Krugman savages Mister Trump's team!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

Discussing California's schools, the Times is just as bad:
In this morning's New York Times, Paul Krugman savages the economic team assembled by President Trump.

He uses one word we ourselves would have skipped. That said, here's his basic assessment:
KRUGMAN (1/15/19): [N]o man is an island, although Trump comes closer than most. You can’t fully make sense of his policy pratfalls without acknowledging the extraordinary quality of the people with whom he has surrounded himself. And by “extraordinary,” of course, I mean extraordinarily low quality. Lincoln had a team of rivals; Trump has a team of morons.

If this sounds too harsh, consider recent economic pronouncements by two members of his administration.
Predictably, these pronouncements involve bad economics; that’s pretty much a given. What’s striking, instead, is the inability of either man to stay on script; they can’t even get their right-wing mendacity right.

First up is Kevin Hassett, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers...
Krugman savages the intellectual quality of Trump's highest ranking advisers. Presumably, his assessments are correct. That said, we were struck by a certain irony as we read his column.

Right next to Krugman's piece on the Times op-ed page is this discussion of California's public schools, especially those in Los Angeles. The piece is written by Miriam Pawel. Her identity line says this:
Ms. Pawel, a contributing opinion writer, is the author of “The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation.”by Miriam Pawel.
Pawel may be a superb biographer. There is no sign, at any point, that she knows a single significant thing about our nation's public schools, no matter what city or state they're in.

Even at her own web site, we find no sign that Pawel has any expertise about public schools or any background in reporting about them. Within the culture of the Times, this makes her the perfect person to opine about low-income schools.

The Times' reporting on public schools has been a disgrace forever. Do Trump's advisers display a disdain for average people in the ways Krugman's column claims?

Presumably, yes! But then again, so does the New York Times in the way it discusses the schools.

In this morning's column, Pawel works from a predictable array of know-nothing scripts about the state of the schools:

She tells us that California's schools were "great," a "lure," in the good old days, without offering the slightest bit of evidence to that effect.

She criticizes California because it "ranks low in average per-pupil spending, [spending] roughly half the amount spent in New York." She fails to note that test scores from the two states can barely be distinguished from each other.

Most absurdly, she offers the passage shown below, the type of passage which will always appear from the know-nothing pseudo-liberal who knows nothing about public schools but wants to opine about them.

This is terrible work. It's typical of the scripted work about public schools constantly churned by the Times:
PAWEL (1/15/19): For 20 years, Katie Safford has taught at Ivanhoe Elementary, a school so atypical and so desirable that it drives up real estate prices in the upscale Silver Lake neighborhood. Ivanhoe parents raise almost a half million a year so that their children can have sports, arts, music and supplies. But parents cannot buy smaller classes or a school nurse. Mrs. Safford’s second-grade classroom is a rickety bungalow slated for demolition. When the floor rotted, the district put carpet over the holes. When leaks caused mold on the walls, Mrs. Safford hung student art to cover stains. The clock always reads 4:20.
To her credit, Pawel doesn't say that Ivanhoe is one of the "best" schools in Los Angeles. She merely says that it is "atypical" and "desirable," so desirable that it drives up real estate prices.

That said, everyone knows why a school like Ivanhoe is so "desirable." It's full of kids from "upscale" families who are good students coming in. They go on to produce the high test scores which will very rarely emerge from our low-income schools.

The school itself has little to do with this. As everyone but a Times writer knows, it's this demographic factor which makes schools like this so high-scoring and so desirable. Pawel shows no sign of ever having given a thought to the basic question here—how can we create a world where kids from low-income schools can have the kind of academic success "upscale" children routinely achieve?

In Krugman's profile, the president is surrounded by a failed "elite"—by a team of incompetent hacks. That's precisely the kind of know-nothing pseudo-elite which has been writing about our public schools in upper-end newspapers like the Times for the past million years.

Tomorrow, we'll show you some basic data about the direction of the public schools in California and in Los Angeles over the past several decades. From Pawel, you get the standard old happy talk about how good things were in the good old days when California's schools were just so amazingly good.

We know of no data which suggest any such thing about Cali's schools in the good old days. Nor does Pawel provide any.

Trump is served by a hapless pseudo-elite, but so are subscribers to the Times. That said, our upper-end journalistic elites have functioned this way for decades now. As a result, Donald J. Trump is in the White House and little is right with the world.

The New York Times almost seems to hold low-income kids in contempt. In its lazy, scripted, incompetent work, the paper has suggested this possibility again and again through the years.

We humans are "the rational animal," a famous logician once said. Did that famous Greek get it right, or should his famous assessment perhaps be listed as "Aristotle's error?"

Tomorrow: The word on those happy golden years, the ones which didn't exist

20 comments:

  1. Somerby doesn’t seem to know much about Pawel, yet he doesn’t hesitate to call her a “pseudo-liberal.” And that is apparently because she questions, among other things, the spread of charter schools but doesn’t ponder the questions that Somerby feels are important.

    But Somerby is the one making the charge of pseudo-liberalism, a term that is idiosyncratic, and he is expressing a view that diverges from many on the left who charge liberal supporters of charter schools, such as Arne Duncan, as being “neoliberal.” (Somerby has previously stated that he supports the “sensible use” of charter schools*).

    And his ultimate question “how can we create a world where kids from low-income schools can have the kind of academic success "upscale" children routinely achieve?” renders a discussion of schools practically irrelevant, since academic success, as a logical consequence of this view, is merely a reflection of the socioeconomic position of the parents. Meanwhile, parents, teachers, administrators, etc, have to deal with just such everyday questions as Pawel raises.

    *”We support the sensible use of charters. We even support the sensible widespread use of charters, where such widespread use can be done in a sensible manner.”

    BREAKING: David Leonhardt handles the gaps!

    MONDAY, JULY 16, 2018

    http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2018/07/breaking-david-leonhardt-handles-gaps.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies




    1. No matter how old you are, family history is important. While you might not think so at the time, as you get older there will be things you and your grandchildren will want to know. Most of us don't realize it until the older generations are gone and you can't replace first hand comments. Don't just put in about the good times, add in the harder times and how you overcame those trials. Another thing to remember is what caused the deaths of those you loved. There are many things that have been found to continue into future generations that knowing it runs in the family can be helped with now or possible in the future. prevention starts with knowing where to start. I wish someone had taken the time to write these things down for mew to be able to go back to. My Grandmother and my mother told us many stories of what things happened in their lives and about the people in their lives. I now wish someone had written those things down since both have passed now. But I never thought at that busy point in my life that I would one day want to remember all those things. So much family history is lost when the older generations are gone. Please pass it on to your family while you can. You can even just do it digitally so it can be accessed by family later on.Family pictures are something to cherish also. Just be sure to write down who is pictured in them, where they are taken and when. I have found family pictures that no one now even knows who is in them.

      AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
      or
      call/whatsapp:+2349057261346
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































      No matter how old you are, family history is important. While you might not think so at the time, as you get older there will be things you and your grandchildren will want to know. Most of us don't realize it until the older generations are gone and you can't replace first hand comments. Don't just put in about the good times, add in the harder times and how you overcame those trials. Another thing to remember is what caused the deaths of those you loved. There are many things that have been found to continue into future generations that knowing it runs in the family can be helped with now or possible in the future. prevention starts with knowing where to start. I wish someone had taken the time to write these things down for mew to be able to go back to. My Grandmother and my mother told us many stories of what things happened in their lives and about the people in their lives. I now wish someone had written those things down since both have passed now. But I never thought at that busy point in my life that I would one day want to remember all those things. So much family history is lost when the older generations are gone. Please pass it on to your family while you can. You can even just do it digitally so it can be accessed by family later on.Family pictures are something to cherish also. Just be sure to write down who is pictured in them, where they are taken and when. I have found family pictures that no one now even knows who is in them.

      AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
      or
      call/whatsapp:+2349057261346

      Delete
  2. "Presumably, his assessments are correct."

    Well, Krugman is a notorious dembot/hack working for the lib-zombie death-cult. So presumably, nothing he says deserves any attention whatsoever.

    Needless to say, whatever any dembot (sadly, including you, Bob) drivels about Donald The Spectacular -- it can only be good for laughs...
    'nuff said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Donald The Spectacular"

      Only if he's being rated on who is the best at picking their ass and sniffing their own fingers.

      Delete
    2. Trump referred to Mao and Mao's cohort in his bizarre American Farm Bureau speech.

      Trump: "Those people, you almost don’t want, because they cannot be very smart"

      WATCH: Here are 5 crazy moments from Trump’s Farm Bureau speech

      Actually this misses some of the more odd fumbles, where he wanders into dementia territory. Film at 11.

      Delete
  3. “how can we create a world where kids from low-income schools can have the kind of academic success "upscale" children routinely achieve?”

    Asks Somerby, as if this weren’t the central concern of those trying to integrate the public schools lo these many years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. California schools were great back before the 1970s when schools were funded by local property taxes. Changes such as Prop 13 reduced tax revenue. Lawsuits based on funding inequalities resulted in a shift to state funding. Then Republicans and recessions started squeezing school budgets until CA was near the bottom in per pupil spending and the former reputation of the state's school disappeared. Now CA is slightly below the national average. Large urban districts like Los Angeles have additional problems related to an influx of non-English speakers and attacks on education by conservatives and charter schools, plus funding problems. Problems in LA are complex and Somerby has no clue about them. If he doesn't even know that California schools have drastically declined since funding models changed, he knows nothing and has no basis for criticizing someone else.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would like to see WEP and GPO repealed, which penalizes people in states like CA who want to become teachers later in life as a second career. There is a new bill that would do that, it has bipartisan support. I am unclear if it is a straight up repeal - which would cost about $60 billion over ten years - or if it is like the last "repeal" offered that actually increased the penalty. Legislators can be slick cons.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Krugman's columns are a sad waste of ability. Krugman is very smart and is a top economist. But, his columns seem to be picked up from some ultraliberal sources without much thought on his part. If Krugman wrote fair columns based on his economic expertise, we would all learn a lot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've read your shit. (Low tax rates lead to investment and job growth. LOL)
      You have tons to learn about economics.

      Delete
    2. I don't think he's smart, and "top economist" is not a complement.

      He works for international finance, and what he does can only be defined as neoliberal propaganda. That's what he's paid to do.

      He does it well, so he probably is clever, but that's as far as it goes, I'm afraid...

      Delete
    3. Yes. Krugman should expound on well thought out economic concepts from brilliant conservative thinkers. Concepts such as the beneficence of the-job-creators and the tragic consequences of job-killing-regulations. In all fairness, these phrases should be made into portmanteaus.

      Delete
    4. Here's a "complement": our commentariat's very own village troll Mao and our very own village idiot David. Let them talk past each other. Mao isn't interested in the contents of your posts, and David is incapable of understanding them.

      Delete
  7. Ijin share ya bro, kalau memang gak sayang kagak usah bilang cinta percuma saja akhirnya menyakitkan.. goyang asyyiiikkkk

    I'm the one who keeps hugging you tightly, when you think it's possible to turn away, i'm the one who will calm the storm to stay strong you walk later

    Cara Menurunkan Tekanan Darah Tinggi
    Obat Tukak Lambung Alami
    Cara Menyembuhkan Liver
    Jual Berbagai Macam Obat Herbal
    Cara Mengatasi Nyeri Dada
    Obat Halitosis

    ReplyDelete
  8. FYI

    "Dr. Christopher Greely says too often parents equate beatings with motivation. Greely is the chief of the Section of Public Health Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.

    I-Team: “Can you beat a B or an A out of someone?”

    Dr. Greeley: “Of course not. The response would not likely result in the child saying, 'Oh, now I see I should be getting better grades.’”

    Greely said the result is children can become violent themselves."

    https://www.khou.com/article/news/investigations/kids-abused-for-bad-grades/285-160279079

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have been casting spells for many years and I have helped many people, I might be able to help you too. I am honest, and I genuinely care for all the clients who choose me to cast a spell for them.


    If you have any questions about Love, Money, curse, protection, bad luck, divorce, court cases, or about me please call or email me. I really want you to feel comfortable before moving forward with any spells, or other services. I will take the time to explain things to you and provide you with honest advice, to what is best for your situation. I will not pressure you into having a spell cast, I will leave that decision up to you, and when or if you decide to move forward, I might be able to help you.
    I will respect your Privacy. I will not seek to obtain any of your personal information beyond what you might voluntarily offer and all information you might give me including emails, phone numbers and photos will remain private and confidential.
    I perform my Rituals only at night between the hours of 0.00 - 0.59 (South African time) lasting 1 hour but of course, this depends on the nature of the ritual, some rituals might take hours and can also become necessary to be performed at specials places like; flowing streams, cemeteries and other places dictated by the gods.
    I do not want anyone to be under any illusions about my spells and its numerous rituals. Real and effective Voodoo is no child's play, it is expensive because, after the rituals, I will have to destroy all the materials involved by fire and the ashes scattered over a flowing stream or river.
    You will get what you seek.But please understand this might take a lot of time and that individual results may vary. contact +27663492930, greatogudugu@gmail.com

    Herbal cure for Following DISEASES,this is not scam is 100% Real.

    -HPV
    -DIABETES
    -PENIS ENLARGEMENT AND WEAK ERECTION
    -VIRGINA PROBLEM
    -WHOOPING COUGH
    - HEPATITIS B
    -FORDYCE SPOT
    -COLD SORE
    -ALS
    -LOWER RESPIRATORY INFECTION
    -LOW SPERM COUNT
    -MRSA(METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
    -ZIKA VIRUS
    -HIV
    -STROKE
    -IMPOTENCE
    -PILE
    -HYPERTENSION
    -LOW SPERM COUNT
    -MENOPAUSE DISEASE
    -ASTHMA
    -CANCER
    -BARENESS/INFERTILITY
    -PCOS
    -SHINGLES
    -VIRAL HEPATITIS/HEPATITIS B
    -FIBROID
    -ASTHMA
    -SICKLE CELL
    -TINNITUS
    -BARENESS/INFERTILITY
    -DIARRHEA and so on...

    ReplyDelete
  10. My boyfriend broke up with me 2 months ago, because he felt i was cheating on him with a male friend of mine, i tried all i could to explain to him but he paid deaf ears, i was emotionally devastated because i really loved him until i saw a post on the internet about Dr osofo, who helps people gain back their lost lover, at first i doubted if it was real because i never believed in such things but i decided to give him a try,I contacted him and he told me what to do and i did it then he did a Love spell for me, he restored my relationship within 48 hours and my boyfriend was calling and begging to make up with me again, if you need help to repair your relationship or marriage problem. Here’s his contact, call/WhatsApp him on: +2349065749952, Email him ( osofo.48hoursolutioncenter@gmail.com )

    ReplyDelete
  11. First up is Kevin Hassett, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers...

    ReplyDelete