The protest of 100,000 you may not have heard about. People from 32 states turned out to protest four years of drastic state Republican initiatives in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday.
Probably like you, I have been following the events surrounding the firing of Michael Flynn and Russia-Gate.
It involves so many lies, along with those that the press calls the intelligence community, Russian intelligence and multiple levels of power and interest that I keep telling myself that nothing can possibly be what it appears to be.
Less than a month ago so many of my friends were making plans to become expats that I feared Anne and I would live out our lives alone in Chicago but with plenty of invites to stay in spare bedrooms in Canada.
Now it appears that no president has had a worse opening month than Trump since William Henry Harrison died in office on the 31st day of his presidency.
I got a text from my cousin Jeff and his husband Robert yesterday. They are traveling across the country by train with a couple hours stopover in Chicago. “We are on Dearborn and looking for you in an anti-Trump protest.”
“There are two or three of those a day,” I wrote back. “At my age I have to pace myself.”
The New York Times published a piece today on the many ways to resist Trump.
This is a sign of the times (no pun intended), although I would look elsewhere for advice. Not to David Brooks either.
Remarkably, many Dems and union leaders are slamming the Trump resisters.
My brother and Hitting Left co-host posted on his blog about this phenomenon.
I also engaged AFT President Randi Weingarten when she tweeted lies about the protesters in Washington D.C.
Weingarten claimed the parents had assaulted Betsy DeVos, the newly confirmed Secretary of Charters and Vouchers as she attempted do a photo-op at a D.C. public school.
“Not true,” I tweeted back.
But Randi doubled-down on the lie, acting more like Kellyanne Conway than a teacher union president.
There has been no retraction or apology coming from Randi, even though the lie undoubtedly contributed to the arrest of one of the protesters on bs assault charges.
And Illinois state teacher union President Cinda Klickna wants all her union members to invite DeVos to their school, at least metaphorically.
Request:
- Pick one example of the great work you and your colleagues are doing in your district every day to help give every student a great school.
- Tell us what’s happening and where it’s happening.
- Post the information in the comment section below.
I will personally make sure that the information makes it to Secretary DeVos’ office.
Good grief, Cinda. Surely you are aware that DeVos has spent years funding a successful scorched earth attack on Michigan’s public schools.
It is not from lack of knowledge.
Inviting DeVos into a public school is like inviting a known arsonist into your home and handing them kerosene and matches.
For now, Trump’s first month has been a disaster.
Yet the GOP controlled Congress and Repug-controlled state legislatures continue their assault on voting rights, public schools, reproductive rights, unions and more.
Trump’s troubles are real and deserved.
Yet it also serves as a potential smokescreen for the assault on the people that continues unabated. As does the resistance.
Fred Klonsky 
Are we surprised at Randi’s remarks (guess she’s bought into “alternative news”) or at Cinda’s silliness?
DeVos is merely sizing up the real estate: since she’s never been in public schools, she wants to eye the classrooms & common areas.
You know, to figure how the charter school replacing each public will fit in.
Here’s something to see–tonight (it’s 12:10 AM, Thursday) “In the Loop,” a half-hour show on WYCC (it’s Ch. 20 on Comcast, I know), is going to be doing a program on the 50 CPS buildings that were closed (the voice over stated that the buildings are being sold for a song, & that the fate of the buildings will be discussed on the show).