Of the. Farm. I towers commentaries are brought to you by the Hightower lowdown the monthly newsletter with high towers take on what Wall Street and Washington are up to for information visit Hightower lowdown dot org. Back to the Rick Smith show now here is Rex mess. It was interesting a brilliant piece in The Washington Post today. Brian Chua. Talking about the we've heard it on Fox news we've heard the right. Obviously this guy he says he's an expert on cruise. Is not a coup and lying to your supporters about it isn't just wrong it's also dangerous I said it's not it's not just that impeachment is not a coup it's that impeachment. In about every way imaginable He said Koos or illegal impeachment follow the law. Say a coup plots are hatched by men with guns impeachment is being overseen by a woman with a gavel and I love that yeah but being over overseen by a woman with a gavel I'm here to share some thoughts on this are we seeing a coup is this what they. Are good friends right or scholar and author of the fantastic book review from fly over country also co-host of I got nation sort of thinking time for us. Thanks for having me and we figured. There was a coup I think that the coup ended in 2016 people think that was the beginning of the coup it was actually just a new phase the coup was you know from Russia other countries various oligarchs plutocrats billionaires you know rigging and manipulating illegally the electoral system in the political system for their own personal and financial gain in structuring the right of representative government away from the people impeachment as you noted is not a coup it is the constitutional remedy for tyranny which was the result of this long standing plot by all of these different kind of fringe power players that have aligned over the last decade or so or if you want to go further back you know you can go all the way back to around Watergate but really picked up in the twenty's and then they achieved this and I think a lot of people have been reluctant to kind of identified as a coup I was calling it a coup you know basically in 2016 people but. I think. What's happening now is not a coup what happened before. Yeah I'm saying impeachment of course is not a coup impeachment is a constitutional remedy I think that what Trump did what Rex That was a lot of these kind of far right takeovers that were accomplished with the same set of actors including you know people from the Kremlin the Russian mafia Cambridge analytic Bannan and his various acolytes you're seeing the same global players manipulating the electoral system in all of these countries and I'm not saying like there wasn't sincere support for Trump or for Braxton or for all of these initiatives there was some I think it is completely legitimate to question the integrity of the vote in those cases and to question the alliances and the financial transactions and just all the dirt that has been dug up and brought into the light over the last few years and then think is this really what democracy is is this really what Representative government is and the answer is No it's something akin to a coup I think that we lack a political vocabulary to describe what happened you know some using a word like who that maybe doesn't fully encapsulate what is occurred and I think some of that is the result of living in the digital era where so many of these tactics were you know transmitted or put forth through digital mediums through social media through Bitcoin transactions a grin brand new terrain and we have a very old political category but at the heart it was a coup it was a takeover it was a hostile takeover which is of course the kind that Trump and his little New York Wall Street lackeys specialize in you have any faith in. The future given the last couple of days I mean I think the last couple of days of the Democrats done a pretty good job. I mean that they've certainly gotten better and I think that they've selected good witnesses you know they've selected people who have information and are not necessarily going in hostile you know I thought from the start that that would be a way to go because people left Lewandowsky are going to try to make the process for example or mole or is going to be reticent get expert get people who were there get people who are on the ground and who see themselves as nonpartisan actors treated you know who simply want to fulfill their constitutional obligation and I'm glad to see that we still have people like that you know if you own a hill or Alexander then many that's good and that was smart of the Democrats to do that and I think it's good that we're finally moving into I guess tomorrow kind of formalization of the process I still think they made an incredible mistake doing this about 6 months earlier because we never had the time to spare and I think all the mixed messages about what impeachment was and what it's supposed to accomplish you know they screw things up and I still kind of wonder why they are focusing so much on Ukraine and leaving out the broader context of Russia because as I said before that's a sort of it's impossible to do it it's the same crimes that you have to have both but yeah I mean we're finally I feel like we're here moving forward I don't know if they're going to be able to move forward affectively or in time but you know this is always going to be difficult and what was making me angry was the inaction and you know the the reticence and at least now we're seeing bird projection and I think that's good you know but you know I would argue that you know the reason that they probably didn't do it 6 months ago is really complicated this seems very simple to me this and this is what I've said from the beginning this is so simple that you can. You can understand what's going on. I think so but I also. I think that the previous actions were very simple in part because some truly best thing to there are things like you know Trump asked Russia on a stage for Hillary's you know done Jr in e-mails that he posted itself was like yes trash please help us win the election Michael Cohen turns player and Felix Peter a Russian mobster who was with business partner Rio in e-mails we're going to get our boy into the office with the help of water mere poo and I am talking to the Kremlin like to admit all this and then you have the motor report and the Law Report itself you know is this complicated on real the legal use kind of documents but the claims that it turns on struck the justice are not hard to prove because again you confessed to crime you went on t.v. And was like yeah I shut that whole Russia thing down because I think in my way like I think Americans can definitely understand that and the Ukraine you know extortion incidentally rather call it that quid pro quo it's the same thing it's soliciting a foreign country to illegally influence the election and using threats and bribes it's just the same stuff over and over again and we wouldn't be in this situation with Ukraine if they had actually cracked down on illegal activity with Trump in Russia you know and so that's that's been very frustrating and they certainly could have done that you know before the motor report they could have done it after the miller or they could have done it on a different crime on a moment's abuse of migrants of the border you know all sorts of stuff so I think it's better if there's a framework saying we will not tolerate this we will not accept rampant criminality and corruption in government we're going to go at you hard and go at you right away and initially they were doing that they were coming down I think 81 people as witnesses to testify they put out this big list the House Democrats did this in March and then they just stopped they just stopped cold and they basically didn't do much of anything for. Like months and time all Trump was brutalizing the country and that that was not that was not good not good at all but but again you know I look at this moment and this is really simple to understand I look at Binions to me even right now is the most important character in all this because like I said from the start you put him out with the with the drugs clues and all the medals and all that stuff credibility and then savvy about it but twice he went disappear years you know saying that something the commander in chief did was. Concerning to him. And his belief that you know the Ukraine issue would turn into a political football and it would be bad for national security and getting us back into that Russia governor says and I think that I think this is the most important moment I think he's good I mean I like to speak and when I read it I was like why isn't everyone writing their statements like Alexander didn't like this is very easy to understand this is basically good you understand why it's a crime you understand the context of hooey who he is in the government what his role was why he was appalled you know all these things so I'm sure he will be a good witness unfortunately you know his military background you know they don't care they'll Swift Boat him you know the use that for their own purposes and then of course do the opposite when you get an actual criminal like when everyone is like oh you know military hero or Erik Prince or I got a Navy Seal you know that some sort that somehow you know makes them immune from any kind of scrutiny of their criminality so that won't necessarily sway people but you know by all accounts you know the Seems like a upstanding citizen this is a guy who did his job I hate seeing this to be years against him about his ethnicity or in speaking Ukrainian speaking Russian It's like you want people in the government who speak Ukrainian and Russian like one of the worst mistakes feel bonded just me in regard to the former Soviet Union once they leave the. So many of the speakers of these languages because they just really thought like Obama said in 2012 life this is an old Cold War eighty's issue like we don't really need this stuff and so during the sequester in 2013 and afterwards they didn't let all these essential personnel cope and that was just disastrous and now you see the effects of this and so you know thankfully this guy. But we need more people like that we need people who are fluent language speakers it's a good thing let's talk about John Bolton. I think he's probably one of the most dangerous human beings on the planet if you let him anywhere near the levers of power but ultimately there are people saying you could be the next John Dean I'm curious your thoughts. I don't think that because I think that John Bolton is only out for John Bolton and I think that basically his issue with Trump is that John Bolton wanted to blow up the world and Trump seems like it was going to do it 1st and you know that pissed him off doesn't have to do I don't think patriotism and I do think John Bolton he feels a sense of humiliation about what Trungpa did while he was working for Trump you know that Trump was making all these you know not even shady deals but deals that in no way benefited the United States or benefited bull and you know these are deals that benefit Russia you know and that's who Trump is working for in terms of this foreign policy it's all basically aligned you know with the Kremlin to benefit the Kremlin and I think that poll and found that to be humiliating I don't think it's necessarily a moral thing because he's fine you know this is a guy who wanted preemptive nuclear strike on Iran this is a guy I think instinctual blood lust war lost total warmonger I think you're just pissed that he lost control of the situation this is kind of a way to get control back but he's not going to be like the Democrats friend I will be really shocked if you participate in these testimonies and some sort of nonpartisan on. Way but yeah he might be useful at this to get information about conduct he's already said he's going to testify voluntarily but a subpoena I'm sure is being written as we speak I hope so because a lot of the times they have not written the subpoenas you know there are a lot of people who I think should have been subpoenaed should have been fined should have been jailed and the Democrats have been pretty reluctant but you know they've had finally like a good run with these witnesses so maybe they've you know realized they need to actually crack down and do this and will drag John Boland in on this story. Bring. With them not. Want to topic a little bit real quick baseball the bluing. Probably. Were you know the boat so pro going so I thought that was great and it was important I mean and you know I studied dictatorship for a long time and I studied it in the form of public spectacle in the form of censorship and this was finally an unscripted moment for Trump and Trump can only function if reality is scripted I mean like as a reality. Star tabloid figure as the president he does not like an unscripted moment and here you have him at this all-American event like this you know the classic American pastime a ratings bonanza us like to be publicly humiliated at a well rated t.v. Show I think is Trump's worst nightmare he can claim nobody's thought he can claim that they were all like stand ins he can't doubt the size of the audience and all of America is watching this and I think also the fact that the military you know it was not booed they cheered for the military Trump you know delineated them as 2 separate entities we're going to war and so I don't you know that was one of the few moments I've had this year I was like this is you know this is hopeful like at least people don't fear they don't feel like so afraid that they can't do this in public because I think it's a time trees to authoritarian states where they would never ever do anything like this that they'd be afraid to even be caught thinking about doing something like this and so for Americans just get out there and protest and blue and blue the powerful and really the president I mean that is you know that is an American pastime to see that I mean to Bob what about the lock him up Chad. I think that's fine because he's a criminal use individual Juanita confessed a whole bunch of his crimes on t.v. And he's been hooked up with the Russian mafia for like 30 years so yeah he should have been locked up in like the eighty's well overdue for a lock em up time so good I'm glad they said that movie goer I was talking to Tom Arnold and he said that he believes that you will be obese Republicans will go to him and tell me you've got to go the work out a deal where you can just step aside no jail time all the kids get to go you just leaves and we get the kind of reset would you be Ok with that no I wouldn't be Ok at all because I think he's incredibly dangerous and that all of these people who you would take with them particularly the trunk children and jared are dangerous and they will be selling state secrets they will be making a list that deals they've already gutted a great deal of our institutions we've seen the g.o.p. And others in government completely capitulate to this band of criminals you know who are backed up by transnational crimes that they're backed up by the Russian mafia that's not going to go away and trouble I think will be empowered if he yet again gets off on his crimes like he loves it and he gets caught committing crimes as long as they face this no consequences I mean he needs you know hard time either at least needs to be a trial or something in which all of the offenses the criminal offenses he's done are judged by a jury of his peers you know and if they acquit him then the you know not a not a lot one can do about that but he should not be thought of as above the law because that is the root of the problem and also you know as I said you get rid of these guys you don't get rid of the whole you know her ific structure that created the standard goons that's now inhabiting our federal government and the sad thing is even if you leave tomorrow the damage they've done is going to take a generation do especially in our court system. Oh absolutely it's a huge problem and honestly I can't quite picture him leaving because I think that the humiliation of that to step down like that that's just not his style but he's also backed up with all these like Watergate weirdos who see this is like the ultimate revenge you know for Nixon having to step down and people like Roger Stone I can imagine them being like Yeah good call like let's dodge the law they've been really hard on us so far I mean like that's not the Saudis though it's hard for me to fix something that you know I don't think there's any any possibility he resigns I think you're going to have to you're going to go in with guns blazing to drag him out of there oh yeah hell has to be physically dragged out and I've been dreading this moment like I've been thinking about this is he took office I was like there's no way he's going to leave because of course if he leaves the scenario that I described before where he could face prosecution could happen you know another thing is I mean there's a multitude of crimes that you can get him on but some of those crimes you know the statute of limitations expires during his 2nd term so as long as he can just stay there and kind of wait it out you know a lot of those offenses from the mole report you know he can't be charged on that from what I read the question is going to do that he's going to want to stay there forever because he's learned that in this new version of America being president you hear about the lot when you're like a crime machine that's a pretty good place to be like Logically I don't know why you'd ever want to leave a sweet deal going on excellent point last question I've got for you did changing things completely your hometown of St Louis there there was a story yesterday that I came across about Planned Parenthood and the very department health department director this guy. What I can name Randall Williams evidently. Walk me through this whole idea that there are there actually are. Being records of women special cycles right oh yeah yeah we're livin in the hands of Aids tale over here yeah it's allegedly not universal but I gotta say I'm not particularly enthused calling to the doctor I haven't been in general just because of data I really don't think that the state government in Missouri needs to know when I have my period they've barely feel like this is important but you know I'm actually less concerned on the state level though I am concerned as a Missourian But the fact that this is actually happening in multiple cases is happening to the migrants on the border they're tracking their periods as well and I'm like why are you doing this like why are you seeing like when our fertility is best like this is extremely creepy like this is it's a power move it's awful like for what purpose is this you know happening like what what goal is that the end of this because it's not anything good oh you know do you that I think is something that people should look into and we should be trying to figure out is this happening this is happening to particular populations more than others like those questions I think people should be asked I said I'm going you know one how would you know and 2 why would you want to know I mean seriously I mean you talk about the invasion of privacy. I don't know. You know it's it's terrifying to me and you know I I just think of like young women vulnerable women you know in this case it was really the it's like Planned Parenthood and the Republicans are trying to tie it to abortion but I said Is there something much more sinister at work here because this is just not information people needed and it does make me it where even if they wonder about the privacy of our medical records in general like we've had so many cases in the last decade or so or some sort of platform everyone thought was States like Facebook or Yahoo or various credit card companies the taxes that they take that you know hold and still when I keep thinking this is probably happened with all of our medical records once they digitize and I it's hard for me to believe this hasn't already happened and I think God That is a wealth of useful information for any bad actor and you know this may be a system where public facing version of that company yeah. But as always appreciate the time in the fog college for talking to General. Ok I think that thank you so much. Creepy stuff creepy creepy corporate read back to those in the most mature. In America. About dog capitalists. Of emergency in Palestine or you know massive winds driven wildfire outbreak. On Monday. Over climate fraud Plus with protecting the oil securing the oil traps planned to take serious oil has a small problem if I allays international law all of those stories and more straight ahead from Brad Blog dot com I'm Brad Friedman I'm does he joined the band by for 6 minutes of Independent Green news politics analysis and snarky comments drop says he will set in federal aid for the fires but 1st we have to come up with some dirt or Joe Biden so that was tell me I knew it this is your green news report. Ok does he join California governor Governor had some pretty strong words for the utility companies that are shutting down power for customers all over the state of California last week oh my yes he did California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide state of emergency with upwards of 600 fires burning across the state firefighters are struggling to contain them from the massive wind driven Kincaid fire north of San Francisco to the new Getty fire in Los Angeles as we go to air no deaths have been reported but over the weekend more than 200000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders air quality is hazardous in affected areas an estimated 3000000 people have had their power shut off at various times to prevent fires ignited by downed electrical wires during this historic wind event $43.00 of the state's $58.00 counties over the weekend were under high wind red flag warnings the intentional power outages have hampered communications by knocking out cell phone towers crippled city water pumping stations and forced the cancellations of classes at schools and universities more extreme wind events are in the forecast for this week Governor Newsom has repeatedly emphasized that one. While climate change is the primary driver of California's explosive wildfire season investor owned utilities also bear responsibility specifically Pacific Gas and Electric which courts have found deferred required maintenance on its aging equipment even as it paid billions to holders and executives of course which part of for profit companies are you unclear I will forgive them the new reality. Of the climate crisis of which we are feeling its impact perhaps more than any other state in the nation but I will not forgive them for not making the kind of investment. In their equipment hardening and under grounding and paving this new reality of which they have had ample time to and California has warmed 2 and a half degrees Fahrenheit since 1970 the area burned by wildfires has increased 500 percent over that time the widespread disruptions according to former California Governor Jerry Brown in an interview with Politico are a warning sign for all Americans of what could be in store in a climate change future Well let me just say it again the state of California needs to take over these for profit power companies that have failed the states so miserably Meanwhile in the nation's capital we're securing the president's trump in a news conference on Sunday announcing that a u.s. Military operation in Syria had resulted in the death of the leader of the Islamic state said that some u.s. Troops will remain in Syria after all we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. I we may have to fight for the it's Ok maybe somebody else wants to go which case they have a hell of a fight we should be able to take someone so the president of the United States still does not know that the United States has no legal claim to Syria's oil and that pillaging any natural resources of another nation is a violation of both u.s. Law and international law specifically the Geneva Conventions Why should Donald Trump care any more about international laws than he does about our own national law excellent question unless perhaps later he cares about war crimes out of it in other news after a 4 year investigation Massachusetts attorney general Morris Healey has filed suit against oil giant Exxon Mobil accusing the company of defrauding investors with its financial disclosures misleading the public and violating the state's consumers through deceptive advertising about the role its fossil fuel products play in causing climate change and for threatening the world economy through its actions Exxon is already on trial in New York over similar allegations that it misled investors by hiding material risks to its business from climate change finally some good news story was good news a new public opinion poll conducted by The Washington Post finds that a large majority of Americans want to reduce oil and gas exploration rather than increase it in direct contradiction to President Trump's drill everywhere agenda more than 8 in 10 respondents said drilling in the United States should either decrease or stay as it is and more than 50 percent want oil and gas exploration reduced on public lands and offshore for much more on all of these stories and the ones that couldn't get to today please check out our website at Green News dot Brad Blog dot com Find follow and planet wide on the Facebook's and the Twitter's at Green news report I'm Brad Friedman and I'm dizzy joy and this has been your green news report. Now here is. Good news coming out of Chicago. Today was day span of the teachers' strike 25000 teachers on strike in the. 3rd largest school district in the country in the thing that that's impressive about this strike is that you know it wasn't just about the teachers it was about hey we need smart class sizes we need some housing help we need we need community help we need investment not just didn't brick and mortar but in the entire system and to me this is really important from where education debate has been for the last I would argue 20 years has been about your why we need we need your street asking and you know our numbers to proven and you know very corporate very business like kind of metrics basically led by the business types of people like you lie brode and the broad foundation. Of the whole charter movement and you know it's not surprising what they've got lots of money you're brought as one of the richest men in the country and they think hey I built a business I can do I can do education much like Bill Gates I'm here to share some thoughts on the broad foundation and the broad Academy which has created a whole bunch a little charter school advocates and well corporate education types I've asked Tom you time to come talk with us Tom as a public school teacher Tom thanks for taking time for us. Yvette Howard I'm good. Coming out of Chicago want to. Preach victory for the teachers and the students in the community in Chicago and in that look not about only wages hours but it's also about well it's about the community as well. I thought if they cared for students they never did it if the full power without demand. You know is going to be demanded you're right but you know I look at. One of those places like a lot of urban centers across the country. Very well. The corporate types we did well in business we can we can fix our failing and are struggling in school without spending any additional money spent so much time and energy pushing out the mentality. Of the broad foundation is one of those destructors of public education Well one of the things that the life role these sort of the 4th about that 10000000000. Is one of the only for the fact that he is the only person ever to start to Fortune $500.00 companies. That so he decides if there's any more lead to change the way you case. He didn't have any background as he just so risky just because his food is you know is police. Even for his police force as you can see the education always to run the school business activity. So what he has is he started the road superintendent the cabbie and the bro. Also the growth fellowship for education. 2 groups training administrators. Doing what I mean you know when you look at all of training the administrators I mean. That you know it's not about education. Not training teachers significance going and training the administrators 12 rolled is a big believer in market reform a thinking he is what. Is often referred to as market world but evil is that market competition is the way to fix everything and that physicists. Abilities are the key to 15 everything still really created this cavity and these usually one of the things that he did it for in the state cabin is he treats people how to shut down schools that are maybe 100 performing or maybe there's not have quite enough to really justify being open and then he also has a big promoter of charter schools so his is trainees they come out of there are big charter schools people and they're big disruptors of the local community school system. Chicago's one of the damaged places that's. Talking about this because the teachers are the teachers there have been fighting this agenda for almost a decade now I mean this is something that they may have been a little bit behind on the money the interest got a big head start but you know in Chicago they're fighting back tooth and nail. Oh yeah well you know they had Paul Vallas come in with me or Valium as the his chief economic officer in to run the schools it's just been downhill since then Alice was the 1st to run the New Orleans schools after Katrina. And it's all about privatizing public education and there's a there's a fun with this these groups of people with. Public education that's one of the big problems in public education this democracy. Democracy is a bad thing we have a elected school boards running things because they thought reform like private charters and vouchers. I mean you look at this this is quite remarkable that. Not even the issue really I mean there are Democrats who are born in this Republican this is a political party go back to the Obama years Arnie Duncan you know came out of Chicago big guy and. Really horrible things for public education. Yeah you. Didn't ever know anything about it no background in education their daily had to replace Paul Vallas. What if they call it the old church school or feed all of the public schools in Chicago and then. Obama did a basis with and brought. 33 of as you can use to the guys all of our private station is still the race service office No Child Left Behind were good. Looking at this because you know we see a lot of. Involved. Brode you see a lot of people who think they know better and. I'm not going to I'm not going to question what's in their heart whether they they truly want to make public schools better. Education or if. I'm not going to I'm not going to question their motives. I mean you look across the country. Aren't. Are doing that much better than the public schools if. It was a business idea and education Incorporated. And the kids still are getting the education and places that are desperate that they need. There seems to be 2 groups that are really very wealthy people that are really pushing this privatized and one is the group that. Is kind of represented by. Vice president after in the ninety's. The spender or Merican progress the so-called left wing group. And. These people they believe in markets they're not so much about. They're not so much about the valance or program as believe in markets. And then the other groups like the best. Family and they don't care to be. Financing religious schools and so you have these 2 groups but a lot of there are 10 percent of a kind of. They really kind of coming from a different place all they're just the thing that draws them all together is destroying the public access to education and having. I've always found it interesting that the religious people who want government lives want government money. I think they're going to get it without having to go. It's quite remarkable to me but you know you point out that you know. This view that markets solve all problems and it's an ideology that in some world you know it works I mean if you're if you're making widgets or whatnots or tennis shoes or whatever shirt I mean competition is good there are quality you want the best quality product but in education I don't see that as functional because at the end of the day get one shot at getting this education and if we're trying all the silver bullet things and I've talked about this a number of times over the years I grew up during the era of busing the Super Bowl and back then to her to think poor people poor kids from one side of the city cleaving were going to ship them all the way the other side and somehow that balance was going to solve our race problems and solve our education in equity problems I didn't really do either just take a lot of people off a ton of resources and again another silver bullet failed. Well you know one of the things about this road Academy Lybrel. A good example is there was a guy named John Covington that became the mayor went to the broder Cademy and then he got a job as superintendent in Kansas City Missouri he was there for 2 years where he really is to get a lot of the role of the idea of closed about half of the schools in Kansas the. Ministry the staff and really revamped the curriculum and he brought the Teach for America. And he was looked at as really doing great things by the local Chamber of Commerce and everybody was really happy with him at that money level in Kansas City and then he put in the resignation and gave him 30 days notice and there was a big fight in Kansas City about why that all the land on you know whose fault it was then you showed up in Michigan and what happened is he like voted call them on the phones and a job and I need you in Detroit and John meeting resigned went to Detroit because he liked the men there and he became the head of what was called the I think it's called the Education 40. Were taken over the so-called failing schools which were basically schools importer areas. And then. You know. These guys and road experts say does something like casting his ballot he was making over $400000.00 a year to running the education authority but this kind of started what's become kind of a cartel now the superintendent of public education they are all being kind of. Punished by this card. Of all of these different. Talent groups or education. Lingeringly. And it's basically so. Almost half of the major urban school districts in the United States now have a grody as superintendent. Washington d.c. . The one thing the right wing does really well is little these foundations think tanks and it's an incubator for all of the idea logs to work their way through making a really really good living money involved in it and then they put them in place. They make sure that the political power people want to play. And that's how they change things and on a certain level you have to be their level of commitment to destroying our public education system and ultimately I would argue. A lot of other worlds basically the whole country but kind of being off of their commitment to really play the long game. Peter Green when he was talking about the growth academy or writing about it he said it's kind of awesome There is no external governing or certifying board of any sort declaring that broke out to be a solution to this thing and yet this. Is just you know this guy was just so racist he was able to just start it and say. There's. Not a state even self was going to open the form of Education Academy ever in surgery. Or maybe a School of Fine Art he said he had everything need. For power and money. For a giant pile of money and the contacts that come along with it and you know $1.00 of those another one of those moments where you know when somebody's riding on the on the white horse climbing that they can fix it or they've got these brilliant ideas. The 2nd looks and especially when someone with this kind of resource. You know. I'm always leery or you know what's really kind of interesting. They started out trying to get people like military officers. To retire and become educated the superintendent the school they kind of quit that they're now they're almost 100 percent charter school focused and it appears that people that are is now whole so-called reform movement starter reform movement now it's like you really need to go to the broader economy if you want to be anybody in that movement you see people life who aren't sold through that let the harmony charters or caprice young who founded the charter school of California. Those people are all going to the brevity of me now and getting the getting their suit road fences or whatever it is because they can be part of a cartel that develops in some of the early voters like Joseph wife who are now little lead people doing superintendant research services and of course these guys off easy they all support each other it's really pretty evasive see how they operate and why why are we not hearing about this more often I mean I know because you know. What I do I mean this is something I've been talking about for a long time why why do you I brought something that everybody knows why don't why you know Foundation which you know 3 years. Down public schools and push for Georgia community and never going to the vets who literally wrote the plan I got to read literally by step way of shutting down. I have a copy of it up don't couple years ago where I got lost. I have an electronic copy of it. It's pretty amazing stuff it's just you know how to do it it's one of the one of the. Kinds of just in there doing other things too you know but the amount of money the Bill Gates is spending. Burrowed they collaborate on things and then the Waltons when they're just big charter school people brought the charter school people so there are some collaboration and now you have this being the city fund with you know being which John Arnold and reading started this all about pushing this so-called portfolio model of education reform which is exactly what Rhodes pushing. And you're talking about unbelievably wealthy people. It's amazing it's amazing what they get away with. Murder you know on this one I'm thinking we don't . You know I mean you know for a long time in fact do we need to figure out how to get money out of politics entirely and also you know be much more leery of them getting involved in this appears you know the question I was going to ask you because you know one of the things that popped into my head the reason that they're not these people aren't every day names and there are. You know there are there are works of art on the front page is because well they're doing it to poor people. Hasn't maybe you can correct me if you think I'm wrong but this stuff has hit middle middle income white suburbia this stuff isn't being done you know in your in your good addresses. Being done in your inner city communities where your school districts are already starved of resources I look at my hometown of Cleveland that. Are beyond belief. Because their own Sure boy is because you had George Voinovich back in the eighty's who gave away the entire tax payers and then wondered why the schools were struggling and then of course you had all the white flight of people going to the suburbs and you know tons of problems but they never really fixed the local schools they said well we'll find a market solution which was to go to these rich people and say. Take over. They decided to 1st. Vouchers right. Yeah. It's a pretty interesting. This I think you're exactly right except for one thing I think here in California is that. Some of the church or school 1st started by people with otherwise be putting their kids in private school but it's probably. A way if it's not have their kids still with those people still right. There are some of that but not to the level that you see in the schools I mean. That's what they got you know. That's the public school and then you go. And you as a parent we're going to go you're going to go to the one with shiny door knobs even if the education isn't any better and probably a lot of even worse because of all the over the the graft going on there you know what's a parent to do you've got a struggling competing school district and its battery were. Yeah. Yeah I suppose it's a tough situation but the one thing hand Ravagers to both places the alliance the whole thing is we are of the resistance and we're winning and that the fact is this stuff is all fatally right these reforms are all failing and starting to become obvious to people and now that the best way to Fosli be one of the best things that happened to us because she's of age is obvious about what these reforms are about job thank goodness. Oh yeah she really I mean thank you thank goodness she's not you know more competent or major damage so let me ask you a last question for you is there a way to turn this around I mean you're saying there's some hope to resistance all that to turn this around you go back to when I was a kid you had a neighborhood public school and it was the center of the community and all that is your way back to that are now finally there is I think that we are actually doing that I think it's taken this decade to get the teachers and for and out of the place now for starting to get through the public for. You know it's just like you're seeing people who really know who the life road is more and more people are starting to go to big things it's like we feed back here validators in Arizona we you know we beat back takeover of the school system in vocalist County Colorado you know the things are just have to victory after victory California we just. You know. Laws concerning charters native or difficult to make cars and put in a lot more oversight and actually put in a 2 year moratorium on cyber Chargers. Paul good. To have informed and engaged Tom I appreciate the time appreciate the work you do. Thanks for. Members of your thoughts you can email me Rick at the Richmond dot com Quick break right back. For working people. In America. This labor history into. Labor history here was 1975 that was the day that the National Organization for Women or now for a strike by women across the nation they called the day Alice Doesn't this referred to a critically acclaimed movie by the director Martin Scorsese that came out the year before entitled Doesn't Live Here Anymore the main character in the film is Alice who pursues her dream of being a singer after years without the film was lauded by feminists as a story of women's empowerment now use the film title and asked women to participate with the slogan doesn't fill in the black women were encouraged to participate in the day however they could including refraining from volunteering shopping and if possible working for one day to demonstrate their importance to the economy women who could not work were asked to wear armbands to show their solidarity with the cause in an interview published in The Chicago Tribune not. President Karen De Crow explained quote There is a myth that women in the workforce could go home but if they did our economy would if all the secretaries did not come to work all things would stop but not all women were excited about the day some anti-feminist women decided to protest the day by wearing pink baking cookies and performing other stereotypical female tasks while now called the event a success Time magazine team did a spectacular failure one critique was that the event reflected the white middle class dominance of the women's movement working class women and especially women of color had a much more difficult time with holding their labor labor history into brought you by the Evan oil labor history society and the Rick Smith for more information go to labor history and to dot com. Video. You know whatever I think of the broad foundation I think of that blueprint they actually had a. Handbook that they would hand out to school districts on on how to get rid of schools and if they broke it down into the most minute details of how to deal with did your teachers evil teachers unions how to deal with parents it was it was really you know really well done and the thing that that you know I've always said that the right wing money the court and I shouldn't say right wing these are corporatists these are people who you know. They believe in market based solution which means if your school is struggling we cut it off to die and instead of fixing instead of getting in there and figure out what the real problems are with. The market the invisible hand will figure it out. And you know if you look at the Senate. Just because they ran businesses doesn't mean they have to stand education and you know as as Tom was saying these are people who believe that it's a management problem that you're not cracking the whip you know hard not that they're going through the assembly line isn't isn't working properly it's sort of looking at every kid is a little bit different because not every kid learns the exact same and figuring out how it is how you in a class of 30 or 40 guys want a lot of these urban centers schools. They don't have the resources for smaller class sizes which again is why the thing the strike in Chicago was so important the idea that in fact or you know we don't see this in in upper income communities they would never stand for this they would never stand for this kind of this kind of behavior. Because. Those communities understand how important education is and they and they have the tax base to say we're going to we're going to get all those things that the Chicago teachers are striking for like smaller class sizes like less testing like more hands on learning. Like more extracurricular activities. So you know for me it's just another one of these examples of what my grandfather as an average guy didn't take a buck out of his pocket you don't need something you better spend 2 to get it. Education being one of those things now on the voucher front I do find it interesting you know as Tom pointed out that. It's really about funding the religious schools. And what the vouchers have become is never enough for someone to be able to go to that private school just on the voucher even though you know I had a I had a sitting president being a senator who wrote the voucher claim he wrote the road the voucher bill here in Pennsylvania tell me that if I got this golden ticket if they passed the voucher bill through that and I got one of these golden tickets for my kids I could send them to any private school Abbington friends school and Philadelphia I think charges like 40 or 45 grand a year or you know the you know there's a bunch of them Germantown Academy you know a bunch of these these really high priced your elementary schools in like 3040 grand a year. Telling you you get the gold digger you have to go there. And with these gold tickets end up being. A windfall for the people who are already sending their kids there because what the voucher give you is what your school district would have paid per child so we're between $6.10 grand per cap so if you're already sending your kid to a private school. For $10000.00 windfall that's what it's really about and what we're doing also doesn't starve the local schools of resources so it's firing down . And understand suburban America would never tolerate that. After. They do it to poor people. And that's how to get away with it it's really quite remarkable to me but again not surprising. That you see someone. Like this that you know in my view masterful long term vision. Where the financially. Very the last few take maybe maybe a little bit. And you are listening to k k r n 88.5.