted in full:

HOUSTON (AP) - A Houston man who once portrayed McGruff the Crime Dog has shown his commitment to crime fighting apparently wasn't very deep.

John R. Morales was sentenced this week to 16 years and three months in federal prison on drug and weapons charges after police found more than 1,000 marijuana plants and 27 weapons, including grenade launchers, at two indoor farms.
Morales wore the McGruff costume for the Harris County Sheriff's Association in the late 1990s.
A real crime dog - the drug-sniffing variety - detected pot plans in Morales' trunk after he was stopped for speeding in Galveston in 2011. Authorities say officers found a clipboard with maps to the indoor farms.
Defense attorney Ken Fesler II says Morales entered the drug trade to help sick relatives.